Why Christians Should Care About Mormons

What if I told you there was a group of people, upwards of 15 million in number, who believe in a god and claim they know Jesus better than you do and love talking about him, yet don’t know him at all? I am talking about the Latter-day Saints (Mormons or LDS). This interesting and, from the outside, odd people group is one that many know of but don’t know at all. Thrown into the statistics of religious demographics as just another Christian denomination, evangelicals from all over the world have never considered the Mormon people as those who need the gospel. Because of this the Latter-day Saint (Mormon) population has been disregarded as a people group to be reached with the gospel of grace brought to us by Jesus himself.

When I first moved to Utah, I was taken aback by the lack of Christian influence in the Beehive state. Later, I went back to my hometown located in the “Bible Belt” and was deeply impacted by the apathy showcased by my Evangelical friends when I would tell them about the need for true Christians in Utah to witness to the approximately 2.1 million Mormons living there. A line that often comes when discussing why we should evangelize to the Latter-day Saints is, “So what if they get a few things wrong, where is the problem?” But for Christians, no matter how insignificant any piece of doctrine seems, Jesus commands us to worship God “in spirit and truth” (John 4:24). This attitude should be unacceptable in Christian circles. On the surface it may seem our LDS friends just choose to worship God differently, but once dug into at any depth, we will see they worship a completely different god altogether.

Rather than wanting to share the true gospel with those who have not heard it, as Jesus commands in The Great Commission (Matt 28:19-20), many approach evangelism with the attitude that if whoever they are talking to is believing in a Jesus, their eternal soul is secured in Heaven, without caring about the content of said faith. What a staggering amount of Christians fail to recognize is that just because a Mormon uses the same words we do, does not mean they are saying the same content we are. Latter-day Saints will testify adamantly that they are (1) saved by grace, (2) believe in the Trinity, and (3) believe God created the universe. What most Christians don’t know is that the way the Latter-day Saints interpret the beliefs listed above would put them outside orthodoxy and consequently in the hands of God’s wrath. If you were a devout Mormon who studies the doctrine as taught by the LDS Church leadership and manuals, you would have read those beliefs as followed:

1. I believe I am saved by God’s grace, after all of my expended effort showcased through my works as taught in the Book of Mormon in 2 Nephi 25:23. If I am a worthy enough Mormon, I will make it to the highest level of heaven. But it’s by God’s grace I can even work toward that goal, thus I am saved by faith.

2. I believe in the Trinity, or the Godhead. I believe in the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost as 3 separate beings but 1 in purpose. Jesus is the Father’s literal begotten son with Mary and the Father is separate from Jesus with his own body of flesh and bone as taught in the scriptures (Doctrine & Covenants 130:22).

3. I believe God created the universe. But unlike those other Christians, we know that God didn’t actually create everything from nothing because we know from the scriptures there were pre-existing elements that have always existed and God took that matter and made everything in our known universe (Book of Abraham 3:24-25), just like his god did before Him.

These beliefs should be red flags to any Bible-believing Christian when brought into the light. These are blasphemous and damning doctrines that are leading millions of people straight into eternal separation from God with smiles on their faces because they are being taught Jesus saved them regardless of your faith. Because of this, I have given 3 significant reasons for why Latter-day Saints should be one of the Christians’ top priorities:

1. Mormons Aren’t Christians

First and foremost as to why we should not forget the Latter-day Saints is simple: Mormons aren’t Christians. To anyone who has studied Mormonism to any length, this claim may seem trivial but to those who are not informed on Latter-day Saint doctrine would never know if they never checked. I won’t dive into the more obscure Latter-Day Saint doctrines such as polygamy in the past or their history of alleged racism because, while important, doesn’t deal with what I think are much more important core doctrines that can’t go unnoticed. I will be addressing a major differences in Mormon doctrine that without a shadow of a doubt proves they are not believing in the God of the Bible and therefore need to be reached with the Gospel.

God. What did you think of when you read that word? What kind of ideas about God came into your head? Did you think of the Uncreated One, who has been God for all eternity (Psalm 90:2)? Maybe you thought of the Trinity, three persons in one being. Perhaps you even thought of the Father being spirit, immaterial (John 4:24). Whichever idea you thought of, as long as it was biblical, was NOT what the LDS Church teaches about God.

The Latter-day Saints are taught that there is a Heavenly Father, a son, and the Holy Ghost. But unlike biblical teaching, these three people are 3 completely separate beings. This one teaching alone is in direct opposition with the Christian’s belief of monotheism. While the Mormons don’t like to be called polytheists, they do fall under the category of henotheists (There are multiple deities but only one we worship). The reason this is such a big deal for Christians who care about souls is because if someone says they profess Jesus but their Jesus is not the one who is the Word from the beginning, who always existed and IS God, their Jesus cannot save them. It’s a different Jesus. If Jesus isn’t YHWH, then your YHWH isn’t my YHWH. A lot of Mormons and Christians think it’s no big deal to get a few “trivial” things wrong about God, He certainly wouldn’t send you to hell because you got Jesus’ height wrong. But at what point do we go from “a few trivial things” to a completely different person and being?

I can understand if someone I met for only 10 minutes misremembers my eye color when recalling his first interaction with me. Though what if he said he met a 5’6” female with blonde hair, blue eyes born in England? Is that just getting a few things wrong, or describing a completely different person? For reference I am 5’11”, male, brown hair and eyes. Even if we say that with all those errors this person is still describing me (just very badly), would your answer change if at the end of their sentence they added, “and he’s God”? It seems like now we’ve taken the situation to a whole new level. “Yes, you may have mistaken his gender, height, eye color, hair color and home country, but he’s obviously NOT God!” Now in comparison to the claim to deity, the other features seem pointless, we need to settle the fact that I (Cole) am NOT God, and no one should be thinking I am! This is the same when we think about Mormonism, except reversed. We have a whole religious system calling themselves Christians but are saying “We believe in three gods, and actually Jesus isn’t the same god as the Father or the Spirit.” Christianity and Mormonism disagree so much about God that I think both groups should recognize the fact they are not the same.

I won’t dive into any more differences between the two religions because the sheer length of that article would be way too long for anyone’s casual viewing. With this point I just wanted to demonstrate to you that the Mormon god and the God of the Bible are NOT the same.

2. Many Haven’t Heard the Gospel

My second point in why Christians should care so much about Mormons is because a surprising amount of them have never even heard the true gospel. In my experience talking to Mormons, whether it be missionaries, BYU students, bishops or the laymen, I have noticed that there is close to 50% chance that person has interacted with the faith alone message of grace before. I remember my first time visiting Temple Square and talking to my very first pair of sister missionaries. I had my Bible in hand and one of them with a smile on their face exclaimed, “Oh wow! Is that a Bible? Are you an Christian? I’ve never met one of you before!” I was startled to hear that claim. What does she mean she’s “never met one of you before”? I thought there was no way she was being serious; you’re in the dead middle of the United States! How have you not met a Christian? But what I soon came to learn was that Utah was the least evangelical state out of all fifty. Utah, being the place the Mormon people settled down in the mid-nineteenth century, became its own Mormon bubble. Only within the last 10-20 years has Utah started to get infiltrated by non-Mormon thought. The religion is just permeated throughout the entire culture. Salt Lake County for the first time finally dropped under 50% LDS in its religious demographic but is still less than 2% evangelical. I had the privilege of living in Utah County, the most Mormon and least Christian county in the country which is filled with 600,000+ people and what I observed was hundreds of families who have pitched their tent in Utah and have never smelt the outside world aside from when they went on their Mormon missions.

Utah coming in, at most, 3% evangelical (if we are including the children), has huge pockets of land and people who have never even seen an evangelical church. If you think I am lying, drive from Colorado City, Utah, to Provo, Utah, and count how many Christian churches you find. I can only think of 4 off the top of my head. Four churches for 200 miles of land. Mormons need Jesus, but “how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?” (Romans 10:14). I challenge any Christians wanting to reach the lost who are reading this: Why not Utah?

3. Mormons Think They are Saved

My final point is this: The biggest reason Christians need to reach the Mormon people is because the Latter-day Saints truly believe with all their heart that they are going to heaven. Latter-day Saint theology deceives their followers into thinking that everyone, even non-Mormons, are making it to heaven (or at least one level of it). Because of this, a Mormon really has no need to worry too much about the eternal states of souls because even without getting baptized in the LDS Church, they still won’t suffer punishment for sins because Jesus died for all and it is already applied. But even more for a Mormon, they think they are the ones that truly know Jesus. They believe they have the most information about him and that brings them great joy. Who would it not? I would love to know Jesus as much as I can, and I try to do that. Unfortunately for the Latter-day Saint, they don’t know Him at all, going strictly by LDS Church teachings.

When we mess up who Jesus is, we mess up who God is. For Christians, knowing Jesus is everything. If we didn’t know Jesus, we wouldn’t have forgiveness for our sins. So when putting that into perspective, we know if someone professes a different gospel, they are not saved (Galatians 1). So we know those who live by the teachings of the LDS Church are walking straight towards hell and that should break our hearts into a thousand pieces. But what breaks it into one million pieces, is that they are walking with smiles on their faces. Mormons believe they know Christ and are confident in their beliefs and their works to get them where they want to go. Though for us who are born-again, we see the cliff they are about to fall off of. But by the power of Jesus Christ we know anyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved (Romans 10)!

I want to end this article with a quote, I pray for any who read this, that your heart breaks for the Mormon people and you think differently next time you get that knock on your door by the young men in white shirts.

“The bulk of the thousands who have abandoned Mormonism have not gone into our churches, but have settled into helpless indifference if not hopeless atheism…”

“It is hard to get good men to come to Utah. After coming, most of them leave at the first disappointment. WE NEED MEN HERE WITH THE SAME SETTLED CONVICTION THAT TAKES OTHERS TO THE FOREIGN FIELD—A CONVICTION THAT GOD HAS CALLED THEM TO THIS AS A LIFE WORK.”

— Baptist missionary Bruce Kinney, “The Baptist Home Mission Monthly.” Vol XXIX, No. 3. March 1907. Emphasis original.