Bridge of Reason

  What does ‘a different gospel’ look like? Paul, in his letter to the churches in Galatia, is ‘astonished’ that they had turned so readily to a different gospel (Gal.1:6-9) In a letter to Corinth he writes: If someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it readily enough.’ (2 Cor.11:4) This different gospel uses the same language, references the same familiar ideas as the genuine. We know that our first task in a discussion is to define terms, find out what someone understands by the language they use. A different Jesus still goes by that name. The Mormon Jesus, however, is not Immanuel, God with us (Mt.1:23) but literally our elder brother from a premortal existence, the brother of Lucifer. The Watchtower Jesus is not our Creator (Col.1:15-19) but another creature, a premortal angel, and ‘the greatest man whoe...