Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (known by the nickname of "Mormons") staunchly maintain that they are Christians and insist that they believe every word that is written in the Bible. However, their religion bears little resemblance to New Testament Christianity, and their doctrines oppose all of its basic tenets.

In order to clarify just why their claim is not credible, this article will examine Mormon teachings and contrast them with those of the Bible. For convenience sake we will use the abbreviation "LDS" for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.



THE CHRISTIAN DEITY

Our most important doctrine is that of deity. If our ideas about God are wrong, then we will be wrong about all our other doctrines too, because ultimately all our beliefs stem from our view of God.

The biblical God is self-existing; the First Cause and the Creator of all that exists. Because He created and sustains the universe and all that is in it, it is subject to Him. Moreover He is unique in that He always has been and always will be the only God in existence. So He is supreme over all. Because He is spirit, His presence permeates the entire universe and nothing is hidden from His sight. He is and always has been perfect, without sin, eternally unchanging, immortal, and omnipotent.(c/f Genesis 1:1,1 Kings 8:27, Psalm 36:9, 90:2, Proverbs 21:1, Isaiah 40:26, 43:10, 44:6, 45:21, 46:9, 10, Jeremiah 2:13, 23:24, John 1:1, 18, 4:24, 5:26, Romans 1:18-23, Hebrews 1:3, James 1:17).



THE MORMON DEITY

The doctrine that God was once a man and has progressed to become a God is unique to this church. (Official LDS Lesson Manual, 1997, page 34, "The Teachings of Brigham Young")

That which is without body, parts and passions is nothing. There is no other God in heaven but that God who has flesh and bones. (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, compiled by 10th LDS President and Prophet Joseph Fielding Smith, page 181)

We have imagined and supposed that God was God from all eternity. I will refute that idea and take away the veil that you may see. It is the first principle of the Gospel to know for a certainty the Character of God ..… that he was once a man like us ..... Here, then, is eternal life — to know the only wise and true God; and you have got to learn how to be Gods yourselves, and to be kings and priests to God, the same as all Gods have done before you, namely by going from one small degree to another (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, compiled by Joseph Fielding Smith, 1976, pages 345-346 c/f Times and Seasons, Volume 5, pages 613-614). (Emphasis by editor.)

According to Genesis 1:26, 27; 2:7 in the beginning there was God, and then He created man. Man owes His existence to his Creator God, and not the other way around. God didn't stem from a man who had progressed. Man was created by God, which means that prior to that man did not exist. (The LDS claim that the word "create" in the Bible means re-organize, will not be found in any dictionary or Bible concordance, as it is a false teaching.) The Bible clearly indicates that God is the Creator and that we are the work of His hands (Romans 9:19-21). We never have been co-equal with God as Joseph Smith insists we were (c/f Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, page 353, compiled by LDS President and Prophet Joseph Fielding Smith; Times and Seasons, Vol. 5, page 615); and we never ever will be. Joseph's claims are blasphemous, to say the least. In his aspirations to godhood he is following Satan, not God:

For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High. Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit. (Isaiah 14:13-15, KJV) (Emphasis inserted by editor.)

Because the LDS deity first lived as a mortal man on a planet similar to earth, and was only exalted to godhood long after the universe had already come into existence, this means that he had nothing whatsoever to do with its creation. So he is not even remotely necessary to the functioning of the universe. Instead he is subject to it in the same way that we are. Nor does he have the power to create anything. According to their prophet Joseph Smith, the LDS God merely "re-organizes" pre-existent matter (c/f Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, compiled by Joseph Fielding Smith, pages 350, 351). And he is only one amongst a great many other other Gods, each of whom rules his own planet.

On the other hand, the God of the Bible was, is, and always will be the only true God (Isaiah 43:10, 44:6, 46:9.) And unlike the God that Mormons worship, the biblical God actually created all that exists, including time, space and matter. So the universe and all it contains is subject to Him, and He upholds it all by His mighty power (Hebrews 1:1-3).

It is obvious that the Mormon God is a far inferior and very limited in comparison with the eternal, unchanging God of perfection and omnipotence, who has revealed Himself to us in the pages of the Bible through His prophets, and through his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.



THE LDS'S JESUS CHRIST

In bearing testimony of Jesus Christ, LDS President Hinckley spoke of those outside the Church who say Latter-day Saints do not believe in the traditional Christ. "No, I don't. The traditional Christ of whom they speak is not the Christ of whom I speak. For the Christ of whom I speak has been revealed in this the Dispensation of the Fulness [sic] of Times. He together with His Father, appeared to the boy Joseph Smith in the year 1820, and when Joseph left the grove that day, he knew more of the nature of God than all the learned ministers of the gospel of the ages ("The LDS Church News," week ending June 20, 1998, page 7) (Italics inserted by the writer.

The LDS maintains that after progressing from intelligent matter in the same way they say that we did, the Mormon Jesus became the first spirit child born into the family begotten by the Heavenly Father of flesh and bone, and his plural wives, in a prior existence. Satan, the demons, the angels, and all of mankind were then born as his siblings. However, in spite of the Heavenly Father and His wife/wives consisting of flesh and bone, all their children, born in the normal manner of procreation, were spirit beings. This defies the laws of reproduction, where kind reproduces kind.

Among the spirit children of Elohim [the LDS God] the firstborn was and is Jehovah or Jesus Christ to whom all others are juniors .... There is no impropriety, therefore, in speaking of Jesus Christ as the elder brother of the rest of humankind.... (LDS President Joseph F. Smith, Improvement Era, volume 19, pages 941-942, June 30, 1916)

..... the Devil, the mighty Lucifer, the great prince of the angels, and the brother of Jesus. (Apostle Joseph Young, Journal of Discourses, Volume 6, pages 207-208, October 11, 1857) (Italics inserted by editor.)

Whereas the Bible teaches a Christ of eternal deity (John 1:1), Mormonism teaches a Christ who is merely our brother in eternal progression, and the brother of Satan. So not only does the LDS worship a different God to that of the Bible, their Christ is also a radically different, non-existent being.

Ignoring the very clear teaching in the Bible that the incarnate Christ was conceived by a virgin through a miracle wrought by the Holy Spirit (Matthew 1:18), Mormon teaching is that God literally fathered Christ in the flesh, in spite of the fact that Mary was betrothed to Joseph at that time.

The birth of the Savior was a natural occurrence unattended by any degree of mysticism, and the Father God was the literal parent of Jesus in the flesh as well as in the spirit (Religious Truths Defined, Joseph Fielding Smith, page 44). (Emphasis inserted by editor.)

When the Virgin Mary conceived the child Jesus, the Father had begotten him in his own likeness. He was NOT begotten by the Holy Ghost. (LDS President Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, Volume 1, page 50) (Editor's comment: The LDS teaches that the Holy Ghost was also a son of God.)

Thus, God the Father became the literal father of Jesus Christ. Jesus is the only person on earth to be born of a mortal mother and an immortal father. From his mother he inherited mortality and was subject to hunger, thirst, fatigue, pain, and death. He inherited divine powers from his father. (Gospel Principles Manual, 1997, page 64)

Just to make sure that we fully understand their teaching that God literally fathered Christ through Mary in the normal manner of procreation, The Family Home Evening [Manual], Personal Commitment, copyright 1972 by Corporation of the President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, provided the following sketch on page 126:

On the other hand, the Bible explains that Christ was born of a virgin. The Holy Spirit miraculously enabled His foetus to grow in Mary's womb without using either her ovum or a male sperm (Matthew 1:18). So He never inherited the sinful tendencies of fallen mankind. He was God in the flesh.

The Bible also tells us that the Lord Jesus Christ was deity from the very beginning (John 1:1, 4, Colossians 1:15, etc.) and that He created everything that exists, both in the heavens and the earth, including all the angelic beings, one of whom was Satan.

For by Him [Christ] were all things created, that are in heavens, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities or powers: all things have been created by Him and for Him: and he is before all things, and by him all things consist. (Colossians 1:16-17, KJV) (Italics inserted by writer.)

(Rabbinical Jews used the words, "thrones, dominions, principalities or powers" mentioned above to describe the different orders of angels.)

To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. (2 Corinthians 5:19, KJV)

Joseph Smith's ideas of who Christ is were so vastly different to those of the Bible, that when he wrote his inspired translation of the Bible he was forced to change some of its most important teachings about Christ, so that they fitted in with his own ideas (c/f Joseph Smith's Inspired Translation of the Bible ). The motivation behind Smith's translation was to produce a Bible that fitted in with Mormon theology. There was no scholastic reason for any of his alterations.

The vast differences between the LDS Jesus and the Christ of the Bible is a comprehensive subject that needs to be dealt with in depth. So a link is provided at the bottom of this page to a relevant article entitled "The LDS Jesus Christ is Not the Saviour of the Bible".



BELIEF IN CHRIST

The Mormon testimony includes the statement, "I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God." What is more, they are taught always to pray in Jesus' name. So they are bewildered when it is pointed out to them that Mormonism is not Christianity. But believing that Christ is the Son of God doesn't make one a Christian. The Bible tells us that the demons also believe this, yet they aren't Christians and what's more, they're bound for hell.

And devils also came out of many, crying out, and saying, Thou art Christ the Son of God. And he rebuking them suffered them not to speak: for they knew that he was Christ. (Luke 4:41, KJV)

Praying in Jesus' name doesn't make Mormons Christians either because as discussed above, the Christ they believe in and in whose name they pray, is a non-existent being, who bears no resemblance to the Saviour of the Bible, but has been invented to fit in with their exclusive (and unbiblical) doctrine of eternal progression. Moreover, unlike the biblical Christ who had been God from the beginning and who had never ever sinned, the Mormon Jesus had to work out his own salvation, in accordance with the law of eternal progression:

Jesus kept the commandments of his Father and thereby worked out his own salvation, and also set an example as to the way and the means whereby all men may be saved (LDS Apostle Bruce McConkie, The Mortal Messiah, Volume 4, page 434). (Emphasis inserted by editor.)

COMPARING MORMON AND BIBLICAL SALVATION

According to the Bible, salvation is purely by the grace of God, through faith in Christ and His atoning sacrifice; and it entails forgiveness of all our personal sins as well as redemption from the eternal consequences of those sins. Then too, as one of the consequences of sin is eternal death, salvation always also includes the free gift of eternal life. (For a more in-depth explanation of salvation, see the article, What is Biblical Salvation? )

And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. (John 3:14-15, KJV)

To him give all the prophets witness, that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins. (Acts 10:43, KJV)

Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood (Romans 3:24, KJV)

Although they maintain that they believe the Bible, Mormon teachings on salvation are unbiblical. They manage this feat by using "double speak." On the one hand they teach that Christ's atonement provides for the forgiveness of all our sins through faith in Him alone. But on the other hand they maintain that salvation is only possible through membership of the LDS church and faith in Joseph Smith as the true prophet of God. They also teach that Christ's atonement only provides for universal resurrection, although it does open the way for us to earn the right to forgiveness of our own personal sins through obedience to the LDS laws and ordinances. But where does the Bible say that?

Here are just a few of their teachings:

We believe that through the Atonement of Christ, all mankind may be saved, by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the [LDS] gospel (3rd LDS Article of Faith). (Emphasis by editor.)

All men are saved by grace alone without any act on their part, meaning they are resurrected. (Apostle Bruce McConkie, "What the Mormons Think of Christ," page 28). (Emphasis by editor. Bear in mind that McConkie was a writer of LDS doctrinal books, and a respected member of the LDS Quorum of 12 Apostles, whose duty it was to advise the LDS presidency, from 1972 until his death in 1985.)

Those who gain only this general or unconditional salvation will still be judged according to their works and receive their places in a terrestrial or telestial kingdom. (LDS Apostle McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, page 669).

..... As these sins are the result of individual acts, it is just that forgiveness for them should be conditioned on individual compliance with prescribed requirements — "obedience to the laws and ordinances of the [LDS] Gospel" (Articles of Faith, Missionary Reference Library, page 79, LDS Apostle James Talmage).

But what about Ephesians 1:7: "In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace?" Are we supposed to cut that verse out of our Bible? And what about all the many other verses proclaiming full forgiveness of all our sins through faith in Christ and His atoning sacrifice? Bear in mind that they are liberally scattered throughout the entire New Testament. So if we discard them all, we might as well throw our Bibles away.

Search as you may, you will never find the LDS teaching that Christ's atonement only provides for universal resurrection, anywhere in the pages of the Bible. On the contrary, the resurrection was an accepted fact long before Christ's atonement:

And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God (Job 19:26, KJV)

Martha saith unto him, I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day. (John 11:24, KJV)

But as touching the resurrection of the dead, have ye not read that which was spoken unto you by God, saying, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living. (Matthew 22:31-32, KJV) (Italics inserted by writer.)

THE LDS'S TEACHING ON ETERNAL LIFE

Still on the subject of salvation, and contradicting the Bible yet again, the LDS maintains that eternal life is only granted to those who are exalted to godhood, and that it has the connotation of being able to eternally beget children:

What is eternal life? It is to have "a continuation of the seeds forever and ever." No one receives eternal life except those who receive the exaltation [to godhood]. Eternal life is the greatest gift of God; immortality is not. (Joseph Fielding Smith Jr., Doctrines of Salvation, Volume 2, page 9.) (Note: Emphasis inserted by editor. In Mormonism, exaltation means promotion to godhood. Eternal life is the type of life lived by Gods.)

..... That is to say, eternal life consists of two things: (1) the continuation of the family unit in eternity, which means a continuation of the seeds or the everlasting begetting of children; and (2) the receipt of the fulness of the glory of the Father, which is all power in heaven and on earth. (LDS Apostle Bruce R. McConkie, The Millennial Messiah, page 708 (Emphasis inserted by editor).

Salvation in its true and full meaning is synonymous with exaltation or eternal life and consists in gaining an inheritance in the highest of the three heavens within the celestial kingdom. With few exceptions this is the salvation of which the scriptures speak. It is the salvation which the saints seek. It is of this which the Lord says, "There is no gift greater than the gift of salvation." (Doctrine &Covenants 6:13.) This full salvation is obtained in and through the continuation of the family unit in eternity, and those who obtain it are gods. (Doctrine & Covenants 131:1-4; 132.) (Author's italics.)

As can be seen from the above, LDS teaching is that unless you are exalted and become a Mormon God, you will not be granted eternal life. And they maintain that eternal life consists of the ongoing begetting of children. But the Bible teaches that eternal life goes hand in hand with faith in Christ, and it has no sexual connotations whatsoever (John 3:14-15). The Bible further tells us that all who trust in Christ will receive eternal life, not just those whom the LDS so mistakenly teaches will become gods, reproducing their seed eternally and ruling over worlds of their own. The truth of the matter is that according to Christ's own words, married life and the begetting of offspring is confined to our earthly existence, as in the life to come we will be like the angels, who do not reproduce (Matthew 22:30).

It is not what we would like to believe that matters, but what God tells us in His Word, the Bible.

The LDS's definition of eternal life being tied up with ongoing procreation was invented by Joseph Smith, and will not be found anywhere in the pages of the Bible. It isn't even in their Book of Mormon, which Joseph claimed contained the fullness of the everlasting gospel.

The Bible is never devious. That is Satan's style. The biblical term "eternal life" means exactly what it says, i.e. a life that will last eternally, and not what the LDS pretends it means. The word "life" means the actual existence of an individual, not the ability to beget offspring; and eternal means without end. So eternal life means an ongoing, conscious existence that will not come to an end.

The Bible teaches that the Lord Jesus Christ voluntarily came down to earth, where He selflessly and heroically atoned for our sins, in our place, on the cross at Calvary. And He has promised that if we repent and put our faith in Him as our sin bearer and saviour, He will save us from sin and all that it entails, and will grant us eternal life. The sole qualification that the Bible says is necessary for us to gain eternal life is faith in real Christ, not marriage in a Mormon temple for time and eternity, faith in Joseph Smith as a prophet of God, or membership of the LDS church.

Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me. And ye will not come to me, that ye might have [eternal] life. (John 5:39-40, KJV)

My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. (John 10:27-28, KJV)

And when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad, and glorified the word of the Lord: and as many as were ordained to eternal life believed. (Acts 13:48, KJV)

For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 6:23, KJV)

And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God. (1 John 5:11-13, KJV) (Emphasis by editor.)

We do not see Mormon doctrine in any of the above scriptures. In fact, they contradict the LDS's teachings. Furthermore, the Bible is absolutely clear in its consistent teaching that salvation is not attainable through any works of our own, but solely by grace through faith in Christ and His atoning sacrifice:

For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God. (Ephesians 2:8, KJV)

Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. (Galations 2:16, KJV)

And if by grace, then is it no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then is it no more grace: otherwise work is no more work (Romans 11:6, KJV)

Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us ..... (Titus 3:5, KJV)

The Bible also emphasizes that salvation is through Christ alone. Nowhere does it mention that that in order to be saved we have to belong to the "right" church or to a religious organization that claims to possess God's sole authority for salvation. Christ is the only one who has authority for salvation, and He earned that right when He died for our sins, in our place, bearing our shame and guilt, on the cross at Calvary.

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, KJV)

Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved. (Acts 4:12, KJV)

In spite of their insistence that they believe every word in the Bible, LDS teachings directly oppose what the Bible so clearly tells us regarding salvation being through Christ alone:

There is no salvation without accepting Joseph Smith as a prophet of God, (Doctrines of Salvation, Volume 1, page 188.)

There is no salvation outside The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. (Bruce McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, page 670).

Their teaching on salvation alone reveals that Mormonism is not biblical, and nor is it Christian.



THE REASON WHY MORMONS NOW BELIEVE THEY ARE CHRISTIANS

Quite a good few years ago, when the editor was still a member of the LDS church, it was the practice of the leadership to instruct Mormons on a regular basis from the pulpit, never ever to call themselves Christians. They made it abundantly clear that Christian teachings were an abomination in the sight of God.

Until that time, few non-Mormons knew anything about the major LDS doctrines, for the simple reason that it has always been their policy only to reveal their exclusive doctrines to those who had been baptized into membership of their church. And even then this is done through a well planned system of indoctrination. The reason for this is that if they revealed their unbiblical teachings during their evangelisation process, it would put prospective members off. And so their missionaries are instructed not to reveal their doctrines, and are told that if they are questioned about them, they should use evasive tactics. (Their excuse for their outright deceptiveness is that non-Mormons aren't ready for the real meat, so they should only be given milk. They use scriptures taken out of context to lend validity to this deceptive tactic.)

However, the advent of the Internet has caused serious problems for the LDS church. Ex-Mormons who had come to realize both the error and the deception in Mormonism, began to reveal their exclusive teachings for all to see. This did not help their image. There was an adverse response from the public and their missionary efforts began to suffer. In fact the outcry was such that in order to minimize the ongoing public criticism about their blatantly heretical, anti-Christian beliefs, the LDS leadership has been trying desperately to make Mormonism appear to be more and more like Christianity. However, in spite of their deceptive claims, prevarication, verbal gymnastics and public denials, their basic doctrines still remain the same.

Mormonism is a religion of deception.

For some time now the LDS has been engaged in a massive publicity campaign that has cost them millions of dollars, and that falsely presents them as being a Christian church with biblical beliefs. They are doing their utmost to become accepted in the Christian fraternity, to the extent of giving away Bibles for free. And instead of their membership hotly denying that they are Christians as they were instructed to do in the past, they are now being assured from the pulpit that they are Christians. And they're given the impression that they are being victimized by those who refuse to categorize them as being Christian. This is a complete turnaround. (In order to understand the depth of the deliberate and outright deception involved in their campaign, see the well referenced and informative article, Mormonism's Claim to be a Christian Denomination .)

Another thing that gives Mormons the wrong impression, is the fact that in their talks from the pulpit, the LDS quotes liberally from both Mormon scriptures and selected scriptures from the Bible (in the latter case generally taken out of context). In the minds of the listeners, the two blend together. So it is all too easy to get the mistaken impression that Mormonism is biblical, when in reality it is nothing of the kind.

Plucking isolated verses out of the Bible and combining them with one's own teachings is a well known method of deception employed by cults and other false religions. (See the article Comparing Churches, Denominations and Cults .)

Mormons are also taught that the reason why their exclusively LDS teachings aren't in the Bible is because evil people had removed them, and that the Bible has been incorrectly translated. However, there is more than ample proof available today of the Bible's accuracy and historic truthfulness. The real reason why the present Mormon doctrines aren't in the Bible is because their leadership has changed their teachings. The original eternal, spirit deity they worshipped at the start of their church (as per the Book of Mormon, Alma 18:26-28, 22:9-11; and Doctrine and Covenants 20:17, 18 and 28, dated April, 1830), is still in the Bible.

There is no trace of current Mormon beliefs in any of the teachings of the apostles or of the other members of the primitive church.



CONCLUSION

The vast differences between the LDS deity and the biblical God, the LDS Jesus and the biblical Christ, and between salvation and eternal life as taught by the LDS on the one hand, and by the Bible on the other; combined with their own exclusive meanings that the LDS applies to biblical terms, are valid reasons why Mormonism doesn't qualify as being either biblical or Christian. Instead, it falls fairly and squarely into the categories of spiritual deception and counterfeit Christianity. Then too, their major doctrine of eternal progression on which all their other teachings rest, is exclusive to Mormonism alone, and will not be found anywhere in the pages of the Bible. Furthermore, their gospel is not the gospel of Jesus Christ, but the gospel of Joseph Smith.

It is a fact that the LDS church has little in common with the New Testament primitive church. And it would be wrong to call a religion that differs so radically from what the Bible teaches, either biblical or Christian.

As there is complete freedom of religion in the U.S.A., it is unnecessary for the LDS to keep up this facade of being Christian, when nothing could be further from the truth. So why do they do it?

Listed below are links to relevant articles.

Mormonism's False Teaching Concerning Eternal Life

The LDS Jesus Christ is Not the Saviour of the Bible

Mormonism's Individual Salvation Falls Short

Mormonism and "Being Worthy"

NOTE
To access a comprehensive index of articles comparing various aspects of Mormonism with what the Bible teaches, click on the "home" button at the bottom of this page.



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