What is the difference between Mormons and Christians?

The readers of the portal asked me this question and I come to give a short answer. There are a lot of differences, but I will stop to two, which are the most essential and that can be easily distinguished after reading the article about Mormons on Wikipedia.

The personality of the founder

The founder of Christianity is the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who once told Peter the following thing about the church, in other words, about Christianity:

I also say to you that you are Peter (Greek: Petros), and upon this rock (Greek: rock) I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it. (The Gospel of Matthew 16:18)(NASB)

The Mormon sect was founded by Joseph Smith in 1830, when he declared that every church from those days was wrong and so, even if he called the heresy initiated by him “The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints” he undermined the authority of Jesus Christ from the beginning, the One who founded His Church and said that “the gates of Hades will not overpower it.”

The Divine Revelation

The Christian church has as foundation the teaching of the Holy Scriptures of the Old and the New Testament, that contain the whole revelation of God in a written way, so that every person can be saved. That’s exactly why the books of the Old and of the New Testament are called canonical, because they define all doctrines of the Christian religion. There is no any other book with the same status. All heretics of all times invented other writings and declared them “holy” and in this way, destroying heresies spread out. Mormons added other three books to the Old and the New Testament, saying that these books are divine revelation, these are “Book of Mormon”, “Doctrine and Covenants” and “The Pearl of Great Price”. During the history of Christianity there were people who tried to strain destroying heresies in the Church and once Apostle Paul wrote to the Christians from the church of Galatia so:

I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ, for a different gospel; which is really not another; only there are some who are disturbing you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed! As we have said before, so I say again now, if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, he is to be accursed! (Galatians 1:6–9)(NASB)

So, if there is anyone who comes to preach another Gospel than the one that apostles have preached before and that is written on the pages of the New Testament, let us look at this teaching as something accursed.

What shall you do when you meet with Mormons?

Today, there are about 13 million Mormons in the world, and their central residence is in the city Salt Lake City, Utah, USA. There are Mormons in Moldova too. Something interesting about this heresy is that children are taught discipline since they are little, and when they are 18 years old, their boys are not enrolled in army, but they go in mission trips for two years and the family supports them financially. Coming to the country where they are doing mission, they learn their language and go to present the teaching of Mormons to different people, giving them so called their “holy books”, most of which is the “Book of Mormon”. It is easy to distinguish Mormon missionaries, because they are usually dressed up with white shirts and have a name tag where it is written “Elder…” and the name of that certain person. When they come to you, don’t reject these persons, but since they will begin to present you another Gospel than the on let by the Lord Jesus Christ and written on the pages of the New Testament, protect yourself well. Or, you shall better follow the advice given by the apostle John, when he said:

If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house, and do not give him a greeting; for the one who gives him a greeting participates in his evil deeds. (2 John 10–11)(NASB)

If the reader knows more about Mormons, or has ever visited their prayer house, or talked with these people, I invite you to write comments about what you have heard, seen or the conclusions you have drawn.

Translated by Felicia Djugostran