A Devotional on Reaching Our LDS Friends with Grace
The Ring doorbell announced their arrival. Two white shirts, two black name tags, two young men who had no idea what they were walking into. They introduced themselves with a smile, the young “Elder’s” companion shifted nervously beside him. I had studied Latter-day Saint doctrine for years. I knew every counter-argument, every theological inconsistency, every historical problem. I was ready.
Twenty minutes later, they walked away more convinced of their faith than when they arrived. My arguments had been airtight. My victory was complete. And I had utterly failed to love them.
That encounter haunted me for weeks. I had won the battle and lost the war. I had defended truth while abandoning grace. And in doing so, I had missed the whole point of the gospel I claimed to represent.
The Apostle’s Surprising Strategy
When the Apostle Paul stood before the philosophers of Athens, he faced a situation not unlike our encounters with LDS neighbors. The Athenians had their temples, their rituals, their deeply held beliefs about the divine. Paul could have demolished their worldview with theological precision. Instead, he did something remarkable.
“Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription: ‘To the unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you” (Acts 17:22-23, ESV).
Paul began with affirmation, not accusation. He acknowledged their spiritual hunger before addressing their spiritual confusion. He built a bridge before attempting to cross it.
Beyond the Debate: Cultural Apologetics and the LDS Heart
Here in the Phoenix metro area, where stakes and ward buildings dot our neighborhoods as commonly as evangelical churches, we face a unique missional challenge. Our LDS friends are not irreligious skeptics who need to be convinced that God exists. They are deeply committed believers who think they already know Him.
This is where traditional apologetics often stumbles. As one theologian wisely observed, “Apologetics can never be purely rational because the head never reasons alone. Culture shapes which desires we indulge and which we reject. What the heart wants, the head will rationalize.” Our LDS neighbors do not merely believe differently from us; they desire differently. They long for eternal family, for progressive sanctification, for a God who looks like them.
Cultural apologetics teaches us to address those desires, not merely those doctrines. It asks: What is the Latter-day Saint really longing for? And how does the true gospel of Jesus Christ fulfill that longing in ways their current faith cannot?
The answer transforms our approach entirely. Instead of attacking their theology, we learn to showcase the beauty of ours. Instead of proving them wrong, we invite them to something better.
The Beauty of Insufficiency: What We Offer That They Cannot Find
Consider the exhausted LDS mother who has spent her week fulfilling callings, attending temple sessions, completing visiting teaching assignments, and wondering if she has done enough. The LDS system offers her an endless ladder to climb. The gospel offers her a finished work.
“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:28-30, ESV).
These words are revolutionary to someone trapped in a performance-based faith. Not “Come to me and try harder,” but “Come to me and rest.” Not “Prove yourself worthy,” but “I have made you worthy.”
This is the scandal of grace that our LDS friends have never truly encountered: a salvation that cannot be earned because it has already been given. A righteousness that is not achieved but received. A God who does not wait at the end of our striving but meets us at the beginning of our surrender.
The Gospel as Homecoming
“When Christians explain the biblical pattern of creation and fall to a secular and skeptical late modernity,” writes one cultural apologist, “we’re not entering enemy territory. We’re inviting wanderers back home to a view of the world that can make sense of both the best and the worst of humanity. In short, the Bible makes sense of us. It makes better sense of us than we can make of ourselves.”
The same is true for our LDS friends. Despite their theological differences, they already sense that something is broken in the human condition. They know they need a Savior. They understand that family matters eternally. They believe in divine revelation and the authority of Scripture (even if they have added to it).
In many ways, they are closer to the kingdom than the secular neighbor who denies God altogether. The challenge is to help them see that the home they seek is not found in temples made with hands or in endless ordinances, but in a Person.
“Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me'” (John 14:6, ESV).
Not a way among many. Not a truth among several. Not a life to supplement our own efforts. The way. The truth. The life.
A More Excellent Way: Practical Wisdom for the Journey
So how do we move forward? How do we engage our LDS neighbors with both truth and love? Consider these principles drawn from Scripture and sanctified wisdom.
First, listen before you speak. Most Latter-day Saints have never been genuinely heard by an evangelical Christian. They expect debate, not dialogue. When you ask about their faith journey, their doubts, their hopes, and then actually listen to their answers, you disarm defensiveness and open hearts. “Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger” (James 1:19, ESV).
Second, ask questions rather than making accusations. Jesus Himself was a master questioner. “What do you want me to do for you?” He asked the blind beggar, though He already knew. Questions create space for reflection. “How do you know you’ve done enough to reach the celestial kingdom?” is far more effective than “Your works-based salvation is false!” One invites thought; the other provokes defense.
Third, share your testimony of grace. The LDS faith has a strong culture of testimony-bearing, but its testimonies focus on the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon and the prophetic calling of Joseph Smith. Your testimony of what Christ has done for you personally—the freedom from striving, the assurance of salvation, the intimacy with a God who is not a distant exalted man but an ever-present Spirit—offers a stark and beautiful contrast.
Fourth, invite them into the Christian community. “An apologetic is also something the church is. When churches take seriously our calling as countercultural communities, we start to do the work of cultural apologetics without even thinking about it!” Let your LDS friends see grace in action. Invite them to dinner, to a small group, to worship. Let them experience what it means to be loved without agenda, accepted without performance.
The God Who Pursues
Perhaps the most profound difference between biblical Christianity and LDS theology is the direction of divine love. In the Latter-day Saint system, humans progress toward God through obedience and ordinances. In the biblical gospel, God descends toward humans through incarnation and sacrifice.
“For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die—but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:6-8, ESV).
This is the gospel that changes everything: a God who does not wait for us to become worthy but pursues us in our unworthiness. A Savior who does not stand at the top of the ladder calling us to climb, but who climbed down into our darkness to carry us home.
Beyond Winning: The Call to Faithfulness
I think of those two missionaries who stood at my door years ago. I wonder where they are now. I wonder if anyone has since shown them the grace I failed to extend. I wonder if they ever found rest for their striving souls.
The call before us is not to win arguments but to win hearts. Not to defeat our LDS friends in debate but to love them into the kingdom. Not to prove ourselves right but to point them to the One who alone is righteous.
“The gospel is a call to exchange old hopes and desires for new ones, because the new ones are the originals from which our false stories are smudged and ripped fakes.” Our LDS neighbors are not our enemies to conquer. They are image-bearers to love, wanderers to welcome home, fellow seekers who have been handed a counterfeit of the treasure they truly seek.
May we be the ones who show them the genuine article. May we be those who embody the grace we proclaim. May our lives preach louder than our arguments ever could.
Because in the end, our LDS friends do not need to lose a debate. They need to find Jesus—the real Jesus, the biblical Jesus, the Jesus who is enough.
A Prayer for Those We Love
Father, forgive us for the times we have loved being right more than we have loved people. Forgive us for wielding truth as a weapon rather than extending it as a gift. Give us hearts that break for our LDS neighbors—neighbors who seek You sincerely yet have been pointed in the wrong direction.
Grant us wisdom to know when to speak and when to listen. Give us the courage to share the hope within us with gentleness and respect. Let our lives be such compelling testimonies of Your grace that our words merely explain what people already see.
And Lord, move in the hearts of those who are even now questioning, doubting, wondering if there is more. Draw them by Your Spirit to the Savior who offers rest for the weary and grace for the striving. May they find in Jesus everything they have been searching for.
In the name of Christ, who loved us first. Amen.
Scripture for Meditation
“But in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect.”
— 1 Peter 3:15, ESV