Core Differences

Mormonism

versus

The Bible

What are some of the core differences between what Mormons call "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints" (LDS Church) teaches, and what the Bible teaches?

What you need to know.

The LDS Church Teaches

About God 

• 1.  God did not eternally exist as God.

“God “was once as one of us””

[From: “LDS Topics - Becoming Like God”]

• 2.  The Father has a body of flesh and bones.

“The Father has a body of flesh and bones as tangible as man’s”

[From: “Doctrine & Covenants 130:22”]

The Bible Teaches

About God 

• 1.  God has always been God.

Psalm 90:2; Malachi 3:6; Revelation 1:8

• 2.  God is Spirit, not an exalted man.

John 4:24; Numbers 23:19; 1 Samuel 15:29; John 1:18 with Deuteronomy 4:15-16

The LDS Church Teaches

About Jesus

• 1.  Jesus was born as a spirit child in a preexistence.

“Jesus is the firstborn of the spirit children of our Heavenly Father”

[From: “LDS Bible Dictionary - Firstborn”]

• 2.  A physical God begat Jesus in the flesh.

“Jesus was the only person to be born of a mortal mother, Mary, and an immortal father, God the Father.”

[From: “Ensign - Jesus Christ Is the Only Begotten Son of God”]

“Students should identify the following doctrine: God, the Eternal Father, and Mary are the parents of the mortal Jesus Christ.”

[From: "Jesus Christ and the Everlasting Gospel Teacher Manual, 2015"]

(For more information on this topic, go to our page: "Virgin Birth")

The Bible Teaches

About Jesus 

• 1.  Jesus was not created. He is the eternal God.

Hebrews 13:8; Revelation 1:17-18 with Isaiah 44:6; Colossians 1:16-17

• 2.  Jesus was not begotten through the joining of the Father and Mary.

Matthew 1:23 with Isaiah 7:14; Matthew 1:18-20

The LDS Church Teaches

About Humanity

• 1.  We also preexisted as spirit children.

“We are all literally children of God, spiritually begotten in the premortal life.”

[From: “LDS Topics - God the Father”]

• 2.  Choices in preexistence determined racial heritance.

“So far as innocence is concerned, they enter this world alike; but so far as circumstances are concerned they are not alike… Some spirits take bodies in the lineage of the chosen seed… others receive bodies among the African negroes or in the lineage of Canaan whose descendants were cursed… Now if all the spirits were equally faithful in keeping the laws thereof, why are they place in such dissimilar circumstances in their second estate?”

[From: “The Seer”, page 56 (see photo at bottom of this page)]

“God did cause a skin of blackness to come upon them.”

[From: "Book of Mormon - 2 Nephi 5:21"]

(For more information on this topic, go to our page: "Race and Mormonism - Dissimilar Circumstances".)

• 3.  We can learn how to become gods as did other gods before.

Joseph Smith Jr. (Founder and 1st President of the LDS Church) said: “You have got to learn how to be a god yourself in order to save yourself— to be priests Kings as all Gods has done— by going from a small degree to another from exaltation to ex[altation]— till they are able to sit in glory as doth those who sit enthroned.”

[From: “Discourse, Apr. 7, 1844” Select page 14]

(For more information on this topic, go to our page: "Humanity")

The Bible Teaches

About Humanity

• 1.  We did not preexist as spirit children.

1 Corinthians 15:46; Genesis 2:7; Zechariah 12:1; Malachi 2:10

• 2.  Racial differences is God’s beautiful design, not based on choices in a so-called preexistence.

Acts 10:34-35; Genesis 4:15 (Cain’s mark was for protection, not racial identification); Genesis 3:20, (all are descendants of Adam and Eve. Therefore all are equal. See also Romans 12:5; Galatians 3:28); Genesis 12:1-3; Malachi 3:12

• 3.  There will always be only one Creator God.

Isaiah 43:10; 40:25; 45:14, 18; John 17:3; Acts 17:24-28

The LDS Church Teaches About Salvation

• 1.  Salvation by grace alone means resurrection.

“Through the grace of Jesus Christ, all will be resurrected and will live forever.”

[From: “LDS Topics - Grace”]

• 2. Conditional Salvation… to be reconciled to God, is by works.

“… and to be reconciled to God; for we know that it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do.”

[From: “Book of Mormon - 2 Nephi 25:23”]

(For more information on this topic, go to our page: "Salvation?")

The Bible Teaches

About Salvation

• 1.  We are reconciled to God by grace alone.

Romans 5:10; 2 Corinthians 5:18-20; Colossians 1:20; Hebrews 2:17; Ephesians 2:8-9

• 2.  We can become children of God solely through a personal relationship with Jesus. Not through works.

Ephesians 2:18; John 1:12; John 14:6