Mormonism and the Bible
2016-09-24
Studying this religion has been interesting. On the surface, it may seem that they may not be so different from Biblical Christianity. However, the more you read, the more you realize that it is extremely different from the Bible’s teachings on so many levels.
The God of Mormonism
Mormonism is not a theistic religion. By theistic, I mean that Mormonism does not believe that God always existed and created everything else everywhere. They also believe that there are other gods. I will break this down a little bit, a piece at a time.
According to the religion, God the Father had a beginning, and more particularly had a father. His father would have had a father, and according a Brigham Young, former leader of their religion, “there never was a time when there were not Gods and worlds” (Discourses).
“Ye are my witnesses, saith the LORD, and my servant whom I have chosen: that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I am he: before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me” (Isaiah 43:10). Their teaching about God is in complete opposition to the Bible, which teaches that God always was and always will be. He had no beginning or ending, but rather is eternal.
“And also the Strength of Israel will not lie nor repent: for he is not a man, that he should repent” (1 Samuel 15:29). Their god is a progressive being. He once was a “normal” man like us. However, we see that the God of the Bible never changes. He may change the way He operates such as when He removed Saul from being king (1 Samuel 15:35), but His character never changes, and He always was and always will be God. He also never sinned and can never sin: “He is the Rock, his work is perfect: for all his ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he” (Deuteronomy 32:4).
“God is a Spirit” (John 4:24) and “a spirit hath not flesh and bones” (Luke 24:39). However, the god or Mormonism has a body. Before time, matter, energy, and spirit beings existed, the Creator God always was: “Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God” (Psalm 90:2).
“Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea” (Psalms 139:7-9). Their god is also not omnipresent, contrasting with the God of the Bible whom we cannot escape. Their Holy Spirit also is not omnipresent.
“Thus saith the LORD the King of Israel, and his redeemer the LORD of hosts; I am the first, and I am the last; and beside me there is no God. And who, as I, shall call, and shall declare it, and set it in order for me, since I appointed the ancient people? and the things that are coming, and shall come, let them shew unto them. Fear ye not, neither be afraid: have not I told thee from that time, and have declared it? ye are even my witnesses. Is there a God beside me? yea, there is no God; I know not any.” (Isaiah 44:6-8). Gods as defined in Mormonism, on the contrary, have a wife or wives with whom they raise up spirit children. According to the Bible, “all the gods of the nations are idols: but the LORD made the heavens” (Psalm 96:5, see also 1 Chronicles 16:26).
“Therefore in the resurrection whose wife shall she be of the seven? for they all had her. Jesus answered and said unto them, Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God. For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven” (Matthew 22:28-30). Marriage is something that only exists this side of heaven. Mormonism teaches of celestial marriages, and marriages of gods, which do not exist anywhere in the Bible.
Jesus
The god of Mormonism is called Elohim (which is the actual Hebrew word for God and gods in the Old Testament). This god’s first spirit child was Jesus, who later became a god.
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1). The Word, Jesus Christ, like God the Father, always was. In the beginning of the creation of all things, He already was there. He was also always without sin (Hebrews 4:15).
“Then said Mary unto the angel, How shall this be, seeing I know not a man? And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God” (Luke 1:34-35). Like Mormonism teaches about gods and their wives having spirit children, Elohim actually was the father of Jesus like any other father has children. The Bible here clearly teaches that the Holy Spirit performed the miracle here of the virgin birth; there was no marriage or physical relations of any kind.
“Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us. Then Joseph being raised from sleep did as the angel of the Lord had bidden him, and took unto him his wife: And knew her not till she had brought forth her firstborn son: and he called his name JESUS” (Matthew 1:23-25). It is clear that Jesus was born of a virgin, and there was no father involved. Joseph did not know his wife until after Jesus was born. While there is division on whether physical relations took place at some kind according to the Mormon religion, the Bible makes it clear that no such thing ever occurred.
Jehovah is considered to be Jesus Christ, the son of Elohim, according to the Mormon religion. However, Jehovah is Elohim, according to the Old Testament:
“Unto thee it was shewed, that thou mightest know that the LORD he is God; there is none else beside him” (Deuteronomy 4:35). “The LORD” represents Jehovah in the King James Bible and “God” is the translation of the word Elohim. Therefore, we see the Bible teaches that Jehovah is Elohim (though it is not wrong to say that Jesus Christ is Jehovah, cf. John 8:58 with the rendering of “I am,” and Zechariah 12:10, where Jehovah was the One who was pierced).
Salvation
Mormons believe “that through the Atonement of Christ, all mankind may be saved, by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel” (Articles of Faith 3). The ordinances of the Gospel include: “first, Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; second, Repentance; third, Baptism by immersion for the remission of sins; fourth, Laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost” (Articles of Faith 4). The Bible, on the other hand, only teaches that by believing on the Lord Jesus Christ can anyone be saved. “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9).
Since baptism is critical to be saved in the Mormon faith, people can be baptized by proxy in the religion. They also believe that you can baptize for the dead. However, such teaching is absent from the Bible. Baptism is only for people who believe and are already saved (Acts 8:36-37).
Moreover, we read this concerning Jesus: “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). No additional savior or prophet was necessary other than the Lord Jesus Christ, which precludes any teachings of Joseph Smith and his successors.
Jesus in America
One of the teachings of the Mormon church is that Jesus came to America after His resurrection. There he allegedly healed the sick, taught the gospel, and even called 12 disciples. According to the Bible, we see a very different situation:
“The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool.” (Psalms 110:1). This is a famous passage foretelling the ascension and heavenly enthronement of Jesus Christ. We read Paul’s commentary in the New Testament: “But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God; From henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool” (Hebrews 10:12-13). We do not read of Christ returning to earth again for another ministry anywhere in the Bible, until His yet future return referred to as the Day of Christ.
“But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth” (Acts 1:8). Christ commands us to bring the Gospel to the uttermost part of the earth. He did not say that He would go to the uttermost part of the earth for us.
“And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd” (John 10:16). Mormons often use this verse to say that the “other sheep” are people in the Americas. The problem is that this is an isolated verse with no support for this teaching. However, we read another part of the Bible that explains this a little bit more:
That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world: But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us; Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace; And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby: And came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them that were nigh. (Ephesians 2:12-17)
Reading this passage, it is clear that Jesus Christ saves people who were not of the nation of Israel. He brought them together with those believers who were of Israel and made them “one new man” (Ephesians 2:15). From the Bible, it is rather clear that these other sheep are non-Jewish believers, which includes believers in the Americas, but also throughout the entire world.
Joseph Smith
Joseph Smith is the primary prophet of the Mormon religion, who received visions from God the Father in bodily form and Jesus Christ, and also from an angel named Moroni. Smith was considered a seer, which in the Mormon religion, entails the ability to translate records that otherwise could not be translated. With this ability, it is said he translated the Book of Mormon. He also translated Egyptian papyri which later constituted the Book of Abraham, which was incorporated into The Pearl of Great Price.
Egyptian papyri were brought to the United States as part of an exhibit, and Joseph Smith allegedly translated them. In those days, no one had knowledge on how to translate Egyptian hieroglyphics. He declared that one of them told lost stories of Abraham. These papyri were subsequently lost for a long time, but Smith’s translation was maintained as part of the religion’s scriptures. Much later, these scrolls were recovered, and eventually, Egyptologists deciphered Egyptian hieroglyphics. When the translation was revisited, it was found that the scroll had nothing to do with Abraham, but rather described ancient Egyptian religion and burial rituals.
From this, we see that Smith did not truly have the office of a Mormon seer (Mosiah 8:13). Rather, we see that he could get away with fabricating a translation that no one could verify until decades after his death. If he could not properly translate the so-called Book of Abraham, can we trust his alleged translation of the Book of Mormon?
According to Articles of Faith 8, they trust the Book of Mormon without question, while only trusting the Bible “as far as it is translated correctly.” The Bible, which was translated by real scholars, is doubted, while the Book of Mormon is the word of God without qualification. Surely, based on the evidence of these Egyptian papyri, they have this backwards!
Priesthood
The priesthood, according to Mormonism, is the authority to act in God’s name. This is different from Biblical priests, that “do the service of the tabernacle” (Numbers 3:7). These offered sacrifices on behalf of the people to God.
Two of the three offices of the Mormon priesthood are the Aaronic priesthood and the Melchizedek priesthood. Biblically there are problems with these.
“And take thou unto thee Aaron thy brother, and his sons with him, from among the children of Israel, that he may minister unto me in the priest’s office, even Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar, Aaron’s sons” (Exodus 28:1). The Aaronic priesthood was only reserved for the literal sons of Aaron to serve in the Jewish Temple. The priesthood and the Jewish Temple no longer exist.
“If therefore perfection were by the Levitical priesthood, (for under it the people received the law,) what further need was there that another priest should rise after the order of Melchisedec, and not be called after the order of Aaron? For the priesthood being changed, there is made of necessity a change also of the law” (Hebrews 7:11-12). All of Hebrews 7 is relevant to the Melchizedek priesthood. This is the bottom line: Jesus as a priest is superior than an earthly priest, because He died for the sins of humankind, once for all. This is not establishing a new priesthood for people to join; Jesus Christ is the only priest we need as a mediator between God and humankind. He is the only real Melchizedek priest. Aaronic priests have been replaced by Jesus Christ, once and for all.
Summary
From these scriptures, we can clearly see that Mormonism differs from Biblical Christianity in virtually every area. God the Father and the Lord Jesus are not from eternity past according to their religion. Salvation is not by grace through faith, but also by water baptism. Jesus went to America after His resurrection, rather than ascend to the Father until His second coming. The translation of the Book of Mormon is more reliable than the Bible, according to Mormonism. Finally, there remains a formal priesthood today other than the priesthood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Based on these radical differences, Mormonism and Biblical Christianity are exclusive one from the other.