Are Mormons Christians?

Latter-day Saints believe in Jesus Christ, and the name of their church says so. They are not Christians in the Nicene sense. Nicene Christianity confesses one God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, of one substance. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints teaches three separate beings, a Father who was once as man now is, and exaltation to godhood. “Mormon” is the common nickname. The body is The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Key points

• Gospel Topics, “Godhead”: the members of the Godhead “are three separate beings,” and “they are one in purpose and doctrine.” (1)
• Doctrine and Covenants 130:22“Show the words of Doctrine and Covenants 130:22The Father has a body of flesh and bones as tangible as man’s; the Son also; but the Holy Ghost has not a body of flesh and bones, but is a personage of Spirit. Were it not so, the Holy Ghost could not dwell in us.English, churchofjesuschrist.orgOpen on churchofjesuschrist.org ↗ (8): the Father and the Son have bodies of flesh and bones “as tangible as man’s.”
• The King Follett sermon, in the April 1971 Ensign: “God himself was once as we are now, and is an exalted man.” (5)
• Gospel Topics, “Jesus Christ”: “He was the Firstborn of the Father, the Only Begotten Son in the flesh.” (2) Gospel Topics, “Satan”: “He is a spirit son of God” who rebelled. (3) Those pages do not use the phrase “spirit brother.”
• “Becoming Like God”: exaltation is “the glorious reward of receiving one’s full inheritance as a child of Heavenly Father,” “by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the gospel.” (6)
• Articles of Faith 1:8: “We believe the Bible to be the word of God as far as it is translated correctly; we also believe the Book of Mormon to be the word of God.” (7)
• The creed of 381 says the Son is “begotten not made, being of one substance with the Father.” (10) Do Mormons believe in the Trinity? stays on that contrast.

What Latter-day Saints say about themselves

They are not people who have never heard of Jesus. Gospel Topics, “Jesus Christ,” says his life “neither began in Bethlehem nor concluded on Calvary. He was the Firstborn of the Father, the Only Begotten Son in the flesh, the Redeemer of the world.” (2) They baptize, they preach Christ, and they call the Bible scripture, with a limit stated in their own Articles of Faith.

Articles of Faith 1:8: (7)

We believe the Bible to be the word of God as far as it is translated correctly; we also believe the Book of Mormon to be the word of God.

The clause “as far as it is translated correctly” means the Bible is not, for them, the final text. The Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants, and the Pearl of Great Price stand beside it. The Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith and revelation take up those books. This page uses them only where they state who God is and how a person is saved.

Gospel Topics, “Apostasy,” states why they do not treat the Nicene churches as the continued church of the apostles: (4)

After the deaths of the Savior and His Apostles, men corrupted the principles of the gospel and made unauthorized changes in Church organization and priesthood ordinances. Because of this widespread apostasy, the Lord withdrew the authority of the priesthood from the earth. This apostasy lasted until Heavenly Father and His Beloved Son appeared to Joseph Smith in 1820 and initiated the Restoration of the fulness of the gospel.

On their account, the councils that confessed the Trinity were part of the loss, and 1820 is the return of authority. Nicene Christians read those same councils as the church saying, in the words of the creed, what the apostles had already preached.

God, Jesus, and Satan

Gospel Topics, “Godhead”: (1)

From the Prophet’s account of the First Vision and from his other teachings, we know that the members of the Godhead are three separate beings. The Father and the Son have tangible bodies of flesh and bones, and the Holy Ghost is a personage of spirit. Although the members of the Godhead are distinct beings with distinct roles, they are one in purpose and doctrine. They are perfectly united in bringing to pass Heavenly Father’s divine plan of salvation.

Doctrine and Covenants 130:22“Show the words of Doctrine and Covenants 130:22The Father has a body of flesh and bones as tangible as man’s; the Son also; but the Holy Ghost has not a body of flesh and bones, but is a personage of Spirit. Were it not so, the Holy Ghost could not dwell in us.English, churchofjesuschrist.orgOpen on churchofjesuschrist.org ↗:

The Father has a body of flesh and bones as tangible as man’s; the Son also; but the Holy Ghost has not a body of flesh and bones, but is a personage of Spirit. Were it not so, the Holy Ghost could not dwell in us.

The King Follett sermon, as the church prints it in the Ensign, goes further than “three beings”: (5)

God himself was once as we are now, and is an exalted man, and sits enthroned in yonder heavens! That is the great secret.

The same sermon says, “you have got to learn how to be gods yourselves.” The Gospel Topics essay “Becoming Like God” quotes Joseph Smith’s “You have got to learn how to be a god yourself,” and it defines the aim: (6)

Latter-day Saints use the term exaltation to describe the glorious reward of receiving one’s full inheritance as a child of Heavenly Father, which is available through the Atonement of Christ, by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the gospel.

2 Nephi 25:23 (9):

For we labor diligently to write, to persuade our children, and also our brethren, to believe in Christ, and to be reconciled to God; for we know that it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do.

Grace is in the sentence. So is “after all we can do,” and so is the essay’s “by obedience to the laws and ordinances.” Ephesians 2:8–9“Show the words of Ephesians 2:8–9^2:8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: ^2:9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.King James Version (12), King James Version: “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.” The two hopes are not the same hope. One is a gift that excludes boasting in works. The other is an inheritance received by obedience, on the way to being a god.

Gospel Topics, “Satan”: “He is a spirit son of God who was once an angel ‘in authority in the presence of God.’ But in the premortal Council in Heaven, Lucifer, as Satan was then called, rebelled against God.” (3) Gospel Topics, “Jesus Christ,” calls Jesus “the Firstborn of the Father.” The church’s pages quoted here do not print the slogan “spirit brother.” They do say that Jesus is the Firstborn of the Father and that Satan is a spirit son of God who rebelled. Nicene Christianity does not say that. Satan is a creature who fell. The Son is “begotten not made, being of one substance with the Father,” in the creed of 381, not the eldest of a family of gods in embryo.

John 4:24“Show the words of John 4:24God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.King James Version: “God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.” John 1:1“Show the words of John 1:1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.King James Version: “the Word was God.” Is Jesus God? follows those sentences through the Gospels. Latter-day Saints affirm a divine Son with a body of flesh and bones like the Father’s. Nicene Christians affirm one being, and they confess that the Son took a human nature without the Father becoming a man who had once been as we are.

Comparison

Jehovah’s Witnesses also reject the Nicene account, and the two refusals are not the same. Witnesses teach that Jesus is a creature and that “the Word was a god,” which John 1 and the Word quotes from the New World Translation. Latter-day Saints teach that Jesus is divine, the Firstborn, and one of three beings who are God in purpose. Witnesses do not teach that God was once a man or that the faithful become gods. Latter-day Saints do, in the King Follett sermon and in “Becoming Like God.” The Trinity is the confession both groups are answering.

Are Mormons saved?

“Saved,” in Ephesians 2:8–9“Show the words of Ephesians 2:8–9^2:8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: ^2:9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.King James Version, is God’s gift, received through faith, “not of works, lest any man should boast.” “Exaltation,” in the church’s essay, is a full inheritance as a child of Heavenly Father, available through the Atonement “by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the gospel,” and 2 Nephi 25:23 puts grace “after all we can do.” A person who trusts Christ is not saved by joining a list of churches. A gospel in which God was a man, the Son is one exalted being among others, and the faithful learn to be gods is not the gospel Paul states in that paragraph. Latter-day Saints who love Jesus are answering a real question about him. The answer their scriptures give is not the Nicene one, and it is not a denomination beside Catholic, Baptist, or the other churches that confess that creed. The shared map is the deity of Christ.

Frequently asked questions

What religion is Mormonism closest to?

In vocabulary it is closest to Christianity: Jesus, the Bible, baptism, a church. In the doctrine of God it is not a Nicene denomination. The nearest organizational comparison on this wiki is Jehovah’s Witnesses, who also stand outside the creed and also reject it for a different Christology, quoted above.

What is the biggest difference between Mormonism and Christianity?

The Godhead. Nicene Christians confess one being. Latter-day Saints confess three beings, one in purpose, and the King Follett sermon says God “was once as we are now, and is an exalted man.” Salvation follows that doctrine: exaltation, not Ephesians 2:8–9’s gift apart from works.

Do Mormons believe in Jesus?

Yes. Gospel Topics calls him the Firstborn of the Father, the Only Begotten Son in the flesh, and the Redeemer of the world. The disagreement is whether that Son is of one substance with the Father.

Are Mormons saved according to the New Testament?

The New Testament’s sentence is Ephesians 2:8–9“Show the words of Ephesians 2:8–9^2:8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: ^2:9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.King James Version: by grace, through faith, not of works. The Book of Mormon’s sentence at 2 Nephi 25:23 includes “after all we can do,” and the church’s essay defines exaltation as inheritance by obedience to laws and ordinances, ending in learning to be a god. Those are different gospels.

Keep reading

• Do Mormons believe in the Trinity?
• Joseph Smith and revelation
• The Book of Mormon
• The Trinity
• Is Jesus God?
• The deity of Christ