Joseph Smith claimed that the true Gospel was lost and needed to be “restored.” Yet a careful examination of Mormonism shows that their so-called Restored Gospel reinvents the Gospel in ways that neither Jesus nor His apostles practiced. Mormonism distorts the Gospel in four major ways:
- Adding to Scripture – By introducing the Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, and Pearl of Great Price as authoritative, Mormonism effectively calls Jesus a liar, contradicting His promise: “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6) and “If anyone adds to these things, God will add to him the plagues that are written in this book” (Revelation 22:18).
- Adding temple rituals – The LDS Church requires secret ordinances and ceremonies that neither Jesus nor the apostles practiced. The Bible clearly teaches that salvation comes through faith in Christ alone, not through extra-biblical rituals: “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast” (Ephesians 2:8–9).
- Reducing God to man – Mormonism teaches that God was once a man and that humans can become gods, echoing the deception of Satan in Eden (Genesis 3:5). Scripture, however, emphasizes God’s holiness and unchanging nature: “For I am God, and not man; the Holy One in your midst” (Hosea 11:9) and “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of His glory” (Isaiah 6:3).
- Subtracting from the sufficiency of the Atonement – Mormonism adds works-based requirements to salvation, undermining Christ’s perfect sacrifice. The Bible calls human righteousness “filthy rags” compared to God’s holiness (Isaiah 64:6) and affirms that Jesus’ atoning work alone is sufficient: “He Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree” (1 Peter 2:24).
The Gospel of Jesus Christ is complete, unchanging, and sufficient for salvation. Any attempt to restore or add to it, as Mormonism does, is a distortion of God’s truth: “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give to him who thirsts from the spring of the water of life freely” (Revelation 21:6).
