The Salt Lake Tribune ran an interesting series of articles starting Sunday and ending today. If current trends continue, so the series claims, members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the longstanding majority religion in Utah, will be outnumbered in the state sometime around 2030. The series also highlights a few families in and out of the church and has some interesting things to say about worldwide LDS church statistics.
If you live in Utah or are otherwise interested in these issues, the series is worth a read.
* Avenues wards continue to lose members (July 24)
* Mormon portion of Utah population steadily shrinking (July 24)
* Mormons in the mix (July 25)
* LDS future may be divined from Grand County experience (July 25)
* Non-Mormon couple settle in LDS Rich County (July 25)
* Keeping members a challenge for LDS church (July 26)
* Unintended consequence of church’s ‘raising the bar’ (July 26)
Thanks for those links. I read several of the articles. It’s funny that the titles are so negative sounding (i.e. the titles seem to cast a shadow on the Church). The articles themselves have good and bad to say, and they certainly can’t say that the Church is shrinking.
The Church is still growing, though perhaps not as fast as before. Unfortunately, those faithful to God, His prophets, and His Spirit have always been a minority on the earth. “For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it” (Matthew 7:14).
I invite all those who have chosen to study the Church in any way to read the Book of Mormon, either again or for the first time. I just began another reading. That book is scripture — God’s word to His prophets — like the bible; there is no other convincing explanation for it.
It’s sad that, in 10 years, the landscape of Mormonism will forget that it once used numbers and growth as an apologetic proof for the truth of its own organization. A humble confession — that they were wrong about the proof — is at least due.
The growth of the Church is phenomenal, amazing, inspiring, and wonderful. I believe it will continue to be so. 240,000 new members a year is still inspiringly great, considering the Church’s humble beginnings. As some of the articles above proposed, the number may eventually start to increase again. I hope that each additional baptism means one of God’s children has truly gained faith in Jesus Christ, repented of his sins, and committed to a life as a follower of Christ.
No one should cite the growth of the Church as “proof� that it is true, for many false churches and organizations grow, and even the true Church of Christ has completely disappeared several times throughout history. The size of an organization is not proof of its truthfulness.
If a Mormon apologetic cited the Church’s growth as “proof� of its truthfulness, he should probably confess that he was wrong about his “proof.� The Church is not true because it is growing; the Church is true and it is growing.
The Holy Ghost provides the only undeniable “proof� for anyone who humbly seeks God with a determination to follow Him, no matter where He leads.
Aaron Shafovaloff said:
Admittedly, Steve’s response to your comment is spot on. Are you aware of any official church statements claiming that numbers are a “proof” of the LDS church’s legitimacy? I’m not sure the church has ever made any claims like that. What kind of “confession” are you asking for, and who exactly would they owe it to?
—
Except for the denial that the gates of hell will never prevail against the church (Matthew 16:18), I agree with the above.
But sit back for a moment and ask yourself: Why in the first place are these Tribune articles significant? It is because of the popular, well-known Mormon faith-promoting rumor that the LDS religion is the fastest growing religion on earth. To ask for an official statement on this is just plain silly and indicative of not getting the point. You are in denial if you aren’t conscious of the fact that Mormons have used this rumor as an apologetic for their religion. I’ve heard this from hundreds of LDS members and missionaries in person. Not only that, but it is always an issue with ministries that witness to Mormons.
I won’t be so naive or unthoughtful as to limit my critique of Mormonism to the contemporary, consensus-agreed-upon, unequivocal statements of the LDS organization, just as a missionary to the Middle East wouldn’t limit his criticism of Islam to the Hadith or the Qu’ran, or statements from a certain cleric. We’re dealing with pervasive folk religion here. We’re dealing with the landscape of Mormonism.
I personally do not believe the Mormon church will grow much longer. In many respects, it is culturally homogenous. Genuine Christianity can adapt to any culture, because its glue is Christ and common theology and the Spirit. Mormonism can’t, because its primary glue is the culture, and certainly not theology or the cross-cultural Christ of the Bible.
Grace and peace in the God who justifies that ungodly by faith (Romans 4:4-8), not by anything that reveals the absence of what it requires (3:19-30),
Aaron
Thank you for posting your opinion, Aaron.
I find it interesting that you call Christ “cross-cultural.” Although I agree with you, I think the “Christ of the Bible” appeared pretty solidly Jewish, and he personally never shared his gospel with anyone but the Children of Israel.
There is no better testimony that Jesus Christ is the “cross-cultural” God of all of humanity than the testimony of the Latter-day Saints. In The Living Christ, modern apostles have declared that he was
The Living Christ clearly shows that Jesus Christ is the “glueâ€? of Mormonism. He has declared the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to be “the only true and living church upon the face of the whole earth” (D&C 1:30). He leads and directs it.
Although the growth of the Church may appear to slow, “The standard of truth has been erected, and no unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing. It will not stop until the purposes of God are accomplished and the great Jehovah shall say to us, the work is done!” (Joseph Smith)
As if “cross-cultural Christ” doesn’t refer to the lamb who takes away the sin of the not-merely-American world (John 1), who gathers the scattered children of God (John 11), and who knocks Paul off his horse and sends him off to pour out his life like water unto the Greeks and barbarians? Jesus partly came to harden the Jews so that the Gentiles could be given mercy (Romans 11). His mission was global from the beginning, even through the “to the Jews first, then the Gentiles” motif. The Great Commission has great implications for the Mormons. If they really had a heart to fulfill it they wouldn’t be so burdensome with their extra-biblical, Western, American do’s and don’ts. They need to start gulping down caffeine with spiritually lost coffee-drinkers in Seattle, drinking beer with the Germans, wearing something other than a tie and white shirt with poor Brazilians and underground Burmese believers, and breaking the law by preaching the resurrection and starting house-churches in China. Then maybe your press releases will mean something.
Aaron said: Except for the denial that the gates of hell will never prevail against the church (Matthew 16:18), I agree with the above.
Keith: What are you referring to? Matthew 16:18 says nothing about the gates of hell never prevailing against the “church”.
(New Testament | Matthew 16:18)
18 And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
What makes you so sure that the “it� in Jesus’ words refers to the church? Isn’t he talking about the rock which is Jesus Christ? Isn’t the “it� Jesus Christ?
And besides that, if it is referring to the church, wouldn’t that indicate that there should only be one true church of Christ. Your view on this defeats your own argument.
What are the “gates of hell�? Isn’t this something that is holding the dead in their graves?
I content that Christ destroyed the “gates of hell� in the atonement 2000 years ago and the gates will never recover. We have all been given the gracious gift of the resurrection. THAT is what I think Jesus was saying.
We LDS have never contended that the “gates of hell� have regained power over the grave because of the apostasy.
Churches are human organizations (including the ancient one Christ established and turned over to the apostles (all humans)). They rise and fall because humans have issues, not because the gates of hell beat on them (kind of like swatting children with a massive door – this makes no sense).
Along with these words of Christ, he promised to give Peter and the apostles the keys of the kingdom of heaven. This fits the context perfectly, because one of the keys was to perform the ordinance of baptism, where a person comes up out of the water (through the destroyed gates of hell) as a symbol of the resurrection.
While you are free to disagree, I believe these verses have nothing to do with the Lord claiming that the early church leaders would never apostatize and everything to do with Christ claiming that He and His victory over death would never be overcome.
It was certainly upon Him and his victory that the early church was built, and the LDS church has never said that Christ and His victory have been (or ever will be) overcome, but I see no biblical promise that His early church would never fail.
All modern “truly� Christian churches are also built upon Christ and His victory over death, including the LDS church.
Keith said:
The “it” in this passage is in the singular feminine. There are two singular feminine nouns here: “rock” and “church”. There’s a guideline — but not a strict rule — in Greek that pronouns refer back to their closest antecedant, in this case “church”. I’m willing to make room for both interpretations, but I think in this case standards of interpreting Greek are leaning in Aaron’s favor.
Keith said:
Yes, there is only one true church of Christ, but it’s not a building or a membership roll. The true church of Christ, elsewhere referred to as the “body of Christ” (Rom. 12:5; 1 Cor. 12:12, 27; Eph. 3:6, 4:12, 5:23; etc.) consists of all those who believe in Christ and trust him alone for salvation, whether they’ve joined themselves with Evangelical, Catholic, Mormon, or even Pagan congregations.
Thanks for your comments Joey. Aaron seemed to be making an argument that Mormons deny what it says in Matt 16:18 (probably because of our belief in apostacy).
Aaron (if you see this), Mormons have never denied Christ’s victory over death and hell (gates of hell). His victory provided us (all mankind) the gift of the ressurection.
Our claims of apostacy are really not so diffeent than the claims of protestants, namely, that many church leaders had screwed up and had lost their way and were no longer following Christ. It was not the gates of hell that prevailed here. It was people allowing satan to lead them away from Christ’s truth. To say the gates of hell led the leaders of the church astray would be like saying a jail door made them loose their way.
If the gates of hell had power over Christ, Peter, or the church (take your pick), the gospel would have never been possible, then or now. None of us could ever escape an eternity behind the jail door of hell.
If one maintains that God does not allow people to choose to fall away, or that the church has been wholly protected from error, then I’d say one is a Catholic who denies man’s free agency.