|
| |
Missouri Mob Descendant Apologizes to Mormons, Performs Miracles
Jan. 24, 2005
By Greater Things News Service
|
Lynn Ridenhour addresses
the Ezekiel Conference at the
Unitarian Church on Highland
Drive in Salt Lake City,
January 22, 2005
click
for high-res
Lynn Ridenhour with Sterling
Allan a Mormon descendant,
who put his arm around
Ridenhour while he was
seeking to regain his
composure while tearfully
reading the Statement of
Repentance. Allan introduced
Ridenhour to John Bayley a
couple of years ago, and they
have been partners in ministry
ever since.
|
|
SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH -- Southern Baptist Minister, Lynn Ridenhour, issued a
tearful public apology Saturday to the Mormons for the actions of his ancestors
in persecuting and driving the Mormons from Missouri in the 1800's. Speaking at
the invitation of the Ezekiel Seminar in Salt Lake City on Jan. 22, 2005,
Ridenhour read a prepared statement which was warmly received by the audience of
160 predominantly Mormon participants, who embraced him and offered their
forgiveness in turn.
Ridenhour's statement said that though he was raised and trained to speak
against the Mormons as a cult, he came to see that while their beliefs are
different, they are not a cult.
Having discovered in his family history that his Missouri ancestors "were
involved in the Mormon War, running the Mormons out of the state," he took
occasion in his speaking engagement to offer the apology on behalf of his
ancestors and to ask for forgiveness.
Ridenhour presently resides in Independence, Missouri, where he leads a
charismatic revival that includes an honored place for the Book of Mormon.
The "Statement of Repentance" was read in the course of a lecture
titled, "I'm looking for a church," in which he itemized five aspects
which all turned out to be features of the LDS Church at the time of Joseph
Smith: Manifest presence of God, taking God out of the "box",
prophetic, welcomes signs and wonders, worshippers.
Ridenhour told of going through accounts of Mormon History and documenting the
number of manifestations of the various gifts of the spirit, from speaking in
tongues, to raising the dead, healing the sick and appearances of angels. He
also told of his experience reading the Book of Mormon for the first time.
"It was like being born again -- again!" "The Book of Mormon is
more Baptist than the Baptist hymnal," he said, referencing the core
Baptists doctrines propounded there.
He was recently contacted by a key leader figure in the Pentecostal church who
asked him if he really believed in the Book of Mormon, and then confessed that
he too has been a believer for many years, but has not been able to come out of
the closet because of his position in the Pentecostal church. Ridenhour has
scheduled a time not long from now to have this minister come to Independence
and go on record publicly as a Book of Mormon believer. Being over some 168
congregations, his confession ought to turn some heads.
At the end of the conference, Ridenhour, along with his ministerial partner,
John Bayley -- also a Book of Mormon believer and Mormon lover -- ministered to
the group assembled, performing several miracles of healing and giving "a
word of knowledge" to numerous people who were astonished at the accuracy
of the words of inspired wisdom being spoken to them that were so specific and
timely for their unique situations. One LDS woman spoke in tongues as she was
filled with the Holy Ghost, which was then interpreted to her great joy and
weeping. Not all who sought healings were healed on the spot, but were promised
they could be healed.
This was the 17th Ezekiel Conference to be held, and the first time they had
this kind of open manifestation of such miracles in their midst. The conferences
commenced about three years ago because of many people being touched by an
account of a ten-year-old girl who died from a diabetic coma and returned from
death without the veil, who apparently has continued to have near daily
encounters with Jesus on a level of familiarity surpassing what most people have
in a best friend or parent. The purpose of the ongoing conferences is to teach
about the gifts of the spirit and foster their identification and development in
the lives of people for the blessing of mankind.
|
click
for high-res
John Bayley
John Bayley addressing
the Ezekiel conference.
John Bayley with Sterling
Allan, who met him in 2002
when John was ministering
in Manti Utah.
click for high-res
John Bayley issues the
word of the Lord given
him the morning of the
Conference.
John Bayley with Gina
Bailey, LDS instructor and
inspirational speaker
and singer.
|
|
This was the first conference that Ridenhour attended, having been introduced
to conference founder and director, Doug Mendenhall by John Bayley. Doug
met John in December 2003. He was in Independence doing a conference, in
which three speakers had canceled. Not knowing what to do, he said
"the Lord said to go anyway and he would provide." Once there,
he saw John Bayley, didn't know him, and said "the Spirit told me to go ask
him to speak." He did, and Bayley gladly obliged.
Bayley has been a regular speaker since that time, beloved by those who attend,
who find great humor in the fact that he is a black man with beaded hair.
"He's like Samuel the Lamanite of Book of Mormon times," said one
conference goer, inasmuch as he is non LDS coming among them to stir them up to
repentance and remembrance of their birthright, to be better LDS than they have
been. "Wake the sleeping giant" was the message of both Bayley and
Ridenhour.
Ridenhour and Bayley spurred the conference attendees to awaken their fellow
Mormons to return to the glory days of the prophet Joseph Smith in which the
gifts of the spirit were a vital part of their daily lives, sometimes continuing
all day and into the night in great outpourings in their midst.
Bayley said he was given a word of the Lord regarding the Mormon church the
second morning of the two-day conference. He said that the Lord was not pleased
that so many had been excommunicated by the shepherds who were supposed to be
tending the flock. He said that the Lord will be very displeased when he
returns if he finds any outside the fold who are supposed to be in, and that
those responsible for their removal will themselves be removed if this is not
remedied.
The word he gave promised that if the church would restore those who had been
removed, they would become three times more powerful and grow three times as
large. Bayley himself has been disciplined by his Christian brothers, being
removed from a position of high leadership because of being a "Mormon
lover."
Ridenhour said that the "two sticks" prophecy in Ezekiel is not just
about the Bible and the Book of Mormon becoming one in the hand, but that the
people of the Bible and the people of the Book of Mormon will become one as
well.
- - - -
REFERENCE MATERIAL
Full "Statement of Repentance" by Lynn Ridenhour
http://www.greaterthings.com/Ridenhour/Statement_of_Repentance/
Lynn Ridenhour's Winepress Ministries
http://www.greaterthings.com/LynnRidenhour/
John Bayley -- Jammin in the Rhythm of the Holy Ghost
http://www.greaterthings.com/JohnBayley/
Ezekiel Conference -- independent coverage
http://www.greaterthings.com/EzekielConference/
Denise Mendenhall -- Recovers from Coma with No Veil - Ten-year-old
girl dies from a diabetic coma. She chooses to come back, but has no veil
upon returning. She converses freely with Jesus, sees auras, travels in
the spirit, sees departed and pre-born spirits.
http://www.greaterthings.com/NDE/Denise_Mendenhall/
The Mormon Purge - Documenting the plague of Excommunications in the early
1990's of hundreds of conservative Mormons.
http://www.greaterthings.com/Books/MormonPurge/
CONTACTS
Jesus Christ -- get a personal connection!
Doug Mendenhall <halmendenhal@aol.com>
Ezekiel Conference founder and director
435-462-2543
Sterling D. Allan --
GreaterThings.com
Page Created January 24, 2005
Page last updated October 22, 2006
|
