No. Unequivocally no. If words have meanings, no. That doesn’t mean they are worse than any other unbelievers. It doesn’t mean they don’t think they are. It doesn’t mean others don’t think they are. But they are not. Why not?
Because they deny essentials of the faith. Christians certainly have areas of agreement with Latter-Day Saints. Both affirm good things about Jesus. Both affirm a transcendent standard of right and wrong. But Christians and Latter-Day Saints disagree on what Christians rightly consider to be essentials.
None looms larger than our respective views of who Jesus is. While it is a terrible thing and utterly unbiblical for Latter-Day Saints to suggest Jesus and Satan are brothers, the deeper problem is they affirm that Jesus is a creature. They deny that He is self-existent. They affirm He had a beginning in time. They affirm the same of the Father. In fact, they know nothing of any God who is self-existent and eternal. Just creatures creating creatures.
They may counter that such is not a denial of deity. In fact, they affirm that Jesus and the Father are both “God” but that they both became “gods.” Which means, in their own categories, they worship creatures. Created beings cannot become “God” for to be God is to be uncreated. Not even the living God can create another God.
Christians across the ages confess that Jesus is “very God of very God, begotten not made” in the Nicene Creed. Non-Christians, whether Arians, Latter-Day Saints or The Watchtower Society, deny this. Thus, they are not Christian.
Time was when the Latter Day Saints themselves recognized this. In my own lifetime Latter Day Saints once claimed to be the one true church, and those outside were deemed not churches at all. It’s only over the course of the last fifty years that they changed course and began to claim they were just one more denomination among many. That too is an odd distinguishing mark of Latter-Day Saints, their propensity for shifting their own dogma with the times.
The Latter Day Saints likewise have a bounty of “infallible” revelations beyond the Bible, the Book of Mormon which started the cult, being one. The history of the Book of Mormon demonstrates, however, that it is chock full of errors and misrepresentations. That we continue to get revelational “updates” demonstrates the same.
None of this is a denial of the humanity of Latter Day Saints, that they bear God’s image. It is no denial that there are any number of issues on which we can make common cause. And it is certainly true that they are due protection and compassion in light of yesterday’s vicious attack in Michigan.
None of these truths, however, should deceive us into believing that Mormonism is anything other than an evil cult, leading people straight into hell. They are not Christians plus the Book of Mormon. Not Christians who are confused on some secondary issues. Not another denomination with some weird ideas. It is a false religion, worshipping a false god, proclaiming a false Jesus. Our duty is to expose it as such.
Amen Brother!! ❤️
You dutifully speak the bold truth, thank you! I would love to hear your thoughts on 7th Day Adventists.
Thank you Keith. SDA is complicated, but I’ll give it a try.
What about 2 John 1:10? I have heard some use this as an excuse to slam the door in their face.
Good question. At the very least this text forbids believers from communicating to the LDS that they are our brothers in Christ. It may exclude letting them in, but I think not. In the same way that we are free to eat with unbelievers, but not with those who claim to be believers while living in gross, unrepentant sin, so we can eat with unbelievers who are LDS but not allow them to think such means we think they’re believers.
Thanks, RC for bringing light to this sensitive issue. I was born and raised a “Mormon”, a term that is apparently no longer kosher by the LDS church. When I was young, the Mormons did not claim to be “Christian”. As you have said, they were simply the “True Church” or the “Restored Church of Jesus Christ”. Rarely did I hear a word about Jesus. It was all about Joseph Smith and other church fathers. The Bible (King James only) was the Word of God, as “translated correctly”. In other words, it was okay, as long as it agreed with the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants and Pearl of Great Price. Basically, the Bible is fallible and can be wrong. I drifted away from the “Church” as a rebellious teenager. I wanted nothing to do with religion and went my own way. I was lost and miserable until God opened my eyes to the Truth. I had no idea that I could have a personal relationship with the Lord of Lords and that Jesus was truly God. There is no doubt in my spirit that the LDS church is a cult. The Mormons are good people and have never shunned me, but being good is not what it is all about. It is by faith alone that we are saved, a revelation that has changed my life. The “Mormon” church is all about works, a lie from the devil himself. We need to earnestly pray for the members of this cult, that God will open their eyes, like He did for me. Once again, thanks for speaking the truth about this, RC.
All well said John. God bless you.
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