Today’s Question: My friend asked me what the difference between Mormons and Christians are, and why Christians think Mormons are teaching false things. I would like to know more about the Mormons, and why they are not Christians. –Christina

Bible Answer: Mitt Romney, Governor of Massachusetts, ran for president and this raised an interest in his religion–the Church of the Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. The only thing most people know about the Mormons are the missionary activities of young men who ride their ten speeds to neighborhood houses and the commercials that effectively give the impression that Mormons are good people, and who are family oriented. The question is not whether or not Mormons are fine people, because many of them are. The question is whether or not Mormons teach false doctrine that does not align itself with true Christianity. Jesus and the Apostle Paul warned about false prophets:

"Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. (Matt 7:15)

I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them. (Acts 20:29-30)

Notice that false prophets do not wear horns and a cape or carry a pitchfork. No they look like sheep on the outside, but inside, there is false teaching that ultimately makes them like wolves. Wolves devour sheep, not protect them.

Paul explains how they became wolves: he said that they would arise out of your own number. In other words, many wolves start out in the church, not in the world. This is what makes them seem so deceptive. Then Paul explains how they will work: he said that they would distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them.

Ultimately a wolf is interested in distorting the truth. It is their teaching that makes them wolves, not whether or not they spend time with their families or give their tithes or do mission work. Mormons may do all or some of these things, but what do they teach? If their teaching is wrong, then they are wrong. I have studied the teaching of the Mormon church, and I can categorically tell you that their teaching is false.

The Mormons believe that after the apostles had died that their followers changed their teaching, and not until Joseph Smith received his vision in 1820 was the apostolic teaching restored. This would mean that the gates of hell had prevailed against the Church for almost two millenniums. This is contrary to what Jesus had promised in Matthew 16:18, plus it makes the apostles failures in trying to establish the first disciples after them. According to the Latter Day Saints, we are suppose to believe that the Mormons knew the true apostolic teaching more than the disciples who heard their teaching first hand. I don’t buy it, and neither should you.

Let us examine Joseph Smith’s vision. He claimed that when he was fourteen he asked God which church he should join and he said God the Father and Jesus Christ both appeared to him and told him not to join any of them. They supposedly said, "Join none of them, for they were wrong; and all their creeds were an abomination in His sight." Wow! Mormons cry foul when Christians point out their errors; they claim to be persecuted, but remember, it was their founder who claimed that all Christian churches were wrong and their creeds an abomination.

During the next ten years, Joseph claimed that other heavenly messengers appeared to him, including the angel, Moroni. Through these messengers He was told that he was the Elijah to come and eventually claimed to be given authority to restore the true church, and on April 6, 1830 he founded his church. How can we judge these visions as true or false? Simply, by looking into the Word of God. First of all, what about the claim that he was the Elijah to come? Jesus already told us that Elijah came.

"But I tell you, Elijah has already come, and they did not recognize him, but have done to him everything they wished. In the same way the Son of Man is going to suffer at their hands." Then the disciples understood that he was talking to them about John the Baptist. (Matt 17:12-13)

So from Jesus’ lips we can disprove Joseph Smith’s angelic visitation with Moroni. Moroni said Joseph Smith was the Elijah to come, but Jesus said Elijah already came and he was John the Baptist. Once we disprove this major point, then it is only a matter of dissecting Smith’s teachings in which we will find that his gospel is false. We could take much time at looking into every teaching, including the lack of any archeological evidence of the book of Mormons¹ and the error that the North American Indians are descendants of the Hebrew people² ; but let us look only at two areas: their view of God and salvation.

The Mormon’s teach that God the Father has a body of flesh and bones as tangible as man’s. This is clearly refuted by the Scriptures that teach He is the invisible, immortal God who is a spirit. (see 1 Tim 1:17 and John 4:24). The Bible says, "No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father's side, has made him known" (John 1:18). Jesus is the incarnate God. Jesus had to be incarnate because the Father is a spirit without a human body. He is greater than man, yet the Mormons puts God on man’s level. Sure, man is made in God’s spiritual image, but man’s physical body is not in the image of God. Man can love like God loves, man can experience joy like God and have peace like God. Those are the attributes that make man in God’s image, not his feet and toes.

If it weren’t bad enough that Mormons drag God down to the level of an exalted man, the Mormons do worse when it comes to Jesus; they teach that Jesus is the spirit brother of Lucifer, the devil himself. Yet, the Bible says that Jesus is the only begotten Son of God (see John 3:16). God did not have two sons, like Mormons teach. Jesus is unique and is not related to Satan in anyway. This teaching by the Mormons is blasphemous.

This brings us to a very important question: according to the Mormons, what must a person do to be saved. Brigham Young, the successor to Joseph Smith, makes it clear:

"Believe in God, believe in Jesus, and believe in Joseph his prophet, and Brigham his successor, and you shall be saved."

It is not enough to believe in God and Jesus, you must believe also that Joseph Smith is the prophet and that Brigham Young is the successor. He continues:

"No man or woman in this dispensation will ever enter into the Celestial Kingdom of God without the consent of Joseph Smith."

Wow! What a boast! Fortunately, he doesn’t tell us to take his word for it, he says, "Take up the Bible, compare the religion of the Latter-day Saints with it, and see if it will stand the test." I have taken his challenge, I have looked into the Bible and have compared it with the Latter-day Saints message, and the LDS message falls way short of passing the test of being the true gospel.

As you can see, the Mormons total salvation rests in Joseph Smith’s gospel, not the gospel of Christ that the apostles preached. And as we have seen, Joseph Smith’s gospel is punctured with holes. It leaks with false teaching.

Some may ask if this means that Mormons are not Christians. Not every Mormon understands or believes in the Mormon gospel. Some were Christians who joined it thinking that this church was simply another Christian denomination. They did not know or still know what this church teaches. Still more believe in the Mormon teachings about God, Jesus, Salvation, and a host of other false teachings. For those who embrace the false teachings of the Mormon church, then they could not be considered true Christians. They have accepted "another" gospel and "another" Jesus. Paul writes:

I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel: Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ. But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. (Gal 1:6-8, KJV)

The Mormons are indeed preaching another gospel.

¹There is not one shred of archeological evidence that any of the great cities and buildings were built by the Lost Tribe, Lamanite, which the Book of Mormons claim.

² DNA has proven conclusively that the Lamanites are not descendants of the Hebrew people and that the language and culture of the North American Indians are derived of the Siberian/Asiatic people, not Hebrew.