Are Mormons Christian? What Do They Believe About Jesus?

What do Mormons believe about Jesus? Are they Christian? Are there differences between Mormonism and Christianity? Is the Jesus in the Bible the same Jesus that the Mormon’s worship and teach about?

What Do Mormons Believe About Jesus?

Mormonism, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, is a religion for sure but there are a lot of false religions in the world. Mormons believe in Jesus but what exactly do they believe about Him and His origins? They believe that Jesus is the brother of Satan and are these two are sons of God and are spirit brothers. They believe that Jesus was created and they believe that like all humans, they were spirit before being born into the flesh. Both Jesus and Satan were given free will to choose to be evil or good and that the earthly life was a testing ground to see if they would qualify to be God or not. It is like a probation period and if they pass, they become gods. They acquire divinity by the works that they do while on earth.

At death, all one can hope for is that they did enough good works to make it to become a god and so Jesus is thought to have done enough good works and lived a perfect enough of a life to become a god. Obviously, Satan failed this test, or at least so they teach. Mormons teach that spiritual good works are the only way to overcome spiritual death and this is accomplished by keeping the commandments, receiving a proper baptism only through a Mormon priest, having a strong enough faith, and in genuine repentance. They must also have the Mormon Temple obligations fulfilled properly. Apparently Jesus must have passed this test according to the Mormons and His baptism must have, I suppose, came through a priestly-sort of John the Baptist, who was not a Mormon that I am aware of.

After the birth of Jesus and Satan, God offered a plan of salvation for human beings and Satan offered his own plan but it was rejected. God accepted Jesus’ idea as being a Savior and so Jesus’ spirit was sent to Mary who, through a virgin birth, gave birth to Jesus. The Mormons believe that if anyone can live a righteous life like Jesus did, then they will receive eternal life and become a god. They believe that Jesus was a spirit-brother of Lucifer and therefore was a creation of God and not God from all eternity past (Gospel Through the Ages, p. 15).

What Do Mormons Believe About God?

Mormons believe that God is a Supreme Being but they believe that God acquired this status through good works. God became God gradually by living a righteous and perfect life and that God has a body of flesh and bones, even though the Bible says that God is Spirit (John 4:24). If a human attains perfection in this life they too can become a god after they die and then this person can produce other “spirit children” to keep on reproducing the potential of other gods. This newly born god-person can then populate other worlds like earth and so become a god of that planet. They teach that God in heaven was once a man like those on the earth today but He is seen as an “exalted man” and not God from all eternity (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 345). The Father and the Son are seen to be men in perfect stature and form today with flesh and bones (Articles of Faith, by James Talmage, p. 38). God is said to have been a man who at one time lived on another planet (Journal of Discourses Vol. 6 Page 4, 1844. Joseph Smith). The problem is doesn’t there have to be an original god somewhere that created such spirit beings? It is the problem of infinite regression because there had to be a Creator for their to be any spirit beings or god-persons. You must keep going back and back and somewhere, didn’t there have to be an original God Creator? They miss the logic of this “cause and effect” problem.

The Book of Mormon

Is the Book of Mormon is sacred text to them and is held to be the “most correct” writings or book of Scripture. This would make it supersede the authority of the Bible because it says that men can get closer to God in this book than any other book (Smith, B. H. Roberts, ed. History of the Church, 4, p. 461). The Book of Mormon, the Doctrines, and the Pearl of Great Price are seen as divinely inspired but they see the Bible as being constructed in a multi-step process. They state that they Book of Mormon was not assembled like the Bible and therefore is a better testament.

Is There Archeological Support of Mormon Teachings?

There is actually no archeological proof of the Mormon’s story about the descendants of the Israelites moving to North America from around 2200 B.C. to A.D. 420. They believe this group spoke Hebrew and were misidentified as Native American Indians. There records were said to be kept in a “reformed Egypt” for which that nation has absolutely no evidence of. Both Mormon and non-Mormon archeologists have been unable to unearth evidence of these Jewish tribes in America. Both historians and archeologists believe the claims to be false since their historical accounts have no such artifacts which is surprising since the Nephites and Lamanites are said to have existed for several hundred years.

The trusted National Geographic Society sent a letter in 1998 to the Institute for Religious Research which stated, “Archaeologists and other scholars have long probed the hemisphere’s past and the society does not know of anything found so far that has substantiated the Book of Mormon” (National Geographic Society Statement on the Book of Mormon, Aug. 12th, 1998). The Book of Mormon purports to have had horses on the continent from around 2500 BC, that there were elephants native to the continent, cattle and cows, sheep, goats, barley, swine, wheat, and much more. The major problem is that there is no amount of evidence to support these claims. Further, they stated that they had used concrete, metal swords, and other utensils not found in the B.C. era in North America. Regardless of all that they claim, there is not one shred of physical evidence to support it.

Another Gospel

The test that is given to see if a gospel message was the one that was once delivered is what others are teaching. These teachings hinge on the deity, divinity, and eternality of Jesus Christ. That is, that He has always existed and was not created (John 1). Every religion in the world, including Mormonism and Jehovah’s Witnesses are based upon works. If you do enough good works you might make it to heaven, but just like Buddhism, Islam, and the other world religions, one can never be sure enough about having done sufficient good works to make it to heaven or for other religions a reincarnation or a state of Nirvana. For the Christian, it is a relief that works is not required to be saved because God sees our works as filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6).

The Book of Mormon is said to be new revelation or Scripture from God but the Bible itself claims that a curse is to be pronounced upon anyone who adds to or takes away the words of God, the Bible, in both the Old Testament and in the New. Revelation 22:18-19 states, “I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this scroll: If anyone adds anything to them, God will add to that person the plagues described in this scroll. And if anyone takes words away from this scroll of prophecy, God will take away from that person any share in the tree of life and in the Holy City, which are described in this scroll.” Deuteronomy 4:2 reads, “Do not add to what I command you and do not subtract from it, but keep the commands of the Lord your God that I give you.” These are serious warnings from God. We have today all of the revelation that we need from God. This is why modern day prophets are dangerous and cultic. They are trying to speak for God and they are their own source, which makes them extra-biblical…heretical, and false.

Paul warned the churches in the New Testament that there would be false gospels brought in by false shepherds in writing to the Galatians (1:8), “But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed.” Where it says, “let him be accursed” the literal translation is “let him be eternally condemned!” That is about as serious of a warning that Paul ever gave.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are not Christian. They are a cult and believe that they are the only ones who have the truth and that all other religions are pagan. This is not my personal opinion but as compared to the Bible and the gospel of Jesus Christ. This religion, like all other religions in the world, base their salvation upon works when the Bible clearly says that “it is by grace you have been saved, through faith–and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God” (Eph 2:8). If salvation were by works, there would be none that would make it because our works, at best, are just a bunch of filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6). I thank God that this is the only works we need to do and Jesus told us in John 6:29, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.”

We are not trying to judge the Mormon’s ourselves. The Word of God is what we stand on. We must witness to them and do so in love and not judgmentally or in condemnation. But we must witness to them nonetheless. A great way is to use the Law of God and point them to Jesus as the only One Who has ever kept the Law perfectly. His perfect life is imputed to us as righteousness and this is how we are made acceptable to God the Father. No works could ever do this. Romans 5:9-10 says is perfectly, “we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!”

We should love them enough to witness to them, share the gospel with them, tell them that their own rituals or works can never save them, that they still have the wrath of God abiding on them, to repent, and turn to the One Who has made satisfaction with the Father…and that is Jesus Christ and Him crucified for us…and for them or anyone if they would trust in Him.

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