Upon joining my current
church, I was keen to get to know people. I had previously been a teacher, so I
had experience of quickly getting to grips with names, but on my first Sunday
at church, I realised it wasn’t going to be that easy.
After the service I was
introduced to not one, not two, not three but four sets of identical twins, and
when I say identical, I mean identical. So
closely did one twin resemble the other that, in the style of one of my
literary heroes, Sherlock Holmes, I began to scan them for any clues that might
help me. I found nothing. They looked the same, sounded the same and even
dressed so similarly, that I believed their parents may still be buying their
clothes.
Afraid of getting their
names wrong, I began to call them ‘brother’ and ‘sister’, (which is the
Christian version of calling someone whose name you can’t remember ‘mate’); after
all I did not want to offend them, nor embarrass myself.
One set of twins (the lads –
the rest were girls), were particularly troublesome. They both got jobs in
local supermarkets, and I often bumped into them whilst shopping; but which lad
worked in which supermarket? In the end I developed a system to help me. Their names
began with L and A. L worked in Asda and D worked in Sainsburys. So, I developed
the acronym LADS (L/Asda and D/Sainsbury). Result – but only when I saw them at
work!
By sight and speech, I
couldn’t tell one twin from another, so what was I to do? Well, I had to spend
time with them, learning what set them apart. As I did, I discovered that they
had different personalities, different likes and dislikes and I began to tell
them apart by just listening to what they said. I had to go beyond the surface
and dig a little deeper, so that I could tell them apart.
Nice little story Tony, but
what has this got to do with the Mormon Jesus? I’m glad you asked.
Just as I had problems
telling the twins apart, so often Christians can have the same problem telling true
and false Christians apart. Some ‘false’ Christians look and sound so much like
true Christians – that we cannot at first glance, tell them apart.
DIGGING DEEPER
If you were to ask a Mormon about Jesus, they may likely reply along the following lines.
Jesus is my Lord and Saviour.
Jesus is the Son of God.
Jesus was the promised
Messiah.
Jesus performed miracles.
Jesus died on a cross and
rose physically from the dead.
Jesus, through the
atonement, paid for my sin.
Based on those answers, we
might assume that Christians and Mormons are ‘identical twins’, but don’t be
fooled. Just as I had to dig a little deeper to ‘spot the difference’, we too
must do the same with our Mormon friends.
THE MORMON JESUS
As a Church we have critics, many of them. They say we do not
believe in the traditional Christ of Christianity. There is some substance to
what they say.[1]
Mormons reject the ‘traditional’
Jesus of historic Christianity. They teach that the Jesus of the Churches is,
at best, a deformed one; the product of tradition, historical councils, and a
Bible that is only as good as far as it has been translated correctly.[2] It was therefore necessary
for Heavenly Father to ‘restore’ to the earth, the true Church, and the true Jesus,
through the prophet Joseph Smith.
The 15th President of
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Gordon B. Hinckley, was happy
to tell the world that theirs is a ‘different’ Jesus:
“In bearing testimony of Jesus Christ, President Hinckley spoke of those outside the Church who say Latter-day Saints ‘do not believe in the traditional Christ.’ ‘No, I don’t. The traditional Christ of whom they speak is not the Christ of whom I speak. For the Christ of whom I speak has been revealed in this the Dispensation of the Fullness of Times. He together with His Father, appeared to the boy Joseph Smith in the year 1820, and when Joseph left the grove that day, he knew more of the nature of God than all the learned ministers of the gospel of the ages.'”[3]
THE MORMON JESUS
vs THE TRADITIONAL JESUS
Here are 5
differences between the Jesus of Mormonism and the Jesus of the Bible.
1)The Mormon Jesus is a procreated being. He is the firstborn son of Heavenly Father and one of his wives.
“Among the spirit-children of Elohim, the firstborn was and is Jehovah or Jesus Christ to whom all others are juniors.”[4]
The Bible teaches that Jesus is uncreated and has existed eternally.
The Apostle Paul
said of Jesus:
‘And he is
before all things, and in him all things hold together.’ Colossians
1:17
Thomas speaking
to Jesus called him God:
‘Thomas said: My
Lord and My God’ John 20:28
Jesus declares
himself to be without beginning or end:
“Behold, I am coming soon, bringing my recompense with me, to repay each one for what he has done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.” Revelation 22:12,13
2) The Mormon Jesus is the spirit brother of Lucifer.
“Long before you were born a program was developed by your creators. …The principal personalities in this great drama were a Father Elohim, perfect in wisdom, judgment, and person, and two sons, Lucifer and Jehovah.”[5]
The Bible
teaches that Jesus created Lucifer:
‘For by him
all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible,
whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were
created through him and for him.’ (Colossians
1:16)
‘All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made.’ John 1:3
3) The Mormon Jesus was born to Mary as the result of Heavenly Father having sexual relations with her.
“Christ was begotten by an Immortal Father in
the same way that mortal men are begotten by mortal fathers.”[6]
According to Mormon
theology, before being born we all existed as the spirit children of Heavenly
Father and his wives. Mary was one of these children. To then teach that
Heavenly Father came to the now mortal Mary and had sexual relations with her to
produce the mortal Jesus, is surely a type of spiritual incest.
This is nowhere
found in the Bible. Rather, we read that Mary was told by the angel that:
“The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.” Luke 1:35
4) The Mormon Jesus only atoned for Adam’s sin.
“We believe that men will be punished for their
own sins, and not for Adam’s transgression.”[7]
The Bible teaches that Jesus atoned for our sins:
He himself bore our
sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to
righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.
1 Peter 2:24
For I
delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ
died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures…
1 Corinthians 15:3 (Bold mine)
5) The Mormon Jesus became a God
“Jesus became a God and reached His great state of understanding through consistent effort and continuous obedience to all the Gospel truths and universal laws.”[8]
The Bible teaches that Jesus is eternally God.
For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Isaiah 9:6 (Bold mine)
‘In the beginning
was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word
was God.’ John 1:1
‘…waiting for our
blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ…’ Titus 2:13
As can be clearly seen, the Mormon Jesus is not the historical and Biblical Jesus. Theirs is a Jesus who cannot save them.
[1] President Hinckley: We look to Christ
- Church News (thechurchnews.com)
[2] LDS – Articles of Faith 8
[3] (LDS Church News
Week ending June 20, 1998, p. 7).
[4] James
Talmage, Articles of Faith, 425.
[5] Teachings of Spencer W. Kimball,
pp32-33, ellipses mine
[6] McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, 546-547.
[7] LDS -Articles of Faith 2
[8] Milton R. Hunter, The Gospel Through
the Ages, p.51
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