7 Things All Christians Should Know about the Mormon Church

Mormons see their church as “a restorationist movement within Christianity (they believe the Great Apostasy occurred between the time of the New Testament church and its restoration under Joseph Smith)” says Joe Carter. However, there are many differences between the Christian church and Mormonism.

For example, Mormons believe in levels of Hell and of Glory. There is no eternal torment for unbelievers, but a temporary hell; and unbelievers who were good people can still gain a glorious eternity, just not as glorious as very good Mormons.

While Christians and Mormons agree about some things, Mormons have made significant additions and alterations to the Bible. They question core beliefs about the nature of God, about divine revelation, grace, and about the sufficiency of Scripture.

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Joseph Smith claims that God showed him how to interpret golden tablets, written in a language no scholar had ever seen before. This made him a special messenger with a new revelation from God. But the Bible tells us that the Apostles were the last special messengers of God’s Word; the last ones to whom God spoke directly. The first Disciples walked with Jesus, who also met Paul on the road to Damascus.

Today, if someone says that he has heard from God, what can one say? Such a claim is beyond reasonable discussion because it is a matter of personal experience. As Joni Eareckson Tada has said, “to claim divine sanction over your strong opinion by saying, ‘The Lord told me’ is a godless form of persuasion. After all, how does one discuss the matter with such a person? They’ve made their opinion equal to divine revelation. And that’s where it gets dangerous and un-biblical.”

One Bible scholar at Ligonier asserts that “there are no Apostles today because there are no living eyewitnesses of the resurrection to confirm other Apostles [...]. Thus, special revelation ended with the death of the last Apostle in the first century.” Joseph Smith’s so-called translation was either a delusion or a lie. One should be able to expose any claims of religious leaders to scrutiny. In the case of Smith, since no one else can read the tablets, and his claims are based on personal experience, it is difficult to truly examine them.

On the other hand, theologians have determined the authenticity of Bible writings and their truthfulness by utilizing textual criticism, psychology, medicine, history, and archaeology: not merely personal testimony. The Bible’s many inspired writers revealed God’s glory, not their own. Their lives and their message pointed to the One who sent them.

Even if Smith truly believed that God had given him a prophetic gift, translating those tablets using a seeing stone should have been a red flag for anyone who had read Leviticus. In a 1984 article from the Los Angeles Times, reporter John Dart explored the implications of a letter which added more weight to concerns among Mormon teachers that Smith’s revelation was rooted in the occult.

Smith spoke of a “salamander” that turned into “an old spirit who fended off Smith, striking him three times,” an obvious problem when considering the Lord’s commands. Smith also claimed that an angel named Moroni showed him where to find the tablets.

But if there was such an angel, Smith should have remembered God’s warning: “do not turn to mediums or necromancers; do not seek them out, and so make yourselves unclean by them: I am the Lord your God” (Leviticus 19:31). While angels are Biblical, John Piper teaches that “angels exist in their grandeur and in their obedience and in their vast numbers to call attention to the greatness of the God they serve.” Piper lists a number of angelic encounters, both good and bad (Satan is a fallen angel with his own followers).

Joseph Smith might very well have been visited by a supernatural being. If so, the being was leading him to occult practices and not glorifying God: perpetrating evil by misleading the man to believe that sola Scriptura is a foolish idea.

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Smith introduced new teachings in The Book of Mormon, The Pearl of Great Price, and The Doctrine of the Covenants. Mormons use the KJV with additions of their own to ensure that readers interpret the Bible according to Mormon ideas, and steer away from the Gospel.

Christians believe in Scripture alone (sola Scriptura), using the works of eminent theologians only to help them understand and even explain God. These writers have only helped others understand Scripture better. The very assertion that there is “Another Testament of Jesus Christ” (the subtitle for The Book of Mormon) is blasphemy.

According to Carter, however, the Mormons teach that “as the Bible has been transmitted over the centuries it has ‘suffered the loss of many plain and precious parts.’” Mormons allege that some of the Bible is incorrectly translated, and the only reliable yardstick is The Book of Mormon. Mormons have measured the teachings of God against their own understanding, yet the Word says “Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” (Proverbs 9:10).

Dr. Norman Geisler explains why scholars of the Christian Bible can assert the authenticity of Scripture, based on accuracy, the interval between events and writing, and the number of copies available. “No other ancient book has as many, as early, or more accurately copied manuscripts.” It is these manuscripts from which editors work to build new translations of the Bible. They do not refer to other editions or translations of the Bible in order to perpetrate a game of spiritual telephone. The ESV, CSB and others were translated directly from the earliest manuscripts, written in Greek and Hebrew.

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Says Carter, “the LDS church subscribes to the doctrine of continual revelation.” In other words, Mormon teachings change as high-ranking members of the church receive new insights. Mormons believe that divine revelation can actually be superseded over time. If someone receives a revelation which disproves the last version, they will simply update what they believe. This would make truth relative and questionable.

But God’s Word is complete and unchanging. Revelation 22 warns of what will happen to anyone who adds to or takes away from it. Proverbs 30:5 declares that “every word of God proves true.” One writer at Ligonier explains Paul’s statement that we have all we need to live well in Christ (2 Timothy 3:16-17). “The fact that Scripture is able to completely equip a believer for every good work, is what theologians call ‘the sufficiency of Scripture’. Paul is saying that the Bible is sufficient, in itself, to tell us everything we must believe in order to be saved and what we must do in order to please God.”

Jesus used Scripture as the bedrock of his teachings and of his own faith. He used the Word to argue with the Pharisees, and to rebuke Satan. He did not change but fulfilled the Scriptures to reveal who God is. “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them” (Matthew 5:17).

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Mormons believe God, Son, and Spirit are three separate beings and that God was mortal, created by a power above him and beyond all things. God was like us, but he was raised to divine status. God the Father was once a mortal who lived on earth but was deified by a higher god than himself. “God the Father is the literal father of all spirit-children, including Jesus and the Holy Ghost, [...]. Within Mormonism, Jesus is identified with the Yahweh of the Old Testament.”

Humans, Jesus, and God were supposedly together in Heaven. Then, “at a family council, God the Father told the spirit-children that according to his ‘plan of salvation’ they would have to leave their heavenly home, take on human bodies, and be tested before they could progress to godhood.” Joe Carter describes a belief, not in the aseity of God, but of an entire realm of divine beings overseen by a remote godhead.

Scripture, however, teaches that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit created the universe and everything in it. The Three were always One, and there was nothing before them or above them. God does not need us, he answers only to himself, but we need him. John Piper explains “God does everything to communicate and display to his creatures his own glory, his greatness, his beauty, his worth. The whole panorama of his perfections, he communicates that, displays that to his creatures, as the overflow of his love.”

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Jared Jenkins, confirming the evolving nature of Mormon theology, says that there are still some fundamental beliefs which separate the Mormon definition of “grace” from that of the Christian church. They both believe in salvation by grace, but while “in historic Christianity, God and his Son are grace; in Mormonism, God and his Son gained grace — along with the divine nature — on the pathway of exaltation.”

Mormons come to this conclusion because they believe the Father and Son were themselves created by a higher power. They also believe that the purpose of grace is not only to save, but to “empower.” Smith taught that while “God’s gracious gift of salvation was made available through the atonement of Christ, it only becomes effectual when his commands are obeyed.”

Christians believe that human beings who have believed in Christ alone for salvation receive this free gift of grace on the basis of their faith, not based on “works of the law” (Galatians 2:16). Love for Jesus will lead to transformed hearts and minds. As a result, Christians naturally want to be more like Jesus. As Jenkins explains, “grace isn’t a starting point — it’s everything. [...] In response to God’s astonishing grace, we perform good works — not meritoriously to secure God’s favor but gratefully because we already have it.”

Praying for Our Mormon Friends

We can pray for our friends and neighbors who are deceived by the message or Mormonism. Its fundamental unreliability provides insight into its appeal: the way the message can be altered to suit time and place, the idea of earning special status in eternity, and the idea that we can be gods. But a reasonable person can also see that, where Mormonism is undermined by shaky foundations, Christianity offers solid ground.

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