The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (also known as the Mormon Church or Mormonism) presents itself as a Christian religion. In keeping with its goal to be accepted by the public as another denomination of Christianity, the 2007 English version of the Mormon Church’s official website www.mormon.org was nicely watermarked with the image of Jesus Christ as seen at the Visitors Center of the Salt Lake, Utah Temple Square.
Is the Mormon Church a Christian religion? To answer this question, we will briefly examine some of the doctrinal topics presented by Mormon missionaries and discussed on the 2007 version of the mormon.org website. We will then compare these with the teachings of the Bible and discuss facts that the Mormon Church hides from potential converts.
GOD OUR FATHER – God Is Your Loving Heavenly Father
- Mormon “Gods” existed before Heavenly Father.
- LDS “Heavenly Father” did not exist from eternity.
- God has a “wife” in Heaven.
THE ETERNAL FAMILY – The Gospel Blesses Families and Individuals
- Forever families and non-worthy family members
- Divided families in the Celestial Kingdom
- Marriage in Heaven and the teachings of Jesus
THE PROPHETS OF GOD – Heavenly Father Reveals His Gospel to All
- Joseph Smith’s Qualifications and his claim to be “God’s Prophet”
- John the Baptist and God’s Final Prophet
CHURCH ORGANIZATION – Jesus Christ Established His Church
- 6 Reasons the Mormon Church’s structure is not like the early Christian church
- Partial apostasy and Christ’s preservation of His Church
- The Apostle John’s promise of life and his holding of Priesthood authority until Christ comes
- The Book of Mormon’s 3 Nephites who live forever
GOSPEL – The Restoration of the Gospel
- The “Restored Gospel” = Another Gospel
- Eternal Marriage and The Gospel
- Acts 3:19-21 and the “restitution of all things”
PRIESTHOOD – The Restoration of the Priesthood
- The Aaronic Priesthood, Jesus Christ and Joseph Smith
- The Aaronic Priesthood authority nullified
- The non-transferable Melchizedek Priesthood
- The Priesthood authority of all Christian believers
- The Book of Mormon’s witness of Jesus Christ disagrees with the Biblical witness of Christ.
- The Book of Mormon is historically inaccurate and disagrees with archaeology.
- The Book of Mormon is geographically inaccurate.
ETERNAL PROGRESSION – Heavenly Father’s Plan of Happiness
- “Heavenly Mother” and the pre-existence
- The Mormon belief of becoming Gods
- Mormonism and future polygamy
- Jesus the Son of God is eternal, not procreated.
- The Biblical Jesus is not Lucifer’s brother.
- The LDS Jesus’ blood is insufficient to cover all sins.
- The LDS Jesus requires you to do “all you can do.”
- The LDS Jesus cannot save you “in your sins.”
TESTING TRUTH – How Can I Know This is True?
- Moroni’s challenge does not prove the LDS Church is true.
- Joseph Smith admitted that personal “revelation” is able to come from Satan.
- Beliefs must be tested. Wisdom cannot reveal truth.
This post is also available in: Spanish