Dr. Dean Helland

On Saturday, March 11, 2006, at about 11:00 in the morning, there was a knock at my door, and when I opened it, there were two Mormon missionaries on my doorstep. I was overjoyed to see that I was going to have the opportunity to share with these two young men, so I opened the door wide and invited them into my living room, sat them on one couch and myself on another, and asked them to proceed with whatever they had to say.

Elder White and Elder Smith asked if we could start with prayer. I said, “Of course!”

While Elder White crossed his arms in the typical Mormon prayer posture, I was surprised to note that Elder Smith did not. It was a short, but appropriate prayer, followed by Elder White’s declaration that they were there to declare to me the Gospel of Jesus Christ, how our Heavenly Father loved us, and how important our families are. He asked about my own religious affiliation, and I told him that I was a born-again Christian, a member of Evangelistic Temple in Tulsa, Oklahoma, which was of the Pentecostal Holiness denomination.

by Dean Helland

See accompanying Power Point presentation

Three segments of American society have caused a great deal of discussion and confusion in recent years within the Christian community in the United States--Islam, Mormonism and Freemasonry. Deeply embedded in American society, each offers its own explanation of who it is, what it believes, why it does the things it does, and why it thinks it is right. To start with, I congratulate each of these groups for the excellent contributions they have made to American society. I do not ignore or denigrate their positive aspects. Each professes a belief in God, and that is commendable in a secular humanistic society. Also, each attempts to blend as best it can into American society, and we are a mighty nation due largely to this concern for the common good. Christian believers agree with them about doing good works, and with them, we pray for our leaders so that we may live in peace. Holy Bible, King James Version, 1 Timothy 2:1-4

My Personal Testimony!

We sold everything to preach the book of Mormon to the American Indians

Dean Helland, D. Min.

My interest in Mormonism is due to the fact that I was born in a family which belonged to the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (RLDS). This is the historic division of Mormonism which stayed with Joseph Smith's wife, Emma Smith, and his son, Joseph Smith III instead of going to Utah with Brigham Young to practice polygamy. Emma Smith held that her husband had not had other wives and declared that it was Brigham Young, not her husband, who had introduced this doctrine into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) which has its headquarters in Salt Lake City, Utah.1 The Reorganized church has its headquarters in Independence, Missouri. Also it has never accepted as valid Joseph Smith's introduction of Freemasonic practices into the secret ceremonies which take place in the LDS temples. In 2001, it changed its name to the “Community of Christ” in order to distance itself more from the LDS church.

When a Mormon Meets Jesus:

A Study in

Spiritual Paradigm Shift

Dean Maurice Helland

Oral Roberts University

Abstract

As Mormon numbers increase, Bible-believing Christians find themselves having to deal with these important questions: Can a Mormon be saved while still a Mormon? How should a Christian witness to a Mormon? This paper deals with those matters by presenting the experiences of ex-Mormons who have found their way into fellowship with Bible-believing churches. It distinguishes between the LDS (Utah Mormons) and their derivatives, and the RLDS (Mormons) and their derivatives. This paper illustrates that when a Mormon of whatever brand meets Jesus, a process begins which tends to lead that person from Mormonism and into a Bible-believing church. The author’s own spiritual pilgrimage is used as a reference point and compared with those of 56 other Christians who left Mormonism to become Bible-believers.

By Dr. Dean Helland

1998, 2006

Foreword

The following articles are translations of articles published in France in the Christian magazine La Vie Comblée (The Full Life). This is a publication for pastors and Christians throughout the French-speaking countries of the world. These approximately fifty countries have about one-half of one percent of their populations who are born-again Christians.

I spent fifteen years in Chile, a Spanish-speaking country of South America, working among the pastors and churches to establish a Pentecostal Bible Institute. When I asked the leaders what their greatest need was, they asked me to teach on the Christian cults from the United States that were invading their countries. They needed to learn how to defend their churches from these strange doctrines. I carried out a two-year project of pastoral seminars, and it was one of the high points of my missionary career.

By Dean Maurice Helland

PREFACE

Dean Helland was born into a family that belonged to the Reorganized Church of Latter-day Saints. This article was originally written as a directed-studies research paper toward the course requirements for a Doctor of Ministry degree at the School of Theology and Missions of Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, Oklahoma. It was first submitted on September 28, 1987. “Saints Alive in Jesus” published it in the 1988 Spring/Summer edition of the Saints Alive Journal. In 1990, it appeared with the addition of a study guide as the core of his doctoral project entitled “Meeting the Book of Mormon Challenge in Chile.”

The study guide is available for use by individuals or small groups who may wish to use this material for witnessing to Mormons. The object is to help Mormons out of Mormonism through their finding out about Book of Mormon problems. If Bible-believing Christians make serious use of it, time has shown that the next step is likely to be the integration of these new ex-Mormons into their own or another Bible-believing church. After the internet came into vogue, a number of organizations, both foreign and domestic, put it on their websites. Now that the author has his own website at www.deanhelland.com, he has new materials to reflect advances over time.

by Matt Helland

January 12, 2013

Today is my 34th birthday, and every year when I am back home, I get to hear the dramatic story of my birth retold by my mother. I was born in Chile, South America. The doctors had said I was dying in the womb be taken by Caesarean immediately. The only medical facility in the city that had an incubator was the local regional hospital. Once in, the anaesthetist gave my mother anaesthesia so she wouldn't feel the operation taking place, but unfortunately, they gave her too much anaesthesia. During the procedure, my mother stopped breathing. They bagged her and got her breathing again, but then left her in the hallway all by herself.

My mother is a nurse and knew that it was very possible that she might stop breathing again. The only nurse who came by told her that her infant was going to die. As she lay there, all she could do was pray the twenty-third Psalm, especially where it says, "Yeah, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil, for you are with me."

by Dean Helland

The secular news media is quick to point out the failures and inconsistencies as they are exposed in the lives of Christian ministers. It will always be so, for God did not send angels to do the work of spreading the Gospel. It seems that the more a man or woman of God gets into the limelight due to the excellence of their spiritual gifts, the more their faults and failings are highlighted in order to keep people from believing in God. If they can’t find anything valid to criticize, they may even invent scandal and proclaim it as being true, and so attempt to distract observers from the message these frail vessels of the Gospel are holding forth.

Despite these distractions, God has a way of convincing those who are called to serve Him to hold the line, continuing to follow Him and promote the Gospel despite their own weaknesses and fragility. Many who start after God fall by the wayside; such are the wiles of the enemy. And yet, the power of the Gospel to save men’s souls continues its onward march!

The secular world will only commend the works of the church which it can duplicate. Feeding the hungry, clothing the destitute, providing shelter for the helpless—these are works of the church that the secular world can imitate and commend. However, when the Gospel sets forth moral standards which show the way God wants His followers to apply to their lives, the secular world becomes hostile.

by Dr. Dean Helland

There are certain biblical steps that must be taken in order to get a ministry that includes the signs following as described in Mark 16:17-18 and 1 Corinthians 12-14.

1) One must live a life that is truly consecrated to God. That means separating oneself from things that the Bible identifies as sinful. Obviously, one must accept the Bible as the trustworthy and entire Word of God.

2) One must be filled with the Holy Spirit. Acts 2 is a good introduction. This is also amplified in Acts 10 and 11 as well as I Corinthians 12, 13 and 14. One should ask God for the Pentecostal sign of speaking in tongues, and learn to pray often in other tongues, as did the Apostle Paul and the other apostles.