Mormon Church

This question is often asked by evangelicals, and is, in general, a misunderstanding of the Mormon teachings on what happens after death and how we control that.

Many evangelicals teach that a person gets to heaven by being “saved.” This involves the act of accepting Jesus Christ as their personal Savior. At the same time, they teach that acts cannot get you into Heaven. The Mormons also believe that a person must accept Jesus Christ as His Savior in order to return to God’s presence after death. Both groups agree that at least one act is required of all of us in order to be with God.

The confusion over the number of acts required to be saved comes from the differences in terminology used by Mormons. Mormons believe everyone is saved through the atonement of Jesus Christ, even if they never accept Jesus Christ as their Savior. However, grace and eternal life, to a Mormon, are not the same thing. To understand this complex issue, let’s look at several essential points.
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Mormons are rather known for being a meeting people. They have meetings and they have meetings to plan meetings. But what do they do at all these meetings?

The most important meeting is Sacrament Meeting. This is held each Sunday and is the primary worship service. Because Mormons are run by a lay clergy, the bishop, who is the equivalent of a pastor, does not give the sermon each week. Every part of the meeting is done by someone donating his time and talents. (more…)

In the Catholic faith, canonization is the official recognition that someone is a saint and was so even prior to the

official recognition. A process is followed to allow the church to determine who is a saint.

Mormons (the nickname for members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) do not follow this process. The term saint is used in the official name of the church and denotes, as used in the Bible, a community of people who followed God. (more…)

Stations of the Cross is a Catholic tradition that grew out of a desire to replicate pilgrimages to Jerusalem. Today, they help Catholics remember the final days of the life of Jesus Christ as they move through a series of wooden crosses that have been blessed by a person with the authority to do so and pray. Some consider it reparation for the suffering and loneliness of the Savior’s personal Via Dolorosa. Pope Pius XI considered it an obligation for Catholics and John Paul II praised those who make an effort to stand by the endless crosses the Savior endures even today through abuse and mistreatment from those who do not honor the Sacrifices He made for them.

Although Mormons don’t participate in a formal ceremony, they do teach the principle behind it. As Pope John Paul II said, we must stand beside the Savior. (more…)

Mormons are sometimes known as belonging to a church with a lot of rules. While it might seem like there are a great many of them, they are generally very basic rules of decent life. They were taught by the Savior during His ministry on earth, and those that were revealed in the latter-days are those that keep us safe, happy, and mora

The Book of Mormon teaches that men are that they might have joy. (See 2 Nephi 2:25.) The Savior, Jesus Christ, gave us commandments that, when practiced for the right reasons in the right spirit, would allow us to live a joyful life even in times of trials. (more…)

Mormons see Adam and Eve very differently than most of the Christian world. Rather than blaming Eve for all our problems, we celebrate her as the mother of all living and honor her for making the hardest choices. Through the scriptures of the restoration and modern revelation, we have learned more about these two first ancestors. (more…)

Mormons do not pray to Mary. Statues are art, and, as with any other form of art, might be found in an individual building or home, usually in a nativity setting.

There are several aspects of Mormon beliefs that must be understood before this question can be answered. The first is that Mormon beliefs do not include the trinity. While they believe in God, Jesus, and in the Holy Ghost, they do not teach that they are the same being. They are three very distinct beings, wholly unified in purpose. For more on this, please read:

How Could Jesus Pray to Himself?

The second important point of Mormon doctrine is that we lived with God before we were born. God created our spirits and we lived with Him for a time before coming to earth.

Read more about this:

The Purpose of Life

These two teachings are important because they explain why we don’t feel we need to pray to Mary in order to get God’s attention. It is sometimes explained that if we’re in a noisy room, we will notice, despite the din, the voice of someone we know and love. This is why some people pray to Mary-because when billions are praying, Jesus will hear His mother’s voice. However, Mormons believe God can hear their voice anyway, because we are very literally His children and He loves us and knows us.

Toddlers are taught, in their very first church class, this little rhyme:

Heavenly Father knows me
And what I like to do.
He knows my name and where I live.
I know He loves me, too.

Mormons believe this, and believe God knows them and loves them enough to recognize and notice their voices, and that He can hear and answer every prayer, no matter how many are coming through at any one time. This is a part of His divinity.

Mormons pray to God through Jesus Christ. Jesus was given the role of Intercessor by God. When Jesus Christ offered the Intercessory Prayer, we saw how He was able to pray on our behalf to the Father.

Several scriptures in the Bible promote Jesus’ role as our advocate or intercessor, including Timothy’s explanation that there is only one mediator:

5 For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; (1 Timothy 2)

Mary is very important in Mormon theology. Mormons believe she was chosen for her role as the mother of the Savior prior to her birth, and that her mission was foretold by prophets. Isaiah said, “14 Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.” Isaiah 7:14

The Book of Mormon also foretells Mary. Both Lehi and his son Nephi, the first two Book of Mormon prophets, saw Mary in visions and knew she would be the mother of God’s only begotten Son.

“As there is only one Christ, so there is only one Mary. And as the Father chose the most noble and righteous of all his spirit sons to come into mortality as his Only Begotten in the flesh, so we may confidently conclude that he selected the most worthy and spiritually talented of all his spirit daughters to be the mortal mother of his Eternal Son.” (Bruce R. McConkie, Doctrinal New Testament Commentary, Bookcraft, Inc., 1965, vol. 1, p. 85.)

We know that Mary had lived a highly moral life in order to be allowed to carry out this great assignment. We can presume she was intelligent and her responses to her calling tell us she knew the scriptures well.

Jesus came to earth as a baby, not a grown man. He did not begin with a full knowledge of who He was or a complete memory of His life prior to His birth. It would have been Mary’s role to train Him in the ways of life and to help Him become the type of person who could and would carry out His eternally significant mission. We can, therefore, presume she was a wise and capable parent, and that she never lost sight of her role in God’s plan for the earth.

For these reasons, and because of the tremendous sacrifices she made and the suffering she endured as she witnessed the treatment and death of her firstborn Son, Mormons honor Mary.

She is often used as an example of a woman of faith, sacrifice, and obedience. In lessons on motherhood, she is usually the first example offered. Mormons look to her to show them the way to live their own lives, but their relationship with God is a direct one. Mormons pray to God, through Jesus. They don’t feel the need to ask someone else to intervene on their behalf, because they believe God loves them enough to hear them. While they might ask friends to pray for them, this does not replace praying to God themselves. Being prayed for by others helps us to connect to one another, but even if only one person prayed for himself, that pray would be heard and answered.

Some have asked if we have statues of Mary. Mormon chapels do not have artwork of any kind in the actual chapel where the service is held. The chapels are extremely simple and free of any decoration except for occasional flowers. However, the buildings-hallways, offices, and classrooms– do have paintings, and some have statues. The statues serve only as decoration and are not used in any way in the worship services. They serve only as teaching aids or reminders of important aspects of gospel teaching.

Art plays an important part in Mormon life as a tool for teaching. Teachers are encouraged to use it to help emphasize aspects of the story or principle being taught, to hold attention, or to invoke important thoughts or feelings. Mormons do not pray to statues or make use of them as part of their services, however. They are simply decorations or teaching tools. Statues of Mary are most often shown in context with her mission on earth as Jesus’ mother.

After Jesus Christ died, the church had a challenging time. Persecution was intense, and the apostles did all they could to keep the church operating and to spread the gospel message to as many people as possible. However, given the limitations of technology, and the limitations of a small group of people to do the work, progress was slow and persecution increased. All the apostles but John the Beloved were murdered.

Prior to His death, Jesus Christ had given His apostles all the authority necessary to operate the church when He was gone. This authority is known today as “keys.” They had the official priesthood handed down through the ages, and this gave them the proper authority. It is understood that Peter became the president of the Church after Jesus was resurrected and returned to His Father.

The apostles began to warn the people of a forthcoming apostasy. When Paul wrote to the Thessalonians, he explained to them that although they were eagerly awaiting the return of the Savior, it would not come yet, because there had to be a falling away first:

Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; (2 Thessalonians 2:3).

Even before the death of the apostles, the apostasy had begun. Several letters sent by apostles to church members warned them to remove false doctrine from their teachings. Paul wrote to the Galatians:

6 I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel:

7 Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ.

8 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.

9 As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed.

10 For do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ.

11 But I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man.

12 For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ. (Galatians 1)

Similar warnings were sent to Thessalonica, and Ephesus, and Paul warned the Hebrews, “Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip.” Timothy grieved that they had lost all the Christians in Asia to apostasy.

S. Kent Brown explains that one major division in the church was over the topic of the resurrection:

Much of the misunderstandings about the resurrection must be attributed to the notion of docetism, which came to be more and more influential during the second century. The term derives from the Greek verb dokeo, which means “to seem.” Docetics maintained that Jesus had only seemed to live among men, to suffer, and to die. In reality, they said, the heavenly Christ did not come into contact with the world of matter, for that would have defiled his divine nature.

Such a view of the Messiah denies that salvation comes as a result of Jesus’ suffering, death, and resurrection. In fact, the doctrine of salvation was subverted into the idea that Christ was a special messenger who brought to earth secret knowledge that would allow the elect to escape this corrupt world and to make their way back to the presence of the Father. This special knowledge was called gnosis, and those who held such a view of the Messiah were known as gnostics. (S. Kent Brown, “Whither the Early Church?,” Ensign, Oct 1988, 7)

When the apostles died, they took the keys to the kingdom with them. These keys, of course, are not literal, but it means the priesthood authority to lead God’s church was gone. Without that priesthood, there could not be a prophet. Prophets are the only method for the church to receive revelation from God.

Without a prophet, members of the church were unable to seek church-wide revelation concerning doctrine. Often questions arose and false practices began to wander into the church. Whereas, previously, the prophet and apostles could set things straight, there was no longer anyone qualified to do that. The differences of interpretation widened and soon, there were many different sects of Christianity, with differing beliefs.

There were periodic efforts to stem the flow of differences, including the council held at Nicaea. However, because the people who gathered there to create a unified creed didn’t have a prophet, they put the doctrine to a vote. They changed a few opinions, and essentially excommunicated those who didn’t cooperate.

Of course, truth can’t be found by voting, and so this really didn’t resolve the problem. While the majority of the churches-those invited to the meeting-chose a common belief, they still hadn’t learned the will of God on the subject. Divisions weren’t ended simply by declaring a creed, either. Over time, more and more denominations developed as people began to evaluate what their churches believed and started to develop even more opinions.

Over the centuries, we’ve seen many religious leaders, such as Martin Luther, who became concerned with how far Christianity had moved from the path set by the Savior. Although they didn’t have the keys to the kingdom, they made important contributions to the process of the restoration.

The restoration was necessary to fulfill the promises made by the Savior and His apostles that Christ would not come again until there had been a restoration of all things. This occurred in the 1800s, when Joseph Smith, then a fourteen-year-old boy, went into the woods to ask God which church to join. He was instructed not to join any, but to wait. In time, he was guided through the process of having the keys returned to the earth, and to the restoration of the fullness of the gospel.

All of this is necessary in order to prepare for the second coming. Each person on earth must have the opportunity to prepare for the second coming, just as the Jewish people had the opportunity to prepare for the first coming of Christ. The restoration allows us to do everything that is necessary for Christ’s return to earth and fulfills the promises of God.

Question: It seems that Christians are polytheists, worshiping three Gods. Do Mormons believe in one God?

A polytheist is someone who worships multiple gods. Generally, polytheism refers to a group of gods each working independently of one another and often, in the case of hard polytheism, in conflict with one another.

Mormons believe there are three Gods, but who function as an entirely unified body. Together, they form the Godhead and fulfill the complete mission of God. The Supreme God is God the Father. He is generally the One the Christian Bible refers to when it speaks of God, although in some cases, including in the Book of Genesis, Jesus is referred to as God during the creation of the world. Mormons teach that God’s Son created the earth, under the direction of God the Father. However, it is God the Father that Mormons call God and worship as such. He is the one they consider their Heavenly Father, while Jesus is their brother, the Son of God.

Mormons teach that God the Father is the Father of all things and is male, while the Jewish people teach that God does not have gender. He created the spirits of everyone who ever lived and oversees everything that happens, ruling over Heaven and Earth. We teach that He is very literally our Father, and view Him as a loving, caring Father who watches over His children and wants them to return home to Him.

Jesus is the Messiah, but not the Jewish Moshiach. While many Jewish people believe there will one day be a Messiah, they are watching for a political leader. The Jewish Moshiach is not a god, but a fully mortal human being. Mormons teach that Jesus had a mortal mother, Mary, but that God was very literally His Father. Jesus was His firstborn-the first spirit to be created, and was begotten of the Father. This gave Him a combination of the mortal and the divine, which was essential for him to be able to carry out the task He had undertaken, to live on earth as a mortal, and then to die, but only by His own choice. Mormons teach that no one could take the Messiah’s life from Him; He could only choose to give it.

Mormons teach that the Messiah’s mission was a spiritual one, with hearts won in a spiritual fashion. When He comes the second time, this is when He will rule over the world and be recognized as the Messiah by all, but again, it will be accomplished by spiritual means, not political or military ones.

The third member of the Godhead is the Holy Ghost. The New Testament in the Christian Bible tells of Jesus promising his disciples, in His final days, to send a comforter to them after He was gone. This is the Holy Ghost. This third personage in the Godhead does not have a perfected body of flesh and bone, as do God and Jesus. He is a Spirit. His role is to teach truth to those who are willing to hear it.

Jesus and the Holy Ghost honor God the Father and do only His will. They completely subject their own will for His and give Him the honor for all that happens. This is the meaning of the Christian Bible’s statement that God and Jesus are one. They are entirely unified in every way.

While the Mormons do teach there are three Gods, these are Gods working in perfect harmony, not at cross purposes, to carry out the work of God the Father for His children. It is God the Father who is worshipped as God.

Mormon children can be confirmed members of the church at the age of eight. Converts older than eight are confirmed soon after their baptisms.

The confirmation is a very simple procedure. The person being confirmed sits in a chair, with arms folded for the prayer that is about to begin. Men who hold the proper level of Mormon priesthood and who have been invited by the person being confirmed, gather around the seated person. They each place one hand on the child’s head, and one on the shoulder of the man next to them. The child will have previously decided who will confirm her. Since all worthy male members of the church of the proper age can hold the priesthood, this is usually the child’s father. If the father doesn’t hold the priesthood or isn’t living, any other priesthood holder can be selected.

The confirmation is done formally, with the priesthood holder simply confirming the child a member of the church in selected language, and then telling the child to receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. The child does not publicly respond to this, but does so in her own heart. Then a special blessing is bestowed on the child. There is not a prescribed method for this. The priesthood holder offers the blessing in whatever words are given to him by God. Often these include words of advice from God or a bit of information about God’s plan for that person. The confirmation concludes in the name of Jesus Christ. Then t

he child (or anyone being confirmed) stands and shakes hands with the men who participated, and usually hugs the family members.

After everyone has returned to their seats, a church leader invites the new member to stand and he or she is presented to the congregation as the newest member of that congregation. Members are invited to raise their right hand to demonstrate their welcome and their commitment to supporting the new member in her church membership.

Confirmation is most often done in church the Sunday following the baptism, but is occasionally done right after the baptism.

A convert (anyone who joins the church after his ninth birthday) prepares for this moment by meeting with missionaries to learn about the church. They are expected to make an informed decision. While they won’t know everything at baptism, they need to know how to pray to learn God’s will concerning this choice, and they need to have a basic understanding of the church’s teachings. They are taught about God, Jesus Christ, the scriptures, and a few basic principles of the religion. They must also attend church several times to find out what it is like.

A child who joins will have been preparing for this moment from birth, or since his parents became members of the church. They learn gradually more complex gospel principles in formal church instruction on Sundays beginning at the age of eighteen months. They are also taught at home. Families are encouraged to hold a family home evening each Monday, in which family members teach each other their religion. They also have family prayer and daily scripture study together. By the time the child is ready to be baptized, he has a firm foundation in his religion and knows how to pray.

Even at the age of eight, children are expected to pray and to ask God if they should join the church. They, like adult converts, must demonstrate a basic understanding of their religion and to have a testimony of their own.