There are few places on earth where God's creative genius is more marvelously evident than in Utah and Idaho. In a myriad of scenic highways every bend in the road produces a view of mountain majesty and over every hill each new horizon provides some wonderfully breathtaking and amazingly colorful landscape.

But even more frequent than the panoramic vistas of God's amazing handiwork are the steeples of the Mormon churches, which pierce the skies of many western hamlets and cities. In some communities 9 out of every 10 people embrace the doctrines of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (LDS).

The LDS Church (also known as the Mormon Church) has almost 5 million adherents in the United States and Canada. The Mormons teach that after the New Testament was written all churches became heretical and no true church existed until Joseph Smith had a special visitation from God in 1820 and was divinely directed to establish the true church. Therefore, all non-Mormons are referred to as Gentiles. The LDS Church teaches that true and full salvation is found only in their church.

The Mormons accept four books as divinely inspired: the King James Version of the Bible (which Joseph Smith revised for his own purposes), the Book of Mormon, Doctrines and Covenants and The Pearl of Great Price. Of course, God, knowing that such heresy would surface, inspired John to write concerning the Bible: "For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book" (Revelation 22: 18).

The Mormons also believe that Elohim, the Creator of this universe, was previously a man in a prior existence and that there are an infinite number of gods with their own worlds who were also previously men. Furthermore, they believe that every human being has the potential of becoming a god by keeping the requirements of Mormonism.

The path of salvation promoted by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints involves works, which diminishes the efficacy of the cross of our Saviour and makes finite, mortal man his own redeemer. In essence, the Mormon religion seeks to humanize God and deify man.

Though the Mormons promote themselves as proponents of the family there are places throughout Utah, Idaho, and Arizona where polygamy is still practiced, women are oppressed and children greatly disadvantaged. Former Georgia pastor Tim Clark, who now serves as executive director of the Utah-Idaho Southern Baptist Convention, estimates that there may be as many as 300,000 polygamists in Utah alone.

Wherever the Mormon Church flourishes a prevailing darkness seems to gather. And while the LDS Church says that every Mormon can potentially become a god, they are making of their converts twofold more the children of hell than they were before falling into this cultic trap.

Our counterparts in Utah-Idaho need for Georgia Baptists to become fully devoted to this partnership established in 1999 to link the two conventions together. Clark speaking to Georgia Baptists, says, "You can stay in Georgia and make a difference, but you can come to Utah-Idaho and make a great difference."

Craig Brown recently resigned as pastor of Hunter's Creek Church near Toccoa and accepted the call of First Southern Baptist Church of St. George, Utah to become their pastor. In 1998 when the Southern Baptist Convention met in Salt Lake City, Brown attended as a messenger from his church and began to sense that God was warming his heart toward the spiritual needs of the people in Utah.

When the Georgia and Utah-Idaho partnership was launched in l999 Brown led Hunter's Creek to get involved. The Toccoa pastor's first ministry opportunity in Utah was to preach a revival at Red Hills Baptist Church in Cedar City. He led a group from his church back to Cedar City in 2002 to work in Vacation Bible Schools.

In April of this year Brown returned to preach a revival at First Southern Church in St. George. The church began to express an interest in the Georgia pastor coming to southwest Utah to shepherd their flock. God was working in Brown's life at the same time and seemed to say to him, "You can no longer stand in your pulpit and tell people to go into the mission field unless you are willing to go yourself."

Brown said, "God just began to put a love and compassion in my heart for the people of St. George; and the verse of Scripture that kept ringing in my heart was Isaiah 6:8; 'Also I heard the voice of the Lord saying, 'Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?' Then said I, 'Here am I, Send me'."

Brown's eyes lit up as he declared, "I know it's God's will for me to be here. Our people here know how to pray; and my director of missions, Jim Ballard, calls me every Sunday morning before I leave home and prays for me. We had 13 additions the first month I was here and two of them were for baptism."

Brown continued, "One Mormon lady at the bank asked me if I came out here of my own accord or did the Convention send me, and I told her that I came of my own accord in obedience to the will of God. Tell Georgia Baptists that they need to be involved in the partnership."

Gilbert Berry, owner of a bullet manufacturing company and recent chairman of the pastor search committee for First Southern Church said of his new pastor, "He is God's man and he is faithfully preaching God's Word. He was meant to be here."

Just north of St. George, Richard Ballard, pastor of First Baptist Church of Cedar City, Utah, is just now beginning to see his church get healthy again after some difficult days. Although the church has beautiful facilities and was recognized for its outstanding ministry among Southern Baptists in 1964, only 15-20 people gather to worship on Sundays. Ballards' church is one of only a few evangelical churches in this city of over 20,000 people.

In fact, the total population of Utah and Idaho is reported to be approximately 3,700,000. The number of Southern Baptists in these two states totals about 15,000. In other words, only about 1 in 246 are Southern Baptists. Comparatively, in Georgia almost 1 in 5 persons are Southern Baptists.

In Utah/Idaho there are dozens of cities and towns that have been identified where churches need to be planted. There is "a Macedonian Call" that comes from our counterpart out west and the good Baptists of Georgia need to hear and heed the call.

Clark has listed many ways in which Georgia Baptists can be partners in the harvest in Utah-Idaho. A complete list of those ministry opportunities will appear in the next issue of The Christian Index.

Clark believes that a partnership should include mutual helpfulness and that there are ways the people of his convention can help Georgia Baptists. A sobering statistic reveals that the Mormon hierarchy includes 70 apostles. Since the LDS church has proliferated throughout the western part of the United States, 68 of the apostles of the Mormon Church are located in Utah and the surrounding states. One apostle is in Chile where the LDS church is making substantial gains.

The other apostle is living in Atlanta where the Mormon Church leadership believes the field is white for their harvest and they are finding people unusually receptive to the subtle teaching of their church. Clark declares, "Our people know how to witness to Mormons. Maybe we can help stop the relentless march of Joseph Smith's disciples through Dixie."