Even As They Feign Friendship With Evangelicals In Salt Lake City
The following is the message body of an email that was forwarded to us by a friend. We have no way of verifying its statements of fact, but we also have no reason to disbelieve them. Our own experiences with Mormons in the public forum would indicate this is exactly the kind of thing they would do given the opportunity. Their only defense against the truth is to try to silence the opposition by any means they can get away with. With the advent of "hate crime" and "hate speech" laws in the U.S., this is what we can look forward to.
Dear All,
Please could you pray about this, and bring it to your pastor's attention.
God Bless,
John
Sent: Thursday, May 27, 2004 4:25 PM
Subject: Pastor about to lose everything
REACHING MORMONS FOR CHRIST MINISTRIES
"taking the true gospel of Jesus Christ to the Mormon people in love"
President / Co-Founder: Evangelist Nigel Owens BA (Hons) ;
Vice President / Co-Founder: Mrs Gail Joanne Owens
World Headquarters: Reaching Mormons for Christ, P.O. Box 35, Ballymoney, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom, BT53 7YE
Telephone: 028 295 72009 / 07980856105. Email: exmormonsforchrist@yahoo.co.uk
Monday 20th December 2004
PASTOR STANDS TO LOSE EVERYTHING AFTER MORMON COURT CASE
Dear treasured friend of this ministry,
Recently a serious blow was struck against the religious freedom of British born-again Christians seeking to reach members of the 'Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints' (i.e. the 'Mormon' or 'LDS' church) with the truth of the gospel. In a High Court judgement lasting nearly three hours, Mr Justice Beatson banned evangelical Christian pastor, Andrew Price, from cold calling Mormon missionaries on their mobile phones unless invited to do so. Furthermore, the judge created an "exclusion zone", banning Mr Price from coming within 30 yards of any Mormon mission, with the exception of its central London headquarters in south Kensington (where he is barred from standing on the same side of the road).
Due to his complete lack of finance, Andrew Price elected to represent himself against the vast legal machinery assembled by the wealthy, powerful elite of the Mormon church - one of America's richest financial institutions. Approximately 50 witnesses were lined up to testify against him. I was later told that the most hurtful experience of all for Andrew were statements made against him by Mormons who had previously been very friendly - whom he had helped, met up with, taken to dinner, rode with on the tube and spoken to for 8 hours by phone (at his own expense). He expected different of them and felt utterly betrayed.
My wife and I have had the privilege of witnessing with Andrew and his wife (Ruth) on many occasions outside the Hyde Park LDS Chapel in London. As someone who was with Andrew on those occasions (both before and after the witness), I can testify that I never saw him harass anybody. Many LDS missionaries (especially the Americans) whom I met there even seemed to enjoy the friendly banter. Lots of missionaries whom Andrew tried to reach with the gospel over the years have remained close friends with him to this day - some of them are now ex-Mormons whilst others have chosen to remain inside the LDS church. He has even been invited to some weddings in Utah!
Under God's blessing, much good has been achieved through Andrew's many years of evangelistic ministry. Some Mormons have been saved, quite a few others have left the LDS church. Many LDS faithful have begun to question the claims of Mormonism - perhaps for the first time in their lives. Various unsuspecting members of the public who were beginning to get sucked in by the false gospel and erroneous claims of the LDS church were reached with the truth - all of whom, to my knowledge, decided not to pursue Mormonism any further. They were then given the true gospel. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that some of the most wonderful witnessing times we've ever had occurred on that pavement outside Hyde Park LDS Chapel. A truly amazing ministry opportunity has received a very serious set back. This was Andrew's life's work - 8 hours a day, 6 days a week. Literally thousands of tracts, booklets, books, audio tapes, video tapes, Bibles, etc were distributed.
To make matters worse - in addition to ruling against Andrew Price, the judge declared that he would have to pay the Mormon church's massive legal costs for the trial. This could amount up to #100,000. As someone who counts himself privileged to be one of Andrew's closest friends, I personally can testify to you that Andrew and his wife live on very little and have nothing to speak of financially. They stand to lose virtually everything, including their house.
Worst of all, this ruling came at almost exactly the same time as evangelical compromisers in the US, led by Richard Mouw of Fuller Theological Seminary, held joint meetings with the Mormons in Salt Lake City's famous Mormon Tabernacle. Speaking at the event, Mouw denounced counter-cult ministries trying to reach Mormons with the truth. Later on, he went further, accusing them of "bearing false witness". On another occasion, he said that Mormonism was not "Satanic" and called on evangelicals to participate in LDS celebrations planned to mark the 200th birthday of Joseph Smith (founder of the Mormon religion). Compromising evangelicals like Mouw are being given the red carpet treatment whilst true evangelicals like Andrew Price, who are not considered part of the neo-evangelical 'in group', are shown the door, lambasted and forced out by court injunctions. Personally, I find it very hard indeed to believe that the timing here was coincidental.
Although deeply discouraged, Andrew and Ruth are still very eager to continue in the work to which the Lord has called them - new, exciting and direct avenues of outreach are already beginning to open up to Mormons in other areas.
I ask you all to pray very earnestly for both Andrew and Ruth in the days that lie ahead, and for the first time in my entire ministry, I am issuing an unashamedly financial appeal. I urge you to send whatever money you can to Pastor Andrew Price B.Sc, 17 Weston Road, Chiswick, London, England, United Kingdom, W4 5NL. We must seek to bear one other's burdens (see Ps 37:25, Gal 6:2).
I urge you all to distribute this financial appeal to as many Christians as you have contact or influence with. Send it to all of your email contacts. Show it to your pastor. Get your church to lift an offering and send it on to Andrew. If you publish or have access to a Christian magazine or website, then please display this financial appeal so that as many believers as possible will have the opportunity to meet this dear couple's need. It would be a tragedy if these dear people, who have served the Lord so faithfully and given so much of themselves, were to lose everything, including their house, because Christians either couldn't care less or refused to help them. See 1 Chr 19:10b-14.
Yours for the souls of the Mormon people,
Evangelist Nigel Owens BA (Hons)
Co-Founder / President of 'Reaching Mormons for Christ'
"Blessed be thou, Lord God of Israel our father, for ever and ever. Thine, O Lord, is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty: for all that is in the heaven and in the earth is thine; thine is the kingdom, O Lord, and thou art exalted as head above all…. for all things come of thee, and of thine own have we given thee." 1st Chronicles 29:10b - 14