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.

What does the Bible teach about the Triune God?

Trusting in or worshiping more than one god is explicitly condemned throughout the Bible (e.g., Ex. 20:3). There is only one true God (Deut. 4:35, 39; 6:4; Isa. 43:10; 44:6, 8; 45:18; 46:9; 1 Cor. 8:4; James 2:19), who exists eternally in three persons—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit (Matt. 28:19; 2 Cor. 13:14).

What do Mormons believe about human exaltation?

Mormons believe that humans, like God the Father, can go through a process of exaltation to godhood.

What does the Bible teach about humanity?

The Bible teaches that the yearning to be godlike led to the fall of mankind (Gen. 3:4ff.). God does not look kindly on humans who pretend to attain to deity (Acts 12:21–23; contrast Acts 14:11–15). God desires humans to humbly recognize that they are his creatures (Gen. 2:7; 5:2; Ps. 95:6–7; 100:3). The state of the redeemed in eternity will be one of glorious immortality, but they will forever remain God’s creatures, adopted as his children (Rom. 8:14–30; 1 Cor. 15:42–57; Rev. 21:3–7). Believers will never become gods.

What do Mormons believe about Jesus?

Mormons believe that Jesus Christ was the firstborn spirit-child of the heavenly Father and a heavenly Mother. Jesus then progressed to deity in the spirit world. He was later physically conceived in Mary’s womb, as the literal “only begotten” Son of God the Father in the flesh (though many present-day Mormons remain somewhat vague as to how this occurred).

What does the Bible teach about Jesus?

Biblically, the description of Jesus as the “only begotten” refers to his being the Father’sunique, one-of-a-kind Son for all eternity, with the same divine nature as the Father (see note on John 1:14; cf. John 1:18; 3:16, 18; see also John 5:18; 10:30). Moreover, he is eternal deity (John 1:1; 8:58) and is immutable (Heb. 1:10–12; 13:8), meaning he did notprogress to deity but has always been God. And Mary’s conception of Jesus in his humanity was through a miracle of the Holy Spirit (Matt. 1:20).

What do Mormons believe about our eternal destiny?

Mormons believe that most people will end up in one of three kingdoms of glory, depending on one’s level of faithfulness. Belief in Christ, or even in God, is not necessary to obtain immortality in one of these three kingdoms, and therefore only the most spiritually perverse will go to hell.

What does the Bible teach about our eternal destiny ?

The Bible teaches that people have just two possibilities for their eternal futures: the saved will enjoy eternal life with God in the new heavens and new earth (Phil. 3:20; Rev. 21:1–4; 22:1–5), while the unsaved will spend eternity in hell (Matt. 25:41, 46; Rev. 20:13–15).

What do Mormons believe about sin and atonement?

Mormons believe that Adam’s transgression was a noble act that made it possible for humans to become mortal, a necessary step on the path to exaltation to godhood. They think that Christ’s atonement secures immortality for virtually all people, whether they repent and believe or not.

What does the Bible teach about sin and atonement?

Biblically, there was nothing noble about Adam’s sin, which was not a stepping-stone to godhood but rather brought nothing but sin, misery, and death to mankind (Gen. 3:16–19;Rom. 5:12–14). Jesus atoned for the sins of all who would trust him for salvation (Isa. 53:6; John 1:29; 2 Cor. 5:21; 1 Pet. 2:24; 3:18; 1 John 2:2; 4:10).

What do Mormons believe about salvation?

Mormons believe that God gives to (virtually) everyone a general salvation to immortal life in one of the heavenly kingdoms, which is how they understand salvation by grace. Belief in Christ is necessary only to obtain passage to the highest, celestial kingdom—for which not only faith but participation in Mormon temple rituals and obedience to its “laws of the gospel” are also prerequisites.

What does the Bible teach about salvation?

Biblically, salvation by grace must be received through faith in Christ (John 3:15–16; 11:25; 12:46; Acts 16:31; Rom. 3:22–24; Eph. 2:8–9), and all true believers are promised eternal life in God’s presence (Matt. 5:3–8; John 14:1–3; Rev. 21:3–7).

If 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.

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.  

Furthermore, some will want to go get involved in a community gathering, where churches come together and sing, preach, take up offerings for the poor–which can all be good.  Even so, oftentimes the greatest advocates for such get upset when others in the church don’t have excitement about it.  And they think that the church ceases being a church when that doesn’t happen.  Well, the church doesn’t cease being a church when they are not involved in such community efforts, but when it stops gathering and preaching the Gospel and having communion, it would.

All in all, we must realize our main thing is to preach the Gospel wherever we are.  If we can get involved in some things in the community great, but they must never predominate or take the place of local church commitment.  That is, feeding the High School football team must never be an excuse for not sitting under the Word with your church family.  What happens is many of the players go on to college and get the idea that they don’t need the church in an organized way because they have never seen adults prioritizing such commitment to regular church gathering and preaching.  Just some things to consider.  There is probably far more to discuss, but the key is preach the Gospel where you are, and pray for opportunity to do something to prove the character of that Gospel has power.  And to answer the question, what is more glorifying, feeding the poor or serving children in nursery?  I would say, serving the children in nursery, because we often get a lot of credit for feeding the poor, but God gets the glory when we go and serve in an area that does not bear as much glory in itself.  Pharisees gave alms (offerings for the poor), but they had a low regard for children. Do you?

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.

We should not be discouraged, beloved, on this day, at all, because we share in our Savior’s sufferings.  We will not, nor should we, be getting the applause of the world.  Yet, we certainly have the approval of God if we are his church, and that is our glory.  The challenge here today is to admit our awful disregard for Christ and his church, and glory in him and even in her, that is the church, the bride who is so identified by himself.  Think of it, you would do better to assault the man, than to mess with his wife.  So it is with anyone who would hurt the church–Christ is zealous for his house (That is his people).  So, treasure her if you are part of her, and if not, may you go to her and glory in Christ, though there be no regard promised, let your desire for any regard come and be met by God alone.  Fear not little flock.

And for the one or many who wish to do good for society, beloved, do something for the church; for if she is who God says she is, you will be more blessed by serving one there, than if you had provided the entire budget of the united way or some other organization.

The above quote is in context of a discussion of the thief on the Cross next to Jesus.  It is a portrait of a sinner.

By This We Know Love from Sovereign Grace Ministries on Vimeo.

Lyrics

God of all Creation, Lord of heaven’s light
Descended into evil’s darkest night
Infinitely Holy, Your perfections know no end
Selflessly You died my rightful death

By this we know love that He laid down His life
God’s very own Son came from Heaven to die
Suspended He hung as He shed His own blood
What grace in His pardon, by this we know love

Forsaken man of sorrows, hated by all men
You willingly surrendered for my sin
Scornfully derided, yet in silence stumbling on
Bearing wrath for all that I’ve done wrong
© 2009 Sovereign Grace Worship (ASCAP)

“To conceive of Christ apart from the cross is to distort his identity and his mission, much as Peter did when he rebuked Jesus for announcing his pending suffering and death (Mark 8:31-33). We can infer God’s greatness and power from his creation (Romans 1:19-20), but it is at the cross that his love and mercy are most fully revealed. In the new heavens and new earth we will undoubtedly worship Christ in hushed silence as we behold his transcendent glory (Revelation 1:12-17), extolling him as the victorious Lion of the tribe of Judah. But we will also forever sing his praise as the Lamb that was slain, whose blood ransomed the people of God (Revelation 5:6-10).

As a result, we are never to move on from beholding Jesus as our crucified Savior, relegating the cross to the past. The cross must always inform our understanding of Christ in the present, for it will indeed do so for eternity.”

An excerpt of an article by Jeff Purswell, of Sovereign Grace Ministries.  The full article may be read here.

“When God seems to enjoy afflicting us and testing us over and over again, we should be willing to accept blows as long as he pleases to give them.  Let us not give up in mid-stream.”  Calvin, in his sermons on 2Sam. p.49 Trans. Douglas Kelly

I find some application for the Christian here, in terms of perseverance.  We often can unintentionally convey an already-arrived-type-of-Christianity that does not encourage the fight of faith that Paul spoke of concerning the Christian life.  David imitates for us what it means to be a Christian.  And we see the same of Christ, whom this ultimately points us to.  Christ came to earth and was born humbly, learned himself, discipled people, and suffered for the glory of God to bring many sons to that glory.  So, we should be mindful of the walk of Christ in service and for our sustenance.  May we feed off the fact this day, that though we do not have a crown, He does, and we are His, following His steps leading to a resurrection.

Isaiah 53:3 He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. 4 Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. 5 But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed. 6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned–every one–to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

May we feel the weight of grace, because He has felt the weight of our iniquity.–Blessings to you dear children of God, be encouraged this week!

Seminaries have certainly improved. I would love to have the opportunity at times (I think) to study under some of the scholars in solidly biblical seminaries. Even so, I also understand that it would be easy to do so at the expense of the local church. This topic can be quite contested, but the reason I am writing on it is not to create a fury, but to encourage those coming our way, who wish to go into ministry (of which I have spoken to at least three in our tiny gathering of a church), to magnify the glory of God by being actively trained in the church.

I have seen a brother once who was not adequately trained at church, go off to seminary because the local church of that area was not equipping him in the matters needed. I am not espousing an merely academic program to be placed upon these warriors, but rather that the pulpits, small groups, and midweek Bible studies, should be at the caliber to train all people, including those going into full-time ministry. We can easily set up institutions above The Institution, in a way that has not entered the mind of God.

So, my plea is, especially to brothers in the Lord who come our way and wish to go to Seminary–don’t have the mind–I can’t wait to get to seminary where I can really learn, BUT have the mind–I must learn now the things that will really help me to know what it is to pastor. Ask to sit in on Elder meetings, what books to read; offer yourselves available to teach on occasion, and probably most importantly join the church.

Richard Pratt offers a helpful commentary on this subject:

I was recently in China, talking with the president of a house church network of more than 1 million people. He asked me for advice on preparing the next generation of pastors. I looked at him and said, “The only thing I know is what you should not do.” He smiled and asked, “What’s that?” My reply surprised him. “You should not do what we have done in the West. The results of that approach have become clear.”

The agenda of evangelical seminaries is set primarily by scholars. Professors decide how students will spend their time; they determine students’ priorities; they set the pace. And guess what. Scholars’ agenda seldom match the needs of the church.

Can you imagine what kind of soldiers our nation would have if basic training amounted to reading books, listening to lectures, writing papers, and taking exams? We’d have dead soldiers. The first time a bullet wizzed past their heads on the battlefield, they’d panic. The first explosion they saw would send them running. So, what is basic training for the military? Recruits learn the information they need to know, but this is a relatively small part of their preparation. Most of basic training is devoted to supervised battle simulation. Recruits are put through harrowing emotional and physical stress. They crawl under live bullet fire. They practice hand to hand combat.

If I could wave a magic scepter and change seminary today, I’d turn it into a grueling physical and spiritual experience. I’d find ways to reach academic goals more quickly and effectively and then devote most of the curriculum to supervised battle simulation. I’d put students through endless hours of hands-on service to the sick and dying, physically dangerous evangelism, frequent preaching and teaching the Scriptures, and days on end of fasting and prayer. Seminary would either make them or break them.

Do you know what would happen? Very few young men would want to attend. Only those who had been called by God would subject themselves to this kind of seminary. Yet they would be recruits for kingdom service, not mere students. They would be ready for the battle of gospel ministry.

Note: From 5:14 to 7:34 audio goes blank, just move the audio forward at the point to continue listening.