Are Mormons Christians? Are Mormons saved?

We continue with Acts 4. In the morning a goodly number of Israel's religious chiefs assembled together in Jerusalem, and having set Peter and John in the midst, they demanded of them by what power or by what name they had made the lame man whole. Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit in accordance with the Lord's promise in Matt. 10:19-20, no longer timorous but divinely bold, forthwith indicted his interlocutors most solemnly. To the people he used the language of persuasion, but not to the leaders. It was in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, "whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead," the crippled man had been made whole. The position is here plainly stated. Men crucified Jesus; God raised Him. Men were thus in open conflict with God. Not ignorant men, mark; but the clergy of God's people, the public expositors of His holy Word. Further, Peter said: "This is the Stone which was set at nought of you builders, which is become the head of the corner." Religious teachers, whether in Judaism or in Christendom, are builders; constructors of that which will either abide or perish, as the Lord may judge by and by (1 Cor. 3:9-17). God's foundation stone is Jesus; upon Him alone can men safely build. But Israel's leaders had treated Him with contempt. God's answer to them was the exaltation of His Son. God has now made Him the Corner-stone of a new structure; the office of Peter's antagonists was therefore gone, however fiercely they might contend for it. Our apostle made a magnificent finish of his defence: "Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved." Every man is thus shut up to Jesus for salvation. He who rejects Him does so to his eternal ruin.

Peter closes with the statement that salvation is only in Him whom they had set at naught. There is no other Name given to men by which man can be saved, and that is the Name of Him who had made this lame man whole. Salvation they all needed. They, too, rulers, elders, chief priests must be saved. But only in Him God had procured salvation free and complete for all who will have it by believing on Him. This salvation was offered to these rulers, the builders who had rejected the Lord.

The Name and power was that of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom they had crucified and whom God had exalted. Psalm 118:22 had been fulfilled in Him, and Peter proceeded to widen out the testimony from that which was particular to that which is universal. The power of the Name was right before their eyes in the particular case of the lame man healed: it was no less potent for the salvation of men universally. The physical healing of the man was just a sign of the spiritual healing which the Name of Jesus brings. The despised Jesus of Nazareth is the only door into salvation.

Some people seem to think that God ought to have opened a dozen ways into His blessing, so that they could have chosen the one that suited them the best; they turn from the blessing because they do not like the way to it, but there is none other. This is said both clearly and conclusively in Peter's words, when, filled with the Holy Ghost, he addressed the Christ-rejecting leaders of the Jewish nation. "Neither is there salvation in any other for there is none other name under heaven given amongst men, whereby we must be saved." Acts 4. God has bound up the blessing of sinners with the glory of His Son and never will one of them be saved apart from Him. The great Servant who has come from heaven to compel the needy into God's feast of blessing will compel them only through this new and living way — Christ. There is no room for argument, no other way of blessing is possible either in time or eternity. God has spoken, and His word is final.

The origin or this abominable practice, and the pretended revelation given to Joseph Smith, to sanction it, who himself had “led the way” in it, has already been referred to. The prophet not only had it revealed that he and his people might multiply wives at their pleasure, but that these “celestial” marriages continue in the world beyond, where families go on increasing, and the father presides as “priest and patriarch, king and lord, over his ever-increasing posterity.” Such is the Mormon heaven! Ideal surely! Only it is to be hoped, the numerous “celestial” wives of the one husband, with their ever-increasing progeny, will live more harmoniously in celestial regions than current report has it they do in Salt Lake City! The crowning blasphemy of this detestable subject is reached—and will cause all who love the Lord and adore His peerless Person, to turn on Mormonism and all its belongings for ever with averted face—when they are blandly told, that their Lord was a polygamist. The Seer tells us—“The evangelists do not particularly speak of the marriage of Christ. One thing is certain, there were several holy women that greatly loved Jesus—such as Mary, Martha, and Mary Magdalene. . . . If all the acts of Jesus were written, we, NO DOUBT, should learn, that those beloved women were His wives.” When the United States Government passed a law constituting polygamy a crime, punishable by fines and imprisonment, upwards of a thousand Mormons we are officially told, suffered—proving how far the thing had spread—and the whole Mormon cause was on the eve of collapse. Then it was that President Wilford Woodruff, the then successor of Joseph Smith (who had received a revelation from heaven commanding celestial marriages in 1843), when the relentless law was threatening to make a full end of Salt Lake Zion, received in 1890 a second revelation prohibiting polygamy, and cancelling the command for “celestial” marriages, and we are told, “the Lord permitted the President of the Church to proclaim its discontinuance.” What then becomes of Joseph Smith's 1843 revelation? Was it a fraud? That the President's declaration was only intended as a “blind” is perfectly clear from what was issued by him shortly after. He says, “When the declaration quoted is examined in the right spirit, you will see that NOTHING therein contained prohibits any brother from CONTINUING to live with those women who are already sealed to him in the New and Everlasting Covenant. Neither does it prevent any of the brethren from going to Mexico, or Canada, where ‘sealing' is not forbidden by the law of the land, and THERE have the celestial marriage consummated, and bring the PLURAL WIFE back to Utah, and LIVE WITH HER as we have always done.” Let all, and especially young females who are in the habit of hearing and following Mormon preachers, mark this, and understand what their conversion to Mormonism and emigration to Salt Lake City involves. Many have found it out to their cost, too late, for once within the entanglements of this diabolical system of fundamental errors, denial of the Godhead, blasphemous perversions of the Scripture, fraudulent revelations, and degrading immorality, it is next to impossible to escape from its iron grasp. Let those who read the Mormon's tracts, listen to their preaching, and thus gradually get drawn into the meshes of the Mormon net, be warned of their danger. Nothing has such a power of deception, and for the eternal ruin of souls, as a perverted Gospel, and this the Mormon Gospel undoubtedly is. The only Saviour is the Son of God, Christ Jesus, Who “came into the world to save sinners” (1 Tim. 1:15), Who died the Just for the unjust to bring us to God (1 Pet. 3:18), and in virtue of whose perfect atoning work, finished on the Cross, and accepted in heaven, apart from ordinances, help of man, or works of any kind whatever, God declares, “All that believe ARE justified from all things” (Acts 13:39).

It will be shown in these pages that the Mormon creed is a complete denial of the fundamental truths of the Christian faith, a corruption of the grace of God, a caricature of the Church as set forth in the Scriptures, and a degradation of the sacred relations of husband and wife as God has instituted them and means them to continue. To expose and warn against such blasphemies and immoralities becomes a duty, and if these pages are used to warn the unwary, and deliver any whose feet may be in the snare, they will serve the purpose for which they go forth.

It is only fair that the history and doctrines of this people be here given, as set forth in their own acknowledged writings, by their accredited teachers, and not from the criticisms of their opponents We therefore quote from “the Book of Mormon,” which lies before us, a bulky volume of 623 pages, which they acknowledge to be of “Divine Authenticity,” and which they confess they “believe to be the Word of God” as much as the Bible. We also quote from the works and utterances of Joseph Smith the founder, Brigham Young his successor, and other accredited Presidents and Prophets, who are accepted and proclaimed in the Mormon Church as “divinely authorised to teach.” There can be no doubt therefore that these are the true doctrines and practices of the Mormon Church, as it exists at the present time.

It will be an astonishment doubtless to some, who have been inclined to think charitably of this people and of their doctrines, to learn that according to the Mormon creed, there is “no God,” that is, no Divine Being such as the Scriptures reveal. Here is what the Prophet, Joseph Smith, says: “God Himself was once as we are now, and is an exalted man.” “God Himself, the Father of us all, dwelt on earth the same as Jesus Christ did.” “The Father has a body of flesh and bones as tangible as man's.” And the following, by Brigham Young, leaves no doubt as to who this “exalted man” is, I who was “once as we are,” and is now a God. “When our father Adam came into the Garden of Eden, he came into it with a celestial body, and brought Eve, one of his celestial wives. He helped to make and organize this world. He is our Father and our God, the ONLY God with whom we have to do” (Journal of Discourses). This is blasphemy! What is the need of a Gospel to convert sinners to fallen Adam, as the “only God” with whom they “have to do,” or of “preaching elders” evangelising to bring converts to worship “an exalted man,” who formerly lived in Eden with one of his celestial wives? The Mormon creed goes on to say that Jesus Christ was Adam's son by ordinary generation, that the Fall was a necessity, “that men might be,” and that those who practise celestial marriage on earth, will “pass by the angels” and “be God's themselves. This brands the Mormon faith as Polytheism of the lowest and grossest kind.

The anti-Christian sects, such as Christian Science, Millennial Dawnism, Seventh Day Adventists, Christadelphianism, Mormonism, the Tongues Movement, and others, are all alike in this, that they more or less plainly deny the Deity of Christ and His atoning work.

Mormonism began in America in the beginning of the 19th century. The infidelity of Mormonism is peculiar. The Mormons profess faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, in repentance, etc.; but their infidelity spite of their "faith" which scarce exceeds the eastern delusion appears in this article of their creed, — "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." To add to God's word is no less infidelity than to deny any part of it. The difference as to this, between the ancient and the modern delusion, is one of degree, not of kind. The ancient says that though there may possibly be some part of the Bible true, no belief is to be placed in the copies held by christians. The later delusion accepts the Bible as christians have it, "as far as it is translated correctly." Thus Gnosticism, Mohammedanism, and Mormonism have this in common — the insufficiency of the Word of God. Each more or less sanctioned corruption; for the denial of the Word of God, whether in the form of taking from it, or of adding to it, opens the door for every fleshly wickedness.

We have already seen what unpardonable liberties the Mormon teachers take with the Holy Scriptures, undermining the very fundamentals of the Christian faith, and substituting for them their own blasphemous and unclean teaching. Not only are they guilty of this, but they put the Book of Mormon, a religious novel with no foundation in fact, on an equality with the Bible. Nay, still further, they put the words of a President, and of writings of Mormon origin, as of equal value with the Holy Scriptures. Surely such statements as these should be sufficient to open the eyes of those blinded by this emanation of the bottomless pit.

We have purposely refrained from quoting at length Mormon teaching. The little we have extracted is more than sufficient to condemn Mormonism out of the mouths of its accredited leaders and teachers. They stand utterly condemned by what they themselves say.