The LDS Church recently came out with a new ad campaign
called the “Introduction to Mormons” series (link here: http://www.mormonnewsroom.org/article/mormon-introduction-videos).
Specifically, I'm looking at the video titled "What Mormons Believe." In the series, the people in front of the camera say things very similar to
what I said when I was a believing Mormon speaking to non-believers. What interests
me about this campaign is that it appears to be a campaign largely targeted at
Christians. Some of the wording caused me to raise an eyebrow or two,
especially the claim that for Mormons, “Jesus Christ is the centre of our
faith.” Having been involved in both Mormonism and born again Christianity, I
feel the need to highlight a few differences between what the LDS Church calls
a Jesus-centred faith, and what we in the evangelical stream would call a
Jesus-centred faith.
“We worship Christ”
I do not remember ever “worshipping” Jesus as an LDS person.
I do not remember ever calling our services “worship” services (even though the
church markets them as such to non-members) – we called them “sacrament
meeting,” “priesthood meeting,” etc. I do not remember a tone of “worship” of
Jesus. You will never hear a Mormon say “Praise God!” or “Hallelujah!” However,
you will hear LDS hymns like “Praise to the Man” (referring to Joseph Smith).
Sure, I have been to many LDS meetings where Jesus is referred to with
gratitude and honour, but you will find a near equal measure of gratitude and
honour for the church president, other leaders, and for Joseph Smith.
LDS friends and family, next time you’re in a testimony
meeting you should try the following exercise. Make a chart kind of like the
one below, and keep a tally of how many times someone expresses “worship,”
gratitude, etc., for one of these things.
“I am so grateful
for…”
|
|
Joseph Smith, for restoring the gospel
|
8
|
Latter-day prophets
|
7
|
The Book of Mormon
|
3
|
A particular church program (missionary work, welfare,
young men’s, etc.)
|
4
|
A church standard (word of wisdom, food storage, etc.)
|
4
|
The pioneers
|
1
|
JESUS, for saving me from my sins and granting me eternal
life by his grace and mercy!
|
?
|
The numbers on the side are just for example, but let me
know what your results are! Then tell me whether you think that constitutes
worshipping Jesus, because let me tell you – it is a completely different story
in the evangelical churches I have attended. We cut out all that other stuff and
focus completely on our Lord and our God, Jesus Christ. You may not care for
contemporary style of evangelical worship services, but you must admit that the
focus of our “worship” is completely different from what you find in a typical
LDS church meeting.
“He is our Saviour”
Again, this statement begs for contrast with a
Bible-believing born again congregation, because it means completely different
things to each group.
For the LDS, every mortal person is “saved” by Jesus in that
they will be resurrected to one of three kingdoms in the next life. But not
everyone will live with God in the next life – in order to reach that degree of
glory you must earn it through obedience to the laws and ordinances of the LDS
church.
For the born again Christian, saying that Jesus is our
saviour is a completely different thing. When I say that Jesus “saved” me, I
mean that he paid it all so that I can live eternally with him in the next
life. “Wherefore he is able also to save them to the
uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession
for them” (Hebrews 7:25). He didn’t just save me a
little bit so that I could try really hard to do the rest – he saved me all the
way. Jesus paid it all.
Closing
thoughts
