(Published in O Timothy Magazine, Volume 13, Issue 9, October 1996)
Minor revisions made in January, 2003
Only recently have Mormons wanted to be called Christians, historically preferring not to be included with Christian denominations which Joseph Smith said were, "all wrong . . . all their creeds were an abomination in his sight, and that those professors (Christians) were all corrupt" (Pearl of Great Price, Joseph Smith, 2:18-19).
However, in the recent years, the LDS church has spent millions in an intense public relations campaign aimed at moving the church into the mainstream of Christianity and part of their strategy is to call themselves Christians. The political and economic benefits of Mormons being accepted as simply another Christian denomination 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.
This article it is written to help the Mormons and others to see that they worship a counterfeit god that does not exist and will show that the god of Mormonism is not the God who is our Creator as He has revealed Himself in the Bible. This paper presents what God has said about Himself as to who He is and what are His attributes. By reading the Bible, one can easily see that the god of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is not the God of the Bible. Therefore, the Bible's answer to the question, "Are Mormons Christians" is simple: they are not Christians because they do not accept or believe what God has plainly said. They do not accept God and Jesus Christ nor their message, being, character, or attributes. Clearly, this exposes them as being a "Christian" cult and a counterfeit false religion. They are guilty of identity thief in using Jesus Christ"s name and applying it to their false god.
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 that a Christian is one who is a follower of the Jesus Christ of the Bible. Never, in the two thousand years since Jesus Christ was on the earth has the name had any other meaning or reference to anyone other than the historical Jesus Christ of the Bible. To be a true Christian one must be a believer in the real Christ of the Bible and accept Him as the Word of God reveals. Yet, the Mormons have done what so many have as Romans 1 state:
"Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things. Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonor their own bodies between themselves: Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshiped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen." (Romans 1:22-25) [Underline added for emphasis]
Why are Mormons Not Christians?
First: Mormons do not believe in the historic Jesus Christ of the Bible, but rather they worship a difference Jesus that Joseph Smith invented.
This is why most biblical Christians emphatically insist that Mormons are not Christians and are misusing the name. Past President and Prophet of the LDS Church, Gordon B. Hinkley made this clear in a statement he made in the Church News, an official publication of his church. He said:
"The traditional Christ of whom they (biblical Christians) 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 Fullness of Time. 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." (Church News, June 20, 1998, p. 7)
Plainly stated, the Mormon Prophet, who speaks revelation from their god, told his church that the Jesus Christ they worship is not the Jesus Christ of whom believers have been teaching and preaching since the First Century. The Jesus they believe in is one who was invented in 1820 by Joseph Smith. The late prophet Hinkley, admitted that the Jesus Christ of the Mormon Church was a new Jesus made-up by their founding prophet.
In order to understand who Jesus Christ is to the Mormons, we must first look at who is their god. To the Mormons, Jesus, is the first-born son of an exalted "man" who became the god of this world. The official Mormon teaching states, "The Father has a body of flesh and bones as tangible as man's" (Doctrine and Covenants 130:22). Although the Bible says God is Spirit, LDS theology presents him as being a material being.
The god of Mormonism is a "man-god" who was made the god of this world because of his good works and faithfulness on another planet somewhere out in the Universe. He has not eternally been god, but "earned" godhood, and was appointed by a counsel of gods in the heavens to his high position as the god of planet Earth. The Mormons teach this in their doctrine called, "eternal progression."
Eternal progression refers to the various stages a person goes through during his existence. It can be demonstrated by this chart
STEPS IN ETERNAL PROGRESSION
How the Earth Got its God According to Mormonism
He Began Eternal Progression As Pure
Intelligence Somewhere in the Universe
He Was Born as a Spirit Child in Heaven to Heavenly Parents
He Was Born as a Mortal Man, Born on Some Planet in the Universe and was faithful to his god by doing good works.
He Died and Was Resurrected to the Mormon Celestial
Heaven and was then Appointed to be the God of Earth by the Other Ruling Gods of the Universe.
He Exists and Rules the Earth as a Man-God of Flesh and Bones in Heaven and with His Many Wives is producing spirit children.
Spirit Children Who Come to the Earth are Born as Mortals when Humans have Children.
This God now Rules the Earth and can Progress Onward to Greater Existences as a God into Eternity
(Eternal progression, currently referred to as Eternal Salvation, is the process by which believe they can become Gods and Goddesses and have their world to rule if they work hard enough and are worthy of godhood when they die.)
The Mormons teach that their god who rules the earth was a man, like all men, who became a god. This is what the Celestial marriage and the temple vows are all about. The LDS Church has built temples all across the United States and the world. Their temples are used for two practices. One purpose is to baptize for the death in which people who have died who did not know of or who did not accept Mormonism during their lives are given a change to accept the Mormon gospel and be allowed to continue eternal progression. The second purpose of their Temples is to perform what they refer to as the "endowments" or "Temple marriage" in which a wife is "sealed for all time and eternity" to their Mormon husbands who have earned the Aaronic and Melchizedic priest hoods.
This "sealing" means the woman will be a wife in heaven to her earthly Mormon husband. LDS men, receive the priesthood, by doing their temple work, and living a faithful life, striving for what they term "exaltation" which mean they too one day be "exalted" to becoming a god of a world of their own. Their wives, who are sealed to them in the Temple, will be the mother goddesses of their new world and with their husband will produce the population of that world. This is the Mormon doctrine of eternal progression."
Note the following quote from the Mormon 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 where He is." (Journal of Discourses, Vol. 1, page 123)
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. . ."
The truth is that the God of the Bible is not an exalted man! The God of the Bible is Spirit, our omnipresent, omnipotent and omniscient Creator. The Bible emphatically states He is the only God and there are no other Gods. He had no beginning or end, being Alpha and Omega, 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 Savior; 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 four-footed 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 honor 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 honor and power everlasting. Amen."
Clearly, the god of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is not the God of Christianity who is God revealed to us in the Bible. The Mormon god is a god formed from the imagination of Joseph Smith and it in truth a false non-existent god or idol.
Second: The Jesus Christ of Mormonism is
Not the Jesus Christ 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, "And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God." (Luke 1:35)
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's atonement for sin being accomplished on the Cross.
Note the following quote from, "What Mormons Think of Christ." An official LDS Church 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." Further salvation is based on a commendation their works, conditional on faith, and repentance, and baptism and keeping the commands of God."
Yes, it is very true that Christians do speak much of the blood of Christ. Note the emphasis the Bible places on the blood of Christ:
"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." (Revelations 1:5)
The rejection of this biblical truth by the LDS church shows again it is not a Christian church, and they should not call themselves Christians. This further shows their Jesus Christ is not the Jesus of the Bible.
Note that in the following verses, the Bible says, salvation, which is forgiveness of sin and receiving of eternal life, is a 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."
The real Jesus Christ is the "only begotten of the Father." He is not one of many sons and certainly not the brother of Satan as the following Scriptures clearly stated:
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."
Jesus Christ of the Bible is God incarnate in Man.
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 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.
Only those who believe in the real biblical God and Jesus Christ have the right to use the name "Christian." The Mormon prophets historically have openly ridiculed those of us who believe in the God, Jesus and Holy Spirit as the Bible reveals.
A Question for Mormons.
One question that all Mormons should 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 said I was a Mormon, and rejected the LDS church's teachings, would I in fact be a Mormon? Certainly, the name Mormon stands for someone who believes and follows the LDS church"s beliefs based on their scriptures.
Moreover, suppose that I started a new religion that 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. If I called myself a Mormon, would you think me to be a Mormon? The obvious answer is, you would not. In like manner, when Mormonism denies who God truly is, the Bible and every Christian doctrine do you think that biblical Christians should accept Mormons as Christians? Again the answer is obvious, no we will not. The truth is you cannot legitimately claim to be Christian when you refuse to accept what God"s own word teaches.
We implore Mormons to honestly and openly examine their teachings about God and Jesus Christ and what the Bible defines as being a Christian. There is no benefit in calling yourself a "Christian" when biblically you are not. Doing so is in truth succumbing to the Devil"s deception.
Because we love the souls of men and want to see them, to spend eternity in Heaven with our Savior, we strongly object to anyone proclaiming, before the world, a deceitful Jesus Christ, a false salvation and church. We do not want to see anyone miss having their sins forgiven and receiving eternal life, because they were deceived. True Christians believe the Bible and desire that all men be saved, by accepting the real Jesus Christ as their Savior and following His teaches as the Bible reveals.
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 are misled into accepting a faith that will not save them and leaves them lost. Counterfeit doctrines are lies and Satan is the father of all lies, thus they are serving Satan. (See John 8:44)
The tragedy is 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 counterfeit Christ, who does not exist, will be eternally lost. 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 Christs, that they may find God's genuine Son the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved. We try to lead them to God's word, the Bible, and to accept God"s truth.
Let God speak for Himself by His Word.
"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" (Matt. 24:24)
"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 .3builders, 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 14:10-12).
The True Gospel as Stated in God's Word.
"Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures: (1 Corinthians 15:1-4)
The Gospel is the Good News that Jesus Christ died for our sins. As stated in 1 Corinthians 15:1-4 the Gospel is that Jesus Christ, God incarnated in man, submitted to the cross and there suffered and died, was buried, but rose again on the third day. In His resurrection, Christ conquered death and sin for all men who will believe and accept His sacrifice for them.
First, a person must admit they are sinners. We will be judged by God if we die and our sins are not forgiven.
Next you must believe God's word.
"But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach; That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation." (Romans 10:8-10)
In believing in Jesus Christ, who is the only atonement for our sins, He promises that we will be forgiven.
"And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses; 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;" (Colossians 2:13-14)
Salvation and forgiveness for sins cannot be merited, earned by good works or religious rituals.
"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. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them." (Ephesians 2:8-10)
God's offer: Jesus who is our Creator offers you and me forgiven of sin and heaven when we die, IF we in faith accept Him. If you have never accepted Jesus as your Savior why not now believer and ask Him to save you. If you do, He will certainly forgive all your sins. Next seek a good Bible believing church where you can attend and grow in Christ.
All rights reserved. July 1996, 2003, 2016. Dr. Cooper P. Abrams, III, cpabrams3@gmail.com , https://bible-truth.org, 435 452-1716