Saturday April 27, 2013 Identifying Marks of God's Love

Note to the reader: This post is intended for Saturday April 27, 2013, even though it has been posted today, Friday April 26, 2013.  May this blog be used of God to strengthen and encourage the reader to fix their eyes on Jesus, the Author and Finisher of Faith. (Hebrews 12:2)

1 John 4:7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.

The story of the little creek that turned into a mighty river
As a boy I can recall a little creek running through the middle of our property.  In the dry summertime that little creek would get so law as to be barely a trickle.  When playing outside I would often find big rocks and sticks to create dams to see how high the water would get.  Of course the water would dam up and then break the little obstructions I had put in the way.  Over the course of the year, the bottom of that little creek would be littered with big rocks and fallen logs.  When spring came, the heavy rains of April would turn that little creek into a might river.  As the water swelled to overflow the banks, all of the obstructions and debris would wash down stream.  That mighty river was unstoppable, and in its wake was left a clean channel for the little creek to run.

Christians are dry river beds in need of God, the mighty stream
1 John 4 presents to us the mighty river of God's unfailing love.  I am fearful that we as Christians feel like we fully understand and grasp the love of God.  God's love is a mighty ocean in the banks of 1 John 4.  As Christians, we fail to remember that without the Lord, we are Wadis or dry river beds.  Jesus notes this in John 7:37-39 - Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. ³⁸ He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.’” ³⁹ But this He spoke of the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive; for the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified."

Jesus promised that the Father would send the Holy Spirit in His name, a promise which came to pass in Acts 2.  Now that the Holy Spirit is active in the lives of all true Christians, we come to understand that it is He who sheds the love of God abroad in our hearts. (Romans 5:1-5) Literally God by the Person and work of the Spirit is that mighty river.  The Holy Spirit brings through the child of God the mighty torrents of the Father's mighty power and Jesus Christ's incomparable Person. 

We as Christians often have the clutter of life fill our hearts.  We are in need of God the mighty river to clear away whatever is obstructing our growth and passion for Him.

Identifying Marks of God's love
So how can you and I tell when God's love is flowing in our lives and in the lives of others? In using the acrostic l.o.v.e, we can discover from 1 John 4:7-21 the following four traits of God's love:

Lives through the cross.  1 John 4:9,10,19
1 John 4:9-10 states - By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. ¹⁰ In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.  God's love was manifested or shown through the cross.  Romans 5:8 uses the language of "demonstration" to prove what God did in showing His love.  We know that God's love in the sending of His Son was effective in that Christ's finished work "propitiated" or "satisfied" the wrath of God. 

What Jesus Christ as God in human flesh accomplished in six hours on the cross would require the book of Acts and 21 New Testament Epistles to unfold.  The incredible love of God flows unceasingly and unhindered from the cross.  Though the cross is barren, and thought our risen and glorified Savior is at the Father's right hand, the truth of the matter is that God's love lives through and around the cross.  A Christian who is operating in God's love will have the cross in the hearts and Jesus on their lips.  But notice another trait of God's love here in 1 John 4:7-21...

Overcomes anything.  1 John 4:7,12,17,18,20,21
1 John 4:7 states - "Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is ^[a]born of God and knows God."  God the mighty River of love cannot be stopped by anything.  In this section of 1 John we see God's love overcoming the following:

a. Disunity (1 John 4:7,12).  The command to love one another with God's love is the only thing that can diffuse disunity, bitterness and hurt that we so often see in churches today.  My love is limited, His love is unlimited.  My love will make conditions, however God's love has no strings attached.  My love can wane and waver, whereas God's love does not wane and cannot waver.

b. Fear (1 John 4:17,18).  1 John 4:18 tells us that "perfect love cast out all fear".  Whenever you see that phrase "perfect love", of what sort of love is John speaking?  It certainly cannot be human love, since perfection is not attainable in this life.  Only God's love can be deemed without flaw and without limitation.  Every phobia and psychological disorder can be traced back to fear or anger. When Adam and Eve hid in the garden, they hid because they were fearful.  Only God's love can destroy fear.

c. Anger (1 John 4:20-21).  Of the 10,000 times we sin mentioned in the Bible, bitterness or anger against another person is mentioned some 2,000 times.  God warns us about the dangers of anger and bitterness more than any other sin.  This is why we need His love. 

Validated by the Spirit. 1 John 4:13
1 John 4:13 makes this observation - "By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit."  The Holy Spirit is the Third Person of the Triune Godhead - meaning that: a. He is God along with the Father and Son b. He is a Person or "He" c. He comes to abide within every Christian at salvation. (John 14:17,23; 16:8-16; 1 Corinthians 2:12, 3:16, 6:17-18, 8:16-17)  The Holy Spirit in the Christian bears witness of who they are and Whose they are.  Included in this witness of the Spirit is the reality of God's love. (Romans 5:1-5)

Expressed in sound doctrine  1 John 4:14-19
As we close out today's blog, we note that God's love is evidence by life through the cross, overcoming all things and validated by the witness of the Spirit.  In terms of expressing such truth, sound doctrine - and our attitude toward it, will often tell whether or not we have God's love.  If we love God, we will also love His truth.  In 1 John 4:14-19 we see the following sound doctrines:

a. Person of Christ (100% God and 100% man) 4:14-19
b. Work of Christ (you cannot separate His Person from His work) 4:14-19
c. Righteousness of Christ (relying on His act and accomplishment in both His perfect life and substitutionary death) 4:18
d. God's unchanging love 4:19

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.

P1 Christianity vs Mormonism: Doctrine of God

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.

Introduction
Back in 1998 the North American Mission Board, a mission outreach agency of the Southern Baptist Convention dedicated to evangelism in North America, did a thorough study of comparison and contrast between Mormon beliefs and Historic, Biblical Christianity.  Their findings were produced in a document called: "The Interfaith Witness Belief Bulletin on Mormonism", which can be found on the Southern Baptist Website: www.sbc.net.  If you go on the SBC website, type  "mormonism" into the search browser to find the link to the article entitled: "Always Ready, Sharing the Gospel with you Mormon Friends" which contains material from the "Interfaith Witness Belief Bulletin on Mormonism" and is part of the online SBC magazine: "SBC Life", March 2012 issue. 

What has changed since 1998 - a greater need for doctrinal discernment
The reason I make mention of these resources is because for the next few days I will be relying heavily upon them in a series of blogs that will simply be entitled: "Christianity vs. Mormonism".  Obviously a lot has changed since 1998 when it comes to the growth of Mormonism and its level of public exposure and acceptance.  For one thing, the North American Mission Board (NAMB) of the SBC reported in 1998 that Mormons' had a worldwide membership of 9.8 million adherents.  Today, the Mormon website lds.org claims a worldwide membership of over 14 million people, with several million in the U.S. Also too, with the recent increase of Mormon candidates running for public office, as well as the increased attempts by Mormons to appear more Evangelical, the need for discernment is greater than ever. 

The game plan for this series of blogs
In having read through the material on the Mormon's official website, their literature, books and articles, I find the Southern Baptist resources that I mentioned above to be still very helpful and accurate.  Although I will include a few of my own thoughts and some newer information to facillitate understanding, yet the bulk of this blog series will derive from the above cited article so as to avoid reinventing the wheel.   As noted in yesterday's blog, in Christian History heresies have attacked at least four key areas of Bible Doctrine:

1. Doctrine of God
2. Doctrine of Christ
3. Doctrine of Salvation
4. Doctrine of Scripture

Therefore in comparing Christianity and Mormonism, we will evaluate Mormonism by means of those four main areas.  The aim will be simple: to discern whether or not Mormonism is another Christian denomination (as it so claims) or conclude that is a non-Christian belief system.  With those introductory matters stated, let us now compare Christianity vs Mormonism in the first key doctrinal area: The Doctrine of God.

Christianity vs Mormonism on the Doctrine of God
In the March 2012 issue of the SBC Today article : "Always Ready, Sharing the Gospel with you Mormon Friends", we read the following statement about the Historical and Biblical Christian Doctrine of God:

"The Doctrine of God - Historic Christianity
The one God is a Spirit who is the personal, eternal, infinite Creator of all that exists. He is the only God and necessary for all other things to exist. He exists eternally as a Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. He is God and not man. Deuteronomy 6:4; Isaiah 43:10; 44:6-8; Hosea 11:9; Matthew 28:19; John 4:24; 17:3; 1 Timothy 1:17; Jude 1:25"

The above statement matches with what scripture teaches about God.  Furthermore, Article II of the current Baptist Faith & Message 2000 communicates the same truth about God.1  Asserting God as being One in Existence and Three in Identity (i.e The Trinity) lies at the heart of Christian Faith and Life. (Deuteronomy 6:4-5; Matthew 22:37-39); 28:18-20)  Now let us compare what Mormonism claims to understand about the doctrine of God, again quoting from the SBC Life article "Always Ready, Sharing the Gospel with you Mormon Friends":

Mormonism's Doctrine of God
"Elohim (Heavenly Father) is an exalted man with a physical body of flesh and bone who sires spirit children destined for human life on earth. Having kept the requirements of Mormonism, he was exalted to godhood and inherited his own universe. LDS founder Joseph Smith said, "If the veil were rent today, and the great God who holds this world in its orbit, and who upholds all worlds and all things by his power, was to make himself visible . . . you would see him like a man in form" (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 345). The Holy Spirit, Jesus Christ, and "Heavenly Father" comprise three separate and distinct gods: the Father and the Son have bodies of flesh and bones "as tangible as man's," but the Holy Ghost "is a personage of Spirit" (Doctrine and Covenants [D&C], 130:22)."

When you compare Mormonism's teachings about God to that of Biblical Christianity, the differences are quite profound.  The reference to a Mormon book: "Doctrine and Covenants" shows that the statement is drawn from primary source materials within Mormonism itself.2  The god of Mormonism is not Singular and unique, but rather One among many, lesser deities.3  A well cited Mormon statement summarizes the Mormon doctrine of God: "As man now is God once was, as God now is, man may be."  

Conclusions for today
So in returning to our central question: "is Mormonism another Christian denomination or is it a non-Christian belief system", we would have to conclude that with regards to the doctrine of God, Mormonism is profoundly non-Christian and unbiblical in how it conceives of the Nature, Person and Character of God.4  I leave the reader with two suggestions for sharing the Gospel with Mormons from the March 2012  SBC Life article: "Always Ready, Sharing the Gospel with you Mormon Friends":

"Witnessing to Your Mormon Friends
1. Practice the basics of the Christian life—maintain a daily quiet time of Scripture and prayer, trust the Holy Spirit to use you, ask the Lord to give you a heart and passion for the lost.

2. Develop a basic understanding of Christian doctrine and the Gospel. Reading and reviewing The Baptist Faith and Message on a regular basis is a good place to start."

More tomorrow..... 
End Notes________________

1. The BFM 2000 Article II reads: "There is one and only one living and true God. He is an intelligent, spiritual, and personal Being, the Creator, Redeemer, Preserver, and Ruler of the universe. God is infinite in holiness and all other perfections. God is all powerful and all knowing; and His perfect knowledge extends to all things, past, present, and future, including the future decisions of His free creatures. To Him we owe the highest love, reverence, and obedience. The eternal triune God reveals Himself to us as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, with distinct personal attributes, but without division of nature, essence, or being."



2. Mormonism claims three additional books to the Bible as its supposed set of scriptures (called by Mormon's "The triple Combination).  The first is the "Book of Mormon", authored by Joseph Smith after a series of supposed visions in the 1820's.  The Book of Mormon is an alledged history of the Americas and Jesus' visitations and revelations to three groups of people, one of which supposedly descended from lost descendants of Abraham and who are ancestors to many of the American Indians.  The second book, "Doctrines and Covenants", is the more doctrinal of the three books, compiled mostly by Smith but also his sucessors.  The third, "Pearl of Great Price", is both doctrinal and devotional and was compiled almost entirely by Joseph's Smith's followers.  Joseph Smith also produced his own version of the Bible, the "Joseph Smith Translation" (JST), introducing some 600 changes to the Biblical text of ther KJV to match the writings he wrote. 
3. This particular observation was gleaned from the Mormon book "Pearl of Great Price, Book of Abraham, Chapter 3-4".  Of the three works ascribed to the Mormon's founder Joseph Smith, the "Pearl of Great Price" is the only one that was compiled after his death, and was not completed until a few years after the beginning of the twentieth century (some 50 years after his death).  The textual history of the Mormon writings is complex.   All the information concerning the Mormon writings can be found on the Mormon's official website: lds.org.

4. As we noted in yesterday's blog, if you get God wrong, you get Jesus wrong, since Jesus Christ is the Personal Revelation of God, being Himself God in Human flesh. Truly the doctrines of God, Jesus, the Bible and salvation rise or fall together. In tomorrow's blog we will consider what differences exist between Christianity and Mormonism on the Person of Jesus Christ.