Two leading conservative Protestants, author-evangelist Ravi Zacharias and Fuller Theological Seminary President Richard Mouw, preached at the Tabernacle on Temple Square, the first time non-Mormons had spoken there in 105 years.
``I'm not being melodramatic when I say this is an historic occasion,'' Mouw said. He said fellow evangelicals have ``often seriously misrepresented the beliefs and practices'' of members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Nearly 5,000 evangelicals and Mormons sat together during the event, sponsored by Standing Together, a network of 100 evangelical churches that seeks improved relations with Mormons.
Zacharias, a native of India raised in Canada, was candid about doctrinal differences between traditional Christianity and Mormonism on such aspects as sin, salvation through the cross and the divine Trinity.
But his message that Jesus Christ is the answer to the longing in all human hearts resonated with both the evangelicals and Mormons.
``When you get the Son, you get the way, the truth and the life,'' Zacharias said.
Hope Pottenger, a Southern Baptist, called the event ``a great act of graciousness'' on the part of the Mormon church.