One might choose to join the Mormon church (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints – LDS) because some Mormons live good, clean, moral lives. However, so do many Methodists, Baptists, Presbyterians and others. So what does this prove? Really, very little.

The scriptures warn that even “false apostles” (who teach a “different Jesus” and a “different Gospel”) can be “transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ” because “Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light” (2 Corinthians 11:4, 12-14).

What did Christ mean when he claimed that one could recognize “false prophets … by their fruits”? (Matthew 7:16). “Fruit” has many different meanings in the Bible. It can mean something that grows on a tree (Genesis 3:3) or one’s offspring (Exodus 21:22).

“Fruit” may also mean the way one lives the Christian life (Galatians 5:22-23). Yet, it seems unlikely that Christ would have been referring to this kind of life-fruit in Matthew 7:16 because he had just stated in verse 15 that these false prophets would come in “sheep’s clothing.” False prophets often look and act just like “sheep.” False prophets may, to the human observer, look and act like Christians.

So what did Jesus mean: “…you shall know them by their fruits?”

There is another kind of “fruit” and that is the fruit of one’s lips (Proverbs 12:14; 18:20; Hosea 10: 13; Hebrews 13:15; cp. Matthew 12:37). This is what a prophet says about God, salvation and the future – his doctrine. This is the kind of fruit, the doctrinal fruit, which Jesus warned would be the key to identifying a false prophet.

Please examine the following “doctrinal fruit” of Latter-day Saint leaders by comparing it with the teachings in the Holy Bible.

What follows are five reasons why the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or Mormonism, as it is known, should be rejected.

A False God

A. The Bible teaches that God has always been God (Psalm 90:2). He is the Eternal One (“I AM”, Exodus 3:14). No one could or ever will be able to become deity or God.

B. Mormonism teaches that god was a man (Doctrine and Covenants 130:22) who became a god. This Mormon god: has a father, grandfather and a great grandfather (Doctrines of Salvation, or DOS, vol. 2, p. 47, Joseph Fielding Smith); was once born as a baby on another planet (Church News, September 19, 1936, p. 2, Joseph F. Smith); died and was resurrected (Gospel Principles, or GP, p. 9); progressed to become a god (Documented History of the Church, vol. 6, pp. 305-06); is now married to several women (GP, p. 9, The Seer, Washington D.C. Edition, p. 172; Doctrine and Covenants 132:37).

Mormons are now taught that they too, if they do all the right things, will be able to become gods (GP, p. 290). However, this is very similar to the doctrine Satan taught in the Garden of Eden, the doctrine that led to Satan’s rebellion against God (Isaiah 14:12-17; Ezekiel 28:2, 11-17) and the downfall of the human race (Genesis 3:5).

 A False Scripture

A. The Holy Bible (and especially the new Testament) believed by Christians to be inspired, even from a human standpoint alone, is the world’s most reliable book for its size and age. There are thousands of extant Greek manuscripts used to determine today’s New Testament text.

By comparing these texts, it is known that today’s underlying Greek text is extremely reliable. It is so reliable, scholar Philip Schaff stated that although many slight variations do exist in the Greek manuscripts, these differences do not alter “an article of faith or a precept of duty which is not abundantly sustained by other and undoubted passages, or by the whole tenor of Scripture teaching” (The Mormon Papers, by Harry Ropp, p. 105). In other words, the New Testament is extremely reliable!

The Holy Bible is but one of the Latter-day Saint scriptures. And Mormonism even questions the reliability of the Bible by claiming that this scripture is only to be accepted “as far as… translated correctly” (Articles of Faith, Number 8). This “Article” is an exception clause, which allows the Mormon to reject anything in the Bible which does not agree with the present-day teachings of his church.

B. The Mormons also have as scripture the Book of Mormon, which contains thousands of changes from the originally published text of 1830. And regardless of LDS claims, this book is not substantiated by archaeological discoveries.

In spite of the many changes in this book, Mormon leaders hold it in much higher esteem than they do the Bible. Former President of the Mormon church, Ezra Taft Benson, stated: “Combined with the Spirit of the Lord, the Book of Mormon is the greatest single tool which God has given us to convert the world.” In the same article, the late Mormon Apostle Bruce R. McConkie is quoted as stating: “There will be more people saved in the kingdom of God, ten thousand times over, because of the Book of Mormon than there will because of the Bible” (The Ensign, p. 7, November, 1984).

Two other Mormon scriptures are the Doctrine and Covenants (also with hundreds of secret changes in many of its previously-published revelations), and the Pearl of Great Price.

Also, according to the Mormon publication Gospel Principles, “the words of our living prophets become scripture to us. Their words come to us through conferences, Church publications, and instructions to local priesthood leaders” (p. 52).

A False Jesus Christ

A. The Jesus of the Bible as the second Person of the Holy Trinity has always existed as God equal to the Father and the Holy Spirit. This Jesus created all things including the “principalities and powers” (compare Ephesians 6:12 with Colossians 1:16). Thus, Jesus was the creator of the angel who used his free agency to rebel against God; and that angel is Lucifer.

B. The Jesus of Mormonism, however, is a brother to Lucifer (GP, p. 15). Mormonism also wrongly teaches that He and Lucifer (and all of us) have the same Heavenly Father and we also have a Heavenly mother (a “God the Mother”); thus, we have literal heavenly parents.

A False Virgin Birth

A. The Bible teaches that Jesus Christ was born of a virgin. In Matthew 1: 18 it is stated that Mary was with child “of the Holy Spirit” [literally it reads, “out of the Holy Spirit”]. This was a supernatural conception.

B. Although, even the Latter-day Saint Book of Mormon states that Jesus was born of a virgin (I Nephi II: 18), Mormon leaders have taught: very clearly that Jesus Christ was not begotten by the Holy Ghost (DOS, vol. 1, p. 18); that God the Father (who Mormonism teaches is a man with a body of “flesh and bones,” Doctrine and Covenants 130:22) married the Virgin Mary (compare Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses or JOD, vol. I 1, p. 268 with Orson Pratt, The Seer, pp. 158); that the body of Jesus was produced exactly the same way your body was produced by normal husband and wife sexual relations (Joseph F. Smith, Family Home Evening Manual, pp. 125- 26,1972; Apostle Bruce R. McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, pp. 516, 547; Apostle Orson Pratt, The Seer, p. 159).

Mormon leaders have taught that there was nothing unnatural about the conception of Jesus Christ (Brigham Young, JOD, vol. 8, p. 115; President Heber J. Grant, JOD, vol. 8, p. 21 1; Apostle Bruce R. McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, p. 742).

A False Gospel

A. The Bible teaches that sinners may be saved for heaven (where God the Father is) through faith in the Person and Work of Christ. Its substitutionary life is part of God’s grace or gift to sinners (Ephesians 2:1-10; Titus 3:5-6; Romans 4:1-3). Although the Christian’s “works” are important (Ephesians 2: 10) and will be evaluated by God one day (I Corinthians 3:12-15; 2 Corinthians 5: 10), these works of his do not, however, determine his eternal destiny.

B. Although Mormons are taught that they must have faith in Christ, there are many, many “works” which Latter-day Saints must perform if they are ever to get to heaven where God the Father lives.

Gospel Principles, lists at least 18 Mormon requirements of obedience if the Mormon is to reach the highest realm of God’s heaven. Part of this list includes: water baptism, the laying on of hands to receive the Holy Ghost, performing secret temple rituals, marriage for time and all eternity, etc. (pp. 291-92).

However, according to certain well respected Mormon leaders, if the Latter-day Saint is unfortunate enough to commit certain sins (for example: murder), he must then have his own blood shed to atone for those sins.

This is the blasphemous Individual Blood Atonement teaching of Mormonism’s founder Joseph Smith who claimed that:

“…there were certain sins so grievous that man may commit, that they will place the transgressors beyond the power of the atonement of Christ.

If these offenses are committed, then the blood of Christ will not cleanse them from their sins even though they repent. Therefore, their only hope is to have their own blood shed to atone, as far as possible, in their behalf’ (DOS, vol. 1, p. 135).

In conjunction with this doctrine, Joseph Smith once stated that he would not hang a convicted murderer, but instead he would “shoot him, or cut off his head, spill his blood on the ground, and let the smoke thereof ascend up to God” (Documented History of the Church, vol. 5, p. 296).

Smith was murdered before he was able to make this spilling-of-blood mode of execution into a law; however, when his followers established the Utah Territory, they did.

“In pursuance of, and in harmony with this scriptural doctrine [of Individual Blood Atonement] … the founders of Utah incorporated in their laws of the Territory provisions for the capital punishment of those who willfully shed the blood of their fellow men. This law, which is now the law of the State, granted the condemned murderer the privilege of choosing for himself whether he die by hanging, or whether he be shot, and thus have his blood shed in harmony with the law of God” (DOS, vol. 1, p. 136).

Though some Mormon leaders claim that this doctrine of Blood Atonement is not an official doctrine of the Mormon church, interestingly enough, Joseph Fielding Smith, tenth president of the Mormon church, stated that “This is doctrine taught by Joseph Smith, and I accept it” (Ibid., p. 134). He also claimed that this doctrine is found in all the Mormon scriptures, thus, even in the Holy Bible! (Ibid., p. 135).

After examining the “fruit” of Mormon leaders in light of what the Holy Bible teaches, your conclusion should be to “love Mormon people, but stay away from Mormonism.”

The Bible teaches that God has always been God. Mormonism teaches that God was once a man who became God and that all Mormon men may do the same. The Bible is reliable and contains the doctrines by which we should examine all other doctrines. Mormonism does not trust the Bible but adds to it three additional books of scripture and the words of their so-called “living prophets.”

The Bible teaches that Jesus is and always has been God, along with and equal in His nature to the Persons of the Father and the Holy Ghost. Mormonism teaches that Jesus is the brother to Lucifer.

The Bible teaches that Jesus was born of a virgin. Mormonism has repeatedly taught that Jesus Christ was conceived by normal husband- and-wife relations between their god the father (who has a body of “flesh and bones”) and the “virgin” Mary.

By Tom Forehand