What Mormonism Thinks of Christianity

by Robert McKay

From - www.namb.net/evangelism/iev/Mormon/challeng.asp

Introduction

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) claims to be a Christian church. One LDS or Mormon theologian has written, "Mormonism is Christianity; Christianity is Mormonism; they are one and the same, and they are not to be distinguished from each other in the minutest detail."¹ One would think that the LDS church would be one of Christianity's greatest friends. Yet when Mormons describe Christianity, it is in very unflattering terms.

Christian "Inferiority"

Brigham Young, the second Mormon prophet, said, "The Christian world, I discovered, was like the captain and crew of a vessel on the ocean without a compass, and tossed to and fro whithersoever the wind listed to blow them. When the light came to me, I saw that all the so-called Christian world was groveling in darkness."² John Taylor, Young's successor, declared, "We talk about Christianity, but it is a perfect pack of nonsense. . . . It is as sounding brass and tinkling symbol [sic]; it is as corrupt as hell; and the Devil could not invent a better engine to spread his work than the Christianity of the nineteenth century."³ In more modern times, the official magazine of the Mormon church has stated, "Satan sits in the place of God in Christianity after the time of the Apostles."⁴ And canonized Mormon scripture says of Christian churches, "they were all wrong . . . all their creeds were an abomination in [God's] sight; . . . those professors [members] were all corrupt."⁵

The Mormon church is anti-Christian. It denies that Christian churches are true churches and that non-Mormons can gain full salvation.

Mormon "Superiority"

The church also claims to be superior to Christianity. A BYU professor who formerly served as the pastor of a Presbyterian church has written, "There is ‘more’ in the message of the restored gospel than in the messages of the traditional Christian churches . . . I testify that Latter-day Saints have ‘more’ than persons of other religious traditions."⁶ The tenth Mormon prophet said, "SAINTS ARE THE BEST PEOPLE. We are, notwithstanding our weaknesses, the best people in the world . . . We are morally clean, in every way equal, and in many ways superior to any other people."⁷ A book co-written by a Mormon says, "The Mormons, in their own eyes, are the ‘true Israel,’ the makers of a new Zion, the select Children of God so designated by the Deity through His most recent prophet, Joseph Smith, and appointed to establish a national theocracy."⁸

Biblical Response

Regardless of what the Mormon missionaries or television commercials say, the Mormon church is anti-Christian. It denies that Christian churches are true churches and that non-Mormons can gain full salvation. This is not biblical. The revelation of God tells us that all who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ shall be saved (see Acts 16:31 ). "Believe" here means to trust in or depend on, with the idea that nothing else is being trusted for salvation. Jesus stated this concept at length (see John 3:14 -18). There is no biblical room for an "only true church" which one must join or forfeit eternal life. If you will trust in Jesus right now, whether you are a Mormon or not, God has promised that you will have eternal life and that you can know that you have it (see 1 John 5:13).

Notes

1. Bruce R. McConkie, Mormon Doctrine (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1966), 513.

2. Brigham Young et al., Journal of Discourses (Liverpool: Asa Calkin, 1858), 5:73.

3. Ibid., 6:167.

4. Kent P. Jackson, "Early Signs of the Apostasy," Ensign (December 1984): 9.

5. Joseph Smith, The Pearl of Great Price (Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1982), Joseph Smith-History 1:19.

6. Roger R. Keller, "Do I Know My Neighbor?" Ensign (March 1991): 26,27.

7. Bruce R. McConkie, comp., Doctrines of Salvation (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1954), 1:236.

8. John Heinerman and Anson Shupe, The Mormon Corporate Empire (Boston: Beacon, 1985), 2.