Witnessing to Mormons
Lesson 4
Jeff Bixby
March 13th, 2001
Scripture: 1 Corithians 15:1-4 "Now, brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you recieved and on this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain. For what I received I passed on to you as first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures"
Plurality of Gods
Many people, christians and non-christians believe that Mormons are just another denomination. Hopefully by now you have seen that they are not christian at all. This is a totally different religion all together. For instance biblical christianity is monotheistic- belief in only one true God while mormons are polytheists- they worship many Gods. Mormons will deny this and claim that they pray to only one God Elohim the Father. However mormons also believe that Jesus and the Holy Spirit are two seperate Gods! Technically, Mormon theology could be described as Henotheistic- a form of polytheisist but centrally worshiping one God. God the Father Elohim. We can see an example of this by Joseph Smith’s owns words(Doctrines of the Gospelpg16)"In the beginning, the head of the Gods called a council of the Gods; and they came together and concocted a plan to create the world and people in it." In Joseph Smith’s own account he entirely throws out the Genesis creation of the Bible and shows us the foundation for the belief in more than one God. Mormons view the trinity as tritheistic; that is that there are 3 Gods in the trinity not one. God the Father Elohim, he is the Head of the Godhead, Godhead is a mormon term in place of trinity. Mormons do not accept the term trinity as we know it. Jesus the son or Jehovah in the OT is the God of the Old Testement(Doctrines of the Gospel pg9) The Holy Ghost is a former man who has become a God, although not like the father or the son, he does not have a physical body, but has a spiritual body of matter. All of these 3 former men according to mormonism, are what make up the God head. These are the Gods that Mormons are to concern themselves with even though there are any number of planets with each a god of its own. (Bruce R. McConkie Mormon Doctrine pg 576-577) "To us, speaking in the proper finite sense, these three principle Gods of earth are the only Gods we worship. But in addition there is an infinite number of holy personages, drawn from worlds without number, who have passed on to exaltation and are thus gods... This doctrine of plurality of gods is so comprehensive and glorious that it reaches out and embraces every exalted personage. Those who attain exaltation are gods." The Bible clearly rejects a doctrine or idea of many gods, in Isaiah43:10: "Before me no God was formed, nor will there be on after me" 44:6-8"I am the first and the last; apart from Me there is no God... Is there any God besides me?... I know not one" From Genesis to Revelation the bible teaches monotheism- there is only one god. Mormons will often use the Articles of Faith written by Joseph Smith as a primer and as stated before at first glance it would seem that Mormons believe in the same Christianity. Mormons will state they believe in the biblical trinity in the Articles of Faith. Many un-educated in this matter would agree, but as you can see mormons have always believed in the more than one God and not 3 in one. Joseph Smith himself said some disturbing things about the trinity even that such a god would be a monster! (Joseph Smith Teachings pg372)"Many men say there is one God; the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost are only one God. I say that is a strange God anyhow-three in one, and one in three! It is curious organization... All are to be crammed into one God according to sectarianism. It would make the biggest God in all the world. He would be a wonderfully big God-he would be a giant or a monster" This idea of plurality of Gods contradicts about 2000 or more years of christianity, much less the Bible’s teaching about god and the trinity.
The Gods of Mormonism Evolve
Lorenzo Snow the 5th Mormon Prophet/President said this "As man now is, God once was; as God now is, man may be." Mormonism teaches that God the Father was a man, and attained godhood or "exaltation". Exaltation is a mormon term meaning to become a God, the final step in the after life or is it? Throughout the Church’s history leaders and Prophets of the church have battled the idea that these endless numbers of gods, change in knowledge or power. There is a sort of process of growing as a god, just as you grew in size and knowledge on earth. In other words God the father, Jesus and the Holy Ghost are constantly changing. Early mormons believed and taught this fact. (Journal of Discourses 6:120) "God himself is increasing and progressing in knowledge, power and dominion, and will do so worlds without end." Late mormon leaders such as Orson Pratt and Bruce R. McConkie believed that God is omnipotent and omniscient a christian taught doctrine, although they at times have been rebuked offically for it, by the Mormon church. Why? Well if God is all knowing and everywhere how can he progress? Eternal Progression is important to mormon theology. Weather you take early or late mormonism doctrines, one thing is sure, it has never nor does it have a
oncept of God that is biblical in christian terms.
The Jesus of Mormonism is not the Jesus of the Bible
(Deseret News, June 20, 1998 LDS President/Prophet Gordon B. Hinkley) "The traditional Christ of whom they (refering to christians) speak is not the Christ of whom I speak." Mormon Author Dr. Stephen Robinson emphasizes emphatically that mormons believe in the same Christ as christians. The fact is that like other false religions and sects and cults that make this claim thier Jesus has nothing to do with the Biblical Jesus. Mormons teach that Christ was a "created" being like all of us created by God the Father Elohim and a mother in heaven by sex. Thus all humans including Jesus were spirit children created by a male god Elohim and a female god having a physical sexual relationship.More so that Christ and Satan are brothers! Early mormons also taught that at the fall in heaven, Satan revolted with some other beings, and that the nuetral spirit beings, the ones that did not side with Satan and did not side with God, were cursed with black skin. Mormonism also teaches in Doctrine of Salvation that Jesus was not unique as creator of this earth. Mormonism teach’s that Christ, Adam, Noah, Joseph Smith and many others helped create this earth.
Denial of the Virgin Birth
Brigham Young’s discourse of April 9, 1852 he taught that the body of Jesus Christ was the product of sexual intercourse between God(Adam) and Mary, who then married Joseph. However since mary was an offspring of god Elohim and so was Joseph, that the birth of Jesus was a result of an incestious and adulterous relationship. "Thus Mary had sexual relations with both her Father in Heaven(God himself) and her spirit brother Joseph." Some feel that this teaching gave a divine sanction on polygamy or adultery even incest throughout Mormon history, or at least to have an explanation for it in mormon history. So if one practiced it at one time, then they could reason by saying that Mary did it God the Father did it, so on and so forth. However your current mormon would not practice this but however would reason for the practice of it. In other words it would not necessarily be wrong to do. Any way you look at it, it denies the virgin birth of the Bible. Brigham Youngs "inspired" words make this clear. "Adam came into the Garden of Eden, he came into it with a clelestial body, and brought Eve, one of his wives, wtih him. He helped to make and organize this world. He is MICHAEL, the archangel, THE ANCIENT OF DAYS! about whom holy men have written and spoken-he is our Father and our God, and the only God whi whom we have to do. Every man upon the earth, professing christians or non-professing, must hear it, and will know it sooner or later. ...When the Virgin Mary conceived the child Jesus, the Father had begotten him in his own likeness. He was not begotten by the Holy Ghost. And who is the Father? He is the first of the human family(adam); and when he took a tabernacle(body), it was begotten by his FAther in heaven, after the same manner as the tabernacle of Cain, Abel, and the rest of the sons and daughters of Adam and Eve. Now remember from this time forth, forever that Jesus Christ was not begotten by the Holy Ghost... "If the son was begotten by the Holy Ghost, it would be very dangerous to baptize and confirm females and give the Holy Ghost to them, lest he should beget children." What a notion that God the Father had intercourse with Mary. Mormons do not believe that Christ was sinless. Since he is like all other numerous spirit children, Christ too had to attain the knowledge of good by at first doing evil, just like in the garden of eden. We will see more of this theology in the Temple Ceremony.
Salvation
Just like other christian terms this too has another meaning in mormonism. "We are not saved by grace alone."(Boyd Packer, Quorum of the 12 president. Feb. 1,1998) Mormons believe that there is not salvation outside the LDS church. Then what do they mean by "salvation"? In the biblical christian view salvation is from God’s free gift of grace(Ephesians 2:8-9) as shown earlier in the overview. When mormons say "salvation by grace" they are referring to being resurected from the dead. Other than that if your a mormon you work on your own salvation. In other words grace is secured from God by doing good works. Justification in Mormonism is inextricably bound with conditions of personal merit and righteousness. Justification in Mormonism merely gives you an avenue or opportunity to earn rightheousness.-D&C 20:21-30. In contrast Biblical justification is the act of God that declares a sinner righteous apart from any work he/she does and relies only on the faith of that person in the atoning death of Christ. Any type of gift, new birth, grace, repentence and santicfication all require works. Usually doing good things or most inportantly; temple work. Biblical salvation does not come through ones personall merit, but only through faith on the Lord Jesus Christ as a gift from God. John 5:24"I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from the death to life." John 6:47 "I tell you the truth, he who believes has eternal life." Romans 3:28 "For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from the law." Titus 3:5 "He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renwing by the Holy Spirit." Mormons even claim to have the same atonement that we do. Mormons do not really believe that Christ paid for our sins. Mormons do not believe forgiveness is recieved completely on faith and repentence. Complete forgiveness of serious sins, speaking out agianst the church, etc. requires a lengthy waiting period, thus Christs death does not cover serious sins. Human obedience, especially to the law of the commandments. This following sentence will shed some light on this subject from Teachings a mormon book, "redeeming all of us from physical death, and redeeming those of us from spiritual death who will obey the laws and ordinances of the gospel." further more in the Student Manual Doctrines of the Gospel, it claims that Jesus only came to save only those who would obey him, becuase mercy is only extended to those who keep the commandments. In a book by John Ankerberg, Mormonism revistited pg 25; A mormon who taught doctrine of the LDS church for nearly 20 years states that he had never heard that Christ died on the Cross for his sins. Unlike the Bible and Christianity, Mormonism teaches the atonement only provides an oppurtunity to earn salvation.
I have never seen a cross on any mormon building, why is this? I asked a pair of Elders of the Mormon church. Basically they see the wearing of the cross on a neck or even on a sign etc. as a revolting thing. They explained it as this: "It would be like he Jesus was killed by a gun, like us wearing a gun around our neck, it is silly." The cross is not a symbol of Victory for mormons, it’s seen merely as a device that killed Jesus.
