Today is the start of a three week
series where we will begin comparing our Christian faith with the faith beliefs
of other people. Saint Peter says
this: “In your hearts set apart Christ
as Lord. Always be prepared to give an
answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you
have. But do this with gentleness and
respect. “ I have some goals in mind as I give the
messages in this series. First, I intend
to speak about the faith of other people in a way in which I wouldn’t be
embarrassed if someone from that faith was sitting in the front row. I will attempt to do my best job of
“explaining their actions and beliefs in the kindest way”. I don’t want to give you false or biased
information because that is the best way to lose credibility with another
person. The goal of these messages is to
equip you with the information and motivation to speak up and share you faith
with your loved ones, your coworkers and your friends who may hold to a
different faith than you do and I want you to be able to do it with gentleness
and respect.
During the first
part of each sermon, I’ll focus on the history of a particular faith explaining
where it comes from and what it is all about.
Again, I’m going to do my best to just lay out the information with as
little bias as possible. Then, after a
short break, I’ll continue the message looking at how this faith differs from
the faith that you and I confess to hold as Christians. This week, we’ll cover the Church of Jesus
Christ and Latter Day Saints (often referred to simply as the Mormon
church). Next week, I’ll cover Islam
and, finally, I’ll talk about Buddhism and some other religions. I won’t be able to talk about everything
because for one thing I don’t know everything.
Also, I don’t have enough time. Therefore, I’m listing some additional
resources you can look into at the bottom of your outlines and there are some
pamphlets you can peruse afterwards as well on the tables just inside the doors. So, with no further ado, let’s get started.
I have to admit
that many of my own perceptions about the Mormon faith were inaccurate. For instance, I have learned that people in
this faith prefer to be known as members belonging to the Church of Jesus
Christ and Latter Day Saints—not as Mormons.
Throughout the history of the Latter Day Saints, there have been
numerous times people with this belief have been persecuted, kicked out of
towns, called names and killed. So, if
you’re talking about faith with someone you love, refrain from calling it the
“Mormon” church.
The Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (we’ll call it the LDS church) was founded by
a man named Joseph Smith in the 1830’s in Palmyra, New York. Joseph Smith is considered a modern day
prophet in the LDS church. As the story
goes, he was struggling with deciding on a church. His family belonged to all the usual suspects
at the time: Methodist, Presbyterians and Baptists, and so he sent up a prayer
to God asking for guidance. God
responded in a surprising way: The
Lord told Joseph "that all the religious denominations were believing in
incorrect doctrines".
In
a series of visions over the next several years, God sent an angel named
“Moroni” with golden tablets that Joseph Smith would later translate into what
is known today as “The Book of Mormon”. Moroni
declared "that the time was at hand for the Gospel in all its fullness to be preached in power, unto all
nations" and that Joseph was "to be an instrument in the hands of
God" in that work. When the
translation was completed, Smith returned the plates to Moroni which is why
these plates cannot still be found today.
The
church moved into Ohio and then Missouri, but they were being ostracized by the
settlers with threats of violence.
Still, they grew and flourished.
After Smith died, a man named Brigham Young who had been a part of the
church leadership, had a vision that the church ought to move West where they
could worship in peace. The church
settled in Salt Lake City Utah and created settlements there. Even though there were often conflicts
between the United States government and the LDS church (often surrounding the
issue of polygamy) the church continued to grow exponentially. The modern day Church of Jesus Christ and
Latter Day Saints has disassociated itself from the practice of polygamy and is
the fastest growing faith in American History.
Today,
there are over 13 million people who hold to this faith across the globe and six
million live in America. Just like in
our faith, some parts of this story may seem odd or unbelievable to you, but it
is important to recognize and respect that if you believed God truly began the
LDS church, supernatural events certainly would be expected to occur just like
Moses crossing the Red Sea on dry ground.
Unless you respect these stories and seek to understand them, you’ll
have a hard time talking with someone who is a Latter Day Saint. I pray that this brief summary gives you a
foundation for further discussion with members who belong to the Church of
Jesus Christ and Latter Day Saints.
A few weeks ago, I was reading the news and heard
about a conflict that was going on between some of the Republican candidates
for president. It seems that the pastor
of the one of the candidates had said that he would not vote for some of the
other candidates because they were not Christian—they were Mormons. This statement outraged these Mormon candidates
who said that they WERE Christians and the media jumped on board as well
calling for an apology by this pastor.
So, what do you think? Are
Mormons Christians or not? As we compare
our faith with the faith of the LDS church, that’s one of the questions we’ll
be seeking an answer to.
To begin with, Mormons believe that they are
Christians. Actually, I didn’t know this
before. The way I saw it, if Mormons
were Christians then why did they try to convert Christians to become
Mormons—they must see SOME difference between what they believe and what other
Christians believe. The LDS church is
focused on the restoration of the
Christian church, brought about by Christ himself, to return the church back to
what it once was during the time of Jesus Christ and the apostles. The LDS believes that other Christian
churches are “incomplete” in their knowledge of Christ since they have not been
properly restored to true Christianity.
Now, if you are like me, you can sympathize with the
idea that the Christian church is not all that God created it to be. Martin Luther reformed the church in the 16th
century, but he didn’t fix everything and some things are probably worse than they
were before honestly. Yet Jesus said, “On
this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.” It doesn’t appear that Jesus thought sin or
the Devil could destroy his church. Jesus
also said, “Surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” The Christian church, as it has been
established, believes that even though sin is a part of the church, God continues
to work through it. The LDS church, on
the other hand, believes that God had to start a new and separate church due to
the prevalence of sin.
Christians believe in the authority of scripture (the
old and new testaments) as the rule and norm for faith and life. According to the book of 2nd
Timothy, “All scripture is inspired by God and . . . is able to make you wise
for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.”
God’s Word as we read it, hear it and learn it in the Bible, contains
both God’s laws and his promises. The
Bible is sufficient.
In contrast, while the Bible is certainly upheld as
important in the LDS church, it is not the only source and norm for faith and
life. The LDS church has four scriptures
in fact. First, the book of Mormon that
was translated off the gold tablets given to John Smith by the angel
Moroni. Second, a book called “doctrines
and covenants” written by Joseph Smith, third, a book called the Pearl of Great
Price and, finally, the Bible (“as long as the Bible is translated correctly”).
You
see, the LDS church believes that the Bible has been tampered with and has been
changed so much that you can’t really trust it on its own without being
interpreted by other sources such as the Book of Mormon. Therefore, when there is a contradiction
between the book for Mormon and the Bible you are forced to choose one or the
other. So, in your conversations with
LDS members, the Bible can be a place of agreement, but you must be aware that
it isn’t seen in the same light. For a
Mormon, the Bible is not enough.
Proverbs 30:6 says, “Every word of God is flawless;
he is a shield to those who take refuge in him.
Do not add to his words, or he will rebuke you and prove you a
liar.” While throughout history the
Bible has taken many translations and forms, chapters lost, ink blotted out,
confusion over what word means what, what is truly astounding is how accurate
and consistent of copies we have from when it was originally written in the
first and second century. Every single
Christian church believes that the Bible is the single source to which we hold
as normative while the Church of Jesus Christ and Latter Day Saints does not.
The LDS also has a different understanding of God
than the run of the mill Christian. Christians
believe that there is only one God that we know in three distinct persons: this
is the doctrine of the Trinity. For a
Latter Day Saint, he or she believes that God the Father, Jesus, his Son and
the Holy Spirit are three separate Gods united in purpose as one Godhead. In Joseph Smith’s book, “Gospel Principles”,
he wrote, “We have imagined and supposed
that God was God from all eternity. I
will refute that idea and will take away and do away the veil so that you may
see.” In his teachings, he wrote, “God
the father is an exalted man from another planet.” The LDS church says that God may not always
have been divine and that God has flesh and bones just like us. In contrast, from an orthodox Christian
perspective, according to the gospel of John, “God is spirit” and, in the book
of Hebrews, we read that, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and
forever.” That’s a big theological difference.
So, yes, we both believe in God.
But the God we believe in is very different.
What
about Jesus? I was honestly surprised to
find out how much LDS members make out of Jesus. For example, from the website jefflindsay.com,
“As a Latter-day Saint, I have been taught, and have personally chosen, to
accept Christ as my Savior. I am taught
to follow Him, to rely on His love, and to feast on His word.” That’s just a snippet of a much longer
confession of faith and it sounds pretty good to me. Sounds Christian to me. This is certainly a place where our faith
shares similarities—where you can find common ground with those you speak with
who are Latter Day Saints.
But there is more to the story. According to LDS doctrine, Jesus is the elder
brother of Lucifer, (the Devil) another one of God’s children. Furthermore, Jesus was created by God his
father together with a heavenly mother.
We say the Apostles Creed each week, but we hardly ever talk about what the
virgin birth means to our faith. We say
the Nicene Creed about once a year so we never talk about what it means to for
Jesus to be “begotten, not made of one being with the Father.” In other words, members of the Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints do believe in Jesus Christ, but he has a very
different story than the Jesus you read about in your Bible and he has very
different characteristics than the Jesus spoken of in the church during the
past 2000 years.
Finally, what
about salvation? At first glance, once
again, we find similarities. Both
churches believe that salvation comes through Jesus Christ. According to the Book of Mormon, “For we know
that it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do.” Sounds about right, but not quite what the
Bible says in Ephesians, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through
faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is a gift of God—not by works, so
that no one can boast.” On the one hand,
the LDS church says “after all we can do” we are saved; Saint Paul says,
“salvation is through faith and given as a gift—not by works.”
Again, from what I can tell, most members of LDS
would insist that salvation does not come through works. They would argue that works play the same
role in their church and as in ours. We
are called to obedience as Christians.
We are called to follow the commandments. “Faith without works is dead” and that type of
thing. They must choose God and covenant
with him just like other Christians.
Many Christians would hate to admit that they believe
the same as the LDS church. In order to
be saved, you must choose God and use your free will to make a covenant with
him. While salvation is by grace, it ends
up being your final choice whether to receive that grace or not. It’s more like salvation through cooperation
that salvation as a gift through faith alone.
You’ve got to do the work or all it doesn’t matter.
The
Bible tells us something very different and we, as Christians, need to know this
if we are to have conversations with our LDS brothers and sisters. You are not free to choose. Jesus says that you are a slave to sin. That we cannot free ourselves. We did not choose Jesus, he chose us. In fact, when given the choice, we crucified
him. We cannot do the things we want, in
fact, we do the things we don’t want to do.
If you want your free will then, just like for a Latter Day Saint, the
truth is that grace will not be sufficient for you. It won’t be enough. You are still responsible to “do your part”
or else all bets are off. According to
the LDS church, God’s grace saves your body, it’s enough for that, but your
soul goes to one of three heavens based on your good works in this life. Free will doesn’t give you freedom after all
it appears.
This is the biggest difference between the LDS church
and historical Christian faith: its concept of sin. The LDS church does not believe that we are
born sinful, but that you are only responsible for your own mistakes. You were born free, remember? But Saint Paul says in Romans , “The result
of one trespass [Adam’s original sin] was condemnation for all men” and
“through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners.” Psalm 51 says, “Surely I was sinful at my
birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.” The question is not whether both faiths
believe in grace, I think they do, but do both faiths believe in sin? Jesus said, “I have come not for the
righteous but for sinners.” You will
find that talking about Jesus’ love for sinners will be a sticking point for
many LDS members. If salvation is based
on obedience, then God cannot accept sin and must have needed to create a new
church when the old one went bad. But,
if salvation is based on God’s Word alone, grace alone, faith alone, Christ
alone through his cross alone, then realizing you are a sinner can actually
become a comfort.
I want to emphasize that members of the Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints are good people. They work hard and love Jesus Christ very
much. They are your friends, your family
and your coworkers. You share much in
common with them such as a respect for the Bible, a knowledge of God, a love
for Jesus and knowledge of grace. But
you also view the Bible, God, and Jesus very differently.
Jesus
told us often that the Devil could disguise himself as an angel of light. Paul says in Galatians, “Even if we or an
angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you,
let him be eternally condemned.” Whoever
this Moroni was that Joseph Smith saw that day with those golden tablets, I
maintain that he was not sent by God.
There is only one gospel of Jesus Christ and it does not need replaced
or completed through new revelations. The
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is full of wonderful and loving
people who need to hear about the unconditional love of Jesus for sinners. They need to trust in God’s Word alone
without any other private interpretations.
Perhaps you are being called to share this good news with them. “In your hearts set apart
Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to
give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that
you have. But do this with gentleness
and respect. “ Amen.
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