The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints wants to be considered mainline. They want to be like  the Baptists, Presbyterians, etc, and be accepted as another Christian denomination. They demonstrate this daily by their bombardment of TV commercials offering to send us free Bibles.  They are portraying themselves publicly as “sheep.”

This will be seen in greater clarity as the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City gets closer. There is a campaign by the LDS church to downplay the name “Mormon church” and  other  LDS terminology. They want to be called the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints instead  of Mormons. They want to capitalize on the name of Jesus Christ.  But, their Jesus is not the Jesus of the Bible. They are the epitome of a “wolf in sheep’s clothing.”

“Beware of False Prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing,  but inwardly are ravenous wolves.” (Matthew 7:15)

The Pearl of Great Price is one of the Mormonism’s four standard works, (the other three being the KJV Bible, the Book of Mormon and the Doctrine and Covenants). In the section under “Joseph Smith-History 1:19,” the text states:

“I was answered that I must join none of them, for they were all wrong; and the Personage who addressed me said that all their creeds were an abomination in his sight; that those professors were all corrupt; that: “they draw near to me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me, they teach for doctrines the commandments of men, having a form of godliness, but they deny the power thereof.”

The context of this passage is that Joseph Smith is seeing conflict between the Baptists, Presbyterians and Methodists of his day. He didn’t know which to join. He read James 1:5 which says “if anyone lacks wisdom let him ask of God…” He needed wisdom, asked God, and two “personages” appeared in human form. He was told to join none of them because “they were all wrong” and “all their creeds were an abomination in his sight.” Now Baptists, Presbyterian and Methodists still hold to the same creeds as they did in his day. If they were wrong then, they are wrong today, according to LDS theology.

The Mormon has three other standard works, as mentioned earlier.  They use the Bible to appear Christian and use it to buttress their unique beliefs. Where it contradicts their beliefs they say it is not translated correctly.

The Mormons use the Bible in places where it speaks of an apostasy (Acts 3:20-21; Acts 20:29-31; Galatians 1:8; II Thessalonians 2:3; I Timothy 4:1-2), a “falling away” from the truth.  This falling away, according to the Mormon church, started early in the church and became complete in the first few centuries.  A restoration was certainly needed. In the History of the Church, Vol 1, Period 1, on page XL, the author states,

“Nothing less than a complete apostasy from the Christian religion would warrant the establishment of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.”

Let us look at what their other works teach about the true restored church versus the false church of Christendom.

Doctrine and Covenants 1:30

“And also those to whom these commandments were given, might have power to lay the foundation of this church, and to bring it forth out of obscurity and out of darkness, the only true and living church upon the face of the whole earth, with which I, the Lord, am well pleased, speaking unto the church collectively and not indvidually.” 

Here, the LDS church is the “only true and living church upon the face of the whole earth.”   If they are the only true church, it follows all others are wrong.  You cannot have the “only true” church and other true churches. In the Book of Mormon we read,

I Nephi 14:10          

“And he said unto me; Behold there are save two churches only; the one is the church of the Lamb of God, and the other is the church of the devil; wherefore, whoso belongeth not to the church of the Lamb of God belongeth to that great church, which is the mother of abominations; and she is the whore of all the earth.”

In Doctrine & Covenants 1:30 we see that there is only one true church upon the face of the earth. In I Nephi 14:10 the passage states there are only two churches.  One church is the church of the Lamb of God.  This would be the Latter-day Saints.  The church of the devil would be all other churches/denominations. From the outset, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints claims to be the “Restored Church.”  They say there was no church on the earth anymore until Joseph Smith had his revelation.   What did exist was of the devil.

Though they make strong claims about their church, being the only true one,  they are trying to look and sound like us.  They are imitating  those they call “apostate!!!”  The heart and soul of the Mormon Church differs from the historic Christian faith at its very core.

Spiritual Camouflage

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints fits Jesus’ warning in scripture  perfectly.   Jesus said “beware of the false prophets who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves (Matthew 7:15). This “clothing” is good works. The good works are family oriented. They live good, clean, honest lives. They go to “church.”  They give money and go on missions. These good works cloud the distinction between the Mormon  and Christian churches.

Paul, in Second Corinthians 11:4 said, “For if one comes and preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, or you receive a different spirit which you have not received, or a different gospel which you have not accepted, you bear this beautifully.”  Paul said there are other Jesus’s.  But there is only one true Jesus, Spirit and Gospel.

The LDS Church has a different Jesus, a different spirit, and a different gospel.  Yet they use the same vocabulary we use. This further clouds or camouflages the issue of  the true church versus false church.

Peter, in Second Peter 2:1 states, “But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves.”

Notice, they “secretly introduce” these heresies.  Why?  Because they wouldn’t be accepted by the church if their beliefs were known up front.  This is spiritual camouflage.

In the military I wear camouflage. This uniform blends in with the environment.  The Mormon church does good works and uses the same theological vocabulary.  The Mormon church is using spiritual camouflage.  She is blending in with the other churches, though her doctrines are wrong.

What Can We Do?

First, we the true church of Jesus Christ, must take a stand and expose Mormons and other cults that disguise themselves as Christian.  In order to understand and evangelize them we must know what they really believe in contrast to our faith.  We must warn others about the deceptiveness of the cults, and Mormons in particular because of what they are doing.   We must not let the Mormons get away without us clarifying what they really believe.

Then, we must confront the members of the LDS church with their churches deceptiveness.   Ask them what they would say if we, i.e., Baptist, Presbyterian and Methodist churches declared that we are Mormon.   I could say,” I’m Mormon, I believe in Jesus, etc.  I don’t believe Joseph Smith is a Prophet of God.  I don’t believe in the Book of Mormon or Baptism for the dead.   As a matter of fact, I don’t believe in any of the doctrines that are uniquely Mormon.”   How would they like it??  They claim to be Christian yet deny all the fundamental doctrines that we believe.

Finally, we must lovingly confront the Mormon people with the true gospel of Jesus Christ.  They will ask us why we are attacking them.  We must tell them we are not attacking but defending Truth. Remind them that Joseph Smith threw the first “ punch”  in his testimony.  He said all churches were wrong.  We are simply obeying the scriptures in “contending for the faith, once for all delivered to the saints.” (Jude 3)

By Don Malin
April 2001