This past month the Missionary Response Team at Christ Community Church here in Idaho Falls and Team STS met for a two-hour training session on the dicey doctrine of post-mortem (“post-mortal” in LDS writings) evangelization or PME. I refer to PME as a “dicey doctrine” essentially for three reasons. First, the consensus of opinion even among evangelical scholars is hardly monolithic—recognizing, of course, that exponents of PME are the vast minority. Second, to deny PME is to go against the grain of what many of us desperately want to believe and this out of a subjective sense of God’s love and fairness (especially as it concerns those who die never hearing the Gospel). Finally, the LDS doctrine of PME and the biblical revelation according to the majority of Evangelicals are at odds.
Although a sense of fairness is intimately tied to the LDS doctrine of PME (see, for example, Joseph Fielding Smith’s Doctrines of Salvation, 1955, 2:132), the objectives of this class did not include addressing the fate of those who die never hearing the Gospel (an oft asked question of Evangelicals by LDS)—I reserved this response for future training. Rather, I wanted to (1) examine some of the strongest biblical arguments against PME, (2) offer an alternative interpretation of LDS biblical proof texts for PME and (3) underscore why debating PME with Latter-day Saints is NOT the best use of the Evangelical’s time when witnessing despite its profound connection to the urgency factor.
Because the PDF file below of the class handout addresses the first two objectives I want to briefly summarize the third with the following points that I made extemporaneously.
- If physical death marks the boundary for opportunity, as I believe IS the biblical revelation, then the urgency factor is necessarily ramped up exponentially. Nevertheless, Evangelicals would do well to use this revelation not as justification for debating PME with Latter-day Saints, but for sharing and defending the gospel of salvation by grace alone, though faith alone, in Christ alone with them. In other words, the urgency factor is primarily for the benefit of Evangelicals to get us off of our collective cabooses and out of our comfort zones as the Great Commission implies and commands (see Acts 1:8; Romans 10:13-15; Mt. 28:18)!
- We must realize that it is the true gospel that saves and a false gospel that condemns (respectively, 1 Cor. 15:2-4; Galatians 1:8-9). Therefore, because the LDS gospel (particularly as it pertains to the mechanism by which sins are forgiven) is essentially the same in both the mortal and post-mortal worlds, focusing our efforts on refuting PME is of little consequence. In other words, what difference does it make if PME is true when the gospel preached in the afterlife is false?
- Presenting a form of “Pascal’s Wager” to Latter-day Saints when queried about PME helps to put the fat in the fire and get the discussions back to the Gospel. We might simply ask: “Who has more to lose if wrong, the Latter-day Saint or the Evangelical?” Obviously the Latter-day Saint does because the Evangelical will have another opportunity to repent—the Latter-day Saint will not.
- Finally, and I underscore this philosophy of ministry whenever I teach on sharing with LDS, if Evangelicals do not couch our defense of the biblical gospel in “love” and “respect” it matters little how persuasive and irrefutable are our arguments. (1 Cor. 13:1-3; 1 Peter 3:15 NIV).
Charis kai eirene (Grace and peace), Mike
A Biblical Perspective on Post-Mortem Evangelization (PME) & a Response to LDS Biblical Proof Texts
Download the latest version of Adobe Reader.
