A Christian Source with Politically Incorrect News
This tract is written to you with genuine respect. If you are a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, you have likely been raised in a close-knit community, taught to honor your family, and trained in a strong ethic of service and moral living. These things are not nothing, and this tract does not mock them.
But sincere devotion to a community and a way of life is not the same thing as the gospel of Jesus Christ. The question this tract puts to you is simple and urgent: is the God you worship the God of the Bible? And is the Jesus you trust the Jesus of the New Testament? We ask only that you open your Bible and read what follows honestly — for it is the Bible, not any other book, that God has given as His final and sufficient Word, and it is by that Word that every one of us will be judged.
The most fundamental difference between Mormonism and Christianity is not a detail of doctrine — it is the nature of God Himself. LDS teaching holds that God the Father was once a mortal man who progressed to become God, and that the goal of faithful Latter-day Saints is to do the same — to become gods themselves in eternity. This teaching is expressed in the famous couplet attributed to the fifth LDS prophet Lorenzo Snow: “As man now is, God once was; as God now is, man may be.”
The God of the Bible knows no such history. He is not an exalted man; He is the eternal, self-existing Creator whose nature has never changed and can never be surpassed. He says so Himself:
A God who was once a man and progressed to Godhood is not the God who declared from everlasting to everlasting that He is God. He is a different god entirely. And the Bible is equally plain that there are no other gods beside Him: “Ye are my witnesses, saith the LORD … before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me” (Isaiah 43:10). No man — before or after — has ever become or shall ever become God.
LDS theology teaches polytheism — a plurality of gods. The Father, Son, and Holy Ghost are said to be three separate beings, not one God. Beyond them, faithful Latter-day Saints may themselves attain godhood in the celestial kingdom, populating worlds without end. But the Bible declares without qualification that there is only one God, and there is no other:
This is not one religion’s opinion. It is the bedrock confession of the entire Old Testament — the God of Israel is one, and beside Him there is none else. A faith that teaches men can become gods has departed from this foundation entirely.
Mormonism rests on the claim that the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants, and the Pearl of Great Price are additional scripture, restoring truths that were lost from a corrupted Christianity. Joseph Smith declared in 1820 that all existing churches were wrong and an apostasy had overtaken the faith, requiring his restoration. But the Bible gives no hint of a coming apostasy so total that God’s Word would need to be supplemented by a new prophet, and it gives a solemn warning to anyone who would add to it:
Paul the Apostle warned even more sharply: “But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed” (Galatians 1:8). Note carefully — he says an angel from heaven. The Book of Mormon was reportedly delivered by the angel Moroni. Paul’s warning covers precisely that kind of claim. The gospel has already been delivered once for all to the saints (Jude 3). It does not need restoring; it needs believing.
| The Question | LDS Teaching | The Bible Says |
|---|---|---|
| What is God? | An exalted man who progressed to Godhood; once mortal as we are | Eternal, self-existent, unchanging Spirit; never a man (Psalm 90:2; Numbers 23:19; John 4:24) |
| Are there many gods? | Yes — Father, Son, and Holy Ghost are three separate gods; faithful Mormons may become gods | One God only; no other gods before or after Him (Deuteronomy 6:4; Isaiah 43:10; Isaiah 45:5) |
| Is the Bible sufficient? | No — corrupted and incomplete; the Book of Mormon and other LDS scriptures restore lost truth | Scripture is complete and sufficient; nothing may be added (Revelation 22:18; Jude 3; 2 Timothy 3:16–17) |
| Who is Jesus Christ? | A separate being from the Father; first spirit-child of Heavenly Father and Heavenly Mother; spirit-brother of Lucifer | The eternal Son of God, one with the Father (John 10:30); Creator of all things (Colossians 1:16); fully God (John 1:1) |
| How is a person saved? | Grace plus works, ordinances, temple rituals, and continuing obedience; salvation is tiered by degree of glory | By grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone — not of works (Ephesians 2:8–9; Romans 3:28; Titus 3:5) |
| What is the goal of salvation? | Exaltation — becoming a god, ruling an eternal family and eternal worlds | Eternal life — knowing God and His Son (John 17:3); dwelling in His presence forever (Revelation 21:3) |
This question matters more than any other. The LDS Jesus is the firstborn spirit-child of Heavenly Father and a Heavenly Mother — a created being, the spirit-brother of Lucifer before their birth into this world. He is a separate and distinct person from the Father, not co-eternal and co-equal with Him. His atoning work, in LDS theology, takes place primarily in Gethsemane, not on the cross.
The Jesus of the Bible is altogether different. He is not a created being — He is the Creator: “All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made” (John 1:3). He is not subordinate to the Father in nature — He declares, “I and my Father are one” (John 10:30). He is not the spirit-brother of any fallen being — He is the One by whom and for whom all things were created, “whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers” (Colossians 1:16). And it is His blood, shed on Calvary, not His anguish in a garden, that the Scripture names as the ground of our redemption: “In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins” (Ephesians 1:7). Two faiths can use the same name and mean different persons. This is not a minor variation — it is a different Saviour.
In LDS theology, salvation is a multi-tiered system. The celestial kingdom, the highest tier where exaltation and godhood are achieved, requires faithful endurance, temple covenants, celestial marriage, and continuing LDS membership. The result is a salvation that can never be fully assured — there is always one more rung on the ladder, one more ordinance to honor, one more act of obedience to maintain.
But the Bible offers a salvation that is complete, certain, and received as a gift:
The believer may know that he has eternal life — not hope it, not earn it degree by degree through continued performance, but know it now, because it rests not on his own righteousness but on the finished work of Christ. “It is finished” (John 19:30). There is no celestial ladder to climb; there is only a Saviour to trust.
Dear friend, the Mormon faith has likely given you community, moral structure, and a deep sense of purpose. But a community, however warm, cannot save you. A moral life, however disciplined, cannot pay the debt of sin. And a system of tiered salvation can never give you the certainty that the Bible says the believing soul may have.
The God of the Bible is not an exalted man. He has never been anything other than God. He sent not an angel with new scriptures, but His own eternal Son, clothed in flesh, to live the perfect life you could never live and die the death your sin deserved — and to rise bodily, victoriously, on the third day. That is the gospel. It needs nothing added. It needs only to be believed.
“Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.” — Acts 16:31
“He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.” — 1 John 5:12
Open your Bible — the Bible alone. Read the Gospel of John slowly. Read Romans. Ask the eternal God — the God who was never a man — to show you who His Son really is, and what He has already done for sinners. The ladder is not the answer. The cross is.