Mormon Belief Fact Sheet
On Justin Taylor’s blog, there is featured today a adaptation of Mormon beliefs from the ESV Study Bible. I am pasting it here, because be such an important topic for Christians to understand that Mormons are not Christians; and I wish for members to be able to reference this article at a later time if helpful. We have at least two former mormons who have come to Christ and become members of CLBC. Note: Don’t forget to hit the “read more” button if you are on the main CLBC page.
The following is adapted from the section on Mormonism (or The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints) in the ESV Study Bible article on religious cults. The attempt is to be concise yet still accurate. I’ve added questions in bold to break it up a bit.
What do Mormons believe about apostasy and restoration?
Mormons claim that “total” apostasy overcame the church following apostolic times, and that the Mormon Church (founded in 1830) is the “restored church.”
What’s the problem with this understanding?
If the Mormon Church were truly a “restored church,” one would expect to find first-century historical evidence for Mormon doctrines like the plurality of gods and God the Father having once been a man. Such evidence is completely lacking. Besides, the Bible disallows a total apostasy of the church (e.g., Matt. 16:18; 28:20; Eph. 3:21; 4:11–16), warning instead of partial apostasy (1 Tim. 4:1).
What do Mormons believe about God?
Mormons claim that God the Father was once a man and that he then progressed to godhood (that is, he is a now-exalted, immortal man with a flesh-and-bone body).
What does the Bible teach about the nature of God?
Based on the Bible, God is not and has never been a man (Num. 23:19; Hos. 11:9). He is a spirit (John 4:24), and a spirit does not have flesh and bones (Luke 24:39). Furthermore, God is eternal (Ps. 90:2; 102:27; Isa. 57:15; 1 Tim. 1:17) and immutable (or unchangeable in his being and perfections; see Ps. 102:25–27; Mal. 3:6). He did not “progress” toward godhood, but has always been God.
What do Mormons believe about the Trinity and polytheism?
Mormons believe that the Trinity consists not of three persons in one God but rather of three distinct gods. According to Mormonism, there are potentially many thousands of gods besides these.
Read MoreNew Life = New Obedience
Burk Parsons shares some helpful thoughts that contribute to our study on the Law. Here is just an excerpt:
Read MoreIf we are Christ’s, we have been given a new heart and, thus, cannot help but want to obey God. In Christ, we are new creatures who want to obey because we have been set free to obey the perfect law of liberty. As the children of God, we are motivated to do the will of God by the very fact that we are his in Christ. And even when we don’t obey as our old flesh wars against the Spirit, we respond with obedient repentance unto life, being enabled more and more to die unto sin, and to live unto righteousness.
As we live unto righteousness by the work of God’s free grace, being daily renewed in the whole man after the image of God, our motives are informed by a full range of resulting emotions that cause us to obey from our new hearts: our love of God, his love for us, his loving chastisement of us, our thankfulness to God, our joy in God, his joy in us, our comfort and peace from God, the holiness of God, our holiness in Christ from God, our duty to God, his promise to us, our delight in God, and our love for all that God has bestowed on us, including his most gracious law for us and our children.
In most simple terms, Sinclair Ferguson explains, “So what is the place of the Law in the life of the Christian? Simply this: We are no longer under the Law to be condemned by it, we are now “in-lawed” to it because of our betrothal to Christ! He has written the Law, and love for it, into our hearts!”
See whole article here.
What is more glorifying to God–feeding the homeless or serving children in nursery?
Today I met with area pastors who are cooperating to provide gatherings and mercy ministry to our local area. The mercy ministries were the primary topic from my vantage point, and I was encouraged by one of the ideas more than the others, namely making sure area students have lunches who cannot afford to.
Beyond this, upon reflection, I am challenged to consider two things, one: what are we doing to show the Gospel to our community? and two: We must never become so focused on a cooperative deeds effort, whether to entertain our children, or to actually feed the homeless, more than proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ that saves souls. Both are important, but only one is primary, and what we need is not balance here, but heavy on the scale of Gospel proclamation, backed up by deeds that validate our changed character wrought by believing the Gospel.
Now, what usually takes place is someone reads something like this and comes to me saying, let’s go do this good work or that one. But for most the good work they need to do, is begin serving in areas they are not as comfortable in, like nursery. It is often very convenient that people want to go feed the homeless, but care little about a handful of nursery workers in a local church whom they appreciate, but do not help.
Read MoreThe Glory of the Church
I spoke to a man recently who wished to enter into deeds of charity, I.e. to do something good, to put his faith to work Per Se. I encourage such a one to give himself to the church, join the church and begin loving his brothers and sisters formally in that context. There are many today who will not, just as many prolong marriage because of lack of commitment or regard for the institution.
Remember “He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hid their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.” (Isaiah 53:3) Could this not be a description of the church! Indeed it can, because Christ so identifies himself with the church, that he says to a man named Saul in the book of Acts “Why are you persecuting me?” That is, he was persecuting the church and Christ took it personally.
The glory of the church is that, we like Christ, are very ordinary, and respected little. It should perhaps send off warning signs when the church becomes some circus or event that is attracting much attention in a worldly sense, something that people admire, who are not Christians. The fact is that Christ and the church have much in common, they are disregarded, but they are seen by God as blessed.
Read MoreGratitude Subverts Greed
“Gratitude subverts greed. It’s an expulsive antidote to covetousness of the heart. Gratitude is not a feeling, and it isn’t based on present circumstances. It is recognition o four dependence on God and others–an act of humility that battles pride in our possessions Grateful speech takes attention off ourselves and places it on another, whether that’s the God of our salvation or the spouse who washes our clothes. Gratefulness is recognition that God is always good and always right in his dealings with us. ” Dave Harvey in Worldliness, p.110 a series of articles compiled by C.J. Mahaney
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