The Gospel for Mormons

Apologia Studios

Subscribe

Download

Share

00

00:08

So here's the thing, Mormons often say, but we're

00:14

Christian too, why don't you just leave us alone, we're just another denomination, I mean it's in our name, the

00:19

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter -day Saints. It's not about Mormon underwear, it's not about coffee and tea and tobacco products and those sorts of things, it's really more foundational.

00:32

It's a question of what God do you worship, who is God, and how do

00:38

I come to know God? Mormonism at the very beginning began with a lie, and the lie was that Heavenly Father came to Joseph Smith and told him to join none of the churches for they were all wrong, all their creeds were an abomination, all their professors, that's the

00:56

Christians, were all corrupted, they draw near to God with their lips but their hearts are far from Him, and Joseph told the world that God had told him that the

01:05

Christian church had fallen away and it needed to be restored, and that's just, it's just a lie.

01:13

It's a lie because 2 ,000 years before Joseph came along with this revelation, God had already said that He would build

01:19

His church and the gates of hell would not prevail against it. Jude verse 3, we're told to earnestly contend for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.

01:30

The promise in the Old Testament was that the Messiah would come and He would have a kingdom that would never be destroyed, ever.

01:38

Daniel chapter 7 verses 13 through 14, and Jesus came and He said that He brought that kingdom. John the

01:43

Baptist said that that kingdom was at the fingertip reach, it was right there at hand. The Bible says that the

01:50

Messiah has been seated on His throne, He is King of kings and Lord of lords, He brought the kingdom, and so Joseph is just 2 ,000 years too late.

02:00

It really is about God, it really is about the gospel. You see, the

02:05

Bible says in Isaiah 43, 10, And before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me.

02:11

In Isaiah 44, 6, I am the first and I am the last, besides me there is no

02:17

God. God says in Isaiah 44, 8, is there a God besides me? Indeed there is no other

02:22

God, I know not one. And Joseph came with a revelation in the King Follett discourse. He said this, we've imagined and supposed that God was

02:30

God from all eternity. I will take away that idea and do away the veil so that you may see.

02:35

He says, you've got to learn to become gods yourselves the same way all gods have done before you. This goes against everything the

02:42

Bible says about who God is. He's the only God. Deuteronomy chapter 6, verse 4,

02:48

Shema Yisrael Yahweh Eloheinu Yahweh Echad. Hear O Israel, the

02:53

Lord our God, the Lord is one. There is only one God. The Bible teaches that plainly.

02:59

And yet the Bible teaches plainly there is only one God and He eternally exists as three persons,

03:05

Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. John chapter 1, verse 1, in the beginning was the Word. And he's talking about Jesus.

03:11

And the Word was with God and the Word was God. And it says in John chapter 1 that Jesus created everything in existence and without Him nothing's come into being that came into being.

03:23

That Jesus is God who took on flesh. John chapter 1, verse 14, God took on flesh and He tabernacled among us the one and only true and living

03:32

God in the person of Jesus Christ, the creator of all things, came into His own creation and took on flesh.

03:39

He is not created. He is not the spirit offspring of Heavenly Father and one of His goddess wives as Mormonism teaches.

03:47

Jesus created all things. He's not Lucifer's brother as Mormonism teaches. He is the creator of Lucifer.

03:54

In Colossians chapter 1, from verses 16 on, it says that Jesus, for by Him were all things created in the heavens and on the earth, whether visible or invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions or rulers or authority, all things were created by Jesus.

04:08

That includes Satan. And why is this important? It's important because this church, with all these beautiful buildings and all this property and this message that sounds so similar to Christianity in terminology, it teaches another

04:24

Christ, a Christ that cannot save you. It's a different Jesus. It's a Jesus that doesn't have any existence whatsoever.

04:32

It's a Christ that cannot save. And Jesus says in John 14, 6, I am the way, the truth, the life.

04:38

No man comes to the Father but by me. He's the only way to have peace with God. And Mormonism teaches a different Christ, a different God.

04:48

It actually tells people that you can, through obedience to the laws and principles of the

04:55

You can move your way through exaltation to become a God or goddess of your own planet like the

05:01

God of this earth did, and that is the farthest thing from the truth. The Bible teaches there is only one

05:07

God, eternal, and we will never be a God one day. But the more important question beyond that is this question.

05:14

How can we know this God? It's not about minor differences, musical style, color of carpet in church, whether or not you drink coffee or don't.

05:26

It's really a question of how we'll reconcile to God and have peace with Him. Because the Bible says in Romans chapter 3 that there is none righteous, no not one, none who seeks for God, that there is no fear of God before our eyes.

05:39

And Paul says in Romans chapter 3 verse 28, we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of law because the law,

05:46

Paul says in Romans chapter 3, can only really reveal our sin. It really only shuts our mouth before God.

05:53

It really only shows us who we are before God and it really actually increases our knowledge of sin,

05:59

Paul says. And so what's our hope? If we're sinners before a holy God, if we're worthy of death, if as Jesus says the wrath of God abides on us, then what's our hope?

06:13

And the hope is in the gospel because of what Christ did. Jesus is

06:19

God in the flesh who went to the cross to take the punishment, the full punishment for His people, what they deserved

06:27

He took. He was perfectly obedient to the law of God and yet He died a death that His people deserve.

06:33

He was buried and He rose again. Not so you could have

06:39

His work plus your good works, which the Bible says are nothing but filthy rags before God in an effort to get reconciled to God.

06:48

The Bible actually teaches that that's impossible. It says in Galatians chapter 5, Christ has become of no effect to you, whosoever of you attempts to be justified by law, you've fallen from grace.

07:00

Listen to this text from the Book of Mormon. In 2 Nephi 25 -23 it says this, by grace are you saved, after all you can do.

07:11

And you compare that to the Bible and it says in Ephesians 2 verses 8 and 9, by grace are you saved through faith in that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not according to works lest any man should boast.

07:24

It's all God's grace. It's only through faith in Jesus apart from any work of law and the

07:29

Bible actually teaches us that if you go the route of works in an attempt to establish your own righteousness before God, Galatians chapter 3, you're under the curse of the law to do all of it.

07:42

And the beauty of the gospel for Mormons and for really the world is that Christ became a curse for God's people, taking what they deserve, giving to us a righteousness that's not our own, it's

07:58

His righteousness, that it's a righteousness that can actually avail before a holy God. It's the only righteousness that will actually avail before the presence of God.

08:08

It's Christ's righteousness and Paul says this in Philippians chapter 3 and every Mormon needs to hear this.

08:14

He lays out his resume. He talks about all that he did according to the law, he says, as to the law

08:19

I was a Pharisee, as to zeal I persecuted the church of the tribe of Benjamin and he says this, he says all those things, he says

08:27

I count them as loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Jesus Christ my Lord and he says this,

08:34

I want to be found in Him. Not having a righteousness of my own derived from the law but the righteousness that comes from God through faith.

08:44

The Bible teaches that through faith in Christ you are given, credited a righteousness that is not your own and it's apart from works of law,

08:52

Romans chapter 4. God does not count your sins against you because of what Christ did and He actually credits to your righteousness that is a perfect righteousness, it's

09:01

Christ's and the only way anybody will ever stand before a holy God, the only

09:07

God that exists is with a righteousness that is perfect and that's not available to any of us in ourselves.

09:18

And Mormonism actually teaches you in the articles of faith that through the atonement of Jesus Christ all mankind may be saved and that sounds so beautiful except it goes on and it says through obedience to the laws and ordinances of the gospel, it really says this that Mormonism with all of its beauty, with all of the lights, with all the

09:43

Christian language really has a message of death, not a message of life.

09:51

And the call of the gospel to the Mormon is not that we want you to lose faith, it's not that we want you to lose

09:59

God, it's that we want you to know the one and only true and living God and we want you to have peace with Him through the true and living

10:09

Christ, the eternal God who had no beginning, He is the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end, the first, the last,

10:17

He is the same yesterday, today and forever. We want you to know that Christ, the

10:22

Christ that can give you a perfect righteousness through faith apart from works of law and the call is this,

10:29

Jesus is God in the flesh, He's the Messiah who lived righteously, He perfectly kept the law of God, He died and rose again and He calls you to come and die and rise again.

10:41

The command is to repent and to believe the gospel, come to Christ in faith, abandon your sin, abandon your self -righteousness, abandon all your good deeds and you come to the true and living

10:55

God, the only God, not to become a god one day, but to have peace with God.

11:01

The truth is, God, He's the gospel. You get

11:07

God, peace with God, forgiveness, your sins washed away, eternal life.

11:12

Jesus says in John 5 24, truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears my voice and believes

11:18

Him who sent me has eternal life. To all the Mormons that watch this,

11:25

I want to plead with you to turn to the true and living Christ, trust in Christ for salvation and for forgiveness.

11:36

Come to Christ and not lose faith, but gain life.

11:43

Find a solid Christian church that believes the Bible, stands on the

11:48

Bible as the word of God, as the infallible rule of faith. Find a good, solid body of Christian believers that believes

11:56

God's word is supreme and that it's the standard. Come to Christ and be a part of the kingdom of God.