Mormonism and Christianity and Politics
I wonder why it took so long.
Finally, the fuss is out in the open about the differences between Rick Perry’s evangelical Christian faith and Mitt Romney’s Mormonism. The bruhaha came from remarks made by the Baptist pastor who introduced Perry at a Republican forum. The pastor described Perry as “a committed follower of Christ,” and some read that as code language that Romney falls somewhere outside of that description. Asked later for comment, the pastor said that Mormonism is a cult and is not Christian. And now Perry is suffering some political blowback as a result.
Two things: First, in 2011, that isn’t politically correct to say. It’s apparently more important these days to be politically correct than factually correct. And secondly, what the pastor said about Mormonism IS factually correct.
Mormonism is not Christianity. Space does not allow a full explanation of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Mormonism). But “cult” is a term reserved for fraudulent attempts to counterfeit Christianity that obviously miss the mark on at least one of these three: Who God is, what God’s’ Word is, what salvation is. Mormonism is 0-for-3. Mormonism doesn’t believe in the Trinity, and is polytheistic – believing not only in several gods, but that faithful Mormons should aspire to BECOME gods. Mormonism believes the Bible does not get the job done, and calls it’s Book of Mormon “another testament of Jesus Christ.” Mormonism does not believe – as orthodox Christianity does – in salvation by grace through faith. CLICK HERE for a slightly expanded treatment of those issues.
What muddies the theological water is that Mormons and other cults use our vocabulary, but not our dictionary. They talk of Jesus, but it’s another Jesus. “Saved” means something different. Even “God” has different attributes than the God described in the Bible.
There are plenty of nice, decent, religious Mormons. Some Mormons may even be Christians, but only IN SPITE of Mormon belief. This is possible because many Mormon missionaries recruit very heavily at the doors of former church attenders. And sometimes those doors are opened by people who attended churches with very little theological depth. That is evidenced by the fact that only 75% of surveyed pastors believe Mormonism is not Christianity. Translation: 25% of pastors reeeeally need to find another job.
Some things are more important than political correctness or potentially hurting someone’s feelings. One thing that is exponentially more important is the gospel – the good news that the God of grace loved sinners so much that He orchestrated payment for their/our sins by the bloody death of His own Son. How important is it to safeguard the real gospel? Well, Paul put it this way in Galatians 1:8,
“But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let them be under God’s curse!”
Amen.
[Hi Kevin. Great blog. I saw this item on the web!]
mormonism’s DIRTY little secret
by Aaronita Smith
Non-Mormon scholars as well as Mormon ones are aware of a hard-core pornographic drawing in the “Book of Abraham” which is Mormon-approved scripture.
This Book is part of the “Pearl of Great Price” which, along with the “Book of Mormon” and the “Doctrine and Covenants,” make up the LDS church’s “triple combination” in one volume.
The porn is found in Fig. 7 of Facsimile 2 in the “Book of Abraham” which shows two beings facing each other, which were described by Joseph Smith as representing the “Holy Ghost” and “God sitting upon his throne,” the latter clearly showing an aroused male sex organ.
After Smith published this sketch in his newspaper in 1842, which offended Mormon sensibilities, the phallic portion was whited out for more than a century until the “restored” LDS church decided in 1981 to restore what had long been censored!
Equally shocking was the discovery that the “Book of Abraham” had nothing to do with Abraham or his God but was actually based on ancient Egyptian funeral documents depicting occultic obscene practices – and the original sketches showed an erotic phallus on both beings including the one Smith blasphemously claimed was the Holy Ghost!
For further information see “Book of Abraham” (Wikipedia). Also see Jerald and Sandra Tanner’s “Mormonism – Shadow or Reality?” which on 76 pages reproduces the original Egyptian X-rated drawings and shows how Smith altered them and created one of his many frauds. Highlights in the classic Tanner work can be seen by typing “Facts From Mormons (By a Utah Resident)” and “What LDS Leaders Say” on Yahoo.
(Mitt Romney didn’t approve of this insight of mine into his faith!)