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| Jesus offers living water. |
This remains the Mormon practice today. An official LDS church manual explains: “After we are baptized, those who have the authority from our Father in Heaven place their hands on our head, give us the gift of the Holy Ghost, and make us official members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints . . . ” (Gospel Fundamentals, Chapter 16, http://lds.org/manual/gospel-fundamentals/chapter-16-the-gift-of-the-holy-ghost?lang=eng&query=gift+holy+ghost, accessed 5 August 2011).
For some potential converts, having the gift of the Holy Spirit was a significant selling point. But like many Mormon church claims, it extends way beyond the truth. The fact is all sincere believers in Jesus Christ receive the gift of the Holy Spirit regardless of laying on of hands or their places of fellowship (that is, their “church”). The Lord explained, “ . . . If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.’” But this He spoke of the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive . . . ” (John 7:37–39).
The Savior promised that people who believe in him, not merely those receiving laying on of hands, would receive the Holy Spirit’s continuously. This is what Peter meant when he said, “ . . . ‘Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God will call to Himself” (Acts 2:38, 39). The promised gift of the Holy Spirit is for all the Lord calls, not an elite group known as Mormons.
When breathed on the Twelve when conferring the Holy Spirit on them. He didn’t lay hands on their heads in formal ordination as the Mormons do (John 20:22). Granted, the apostle Paul laid hands on believers at Ephesus who were baptized with John’s baptism (an elementary baptism of repentance), not baptism in the Lord’s name representing the rebirth of believers (Romans 6:4–6). After rebaptism, these believers received the Holy Spirit as a gift from God. Unlike what Mormons experience regarding the laying on of hands, though, these believers at Ephesus also spoke in tongues and prophesied (Acts 19:1–7).
Scripture teaches that one isn’t a Christian if he doesn’t have the gift of the Holy Spirit. Addressing Roman believers, Paul made this point clear. He explained: “You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ . . . For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God” (Romans 8:9, 14; also see Galatians 3:5, 6).
The words of Jesus in John 13–16 probably weren’t meant exclusively for the apostles. In that monumental discourse, which discussed the Holy Spirit and other pivotal doctrines, the Savior said nothing about laying on of hands by a Melchizedek priesthood holder regarding the gift of the Holy Spirit. In truth, Christ is the sole possessor of that eternal authority (Hebrews 7:3, 11–14, 24).
“I will not leave you as orphans,” said Jesus to his disciples. “‘I will come to you. After a little while the world will no longer see Me, but you will see Me; because I live, you will live also. In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you. He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him.’” Judas (not Iscariot) said to Him, ‘Lord, what then has happened that You are going to disclose Yourself to us and not to the world?’ Jesus answered and said to him, ‘If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him’” (John 14:18–23).
You must choose between the ever-changing doctrines of Mormonism and the perfect and eternal doctrines of Jesus Christ. You can’t believe both.
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