The Official Mormon Evangelism Verse
Within Mormonism, the most frequently quoted evangelistic verse is Moroni 10:4, found at the end of the Book of Mormon. This verse invites seekers to pray about the Book of Mormon, promising that if they do so “with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ,” God will reveal to them by the Holy Spirit that the book is true. For Latter-day Saints, this is their primary “conversion verse,” functioning much like John 3:16 does for Christians.
But here is the crucial difference: Christianity calls people to place their faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ as revealed in Scripture, while Mormonism calls people to pray for a subjective feeling to validate a book outside of the Bible. The Bible warns us not to rely on feelings alone, because “the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” (Jeremiah 17:9). Truth is not established by an emotional experience, but by God’s unchanging Word.
In contrast, John 3:16 proclaims the core of the gospel: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” Notice the focus is not on praying to validate a book, but on believing in Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, for salvation.
When witnessing to Mormons, Christians can gently point out that Moroni 10:4 encourages people to test truth by asking for a spiritual impression, while the Bible instructs us to test all teachings against Scripture itself. Acts 17:11 praises the Bereans because they “searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” Likewise, 1 John 4:1 commands, “Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.”
God has already given us a clear and sufficient standard of truth—His Word. “Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth” (John 17:17). Rather than relying on feelings, Christians can confidently point Mormons back to the Bible, where eternal life is promised through Christ alone: “These are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name” (John 20:31).
So while Moroni 10:4 serves as the “official evangelism verse” for Mormons, Christians can use it as a bridge to show the difference between subjective experiences and the objective truth of God’s Word. In doing so, we can lovingly redirect the focus from a book with questionable origins to the eternal gospel revealed in the Bible.
