There is No Other Gospel | Galatians 1:6-9 and Mormonism

Galatians 1:6-9

I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel: which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ. But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before, so say I now again, if any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed.

After Paul’s greeting, he wastes no time getting down to business! Previously mentioned, there has been a group circulating among Christian churches that were proclaiming a message of salvation by faith and Jesus plus circumcision. This group is known as the Circumcision Party. We are able to see more of this group and just how big of a deal this issue was in the book of Acts, where the apostles come together to denounce this false teaching. In Acts 15 we can read the message they were promoting: “Except ye be circumcised after the manner of Moses, ye cannot be saved,” (Acts 15:1).

Peter denounced this teaching, appealing to the Gentiles’ (non-Israelite) reception of the Holy Spirit saying:

“Men and brethren, ye know how that a good while ago God made choice among us, that the Gentiles by my mouth should hear the word of the gospel, and believe. And God, which knoweth the hearts, bare them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as he did unto us; And put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith. Now therefore why tempt ye God, to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear? But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved, even as they.”

Peter affirmed salvation by faith alone in this message, teaching that God purifies hearts “by faith.” In this context of “Should non-Israelite converts be circumcised to be saved?” or even keeping the Mosaic Law any more, the apostles stated: “[W]e gave no such commandment[.]” This teaching did not originate from inside the apostolic circle, it was bred from the outside. This is the “other gospel” Paul is referring to. Paul is perplexed that these churches have put aside the gospel of faith alone for faith plus circumcision. This is the opposing side of the boxing ring standing in front of the apostle Paul.

When Paul exclaims how baffled he is that these churches turned away from the gospel, he uses the words “so soon removed.” This shows us that these people quickly turned away from the gospel. These people were taught the truth and very soon after, they had already been persuaded by a contrary message that Paul was teaching. A Latter-day Saint should agree that people can quickly apostatize from a previous belief (given their own teaching of a great apostasy). We also learned that this teaching originated from outside apostolic teaching. This, at the bare minimum, proves that people can turn away from the truth by adding something to the gospel, in this case: circumcision.

The LDS Church has done the same thing as this Circumcision Party, by lumping on many ordinances and commandments to be saved. (This can be seen in “Salvation,” Gospel Topics; lds.org) The people being persuaded to this other message (faith plus circumcision) are falling into error and Paul is trying to call them back into “the grace of Christ.” In his next line Paul clarifies that this “other gospel” is actually no gospel at all. Don’t miss this. Paul said that another message claiming to be the gospel, or even claiming to be “another gospel,” is no gospel at all. With the current emphasis in the LDS Church to claim the term “Christian,” being unified and identified with Evangelical Christians as much as they can, this is a remarkable point to make. 

There is no other gospel. There is only one gospel. If there is only one, then it means that two conflicting messages cannot both be the gospel of Jesus. Christians proclaim salvation by faith alone in Christ alone for eternal life. For Latter-day Saints, salvation is given to those who have faith in Christ (a different Christ than Christians), are baptized, repent of their sins and endure to the end. Those are two different messages. Either the Christian has the true gospel, the Mormon has the true gospel, or neither of them do. The one thing, by Paul’s explanation, that can’t be true is that they both have the gospel. It’s an either/or.

Joseph Smith agreed with this distinction between the two religions in his “First Vision” by telling us that Jesus said that all Christians of his day were corrupt and an abomination. There is also a verse in the Book of Mormon that confirms this idea as well; 1 Nephi 14:10 teaches that there are only two churches. One is of the devil, one is of the Lamb. A Christian can use this to their advantage to break down the false belief that Christians and Mormons are in the same boat of beliefs. This means that one of the parties in this conversation is without the true gospel; and where there is no gospel, there is no grace.

Paul warns that there are people coming in and perverting the gospel of Christ. Paul submits to the supremacy of God’s message by claiming that if anyone, whether it be man or an angel from heaven, or even he, preaches a gospel that is different than what he first delivered, he says to let them be “accursed.” Woah, that’s some pretty big language from Paul. The word “accursed” here is “anathema” in the Greek language which can be defined as “cursed by God”. Paul puts himself in the same pile as these others, saying that the Galatians should reject anyone, even someone who once was good, or seemed good, if the gospel they are preaching is not the gospel of faith that Paul first delivered by the authority of God. Latter-day Saints need to see that all men are fallible, scratch that, all men and even angels are fallible! They often affirm this notion, claiming that their own leaders have made mistakes in the past.

This gives a Christian the great opportunity to speak to the supremacy of scripture. The only unpolluted fountain of God’s message is found in the Bible, which has withstood the test of time by being amazingly preserved. What’s important to note is that Paul also gives himself up to supremacy of the gospel message. Paul doesn’t say, “Guys, just listen to me, I’m an apostle.” Paul says, “But though we…” If he starts to preach another message, let him be accursed. There is no leader or position high enough that is allowed to change the gospel of eternal life by faith in Jesus. This includes LDS apostles and prophets. Everything should be tested with the Bible as a measuring stick, because both Latter-day Saints and Christians know that it is God’s word. This is not to suggest Paul doesn’t appeal to his authority as an apostle; this is only to state that Paul recognizes his own fallibility as well as the supremacy of Christ’s message. We all should be like Bereans in Acts 17 and search the scriptures to truly recognize who God is and what he accomplished for us.

The obvious teaching here is that Paul is pleading with the churches in Galatia to remember what he first delivered to them, which is the good news of Jesus Christ’s salvation from sin. This is the central theme of Paul’s letter, not only thematically, but also literally. Paul spends the coming chapters devoted entirely to defining the gospel and how it functions clearly so that the Galatians may not have any future confusion. Like a parent admonishing their child to not touch the hot stove because it will burn them, Paul is crying out to the Galatians to not burn themselves with the message of faith plus circumcision equals salvation. For this message is no gospel at all.