A friend of mine passed away recently, and his funeral was yesterday. The attendees were a mixture of Christians, Mormons (LDS), and non-believers. During the family-led graveside service, another friend spoke and presented a good explanation of the gospel, where believers go after they pass away, and of the fact Jesus’ blood paid for our sins.
I don’t think this set well with the LDS gentleman leading the service, so he felt the need to kindly and respectfully present the LDS view of the atonement. I thought to myself at the time how cults will sound so much like the genuine faith but have a commonality in where they change things. I’d like to look at three areas where they do this. These are the Cross, the Son, and the Word of God.
For the LDS, the cross is much less significant than for the Christian. For them, it wasn’t the blood that Jesus shed on the cross that paid for our sins but the blood He sweated in the garden. That was where the greatest suffering happened (Doctrines and Covenants 19:16-19). The cross is simply where Jesus died and does not appear on or in any LDS churches. This isn’t biblical.
The LDS view of the Son, Jesus Christ, is that He is one of many sons of God the Father, and the Father had asked for plans to be presented to Him that would provide for the salvation of mankind. Jesus’ plan for salvation through His death was chosen and Lucifer’s (Another son and brother of Jesus) was rejected. Jesus came to die for us, but He is just one of many gods and goddesses in the LDS heaven. This is not the Jesus of the Bible.
The third facet of the triad of cults is the Word of God, the Bible. It is necessary for a cult leader or cultic organization to either replace or supersede the Bible as the ultimate authority, the ultimate source of spiritual truth. In the case of the Latter Day Saints, they have four holy books: The Book of Mormon, Doctrines and Covenants, Pearl of Great Price, and the Bible in so far as it is correctly translated. The first three books supersede the Bible as they were written in English and given by an English speaking prophets – Joseph Smith and others. So, if ever the Bible seems to disagree or contradict any of the other three books, it is the Bible which is ignored in favor of the others.
This same sort of discounting the central tenants of the Christian faith comes from the Watchtower Organization of Jehovah’s Witnesses. Let’s look at how they do it:
The Cross is an affront to Jehovah’s Witnesses. Since 1888, the Watchtower carried a cross on the cover of their Watchtower Magazine, but the October 15, 1931 edition did not include it nor any thereafter. In their 1936 book Riches, Jehovah’s Witnesses were told Jesus did not die on a “T” shaped cross but was nailed to a tree. Later they represented Jesus as dying on an upright stake with His hands above His head and a single nail through His wrists and another through His feet. It is contrary to Scripture, of course. In John 20:15, Thomas says it was not a single nail: “Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails. . .”
The Son to the Jehovah’s Witness was once the archangel Michael. Jehovah God took what was Michael’s essence and placed it in Mary’s womb and Michael became Jesus. Upon Jesus’ death, He ceased to exist for three days but was recreated (“resurrected” to Jehovah’s Witnesses) as the archangel once again. This is not the Jesus of the Bible.
Jehovah’s Witnesses claim strongly they follow the Word of God to the letter, but do they also have an authority higher than the Bible as do the LDS? Yes they do. Jehovah’s Witnesses depend solely on the Watchtower publications to tell them what the Bible says. They believe the organization is God’s representative on earth and must be followed. The Bible plainly disproves much of what the Watchtower now teaches, so you would think such Bible-studying people would be leaving in droves. But, the Watchtower has considered this danger and in 1950, began to publish a Bible of their own: the New World Translation. This Bible has been altered to fit what the organization teaches and goes through “updates” as their doctrines change.
Why is this important?
While some in the church are called to spend their lives dealing with cults like the LDS and the Jehovah’s Witnesses, most aren’t. Knowing three things to watch out for when something sounds a little off even in our own churches will act as a preventative against slipping slowly into a cultic situation. When someone claims authority over the Bible, or says Jesus isn’t what the church has taught for 2,000 years, or the cross just isn’t that important, it’s time to watch out.
Question the person about what they believe and why they believe it. It may be embarrassing for you, but you might regain a straying brother or sister. You might even save others from a life of darkness.
James 5:19-20 (ESV) My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, 20 let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.
Believers Armed and Dangerous 