Main Aspects of Mormonism

Prayer.
Show 44L The Black, White and Gray of Mormonism Taped July 25th 2021 Aired.
I don’t talk much about Mormonism anymore. In part because I have come to see all organized religion as pretty much failing in the face of what God has designed for us, but also because I find many LDS souls as devoted to Christ as many so-called Christian souls. And that’s what it all comes down to – the people in the churches and the hearts that they have for God through Christ – not the religious expressions themselves.

Nevertheless, I was at one time very focused on talking about everything LDS and ripping the institution apart at the seams. I still believe that the institution deserves it – but I have left that to a whole contingency of people who believed that they are called to carry the torch forward. Additionally, after spending over a decade teaching through the Apostolic Record verse by verseTGNN’s Bible teaching series—book-by-book, through the lens of fulfillment and spiritual liberty., I have also realized that in some cases Joseph Smith’s views were not so far afield from biblical truth as I once believed. Some of them.

In fact, some of what Smith said were insightful to sound biblical exegesis, some were questionable, and some were, of course, flat out creative expressions from his imaginary mind. So, having been removed from the Mormon/Christian debate for eight or so years now, I thought I would walk through the main areas of Mormonism and categorize them as Black (meaning a true fiction and product of Smith and his imagination) White, (meaning they are good and godly views or practices) and then Gray, which describes areas that are biblically supported and central to everyday LDS conversations but not talked about much in the Christian world.

The Black

Concepts that sprung from the mind of Smith and are not biblically supported.

Number 1 – a Premortal Existence
A fanciful presentation, borrowed from Greek Mythology, the mind of Plato, emphasized by early Christian thinker Origen, reiterated by Swedenborg, and two years before Smith was born William Wordsworth wrote a poem that emphasized the idea – which was extremely popular by the time Smith was able to think. Not biblically endorsed, only supported by passages and situations stretched out of context.

First Vision
Retroactively concocted and conveniently inserted into history. All people have to do is read Grant Palmer's book, "An Insider's View of Mormon Origins," to get the low-down on the first vision and our next non-biblically supported LDS fancy.

Restored Church and Priesthood
Totally unbiblical and unsupported. But because there is mention of Restoration and Priesthood in the Bible that is enough for the myth to exist in the minds of those who want it to exist and to embrace it as real.

Book of Mormon
A product of several hands and minds and a direct product of a treasure digging environment. Utterly composed and created out of popular themes from that day and existing to answer all the day's mysteries. A genuinely unique book in composition but wholly unoriginal in content.

Doctrine and Covenants
Persuasive imaginative rants in the name of God Almighty.

Pearl of Great Price
Forget about it.

Modern Apostles
I understand the claim and it is biblically based IF my eschatologyStudy of “last things”—TGNN teaches all biblical eschatology was fulfilled in 70 A.D. More were different, but in terms of qualifications, wholly unsubstantiated.

Modern Prophets
This is a bigger leap with Hebrew 1 making it clear that in times past God spoke to us by prophets but has in these last days spoken to us by His . . .

Latter-Day Saints (eschatology)
Utterly misunderstood.

Temples and vicarious work for the dead
Unbiblical in every sense of the word.

The White

We are free to choose
Very good call in the face of Reformed theology.

There is a Heavenly Father who loves us
There certainly is. He is not our father by rite but by adoption but as our creator, he does love and the LDS teach this.

Jesus paid for the sins of the world
They believe this. And while a different Jesus than some others, He still took on flesh and sacrificed his life.

Families and marriage are good

Working and education are good

Living clean and in sobriety is good

Staying out of debt is good

Staying free from substances is good

Mission are good – in a fleshly sort of way

The Gray

Personal Revelation for each individual
Jeremiah 31:31-33
Unfortunately, the LDS will also suggest that the local priesthood authority also has revelatory supremacy over the ward, stake, region, and then over the entire church – which is wholly man-made.

Jesus as our brother

Because of the Trinitarian.

Jesus as Brother and God

Doctrine that Jesus is the second person of the one God, and came from a co-equal, co-eternal place with the Father and then Holy Spirit, also separate persons of the one God, Christians have been super critical of the LDS teaching that Jesus is their “Elder Brother.” What makes the LDS teaching of Jesus as an Elder Brother is the LDS idea that he was the first born of all of heavenly father and heavenly motherssss children spiritually, and because we too were spiritually birthed in the premortal existence afterward, Jesus is our Elder Brother. This causes Evangelicals to scream, “that is horrible! Jesus is God,” and Mormons to scream back, “He is my big brother.”

The reality lies somewhere in the mix. And having been both LDS and Christian, I see where they are both coming from. First of all, the Word of God came from above and existed as an expression of God prior to taking on flesh and becoming the human being called Yeshua the Anointed. We all came from below – as Jesus plainly says in the Gospel accounts. So, the LDS idea that He is our elder brother in a spiritual pre-existent sense is bunk. However, the scripture does describe Jesus as more of our brother by adoption than the Evangelicals care to admit and this can be supported plainly by scripture. So, let’s look at a few.

Scriptural Designations of Jesus as Brother

The first one is pretty basic and is found in Mark 3:34–35 where Jesus disciples are telling him that his mother and brothers are looking for him and he looks at the group around him and says: “These are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.” His statement told everyone that, while earthly relationships are important, spiritual relationships are those that truly last and are meaningful, and that His true family was based on things of the Spirit not fleshly relationships.

We also note that the way Jesus describes those who are his mother and brother is not as those who merely say that they believe but those who, “did the will of the Father.” That caveat is important to the other ways scripture will describe Jesus as our brother.

Adoption and Inheritance Through Christ

In Hebrews 2:11 we read, “For he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one source. That is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers” (ESV). Of course the generic term brother in Scripture also includes sisters and in this passage, the writer of Hebrews is explaining how the Lord Jesus Christ would not be ashamed to call others his brothers and sisters. Romans 8:15 and Galatians 4:4-6 make it clear that through faith in the deathSeparation from God—now overcome. Physical death remains, but it no longer separates us from life with God. and resurrection of Yeshua the Anointed, the living God becomes our Father by adoption as a result of the Holy Spirit moving into us and giving us new hearts and minds.

Since God is also the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ, those who look to Jesus by faith share in that relationship as adopted children, which right Jesus, our brother by adoption, purchased with His blood giving us the right for us to call His Father our Father. According to 2nd Corinthians 5:21 He is not ashamed to call us brothers because His righteousness is imputed to us, making us blameless as He is blameless. Then Romans 8:29 says, “Those whom God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.”

Some people have errantly supposed from this verse that Jesus was only the first of God’s many adopted children but this would not be supported contextually by other passages. He was God’s only begotten Son who was appointed to be the firstborn of many by His father, fulfilling Psalm 89:27 where YHWH says: “I will appoint him to be my firstborn, the most exalted of the kings of the earth.” Therefore He was appointed as firstborn of the dead, by resurrection, not the firstborn of adopted sons or daughters. Nevertheless, Jesus is still our brother in human resurrection too. Scripture makes it plain that the ultimate will of the Father is that we love, trust, and obey His Son (John 3:36; 2 Thessalonians 1:8; Romans 2:7–8).

The end result of this, ready, is that we become joint-heirs with Christ, the Son of the Living God. This occurs by adoption for those who suffer with him and is supported by Romans 8:17. In this way we too can see Him as our brother as we become JOINT HEIRS with Him of God.

Various Afterlife Kingdoms

The LDS were not entirely off when they refer to Jesus as our brother, but the relationship is certainly given through faith and adoption to him in the flesh and not some relationship that we have through a fictitious pre-mortal existence.

Of course, Smith borrowed from Paul’s 1st Corinthians 15 and then also created a new word for one of his kingdoms (calling it telestial) but the Bible does speak of various afterlife states or conditions. The Bible also speaks to various resurrections which may or may not be referring to the various states people experience from the hand of God. But the black and white there is a heaven and there is a hell idea is frequently countered by biblical information and insights.

Salvation and the Heavenly Realm

All Saved to a heavenly realm. Describe Revelations description of hell giving up her dead, and the New JerusalemThe spiritual reality of God's fulfilled presence with humanity—replacing Sheol after 70 A.D. and its description. Humans becoming Gods? We spoke of Romans 8:17 where Paul describes how believers who suffer with Christ become Joint heirs with Him. Its not deification of Man to become Gods but it is closer that what most evangelicals will allow in their minds.

Faith and Individual Belief

In the end, like all brick and mortar expressions of the faith, the LDS have some good, some bad and some non-biblical views and approaches to believing. I choose to ignore what their church demands and to look at each individual and their faith and love, because that is all we can do in this world of religious approaches – to choose to believe and to show love for all as the result.

I suggest, as a former pick-on-mormons guy, that we all look in the mirror, humble ourselves, and receive any person on earth, Catholic, Mormon, Calvinist, Baptist, JW, whatever – who claims Christ in faith as a brother or sister, and to let God decide whether they are or not. Start to see religion as religion – they are really all the same – at their core. And start to see all people as people, and to see those who include Christ in their lives – as His.