(Published in O Timothy Magazine, Volume 13, Issue 9, October 1996)
Minor revisions 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 both Mormons and non-Mormons to see that Mormonism worships a different god and Jesus Christ and not the God and Jesus Christ of the Bible. The Constitution of the United States gives every citizen the right of freedom of religion and the LDS people have the right to believe as they desire. However, biblical Christians also have the right to defend their historic faith as revealed in the Bible and expose those who misuse their historic name.
This article, by presenting what God has said about who He is and His attributes, will show that the god of Mormonism is not God, our Creator, as He has revealed Himself in the Bible. The Bible's answer to the question, "Are Mormons Christians?" is simple: "They are not biblical Christians because their beliefs and teaching are contrary to what the Bible teaches and this reveals them to be a "Christian" cult."
A cult is a defined as a religion that uses the name of an established religion but changes its beliefs, practices, and terms. Cults often claim superiority over the historic faith.
The Mormon Church proudly declares they are Christians and their church bears the name of Jesus Christ, but the fact is they believe in a different Jesus Christ and god and not Jesus Christ who is our Creator (John 1:3, Colossians 1:16-17). This was confirmed by LDS Prophet Gordan B. Hinckley on June 4th, 1998 in a speech in Paris, France when he stated that those outside the the LDS 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" had any other meaning or reference to anyone other than the historical Jesus Christ of the New Testament.
First: Mormons do not follow or believe in the historic Jesus Christ of the Bible, but rather a difference Jesus. This is why most biblical Christians emphatically insist that Mormons are not Christians. Let me explain.
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 can become a god. 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. . ."
First the god of Mormonism is not the God of the Bible.
The God of the Bible is not an exalted man. The God and Creator according to His word is omnipresent, omnipotent and omniscient. The Bible says He is the only God and there are no other Gods. He had no beginning or end and he is a Spirit being and never was a man.
Note the clear teaching of the Bible as to who the real God is:
Numbers 23:19, "God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?"
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."
Clearly, the Mormons' god is not the God of Christianity who is God revealed to us in the Bible. The Mormon god is god, formed from the imaginations of Joseph Smith and does not exist. He is completely different from the God of the Bible our Creator.
The Mormon Jesus is the son of this man-god. The Mormon Jesus is the brother of all men on earth and also the brother Lucifer. He is not, to the LDS church, "God incarnate" which means God come to earth as man, as the Bible plainly states. (Matt. 1:23) Clearly, the Mormon god and Jesus cannot the true God and Jesus of the Bible.
According to LDS popular LDS thought, Jesus married several of the Marys of the New Testament. 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, contradicted God's word as recorded in Luke 1:35 and 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:
Mormons teach that Jesus Christ, suffered for sin in the Garden of Gethsemane when He sweated "as it were" great drops of blood. Mormons totally avoid the Biblical teaching of Christ atonement for sin being accomplished on the Cross. However, the Bible clearly teaches that the atoning work of the Lord Jesus Christ was done on the cross.
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."
Note the following quote from, "What Mormons Think of Christ." LDS Publication pages 32-34:
"Christians speak often of the blood of Christ and its cleansing power. Much is believed and taught on this subject, however, it is utter nonsense and so palpably false that to believe it is to lose one's salvation." It goes further to say that salvation is conditional on faith, and repentance, and baptism and keeping the commands of God. "
"But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin." (1 John 1:7)
"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)
The rejection of this Biblical truth by the LDS church shows again it is not a Christian church and it teaching are contrary to God's word.
Note that in the following verses the Bible teaches 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":
"For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast." (Ephesians 2:8-9)
Romans 4:5, says, "But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness."
I am aware that the LDS church has several definitions of salvation, and several degrees of glory however the Bible has only one definition of salvation and that is receiving by faith, God's grace, apart form a man's works> The one who believes as Romans 10:9-10 proclaim are God forgive their sins, given eternal life and the surety of heaven when they die. The true Gospel is recorded in 1 Corinthians 15:1-4:
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 1:18, "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 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 1:1, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."
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 these passages used the Jehovahistic "I AM" identifying Himself as God.
In Matthew 22:42-45, Jesus claimed to be 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. Clearly Jesus is God.
Only those who believe in the real biblical God and Jesus Christ legitimately can use the name "Christian." The Mormon prophets historically have openly ridiculed those of us who believe in the God, Jesus and Holy Spirit that the Bible reveals.
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, etc. . .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 teaching and 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. In using the title Christian the LDS church misleading its members and adding a supposed legitimacy to their beliefs that are false.
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 that cannot save. We do not want to see anyone miss having their sins forgiven and receiving eternal life, because they were deceived.
Jesus said that He alone was the truth, the way and the life.
"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, teachings, gods, and Christs that they may find God's true Son the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved.
Matthew 24:24, "For there shall arise false Christ, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect."
"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)