What Do Mormons Believe?

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What do Mormons believe? Let’s dive in and find the answer to your question.

[Adapted by permission from correspondence with N. J. (Cole) Morganti who serves as the Student Ministry Director at Tri—Grace Ministries alongside his wife. He also hosts the Came Unto Christ Podcast which discusses the differences between Christianity and Mormonism.]

What Do Mormons Believe?

Disclaimer
Since LDS don’t like people calling them Mormons anymore (that’s something new), we determine whether to use that name on a case-by-case basis. Some Mormons are highly offended when referred to that way. If you do use that name, be sure to let them know you didn’t mean any offense.

Note
Recommendation:
As gospel ministers, we should use the term ‘Latter-day Saint’ if it furthers the conversation. However, some Mormons are calling themselves the Church of Jesus Christ and leaving out Latter-Day Saints. Respectfully, as a Christian, I cannot give them that title. The main point is that Christians should use discernment and respect when speaking with them.

So, I’ll confirm I didn’t mean to offend anyone by referring to LDS as Mormons.

Origins
Joseph Smith claimed that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ visited him bodily in 1820. They told him all the churches of his time were wrong and had apostatized from the truth. He called this the First Vision. So, he founded the Latter-Day Saints (LDS) Church in 1830. The Book of Mormon was “found” and “translated” between these two dates.

Biblical Objections

God closed the canon of scripture, which refers to the books that Christians considered authoritative when the Apostle John authored the last book of the Bible (Revelation) in 96 AD. Revelation warns against anyone adding to this final message:
“ I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds to these things, God shall add to him the plagues that are written in this book” (Revelation 22:18).
In the Bible, God the Father never appeared to anyone bodily. Jesus told us that no one besides Himself has seen the Father,
“Not that anyone has seen the Father, except He (Jesus) who is from God. He has seen the Father” (John 6:46). 

God
LDS believe that the Godhead is composed of Father, Son & Holy Ghost, yet they’re all three distinct beings (three gods).

Biblical Objection
Christians (and Jews) believe that God is One, not three gods:
“Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God. The Lord is one!” (Deuteronomy 6:4).

Deity Earned
They teach that the Father was once a man like us who earned His godhood (a state of being divine), and the goal of our lives is to become a god like him:
“As man is, God once was; as God is, man may become”  (LDS 5th prophet Lorenzo Snow).

Biblical Objection
God has always been God and had no beginning or end:
“I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End,” says the Lord, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty” (Revelation 1:8).
“Before the mountains were brought forth, or You had formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting You are God” (Psalm 90:2).

Jesus
LDS also teach Jesus is the first literal offspring of Heavenly Father and a heavenly mother (who may or may not be a plural wife). Jesus wasn’t always God, so He earned his deity.

Biblical Objection

The Son of God, the Second Person of the Godhead, like the Father, has always been God and had no beginning or end:
“In the beginning was the Word (God the Son), and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1).
During Jesus’ conception, He received a human nature (without diminishing His deity; we call the union of humanity with deity the hypostatic union, a key concept in Christian theology), and the angel who announced Jesus’ conception to Joseph told him to name the baby ‘Jesus’ because,
“He will save His people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21).
Mormons teach that people, along with even Satan, are all the brothers and sisters of Jesus from our heavenly parents.
People can become human brothers and sisters of Jesus when they believe in Him. But they can never become deity, and we were not born siblings of Jesus:
“Yet to all who received Him, He gave the power to become sons of God, to those who believed in His name” (John 1:12).
Satan is a created being, a fallen angel, who rebelled and fell from favor:
“The great dragon was cast out, that ancient serpent called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world. He was cast down to the earth, and his angels were cast down with him” (Revelation 12:9; see also Ezekiel 28:14-15).

Salvation
LDS teach that regardless of your belief, you will be resurrected and live in one of three levels of heaven for eternity. Jesus and the Father live in the top level, called  ‘The Celestial Kingdom.’ To reach them, you must “obey the laws and ordinances of the (Mormon) gospel,” which include but are not limited to:

Believe LDS doctrine.
Being baptized LDS.
Repenting (forsaking) sin.
Having LDS priests lay hands on you to receive the Holy Ghost (he can also leave you if you sin).
Go through Mormon temple rituals.
Go through them again for dead ancestors.
Pay a 10% mandatory tithing of all income.
And endure to the end as a LDS.

Biblical Objections
Though some Christians may include baptism and/or repenting sin and/or enduring to the end as needed for initial salvation, Biblical salvation,

Is apart from works:
“For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works” (Ephesians 2:8-9).
Is by faith in Jesus plus nothing because salvation is based on Jesus’ merit alone:
“To those who received Him (Jesus), He gave the power to become sons of God, to those who believed in His name” (John 1:12, see also John 3:16 et al). 

Levels in Heaven

What do Mormons believe? For those who don’t reach the third level of heaven, what determines whether they achieve the second level?
It’s based on whether someone’s a REALLY bad person, in which case they’d go to the lowest level, or if they were a person who loved their family, helped people, and generally lived a good life. So, the difference between those two levels is an evaluation of their life’s works.

Biblical Objection

Every person who gets to heaven gets there based on the merit of Christ’s finished work of redemption:
“By His (Jesus) own blood, He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption” (Hebrews 9:12). 
However, the Bible does say God will reward us in heaven for the works we do in this life:
“We are persuaded of better things for you, things that accompany salvation, for God is not unjust … to forget your work and labor of love that you have shown for His name, in that you have ministered to the saints and continue ministering” (Hebrews 6:9-10). 
“(Jesus said), When you prepare a banquet, call the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, for they cannot repay you. You shall be repaid at the resurrection of the just” (Luke 14:13-14).

Hell
Sentence to Hell is reserved for apostates and those who rebelled in the preexistence.

Biblical Objections

God created Hell (the Lake of Fire) for the devil and his angels:
“Then He (Jesus) will say to those at the left hand, ‘Depart from Me, you cursed, into the eternal fire, prepared for the devil and his angels” (Matthew 24:41).
People end up in the Lake of Fire because God didn’t write them in the Book of Life. All who believe in Jesus were written in that Book when they believed:
“Anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire” (Revelation 20:15).

Preexistence
The Heavenly Father birthed billions of spirit children with his wife (or wives). After He did, He wanted to create a world for them to live in, so He asked Jesus and Satan how He should run it. Jesus advised allowing them free will, while Satan said to force them to believe in You. The Father picked Jesus’ plan and chose him to be the savior.

Satan rebelled, and one-third of the spirit children joined him. They lost the war in the spirit world and are in a spirit prison waiting for Hell. God sends the other two-thirds, i.e., the people here on Earth, one by one to try them in this life so they might be worthy enough to become gods.

The better you fought, the better family you get put into (better = Mormon family). This is why LDS have such large families: to provide bodies for the souls in the preexistence. Then they have a chance to become worthy. Also, when God sends us to Earth, we forget everything that happened in the preexistence.

What do Mormons believe? Historically, they taught that those who remained neutral in the fight in heaven were born with black skin (the curse of Ham). However, they changed their view in 1978.
Note: Most LDS will now say they don’t believe that black skin is the result of the curse of Ham. Their view now is more complicated since most, if not all, LDS members deny racism, or that black skin is the result of any curse.

Baptism for the Dead
What do Mormons believe about baptism for the dead? This is a complicated subject, so we’ll just mention it briefly. This is an ordinance in the LDS church. LDS require baptism for the remission of sins to get to the highest kingdom. They believe you must have a body to do these works, so living people baptize by proxy for dead spirits who didn’t have the opportunity in this life.

Biblical Objection

People are responsible for believing in Jesus while living this life. There is not a second chance after death:
“Look, now is the accepted time; look, now is the day of salvation” (2 Corinthians 6:2).
There is no literal baptism for the dead in Christian practice. The one mention in the Bible is likely a metaphor for suffering for the sake of the living Christ:
“Otherwise, what will they do who are baptized for the dead, if the dead do not rise at all? Why are they then baptized for the dead? And why do we stand in danger every hour?” (1 Corinthians 15:29-30).

Summary: What LDS Believe

So, what do Mormons believe? Joseph Smith founded Mormonism in 1830 after a reported vision from God told him all the current churches were wrong.
The Godhead is composed of Father, Son & Holy Ghost, yet they’re all three distinct beings (three gods).
God the Father was once a man like us, and He earned His deity.
Jesus is the first literal offspring of Heavenly Father and a heavenly mother who also earned his deity.
People are born human brothers and sisters of Jesus.
LDS earn salvation through good works and believing the Mormon gospel.

What do Mormons believe?

The Mormon message (gospel) contradicts the teachings of the Bible in many ways.

We invite you to watch the Great news video on this page to hear the TRUE Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God and Savior of the world.

We invite you to watch the “Great News” video on this page and find out more about God’s love for you and how you can receive forgiveness and eternal life – today!

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