We believe Jesus is the Son of God, the Only
Begotten Son in the flesh (John 3:16). We accept the prophetic declarations in
the Old Testament that refer directly and powerfully to the coming of the
Messiah, the Savior of all humankind. We believe that Jesus of Nazareth was and
is the fulfillment of those prophecies.[1]
Mormons
claim to love Jesus. They speak of Him often and with a great fondness. They
bear their testimony that Jesus is the Son of
the living God and the Saviour of the world.
‘And we talk of Christ, we rejoice in Christ, we
preach of Christ, we prophesy of Christ, and we write according to our
prophecies, that our children may know to what source they may look for a
remission of their sins.’[2]
Yes,
Jesus means much to Mormons, but I would contend that He doesn’t mean
everything to them. He, like many other things in the life of a Mormon, is just
one piece in the LDS jigsaw puzzle of salvation. I say this, not with any
malice, but because it can be proven from their own authoritative sources.
Jesus
is important to the Mormon, but He is not enough – why?
Because
their General Authorities and the Book of Mormon says so.
Thus says the General Authorities
The
General Authorities have administrative and ecclesiastical authority over the
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. At the top of the tree sits the President,
the living Prophet, with his two- counsellors and the Quorum of the Twelve.
These men, past and present, are the guardians of the faith, faithfully
teaching and maintaining truths only found in the ‘restored’ church.
Thus
says Brigham
Brigham
Young became the second Prophet, Revelator and Seer of the Mormon Church, after
the founder Joseph Smith was murdered. He had some curious views on the
efficacy of Jesus’ sacrifice. Firstly, Young maintained that the shed blood of Jesus
was not enough to forgive all sin:
It is true that the blood of the Son of God was shed
for sins through the fall and those committed by men, yet man can commit sins
which it (the blood of Christ) can never remit.[3]
Yet
the Bible teaches the opposite:
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to
forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
1 John 1:9 (Bold mine)
Jesus
is enough to deal with all sin!
Brigham
Young also taught that confessing that Jesus is the Christ, the long-awaited
Messiah who came in the flesh is not enough. Rather he states that we must also
confess another:
I have taught for thirty years, and still teach, that
he that believeth in his heart and confesseth with his mouth that Jesus is the
Christ and that Joseph Smith is his Prophet to this generation, is of God; and
he that confesseth not that Jesus has come in the flesh and sent Joseph Smith
with the fulness of the Gospel to this generation, is not of God, but is anti‑christ.[4]
To
trust and confess Jesus alone, according to Young, makes one anti-Christ. This
of course is preposterous. The Bible nowhere teaches that a person must confess
both Jesus and Joseph. The verses Young alludes to only mentions Jesus.
Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus
is the Christ? He is antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son.
Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not
the Father: he that acknowledgeth the Son hath the Father also.
1 John 2:22-23
And, rather curiously, the great Apostle Paul
never mentions the need to trust Jesus plus others:
That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord
Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead,
thou shalt be saved. Romans 10:9
The
Bible teaches that Jesus is enough for forgiveness of sin and salvation.
Lest
we think that the Mormon Church has moved on since those early days, here is a
quote from their 15th President who served between 1995-2008.
“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
Fulness 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.”[5]
For Mormons, the Jesus of historical orthodoxy, the Jesus of the Bible is not their Jesus. They openly admit that their Jesus is a different Jesus and therefore, He is not enough. It is the same with all the so-called cults of Christianity, it is always Jesus plus, as this LDS Tract shows:
‘Christians speak often of the blood of Christ and its
cleansing power. Much that is believed and taught on this subject, however, is
such utter nonsense and so palpably false that to believe it is to lose one’s
salvation. Many go as far, for instance, as to pretend, at least, to believe
that if we confess Christ with our lips and avow that we accept him as our
personal Savior, we are therefore saved. His blood, without other act than mere
belief, they say, makes us clean.’[6]
Here
we see them attacking the great Biblical doctrine of justification by faith.
Jesus is not enough. Faith in Him is not enough, no you have to do something
and that something is follow all the additional laws and ordinances added by
the LDS church.
Thus
says the Book of Mormon
“For we labor diligently to write, to persuade
our children, and also our brethren, to believe in Christ, and to be reconciled
to God; for we know that it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can
do.” 2 Nephi 25:23
Jesus plus. You do your bit and
God will do His bit.
This
idea is supported by further LDS teaching:
We believe that Jesus’ teachings and His own
matchless and perfect life provide a pattern for men and women to live by and
that we must emulate that pattern as best we can to find true happiness and
fulfillment in this life.[7]
Notice what it
says here. Jesus, in living a perfect life, provided ‘a pattern for men and
women to live by’ and ‘we must emulate that pattern as best we can…’
We need to ‘Choose the Right’ and ‘be ye perfect’. It continues:
We do not believe that we can either overcome the
flesh or gain eternal reward through our own unaided efforts. We must work
to our limit and then rely upon the merits, mercy and grace of the Holy One
of Israel to see us through the struggles of life and into life eternal (2
Nephi 31:19; Moroni 6:4). We believe that while human works are necessary—
including exercising faith in Christ, repenting of our sins, receiving the
sacraments or ordinances of salvation and rendering Christian service to our
neighbors — they are not sufficient for salvation (2 Nephi 25:23; Moroni
10:32). We believe that our discipleship ought to be evident in the way we live
our lives. (Bold mine)[8]
So
Jesus is not enough for the Mormon, but for those who know how they can do
nothing to save themselves, Jesus is everything. He alone is the Saviour!
[1] https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/what-mormons-believe-about-jesus-christ
[2] 2 Nephi 25:26 – The Book of Mormon
[3] Brigham Young – Journal of
Discourses 4:54
[4] Brigham
Young, Journal
of Discourses 9:312
[5] Gordon B Hinckley ‘Crown of Gospel is Upon Our
Heads, Church News, June 20th 1998 p.7
[6] LDS Tract: What the Mormons Think of Christ,
p.31
[7] https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/what-mormons-believe-about-jesus-christ
[8] https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/what-mormons-believe-about-jesus-christ
Comments