Tonight I finally watched a documentary which my friend made about our missions trip to Utah a few years back. I was a senior in highschool and Brett Kunkle from Stand to Reason had been doing these trips for years. The year before he and my Bible teacher took us on a missions trip to U.C. Berkeley. The focus on this trip was to be vastly different from the year before. In Berkeley, you focused on general philosophical ideas like the objectivity and accessibility of truth. In Utah we hit the books, the Bible and the Mormon Scriptures. My real goal and strategy was to point out contradictions between the Bible and the Mormon Scriptures. This was thought to be a good technique because the Mormon’s also affirm the Bible as the word of God. So if there were any contradictions within God’s own word then one would hope that they would think further and question these things. Ultimately, I realized that there was something deeper than pointing out contradictions could solve. The strategy was really just to sow a seed that may blossom into further unanswerable questions and lead these people into a true discovery of the truth of Jesus. Now, this strategy can be extremely effective and many people have been challenged in ways that have forced them to truly consider what they believe. However, the fundamental problem was a sickness of the heart. Mormonism is not just a pseudo-Christian belief system, Mormonism is a lie that kills.
What is at the heart of Mormonism? Truly, at the heart of Mormonism is a desire to be “like God” and a belief that we can achieve this God-like-ness through our own works. First, to address the desire to be “like God.” The fifth Mormon prophet said, “As man is, God once was. As God is, man may be.” Another story comes to mind every time I think about this desire to be Godlike. In the Garden Eve is conversing with the snake (traditionally understood as the Devil) and he says, “you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” Needless to say, I want to draw a direct correlation with the Fall and our desire to make ourselves like God and it is always associated with certain works that we can do, like eating the apple. Further, God Himself freely gives us the ability to be true bearers of His Image. It is only pride that could convince us that we could achieve anything like the image of God outside of the free gift of grace. We are meant to be like God. It is what we are built for. But part of that calling is the receiving of our status as sons and daughters of God. The root attitude of Mormonism is pride, the root attitude of Christianity is humility. The interesting thing about pride is that it often (if not always) comes from insecurity. In the next paragraph I will address why a Mormon might feel insecure.The works side of Mormonism seems to be the place of greatest tragedy. The desire to be gods could reasonably be found in a person who was made to share in God’s glory, the desire to achieve that status on one’s own and for our own glory is sadly distorted. The worst part is that no honest Mormon can ever say that they have achieved salvation. In fact, I had a student explain to me that there is absolutely no hope of achieving Exaltation (the Mormon’s version of ultimate heaven, there are other levels but this is the only one which contains true joy). At Exaltation a Mormon would finally reach the level of a god of their own planet (and possibly universe). The student explained that the only way for a Mormon to achieve Exaltation was to become perfect in the afterlife because there is no hope of becoming perfect on earth. Now this isn’t just a random student espousing heretical views; The Miracle of Forgiveness is a book which goes into great depth about how forgiveness only sticks if the Mormon is able to achieve perfection. In the Doctrine of the Covenants (one of the Mormon’s three non-Biblical holy books) it is stated that if a sin is committed after forgiveness then the consequences and guilt of the sins forgiven are returned ten-fold. The tragedy in all this is that you have millions of people following a religion where they feel the need to be perfect. This leads to either disillusionment or dualism. Either the Mormon is driven to depression or they learn to lead a double life and separate the guilt they feel from the life they lead. There is no consistent way to live as though you must be perfect. We are either confronted constantly with our own inadequacy or we become adept at ignoring the faults in our lives. Authenticity and joy are robbed. The enemy comes to kill, steal, and destroy. Mormonism does these things.
Mormonism says, “Come to me all you who desire meaning, comfort, security, and power. Take your yoke upon you and I will show you the way to achieve these things. Oh and you must be perfect so if you are not perfect yet please put on a mask so we don’t have to see your brokenness.”
Jesus says, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
P.S. as a final comment I want to say that I love Mormons. I have many friends who are Mormon and I love them greatly and we have had many great debates and discussions. The goal in this post was to point out a dangerous deception, not to condemn the individuals who fall into this deception. Please talk to the Mormons who come to your door and show them the love of Christ. They need it.