Knowing the Real Jesus

By Pastor Doug Cox

 

In Matthew 7:15 Jesus gives the warning “Beware of false prophets which come to you in sheep’s clothing….”  In Matthew 24:11 He says “…many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many,” and in Matthew 24:24 the warning “there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.”

 

Reared in Mormonism I was totally comfortable with the image of Christ I had been taught.  I had no idea anything was amiss.  After all Jesus was part of our life. His name was used in our prayers and posted on the sides of our church buildings.  However a time was coming to my life where my whole belief system and concept of faith would be challenged by what seemed at first to be little differences about who Jesus really is.  In this vortex of time I found that little things do in fact make a big difference.

 

In this article I will share differences between the Mormon Jesus and the Jesus of the Bible.  It is vital that people be aware of these subtle yet threatening differences.  The Apostle Paul writes in 2nd Corinthians 11:3 “…I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.”  Christians must know that the financially powerful, well organized “Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints” is on the move to fit into main stream Christianity as if they carried the same simple gospel message Christ intended.  Yet both their message and their Christ are counterfeits.

 

It is said that knowing what is real is the best way to identify what is counterfeit. That’s one reason I’m not in Mormonism any longer.  My wife Jana had been taught by her grandma about the real Jesus and also had some vacation Bible school under her belt, so when we began our venture into the spiritual darkness of Mormonism, she was able to identify that there were some things that were conflicting to the beliefs she was taught as a child.  Thankfully she had the courage and sense to hold on to those things and not give in to the new and strange ideas.

 

In John 5:39-40 Jesus tells the Pharisees “you diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life.”(NIV)  Christianity, unlike Mormonism finds its understanding of Who Jesus is through the Old Testament scriptures.  Everything from His supernatural birth, to His place of birth is recorded there in detail including the means of His suffering and crucifixion along with many other important identifying elements of His life, including the resurrection. The Old Testament reveals who Christ is so that we can come to Him once we identify Him as Lord (John 1:11-12).

 

Sadly the Pharisees let their traditions; their pride and power get in the way of having the real Jesus.  Because of that many of them died in their sins, separated from God (John 8:24).  Mormons too want to hold on to their traditions.  Like the Pharisees they have their own ideas about who Jesus is.  Unfortunately wrong ideas can keep people, like they did me, from a precious and vital relationship with God.

 

Following are some comparisons between the Mormon Jesus and the Jesus of the Bible.

 

The Book of Mormon says in Alma 7:10 that Jesus was born in Jerusalem.  The Bible says in Micah 5:2 that the Everlasting One, Jesus, would be born in Bethlehem, a small seemingly insignificant town of Judah.  This discrepancy should cause any serious seeker to know that something isn’t right.

 

Mormons believe God is an exalted man and that he became God through good works and obedience to his God.  Their famous saying is “as man is - God once was, as God is - man may become”.  This quote by their Apostle Bruce R. McConkie summarizes what serious Mormons really believe about God and themselves.  They are on a quest to someday be a god themselves. In Christianity we know the position is filled and agree with Isaiah 44:8 “…is there a God beside me? Yea, there is no God; I know not any”.

 

Mormons believe that God, as a man, came down and had sexual relations with Mary to conceive Jesus and that Jesus Himself had wives (The Seer pages 158-159).  This was taught early in the church and is not something they promote heavily now.  These erroneous Mormon teachings were ploys to convince people that polygamy was God’s will.  Of course this too contradicts what the Bible teaches about God.  It John 4:24 Jesus tells us “God is a Spirit” and in Luke 1:34-35 and Mt. 1:18-23 we find that Jesus was conceived by a virgin and by the Holy Ghost.

 

Mormonism also teaches that Jesus and Satan are brothers.  It is part of their doctrine of eternal progression.  They believe all humans were first born as spirit babies in heaven to the Heavenly Father through one of his many wives and then grew up as spirits in heaven.  Jesus, the first born and Lucifer were among these spirit children.  Both Jesus and Lucifer presented a plan of salvation to God the Father for the earthly world to come.  God the Father liked Jesus plan and rejected Lucifer’s.  He then rebelled along with many other spirit children and all were cast out as fallen angels.  Jesus was then chosen to come and show us how to live for God and shed his blood for the atonement of all mankind.  Their belief is that all mankind is saved and have eternal life and that there is no hell.  Those who leave the Mormon Church go to outer darkness.

 

The Bible clearly teaches us that Jesus created all things including the angels.  Jesus can’t be Satan’s brother and his Creator.  (See Ps. 33:6; Heb. 11:3; Col. 1:15-17; John 1:1-3, 14).  It teaches that Jesus is God, Who became flesh (John 1:1-3, 14; 2nd Cor. 5:19) to die on the cross for our sin to give us eternal life so we don’t have to go to hell.  We can see there are obviously great differences between their Jesus and the Bible Jesus.

 

In closing I want you to know how thankful I am to be born again and off the treadmill of works.  Because of my wife’s persistence and the fervent prayers of people from churches like “Word of Life” I have been delivered from Mormonism and know the grace and saving power of the real Jesus.  Please have compassion for people bound in these false teachings and pray for them.  Witness to them as the Apostle Paul says “speaking the truth in love” and believe that they too, as I did, will discover the true Jesus of the Bible.  For a deeper study and understanding of Mormonism visit

BeyondMormonism.com