A bit like speaking English to an American: the words are familiar, but the planet is different. That’s the way people describe the experience of trying to discuss Christianity with a Mormon. John Bracht, a former Mormon and now Baptist pastor, explains why some of their teachings can sound so familiar, and yet so foreign. He offers a guide to how we can have fruitful discussion with Mormons rather than angry arguments.
The Mormon Church is the richest, most successful, fastest-growing and most theologically-complex of all the new religious movements which have had their origin in the United States. Every year it is suc- cessful at persuading in excess of 300,000 people that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the ‘one true church’. By December 1997 worldwide membership will be ten million. University of Washington sociologist Rodney Stark projects that in about 80 years, Mormon membership should reach 260 mil- lion, making it the most successful new world religion since the Prophet Muhammad founded Islam.
Mormons are understandably proud of their church’s achievements and current growth. With more than half its membership outside of the United States, it is no longer an American church. In Brazil alone, more than 50,000 joined the church in 1997. Part of the reason for success in making annual converts is its vir- tual ‘army’ of 52,900 young, volun- teer missionary-elders serving two- year missions. The Mormon Church is present in 140 nations and 21 ter- ritories, it builds more than 350 new churches every year and is in the process of adding 18 cathedral-sized temples to the existing fifty. These spectacular edifices topped with gold statues of the angel Moroni are used every day of the week except Sunday in order to perform ordi- nance work for the living and the dead.
The annual gross income of the church, derived from tithes and busi- ness investments is about $6 billion. Its assets in churches and temples, business properties, ranch and farm real estate, schools and universities total approximately $30 billion. The Mormon Church is the largest reli- gious media owner in the world and maintains the largest private satellite video network in the world. It also owns the largest private university in the United States–Brigham Young University, with campuses in Provo, Utah, Hawaii and Jerusalem.
With its passionate interest in family trees which provide informa- tion for ordinance work for the dead, the Church maintains the largest genealogical library in the world with a registry in excess of two bil- lion names. Mormons are prominent in American business, politics, enter- tainment, the intelligence services and education. Perhaps the best known guru of motivation, business management, leadership and human relations is devout Mormon Stephen Covey, author of The Seven Habits of Highly Successful People. Superlatives seem to mount up whenever Mormonism is observed as an insti- tution or movement.
What do they believe?
It may surprise many evangelicals to know that Mormons and Christians have a deal in common. They share some social and moral standards and a number of basic biblical doctrines. Nevertheless the differences are considerable and currently make it impossible for us to see Mormonism as anything other than a radical departure from historic Christianity. Fawn M. Brodie whose biography of Joseph Smith led to her excommuni- cation from the Mormon Church, described the relationship between Christianity and Mormonism best: “Joseph Smith’s was no mere dis- senting sect. It was a real religious creation, one intended to be to Christianity as Christianity was to Judaism: that is, a reform and a con- summation”.
So what is peculiar about the beliefs of these people who assert that they are the truest of all Christians? Here is a very brief summary.
CHURCH
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter- day Saints (Mormon) is the only true Christian church in the sense that it alone has the fullness of the gospel and the priesthood-authority to act in God’s name. All the other (Christian) churches are false and apostate and have no authority to act for God. You can’t get to the highest heaven by belonging to any other church.
The ‘true’ church was restored to earth in 1830 after heavenly messen- gers–God, Jesus, John the Baptist, Peter, James and John, Moses, Elijah etc–visited the founding prophet Joseph Smith (1805-1844) in New York State, U.S.A.
SALVATION
Being a Christian and believing in Christ is not enough to get you to heaven. To be properly saved you have to join the Mormon Church, receive its priesthood ordinances, experience sacred (secret) rituals in a Mormon temple, be married in the Temple, and keep all the command- ments.
THE NATURE OF GOD
Through Joseph Smith’s First Vision in 1820 as well as other revelations, it has been revealed that the Father, Son and Spirit are really three sepa- rate gods. The Father is a glorified man who has become a god. He has a wife or wives and Jesus was their first spirit child. Our spirits also came from these divine parents. Humans too can become gods and creators just as God the Father has before them. God has a physical body and is confined in space. There are many gods, but only three for this world.
SCRIPTURES
Mormons claim to believe the Bible. However, there are three addi- tional holy books of scripture in Mormonism. Doctrine and Covenants contains the revelations of the Prophet Joseph Smith. These are the real basis for Mormon belief and practice. The Book of Mormon is sup- posed to be an ancient American scripture covering a period from 2200 B.C. to 421 A.D. It contains widespread evidence of plagiarism (borrows thousands of verses, ideas and characters from the Bible and gives them a different context) and is not supported by any archaeological evidence despite Mormon claims to the contrary. The third book is The Pearl of Great Price, or the books of Abraham and Moses, allegedly translated from Egyptian papyri which Joseph Smith ‘translated’ in the 1840s. Though lost, the papyri were rediscovered in 1967 and have since been translated by some of the world’s leading Egyptologists. They have proven conclusively that Joseph Smith’s translation is purely imaginary.
Mormons are usually very sincere and anxious to share their faith. In their personal lives they are very fine people, often model citizens. They are often earnestly looking for the truth, but have found it in the wrong place. There is nothing wrong with Mormons wanting to share their faith with others. What is wrong is that they continue to claim that they are the only true Christians, that only they know what real Christianity is. They may promote themselves as a new world religion, but it is not fair or accurate for them to assert that they are what we are–Christians. They can’t be Christians in the sense that Christians have always been, because they have a different origin, a different God/gods, a different means of salvation and different scriptures.
What can we say to Mormons?
With so many differences in our beliefs, how can Christians have fruitful conversations with Mormons and not simply dissolve into angry arguments? After being a Mormon myself for nine years and converting to Christianity, I want to suggest a number of worthwhile topics of discussion which might move a Mormon towards a new openness to the gospel. These are only starting points; for more detailed discussion of Mormon beliefs and how to respond to them, see the booklist.
COURAGE AND RESPECT
Our approach as evangelicals should include both courage and respect: respect for their zeal, however mis- guided (cf. Rom 10:1-4) and courage to destroy arguments that keep any- one from knowing God as he ought to be known (2 Cor 10:4). We need to develop the right attitude and correct others with gentleness and humility (2 Tim 2:25). Many Mormons have experienced only hostility from evangelicals; no won- der the gospel doesn’t seem so attractive!
STANDARDS OF ORTHODOXY
A first step in speaking with Mormons is to establish some tests for orthodoxy. Where do they get their ideas from? What is the basis for their teachings? The answer is Joseph Smith. He introduced new teachings which cannot be found in the Bible on the premises that: (i) those truths were once in the Bible but were lost; and (ii) the world was not previously ready for these more ‘advanced’ truths revealed today. On both counts, Mormonism effec- tively removes the right of the Bible to judge whether Mormonism teaches truth or falsehood. They can’t have their Bible and overrule it, too.
THE TRINITY
A worthwhile approach is to concen- trate on the origins and nature of God. The Mormon God is finite, dependent on higher powers and not Spirit. These views contradict explicit teaching in the Bible. Note that the Bible appears to support Mormon claims for separate Gods and be prepared to explain verses like John 5:19-22; 17:21-26; 20:17 and 1 Corinthians 15:24-28.
It is worth pointing out the anomalies in the Mormon view. If God was himself created by a higher power, why do we bother praying to him? Isaiah 43:10 teaches that “Before me no God was formed, nor shall there be any after me”. How does that square with the Mormon dictum that “As man is God once was, and as God is, man may become”? Currently, there is con- cern among Mormons about the sta- tus of the ‘Heavenly Mother’, God’s wife. Shouldn’t they pray to her, too, if she is a goddess?
VIEW OF JESUS
In Mormon teaching, Jesus is liter- ally the offspring of God the Father, who has a body. In Mormon theol- ogy a man must be married in order to progress to godhood. No contem- porary Mormon would claim that either Jesus or the Holy Spirit has a wife. How then can they be gods?
Despite protestations from them, Mormons diminish the role of Christ as redeemer. His death on the cross is an atonement for sins, but must be realised by baptism into the ‘one, true church’ and by a great many religious works. Christ’s resurrection is their assurance that human beings will be raised from the dead, but it gives no assurance to an individual believer. He must obey the church’s teachings and submit to the ordi- nances of the Temple strictly if he wants a good position in the heav- enly realms after death.
Although Mormons would not say so, Jesus’ teaching is subordinate to that of Joseph Smith and of the modern day prophets who receive ‘special revelations’. In this way, ‘the church and its teachings’ is elevated above its founder; the slave rules over the master.
THE BOOK OF MORMON
They call it “the keystone of our reli- gion”, but it is a shattered keystone! To this day, there is a total lack of external evidence for its authenticity as a historical record. Thousands of sites in Mexico and Central America have been excavated, but still nothing has surfaced. No Book of Mormon cities, coins, names or places have ever been discovered. Compare that with the abundant New Testament archaeological and manuscript evidences. And this is the case even though the most prob- ing critics of the Book of Mormon are themselves Mormon scholars zeal- ously trying to defend its claims. All they are discovering is more reasons to doubt it.
What is perhaps most bizarre about the Book of Mormon is that it contains none of the distinctive doc- trines of Mormonism! The Angel Moroni allegedly told Joseph Smith that it contained the “fullness of the everlasting gospel”, but none of the major teachings I have mentioned in this article appear on its pages. These teachings have come from Joseph Smith and other sources. One has to wonder why the Book of Mormon is considered the keystone.
THE ROLE OF THE TEMPLE
The Temple is central to Mormon religious practice, although what goes on inside is shrouded in mys- tery. It is forbidden for a Mormon to talk about temple rites. We do know that they perform celestial marriages (which seals one’s union for eternity) and baptisms for the dead (the means by which families can be reunited in heaven, even with unbelievers).
It should be clear that this is a long way from biblical Christianity. Do we really need temples with their secret rituals, passwords, tokens, signs etc., to get into heaven? The Bible teaches that salvation is per- sonal, by faith, and not by proxy. The secretive nature of temple ritu- als must be viewed with suspicion. There is nothing secret about the rit- uals, furniture or function of the Old Testament Temple.
The Mormon future
The material presented here is intro- ductory, but it should be enough to help Christians see the differences between their beliefs and Mormon teaching. Hopefully, it will also be enough to get you started in worth- while conversations with ‘The Door Knockers’. Do not be surprised, however, if detailed discussion of doctrine doesn’t get you very far! Strong faiths that aren’t based on evidence die hard.
Perhaps there is some encourage- ment in the fact that, with the passage of time, Mormonism will continue to change, modify and abandon some of its doctrines and practices. It always has done. Polygamy, for instance, was forbidden in the Book of Mormon, made acceptable by ‘special revela- tion’ a few years later, and banned in 1890. Because of internal pressures and dissent–a growing phenome- non–it is suspected that the move- ment will not be able to sustain unity. There will be splits. Already there are a few different groups within Mormonism and some of them, such as the Reorganized Church, appear to be more self-critical.
Socially, Mormonism is on the rise. It is growing in wealth, numbers and influence. It is a force to be reck- oned with. But spiritually speaking, it is a feeble construction. Anyone with a small amount of theological understanding, and a little Christian history, can recognise it as flawed. The challenge is to explain these flaws in a loving, courageous man- ner to those many thousands who have been duped.
John Bracht’s suggested reading on sharing the gospel with Mormons
- Rhodes & Bodine, Reasoning from the Scriptures with the Mormons, (Harvest House, 1995).
- Hutchinson, The Mormon Missionaries: An inside look at their real message and methods, (Kregal, 1995).
- Reed & Farkas, Mormons Answered Verse by Verse, (Baker, 1992).
- Tucker, Another Gospel: Cults, Alternative Religions and the New Age Movement, (Zondervan, 1989).
- Blomberg & Robinson, How Wide the Divide? A Mormon and an Evangelical in Conversation, (IVP, 1997).
- Bracht, Let’s Talk About It: a letter to members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Booklet published by the author. P. O. Box 3, Mortdale, 2223).
