Note to LDS readers:
- I am aware that the preferred term is members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. The terms Mormon, LDS, and Latter Day Saint are used in this article for succinctness, and no offense is intended.
- Links to official and secondary LDS websites are marked with (friendly). Hyperlinks to non LDS sites will have no annotation.
- When using the term Christian I’m referring to non-LDS Evangelical Christians.
The LDS Church Changes It’s Message
The LDS church boasts over 16,565,036 members and 67,021 missionaries worldwide. Sometime in the past 30 years the LDS church began to shift their public image, migrating away from their previous stance which was that traditional Christian beliefs were an abomination. I have quoted below directly from their official website.
“all their creeds were an abomination in his sight; that those professors were all corrupt;” – Joseph Smith History 1:19 (friendly)
Now they present a more pleasant stance of “we are Christians too”. Of course, this has created much confusion among evangelical Christians and younger Latter Day Saints alike. When we speak with young people here in Salt Lake City, the conversation is often a pleasant one, with them being very accepting of us and polite. If we want to talk about differences in faith, typically we must be the ones to say that we believe in a different Jesus. This new cultural atmosphere has done two things. First, it has convinced the young Mormon even more so that their faith is commonplace and widely accepted across the world, and second, it has deepened the deception among evangelical Christians that Latter Day Saints are Christians just as we are, only holding a few different theological beliefs.
A Deceptive Message
My wife and I, for a brief period, bought into this deception at face value as it was presented to us by LDS sister missionaries who came knocking at our door. In fact, with confidence, I personally told about 15 Christian men during our study of the book Speaking of Jesus that the sister missionaries we met believe in the same Jesus as us, and if that’s the case then it doesn’t matter that we have a few minor differences in our theology. We are fortunate enough to have been able to tell almost all of those men that we were mistaken, and we were mistaken so much so that we were going to move to Utah to share the true Jesus with these people that we love.
So Mormons Aren’t Christians?
Mormons call themselves Christians, but as you can see on the home page of our website they believe in things that differ significantly from Protestantism and Catholicism. For example, Mormons believe that God was formerly a man who progressed to godhood, that we can all become gods or goddesses of our own planets, that we can baptize on behalf of the dead to give them a second chance at salvation in the afterlife, that Jesus is a created being and not the creator of all things, that Jesus is the literal brother of Lucifer, that you must be married in a Mormon temple to live in the highest level of heaven where Jesus resides, that there are 3 extra sets of Scriptures, and on and on it goes…
Christians Have Failed Mormons
As Christians, we have widely failed these people over the last two centuries by allowing them to live in deception and doing very little to combat the lies that they so cleverly propagate. In the past century, even more specifically the last 30 years, our failure has come back to bite us more than we know. We have pointed out the deception to countless friends and family over the past two years, probably to the point of annoyance (sorry guys). We have seen Christians promote popular Instagram influencers, books, music, non-profits, and more – all which have their roots in LDS culture and beliefs. And it’s not just people we know that share this type of content. It happens all the time in the Christian world. And let me be clear to you who are reading this. I do not blame you. I have been and still sometimes am guilty of making this mistake.
Now we do not live in fear or paranoia, but we live a more vigilant life, not believing or promoting everything we see just because it has the name of Jesus or the word Christian stamped on it. One thing to note is that some of these things are good, like an organization that rescues women and children from sex trafficking. What I’m saying is to be careful not to bundle a good thing with a false gospel. Just like Christian organizations have an eternal message to share through the work they do, so do LDS organizations and influencers.
I want to pause here to answer a couple of questions:
Are you saying that I’m making a mistake by sharing content posted or promoted by an LDS person?
No, the mistake is not sharing relatively harmless content. The mistake or oversight is being unaware that the content may be used to bolster the LDS gospel. If you are watchful the Holy Spirit may prompt you to pause and reconsider sharing certain content. Other times you may have no conviction about sharing a harmless product such as clothing or jewelry that a Mormon woman is selling. I don’t think this is a black and white issue. I think it’s an awareness issue.
How can I tell the difference between Mormon and Christian?
Here are some things you may see that could indicate a person is LDS (yes these are generalizations):
- Does this person appear Christian, but live in Utah? (Only 3% of Utah is evangelical)
- Using common Mormon terms – Heavenly Mother, Heavenly Father (instead of God or God the Father), Celestial Kingdom (instead of heaven), eternal marriage, married or “sealed” in a temple, temple work, plan of salvation, serving a mission, the prophet, BYU, ward (instead of congregation or church), church activity and meetings, family home evening
- Doesn’t drink coffee or tea
- Dresses modestly to cover Mormon undergarments
- No piercings or tattoos
Don’t Create Barriers
Some people, after discovering the actual beliefs of the Mormons and other groups like Jehovah Witness or Christian Science, resort to complete nonassociation with them. Clearly, that is not the point I am trying to make as my wife and I have specifically moved to Utah to live and work among the LDS people. My wife rubs shoulders with her LDS coworkers five days a week and has only developed more love for them, not fear or resentment. The point I am trying to make is that with a little more vigilance we can prevent ourselves from promoting something that does not truly reflect the Jesus of the Bible, and we can at the same time speak the truth in love to our LDS neighbors because we are aware that they do not yet have the eternal life with Jesus that He so graciously and freely gives.
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