Last Saturday night, BYU stunned the college football world by beating No. 2 Notre Dame 28-24 in Provo. The win was impressive on the field, and it quickly stirred a familiar conversation off the field. Whenever a university so closely identified with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints makes national headlines, people start asking the same question again: Are the Latter Day Saints (Mormons) Christian?
The short answer is that it depends on what we mean by the word “christian”. Mormons are often some of the most decent, hardworking, and family-centered people you will ever meet. Their emphasis on righteous living, strong marriages, raising children in the faith, and serving their communities is admirable. Many of them sincerely love “Jesus”, value the Bible, and want to please God. There is real common ground worth acknowledging like moral seriousness, the importance of family, and a desire to follow Christ.
However, sincerity and good character do not settle what is true about God. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints teaches a system that, on several foundational points, stands in clear contradiction to the historic Christian faith revealed in Scripture. These are not secondary issues. They concern who God is, who Jesus is, how a person is saved, and what eternity looks like. The following ten truths, ordered by importance, are among the most significant places where Mormon theology parts company with the Bible.
Ten Biblical Truths Mormon Theology Cannot Hold
1. There is one God who exists eternally as three persons (the Trinity).
What the LDS teach:
Mormon teaching rejects the Trinity. It affirms three distinct gods united in purpose—the Godhead—rather than one God in three persons. Doctrine and Covenants 130:22 states that “the Father has a body of flesh and bones as tangible as man’s; the Son also; but the Holy Ghost has not a body of flesh and bones, but is a personage of Spirit.” Joseph Smith taught that the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost are “three distinct personages and three Gods.” This is a fundamental difference about the identity of the God we worship.
What the Bible teaches:
Historic Christianity confesses one God in three co-equal, co-eternal persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one” (Deuteronomy 6:4, ESV). “I am the Lord, and there is no other, besides me there is no God” (Isaiah 45:5). “Before me no god was formed, nor shall there be any after me” (Isaiah 43:10). Jesus commands baptism “in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 28:19). The three persons share one divine essence; they are not three separate gods. Jesus Himself said, “This is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent” (John 17:3).
2. Jesus Christ is the eternal, uncreated God the Son.
What the LDS teach:
Mormon teaching presents Jesus as the first spirit child of heavenly parents, a being who progressed to godhood and who is spiritually the brother of Lucifer. He is viewed as a separate god from the Father rather than the eternal Son who shares the same divine essence. That is a different Jesus. The one who saves is the eternal Son who has always been God.
What the Bible teaches:
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God… All things were made through him… And the Word became flesh” (John 1:1–3, 14, ESV). “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created” (Colossians 1:15–16). “He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power” (Hebrews 1:3). “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever” (Hebrews 13:8). Jesus is not a created being who progressed to deity. He is the self-existent Creator of all things.
3. Salvation is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ’s finished work.
What the LDS teach:
The Book of Mormon states, “it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do” (2 Nephi 25:23). Mormon theology further ties the highest exaltation to temple ordinances, ongoing obedience, and eternal marriage. Salvation in its fullest sense is presented as a process of progression through ordinances and covenants rather than a gift received by faith alone in Christ’s finished work.
What the Bible teaches:
“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast” (Ephesians 2:8–9, ESV). “He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy” (Titus 3:5). “For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight” (Romans 3:20). “But to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness” (Romans 4:5). Christ’s cross and resurrection fully accomplished what was necessary; we receive that gift by trusting Him.
4. Human beings will never become gods.
What the LDS teach:
Doctrine and Covenants 132:19–20 teaches that those who enter the new and everlasting covenant of marriage and remain faithful “shall pass by the angels, and the gods… to their exaltation… Then shall they be gods, because they have no end… Then shall they be gods, because they have all power.” The famous couplet by Lorenzo Snow (5th President of the LDS) says: “As man now is, God once was; as God now is, man may become.” Exaltation is defined as becoming gods who rule and have eternal increase.
What the Bible teaches:
“Before me no god was formed, nor shall there be any after me. I, I am the Lord, and besides me there is no savior” (Isaiah 43:10–11, ESV). “I am the first and I am the last; besides me there is no god” (Isaiah 44:6). “I am the Lord, and there is no other, besides me there is no God” (Isaiah 45:5). Believers are adopted children of God and will be conformed to the image of Christ (Romans 8:29–30; 1 John 3:2), but they remain creatures. The Creator-creature distinction is permanent. The desire to be “like God” in the sense of independent deity is the very temptation that led to the fall (Genesis 3:5).
5. There is no marriage in the resurrection, and no higher heaven reserved for the eternally married.
What the LDS teach:
Mormon teaching divides the afterlife into celestial, terrestrial, and telestial kingdoms. Within the celestial kingdom, Doctrine and Covenants 131:1–4 states: “In the celestial glory there are three heavens or degrees; And in order to obtain the highest, a man must enter into this order of the priesthood [meaning the new and everlasting covenant of marriage]; And if he does not, he cannot obtain it. He may enter into the other, but that is the end of his kingdom; he cannot have an increase.” Doctrine and Covenants 132 ties this highest degree to becoming gods with eternal increase. Temple marriage is presented as the gate to the highest heaven.
What the Bible teaches:
“For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven” (Matthew 22:30, ESV; see also Mark 12:25; Luke 20:35). Jesus gave no hint of levels of heaven determined by marital status. Marriage is a good gift for this life that pictures Christ and the church (Ephesians 5:31–32). In the age to come that greater reality is fulfilled.
6. The Bible alone is the sufficient and final written Word of God.
What the LDS teach:
The eighth Article of Faith says, “We believe the Bible to be the word of God as far as it is translated correctly; we also believe the Book of Mormon to be the word of God.” First Nephi 13:26–28 claims that after the Bible went forth, the “great and abominable church” took away “many parts which are plain and most precious” and “many covenants of the Lord.” Ongoing prophetic revelation can also alter or override prior teaching. Additional books are treated as Scripture. (For a closer look at specific problems with the Book of Mormon itself, see my earlier article on the subject HERE.)
What the Bible teaches:
“All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16–17, ESV). “Every word of God proves true… Do not add to his words, or he will rebuke you and you will be found a liar” (Proverbs 30:5–6). “The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever” (Isaiah 40:8). The canon is closed and Scripture is enough for faith and life.
7. God the Father is eternal spirit, not an exalted man of flesh and bones.
What the LDS teach:
Doctrine and Covenants 130:22 states that “the Father has a body of flesh and bones as tangible as man’s.” Joseph Smith taught that God was once a man who progressed to godhood. These claims describe a different being from the God of the Bible—one who is limited by a body and who Himself needed to progress.
What the Bible teaches:
“God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth” (John 4:24, ESV). “God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind” (Numbers 23:19). “From everlasting to everlasting you are God” (Psalm 90:2). “I the Lord do not change” (Malachi 3:6). God has always been God; He did not progress from manhood to deity.
8. Human beings did not preexist as spirit children of heavenly parents.
What the LDS teach:
Mormon teaching asserts a premortal existence. Abraham 3:22–23 describes intelligences organized before the world was formed, and Doctrine and Covenants 93:29 says that “man was also in the beginning with God.” Humans are viewed as spirit children of Heavenly Father and Heavenly Mother who lived before receiving physical bodies. This undergirds the larger system of eternal progression.
What the Bible teaches:
Scripture presents human life as beginning in the womb. “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me” (Psalm 51:5, ESV). “For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb” (Psalm 139:13). Jeremiah 1:5 speaks of God’s foreknowledge and calling, not of a premortal existence as a spirit child. Our identity is as creatures made by God.
9. The Fall of Adam was a tragic act of rebellion that brought sin and death, not a necessary step toward godhood.
What the LDS teach:
Second Nephi 2:22–25 teaches that if Adam had not transgressed, he would have remained in the garden, “and they would have had no children; wherefore they would have remained in a state of innocence, having no joy, for they knew no misery; doing no good, for they knew no sin.” The Fall is presented as a necessary and positive step so that humanity could progress. This is the opposite of the biblical view.
What the Bible teaches:
“Sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned” (Romans 5:12, ESV). “The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23). The Fall was a catastrophic act of rebellion that brought condemnation. God’s redemptive plan in Christ is a rescue from that catastrophe.
10. Baptisms and temple rituals performed for the dead are not taught in Scripture.
What the LDS teach:
Mormonism teaches that living members can be baptized, receive temple endowments, and be sealed in eternal marriage on behalf of people who have already died. These ceremonies, performed in temples, are believed to give the deceased the opportunity to accept them in the spirit world and thereby progress toward exaltation (see Doctrine and Covenants 124, 127–128, 131–132). Only those who receive these ordinances, either in life or by proxy after death, can reach the highest degree of the celestial kingdom. This system has no foundation in the New Testament and shifts the focus from Christ’s finished work to human ritual performance.
What the Bible teaches:
The gospel Paul preached was that “Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day” (1 Corinthians 15:3–4, ESV). Baptism for the dead is mentioned once in passing (1 Corinthians 15:29) while Paul is arguing that the dead are raised; he is not establishing a practice of baptizing living people for those who have already died. Salvation rests on Christ’s finished work received by faith, not on rituals performed by the living on behalf of the dead.
Conclusion
These differences are not minor. They redefine God, redefine Jesus, redefine how a person is made right with God, and redefine the hope of eternity. Because of that, a person cannot hold historic Christian faith and official Mormon theology at the same time. The two systems are incompatible on the points that matter most. To put it plainly: those who affirm the official doctrines of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on these foundational issues are not Christians in the historic sense of the word. They worship a different God, trust a different Jesus, and follow a different gospel.
That is why the loving thing to do is to speak clearly. Real love does not leave friends and neighbors trusting in a different god and a different gospel when the true Christ is near. We can admire the character of many Mormons, enjoy their friendship, and still tell them the truth about who God has revealed Himself to be in Scripture and in the person of His Son. The door of grace is open to anyone who will turn from every other system and trust in Jesus alone. That is the good news worth sharing.
