(Published in O Timothy Magazine, Volume 13, Issue 9, October 1996)
Minor revision made in January, 2003
In the past Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the Mormons) have preferred to be called "saints." However, in the recent years the LDS church has spend millions in an intense public relations campaign aimed at moving their church into the mainstream of Christianity. The political and economic benefits of Mormons being included in the mainstream of Christianity are obvious. Further, for Mormons to be accepted as traditional Christians would greatly aid in their proselyting the members of Christian denominations into the LDS church. This is why the LDS church is trying so hard to present themselves as Christians and trying to overcome the stigma of being a cult.
Hopefully, this article will help the Mormons to see that they worship a different god and Jesus Christ which is not the God and Jesus Christ of the Bible. This article will show that the god of Mormonism is not God, our Creator, as He has revealed Himself in the Bible, by presenting what God has said about who He is and His attributes. The Bible's answer to the question, "Are Mormons Christians" is simple: they are not Christians because their beliefs and teaching are unbiblical which reveals them to be a "Christian" cult.
The fact that the LDS church believes in a different Jesus Christ was confirmed by LDS Prophet Gordan B. Hinckley on June 4th, in a speech in Paris, France when he stated that those outside the Church who say that Latter-day Saints "do not believe in the traditional Christ" were correct. He further stated:
The name Christian was first used, as Acts 11:26 records, to identify the disciples of Jesus Christ. The word "Christian" is the Greek word, "christianos" and it means an adherent of Jesus Christ. It literally means "Christ ones." (Acts 11:26, 26:28, 1 Peter 4:16) The correct definition of the word is one who is a follower of the Jesus Christ of the Bible. Never in two thousand years has the word "Christian" any other meaning or reference to anyone other than the historical Jesus Christ of the New Testament.
The god of the Mormons is not the God of the Bible. To the Mormons, Jesus, is the first born son of an exalted "man" who became the god of this world. According to LDS church teaching, their god was first a man who became a god. The man-god of Mormonism was then made the god of this world because of his good works on another planet somewhere out in the Universe. He "earned" godhood, and was thus appointed by a counsel of gods in the heavens to his high position as the god of planet Earth. The Mormon god of this world was a man, like all men on earth. This is what the celestial marriage and the temple vows are all about. LDS men, by doing their temple work, are striving for exaltation by which they too shall one day become gods. Their wives will be the mother goddesses of "their" world and with their husband will produce the population of their world. This is the Mormon doctrine of "eternal progression."
Note the following quote is from the Mormon, Journal of Discourses, Vol. 1, page 123, made by the LDS Apostle Orson Hyde:
"Remember that God, our heavenly Father, was perhaps once a child, a mortal like we ourselves, and rose step by step in the scale of progress, in the school of advancement; has moved forward and overcome, until He has arrived at the point were He is."
Lorenzo Snow, late President of the Mormon church, made this statement in the second verse of his famous poem entitled, "Man's Destiny":
"As Abra'm, Isaac, Jacob, too,
First babes, then men-to gods they grew.
As man now is, our God once was;
As now God is, so man may be,-
Which doth unfold man's destiny. . ."
Note the clear teaching of the Bible as to who the real God is:
Psalms 102:26-17, "They shall perish, but thou shalt endure: yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment; as a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed: But thou art the same, and thy years shall have no end."
Isaiah 43:10-11, "Ye are my witnesses, saith the LORD, and my servant whom I have chosen: that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I am he: before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me. I, even I, am the LORD; and beside me there is no savior."
Isaiah 44:6, "Thus saith the LORD the King of Israel, and his redeemer the LORD of hosts; I am the first, and I am the last; and beside me there is no God."
Isaiah 44:8, "Fear ye not, neither be afraid: have not I told thee from that time, and have declared it? ye are even my witnesses. Is there a God beside me? yea, there is no God; I know not any."
Isaiah 45:21-22, "Tell ye, and bring them near; yea, let them take counsel together: who hath declared this from ancient time? who hath told it from that time? have not I the LORD? and there is no God else beside me; a just God and a Saviour; there is none beside me. Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else."
Jeremiah 23:24, "Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him? saith the LORD. Do not I fill heaven and earth? saith the LORD."
Malachi 3:6, " For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed."
John 1:16-18, "And of his fullness have all we received, and grace for grace. For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him."
John 4:24, "God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth."
Romans 1:22, "Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, And changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things."
Colossians 1:15, "Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:"
1 Timothy 1:17, "Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen."
1 Timothy 6:16, "Who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see: to whom be honour and power everlasting. Amen."
The Mormon Jesus is the son of this man god.The Mormon Jesus is the brother of Lucifer , and according to LDS popular LDS thought, married several of the Marys of the New Testament. He is not, to the LDS church, "God incarnate" as the Bible plainly states. Clearly, the Mormon god and Jesus are not the true God and Jesus of the Bible.
Orson Hyde, the Mormon Apostle said, "We say it was Jesus Christ who was married in the marriage of Cana of Galilee." (Journal of Discourses, Vol. 2, page 80)
Brigham Young, said, "When the Virgin Mary conceived the Child Jesus...He was not begotten by the Holy Ghost. And who is His father? He is the first of the human family." (Journal of Discourses, Pages 50-51)
Compare this with the Word of God which says:
"Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us." (Matthew 1:23)
Ephesians 2:16 "And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby."
Colossians 1:20 "And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven."
Colossians 2:14 "Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross."
"How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?" (Hebrew 9:14)
"And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood," (Revelation 1:5)
Note that in the following verses the Bible teach that salvation, which is forgiveness of sin and receiving of eternal life, is a free gift of God, and it is not obtained by "works":
Romans 4:5, says, "But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness."
The real Jesus Christ is the "only begotten of the Father." He is not one of many sons and certainly not the brother of all men and Satan, as the following Scriptures clearly state:
John 3:16, "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."
John 3:18, "He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God."
Hebrews 1:5, "For unto which of the angels said he at any time, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee? And again, I will be to him a Father, and he shall be to me a Son?"
1 John 4:9, "In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him."
John 1:14, "And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth."
John 10:30 "I and my Father are one." Jesus claimed to be one with the Father.
John 14:9, Jesus said who ever saw Him was seeing the Father.
John 8:25, 56-59, 18:6,8. Jesus in the passages used the Jehovahistic "I AM" identifying Himself as God.
In Matthew 22:42-45, Jesus claimed to the Old Testament "Adonai."
Mark 2:5-7, Jesus forgave sin a prerogative only belonging to God.
Matthew 14:33; 28:9, John 20:28-29, Jesus asserted Himself as God by allowing men to worship Him.
John 1:3, Jesus is the Creator and in Genesis 1:1, it states that God was the Creator.
One question that I would ask all Mormons to ask themselves is this: "If I accept you as a Christian, will you accept me as a Mormon?" Would you accept me as a Mormon if I reject Joseph Smith and all the LDS prophets as being prophets of God. If I do not believe in the Book of Mormon or the LDS Scriptures, baptisms for the dead, the temple endowments, the LDS gospel. . .would you accept me as a Mormon? If I were a Mormon and rejected the LDS church's teachings would I in fact be a Mormon? And suppose that I started a new religion which was totally different in doctrine from the LDS church, to the extent that I even denied the true identity of who was the LDS god, would you think me to be a Mormon? The answer is obviously, you would not. In like manner, when Mormonism denies the Bible and every Christian doctrine do you think that biblical Christians should accept Mormons as Christians? Again the answer is very obvious, no we will not. You cannot legitimately claim to be Christians when you refuse to accept what the Bible teaches and a true Christian believes.
I would implore Mormons to honestly and openly examine their teachings about God and Jesus Christ and who the Bible defines as being a Christian. There is no benefit in calling yourself a "Christian" when biblically you are not.
Because we love the souls of men and want to see them saved and to spend eternity in Heaven with our Savior, we strongly object to anyone proclaiming to the world a false Jesus Christ and a false Gospel. We do not want to see anyone miss having their sins forgiven and receiving eternal life, because they were deceived.
"Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. " (John 14:6 ) Belief in the real Jesus Christ is the only way a man can receive forgiveness of sin and eternal life. The LDS church in presenting a false Christ is, in fact, leading souls away from salvation and the real Jesus. They reject God's truth and substitute another Jesus who does not exist and cannot save. Only those who believe in the biblical Jesus Christ will go to heaven when they die. Those who put their trust in a false Christ will be eternally lost. A Jesus that does not exist cannot save. Every true child of God knows this and that is why we try so hard to point men away from false churches, prophets, gods and Christ, that they may find God's true Son the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved.
"Be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by him doth this man stand here before you whole. This is the stone which was set at nought of you builders, which is become the head of the corner. Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved. " (Acts 4:10-12)