Saturday Special: Responding to 10 Claims About Mormonism from Senator Mike Lee

Welcome to a Saturday special edition of When We Understand the Text.

Looking at current events and responding to them with a solid understanding of scripture. Visit our website at www .utt

.com. Here once again is Pastor Gabe. Responding to Senator Mike Lee about Mormonism.

Pastor Gabe's blog for December 5th, 2025. On Sunday, September 29th, in Grand Blanc, Michigan, 60 miles northwest of Detroit, a killer named

Thomas Sanford drove his truck into a Mormon church during worship, slamming into a wall behind the pulpit.

He exited the truck and opened fire on the building. people before setting the building ablaze, burning it to the ground.

Four people were killed and eight were injured. Among the dead was 78 -year -old

Bishop Craig Hayden, who died helping another victim, 77 -year -old Navy veteran

John Bond, 77 -year -old Vietnam War veteran Pat Howard, and an older South African woman named

Thelma Armstrong, who was attending with her daughter. Sanford was killed in a shootout with police.

A former Marine, Sanford once fell in love with a Mormon woman, but soured on the religion once the relationship ended.

A local man reported that just days before the shooting, he had a conversation with Sanford lasting about 20 minutes, during which

Sanford expressed his disgust with the Mormon faith. He died at the age of 40.

In an incredible act of charity, a Utah man raised over $300 ,000 for Sanford's wife and child, left alone after his horrible act.

Many people of many different beliefs and backgrounds extended their prayers and best wishes to the victims and their families.

On the day of the attack, President Trump said on social media, quote, I have been briefed on the horrendous shooting that took place at the

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter -day Saints in Grand Blanc, Michigan. The FBI was immediately on scene and will be leading the federal investigation and providing full support to state and local officials.

The suspect is dead, but there is still a lot to learn. This appears to be yet another targeted attack on Christians in the

United States of America. The Trump administration will keep the public posted, as we always do.

In the meantime, pray for the victims and their families. This epidemic of violence in our country must end immediately, unquote.

But this was not a targeted attack on Christians in the United States. It was specifically one twisted man's vengeance against a religion he hated, a religion that bears no resemblance to biblical

Christianity. We might use similar words and claim to worship the same God, hence why

Mormonism will get categorized as a Christian religion. But Christians should know better.

It is perfectly reasonable that there were Christians speaking up to point out that Mormonism is not

Christianity. Though their churches have Jesus Christ in their name, it's a different Jesus and not the

Christ of the Bible. Many pushed back immediately to say that theology wars can wait until another day.

Today, we grieve with a religious community in mourning. However, prominent

Mormons on social media were willing to hijack the moment to promote their religion as Christian.

And if someone wouldn't accept their religion as Christian, they were gaslit as unsympathetic to the tragedy that had just taken place.

Basically, evangelical Christians were expected to sit and be quiet and let the Mormons say what they wanted.

One of those prominent Mormons was Mike Lee, the United States Senator from Utah. On the evening of the shooting, he took to social media to say the following, quote,

As a lifelong member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter -day Saints, I'm a

Christian. As Latter -day Saints, we believe that Jesus Christ is the only begotten

Son of God, born of the Virgin Mary, Luke 1 .35. He is the Creator and God of the

Old Testament and the Savior of the New Testament, John 1 .1 -3. He lived a sinless life, took upon himself the sins of all mankind, and atoned for us through his suffering and death, 1

Peter 2 .22, Alma 7 .11 -12. He rose on the third day, ensuring our resurrection and offering eternal life through faith in him, 1

Corinthians 15 .20 -22. He is the only way to salvation,

Acts 4 .12. We worship Jesus Christ, follow his teachings, and take upon his name through baptism and weekly sacrament.

The Book of Mormon, alongside the Bible, testifies of his divinity and mission. As our

Church's name declares, Jesus Christ is at the heart of our religion. He is the author and finisher of our faith,

Hebrews 12 .2. If that doesn't make us Christians, I don't know what does.

You may define Christianity differently, and that's your right. If you do, that doesn't change my faith in Jesus Christ, nor does it diminish my respect for your sacred beliefs.

Not for a moment." Senator Lee is a governing official and has my respect.

He is also a Mormon and believes some things about Jesus Christ that are not true. Christianity and Mormonism may share the same language, even bearing the name

Jesus, but we believe very different things. I respond to his claims below.

Claim 1. As a lifelong member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter -day Saints, I am a

Christian. Christians do not acknowledge Mormons, also called Latter -day

Saints, as members in the Christian faith. There was once a time, as I will show, when

Mormons themselves did not want to be associated with traditional Christianity. Putting Mormonism in the same category as Christianity is a relatively new phenomenon.

The LDS believe in a version of Jesus that is not the Christ of the Bible, but is rather the invention of a conman named

Joseph Smith. He published the Book of Mormon in 1830, which he claimed to have translated from gold plates given to him by an angel named

Moroni. By Smith's own admission, the Jesus he preached was not the

Christ believed upon by other Christians. In the Pearl of Great Price, Joseph Smith claimed

God the Father and Jesus Christ appeared to him at the same time, something no one else in the

Bible had ever witnessed. He asked them which church he should join. I was answered that I must join none of them,

Smith said, for they were all wrong, and the personage who addressed me said that all their creeds were an abomination in his sight, that those professors were all corrupt, that they draw near to me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.

They teach for doctrines the commandments of men, having a form of godliness, but they deny the power thereof."

Smith twisted Isaiah's words, repeated by Jesus in Matthew 15 9, to say that every other version of Christianity was wrong, and only the version he had invented was the correct one.

The Apostle Paul plainly said, "...but even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed.

As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed."

Galatians 1 8 -9 CLAIM NUMBER TWO JESUS CHRIST IS THE ONLY BEGOTTEN SON OF GOD, BORN OF THE VIRGIN MARY, Luke 1 35

Christians certainly believe that's true. Mormons will use the same language that Christians use, but they use a completely different dictionary to define their terms.

When I say what Mike has said, I mean something different than what Mike means. According to Mormonism, Mary was not actually a virgin.

In order for Jesus to be conceived in her, God the Father, whom the Mormons call Elohim, had sex with her.

Said former LDS president Joseph Fielding Smith, "...the birth of the Savior was a natural occurrence unattended by any degree of mysticism, and the

Father God was the literal parent of Jesus in the flesh as well as in the spirit."

Joseph Fielding Smith is not to be confused with Joseph Smith. Nonetheless, whatever the president of the

LDS says is considered apostolic. But the Mormons still maintain that Mary was a virgin because she had sex with an immortal being and not a mortal man.

As the late LDS apostle Bruce McConkie said, "...for our present purposes, suffice it to say that our

Lord was born of a virgin, which is fitting and proper, and also natural, since the father of the child was an immortal being."

Understand that Mormons do not believe God is eternal. They believe he was once a man begotten by a father, who had a father before him, and so on.

Joseph Smith said, "...God himself was once as we are now, and is an exalted man, and sits enthroned in yonder heavens."

He also said, "...we have imagined and supposed that God was God from all eternity.

I will refute that idea and take away the veil so that you may see." They not only believe in a different Jesus, they believe in a different God altogether.

In fact, they believe in many gods. Joseph Smith believed he would one day become a god and take the place of God.

Smith said, "...when I get my kingdom, I shall present it to my father, so that he may obtain kingdom upon kingdom, and it will exalt him in glory.

He will then take a higher exaltation, and I will take his place, and thereby become exalted myself."

Claim number three. He is the creator and God of the Old Testament and the

Savior of the New Testament, John 1, 1 -3. Mormons don't really believe that God created all things.

They believe that he simply rearranged pre -existent matter. Joseph Smith said, "...now

I ask all who hear me, why the learned men who are preaching salvation say that God created the heavens and the earth out of nothing?

The reason is that they are unlearned in the things of God, and have not the gift of the

Holy Ghost. They account it blasphemy in anyone to contradict their idea.

If you tell them that God made the world out of something, they will call you a fool. But I am learned, and know more than all the world put together."

Such a humble guy. Smith went on to say, "...God had materials to organize the world out of chaos, chaotic matter which is element, and in which dwells all the glory.

Element had an existence from the time he had. The pure principles of element are principles which can never be destroyed.

They may be organized and reorganized, but not destroyed. They had no beginning and can have no end."

So in Mormon cosmology, matter is eternal, but God is not.

Hebrews 11 .3 says, "...by faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible."

Out of nothing, God made everything. Mormons do not believe this.

Claim number four, "...he lived a sinless life, took upon himself the sins of all mankind, and atoned for us through his suffering and death."

1 Peter 2 .22, Alma 7 .11 -12. Mormons don't actually believe

Jesus atoned for all sin. According to Joseph Smith, murder and adultery were two sins you could not be atoned for, not in this world nor in the world to come.

Doctrines and Covenants 42 .18, Joseph Fielding Smith said, "...Joseph

Smith taught that there were certain sins so grievous that man may commit, that they will place the transgressors beyond the power of atonement of Christ.

If these offenses are committed, then the blood of Christ will not cleanse them from their sins even though they repent.

Therefore, their only hope is to have their own blood shed to atone, as far as possible, in their behalf."

The Bible does not say Christ did not atone for murderers and adulterers, or else

King David has a real problem. Romans 6 .10 says, "...for the death Jesus died, he died to sin once for all, but the life he lives, he lives to God."

Furthermore, our own blood cannot atone for our own sins. We die because of our own sins.

As said in Romans 6 .23, "...for the wages of sin is death." The only way our sins can be atoned for is if a sinless righteous man,

Jesus Christ, dies in our place. That sacrifice is very particular, needing to meet very specific qualifications, as the sacrificial lamb had to meet certain qualifications in the

Old Testament. But the Mormon Jesus is different than the Biblical Jesus. The Mormon Jesus is the literal offspring of Heavenly Father and Heavenly Mother.

He is the literal brother of Satan, who is also the offspring of the Father, and he worked his way up to Godhood rather than being eternally

God with the Father. If it's a different Jesus, it's a different sacrifice.

If it's a different sacrifice, it's a different atonement. If it's a different atonement, you are still dead in your sins.

And you are not saved. If you were to say of me, Gabriel Hughes is the son of a man from South America, his mother was from the nation of Georgia, and his brother had red hair, he grew up to take over his dad's carpentry business, and his favorite ice cream is butterscotch, then we can conclude you don't know me at all.

You'd have to be talking about a completely different Gabriel Hughes. Well, that's the way it is with Mormonism and Jesus Christ.

They use the same name and some of the same characteristics, but he is a different Jesus than the

Christ of the Bible. A different Jesus cannot save. Claims 5 and 6.

He rose on the third day, ensuring our resurrection and offering eternal life through faith in him.

1 Corinthians 15, 20 to 22. And he is the only way to salvation. Acts 4, 12.

Though this is not as dogmatically required among Mormons as it once was, Mormonism also says that you must believe

Joseph Smith was God's prophet in order to be saved. Doctrine and Covenants 135 .3,

which is among their scriptures, says, quote, Joseph Smith, the prophet and seer of the Lord, has done more, save Jesus only, for the salvation of men in this world than any other man that ever lived in it, unquote.

Joseph Fielding Smith said that there is, quote, no salvation without accepting Joseph Smith.

If Joseph Smith was verily a prophet and if he told the truth, no man can reject that testimony without incurring the most dreadful consequences, for he cannot enter the kingdom of God, unquote.

Jesus said you must be born again to enter the kingdom of God, John 3, 1 through 15.

You must believe in Jesus in order to be saved and have eternal life, John 3, 16 to 18.

No one gets to the father but by him, John 14, 6. Requiring you to believe in Joseph Smith does not get you into the kingdom.

Quite the opposite, in fact. Claim number seven, we worship

Jesus Christ, follow his teachings, and take upon his name through baptism and weekly sacrament.

Again, Mormons worship a different Jesus, not the Christ of the Bible. They don't follow his teachings.

They follow the teachings of what Joseph Smith said about Jesus. According to their own articles of faith, quote, 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, unquote.

So the Bible is correct as long as you understand it the way they tell you to understand it.

According to the first presidency of the quorum of the 12 apostles in the LDS church, quote,

God the eternal father, whom we designate by the exalted name title Elohim, is the literal parent of our

Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and of the spirits of the human race. Elohim is the father in every sense in which

Jesus Christ is so designated, and distinctively he is the father of spirits, unquote.

That is neither the God nor the Christ we encounter in the pages of the

Bible. The apostle Paul rebuked some of the Corinthians for believing in a different Jesus presented to them by false apostles.

For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it readily enough, 2

Corinthians 11 4. Claim number eight, the book of Mormon alongside the

Bible testifies of his divinity and mission. The Mormon canon consists of the

King James Bible, the book of Mormon, the Pearl of Great Price and Doctrine and Covenants. They believe all of these to be equally scripture.

But the book of Mormon is not alongside the Bible in any sense, except that Joseph Smith used it to manipulate and deceive people into thinking he was presenting the true

Christ. The book of Mormon literally says on the cover that it is another testament of Jesus Christ.

The Bible says there is no other gospel. Galatians 1 8 through 9. The book of Mormon chronicles the ancient history of people in the

Americas, focusing mainly on the Nephite and Lamanite civilizations, culminating with an appearance of Jesus Christ after he rose from the dead in Jerusalem and appeared in North America.

None of the claims of the book of Mormon have ever been verified as true.

Claim number nine. As our church's name declares, Jesus Christ is at the heart of our religion.

He is the author and finisher of our faith, Hebrews 12 2. If that doesn't make us

Christians, I don't know what does. It used to be that even the

LDS church acknowledged they believed in a different Jesus, said the late

LDS President Gordon B. Hinckley, quote, I do not believe in the traditional

Christ. The traditional Christ of whom they speak is not the Christ of whom

I speak, unquote. Claim number 10. You may define

Christianity differently, and that's your right. If you do, that doesn't change my faith in Jesus Christ, nor does it diminish my respect for your sacred beliefs.

Not for a moment. I respect Mormons as fellow image bearers of God.

They are sinners headed for hell unless they repent and believe in the true Jesus Christ of the

Bible, not the fiction invented by Joseph Smith. I do not respect their religion, for it is leading people to hell and it is blasphemy against God.

We don't believe in the same Jesus, but I hope and pray that one day

Mike will. Galatians 1 6 through 7 says, I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Jesus Christ and are turning to a different gospel.

Not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ.

Do not be deceived, brethren, nor call brethren those who are not brethren.

It is not loving to affirm someone in their lie. The loving thing to do is tell the truth, lest he be accursed.