P13 Why the Bible is the Word of God: Is The Book of Mormon also the Word of God?

Joseph Smith, 
founder of Mormonism
2 Timothy 3:16 - "All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness." (ESV)

2 Timothy 4:3-4 "For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, 4 and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths."

Introduction:

In this series we have been focusing on answering various questions surround the subject of "why the Bible". Up to this point we have been exploring the claims of scripture, its authority, it reliability and as we saw yesterday, why it is the basis for all true preaching. Thus far we have been addressing this subject as it is typically raised by either believers inside the church or those skeptics who claim to have no religious affiliation whatsoever. Today's post deals with the very important area of why the Bible, and no other book, is God's Word. 

In the above opening verses, we see the scriptures being described by the ESV as "breathed out by God" or rendered by other English versions as "inspired by God". We also see in the above verses the warning given of increasing counterfeits and heresies that will oppose the Gospel and which Timothy and subsequent generations of Christians have dealt with and will continue to battle. Both verses together express the reality of the Bible's uniqueness as God's Word and other wanna-be pretenders attempting to pass off as the truth. 

In our day and age, the Bible is not the only book in the world claiming to be the word of God or as a collection of writings revealed by God.  It is one thing to make the claim of something being revealed from God, and quite another to make good on such claims. In today's post we will be consider one such book that claims to be a book revealed from God - the Book of Mormon. In the course of our investigation, we will put forth a valid test for determining the claims of Divine revelation and inspiration of a given book. 

Testing the claims of Divine revelation and inspiration for any written document

To remind the reader of what we mean by the terms "revelation" and "inspiration", revelation refers to the event and process by which God makes known to people that which was previously unknown; whereas inspiration is the Divinely enabled work of putting that information into writing. Three areas can be used to test the claims of any document, namely: accuracy about the past, accuracy about the future and what it has to say about God. The first two areas are measurable by standard methods of science and history, and the third area follows from the results of the first two tests. In other words, if a given document claiming divine revelation from a given deity is shown to exhibit miraculous qualities such as predicting events beyond the date of the original prophecy, then the reality of the given Deity is demonstrated. 

Moreover, if the same document gives accurate details of events that were prior to the date of the author or which are contemporary to their day and past to our own, then the reliability of the document is confirmed and thus the reality of the Deity giving the information is confirmed. Philosophers such as Richard Swinburne have laid out similar such tests as the ones outlined above and such tests are mentioned in the philosophical literature that deals specifically with such matters. The Bible itself lays out the three tests in two main texts:

1. Is the past accurately described. Isaiah 41:21-22a

2. Is the future accurately predicted. Isaiah 41:22b-23

3. What does the book have to say about God. Deuteronomy 18:18-22

A quick history of the Book of Mormon and its main point

According to Mormon accounts, the founder of Mormonism, Joseph Smith, had journeyed into a wooded grove in a rural area of New York in 1820. The then young Joseph Smith had grown disillusioned with the churches in and around New York, and so he went into the woods to gather his thoughts and to pray. According to the story, God the Father and the Son both appeared to Smith in bodily form, claiming that all the churches has apostasized, and that he need not join any of them. 

In  a copy of the Book of Mormon that I own, we read what happened later on to Smith on September 21, 1823: "While I was thus in the act of calling upon God, I discovered a light appearing in my room, which continued to increase until the room was lighter than at noonday, when immediately a personage appeared at my bedside, standing in the air, for his feet did not touch the floor." This alleged heavenly visitor was an angel by the name of Moroni, who told Smith of a set of golden plates that were deposited in a secret place. Written upon the plates of gold was an alleged history of the Jews migrating to the Americas and various appearances of Jesus to them. The angel then told Smith that with the plates were two stones, the "Urim and Thummim" that could be used to translate the golden plates. 

As one reads on down through Smith's testimony, he claims in 1827 to have found the golden plates and begins dictating the revelation on them to one of the chief witnesses attested in Mormon history, Oliver Cowdery. In every copy of the Book of Mormon, the reader can view a written testimony by Cowdery and two other men (David Whitmer and Martin Harris) as having seen the alleged plates. 

So with the revelation of the plates in 1827, Joseph Smith gains alleged insights and claimed visitations from Biblical figures as John the Baptist, Peter, James and John about how Smith was to restore the Levitical and Melchizedekian priesthoods. As Smith's movement picks up momentum and followers, the group moves from New York to Nauvoo, Illinois in 1839. The group splinters and 600 followers go with Bringham Young to Utah in the 1840's. By 1850, "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints" is formed to become one of the largest religious movements in the world.

To summarize the Book of Mormon itself, an introductory section in one edition of the book reads: "The Book of Mormon is comprised of fifteen main parts or divisions, known with one exception as books, each designated by the name of its principal author. Of these, the first six books, namely, First Nephi, Second Nephi, Jacob, Enos, Jarom and Omni, are translations from the Smaller Plates of Nephi. Between the books of Omni and Mosiah, we find 'The Words of Mormon', connecting the record of Nephi, connecting the record of Nephi, as engraved in the smaller plates, with Mormon's abridgment of the Larger Plates for the periods following." 

Mormon had been, according to Mormon historians, a prophet of long ago who had a son, Moroni. Moroni was the one who allegedly appeared to Joseph Smith in angelic form and relayed to him the revelation of the Book of Mormon. The storyline is about how the Jews fled from Jerusalem in 587 b.c, crossed the ocean to the Americas and thus became the ancestors of two Indian tribes and their subsequent lives from 600 B.C to 400 A.D. The Book of Mormon retells the alleged post-resurrection appearances of Jesus to these peoples in America and how Joseph Smith and the Latter Day Saints are restorers of the lost message of Jesus and his followers.  

How does the Book of Mormon perform under the three tests of accuracy about the past, future and God?

In the edition of the Book of Mormon that I own, there are 524 pages of texts which average out to less than 295,000 words or roughly twice as large as the average New Testament. The above storyline and testimony of Joseph Smith makes some big claims of Divine inspiration. We could certainly detail the highly controversial history of Joseph Smith himself, but that will have to remain for another post. What we want to know is whether or nor the Book of Mormon is the Word of God like the Bible. To test these claims, we can note the following three tests as already outlined above:

1. Is the past accurately described. Isaiah 41:21-22a

Isaiah 41:22-22a states - "Set forth your case, says the Lord; bring your proofs, says the King of Jacob.
22 Let them bring them, and tell us
what is to happen. Tell us the former things, what they are, that we may consider them, that we may know their outcome." Despite the numerous peoples and place names mentioned in the Book of Mormon, there is not one archaeological or geographical confirmation of evidence. Conspicuously absent from the Book of Mormon are maps of any of the locations mentioned in the book or in any of Joseph's Smith's other writings. For example, on the Mormon's official website, one can actually view what are called "The Joseph Smith Papers", where Smith identified Daviess County, Missouri as the place where Adam blessed his posterity after he had fled from the Garden of Eden. No (reputable) archaeological evidence nor map (produced outside the context of Mormon scholarship) can trace the connection between the ground in Daviess County, Missouri to the Garden of Eden in the Fertile Crescent near the Euphrates River Valley on the other side of the globe!

When you look in a Bible, there is always accompanying maps that one can use to trace the journeys of Abraham or the ministry journeys of Jesus or Paul. However, whenever you look at the Book of Mormon, there are no maps, indicating that there is no evidence of any migration of Jews from Israel to America nor any of the details of lost tribes as recorded in the Book of Mormon. The Bible on the other hand has hundreds of confirmations of its historical details in both archaeology and geography. When the Bible has been used to reconstruct history, it has always been accurate. So on this test, the Book of Mormon is shown wanting.

2. Is the future accurately predicted. Isaiah 41:22b-23

We read in Isaiah 41:22b-23   "or declare to us the things to come.23 Tell us what is to come hereafter, that we may know that you are gods; do good, or do harm, that we may be dismayed and terrified." Having read the Book of Mormon in times past, as well as information from scholars who have studied the book in detail, the test is failed in the fact that not one example of fulfilled prophecy can be found. In the accompanying volumes to the Book of Mormon (the Pearl of Great Price and Doctrine & Covenants), there is no example of fulfilled prophecy. 

When we turn to the Bible on the other hand, we find literally dozens and hundreds of examples of fulfilled prophecy in history. In past posts we have witnessed how the prophecies concerning Tyre in Ezekiel 26-28, Israel's time table in Daniel 9:23-27 and Jesus' prophecies about the destruction of Jerusalem in Matthew 24 are verified fulfilled in history. Jewish Historians such as Flavius Josephus, Roman Historians such as Tactius and Greek Historians such as Herodotus can be consulted to cross check the historical and prophetic fulfillment of these Biblical prophecies and others. 

3. What does the book have to say about God. Deuteronomy 18:18-22

So far we have subjected the Book of Mormon to two tests of accuracy in matters of the past and fulfilled prophecy and have found it wanting. The Bible on the other hand consistently passes such tests with robust and numerous examples. As we had noted earlier, whichever document passes the first two tests in its claims to Divine inspiration necessarily demonstrates the reality of the Deity claiming to both reveal and inspire its contents.

Deuteronomy 13:1-3 states - “If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder, 2 and the sign or wonder that he tells you comes to pass, and if he says, ‘Let us go after other gods,’ which you have not known, ‘and let us serve them,’ 3 you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams. For the Lord your God is testing you, to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul." 

The God of the Bible is first of all One in existence. (Deuteronomy 6:4-5; Isaiah 43:10-11). Secondly, the God of the Bible is Three in identity - Father, Son and Holy Spirit. (Matt 28:18-20; 1 Cor 8:6; 2 Cor 13:14) Thirdly, this One God, existing as Three Persons, has revealed His words and purposes in the Bible alone. (Exodus 24:4; Isaiah 41:22; Luke 24:44; 1 Tiim 5:18; 1 Cor 15:3-4; 2 Pet 3:16; Matt 16:18; John 1:1)

Even if we relax the requirements of passing the first two tests on the Book of Mormon, the question is: does the Book of Mormon describe the same God as the origin of its words as the Bible does for its contents? Joseph Smith himself is quoted as saying the following: "I am going to tell you how God came to be a God. We have imagined that God was a God from all eternity. I will refute that idea and take away the veil. He was once a man like us. Yea, that God himself, the father, dwelled on earth the same as Jesus Christ himself did. (Teachings of Joseph Smith). In an edition of the KJV Bible issued forth by the Latter Day Saints, the definition for God in the accompanying Bible dictionary reads accordingly: "From latter day revelation we learn that the Father and the Son have tangible bodies, and that the Holy ghost is a personage of spirit without flesh and bone." (Doctrine and Covenants 130:22-23)

So is Joseph Smith a true prophet? Is his teachings and the Book of Mormon a book of God the same as the Bible? The Old and New Testaments teach that God in the Person of the Father does not have a body of flesh and bones, but is a Spirit (John 4:24) and is not a man that he should lie (Numbers 23:19; Titus 1:2). The Person of the Son shares in the same nature with the Father and is not a separate God or exalted being as taught in Mormonism. Moreover, only the Son came and incarnated Himself in human flesh (Philippians 2:5-11) and thus is deemed God in human flesh (John 1:14). Thirdly, along with the Holy Spirit, the Father and Son exist as One God from all eternity (Psalm 90:2) in contrast to Joseph Smith's denial of God's eternality. So on that score we would have to say Joseph Smith is not a true prophet. 

This brief survey of comparing the Bible and the Book of Mormon and other Mormon literature reveals two different deities spoken by the Bible vs the Book of Mormon. The Bible has been shown consistent in its claims to be the Word of God, and thus the Deity revealed in its pages is the True and Living God. The deity spoken of in the Book of Mormon cannot be the true and living God nor then, can the Book of Mormon be a revealed book worthy of the title: "Word of God".

Conclusion:
Today's post aimed to discover whether the Book of Mormon, with its claims of being the Word of God as revealed to Joseph Smith, is worthy of such claims. Three tests were put forth to evaluate the claims of both the Bible and the Book of Mormon as revealed, Divinely inspired pieces of literature:

1. Is the past accurately described. Isaiah 41:21-22a

2. Is the future accurately predicted. Isaiah 41:22b-23

3. What does the book have to say about God. Deuteronomy 18:18-22

In all three tests, the Book of Mormon and Mormonism's founder, Joseph Smith, failed to demonstrate either claims to Divine inspiration or prophethood. The Bible on the other hand consistently passed all three tests and thus demonstrated itself to be the only Divinely revealed and inspired Book. Hence, the Bible alone is the Word of God. 

Tests for determining true from false miracles - Points to the True God

Deuteronomy 13:1-3a “If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder, 2 and the sign or the wonder comes true, concerning which he spoke to you, saying, ‘Let us go after other gods (whom you have not known) and let us serve them,’3 you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams...".

Introduction and Review

We have been taking time to consider the simple question: what is a miracle? In the past four posts, we have explored various passages of scripture to arrive at a full answer to the question. The proposed answer and definition of a miracle that emerged from our study is the following: "A miracle is an irregular, direct act of God that has attending signs that confirm God's personal identity, message and messenger." 

We labored to show that contrary to what skeptics may say, the world in which we live and the scientific laws used to describe such a world do not exclude the possibility of miracles. Dr. Norman Geisler in his book: "Unshakable Foundations", quotes a helpful insight from C.S Lewis' book "God in the Dock": "This point of scientific method shows (what no one to my knowledge ever denied) that if miracles did occur, science, as science, could not prove, or disprove, their occurrence.What cannot be trusted to recur is not material for science: that is why history is not one of the sciences. You cannot find out what Napoleon did at the battle of Austerlitz by asking him to come and fight again in a laboratory with the same combat - go to the records. We have not, in fact, proved that science excludes miracles: we have only proved that the question of miracles, like innumerable other questions, excludes laboratory treatment."  

From the above quote and the observations made over the past few posts, there can be no doubt that to say there are absolutely no such thing as miracles is not based on scientific findings but rather skeptical worldview assumptions. 

With the above point made clear, and the definition of a miracle stated, we need to explore whether or not we can tell the difference between "true miracles" and counterfeits. Why? Because other non-Christian religions make claims to miracles. Mormonism for instance claims that Joseph Smith was a prophet and that the "Book of Mormon" was a revelation from God. Mormons will claim that their religion is a continuation of Biblical Christianity and actually corrects some of what was lost in the ensuing 2,000 year history of the Christian church. Can such claims be truly evaluated? This blogger thinks they can. This blogger will propose that three tests from the Bible can evaluate whether a given miracle claim (whether it be a sign, wonder, working, revelation or vision) that claims to be from God is actually from God. Today's post will consider the first of those tests.

How to tell the difference between true and false miracles

True miracles point to the True God

In our proposed definition for miracles we stated: "A miracle is an irregular, direct act of God that has attending signs the confirm God's personal identity, message and messenger." Out of all the words in this definition, the most important one is the term "God". When looking at a potentially miraculous event, we need to ask whether or not the miracle points us to the God of the Bible or to a demonic source. Deuteronomy 13:1-3 is an interesting text in that it does not deny the possibility of false prophets and counterfeit miracles. 

In the opening text of today's post, the assertion being made by Moses is that just because a miraculous event has been done does not necessarily mean God is the source of it. The key phrase in the passage is found in Deuteronomy 13:2, where the worker of the alleged miracle tells the people to go after other gods and serve them. According to the remainder of Deuteronomy 13:3, we read that God in His Sovereignty permits such activity to test the people to see where their heart are at. 

So a counterfeit miracle will not point to the true and living God but rather will point to the demonic forces behind such counterfeit signs. Let the reader be reminded that any god or deity worshiped by man is a demon (1 Corinthians 10) and is not the True and Living God of scripture. 

So would Joseph's Smith's alleged visions, Book of Mormon and the other Mormon literature (Pearl of Great Price and Doctrine and Covenants) pass the above test? In having read those documents, we discover from Mormonism that God is not the One God revealed in Three Persons of the Bible. Rather the Mormon deity is a multitude of gods that were men who became deified. The god over this world of ours was, in Mormon teaching, a man like us who became a god. The Mormon Jesus is going through the process of development. Just by viewing the Mormon teaching on God, we discover that their view of deity and the Biblically revealed God are totally different, thus marking Mormonism as a non-biblical religion and the Book of Mormon and its attendant volumes as books of a man's imagination. 

In a future post we will consider another test we can use to determine if a given miracle claim is a true miracle from God or a fraud.

P6 Christianity vs Mormonism - Doctrine of Sin

Romans 5:12-13 Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned— ¹³ for until the Law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law.

The intent of this particular blog series has been to carry out, in an informative yet evangelistic manner, a comparison between Mormonism and Biblical Christianity. Today's blog will conclude this series on comparing Christianity to Mormonism.  The one question we have aimed to ask in every post has been: "is Mormonism another Christian denomination or is it a non-Christian system of belief? Thus far the findings have shown Mormonism to be totally incompatible with Christianity in the following five areas:

1. Doctrine of God
2. Doctrine of Jesus Christ
3. Doctrine of the Word of God
4. Doctrine of Salvation
5. Doctrine of Man

We have appealed mostly to an article entitled: "Always Ready, Sharing the Gospel with your Mormon Friends" , found in the March 2012 issue of "SBC Life" (an online magazine accessible through the website: www.sbc.net). Additonally, these blogs have utilized primary source materials from the Mormon website lds.org and the Southern Baptist Website sbc.net. My aim in this entire series has been to balance honesty and fairness with a heart to share the Gospel with those involved in Mormonism. There are many more areas we could cover, and may very well do so in future blogs.  However for today we will compare what both have to say about the doctrine of sin.

What Biblical Christianity defines sin to be
When you read Psalm 51, you get a summary of the three most common ways the Bible explains the concept of sin: "sin", "iniquity" and "transgression" (tresspass). 1 The article "Always Ready, Sharing the Gospel with your Mormon Friends" has this to say about the Biblical view of sin: "Human beings are sinners by nature and by choice. All have sinned against God, rejecting His nature, and pursing life opposed to His essential character and revealed law. Romans 3:1-23; 7:14-25; Ephesians 2:1-5; 1 John 1:8-10

The SBC doctrinal statement has this to say about sin: "By his free choice man sinned against God and brought sin into the human race. Through the temptation of Satan man transgressed the command of God, and fell from his original innocence whereby his posterity inherit a nature and an environment inclined toward sin. Therefore, as soon as they are capable of moral action, they become transgressors and are under condemnation. Only the grace of God can bring man into His holy fellowship and enable man to fulfill the creative purpose of God."2

What Mormonism defines sin to be
When we compare the above statements to what we see Mormonism teaching on sin, the article "Always Ready, Sharing the Gospel with your Mormon Friends" explains:

"People sin by disobedience to God's laws. Adam's fall, a part of Heavenly Father's plan, caused a loss of immortality, which was necessary for mankind to advance. According to LDS scripture, Eve declared "Were it not for our transgression we never should have . . . known good and evil, and the joy of our redemption, and the eternal life which God giveth unto all the obedient" (Pearl of Great Price [PGP], Moses 5:11). Each person is responsible for his or her own sin."

From what we can gather, Mormonism teaches that people are sinners because they sin.  The Bible on the other hand teaches that people sin because they are sinners.  This is a major difference, since sin is not viewed as having to do with the fallen nature of man insomuch as it is man behaving badly.  As we saw the other day, Mormonism's view of salvation is the following:

"The Mormon plan of salvation is built on the premise that all people have eternal life, but only the most faithful Mormons enter the celestial kingdom. Jesus' atonement provided immortality for all people. Exaltation (godhood) is available only to Mormons through obedience to LDS teachings: faith in the god of Mormonism, baptism in the LDS church, endowments, celestial marriage, and tithing. 3

Conclusion
Therefore the problem of Mormonism's view of sin is that it does not take into consideration the desperate state of the fall.  The problem is that sin has not merely affected mankind's behavior, but also his mind, emotions and will.  If all that sin requires is an organized system of man-made religion to modify negative behavior, then the cross is truly an unnecessary add-on, and thus Christ died for nothing.  As the Apostle Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 1:17  "For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power."

Endnotes___________________________

1. The word "sin" itself refers to someone falling short of a target - thus mankind at his best still falls short of the glory of God. (Romans 3:23) Secondly, the word "transgression" or "tresspass" means to slip off of the beaten path or to cross the line with God. Then finally, "iniquity" refers to a repeated, longstanding, willfull sin pattern. Like a spiritual corpse, man is dead in his trespasses and sin. (Romans 3:10-23) Man is not merely a sick patient in need of some medicine, nor an ignorant creature in need of enlightenment, but rather a spiritual corpse in need of a spiritual resurrection. (John 5:24-25)

2. The scriptures used by Article III in the BFM 2000 are as follows:
Genesis 1:26-30; 2:5,7,18-22; 3; 9:6; Psalms 1; 8:3-6; 32:1-5; 51:5; Isaiah 6:5; Jeremiah 17:5; Matthew 16:26; Acts 17:26-31; Romans 1:19-32; 3:10-18,23; 5:6,12,19; 6:6; 7:14-25; 8:14-18,29; 1 Corinthians 1:21-31; 15:19,21-22; Ephesians 2:1-22; Colossians 1:21-22; 3:9-11.

3. March 2012 SBC Today article: "Always Ready, Sharing the Gospel with your Mormon Friends"

P5 Christianity vs. Mormonism - Doctrine of Man

Hebrews 2:5,8 (5) For He did not subject to angels the world to come, concerning which we are speaking. ⁶ But one has testified somewhere, saying, “What is man, that You remember him? Or the son of man, that You are concerned about him? (9) But we do see Him who was made for a little while lower than the angels, namely, Jesus, because of the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, so that by the grace of God He might taste death for everyone.

The intent of this particular blog series has been to carry out, in an informative yet evangelistic manner, a comparison between Mormonism and Biblical Christianity. The one question we have aimed to ask in every post has been: "is Mormonism another Christian denomination or is it a non-Christian system of belief?  Thus far the findings have shown Mormonism to be totally incompatible with Christianity in the following four areas:

1. Doctrine of God
2. Doctrine of Jesus Christ
3. Doctrine of the Word of God
4. Doctrine of Salvation

We have classified the above four areas as the "short-list' for evaluating the truth or error of any given belief system - including Mormonism.  What follows in today's blog are other important doctrinal areas that scripture communicates.  We have appealed mostly to an article entitled: "Always Ready, Sharing the Gospel with your Mormon Friends" , found in the March 2012 issue of "SBC Life" (an online magazine accessible through the website: www.sbc.net). Additonally, these blogs have utilized primary source materials from the Mormon website lds.org and the Southern Baptist Website sbc.net. My aim in this entire series has been to balance honesty and fairness with a heart to share the Gospel with those involved in Mormonism.  In today's post we will compare what both have to say about the doctrine of man.

Biblical Christianity's view of man
Today will begin today's blog by noting the above text quoted from Hebrews 2.  The writer of Hebrews bases Christ's capability to be our Savior by the work He did in becoming a man by way of the virgin birth - what is termed "the incarnation" (in the flesh).  His ability to save derives from His full undiminished Deity, His capability derives from the full humanity He assumed upon Himself at the virgin birth.  How we understand the nature and creation of humanity will determine how we understand the work of Christ as it touches His humanity, as well as evaluating whether or not Christianity and Mormonism can truly be deemed compatible. 

Article III of The Baptist Faith & Message 2000 states the following about man:

"Man is the special creation of God, made in His own image. He created them male and female as the crowning work of His creation. The gift of gender is thus part of the goodness of God's creation. In the beginning man was innocent of sin and was endowed by his Creator with freedom of choice. By his free choice man sinned against God and brought sin into the human race. Through the temptation of Satan man transgressed the command of God, and fell from his original innocence whereby his posterity inherit a nature and an environment inclined toward sin. Therefore, as soon as they are capable of moral action, they become transgressors and are under condemnation. Only the grace of God can bring man into His holy fellowship and enable man to fulfill the creative purpose of God. The sacredness of human personality is evident in that God created man in His own image, and in that Christ died for man; therefore, every person of every race possesses full dignity and is worthy of respect and Christian love."1

The article cited at the beginning of this blog: "Always Ready, Sharing the Gospel with your Mormon Friends", states the following about mankind:

"Human beings are the crowning act of God's good creation, created in God's image by God Himself. Each person is a unique being of dignity and worth, formed by God in his or her mother's womb. Human beings are not gods. Genesis 1:26-27; Isaiah 31:3; 44:2; Psalm 139

When we sum up the Biblical teaching on man, we discover the following basic facts:
1. Man was created in this world by God out of the dust of the ground and all human beings begin life in conception in the womb. There is no concept of man's physical pre-existence prior to this world. (Genesis 1:26-28; Genesis 2:7; Psalm 8, 51; Jeremiah 1:5)

2. Man is a soul, containing a spirit, clothed with a body. This means that man is created with the needed to capacity to know God as a spiritual being (i.e his spirit), the ability to know himself in his soul (mind, emotions and will) and to interract with this world (i.e his bodily five senses). (1 Thessalonians 5:23; Hebrews 4:12)  Human beings at the end of history will be raised with transformed bodies that will either be raised to glory like Christ (for believers) or contempt (for unbelievers).

3. God and man are in totally different categories, meaning God is infinite, man is finite; God has no beginning and end, man has a beginning and will continue either in hell as an unbeliever or heaven as a redeemed in Christ by faith; God is Spirit, no physical parts, whereas man is physical and spiritual in nature.

Mormonism's view of man
 The article: "Always Ready, Sharing the Gospel with your Mormon Friends", states the following about Mormonism's view of mankind:

"People are the preexisted spiritual offspring of the Heavenly Father and Mother. "All men and women are . . . literally the sons and daughters of Deity. . . . Man, as a spirit, was begotten and born of heavenly parents, and reared to maturity in the eternal mansions of the Father, prior to coming upon the earth in a temporal (physical) body" (Smith, "The Origin of Man," Improvement Era, November. 1909, pp. 78, 80, as quoted in GP, p. 11). A commonly quoted Mormon aphorism (attributed to fifth LDS president Lorenzo Snow) says, "As man is, god once was; as god is, man may become." Every person has the potential of becoming a god by keeping the requirements of Mormonism."

When you compare the Mormon view of man with the Bible, you find conflict at every turn.2  

The conflict that exists between the Bible and Mormonism's three religious books
With such profound differences on the doctrine of man at every turn, how can the Bible on the one hand and Mormonism's three other books on the other be deemed God's Word when both groups of books differ significantly on such a fundamental issue as the nature of humanity? Frankly only one can be right, and the other wrong.  As we have been saying in this series: If I get God wrong, I get Jesus wrong.  If I have the wrong Jesus, it is due to having the wrong book and thus no salvation.  Consequently to be incorrect on the doctrine of man leads to an incorrect view of salvation, Jesus Christ and knowing the difference between God and man. 

Conclusion
Just as we have witnessed in the doctrines of God, Christ, the Bible and Salvation, Mormonism and Christianity differ prfoundly in the realm of the doctrine of man (also called anthropology).  In closing out today's blog we offer two more witnessing tips from the article: "Always Ready, Sharing the Gospel with your Mormon Friends":

-"Use the Bible itself to show what Scripture teaches about salvation as God's act of grace through faith in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus."

-"When a Mormon uses the Bible or cites a Bible verse, ask him or her to read the verses aloud in their complete contexts."


Endnotes__________________

1. The Baptist Faith & Message 2000 offers these cross references concerning the doctrine of man:
Genesis 1:26-30; 2:5,7,18-22; 3; 9:6; Psalms 1; 8:3-6; 32:1-5; 51:5; Isaiah 6:5; Jeremiah 17:5; Matthew 16:26; Acts 17:26-31; Romans 1:19-32; 3:10-18,23; 5:6,12,19; 6:6; 7:14-25; 8:14-18,29; 1 Corinthians 1:21-31; 15:19,21-22; Ephesians 2:1-22; Colossians 1:21-22; 3:9-11.

2. Mormonism teaches man had a pre-existence as a spirit child that then was born as a physical being, whereas Scripture teaches man has no physical pre-existence. Second, the Biblical final state of man in eternity is as either a redeemed believer, resurrected with God and Christ and ultimatley in the New Heavens, or as a resurrected suffering unbeliever the lake of fire. Mormonism proposes a continual development of man into a being like God. Then thirdly, Christianity sees an infinite difference between God and man, whereas Mormonism sees man as a god in transition to final godhood.

P4 Christianity vs Mormonism: Doctrine of Salvation

1 John 4:4-6 "You are from God, little children, and have overcome them; because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world. ⁵ They are from the world; therefore they speak as from the world, and the world listens to them. ⁶ We are from God; he who knows God listens to us; he who is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error."

The intent of this particular blog series has been to carry out a comparison between Mormonism and Biblical Christianity in an informative yet evangelistic manner.  The one question we have aimed to ask in every post has been: "is Mormonism another Christian denomination or is it a non-Christian system of belief?  In light of 1 John 4:1-6 we have been testing the spiritual claims of Mormonism to see if it is a restored form of the true Gospel.  Thus far the findings have shown Mormonism to be totally incompatible with Christianity in the following three areas:

1. Doctrine of God
2. Doctrine of Jesus Christ
3. Doctrine of the Word of God

We have appealed mostly to an article entitled: "Always Ready, Sharing the Gospel with your Mormon Friends" , found in the March 2012 issue of "SBC Life" (an online magazine accessible through the website: www.sbc.net).  Additonally, these blogs have utilized primary source materials from the Mormon website lds.org and the Southern Baptist Website sbc.net.  My aim in this entire series has been to balance honesty and fairness with a heart to share the Gospel with those involved in Mormonism. 

Today's post will focus on what Mormonism and Christianity each have to say about the very important subject of salvation.  Again we begin with a quote from the article: "Always Ready, Sharing the Gospel with you Mormon Friends".

Mormonism vs Christianity on the Doctrine of Salvation
The Doctrine of Salvation - Historic Christianity
"Salvation is release from the guilt and power of sin through God's gift of grace. Prompted by God's love, salvation is provided through the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the Cross and is received by personal faith in Christ as Savior and Lord. John 3:1-18; Acts 4:12; 13:38-39; 20:20-21; Romans 3:20-28; 10:9-13; Ephesians 2:8-10"

In Article IV of The Baptist Faith & Message 2000 we see the following definition of salvation:

"Salvation involves the redemption of the whole man, and is offered freely to all who accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour, who by His own blood obtained eternal redemption for the believer.....There is no salvation apart from personal faith in Jesus Christ as Lord."

As you can see, salvation hinges upon accepting by grace through faith Jesus Christ.  We must in the context of this blog series specify which Jesus, since the Mormon Jesus and the True Jesus are two totally different persons.  Jesus Christ alone is the necessary and sufficient grounds of salvation and faith alone is the sufficient and necessary means of receiving salvation.  So how does Mormonism define salvation?  The article "Always Ready, Sharing the Gospel with you Mormon Friends" explains:

Mormonism's view of salvation
"The Mormon plan of salvation is built on the premise that all people have eternal life, but only the most faithful Mormons enter the celestial kingdom. Jesus' atonement provided immortality for all people. Exaltation (godhood) is available only to Mormons through obedience to LDS teachings: faith in the god of Mormonism, baptism in the LDS church, endowments, celestial marriage, and tithing.
Additionally, Mormons must keep the "Word of Wisdom" by abstaining from alcohol, tobacco, and caffeine; attend weekly sacrament meetings; support the Mormon prophet; do temple works; and be active in their support of the church. Some of the blessings given to exalted people include:
1. They will live eternally in the presence of Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ.
2. They will become gods.
3. They will have their righteous family members with them and will be able to have spirit children also. These spirit children will have the same relationship to them as we do to our Heavenly Father.
4. They will have everything that our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ have—all power, glory, dominion, and knowledge (See GP, p. 302).
5. They will receive a fullness of joy.
Baptism or "immersion performed by the living for the dead," provides post-mortem salvation for non-Mormons. This ordinance is "performed in temples" (GP, p. 375)."

The Mormon gospel is so profoundly different from the Biblical Gospel as to be no gospel at all.  The Mormon Jesus who is supposed to be their Savior functions as a backdrop to the true grounds of Mormon salvation: participation in the Mormon system of belief.  The failure of Mormonism to be a saving message is the fact that it believes in the wrong God, revealed by a wrong Jesus, out of a wrong set of books (Pearl of Great Price, Book of Mormon, Doctrine & Covenants). 

Conclusion

We have discovered that Mormonism is a non-Christian system of belief based upon its different doctrines of God, Christ, the Word of God and salvation.  I would urge the reader to read the entire March 2012 SBC Life article from which we have been drawing much of our material in this series.  The article covers many other areas that detail the profound differences between Christianity and Mormonism.  I leave the reader with some final tips on sharing the Gospel with Mormon from the resource: "Always Ready, Sharing the Gospel with you Mormon Friends" .

-"Don't hesitate to repeat the basics of the Gospel again and again in your conversation. The Gospel of Christ is "the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes" (Romans 1:16)."

-"Do not feel like a failure if your friend does not come to faith in Christ after a single witness. Very few followers of Jesus were saved the first time they heard the Gospel."

More Tomorrow.....

P3 Christianity vs Mormonism - Doctrine of God's Word

1 John 4:4-6 You are from God, little children, and have overcome them; because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world. ⁵ They are from the world; therefore they speak as from the world, and the world listens to them. ⁶ We are from God; he who knows God listens to us; he who is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.

Review
For the past couple posts we have been working through a series of comparisons between Biblical Christianity and Mormonism. The simple question we are asking is this: is Mormonism another Christian denomination or is it a non-Christian religion? In exploring the Doctrine of God, we discovered that Mormonism and Biblical Christianity are completely different.  Likewise in yesterday's post we saw two profoundly different ideas about Jesus Christ.  Thus far in this study we have discovered profound differences that both have over the doctrines of God and Christ:1

Comparing Christianity and Mormonism on what constitutes God's word
Having seen profound contrasts in the doctrines of God and Christ, can we see any differences in their views of what qualifies as Divinely inspired scripture?  We once again will appeal to the article: "Always Ready, Sharing the Gospel with your Mormon Friends", which is in the March 2012 issue of the online journal: "SBC Life", which is accessible through the SBC website: www.sbc.net. 

"The Doctrine of Scripture and Authority - Historic Christianity
The Bible (Old and New Testaments) is the unique, revealed, inspired, inerrant Word of God. It is the sole authority for faith and practice for Christians, thoroughly equipping the believer for every good work. The Bible explicitly warns against adding to or detracting from its teaching.
Deuteronomy 4:2; 2 Timothy 3:15-17; 2 Peter 1:19-21; Revelation 22:18"

As the above quote indicates, the historic Christian view of scripture is that the Bible Alone is the unique, revealed, inspired and inerrant word of God.2  In the Baptist Faith and Message 2000 we see much the same description in its article on the Bible.  For the sake of the reader I have tried to underscore the pertinent words in red lettering for ease of comparison:

The Holy Bible was written by men divinely inspired and is God's revelation of Himself to man. It is a perfect treasure of divine instruction. It has God for its author, salvation for its end, and truth, without any mixture of error, for its matter. Therefore, all Scripture is totally true and trustworthy. It reveals the principles by which God judges us, and therefore is, and will remain to the end of the world, the true center of Christian union, and the supreme standard by which all human conduct, creeds, and religious opinions should be tried. All Scripture is a testimony to Christ, who is Himself the focus of divine revelation.

Now why labor so hard on this particular matter of Biblical inerrancy? For several reasons.  First, the Mormon's founder Joseph Smith claimed to had been given revelation from God that would reclaim the true form of Christianity.  Second, Mormonism's claim to be the rediscover and restoration of the Gospel lost for nearly two millennia includes its claims about the what constitutes divinely inspired scripture.  As will be shown, Mormonism denies the inerrancy of the Bible and claims other books to be the Word of God alongside the Bible.  Again we consider the resource: "Always Ready, Sharing the Gospel with you Mormon Friends"-

Mormonism's view of what constitutes God's Word
"Four books are regarded as authoritative scripture. These include the King James Version of the Bible "as far as it is translated correctly." Smith made more than "six hundred corrections" to its text. Other "standard works" include the Book of Mormon, which Smith declared is "the most correct of any book on earth, and the keystone of our religion, and a man would get nearer to God by abiding by its precepts, than by any other book"; the Doctrine and Covenants, "a collection of modern revelations . . . regarding The Church of Jesus Christ as it has been restored in these last days"; and the Pearl of Great Price, a book that "clarifies doctrines and teachings that were lost from the Bible and gives added information concerning the creation of the earth." The Book of Mormon alleges to have the "fullness of the gospel," telling the story of a supposed migration of Israelites in 600 BC to the American continent. These Israelites lapsed into apostasy, but their story was preserved on golden plates written in Reformed Egyptian, an otherwise unknown language. After Smith translated the plates by the "gift and power of God," they were returned to the angel Moroni who returned them to heaven. The church's president is regarded as "a seer, a revelator, a translator, and a prophet" (D&C 107:91-92).

Joseph Smith evidenced a denial of belief in the inerrancy and sufficiency of scripture from the beginning. Such a belief is necessary in order to make his three man-made works fit into the Mormon view of authority.  A more modern-day example comes from a 2001 address to the Harvard Divinity School by Robert L/ Millet, former head of religious education at Bringham Young University, wherein he openly denies of the inerrancy of scripture.3 

The question that needs to be asked is this: if the Bible is neither inerrant nor sufficient in its revelation of Jesus Christ or any other detail, then how can one claim it to be reliable? Whenever inerrancy of the Bible is denied, it is guaranteed that some other man-made document will be placed above it.4 

Conclusion
Once again we find incompatibility between Mormonism and Biblical Christianity.  Why make such a big deal over the doctrine of scripture?  Here is why: If you have the wrong Book, you have the wrong Jesus.  Furthermore, if you have the wrong Jesus, you fail to know the only and True God who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  Consequently then, the wrong book, the wrong Jesus and the wrong God leads you to having no chance of salvation.  As with the other past posts, I want to close out with two more suggestions from the SBC Life article: "Always Ready, Sharing the Gospel with your Mormon Friends:

- "Share the plan of salvation with your Mormon friend. Emphasize that salvation is a gift to be received, not a merit to be earned."

- "Disarm your Mormon friend with multiple acts of kindness. Develop a first-name relationship. Speak the truth in love. When you show kindness, you deal from strength through the power of the Holy Spirit."

Endnotes____________________

1. Consider the respective differences between the doctrine of God and Jesus Christ in Mormonism vs Christianity:

A. Mormonism presents a deity that is an exalted man-like spiritual being that works alongside a lesser man-like spiritual being which was begotten/created by him. This lesser being is what Mormon's claim to be Jesus. This Mormon Jesus came to earth and was born, lived, died and lived again. By not being fully God, the Mormon version of Jesus was shown to not be truly human, since the Mormon writings conflict with the Bible on the nature of human beings. The Mormon Jesus is incoherent and leads to idolatry, thus not proving to be the genuine Jesus of the Bible.

B. Biblical Christianity teaches that God is One in Being and Three in identity - Father, Son and Holy Spirit. God the Son not only pre-existed in eternity, but has always been co-equal with the Father. As being truly God as much as the Father, the Son (also called the Word) chose to come in the virgin birth in order to become a fully human man. By being the Word made flesh, Jesus Christ is truly the manifestation of God in human flesh. Touching His Deity, the Son has always been God. Touching his humanity, Jesus was virgin- born over 2,000 years ago. Only this Jesus, and no other, can be deemed the True and only Savior of the world.

2. Lest anyone think that the doctrine of inerrancy is a recent invention of conservative Bible believing Christians within the past two centuries, let the reader consider the following quotes from the earliest Christian leaders on the nature of the Bible:
-Clement of Rome "The utterances of the Holy Ghost" (90-100 AD)
-Clement of Alexandria "Received from God through the scriptures" (150-211 A.D)
-Origen "The authorship of the Holy Spirit precludes mistakes by the human authors" (185-254 A.D)
-Irenaeus "scripture is the perfection of God's words" (200)
-Polycarp "scripture is the voice of the Most High God" (65-156 A.D)
-Tertullian "the writings and words of God" (160-225 A.D)
-Samuel Rutherford "The Bible is surer than direct oracle from Heaven" (1600-1661)
-John Calvin (1483-1546), John Knox (1509-1546), George Whitfield (1510-1572), John Wesley (1714-1770) and Chalmers (1703-1791) also held to the inerrancy of the scriptures and the Bible alone being the word of God. 

3. Millet is quoted as saying: "We believe the accounts of Jesus' life and ministry recorded in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John in the New Testament to be historical and truthful.  For us the Jesus of history is the Christ of faith.  While we do not believe the Bible to be inerrant, complete or the final word of God, we accept the essential details of the Gospels and more particularly the divine witness of those men who walked and talked with Him or were mentored by His chosen apostles."  The transcript of this address is available on the Mormon official website lds.org.

4. Mormons often claim that the Bible is the word of God "in-so-far as it is right translated", however their claim about Joseph's Smith's "Book of Mormon" comes from Joseph Smith himself, wherein he stated that the Book of Mormon is the most perfect book on earth. 

P2 Christianity vs Mormonism: Doctrine of Christ

1 John 4:1-3 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. ² By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God; ³ and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world.

Yesterday we began a new blog series wherein we compared Christianity and Mormonism.  The simple question we are asking is this: is Mormonism another Christian denomination or is it a non-Christian religion? In exploring the Doctrine of God, we discovered that Mormonism and Biblical Christianity are completely different.  Will that profound difference hold up as we continue in today's post about what each believes about the Person of Jesus Christ?

Christianity vs Mormonism on the Doctrine of Christ
In the March 2012 issue of the online periodical "SBC Life" (the link to SBC Life is on the SBC website: www.sbc.net), there is an informative article entitled: "Always Ready, Sharing the Gospel with you Mormon Friends".   From that article we read the following statement about the Historical and Biblical Christian Doctrine of Christ:


 
The Doctrine of Jesus Christ - Historic Christianity
"Jesus Christ is the eternal Word, coexistent and coeternal with the Father and Holy Spirit. In His incarnation, He was conceived supernaturally by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. He possesses two natures, human and divine, in His One Person. He lived a sinless life, died on the cross as a willing sacrifice for the sins of humanity, and was raised from the dead. He will come again to the earth and reign as King of kings. Luke 1-2; John 1:1-18; 8:56-59; Philippians 2:6-11; Colossians 1:13-22; Hebrews 1:3; 13:8"

In 2000, the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) drafted the final and complete copy of the doctrinal statement: Baptist Faith and Message 2000 (BFM 2000).  For sake of comparison, I highlighted the pertinent details for today's blog in red, and did the same in the below quote from Article II of the BFM 2000 on the doctrine of Jesus Christ:

"Christ is the eternal Son of God. In His incarnation as Jesus Christ He was conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. Jesus perfectly revealed and did the will of God, taking upon Himself human nature with its demands and necessities and identifying Himself completely with mankind yet without sin. He honored the divine law by His personal obedience, and in His substitutionary death on the cross He made provision for the redemption of men from sin. He was raised from the dead with a glorified body and appeared to His disciples as the person who was with them before His crucifixion. He ascended into heaven and is now exalted at the right hand of God where He is the One Mediator, fully God, fully man, in whose Person is effected the reconciliation between God and man. He will return in power and glory to judge the world and to consummate His redemptive mission. He now dwells in all believers as the living and ever present Lord."

The highlighted phrases underscore three essential truths about Biblical Christianity's protrayal of Jesus: 1. One Person 2. Who is Divine 3. and who came to also become fully human.  This understanding of Jesus Christ, derived from the scriptures, is core to the Gospel.  If Jesus Christ is not fully God, He cannot be the source of salvation.  Secondly, if Jesus Christ is not fully man, then He could not had been capable of shedding innocent blood on behalf of guilty sinners.  Then finally, if Jesus Christ had not remained one Person, nor if He did not retain His full Humanity and full Deity following His resurrection, then He could not be the true Mediator.  Now let's take a comparitive look at the Mormon view of Jesus as detailed by the article "Always Ready, Sharing the Gospel with you Mormon Friends":

Mormonism's belief about the doctrine of Christ 
"Jesus was Heavenly Father's first born spirit child: "Every person who was ever born on earth was our spirit brother or sister in heaven. The first spirit born to our heavenly parents was Jesus Christ, so he is literally our elder brother" (Gospel Principles [GP], p. 11)." As the physical offspring of God, he is "the only person on earth to be born of a mortal mother and an immortal father" (GP, p. 64). His atonement (death and resurrection) provides immortality for all people regardless of their faith. "Christ thus overcame physical death. Because of his atonement, everyone born on this earth will be resurrected. . . . This condition is called immortality. All people who ever lived will be resurrected, 'both old and young, both bond and free, both male and female, both the wicked and the righteous'" (The Book of Mormon, Alma 11:44; see also GP, pp. 11, 17-19, 61-77). Some Mormon documents claim that Jesus was married at Cana and had children himself. Mormons teach that Jesus visited the Israelites (Native Americans) in North America after his resurrection and established the true church among them."

The Mormon Jesus is profoundly different.  For one thing, the Mormon doctrine of Jesus is connected to its concept of the doctrine of God.  The Mormon deity is an exalted man with Divine attributes, One among many lesser spiritual like beings. With that said, Mormons teach that Jesus Christ was begotten of this deity and is a divine being with flesh and bones like the One who gave Him life.1  Furthermore, the Mormon Christ is lesser than God, since He is a spirit child (one of many) who was begotten by Him.2

Why the Mormon Jesus is not a saving Jesus
Whenever you deny the full Deity of Jesus Christ, you automatically create an alien theology that leads to idolatry.3  If Jesus is even an exalted created being who is like a god, then only one inevitable result will occur - idolatry.  The god of Mormonism is not the True and Living God of the Bible, as we saw yesterday.  To that statement we can add a second: since the Mormon god is not the True and Living God, then neither is the Mormon Christ the True and Living Savior of the Bible. 

To compound the problem further, I would argue that the Mormon Christ is also not a truly human one.  How so?4 In the Bible, true humanity has a beginning here on earth at conception, with no evidence of physical nor spiritual pre-existence. (Genesis 1:26-28; 2:7; Jeremiah 1:5; Psalm 51)  Herein lies the conflict: if Mormons are to contend for Jesus' true humanity, they need to adhere to the Bible alone and admit that the Mormon writings are in conflict with the Biblical teaching of humanity.  For mankind to have a Savior, that Savior had to be a genuine human being.  Therefore the Mormon Jesus is not entirely human.   

Conclusion So why does today's blog matter?  Here is why: in order to have true salvation, you need to believe in the right Jesus.5 I close today's blog with two more suggestions from the above cited article on how to share the Gospel with Mormons:

- "Present a clear testimony of your faith in Jesus Christ alone for salvation. Use precise language about how you came to trust in Jesus Christ."

- "Familiarize yourself with how Mormon doctrine differs from historic Christian faith"
 
More Tomorrow.......

End Notes______________________

1. Mormonism's concept of Jesus is not unique in history.  Throughout Church history there have been variations on this idea of Jesus being somehow a lesser being than God.  Cerinthius of the 1st century, Arius of the fourth century, various other Christological heresies of the fourth, fifth and eighth centuries and liberalism of the nineteenth century all communicated in varying detail the basic assumption of Jesus Christ being lesser than God the Father.  In Mormonism, the twist is that God Himself is reduced to the rank of exalted man, with Jesus being placed underneath their newly invented deity. 

2. In Mormonism, Jesus was pre-existent spirit child, like everyone else.  In the Mormon writing "Pearl of Great Price", Jesus and Lucifer were actually spiritual brothers so to speak and competed to see who would be the savior of the world.  God or Elohim thought Jesus' plan was better, since it included freewill.  Lucifer rebelled and led one third of the spirit children astray out of the Great Council of Heaven.  

3. According to Isaiah 43:11 the Lord God states: “I, even I, am the Lord, And there is no savior besides Me." When we come to the New Testament, we read statements such as Titus 2:13 - "looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus." As the early Christians wrestled with the two truths of God being One God and Christ's Full Deity, the only proper conclusion to draw was that God is One God, who is Father and Son and Holy Spirit. (compare 1 Corinthians 8:6-7, Acts 5:4-5)

4. In Mormonism, every person at one point was a pre-existent spirit being that was born in this world with no knowledge of their pre-existence. In the Mormon version of Jesus' birth, He already pre-existed as a flesh and bone exalted being created by a flesh and bone deity. 

5. If Jesus Christ is not fully God, He cannot be the source of salvation. Secondly, if Jesus Christ is not fully man, then He could not had been capable of shedding innocent blood on behalf of guilty sinners. Then finally, if Jesus Christ had not remained one Person, nor if He did not retain His fully Humanity and full Deity following His resurrection, then He could not be the true Mediator between God and man. The Mormon Jesus is not the true Jesus, but rather a counterfeit. The warning of Galatians 1:6-7 should alert us to the error of Mormonism: "I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ, for a different gospel; ⁷ which is really not another; only there are some who are disturbing you and want to distort the gospel of Christ.