Answering Mormonism

Who are the Mormons, and what do they believe?

Mormons, like evangelical Christians, believe that there is a God, and that human beings have transgressed His holy and perfect laws. The punishment for this disobedience, which we are all guilty of, is death. Not death in the sense of loss of being, but loss of well-being. According to the Bible, our sins are punishable by death in the sense of eternal separation from God.

God had a plan, however, to spare us, His creation, from such an awful fate. God sent His Son, Jesus of Nazareth, to pay the penalty for our sins. In other words, Jesus was punished for our sins so we wouldn't have to be. The just died for the unjust. The Bible says that if we will place our trust in Jesus, accepting Him as our Saviour and Lord, that we will not be punished for our sins when we die. A trade is made when we accept Jesus. He takes away our sinfulness and we become the righteousness of God in Him. God no longer sees a lost sinner, but a justified saint; an adopted child of God. This is what Evangelical Christians believe, and based on the many encounters that I've had with Mormon missionaries, most Mormons would not object to these basic truths concerning the person and work of Jesus Christ.

Further, both Mormons and Evangelicals would agree that on the third day after His death, Jesus rose from the dead to declare His victory over sin and death - a sure sign that His sacrifice was acceptable by God the Father. Both would also agree that Christ has called out a special group of people that would accept Him and His claims, and would carry the message of His great gift of salvation to the world. This called-out group is what Jesus referred to as the church.

Where do we differ?

Mormons believe that after the death of the last original apostle of Jesus, complete apostasy swept over the church. Many "plain and precious truths" of the Gospel were lost to history. For over 1400 years the true Church of Jesus Christ was non-existent on planet earth. It wasn't until 1830 that the true church was restored to its original first century condition thanks to the prophet Joseph Smith, who was a willing servant concerning the plans and purposes of God.

Evangelicals utterly reject this notion, preferring to take the Bible at face value concerning the preservation of the word of God and of the church He intended to build. Logically, if a restoration was unnecessary, then so was Smith's occupation as prophet and restorer. Therefore evangelicals and Mormons disagree absolutely concerning the prophetic office of Joseph Smith and his restorative efforts.

Smith claimed that an angelic visitor revealed to him the whereabouts of an ancient book written between 600 BC and AD 421 here in the Americas. The book, written in an ancient Hebrew-Egyptian script, supposedly contained the history of the North American people and their Jewish ancestry. The definitive moment in this history, apparently, was the visitation of Jesus Christ to these peoples shortly following His resurrection from the dead. By the "gift and power of God", Smith claimed he was able to translate this work into English. The result is the Book of Mormon, which Smith claimed was not only God's word, but the most perfect book on earth. In effect, he was saying that the Book of Mormon was superior to the Bible. Of course, Evangelicals would utterly reject these ideas. To us, the Bible is the inspired, infallible, preserved word of God. The Book of Mormon, by reason of its lack of textual history, external evidence, historical and linguistic anachronisms, not to mention many contradictions with the Bible, is regarded as a nineteenth century fraud.

Forced to Make a Choice

Mormons and Evangelical Christians differ in their beliefs on a number of points. Though both groups are represented by members who are thoroughly convinced of the truth of their own particular worldview, such confidence does not make what they believe true. In other words, we may be totally sincere in our belief that our worldview is true, but we may be sincerely wrong. The gulf that exists between Mormons and Evangelicals is deep and wide. Though on some points both Mormons and Evangelicals may be wrong, it is logically impossible that their ideas can both be true. The church of Jesus Christ was completely eradicated from the planet or it wasn't. Joseph Smith was a genuine prophet of God or a total fraud. The Book of Mormon is God's word or it isn't. We can and should love and respect each other, but it's naïve to suppose that our differences are insignificant or that they can be reconciled. We really are forced to make a choice.

Why do we believe what we do?

It is an undeniable fact that people need to use reason in order to function in the real world. Anyone who claims this is not so actually proves the point, since a person must employ reason in order to engage in the denial process. That's just the way God made us. It's what differentiates us from the animals. We have a God-given intellect and God expects us to use it.

In my many encounters with Mormons, I've asked them why they believe what they do, and without exception, their response was simply that they "felt" it was true. But surely this is inadequate, for representatives of many belief systems, contradictory to Mormonism (i.e. Islam, Buddhism, Unitarianism, Hinduism, etc) claim to "feel" that their belief system is true. It simply isn't logically possible that all these views are right at the same time and in the same sense. Someone is wrong here. But how can we tell which, since everyone is "sure" they have the truth - their "feelings" said so.

Surely there must be another way to test these views. I'm convinced that we ought to use our God-given commonsense and apply it to the scientific and historic facts as we know them to see which view holds up. That doesn't mean we have to abandon faith altogether and embrace only that which has been proven scientifically in the laboratory. It just means that we ought to put our faith in a worldview that at least makes sense. I'm not denying that God can speak to a man in a very spiritual way, and confirm that something is true. I'm just saying that a spiritual "feeling" coupled with hard scientific and historic evidence is a tough combination to beat. That's what these articles are all about.

I too have the quiet assurance from the Spirit of God that what I believe about the Bible is true. Though the Mormon may claim the same for his view, what he cannot claim to have is convincing evidence that can satisfy the intellect as well as the heart. I really believe that since God is the creator of both heart and mind, the truth He wants us to embrace will satisfy both. After all, how can we expect our hearts to embrace what our minds have rejected as nonsense?

To the right are the links to various articles dealing with Mormon claims, and my reasons for rejecting them. If you are a Mormon, please consider these points carefully. From my heart, I believe that your eternity depends upon how you respond to the person and work of the true Jesus, and His claims as recorded in the Holy Bible.