Mormons have irrational beliefs. So says Jew Dennis Prager (townhall.com). I agree with him. Among those are these, listed by Prager: wearing sacred underclothes, posthumous baptisms, and believing that Joseph Smith found and deciphered those golden plates in New York. Just believing that something holy can come out of New York is irrational. (Just kidding!)
The title to his essay was: “Mormons have irrational beliefs. Who doesn’t?” I emphatically deny that God asks us to believe anything irrational. The incarnation is not irrational. The virgin birth is not irrational. Baptism into water for the forgiveness of sins is not irrational. The resurrection of the dead is not irrational. If there is anything I believe that is irrational, it would be because I do not understand the Bible correctly.
The Bible is the mind of God in the language of man. God is the embodiment of rationality. He is the embodiment of rational thought. Jesus is the “Word” (John 1:1) and Word is thought. It is communication. You can’t communicate irrationally.
But when Prager says that everyone has irrational beliefs, he only means that outsiders would think your beliefs are irrational. That’s a different story. According to Prager, Orthodox Jews believe they cannot drink wine or grape juice if it is poured by a non-Jew. Yes, that is irrational. Chrsitians do not believe that our grape juice and bread are holy and cannot be touched by a non-Christian.
But if we want to be rational, we’ve got to align ourselves with God. To be rational then, is to accept Jesus as the Son of God. The Orthodox and non-Orthodox Jew are both irrational for that reason. He mentions the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox belief that the bread and wine turn into the body and blood of Christ, literally. Yes, that’s irrational. Why? Because it is not in harmony with the revealed mind of God.
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For example, I believe that Jesus died for my sins and I was forgiven of those sins when I completed my obedience to the Gospel on April 12, 1981. It was then that I was immersed into Christ. I believe I was forgiven of my sins. I did not see them vanish. I did not feel them disappear. I did not hear them whisked away. But based on my knowledge of the veracity of the biblical record – I know the Bible is from God and Jesus is my Savior – then I believe, or have faith in, that promise from Mark 16:16. God has promised if I obey, I’ll be blessed.
One last word. Prager comments that we should judge religions based on their fruit. There is some merit to that idea but the ultimate test of the truthfulness of a religion is if it measures up to the revealed mind of God – the Bible (Galatians 1:6-9).
–Paul Holland
