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Galatians 1:8
“But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed.”
Today and tomorrow, we will consider Mormonism, formally known as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. With more than sixteen million members worldwide, it is among the largest of the religious movements that present themselves as a form of Christianity while teaching doctrines fundamentally at odds with the Apostolic faith.
Mormonism was founded by Joseph Smith Jr. in the 1820s. Smith claimed that an angel named Moroni had directed him to a set of golden plates buried in upstate New York, which he translated by means of seer stones into the Book of Mormon. Smith subsequently produced two additional volumes of supposed revelation, the Doctrine and Covenants and the Pearl of Great Price, which together with the Book of Mormon form the Mormon scriptures alongside the King James Version of the Bible. Smith was killed by a mob in Illinois in 1844, and Brigham Young led his followers west to what is now Utah.
Four Mormon doctrines are particularly important to grasp. First, Mormonism teaches a continuing canon of revelation. The Bible is honored, but the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants, and the Pearl of Great Price are received as additional scripture, and the living president of the church is regarded as a prophet who can deliver new revelation today. Second, Mormonism teaches a humanized deity. The God of this world, according to Joseph Smith, “was once as we are now and is an exalted man.” Lorenzo Snow, the church’s fifth president, summarized the teaching: “As man now is, God once was; as God now is, man may be.” Mormon doctrine holds that righteous human beings can themselves ascend to godhood. Third, every human soul preexisted as an eternal spirit child of heavenly parents. Fourth, Christ’s death secured the resurrection of all people, but one’s destiny among the three “kingdoms of glory” depends on obedience to Mormon teachings and ordinances.
Each of these teachings is a serious departure from Scripture. The Bible closes its canon with grave warnings against adding to it (Rev. 22:18–19). The biblical God is the one true and living God, who declares, “Before me no god was formed, nor shall there be any after me” (Isa. 43:10). Human beings are creatures, and Scripture nowhere teaches that we will become gods. Paul’s word to the Galatians stands as a sober warning against any system that presents itself as Christianity while preaching another gospel (Gal. 1:8), especially one that makes one’s eternal destiny dependent on one’s works.
Coram Deo Living before the face of God
The presence of biblical language and Christian terminology does not make a teaching Christian. Where another gospel is preached, the Apostle Paul pronounces a curse, no matter how respectable the messenger. Let us learn to test the spirits and to honor only the Christ revealed in Scripture.
For further study
- Deuteronomy 4:2
- Isaiah 44:6–8
- Hebrews 1:1–2
- Jude 3–4
The bible in a year
- Ecclesiastes 5–6
- 2 Corinthians 11:16–33