The National Association of Evangelicals (hereafter NAE) met today with a representative of the Mormon church for dialogue. In its press release, NAE president Leith Anderson said,

The National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) Board of Directors, which includes the CEOs of 40 denominations and representatives of a broad array of evangelical organizations and churches, will gather in Park City and Salt Lake City on March 10, 2011 for its semiannual board meeting.

This meeting is the first to be held in Utah, where the majority of its residents are Mormons. In addition to board business, the NAE leaders will meet with Utah Gov. Gary Herbert at the Governor’s Mansion to discuss various issues of concern to evangelicals. The board will also meet with a leader from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS).

“We hope this time of dialogue with LDS leaders will deepen our understanding of the Mormon faith and contribute to the ongoing work of evangelicals in Utah,” said Leith Anderson, NAE President. “For the sake of Christ and his kingdom, we seek to represent biblical evangelicalism to those who wouldn’t hear or know. We also look for common ground on issues where we can work together.”

The NAE states its objective in meeting thus:

“We hope this time of dialogue with LDS leaders will deepen our understanding of the Mormon faith and contribute to the ongoing work of evangelicals in Utah,” said Leith Anderson, NAE President. “For the sake of Christ and his kingdom, we seek to represent biblical evangelicalism to those who wouldn’t hear or know. We also look for common ground on issues where we can work together.”

So let’s make some assessment here–

• Evangelical leaders need to publicly meet with Mormons to better understand “the Mormon faith.” Do you think the evangelicals said, “Oh, I really understand you now. Your doctrine definitely is unbiblical and is leading millions away from Christ to hell.” I don’t.

• Evangelical leaders need to publicly meet with Mormons to represent biblical evangelicalism. Do you think the evangelicals said, “Now, the only way of salvation is by fully believing that Jesus Christ is the eternal God in the flesh, not through any works, and genuine repentance from all Mormon doctrine?” I don’t.

• Do you think these evangelical leaders found common ground to work together on? I hope not. Where in the Bible is there support for this kind of thing? Actually, the Bible does say something about attempting to find common ground with Mormons in order to work together–

Do not be bound together with unbelievers; for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness? Or what harmony has Christ with Belial, or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever? Or what agreement has the temple of God with idols? (2 Cor 6:14-16)

• IOW, the Bible says that there is no agreement between evangelicals and Mormons and there should be no working together with such.

Friends, this action on the part of the NAE shouldn’t surprise you. It’s in their DNA. From their inception they repudiated the idea of separating from disobedient brethren, have championed dialogue  with theological liberals and apostates, and have openly fraternized with such.

It’s sad that the NAE’s home page has a message from its president with the subtitle, “Cooperation without compromise.”

The NAE is disobeying the Scriptural command to be separate from unbelievers, and believers should in turn Scripturally respond to these disobedient brethren by having no working relationship (i.e. separation) from them as well (2 Thess 3:6, 14).

Here’s the official press release from the National Association of Evangelicals.

Here’s a general report from the Mormon Times.

Here’s an article I wrote several years ago on some of these very leaders speaking at the Mormon Tabernacle. I answer questions such as, “Is Mormonism Christian?” “Are there strings attached with meeting with Mormons like this?” “What happens in dialogue?” and “What is the end result of this?”