Mormons – They’re Wrong. Let’s Talk About Why.

A quick history lesson before we have a quick history lesson. In Acts 7:54-60, Stephen is stoned to death, becoming the first martyr of the church. Immediately following in Acts 8:1 we read,

“… And there arose on that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles.”

It is because of this scattering that some believers landed roughly three-hundred miles to the north in the city of Antioch. I bring this up because, while there were already a growing number of followers of Jesus, Acts 11:26 tells us that it was in Antioch that they were first called “Christians.” It’s believed that this was used as a derogatory term, mocking those who followed Christ, but the name was eventually taken up by the church and became a badge of honor. If we are going to call ourselves Christians, then it is crucial that we know what being a Christian means. Now on the surface this should be amazingly simple – a Christian is someone who believes (not simply states, but sincerely holds true, confessing with their mouth and believing with their heart), that Jesus is their Lord and Saviour. Specifically that the man, Jesus of Nazareth, who was a carpenter and itinerant rabbi in first century Judea and Galilee is the literal Son of God, that He came into the world born of a virgin, that He lived a perfect, sinless life, that He was crucified, died, and rose again on the third day. From that belief there are other things that come forth, the works that validate the truth of the belief, the fruits of the Spirit that speak to the authenticity of the Christian, but at its core, the gospel is very simple. Here’s the problem – we live in a fallen world. We live in a world that, in the beginning, chose sin, and rather than follow God in His righteousness, we ventured down the path of Satan. In John 8:44 Jesus says to the ruling Jews,

“You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.”

Consider how Satan operates – he’s a murderer, but his method of killing is speech, his lies are the means by which he murders. Consider the conversation between the serpent and Eve before the fall in Genesis 3:1–5,

“Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, ‘Did God actually say, “You shall not eat of any tree in the garden”?’ And the woman said to the serpent, ‘We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, “You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.”’ But the serpent said to the woman, ‘You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.’”

First Satan incorrectly states God’s command through a question, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” We can see exactly what God commanded in Genesis 2:16–17 where He says to Adam,

“… You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

So Satan misrepresents a commandment from God (not surprising), he suggests a very limited set of conditions, but does so in the form of a question, which prompts Eve to correct him. The interesting thing is that, she doesn’t really get it right either. Eve replies to the serpent in Genesis 3:2–3 saying,

“… We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’”

Genesis doesn’t record God directly relaying this command to Eve, and so it’s commonly believed that Adam, her husband and partner relayed it to her – and did so with some flaws. God said not to eat of the tree, and while touching it doesn’t seem like a wise decision, this was never part of the command. Eve seems to know the core of the instruction, but she doesn’t know it exactly, and she doesn’t seem to grasp the spirit of obedience behind it, she’s just regurgitating rules. And then, the serpent twists, deceives, and tempts Eve with his lies, saying in Genesis 3:4–5,

“… You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

Now, here’s the thing, neither Adam nor Eve died in the way we might imagine. The fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil wasn’t laced with cyanide, they didn’t take a bite and immediately drop dead, and in this the serpent could argue that he was right, despite the spiritual death that was brought upon mankind. Upon eating the fruit their eyes are opened, and in a small way they do become like God in gaining and understanding of good and evil. Satan lied, but he used pieces of the truth to construct his deception. We can see as he tries to do the same thing when tempting Jesus in Matthew 4:5–6,

“Then the devil took him to the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, ‘If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, “He will command his angels concerning you,” and “On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.”’”

Here Satan is quoting Psalm 91 and using the words out of context. Jesus, completely undeceived by Satan’s misdirection, replies with Scripture, combating against and correcting the enemy’s deception, quoting Deuteronomy 6:16,

“You shall not put the LORD your God to the test…”

Now, I’ve jumped around a bit, but the point that I’m trying to drive home is that words matter, speech matters, understanding the meaning behind what you (and others) say is the difference between life and death. We live in a world where sin is rampant, where Satan has dominion, and so you can say, “I’m a Christian,” and another person say, “I’m a Christian,” and you both mean two different things. People will claim that they “believe in Jesus” without having even the barest shred of a relationship with Him, and they’ll say it earnestly with a straight face. First you have to know what you believe, but then, it becomes extremely helpful to know what other people, those who practice religions that claim to also be Christian, or else follow a path that runs parallel to it believe. Their faces are friendly, but their theology is broken, and they’ll preach these false gospels to you under a banner of brotherhood if you let them. In the right scenarios they’ll join arm in arm with you in solidarity, despite the fact that you do not serve the same spirit. Bearing this in mind, today we’re looking at the Mormon faith, called amongst themselves, “The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints,” a name that, despite its familiar verbiage, is a lie in almost every way. They are not a true church, having no part in the bride of Christ, they follow a Jesus of their own invention, not our true Lord, and there is not a saint among them. We are technically in the end times, the latter days, as we have been since Christ’s ascension, awaiting His return, so I suppose they get a pass on that one point. As we move forward, we’ll look at what this group believes, how this lines up with what Scripture actually says, and why we ultimately hold no kinship with them. In this we’re afforded an opportunity to shore up our own faith, and ensure that we’re not deceived as Eve was, thrown off by familiar words used in a twisted context.

1. What Mormons Believe – Base Theology

If you had a casual conversation with a practicing Mormon, it may take some time for you to notice anything strange about their beliefs. You would talk about God, and they would talk about God, you would talk about Jesus, and they would talk about Jesus. You would both be using familiar words, you’d be showing similar reverence to the figures you’re discussing, but despite the commonality, you’d be talking about two different things. Not dissimilar from an American and a European having a conversation about sports and their love of football, before realizing at some point that the European is actually talking about soccer. The first and most fundamental thing to understand about Mormon teaching is that there are multiple gods. They don’t worship multiple gods like the Greeks or Romans did in antiquity, or modern pagans do today, but they believe in the existence of multiple gods, and they believe that this is where our God, the God of the Bible originated from. Mormon teaching is that He was born to other gods on another planet and that He developed from there. A core doctrine of Mormon teaching is summed up in a quote from Lorenzo Snow, an early member of the movement and the fifth president of the Mormon congregation, “As man now is, God once was.” They believe that through obedience and work He was given a physical body, and brought forth spirit children of His own, which is where the population of the world comes from. They believe that of the spirit children, Jesus was the firstborn and the only one to have a mortal mother and immortal Father. Another fundamental difference to understand is that Mormons do not hold the Bible to be inerrant as we do. We hold Scripture to be the literal Word of God, divinely inspired and without blemish. There are certainly parts of the Bible that people don’t like, but what has been revealed to a greater and greater extent as time has gone on is that the Bible isn’t wrong it’s just incredibly uncomfortable and inconvenient for a sinful world. The Mormons still place a great weight and significance on the Bible, alongside which they place the book of Mormon, and two other works, “Doctrine and Covenants,” and “The Pearl of Great Price,” in equal standing. On the title page of each copy of the book of Mormon it says,

“And now, if there are faults they are the mistakes of men; wherefore, condemn not the things of God…”

We will circle back to this later, but for now just note that while the Bible is given great consideration and counted as divinely inspired, that these other works are placed on the same level, and that they include a small amount of wiggle room for the “fallible human instruments” that physically recorded the text to make some errors. Despite this, Joseph Smith is quoted as saying that the book of Mormon was “the most correct of any book on earth,” as well as calling it “the keystone of our religion,” two more quotes we’ll return to later. For the moment, let’s pause and address what we’ve already discussed and why it’s grievously incorrect.

• What Mormons Believe – Biblical Corrections of Base Theology

Again, in a casual conversation a practicing Mormon probably isn’t going to lead with the things we’ve talked about so far. Far more commonly they emphasize the points of what they see as commonality – in some ways we can rightly view this as deceptive. They know there are key differences in what we believe and what they believe, but they mitigate the differences before trying to drive home the points where they feel we’re wrong. However, to give just a little grace, in some ways this is just a natural response. Most people don’t enjoy conflict, and things are far simpler when everyone can just smile and nod at each other – and this isn’t a call to start roaming your local neighborhoods and pushing Mormons off their bikes or anything, but we need to understand that what they believe, whether boldly declared or left unspoken is blasphemous and wrong. Starting from the beginning, Genesis 1:1–2 states,

“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.”

Creation has a beginning, time and space as we know them have their beginnings, the sun, and moon, and stars all have a beginning – God does not. Think of the genealogies given in Scripture, yes we have the human lineages given for Jesus in Matthew and Luke, but take 1 Chronicles 1-9 for example. It’s name after name after name, and while it’s tedious to read, it’s all to a purpose, the names tell you where each person came from. But when God calls Moses, He introduces Himself in Exodus 3:6 saying,

“… I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob…”

God is not known by those who have come before Him, but by those He has made and called to Him. There is no lineage – He was in the beginning because He is the beginning. Later in this same conversation, when Moses asks the Name of the God who is sending him to His people, the Lord famously replies in Exodus 3:14

“‘… I AM WHO I AM.’ And he said, ‘Say this to the people of Israel: “I AM has sent me to you.”’”

Not “I am currently,” not “I am going to be,” but rather a pre-existent, eternal God of all creation, who was and is and is to come. If you read Job 38-42, you see this amazing section of Scripture where God speaks directly to Job, and we get this fascinating, beautiful glimpse of God’s might and majesty. In the midst of this we read a few of the many rhetorical questions from God in Job 38:31–33,

“Can you bind the chains of the Pleiades or loose the cords of Orion? Can you lead forth the Mazzaroth in their season, or can you guide the Bear with its children? Do you know the ordinances of the heavens? Can you establish their rule on the earth?”

The Pleiades and Orion are constellations (fun fact that’s totally irrelevant, but the Pleiades is the constellation shown on the Subaru emblem… And now you know that), the Mazzaroth indicates the entire zodiac with all its constellations (of which the bear is one), moving and shifting through the seasons, which God tells us He placed in Genesis 1:14, as markers for the passing time. God’s creation is not limited to our planet, or our solar system, He made everything. When Peter writes of the final judgment he says in 2 Peter 3:10,

“But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.”

When this world comes to an end, when the final judgment is leveled and those who have rebelled against God are cast into the outer darkness, and the children of God are ushered into the new heaven and earth, it’s not just our current planet that comes to an end, it’s our current reality. To imagine that God’s influence and control only extends so far, and that outside His boundaries there are other gods, gods who made Him and made others, who continue to create and destroy is absolutely insane. It undermines what is revealed of the Lord through Scripture, and it takes the Christian faith, which is so unusual in its monotheism, and without directly saying it, brings it down to the level of every other pagan religion. They make God out to be a figure like Zeus, Marduk, or Odin, they take the King of kings, the Lord of lords, the Alpha and Omega, and Ancient of Days and they humanize Him in a disgusting perversion of His true, righteous glory, and then paint things like He’s the same God we worship. Concerning Christ, we need look no farther than the beginning of John’s gospel where John 1:1–3 tells us,

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.”

God was not created, and Jesus was not made by God, the two are One, along with the Holy Spirit, together making the singular figure that is the eternal trinity. Jesus communicates this clearly, saying without compromise in John 10:30,

“I and the Father are one.”

Understand that a created Jesus is not Jesus. Despite whatever loopholes Mormon theology might try to work through and whatever heretical teachings they may attempt to force onto the text, Jesus cannot be entirely of the same essence as the Father, the only begotten Son if we’re all spirit children born of God. Jesus is eternal, transcending time and space in His eternality, mankind was created, made in the image of God, and the those who are called children of God are specified in John 1:12–13,

“But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.”

“God” as described by Mormon teaching is not the God of Abraham, Issac, and Jacob, and “Jesus” as described by Mormon teaching is not Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son. The fact that we use the same words is nothing more than blasphemous misdirection.

In regard to the inerrancy of Scripture, the pure accuracy of the Bible, we find ourselves again at odds with Mormon reasoning. Returning to the temptation of Jesus, Satan says in Matthew 4:3,

“… If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.”

This seems a small thing, but it was an invitation to perform a miracle for the service of Himself, and Jesus, who had been fasting for forty days and nights, dealt with it masterfully replying in Matthew 4:4,

“… It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”

By every word that comes from the mouth of God. There is no piece of Scripture that we can count as error, nothing we can cast away or downplay as lesser, difficult, or impossible to understand. The Mormon rebuttal to this is that nothing that comes “from the mouth of God” is in error, it’s the flawed humans who transcribed His words who are able to make some mistakes. The problem is that this isn’t what the Bible says about itself. Paul says to Timothy in 2 Timothy 3:14–17,

“But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.”

Paul calls the Scriptures “sacred writings,” and then clarifies that it is all breathed out by God. Hebrews begins by saying in 1:1–2,

“Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.”

This points to the supremacy of Christ, the culmination found in Him that was pointed to through the prophets, but it doesn’t somehow devalue what God communicated before Christ. The Word of God was and is the Word of God, whether communicated directly, His voice booming from the heavens or roaring from the whirlwind, by His angels, His prophets, or relayed in person through the Son. Hebrews doesn’t say, “God spoke to the prophets, and what He said was spot on, and they did a really good job of writing it down, but if there are any parts that don’t seem to add up we can blame Ezekiel’s penmanship – he wasn’t writing under the best of circumstances.” We stand firmly on the inerrancy of the Bible, we embrace the holy Word of God unflinchingly and without compromise, knowing that it is living, breathing, reality defying, sharper than any two edged sword, communicating the Truth and a gospel that leads to eternal life. The problem is that Mormons can’t afford to give Scripture the lofty position it deserves, because they place the book of Mormon, along with Doctrine and Covenants, and Pearl of Great Price on the same footing as the Bible – in practice they actually place these texts above the Bible, because they understand the Old and New Testaments through the lens provided by these extra biblical, heretical works. The book of Mormon is, as Joseph Smith put it, their keystone – again, he called it, “the most correct book on earth.” You can’t take a human written, blasphemous work, put it with all its flaws on the same level as true Scripture, and imagine that the two will stand equal. The only solution is to degrade your opinion of God’s Word so that these others look more worthy in their comparison. Up to this point we’ve covered a very basic overview of their backwards doctrine, as well as why Scripture completely refutes this false framework, but lets venture a little further into the book of Mormon, look at some of its historical teachings, and again how Scripture disproves these.

2. The Book of Mormon – Joseph Smith Writes Fanfic

Joseph Smith, the founder of Mormonism was born in Sharon, Vermont in 1805. He was (as his place of birth clearly indicates), an American, and that’s highly relevant to what he wrote in the book of Mormon and its accompanying works. Bear in mind, this man was born barely a generation after the Revolutionary War was fought, and the War of 1812 (round two with Great Britian), kicked off in his early childhood. Before his death in 1844, Smith had earned the rank of Lieutenant General of the Nauvoo Legion militia in Illinois. He may have been a sick, twisted, blasphemy spewing, false prophet, but it’s also fairly easy to track a streak of patriotism in Joseph Smith. Bearing this in mind, it makes sense that everything Smith writes seems to lead back to America. This begins in Genesis when, after God confuses the words of men and creates different languages at the tower of Babel, some of them disperse all the way over to America. Now, that may seem a bit strange, but Genesis 11:8 does say,

“So the LORD dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city.”

So, if you want to imagine someone somehow making their way across an ocean to another continent, I suppose you could. I confess, I don’t know all the exact ins and outs of this portion of the story – the book of Mormon is long, and boring, and poorly written, and essentially everyone who made up this group dies anyway, so it’s really more of a strange introduction than anything else. Where America gets interesting is, in lining up with the Old Testament, just before the Babylonian exile. King Zedekiah, the final king of the southern kingdom of Judah rebelled against Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon. Because of this, Jerusalem is laid under siege, and ultimately destroyed with its people killed or taken captive – punishment for their multitude of sins against God – all of this is accurate, recorded across 2 Kings 24-25, 2 Chronicles 36, and the book of Jeremiah. But, according to the book of Mormon, before all of this happened there was a man named Lehi who, along with his wife Sariah was prophetically commanded by God to abandon Jerusalem. Now again, God removing certain people from certain places isn’t a foreign concept in Scripture. Abraham was called from his father’s home to a foreign land at an old age to his own great reward, and the glory of the Lord. Joseph, sold into slavery was used by God to usher His people into Egypt, and Moses served the Lord through the exodus, in guiding the Jews toward the promised land. So, back to Lehi, he fled, along with his wife and sons, but not to some distant part of Europe or Africa, he didn’t venture eastward into Asia – you already know where this is going – he went to America… I’m just going to pause and let that sink in. According to the book of Mormon, Lehi of the tribe of Manasseh fled Jerusalem somewhere around 600 BC, abandoned the entire region of the promised land, built a boat under divine commission, was guided by a divine compass and went to America. And here’s the thing it’s not even clear which America, with theories ranging from Lehi and his family landing on the coast of Chile, far down on the west coast of South America, to somewhere around Florida. Even with the most generous possible measurements that’s a 3,100 mile discrepancy. After arriving in the new world there’s some family drama between Lehi’s sons and they split into two tribes (You know, just like how Israel was split into two kingdoms – because Joseph Smith was basically playing a game of, “Sure you can copy my homework, just make sure you change a couple parts so it’s doesn’t look the same,” just, you know, with the Bible…), one of them is essentially good and the other, not so much, and according to the teachings of the book of Mormon these tribes are where we get – Native Americans… Yes, you’ve read that right, according to the Mormons when Christopher Columbus landed on the shores of the new world he was coming face to face with ancestral Jews. For an extended period of time Mormons maintained this to be the case, however with the advent of modern genetic testing and the find that (surprise), Native Americans don’t share DNA ancestry with a pretty select group of people from the middle east, they relaxed their standards, claiming that the descendants of Lehi are “among the ancestors” and not the “principle ancestors” of the Native Americans. If it hasn’t quite clicked for you, understand that the basis for the Mormon belief system is a story that ultimately amounts to religious fanfiction. The idea of sitting down and writing your own side story to a franchise like Star Wars of Lord of the Rings is one thing – it may be a little nerdy, but there’s nothing inherently sinful about it. However, taking Scripture, something that is sacred, divinely inspired, and truer than the human mind can fully grasp, and layering our own fantasies over it drastically crosses an ethical line. Doing this and then treating your own creations as true is open and blatant heresy. Revelation 22:18–19, one of the final lines of the Bible states,

“I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book, and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book.”

Now, to be fair, John is referring to Revelation here, but it builds upon what God said to His people in Deuteronomy 4:2,

“You shall not add to the word that I command you, nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments of the LORD your God that I command you.”

To think that just because John is speaking of Revelation, it’s somehow permissible to add or remove from the rest of Scripture would be pure foolishness. God’s Word is given as it is for a reason – we do not add or remove from Scripture, period. Now, if the book of Mormon just addressed Lehi (who I can now only think of as a Wish.com version of Abraham), and his trip to the new world that would be one thing. It would still be wrong, it would still be a forgery of prophetic revelation, but it would be isolated to the Old Testament – but it doesn’t stop there, because Mormon teaching applies even more blasphemously to the New Testament. Pulling directly from the LDS official website they say,

“When Jesus was on the earth, He called twelve Apostles and gave them authority to preach, baptize, and lead His people. After Jesus left the earth, the Apostles continued to receive His guidance through the Holy Spirit. They worked to establish churches in the ancient cities of Rome, Greece, and beyond. But they constantly struggled to maintain order among the new Christian converts.”

Now, this is largely true (apart from them listing Greece as a city…), though it’s strange that they cite supporting Scripture here, and it’s Ephesians 2:19–20,

“Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God; and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone.”

That’s a weird passage to pull in support of disorder among converts – it actually sounds like it’s pointing to the opposite, but I’m also past expecting these folks to make sense. They go on to say,

“As the Church grew, the Apostles faced dissent among believers and harsh opposition from nonbelievers. Many Apostles were martyred, and people disagreed about the meaning of Jesus’s teachings. People began forming various churches without God’s authority to do so. These churches strayed from Jesus Christ’s original Church. As a result, Christianity experienced a widespread apostasy, or departure from core religious beliefs. God’s priesthood, or the authority to act in His name, was lost; pure principles were corrupted; and the truths of the gospel were scattered.”

Now again, parts of this are true – there were great heresies in the early days of the church and we’re going to look at how Scripture contended with them in just a little bit, and how the bride of Christ persevered. But the Mormon teaching is that the true church established by Jesus was so plagued by apostasy, so corrupt and spiritually defiled that it ceased to exist by the end of the first century. Think about this – according to Mormon doctrine, from roughly 100 AD until 1829, when an American guy was given prophetic revelation and guided to some golden plates that were buried hundreds of years prior by some Jewish Native Americans, which recorded the true history and teachings of the church, there simply was no church… The true church died, and it was non-existent until Joseph Smith, the great “prophet” brought it back to life. It sounds like a fever dream, but this is legitimately what Mormons believe. I’m not putting it as delicately as they might, I’m not giving their text nuance or reverence for that matter, but I think the evidence for my handling of this heretical teaching speaks for itself. There is also the matter that they believe that after Jesus ascended into heaven, He made a quick return trip and visited (anyone want to take a guess?), America. He came and preached the gospel to the Jewish descended Indians in America… Here’s the thing, it sounds insane, you know it’s wrong, I know it’s wrong, now, let’s look at exactly why this is wrong.

• The Book of Mormon – Biblical Corrections

We’ll skip over Lehi for the most part, and the Jewish Native Americans, except to say that there’s not a shred of historical data to support that this ever happened, and whatever historical data we do have suggests that it didn’t. Lehi’s voyage to the new world and the origin of America’s native tribes is purely based on the credibility of “trust me bro,” and you’ve seen how well it holds up to sincere scrutiny. Concerning Smith’s extra biblical writings concerning the New Testament, lets address their claims concerning the collapse of the church. Matthew 16:13–17 tells us,

“Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, ‘Who do people say that the Son of Man is?’ And they said, ‘Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.’ He said to them, ‘But who do you say that I am?’ Simon Peter replied, ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.’ And Jesus answered him, ‘Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.’”

This is a well known passage, and it’s always beautiful to read of Peter’s divinely revealed proclamation that Jesus is the Son of God, but I want to really draw your attention to what Jesus says immediately afterward in Matthew 16:18–19,

“And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”

So Jesus takes Peter’s confession, the declaration that He’s the Christ, the Son of Man, the Son of God, the Cornerstone, the Rock upon which our entire faith is built and He says that the church will be built upon Him, and the gates of hell won’t be able to gain victory against His mighty hand. He tells Peter that he will have an active, divinely appointed, powerful role in the establishment of the church, this authority under the driving force of the Holy Spirit to bind and loose – and then the Mormons come along like, “Yeah, that’s cool, and also, the church is going to completely collapse into false doctrine by the end of the first century… And the fanfic trip we gave Jesus where He goes to America and establishes a church there? That one fails too, losing all doctrinal credibility by around 400 AD.”

The church has had its issues – there’s a reason that the Protestant, Catholic, and Orthodox churches exist as three separate entities, there’s a reason that the protestants have so many denominations – we’re not on the same page with a lot of things. Some disagreements are for very good reasons, others are probably kind of trivial, but the core message of the gospel, the defining tenet of the church, has not been lost. Paul writes in Ephesians 5:25–27,

“Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.”

The idea that Christ established the church, His bride whom He bled and died and rose again for, only to let His bride die and remain dead for centuries to then revive the church later through Joseph Smith is pure blasphemy and spits in the face of the sacrifice of Christ and the redemption He has given His bride. The various factions of the church may disagree over a lot but when it comes to who God is, who Christ is, and what it means to be redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, we are of one accord. The Mormons can’t say this – as we’ve discussed, they mean something different when they say “God,” they mean something different when they say “Jesus,” and as with their need to degrade the inerrancy of Scripture in order to lift up their false teachings, they have to tear down the spiritually incorruptible church of Christ in order to validate their blasphemous imitation of the church. Because if the church remained intact throughout the centuries, then Joseph Smith with his claimed prophetic revelation and golden plates (which by the way, he didn’t have around to show anyone because after he finished transcribing the book of Mormon he gave them to an angel for safekeeping…), is at best just a crazy guy, and at worst a satanic liar. The entire basis of their religion is dependent upon the church being wrong, and so they tear at that which has stood by the grace of God to dutifully share the gospel since Christ’s ascension. In regard to their claim that, “people began forming various churches without God’s authority to do so. These churches strayed from Jesus Christ’s original Church.” Here’s the thing – we know that. We know there were false teachers who rose up, we know there were false doctrines that were adopted that confused believers – we know about it because the Bible tells us. Jesus taught fairly early in His ministry during the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 7:15–20,

“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus you will recognize them by their fruits.”

Paul wrote in Galatians 1:6–9,

“I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel—not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.”

All of 2 Peter 2 addresses the matter of false prophets and teachers, and I highly suggest reading the entire chapter, but to give you the framework 2 Peter 2:1–3 says,

“But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed. And in their greed they will exploit you with false words. Their condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.”

John’s gospel strives to communicate the deity of Christ, something that is worthy to be proclaimed at every available opportunity, but it also stood to combat the false teachings of the Gnostics that were seeking to infiltrate the church. We see his opposition to their blasphemy more openly in the letters of 1, 2, and 3 John. 1 John 2:18–21 says,

“Children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come. Therefore we know that it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us. But you have been anointed by the Holy One, and you all have knowledge. I write to you, not because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and because no lie is of the truth.”

And we read in 1 John 4:1–4,

“Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already. Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.”

Jesus, Paul, Peter, John – do any of them sound like they were unprepared for false teachers to arise, for distorted messages to attempt to take root within the church? Does the divinely established bride of Christ, who is founded in Truth and sustained by the One who has overcome the world sound like something that could be killed by apostasy and left dead for nearly two millennia? Of course not! How could we possibly think so little of divine provision? How could we look upon nearly two thousand years of God’s glorious work and deny the truth of what He has done? And yet, this is what Mormon theology demands – the church must have been erased, it had to have died in order for them to be necessary and relevant in reviving it, and in this as with so many other things we’ve looked at so far, they. Are. Wrong. In regard to Jesus’ supposed return trip to America, Mormons will pull from John 10:16 to support this, where Jesus says,

“And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd.”

Now logically, we read this and understand that Jesus is speaking of the Helenists, the Greeks, the Gentiles – call them what you will, the non-Jewish believers. This is affirmed by what Paul writes in Romans 1:16,

“For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.”

Or, to touch back on a passage we read from earlier, John 1:11–12 says,

“He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God…”

The idea that Jesus was speaking of the Indians in John 10 with the “sheep who are not of this flock,” is ludicrous. From John 13-17 Jesus is in the upper room with the disciples, the night before His crucifixion, and during this time He communicates repeatedly that He is going to the Father, and promising that the helper of the Holy Spirit will be sent in His physical absence – nowhere does He suggest or insinuate that he’s actually ascending into heaven to soon return among the Native Americans. There’s also the fact that Jesus speaks of His return before His crucifixion, saying in Matthew 24:27–28,

“For as the lightning comes from the east and shines as far as the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. Wherever the corpse is, there the vultures will gather.”

No one knows the day or the hour, and the Son of Man will come like a thief in the night, but when He does come, it will be undeniable. We see a vivid picture of the second coming of Christ in Revelation 19:11–16,

“Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse! The one sitting on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war. His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems, and he has a name written that no one knows but himself. He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which he is called is The Word of God. And the armies of heaven, arrayed in fine linen, white and pure, were following him on white horses. From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty. On his robe and on his thigh he has a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords.”

A prophet functions as a mouthpiece, faithfully communicating a divine message to the glory of God. A false prophet functions as a living lie, an agent bent on self-service and deception, heaping up judgment for themselves as they blaspheme the name of God. Joseph Smith was a false prophet. He showed no fear of the One, True, Living God, he showed no love for the Son of Man, Jesus Christ. For Joseph Smith the Father, Son, and Spirit were literary plot devices, figures he could twist, embellish, and move around like characters on a set. God needs to provide prophetic revelation and golden tablets? Done. Jesus needs to make a return trip to tie up the loose end of the Jewish Indians? Sure, why not. Nothing is sacred to the false prophet, as this is seen clearly in the disgusting, heretical claims that the book of Mormon makes about our Lord.

3. Mormon Beliefs Concerning the Afterlife

Earlier we looked at a quote from Lorenzo Snow that is still repeated as a core tenant of Mormon theology, “As man now is, God once was.” This is actually only the first part of this quote, the full thing being, “As man now is, God once was; as God now is, man may be.” This sums up the ultimate aim of the highest tier of the Mormon afterlife – though we’ll start at the bottom and work our way up in explaining the layers. First there’s hell, which technically contains two layers. There is the outer darkness, eternal hell, which is where Satan and his angels are consigned, along with those known as the “sons of perdition.” There is then the spirit prison, which I can only refer to as “temporary hell.” Anyone who rejected the gospel of Jesus (specifically, the Mormon interpretation of the gospel), would go to the spirit prison after death, as well as anyone who simply never heard their gospel. Ultimately anyone from a friendly, non-Mormon granny, to a violent axe murderer would go to the spirit prison, but it’s not an eternal destination, it’s exactly what it says it is, a prison, a place where a sentence is served. From here there is an opportunity for repentance and acceptance of the Mormon gospel. The sons of perdition that I mentioned before are sentenced to hell for eternity because after the full exposure to God’s glory they still reject Him. The belief is that through the atonement of Jesus, virtually all humans will enter heaven, though they stop short of being full universalists, leaving the caveat for the sons of perdition, who are often thought to be Mormons who willfully left the church during their lives. Once reformed and freed from spirit prison, the individual would enter heaven, of which there are three levels. The lowest is the telestial kingdom, which is where those freed from spirit prison would reside – a place for those who led wicked lives but ultimately received Christ. There is a symbolic comparison between the telestial kingdom and the brightness of the stars. The second level is called the terrestrial kingdom, and for that I’ll give you another quote from the LDS website,

“Those who inherit terrestrial glory will ‘receive of the presence of the Son, but not of the fulness of the Father. Wherefore, they are bodies terrestrial, and not bodies celestial, and differ in glory as the moon differs from the sun.’ Generally speaking, individuals in the terrestrial kingdom will be honorable people ‘who were blinded by the craftiness of men.’ This group will include members of the Church who were “not valiant in the testimony of Jesus.”

This tier carries, as the quote said, a symbolic comparison to the brightness of the moon. Finally we have the highest sphere of heaven, the celestial kingdom, which if you’re tracking along you can probably guess is symbolically compared to the brightness of the sun. Concerning this the official LDS site says,

“The celestial kingdom is the highest of the three kingdoms of glory. Those in this kingdom will dwell forever in the presence of God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ. This should be your goal: to inherit celestial glory and to help others receive that great blessing as well. Such a goal is not achieved in one attempt; it is the result of a lifetime of righteousness and constancy of purpose.”

They also place great emphasis on receiving the ordinances (of which baptism, and specifically a temple marriage or “sealing” are included), keeping the commandments, and repentance. There is a great emphasis on the salvific work of Jesus, and the joy of eternity with God, but here’s the part they whisper instead of shouting, the summary footnote at the bottom of the flowery, public explanation, which is contained in the quote from Lorenzo Snow, “As man now is, God once was; as God now is, man may be.” The highest possible place in the Mormon heaven is not just being with God, but rather being made a god yourself. This isn’t just figurative language, intact in Mormon theology is the teaching that you and your family can hold an eternal rule, essentially forming your own pantheon, bringing forth your own spirit children, creating your own planets, and acting as a god of your very own. Despite the familiar language, despite comparisons and claims of shared “Christian” solidarity, the highest degree of the Mormon eternity is the literal deification of man… Again, we know it’s wrong, let’s look at why.  

• Mormon Beliefs Concerning the Afterlife – Biblical Correction

Concerning the idea that sons of perdition, those damned for eternity are only those who have pointedly rejected Christ even when presented with an opportunity for repentance in the spirit prison of the afterlife – Paul writes in Philippians 2:9–11,

“Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

No one gets to enter hell with their pride intact, no one is cast from the presence of God into the outer darkness without fully knowing and confessing the Truth of Jesus Christ. The idea that there are those who possess the ability to hold their tongues, to stand in their human strength and deny the reality of the position of their Creator and Judge is pure fantasy. In regard to the idea that there is a temporary hell for those who have rejected the true gospel of Jesus Christ – John writes in Revelation 14:9–11,

“And another angel, a third, followed them, saying with a loud voice, ‘If anyone worships the beast and its image and receives a mark on his forehead or on his hand, he also will drink the wine of God’s wrath, poured full strength into the cup of his anger, and he will be tormented with fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever, and they have no rest, day or night, these worshipers of the beast and its image, and whoever receives the mark of its name.’”

And we later read in Revelation 20:12–15,

“And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done. And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done. Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.”

Let’s make this abundantly clear – there’s not a side door to hell, there’s not a discreet exit where, if you behave, you might be let out on good behavior. It is a place of eternal torment, a place of fire and darkness, where the worm does not die and the flame is not quenched. It is the farthest place from the Light of God, and it’s what we all deserve. Every one of us in our sin has earned our place in the outer darkness, and it is in Christ and Christ alone that we may be redeemed and made new, that we may die to our flesh while we yet live, and be delivered from the second death which endures forever. There is no escape, no release – to imagine something different is not a highlighting of God’s grace, but a diminishing of His righteous wrath, His justice, and our sin. Concerning the supposed three layered kingdoms of heaven – Jesus says in John 14:1-3,

“Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.”

And He says to those at the church of Philadelphia in Revelation 3:12,

“The one who conquers, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God. Never shall he go out of it, and I will write on him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down from my God out of heaven, and my own new name.”

John records the Lord speaking in Revelation 21:3 declaring,

“And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.’”

And we see his record of the new Jerusalem in Revelation 21:22-23,

“And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb.”

And Revelation 22:3-5,

“No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.”

Please, please understand, because the idea of heaven has become so distorted and fanciful in the eyes of the world – it’s not heaven if you’re not with God. No questions, no maybes, to be in heaven is to be in His presence – these imagined lesser tiers of the Mormon heaven? “Well, I can’t be too close to the throne, but it’s kind of like I’m basking in the star light,” yeah, that’s hell, you’re describing hell, you’re just using gentle language to do it. God is far too glorious, His promises far too good for us to entertain these blasphemies. The guarantee of eternity that He has assured to His children is far too rich a promise to allow a single word to diminish it. I’ve interacted with several practicing Mormons over the course of my life, and they can be very kind and friendly people, but understand that spiritually, they’re not our allies, but rather our enemies. Their theology is broken, their teachings blaspheme the name of God, they claim to offer a path that leads to a true relationship with Christ while claiming His true bride as illegitimate, and following a false prophet themselves. These are people that we need to pray for, and minister to whenever possible as we would do any person who is estranged from Christ. But what we can’t afford is any degree of ecumenism – we do not worship the same God, we do not claim salvation in the same Christ. Any claims to the contrary are, at best, coming from a place of ignorance and at worst are deceptive and coercive lies. This is not an instance for us to behave violently, abusively, or in any unrighteous manner that would be in discord with the spirit and message of the gospel we proclaim – but we must know our gospel, we must stand firm in the Truth of Jesus Christ. Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 10:3–6,

“For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ, being ready to punish every disobedience, when your obedience is complete.”

This passage is used frequently in regard to internal spiritual discipline, and it has great application on a personal level – but it also has great external relevance. The one true gospel is not a fairy story to be poked full of holes, or rewritten on someone’s whim. The Truth destroys lofty arguments, it casts down that which is raised against God. It is in this Truth that we stand against any and every heresy brought against our precious Lord, bold and assured, not in our own strength, or might, or cunning, but in the mighty hand of our Father in heaven, who calls us to an eternity in the glory of His presence.