This is the second in a series of articles designed to help Missouri Baptists engage LDS neighbors in respectful gospel conversations.
Ask your Mormon neighbors if they believe in Jesus, and they’ll respond with an enthusiastic yes – and add that they deeply love Jesus. Take them at their word; they’re telling the truth.
But don’t stop there. Ask a key follow-up question: Who is Jesus? And then listen carefully.
While our LDS friends sincerely love Jesus, he is not the Jesus of Scripture. As the apostle Paul noted of the “super apostles” who deceived the church at Corinth, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints proclaims “another Jesus” (2 Cor. 11:4).
Let’s note four key distinctions between the Jesus of Latter-day Saints and the Jesus of Scripture.
(1) The LDS Jesus had a beginning. Latter-day Saints believe Jesus came into existence as a premortal spirit child, the firstborn son of Elohim (Heavenly Father, the god of this world) and a heavenly mother. (By the way, all humans began this way in LDS theology; Jesus was just the first.)
But Scripture emphatically declares that Jesus is the eternal Son of God, without beginning or end. He didn’t come into existence; he brought everything into existence. Passages such as John 1:1-2; 8:58; 17:5; Philippians 2:6; and Revelation 22:3 clearly establish that the second person of the Trinity has always existed. Even the prophet Micah acknowledged that the coming Messiah is “from antiquity, from eternity” (Micah 5:2).
And as the writer of Hebrews notes, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever” – a declaration of his immutability, or unchanging nature (Heb. 13:8).
Jesus is not a created being, but the uncreated, self-existent, eternally divine second person of the Trinity. This is a fundamental and irreconcilable distinction between orthodox Christology and LDS teaching.
(2) The LDS Jesus became God. Latter-day Saints believe Jesus advanced to godhood in the premortal spirit world. Doctrine and Covenants 93:12–14 states that Christ “received not of the fulness at the first, but received grace for grace … until he received a fulness.” This is a foundational LDS text suggesting progressive attainment of deity.
Earlier, more candid teaching by Joseph Smith and Brigham Young describes Jesus as having progressed through stages of development to attain godhood, much as humans are invited to do.
As the firstborn, Jesus was the most intelligent, most obedient, and most spiritually advanced of all spirit children. However, LDS sources are not uniform about how or when Jesus attained deity.
Scripture is clear on the matter of Jesus’s deity. John 1:1 states that Jesus was both with God and was God “in the beginning.” Colossians 1:17, Hebrews 13:8, and numerous other passages present Christ as eternally and immutably divine. The eternal and unchanging nature of God is a key attribute of deity. For Jesus to claim to be the “I AM” is a lie if he is not eternally divine (John 8:58).
(3) The LDS Jesus was conceived (literally) by Heavenly Father. Official LDS teaching holds that Heavenly Father – a being with a physical body – is the literal, physical father of Jesus Christ’s mortal body, and that Mary was his mortal mother.
How that conception occurred is something current LDS curriculum says was miraculous and should not be the topic of speculation. But official LDS statements from the presidencies of Brigham Young through Ezra Taft Benson consistently describe it as a natural, literal, physical paternity – not a virginal conception by the Holy Spirit as historic Christianity teaches.
In contrast, Scripture is clear that Mary was a true virgin who engaged in no sexual activity – not even with an exalted man – to bring about the birth of our Savior. Exactly how the Spirit overshadowed Mary to place the Christ child in her womb is a mystery. But it’s no mystery that it was a true virginal conception (see Matt. 1:18-25; Luke 1:26-38; cf. Gen. 3:15: Isa. 7:14).
(4) The LDS Jesus died and rose again to restore human immortality. According to LDS doctrine, Elohim gave Adam two conflicting commands: not to eat of the forbidden tree, and to be fruitful and multiply. Since Adam was immortal, he reasoned that he couldn’t procreate without losing his immortality, leaving him with a dilemma.
Mormons believe Adam chose wisely, that his fall was a fall forward – a necessary and wise decision that enabled Adam and Eve to birth physical bodies for the premortal spirits waiting to enter mortal probation.
But the Bible records no contradiction in the garden. Adam sinned deliberately, in violation of God’s clear command. He fell, and he passed along to all human beings a sin nature and invited a curse on the environment in which we live – all of which prompted Jesus to leave the glory of heaven and come to earth, becoming a curse on our behalf (Gal. 3:13).
Jesus’s finished work on the cross didn’t specifically address the issue of immortality. That’s because Scripture is clear that everyone lives forever in a resurrected body – either with Christ in the new heavens and new earth, or apart from him in hell. The purpose of Christ’s suffering was to conquer Satan, sin, and death for us.
So, ask your Mormon neighbors who Jesus is. Listen respectfully to their answer. And be prepared to share the biblically faithful Jesus with them. Only one Jesus – the Jesus of Scripture – is able to save them.
Next: The Spirit of Latter-day Saints
