I have a confession to make…I am a sinner, just like everyone else on earth. You might think, Well, yeah…you’re definitely not perfect! And you’d be right. I’m not and never have been. But I have one thing that I cling to in my darkest moments—one thing that so many people, unfortunately, don’t have—and that is that I’ve been saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone. So, I may have been a desperately sick and hate-filled soul once upon a time, but that is the case no longer. Now, I have Him—Jesus—and I am never looking back.

Let me tell you how it all went down. It started out with going to church (as many stories of salvation do), but unfortunately it was the wrong church. Many of you may be wondering what I mean by “the wrong church”, so I’ll explain. My father’s family was raised in the Mormon (and Reorganized Latter-Day Saints) Church.

Our family wasn’t always Mormon—my grandfather started his family down that path when converted as a young man. He wrote in his journal that while he was in the U.S. Navy, he met someone who was from the Mormon Church. This man spent a lot of time teaching him about the doctrines of the LDS Church and, eventually, my grandfather caved to his way of thinking. He wrote [paraphrase], “I couldn’t bear the thought of my family members who had already died burning in Hell just because they never knew Jesus Christ, so I decided to join the LDS Church so I could baptize them into Heaven.” While sounding very noble, this way of thinking is completely unbiblical. Unfortunately for John Cram, however, he was not very biblically literate, and therefore didn’t realize that what his Navy friend told him was false.

This led to an entire lifetime of service in the LDS Church and eventually raising his children under these false doctrines. Now, you may be thinking, “How do you know they’re false and not true? Why are you so right and they’re wrong? You must be pretty arrogant to think that you know better than a whole group of people.” But here’s the thing…it’s not about what I think, but about what Scripture really teaches. Not sure you believe me? Well, let’s take a look at what the Bible actually teaches.

Can Works Save People?

One of the most well-known teachings in the LDS Church is this doctrine: “…[F]or we know that it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do” 2 Nephi 25:23.[i] This means that Christ’s sacrifice isn’t enough. God’s grace for salvation isn’t applied to a person until they’ve done “all [they] can do”, in addition to believing in Jesus Christ. In Mormon doctrine, Jesus Christ is not fully God and fully man, but a man born through God having intercourse with the virgin Mary. They believe in a weak, partially-divine, human man. [ii] And as such, we have to add our “good works” (all we can do) in order to be saved by God’s grace.

This, however, blatantly contradicts what the Bible teaches. Ephesians 2:8-9 specifically states, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.”[iii] But if this verse alone isn’t enough to convince you that works mean nothing, let’s take a look at some other verses that support this idea.

• “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:31).
• Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me“ (John 14:6).
• “[H]e saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit” (Titus 3:5).
• “He then brought them out and asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household.”” (Acts 16:30-33).
• “If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved” (Romans 10:9-10).
• “[T]hough I myself have reasons for such confidence. If someone else thinks they have reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for righteousness based on the law, faultless. But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. I want to know Christ— yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead” (Philippians 3:4-11).
• “I will expose your righteousness and your works, and they will not benefit you“ (Isaiah 57:12).
• “Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them” (Hebrews 7:25).
• “But we are all like an unclean thing, and all our righteousness are like filthy rags; we all fade as a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away” (Isaiah 64:6).[iv]

Every single verse above points to the fact that we can do nothing to “help” save ourselves. In fact, our efforts to do this are considered as “filthy rags” (which by the way literally means used menstrual cloths in Hebrew).[v]

What this means for the Mormon doctrine is manifold: 1) you can’t “supplement” Jesus’ once-and-for-all sacrifice. You can’t add to it or in any way make it better. 2) You can’t baptize someone into Heaven. Not only is baptism not a means of salvation (as evidenced by the Thief on the Cross next to Jesus; see John Piper’s article for more information on this subject[vi]), but once a person is dead, they are beyond any human person’s reach for all eternity (which also means there’s no praying or paying their way out of “purgatory” either). Bottom line: works can’t save (or help save) anyone. Jesus doesn’t need or want our “help”.

Is Jesus Really Fully God and Fully Man?

If works do nothing to help us in our salvation, then the next questions to ask are: “Can Jesus really save me completely? Is He really fully God and Man?” The short answer to both questions is, “Yes!” Yes, He can fully save us; and yes, He is fully God and Man. There’s no question that Jesus was fully man, but what many people struggle with is His “level of” divinity. (Confused by this statement? Well, keep reading, I’ll explain.) As mentioned before, the LDS Church teaches that Jesus is not fully divine, but rather He was created by God physically having intercourse with Mary (thus making her not a virgin).[vii] They also teach that Lucifer and Jesus were created as brothers, which is also not at all a Biblical teaching.

The website Got Questions has a great article explaining this. Here is an excerpt with some of the key points:

“While Jesus is fully human, He is also fully divine. He claimed divine authority (Matthew 28:18), forgave sins (Mark 2:5–12), performed miracles (John 2:1–11), and accepted worship (Matthew 21:9). The New Testament describes Him as the eternal Word of God who became flesh (John 1:1, 14) and gives Him the title “Immanuel,” which means “God with us” (Matthew 1:23). The statement “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30) affirms Jesus’ divine nature, which includes omnipotence (Hebrews 1:1–4), omniscience (John 2:25), and perfection (2 Corinthians 5:21).”[viii]

Jesus cannot be one with God the Father and be a completely separate entity; it’s just not possible. Additionally, the hypostatic union (a term which encapsulates the dual nature of Jesus being both fully God and fully man) is evident in a multitude of places throughout Scripture—in both the Old and New Testaments.

This leads us to the concept of the Trinity. Since, Jesus and the Father are one, it can also be said that Jesus is part of the Godhead (Father, Spirit, Son). The below statements cited from Scripture testify to this unity between God the Father, God the Son (Jesus), and God the Holy Spirit, and also help us understand Jesus’ role/work as the “God-man”. And while these are just a few references, through these words one can see that Jesus is more than a mere man, sacrificed for all mankind:

• He is our perfect mediator: “For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus…” (1 Timothy 2:5).
• He possesses divine authority to redeem mankind from sin: “[J]ust as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:28).
• He conquered death: “Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live”” (John 11:25).
• He reconciled us to God: “For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross” (Colossians 1:19-20).
• He identifies with our struggles and sympathizes with our weaknesses: “For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin” (Hebrews 4:15).
• He is the sacrificial Lamb for our sins: “The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”” (John 1:29).
• Through His life, death, resurrection, and ascension into Heaven, He has secured salvation for all who believe in Him: “[W]ho does not need daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for His own sins and then for the people’s, for this He did once for all when He offered up Himself” (Hebrews 7:27).

Let’s summarize this—if Jesus is who the Bible says He is, then He is indeed fully God and fully Man. He was born through the Virgin Mary, as Luke 1:35 says, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God.” He was not conceived in Mary’s womb by a physical act of intercourse, but rather a divine overshadowing. Mary was a virgin until after Jesus was born, at which point she became fully married to Joseph (in word and in deed) and gave birth to other sons and daughters by natural means (i.e., no longer a virgin, as the Catholic Church teaches).

And John 1:1 states that, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God…” When we apply the fact that Jesus is “the Word” here, the statement John made becomes crystal clear—Jesus is God and has always been, since before the creation of the world.

What About Other Religious Texts?

So now that we’ve established what the Bible says about Jesus, let’s circle back to the beginning of this article. Let me continue where I left off in my personal testimony by admitting that it’s really easy to be deceived into believing false doctrine when you don’t know the truth as written in Scripture. It’s easy to think that you have some personal control over salvation, or at least have a hand in it in some way, when you don’t understand that it’s by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. I was one such person for the majority of my youth. When you’re raised hearing specific doctrine taught, it’s hard to believe it’s anything but the full truth.

My dad started taking my family and me to the RLDS Church when I was about 8 or 9 years old. He’d been taught his whole life that the Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, and The Pearl of Great Price (among other texts) were on the same level as the Bible in their spiritual authority and significance. This led him to believe that everything taught by the LDS Church was true and not in any way contradictory to the Bible. And unfortunately, the LDS Church helped this belief along by altering the Bible and making it a requirement of church membership that one may only ever read from the LDS Authorized King James Version of the Bible. And while there are other religious organizations that have done this also (such as the Jehovah’s Witnesses), it’s the LDS Church’s manipulation of Scripture that personally impacted me.

The Book of Mormon makes a lot of fantastical claims with regards to its origination and legitimacy[ix], but there’s one thing that specifically makes it false—it’s contraction of the actual Bible (not the Mormon version, although it even contradicts that one too). The same can be said of every text that contradicts the Bible—they are false. Whether you’re talking about the Apocrypha, The Lost Gospel of Peter, The Book of Enoch, The Infancy Gospel of Thomas, The Treatise of Shem, etc., each of these texts contradicts Scripture in some way (and often more than one). Often such texts are so blasphemous that it’s hard to believe one could even consider them sacred at all (because they’re not). We’ve already looked at the way in which official LDS doctrine contradicts Biblical teaching on Jesus, salvation, and works. Now let’s take a look at some of the other ways it contradicts Scripture.

When my dad died, and I started attending a different church with the purpose of carpooling to 4-H events afterwards, I started noticing subtle differences that piled up over time. The pastor at my friend’s church preached many sermons on a variety of things, and I started to notice the distinct, yet very specific, differences between LDS doctrine and true, biblically accurate doctrine.

One thing that immediately stuck out to me were the conflicting teachings on the subjects of Heaven and Hell. I remember one Sunday I sat listening to a sermon and was shocked by how different the Bible spoke of our existence after the death of our physical bodies. The Mormon Church had taught me that there is a Hell—meant for only the murderers[x] and really bad people[xi]; and then there’s Heaven—with different levels therein. There’s the level for non-Mormons, those that are generally “good” people (Telestial Kingdom); then there’s the level of Heaven for “jack-Mormons” (those who are Mormon, but not really practicing) called the Terrestrial Kingdom; then there’s the level of Heaven for those who are fully-practicing, righteous Mormons (Celestial Kingdom). Only people that have a “temple wedding” and follow all the commands of the Mormon Church (such as abstaining from caffeine/other drugs and having as many babies as possible to provide bodies for “spirits waiting to be born in Heaven”) are able to enter the 3^rd level of Heaven.[xii] Oh, and those that are perfect on both Earth and in Heaven eventually obtain godhood[xiii] and become the “exalted” [xiv] , creating worlds and populations, ruling over them as gods/goddesses.[xv]

But what the Bible says about the afterlife, as I found out, was very different. Jesus Himself spoke of Hell and judgement very often. Some of the things that Jesus said rattled me. “Jesus taught that hell is a real place where some beings will spend eternity (Matthew 23:33, 25:41; Mark 9:43). In Jesus’ teaching, hell is not figurative or symbolic; it is a real place in which real experiences take place. Jesus portrayed hell with vivid imagery concerning fire and darkness (Matthew 5:22; 8:8–12).”[xvi]

And Jesus’ teachings on Heaven were also different from what Mormonism had taught me. Here are some examples from Scripture that clearly demonstrate that there is real place called Heaven (with only one “level” where people dwell with the Lord) and not everyone (regardless of whether they’re “good” or not) will enter into it:

• Matthew 7:21 – “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.”
• Matthew 10:32 – “Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven.”
• Matthew 23:9 – “Do not call anyone on earth your father; for One is your Father, He who is in heaven.”
• Mark 13:32 – “But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.”
• Matthew 6:19-20 – “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.”
• John 5:25-29 – “Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself. And he has given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man. Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.”
• Matthew 13:47-50 – “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea and gathered fish of every kind. When it was full, men drew it ashore and sat down and sorted the good into containers but threw away the bad. So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
• Revelation 21:2-5 – “And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.’ “And he who was seated on the throne said, ‘Behold, I am making all things new.’”
• Revelation 21:22-23 – “And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb.”

One thing I also noticed while reading the Bible is that the New Jerusalem (“Zion”) was not to be established in Jackson County, Missouri, as Mormonism teaches. Joseph Smith taught that the “saints” were to start building New Jerusalem in Missouri, but according to the Bible, it will be lowered down from Heaven (built by God Himself) once the old Earth and old Heaven have passed away (Revelation 21:1).

A Transformed Life

As I stumbled over absorbing this information for the first time, it occurred to me that if one part of the doctrine taught by the LDS Church was wrong, there was a chance that there were other false teachings embedded therein. This was the prompting I needed to research further…and that’s when God led me to the truth, the only truth, and nothing but the truth: His Word.

The more I read the Bible, the more I began to understand just how biblically illiterate I was, and how false the teachings of Mormonism truly are. I found that Jesus is the only Way, the only Truth, the only Life, and no one comes to the Father (enters Heaven) except through Him. I found that the “Jesus” of Mormonism is a false god. He’s not at all like the one spoken of in the Bible. The Mormon Jesus’ lack of deity/godhood makes him useless to fully save anyone, making his “sacrifice” worthless.

I found that the Jesus of the Bible is the only one able to save, because of His perfect life, sacrificial death on our behalf (for our sins), resurrection from the dead, and ascension into Heaven, where He sits at the right hand of the Father. I found that nothing I did could help me be saved and my works were as filthy rags in the eyes of a perfect and holy God. I found that only Jesus’ blood could ever cleanse me from my own filthiness. I found that without Jesus’ work on the Cross, I was doomed to live apart from God for all eternity, and that it was only by His Grace that I was saved from eternal damnation.

I found that it is through faith in Jesus Christ alone (and His death on my behalf) that I am saved, sanctified, made a new creation in Him, and will one day enter Heaven to live with Him forever. And I found that His love of me (and the rest of mankind) was what made all of this possible, even from before the foundation of the World (John 3:16).

What was (and still is) true for me, is true for you too. You can have everlasting life with Jesus as your Savior. It’s so simple that even a child can understand. All you have to do is put your faith and trust in Him and His work for you on the cross. It was on the cross that Jesus shed His blood and made atonement for mankind. It was through that sacrifice that your sins (along with mine) can be completely forgiven and cast as far away as the east is from the west! And it’s by His grace alone that you (and I) have been given the chance to hear the gospel and believe. So…repent and believe in Him! Believe that everything the Bible says about Him is 100% truth. Believe that He did everything that needs to be done. Believe that it’s enough for you to live for all eternity with Him. Believe that He IS the Son of God who takes away the sins of the world…because He is. If you’ve never put your faith, hope, and trust in Him, today is the day and now is the moment! Don’t delay another second!

References

[i] https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2007/10/after-all-we-can-do?lang=eng

[ii] https://evidenceandanswers.org/article/mormon-docrine-jesus/#:~:text=The%20Mormon%20view%20of%20Jesus,through%20physical%20relations%20with%20Mary.

[iii] https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ephesians%202%3A8-9&version=NKJV

(emphasis added)

[iv] https://www.bible.com/bible/compare/ISA.64.6

[v] Hebrew; Strong’s Concordance word 5713c.

[vi] How Does Baptism Save Us? | Desiring God

[vii] https://beliefmap.org/mormonism/mormonism-teaches-god-and-mary-sexually-produced-jesus

[viii] https://www.gotquestions.org/fully-God-fully-man.html

[ix] https://history.churchofjesuschrist.org/content/the-book-of-mormon?lang=eng

[x] https://rsc.byu.edu/book-mormon-treasury/concept-hell#:~:text=Clearly%20the%20Book%20of%20Mormon,follow%20Satan%20rather%20than%20Christ.

[xi] https://www.fairlatterdaysaints.org/answers/Question:_What_is_the_Mormon_concept_of_Hell%3F

[xii] https://www.mormonwiki.com/Celestial,_Terrestrial,_and_Telestial_Kingdoms

[xiii] https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/dc-testament/dc/132?lang=eng&id=p20-p23#p20

[xiv] https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/gospel-principles/chapter-47-exaltation?lang=eng

[xv] https://www.mrm.org/exaltation-definition

[xvi] https://www.gotquestions.org/Jesus-teaching-on-hell.html