On Truth Summary Article on Mormon Christology

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A SUMMARY OF MORMON CHRISTOLOGY: A CHRIST-TEST FOR CHRISTIAN IDENTITY

Is The LDS Jesus Christ Exclusively Different from the Biblical Jesus Christ?

A Summary Of A Paper Presented To

The Society for the Study of Alternative Religions (SSAR)

And The World Religions and Apologetics Study Group (WR)

Evangelical Theological Society (ETS) 1999

By Cky J. Carrigan 1

This summary paper will establish the nature of the controversy, set forth an

exegetically derived, succinct christological test for identifying genuine Christianity

and compare Mormon Christology with this test. It will be argued that Mormon Christology

does not pass the Christ-Test and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

should not be identified with Genuine Christianity. And it will be demonstrated that the

LDS Jesus Christ is exclusively different from the Biblical Jesus Christ.

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THE NATURE OF THE CONTROVERSY

Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are generally outraged about the informed evangelical assertion that Mormons are not Christians, or that the Mormon Church is not a Christian church. Consider the following remarks uttered by President Boyd K. Packer, in his role as acting president of the Quorom of the Twelve.2 Packer directed his comments to contra-Mormon apologists as he addressed a large gathering of Brigham Young University students and faculty five months before the 1998 annual June meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention in Salt Lake City.3

My message is for those who teach and write and produce films which claim that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is not a Christian church and that we, the members, are not Christians. . . . Such individuals are uninformed and unfair . . . I bear witness of the Lord Jesus Christ. He lives. He is our Redeemer and is our Savior. He resides over this church. He is no stranger to his servants here and as we move into the future with quiet confidence, his spirit will be with us.4

Frankly, I can empathize with President Packer and the Mormon people for their oft' expressed outrage. I too would be more than a little livid if anyone asserted that I was not a Christian or that my Church was not a Christian Church. For this reason, when engaging a Mormon person for the purpose of leading them to genuine repentance and faith in the genuine Jesus, I distinguish between the two religions in the following way. I use the terms "LDS Christianity" or "Mormon Christianity" in contrast to "Biblical Christianity," "Traditional Christianity," "Historical Christianity" or sometimes even "Genuine Christianity."5

On the other hand, informed evangelicals are generally outraged about the Mormon assertion that Mormons are Christians, or that the Mormon Church is a Christian church, an for good reason. Consider the following remarks made by Republican Presidential Candidate, the Honorable Orrin Hatch, at a recent meeting of the Christian Coalition in Washington, D.C. Hatch was only politely received at the largely conservative evangelical event when introduced. Referring to a poll that indicated that 17% of Americans would never elect an LDS member to the presidency, Hatch remarked, "Well, I can't do anything about bigots or bigotry, but I can do a lot about people who are misinformed. . . . I take my Christian faith very, very seriously." 6 Then Bishop Hatch bore his testimony saying,

I know that Jesus is the Christ. I know that he lives. I know that he died for you and me. I know that he has provided a means by which we may go back to our Father in Heaven to live in peace and prosperity . . . It is from this land that true freedom has gone all the way around the world . . . God bless America, and God bless all of you.7

There are at least two features of Hatch's speech that demand a non-conciliatory apologetic response. Hatch enjoyed a rousing standing ovation from the Christian Coalition after his testimony of Christian identity in light of the cool reception he got at the time of his introduction. And the Deseret News gloated openly when it issued the headline, "Hatch wins over skeptical Christian group--Standing ovation after he stands up for his religion."8

Now, consider also the concluding comments from Stephen E. Robinson's book, "Are Mormons Christians?" Robinson poses the criteria for Christian identity as simply knowing, loving, or worshipping Jesus Christ. He writes,

Though all the world may say that Latter-day Saints do not know or love or worship Jesus Christ, I know that we do, and if this is not the issue in question, or if this is not enough to be counted a Christian, then the word has lost its meaning.9

LDS apologists Daniel Peterson and Stephen Ricks also weigh in. "By every New Testament standard, Mormons are Christian," they write.10 They also assert, "What made a person a Christian in the first century, and what makes a person a Christian today, is, simply a commitment to Jesus Christ. Such commitment is central to the religion of the Latter-day Saints." 11 This Peterson-Ricks definition, commitment to Jesus Christ, is indeed a suitable working test for Christian identity. What remains unsettled is a suitable biblical description of commitment and of Jesus Christ. A description of the latter term is the subject of this paper.

The representative LDS comments above which claim LDS Christian identity demand an apologetic response that compliments the evangelistic approach suggested above. The price is simply too high to ignore or patronize the unsubstantiated and false claims of LDS Christian identity which are made in the public arena. To do so necessarily gives ground to pluralism since Historic Christianity and LDS Christianity make mutually exclusive truth claims about the object of religious commitment, Jesus Christ, and mutually exclusive truth claims about the nature and practice of that commitment to Him. If pluralism prevails Christianity itself is stripped of its distinctive truth, distinctive way of salvation and distinctive eternal life. And if pluralism is true, then Christianity of any description is irrelevant.

THE CHRIST-TEST

The Bible strongly suggests that a christological test is a legitimate way of discerning Christian identity or redemptive status. In other words, one's redemptive status before God in this life and the next may be directly related to what one believes about the person and work of Jesus Christ. For instance, Scripture clearly asserts that one must not reject the Sonship, incarnation, death, burial and resurrection of Christ to enjoy the blessings of salvation.12 Consider especially 2 John 7-9,

For many deceivers have gone out into the world who do not confess Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist. Look to yourselves, that we do not lose those things we worked for, but that we may receive a full reward. Whoever transgresses and does not abide in the doctrine of Christ does not have God. He who abides in the doctrine of Christ has both the Father and the Son (NKJV).

Matthew 16:13-20 also makes a very strong claim that identifying Jesus correctly is a proposition that constitutes the Rock upon which the very Church is built,

When Jesus came into the region of Ceasarea Philippi, He asked His disciples, saying, "Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?" So they said, "Some say John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets." He said to them, "But whom do you say that I am?" Simon Peter answered and said, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." Jesus answered and said to him, "Blessed are you Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock [of confession] I will build My church and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it (NKJV) [italics mine].

Now if a Christ-Test in general is legitimate for discerning Christian identity or redemptive status, and I believe it is, then what remains are the particular test questions for the LDS context. A particular test for LDS Christology is required because Mormons happily confess the Sonship of Christ together with His incarnation, death, burial and resurrection. What they do not happily confess, I will demonstrate, is the biblical meaning of some of these terms. Now, I should like to set forth my biblical Christ-Test primarily derived from a thorough theological-exegetical analysis of the Christology of Colossians 1:15-20 stated in consideration of LDS Christology.13

There is an abundance of evidence in this Colossians christological passage to assert confidently at least six essential aspects of the person and work of Christ:

1) Jesus Christ is uniquely fully divine, yet a distinct person.

2) Jesus Christ is uniquely fully human, yet without sin.

3) The fundamentally distinct human and divine natures of Jesus Christ are uniquely unified in one person without confusion, change, division, separation or identity.

4) Jesus Christ is the unique perfect revealer of God's essential nature.

5) Jesus Christ is the absolute LORD-Creator of all creation ex nihilo.

6) Jesus Christ is the unique and efficient reconciler of creation.

MORMON CHRISTOLOGY & THE CHRIST-TEST14

The LDS Jesus Christ is not uniquely fully divine. He is not a bearer of the fundamentally distinct human and divine natures uniquely unified in one person without confusion, change, division, separation or identity. He is not the unique perfect revealer of God's essential nature. He is not the absolute LORD-Creator of all creation ex nihilo. And He is not the unique, efficient reconciler of creation. In short, the LDS Jesus Christ is not the Biblical Jesus Christ described by Colossians.

A critic might successfully demonstrate that I have misinterpreted LDS Christology or biblical Christology at some point. But, there is little chance that a critic could convince any informed observer that LDS descriptions of the person and work of Christ are the same or even similar to traditional descriptions. Even the present prophet of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints admits as much to Mormons. According to an LDS publication, President Gordon B. Hinckley bore his testimony describing Christ in Geneva, Switzerland at an LDS gathering of five stakes in France and Switzerland on 6 June 1998. The article reads,

In bearing testimony of Jesus Christ, President Hinckley spoke of those outside the Church who say Latter-day Saints "do not believe in the traditional Christ. No, I don't. The traditional Christ of whom they speak is not the Christ of whom I speak. For the Christ of whom I speak has been revealed in this the Dispensation of the Fulness [sic] of Times. He, together with His Father, appeared to the boy Joseph Smith in the year 1820, and when Joseph Smith left the grove that day, he knew more of the nature of God than all the learned ministers of the gospel of the ages.
Am I a Christian? Of course I am. I believe in Christ. I talk of Christ. I pray through Christ? I'm trying to follow Him and live His gospel in my life."31

Paige Patterson, president of the Southern Baptist Convention, penned a letter to President Hinckley in September of 1998 in response to his Genevan christological remarks commending Hinckley for his refreshingly candid remarks in light of many other church leaders and missionaries who generally tend to minimize the christological distinctions. Patterson wrote,

In my opinion, that [Hinckley's remarks] enhances both your credibility and the reality that traditional Christians and Mormons believe in two different and distinctive views of Christ. . . . Baptists, as you know, hold to a view of Jesus Christ that is based strictly on biblical revelation and that believes that Jesus was and is eternal God. This view is clearly at odds with your own faith that, as I understand it, confesses that he was sired by God, the heavenly father, in consort with his wife. He was in that sense a literal son of God. I also realize that you believe that Jesus existed as an eternal spirit form, but not in the sense as God or as the Son of God.32

The director of media relations for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, however, later reinterpreted President Hinckley's Genevan remarks in a way that sought apparently to minimize the Christological differences between evangelicals and Latter-day Saints when asked to comment on the prophets straightforward declaration. Apparently, the message to Mormons is "We believe in a very differently described, better, Jesus than other Christians," while the message to the public is "We believe in the same Jesus described by other Christians." One can only speculate about the reason for the mutually exclusive messages, but perhaps the different messages are related to the LDS general desire to join the ranks of mainline Christianity and be publicly perceived as so for proselytizing purposes, while remaining distinctive in comments to its distinctive membership.

CONCLUSION

If a christological test for Christian identity is a legitimate test, if my particular christological test is a valid one, if my description of LDS Christology is on the mark, and if President Hinckley is correct when he observes that the Traditional Christ is not the LDS Christ, then it necessarily follows that Mormonism may not rightly claim Christian identity. At a bare minimum, it necessarily follows that Biblical Christology and LDS Christology are mutually exclusive truth claims that can not both rightly claim Christian identity. When either Evangelicals or Mormons minimize these differences, it only trivializes the deeply held beliefs of both. Perhaps Evangelicals and Mormons will have to agree to disagree vigorously about Christology, but that would be a good start toward advancing the TRUTH about Jesus the Christ, the Son of the Living God, whatever it may be.

END NOTES

1 Cky J. Carrigan, Ph.D., Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, Wake Forest, North Carolina is East Region Coordinator for Interfaith Evangelism, North American Mission Board, Southern Baptist Convention and Visiting Professor of Missions to World Religions and Cults at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. His dissertation topic was LDS Christology. He may be contacted at 7933 Featherstone Drive, Raleigh, NC 27615, (919) 844.9434, ccarriga@namb.net

2 This high office makes Packer the fourth ranking leader in the LDS hierarchy.

3 Perhaps Packer is directing his comments to Phil Roberts, former director of Interfaith Evangelism, NAMB, SBC, together with other members of the Society for the Study of New Religions. Packer may also be referring to a book and videotape scheduled for release close to the time of this address. The book is entitled, Mormonism Unmasked (Nashville: Broadman and Holman, 1998) and the videotape is called The Mormon Puzzle: Understanding and Witnessing to Latter-day Saints, produced by the North American Mission Board of the SBC.

4 Boyd K. Packer, "The Peaceable Followers of Christ: President Packer Reaffirms the Christianity of Latter-day Saints; transcript of address delivered at the CES Fireside at BYU on February 1, 1998; available from http://www.desnews.com/cn/talks/packer.htm; Internet; accessed 11 May 1999.

5 The former two designations refer to ingenuine or heretical Christianity which can not produce redeemed people, and the latter three to refer to genuine Christianity which can.

6 Orrin Hatch, from Deseret News report of 1 October 1999 speech delivered to the Christian Coalition meeting; news report available at http://deseretnews.com/cgi-bin/libstory_reg?dn99&9910040104; Internet; accessed 2 November 1999 [italics mine].

7 Ibid.

8 Ibid.

9 Stephen E. Robins, Are Mormons Christian? (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1991), 114.

10 Daniel C. Peterson and Stephen D. Ricks, Offenders for a Word: How Anti-Mormons Play Word Games to Attack the Latter-day Saints (Provo: F.A.R.M.S., 1992), 31.

11 Ibid., 27 [italics mine].

12 See John 1:12; Romans 10:8-10; 1 Corinthians 15:1-11; 2 Corinthians 11:1-4.

13 The full text of my essay upon which this Christ-Test is based may be found in the future publication of, "Who Do Men Say That I Am? The Sublime Christology of Colossians 1:15-20 in Here I Stand: Essays in Honor of Dr. L. Paige Patterson, David Allen Black and N. Allen Moseley, eds. (Yorba Linda: Davidson Press, scheduled release June 2000). Other important christological texts collaborate and supplement this Colossians text including John 1; Philippians 2; and Hebrews 1-2.

14 My research on Mormon Christology is indebted to Craig L. Blomberg, How Wide the Divide? (Downers Grove: InterVarsity, 1997); R. Philip Roberts, "How Wide the Divide Indeed?" in Journal of Christian Apologetics 1:2 (Winter 1997): 3-13; R. Philip Roberts, Tal Davis and Sandra Tanner "Confronting the Mormon Jesus" in Mormonism Unmasked (Nashville: Broadman and Holman, 1998), 63-75; Ron Rhodes, "Christ" in The Counterfeit Gospel of Mormonism, Norman Geisler, ed. (Eugene, Oregon: Harvest House, 1998), 99-140; Robert B. Stewart, "Is Mormonism Christian? An Evangelical Critique of LDS Scholar Stephen E. Robinson's Arguments for Recognizing Mormonism as Christian," in Journal of Christian Apologetics 1:2 (Winter 1997): 3-13; and James K. Walker, unpublished paper entitled "The Developmental Nature of Mormon Christology" (March 1991).

31 Gordon B. Hinckley, "Crown of Gospel is Upon Our Heads," quoted in an unsigned article in Church News (June 20, 1998): 7 [italics mine].

32 Paige Patterson, portion of unpublished letter to Gordon B. Hinckley quoted by Lee Weeks in "Mormon Publication Confirms Differing View of Christ," Olive Press 4:2 (winter 1998): 11.

***The views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect the views of the North American Mission Board, the Southern Baptist Convention, or any other Southern Baptist Church or Agency***