Dr. Albert Mohler, President of The Southern Baptist Seminary in Louisville, spoke to the faculty of Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah this morning. Here is a transcript of his presentation. Below I provide a few quotes that warmed my heart in light of the years and years of trips to Salt Lake City and ministry there during the General Conference:
There are those who sincerely believe that meaningful and respectful conversation can take place only among those who believe the least—that only those who believe the least and thus may disagree the least can engage one another in the kind of conversation that matters. I reject that notion, and I reject it forcefully. To paraphrase Dorothy Parker, that is the kind of idea that must not be cast aside lightly, but thrown with full force.
I come as a Christian theologian to speak explicitly and respectfully as a Christian—a Christian who defines Christianity only within the historic creeds and confessions of the Christian church and who comes as one committed to the Gospel of Jesus Christ and to the ancient and eternal Trinitarian faith of the Christian church. I have not come as less, and you know whom you have invited. I come knowing who you are—to an institution that stands as the most powerful intellectual center of the Latter-Day Saints, the most visible academic institution of Mormonism. You know who I am and what I believe. I know who you are and what you believe.
….
This is what brings me to Brigham Young University today. I am not here because I believe we are going to heaven together. I do not believe that. I believe that salvation comes only to those who believe and trust only in Christ and in his substitutionary atonement for salvation. I believe in justification by faith alone, in Christ alone. I love and respect you as friends, and as friends we would speak only what we believe to be true, especially on matters of eternal significance. We inhabit separate and irreconcilable theological worlds, made clear with respect to the doctrine of the Trinity. And yet here I am, and gladly so. We will speak to one another of what we most sincerely believe to be true, precisely because we love and respect one another.
I do not believe that we are going to heaven together, but I do believe we may go to jail together. I do not mean to exaggerate, but we are living in the shadow of a great moral revolution that we commonly believe will have grave and devastating human consequences.
Want to bet no one fell asleep during that one?
Excellent! Dr. Mohler truly adorns the gospel in his unflinching critique of our culture’s attitude toward marriage and family, reminding us that marriage is a covenant relationship, a gift of God without which our culture is doomed. I also really appreciate the way he doesn’t try to “make nice” with the LDS Church by minimizing or ignoring the clear theological chasm that exists between Christians and Mormons.
On the topic of the slippery slope our culture is sliding down with regard to issues of marriage: As our legislators grease the slide in their attempts to make marriage possible between anyone in “a loving relationship,” when they finally get around to legalizing polygamy, will the LDS Church reverse Wilford Woodruff’s 1890 declaration (adopted by the LDS Church), forbidding any marriages that are not in accord with the law of the land? This effectively stopped them practicing polygamy (officially), so that Utah may be granted Statehood. If (or when) polygamy is legalized, will Mormons take up the practice again? And if they do, how will that affect our ability to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with them on these issues?
Some food for thought. 🙂