Mormonism vs. Biblical Christianity
2 Corinthians 11:2-4
Slide
Good Morning.
I am glad that you are here this morning. If you are joining us today for the first time, we are in the midst of a series called Faithology, a series that is looking at some of the different faith systems that we see around us and comparing them to Biblical Christianity.
We are doing this to help us understand what other faith systems are teaching
so Christians can be more assured of the truth of Christianity and
to help us gain an idea of where someone else is coming from and what they believe so we might be able to minister to them with the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Now, I think this is an extremely important series for us to be going through because there are many people in the world and, shockingly within Christianity, who believe that many religions are just different paths to the same God and that following and believing any of a number of different, even non Christian, beliefs, can lead to eternal life.
According to a survey from the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, “the vast majority (of those claiming to be Christians)(80%) …(believe that) at least one non-Christian religion… can lead to salvation, and …(61%) name two or more non-Christian religions. Even among white evangelical Protestants, …(72%) of those who say many religions can lead to eternal life name at least one non-Christian religion that can lead to salvation.”
Many Americans Say Other Faiths Can Lead to Eternal Life - Dec. 18, 2008, accessed 4/22/10 @ http://pewforum.org/docs/?DocID=380
So this isn’t talking about just different denominations within Christianity, this is showing that many people, even those claiming Christianity, believe that there are other ways to salvation apart from believing in and receiving Jesus Christ.
I think this is largely due to the fact that we live in a society where it seems tolerant to affirm what people believe.
Tolerance is being able to live among people peacefully who believe differently than you.
Tolerance, however, does not mean that we do not share the truth with people who are believing what we know to be a lie that is damning them to an eternity in Hell.
It is important for us to be certain of the truth of Christianity in our minds and our hearts. Jesus Christ said, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6).
Christianity teaches that it is only through Jesus Christ that one can be saved.
Now here is the thing.
Just because you believe something doesn’t make it true. Just because we believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, God in the flesh, and that He died for our sins in our place, and rose again from the dead, doesn’t make it true.
Truth is true regardless if it is believed.
Truth needs to correspond to reality.
How do we determine what is true?
Is it supported by evidence and does it match up with reality?
Three weeks ago, on Easter, we looked at Biblical Christianity and the evidence that supports it and how it lines up with reality to see the truth of it.
You can listen to that message on our website if you were not here for it.
This morning we are going to compare Mormonism to Biblical Christianity.
Slide
I think this week and next week are even more important than the previous 2 weeks.
This week and next week we are going to be looking at Religions that claim to believe in and follow Jesus Christ, but the Jesus they talk about is not the same Jesus of the Bible.
And I think it is important that we understand their views so we do not fall prey to these deceptions that lead us away from the true Jesus back into a life of bondage.
Turn with me to 2 Corinthians 11:2-4
Slide
The Corinthians were experiencing some of this. They had some false teachers come in and some of them were believing this false teaching about who Jesus was and what He did.
Listen to what Paul says to them in
2 Corinthians 11:2-4
2 I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy. I promised you to one husband, to Christ, so that I might present you as a pure virgin to him. 3 But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent’s cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ. 4 For if someone comes to you and preaches a Jesus other than the Jesus we preached, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it easily enough.
False teachers were coming to the Corinthians and preaching Jesus. That is great, isn’t it?
No, not really. Because they were not preaching the same Jesus that Paul had preached.
The Jesus who is God in the flesh.
The Jesus who died physically and rose physically from the dead
The Jesus who became man but was eternally God
The Jesus through whom Him alone do we receive salvation
They were preaching a different gospel and a different Jesus.
They were preaching this different Jesus by perverting the word of God, just like Satan did to Eve.
Remember when Satan met Eve in the Garden, he said to her,
Genesis 3:1 - "Did God really say, ’You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?"
Satan perverted God’s word and used it to deceive Eve.
Satan tried the same thing with Jesus after Jesus had fasted for 40 days and was in the desert. He pulled Scripture out of context and perverted it. Christ didn’t fall for it and neither do we have to because there are those today who call into question God’s word and pervert it to distort who Jesus is and what He did.
Transition
Mormonism is one of the Religious systems that does this today.
As we get started, I think it is important to start with a little background to how Mormonism began.
Background of the Mormon Church
The Mormon Church was founded by Joseph Smith in 1830, just 180 years ago when Joseph was 26 years old.
Slide
He claimed at the age of 14, to have seen God the Father along with Jesus Christ when they visited him as he prayed and they told him that must not join any of the current Christian churches because the church was corrupt, “were all wrong…all their creeds were an abomination in his sight; that those professors were all corrupt.” He was also told that “the fullness of the Gospel should at some future time be made known unto [him].”
Church History in the Fullness of Times, pg. 33-34. Accessed on 4/21/2010 at http://www.ldsces.org/inst_manuals/ChrchHstryInst32502000/Chapters/ChrchHstryInst32502000_06.pdf
Over the next 12 years, he says he is visited a number of times by an angel named Moroni as well as other personages from the Bible. The angel Moroni ends up telling him where some gold plates are that Joseph finds and translates into the book of Mormon, which the Mormons say is another testament of Jesus Christ. There are no longer any gold plates to be found though, only Joseph Smith’s testimony that this is what occurred.
Now, there are a number of problems with the account of Joseph Smith’s encounter with God the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ, from the perspective of Biblical Christianity
Problem 1 – Smith claims to have seen God the Father
Slide
According to the Bible, which we have seen is supported by a mountain of evidence showing it to be the true word of God (if you missed that message, listen to it online or come to our Back to Basics Seminar on May 23rd)
The Bible says - No one can see the Father (1 Timothy 6:15-16)
1 Timothy 6:15-16 - God, the blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings and Lord of lords, 16 who alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see.
This text is talking about the Father. No one has seen the Father. The appearances of God in the Old Testament would all be the preincarnate Christ.
But this belief that he had seen the Father leads to a second problem in this account.
Problem 2 – Smith claims the Father has Flesh and Bones
Slide
There are all kinds of teaching throughout Mormonism that claims the Father has flesh and bones just like you and me.
The Bible says the Father is Spirit
John 4:23-24
23 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth."
In multiple places, the things Joseph Smith says happened and the things he saw and the things he says the Father said, are in disagreement with what the Bible says.
Another problem is
Problem 3 –
Smith claims that God said the church had failed
Slide
Jesus says His church will never fail
While he was on the earth, Jesus told Peter that, “I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.” (Matthew 16:18)
Now I fully believe that throughout history, there have been individual churches and people who have said they were acting in the name of Christ that were completely wrong and in fact corrupt.
They claimed Christ and did things that were abhorrent in His name.
Even though they claimed to be Christ followers, there was no fruit to support that.
To this day there are “churches” and I use that word loosely, who claim to know Jesus Christ but are doing things in opposition to his teachings.
However, to say that all churches are corrupt and none are preaching the truth goes against what the church is. The church, as a whole, is not just some organization, it is the body of Christ, it is His church that He is building and sustaining as a whole.
Before Jesus ascended into heaven, he told the apostles, the men he would use to establish his church on earth, “And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." (Matthew 28:20b)
Jesus was going to build his church and be working in and through the church to the very end of the age.
But Joseph Smith not only said that God said the church had entirely failed and Christ was no longer with the church, but another problem is that
Problem 4 – Smith claims the faith had been lost
Slide
Supposedly the Gospel that our faith rests upon had been corrupted and changed so that nobody knew the truth and now God came to Joseph Smith to give him the full gospel.
The book of Mormon says, “they have etaken away from the gospel of the Lamb many parts which are fplain and most precious; and also many covenants of the Lord have they taken away.” (The Book of Mormon, 1 Nephi 13:26)
But this is in conflict with what the Bible says.
The Bible says the faith was given once for all
Slide
Jude, one of Jesus’ half brothers and a leader in the early church wrote under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit as recorded in Jude 3 that “although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt I had to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints.” (Jude 3)
The faith that we have today is the same as was entrusted to the saints. We see the agreement among the Biblical writers as to what the gospel is, that we are sinners in need of a Savior, that Jesus Christ is God in the flesh, the very Son of God who died and rose again from the dead, and that when repent of our sin and we believe in and receive Him as our Savior, we have eternal life.
Joseph Smith is saying that nobody that had the Gospel at that point. There were no followers of God’s until Joseph Smith restored the church in the latter days.
This is in conflict with what the Bible says not only in Jude, but through what we see even throughout the Bible.
Even in the Old Testament, when it seemed that all had turned away, God always reserved a remnant for Himself of a people who had trusted Him and had a true faith.
Elijah at one time felt that he was the only one left who trusted the Lord, but God told him “I reserve seven thousand in Israel-all whose knees have not bowed down to Baal and all whose mouths have not kissed him." (1 Kings 19:18)
God has always had a remnant of followers. That is because it is God who preserves and protects his people and the church.
So we see that there are a lot of problems with Mormonism right from the beginning in how it was founded, but those are not the only problems.
Transition
Another Problem is
The story of the book of Mormon does not conform to reality
slide
The Bible gives historical accounts of people and places and events that have been confirmed through archeology and through outside historical sources.
The Book of Mormon, however supposedly gives a history of God’s work in America, but none of the people or places or geography seem to match what we find in history or through archeology unlike the Bible which is supported by outside historical sources and by archaeology.
But not only does the founding of Mormonism conflict with the Bible, and the story that the book of Mormon tells conflict with what we find in reality, but
The message of the book of Mormon is in conflict with the Bible
Slide
as well in regards to who Jesus is and the essential beliefs of the gospel message.
I want to give you a synopsis of the plan of salvation according to Mormonism from their own website.
First,
Before we were born on the earth, we lived in the presence of our Heavenly Father as one of His spirit children. In this premortal existence, we attended a council with Heavenly Father’s other spirit children. At that council, Heavenly Father presented His great plan of happiness (see Abraham 3:22–26).
In harmony with the plan of happiness, the premortal Jesus Christ, the Firstborn Son of the Father in the spirit, covenanted to be the Savior (see Moses 4:2; Abraham 3:27). Those who followed Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ were permitted to come to the earth to experience mortality and progress toward eternal life. Lucifer, another spirit son of God, rebelled against the plan and "sought to destroy the agency of man" (Moses 4:3). He became Satan, and he and his followers were cast out of heaven and denied the privileges of receiving a physical body and experiencing mortality (see Moses 4:4; Abraham 3:27–28).
http://www.lds.org/ldsorg/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=bbd508f54922d010VgnVCM1000004d82620aRCRD&locale=0&index=16&sourceId=45af9daac5d98010VgnVCM1000004d82620a____
Now there are a lot of things in this that Biblical Christianity would disagree with, such as us being “spirit children” of the Father along with Jesus and Lucifer, but more importantly
Mormons believe Jesus is only ‘a’ god, but not ‘the’ God
Slide
They believe that he was actually born in the spirit realm as a Son of the Father, but is not from eternity past.
Biblical Christianity affirms the truth of Jesus’ deity, that He is part of the God head, the one true God, that He is from everlasting to everlasting. He is a God with no beginning and no end.
This belief also denies the Biblical teaching that the Second person of the Trinity was the Only Son of God
John 3:16 - "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son…
So there are a number of differences between Biblical Christianity and Mormonism regarding their belief in who Jesus is that put them outside the camp of Christianity.
But their beliefs differ as well in terms of how we receive eternal life as well.
Here is what their teaching says in regards to the mortal life we are now experiencing and how we receive eternal life.
Mortal Life
Slide
We are now experiencing mortal life. Our spirits are united with our bodies, giving us opportunities to grow and develop in ways that were not possible in premortal life. This part of our existence is a time of learning in which we can prove ourselves, choose to come unto Christ, and prepare to be worthy of eternal life.
http://www.lds.org/ldsorg/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=bbd508f54922d010VgnVCM1000004d82620aRCRD&locale=0&index=16&sourceId=45af9daac5d98010VgnVCM1000004d82620a____
Mormons believe that Salvation is based on Grace plus works
Slide
In their articles of faith they say
“We believe that through the Atonement of Christ, all mankind may be saved, by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel.”
http://www.mormon.org/mormonorg/eng/basic-beliefs/membership-in-christ-s-church/articles-of-faith#x
In an article entitled “Obedience to God’s Commandments” on the Mormon website, it says, “Your loving Heavenly Father will bless you for your obedience with “peace in this world, and eternal life in the world to come” (Doctrine and Covenants 59:23).
http://www.mormon.org/mormonorg/eng/basic-beliefs/the-commandments/obedience-to-god-s-commandments
"We know that it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do," (2 Nephi 25:23).
Grace plus works is no gospel at all and denies the fundamental teaching of Biblical Christianity that says it is by the grace of God alone that we receive salvation through faith in Jesus Christ.
Ephesians 2:8-9 - For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith-and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God- 9 not by works, so that no one can boast.
In his letter to the Galatians, Paul addressed this issue of adding to the Grace of Jesus Christ some of our own effort. He said in
Galatians 1:6-7 - I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel- 7 which is really no gospel at all.
False teachers were teaching the Galatians that they had to obey the law and be circumcised to be saved. They were adding to the gospel a work that they had to do to receive salvation.
According to Biblical Christianity, there is absolutely nothing you can do to merit God’s grace.
Paul says in
Romans 11:6 - And if by grace, then it is no longer by works; if it were, grace would no longer be grace.
Grace plus works is not good news. It is bad news. What Mormons teach is no gospel at all, just as Paul was telling the Galatians who were listening to the false teachers. It is a religion of works, just like every faith system other than Christianity.
Conclusion
Ok, so we see that there are many problems, from a biblical standpoint as well as from the standpoint of testing it against reality that puts Mormonism outside the camp of Christianity even though they claim to believe in Jesus.
It is not the Jesus of the Bible, but a different Jesus, just as Paul was warning the Corinthians about.
Mormons are nice
But if you have ever met a Mormon, they are the nicest people.
In terms of the things they value, they have a lot in common with Christians.
They value family relationships, they value life, they desire to be good citizens. They are not bad people.
There are many people in the world who are not bad in our eyes, but they are not righteous. It is only when we cloth ourselves with the righteousness of Christ by receiving Him and Him alone for salvation, that we will inherit eternal life.
So, how should we as Christians respond to those in Mormonism?
We need to love them and seek to speak the truth to them in love.
Why the Bible is the Word of God
We need to be able to show them lovingly why the Bible is the word of God vs. the Book of Mormon when we have opportunities to talk with them.
But this is not only for Mormons, because there are many people who believe that you need to do good works to inherit eternal life and think the Bible is just another religious writing.
We need to talk with people about the overwhelming amount of support outside the Bible as well as the fact that things within the Bible hold up when tested to reality, unlike the Book of Mormon.
If you don’t know the evidences that support the Bible as the word of God or you have forgotten, then I encourage you to come out to our Back to Basics Seminar where we go over those evidences.
The Essentials of Salvaiton
Secondly, you need to know the essentials of Salvation and be able to articulate that to someone.
People need to recognize that they are sinners. And according to the Bible, sin is not just what we do wrong, sin is also the right things that we fail to do.
James 4:17 - Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn’t do it, sins.
This is an area we all fail in all the time.
They need to repent and recognize that salvation is all from God and none from us. We don’t deserve it the least bit, nor can we do anything to deserve it.
Then we need to recognize the truth of who Jesus is and what He did.
He is God in the flesh, the second Person of the Trinity, the one true God who died for their sins and rose again, conquering sin and death and offering eternal life to all who put their trust in Him.
We go over this as well in our Back to Basics Seminar.
I hope this series is not only helping you to recognize the differences in other faiths, but the importance of knowing why you believe what you do and having a heart to share the truth of the Bible and the salvation that Christ came to give with other people.
God desires all men to come to a knowledge of the truth (1 Timothy 2:4) and He uses us to share that truth.
It is my prayer that each one of us will know the truth and live out the truth as we love others with the true and saving gospel of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
Let’s pray.
