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Greater Things > Ridenhour > Introduction |
Introduction
Prologue | Part I: The Restoration In Me | Part II: Me In The Restoration
| T | he Restoration gets in you first; then you get in the Restoration. Or so it seems. Anyway, that was my journey. |
This series of essays was written over the past thirty-five years. Like a blade of grass -- here today, gone tomorrow -- I've watched the spring and summer years of life come and go. I now publish these essays in my autumn years. They're divided into two parts -- Part One: The Restoration In Me, and Part Two: Me In The Restoration. Of course, Part One tells the story of how and when the Restoration got in me; Part Two tells the story of me getting in the Restoration.
I'm a Baptist minister, or was. For thirty-eight years I pastored and preached Protestantism's message of salvation--thundering and thumping the pulpit, warning God's sheep against the woes of cults, the wiles of the devil, and the whims of the flesh. For well over a quarter of a century I was a Fundamentalist Baptist minister, preaching and teaching at Jerry Falwell's Liberty Baptist University, exposing those awful kingdoms of cults, my premillennial charts and Scofield Bible never far from reach, usually on my car dashboard. I preached all over the South "……you must be born again," and "……you're saved by the blood……."
Then what happened? That's the theme of these essays.
Let me say, "……I glory in plainness" (2 Nephi 33:6). These essays are by no means polemic in nature but testimonial through and through. Let Mosiah's words be mine:
"And these [essays] are they who have published peace, who have brought good tidings of good, who have published salvation; and said unto Zion: Thy God reigneth!" --Mosiah 15:14
The underlying theme in each essay is: Thy God reigneth!
Without question, our Heavenly Father was the God of the twentieth century; He's also God during the dawn of a new millennium. History has it--a marvelous work and a wonder dug Truth out of the ground in the nineteenth century. One night a young lad slipped out of his house, took a shovel and beat the devil. Today that work carries on.
It is with great joy that I share the story of: the Restoration in me and me in the Restoration.
Lynn Ridenhour
Part One: The Restoration In Me
Fundamentalist Christianity has two cardinal doctrines: 1) the concept of Canonization, and 2) the Rapture. Both teachings are taught year after year, from Sunday School through seminary, in Fundamentalist Protestant churches and schools across this land. In order to "get to first base" with most Protestants, these extra-biblical teachings must be shattered by the Holy Ghost. No Protestant Christian takes Joseph Smith and "his movement" seriously until his Sacred Cow is touched; i.e., canonization and the rapture.
I wrote Touching Sacred Cows in 1967. Heavenly Father began dealing with me back in the mid-sixties concerning the rapture doctrine. Not knowing where to file the revelation ("there is no rapture"), I went about my ministerial studies at William Jewell College in Liberty, Missouri, graduated and began pastoring in the deep South. It would be years (1985, to be exact) before I would understand.
Canonization of Scripture, written in 1985, followed. The two cardinal doctrines of Fundamentalist Christianity had now been shattered by the Holy Ghost. There is no rapture, nor canon of scripture: two hard revelations to swallow by this Fundamentalist Baptist preacher. But I learned long ago——when God speaks, listen. Nephi penned some appropriate words:
"……And the angel of the Lord said unto me: Knowest thou the meaning of the book [Bible]? And I said unto him, I know not……" (I Nephi 13: 21,22).
The Restoration in me was beginning to take shape. My journey had begun.
Then came The Mysteries of the Kingdom: A Study of the Parables of Matthew Thirteen, written in 1968. If there were no rapture, then perhaps God would set up His kingdom on this earth. A new and radical theme for most Protestants.
Kingdom theology surfaced in The Millennium and Triumph of the Kingdom and the Fall of Babylon, written in 1969.
Paradise or Prison House, written in 1970, was a radical departure from Protestant theology.
Three short essays--Eventide, Flying Messengers, and Endtime Promises--depict an everlasting gospel. It's the power of the Holy Ghost shed abroad in men's hearts during these latter days. Written in 1968 to 1970, the prophetic nature of the gospel surfaces.
Three Types of Christians and Christ, Our Lover were written in 1972. Three Types of Christians categorizes the Christian walk. The title alludes, of course, to the three main Old Testament feasts: Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles. There are three types of Christians: Passover Christians, Pentecost Christians, and Tabernacle Christians. Christ, Our Lover portrays Christ as: our Lamb, our Lord, our Lover, and our Lion. Both essays emphasize the Church's role in the latter days.
Restoration of the Last Adam and America's Brand of Christianity, written in 1978, bemoan the condition of "churchianity" in these last days.
By the end of the seventies, the Holy Ghost had pretty much shattered my Fundamentalist Christianity. Though I was still pastoring Protestant churches, I felt much like a spiritual gypsy wandering in the wastelands. I lacked a home. For I had yet to be introduced to the glorious Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ.
By now, however, I was serious. That is, a serious seeker after Truth. By early 1980s, I had discovered a most precious jewel, a treasure buried in the sand. In my Bible I had discovered the House of Israel! Thus, after much digging, An Essay on The Ten Lost Tribes was written in 1983. The revelation of the Lost House of Israel was, indeed, the precursor revelation, setting up the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ to be introduced in my life. It's no understatement,……
I was totally caught off guard the first time I discovered the "two houses" in the Bible. I had no idea there was such an array of scriptures pointing out that distinction: Hosea 1:6,7; Jer.13:11; Jer.33:7; Jer.30:3,4; Jer.32:30; Jer.3:8; Jer.3:11; Hosea 1:11.
"I will no more have mercy upon the house of Israel; but I will have mercy upon the house of Judah……" (Hosea 1:6,7).
It's really a short leap from understanding the Lost House of Israel and understanding the Book of Mormon. Heavenly Father was guiding my life, for sure. By the early eighties, the Restoration was truly in me. It was now time for me to get in the Restoration.
One day a neighbor knocked on our door and handed me a Book of Mormon….
Part Two: Me In The Restoration
In May, 1985, Dr. Kenneth Brown, neighbor, knocked on our door and handed me a Book of Mormon. I read it and had an instant conversion. I knew the book was true. And I knew the book was heaven-sent. At that time, I was on faculty at Western Illinois University, Macomb, Illinois, while pastoring a small country church seven miles from Carthage. The sign read: Fandon Christian Church, Rev. Lynn E. Ridenhour, Pastor.
Our lives took on a new direction. In 1985 my wife, Linda, and I, and our lovely daughter, Lori, moved to Independence, Missouri——the Center Place of Zion. It was in the Center Place where I "got into" the Restoration. On April 6th., 1996, my family and I were baptized as members into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
You might note——eleven years went by between the time I read the Book of Mormon and became a baptized member. Why? That's one of the underlying themes of these next set of essays.
One of the first matters I had to face was the man, Joseph Smith. For the sake of my brethren (and myself) I delved in, much like a detective trying to solve the last crime of the century. I had to investigate this man. Thus, What Do You Think of Joseph Smith? 100 Evangelical Christians Interviewed was written in October, 1985.
I discovered--images of the Prophet ranged from charlatan to hero, from hoax to hobnobbing with the gods. Who was he? Hero or hoax? I had to find out for myself.
The second matter I had to face was the Book of Mormon. The Two Sticks: Biblical Proofs of the Book of Mormon was written in 1986.
The Burning Bosom: One Man's Account of Knowing God is highly autobiographical. It choreographs events——from living with the hippies in the 60s to soaring with the yuppies in the 80s and 90s.
I had a lot of fun writing The Baptist Version of the Book of Mormon: Protestant Doctrines Found Within the Book of Mormon. Though the title is somewhat tongue-'n-cheek, my thesis is not. Written in 1990, I was still not baptized. I call these my "wasteland years." I don't mean, these were wasted years. I mean, I was struggling to find the way.
In 1996, with a triumph in my soul, I write Why I Became A Mormon: My Journey into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I pinpoint my cause for delay——Masonry's similarities to LDS temple worship. Reared in southern Missouri, my family was steeped in the rituals of the Masonic Lodge. I was a Scottish Rite Mason. And I had to know that LDS temple worship was not simply "warmed-over Masonry." I found the answer. Once I found the answer, I didn't look back. To this day I want everyone to know of this glorious restored gospel.
Our journey has truly been one of "……joy unspeakable and full of glory."
I wrote From This Day Forth: Just For Investigators in 1997.
And there were more essays.
You must understand the spiritual climate in Independence, Missouri. All kinds of restoration branches make their home here in the heart of Zion: the Culterites, the Strangites, and, of course, the RLDS, to name a few. Many restoration saints who embrace the Book of Mormon also believe that Joseph Smith was a fallen prophet. To me, that's like saying Andy Griffeth robbed the Mayberry Bank, or that Roy Rogers was a crook. It just doesn't compute, add up. I wrote Was Joseph Smith A Fallen Prophet in 1998.
It's fun to dream dreams and to see visions. The older I get, the more fun my religion becomes. I have my spiritual fantasies too of what it's like to serve the Lord in these last days. I wrote Come To Zion: A Spiritual Fantasy in 1999--on the dawn of the new millennium.
Then there's 1260 Days 'Till 1830. We're told--in the learning of the Jews, "back to the future" is the Lord's way; that Truth is one eternal round.
April 6th.: Observe This Day Forever is short and to the point. Even dates are divinely set by the Counsel of the Gods. April sixth seems to be part of a divine pattern.
Gematria & The Book of Mormon is a fun game to play in the Holy Ghost. There is an entire world within the word waiting to be discovered. Gematria is the mother of the strange art of numerology. The ancient rabbinical world did not have the Arabic numbers as we use them in the West today and so the Hebrew letters served as numbers; thus, allowing linguistics and mathematics on the spiritual plane to interface. Restoration Theology on Life in the Hereafter: Testimonies of saints in the hereafter, written in 1999, brings joy to the soul. There is so much on the hereafter that's missing in Protestant Christianity but present in restoration theology; i.e., degrees of glory, eternal companionship, the celestialization of the earth, paradisiacal glory, and glorified beings becoming parents of spirit offspring. O, the joy of it all.
Are You Keeping The Word of Wisdom: Another Interpretation is a political essay, exposing the wickedness of the Church of the Devil in these latter days. Written before I became a baptized member, this hard-hitting essay centers around some divisive doctrines.
And appropriately, wrapping up these series of essays: The Five Stages of The Dispensation of the Fullness of Times. I did not write this one but I felt it appropriate to include. On Sunday evening, May 5th., 1996, Apostle L. Tom Perry gave a fireside talk to hundreds of college-age youth at Utah State University, his alma mater, in Logan, Utah. I find Elder Perry's fireside talk utterly fascinating, timely, and, as my teenage daughter would say, "totally awesome." Elder Perry's talk is not only a good way to end these essays; it's a good way to end this millennium.
There are twenty-eight essays: fourteen in Part One and fourteen in Part Two. It's my prayer, you've been edified.
Special thanks go to my eternal companion, Linda, and to my lovely daughter, Lori. I love them dearly. And owe them my life.
"For the eternal purposes of the Lord shall roll on, until all his promises shall be fulfilled." --Mormon 8: 22
Lynn Ridenhour
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