by Ed Dingess

“Like a mighty army moves the Church of God. Brothers, we are treading where the saints have trod. We are not divided, all one body we—one in hope and doctrine, one in charity.”

All right, welcome to my series on false religions. Over the next few podcasts, I’m going to be discussing a number of false religions. I’m going to cover everything from Mormonism to Catholicism, Judaism, and even elements of the charismatic and Pentecostal movement.

Part of the catalyst for addressing and talking about these false religions is, immediately, the context of the assassination of Charlie Kirk and the follow-up to my last episode on Charlie and TPUSA. Another reason that I want to cover this is that my guess is if you were to go into the overwhelming majority of churches today—Christian churches—and I’m not talking about the shallow, fake rock concert churches, I’m talking about even the churches that are truly true churches, you just are not getting the kind of coverage and education on subjects like this.

We’re just not doing it. I don’t know why we’re not doing it. It’s amazing to me that it isn’t happening. It should be happening, and it should be happening not at shallow levels—it should be happening at deep levels. So let’s get on with it.

There is a real and present danger that some Christians today will unwittingly blur the line between cultural or political conservatism and true participation in the body of Christ. This is my concern.

At a minimum, I fear we are going to tone down our warnings against false religions and cults simply because some of their adherents are sharing our political views or may share our political views. We might be tempted to tone it down. But we need to be absolutely clear when it comes to things we have in common with people where we may say, yes, thank you for joining our cause and fighting the gender dysphoria, the LGBTQ agenda, the fight for free speech and the freedom to worship, and so on and so forth—things of this nature—but we have to also, at the same time, be very clear with people that this does not mean I accept your religion.

It does not mean I accept you as a brother in Christ. To accept you politically as a conservative is not to accept your profession of Christ if you’re making one. A political ally is not a brother in Christ. A shared stance on moral or cultural issues does not make someone a Christian.

We must never let political allies muffle the gospel call to repent and believe. If someone denies the gospel of Jesus Christ, no matter how conservative, no matter how moral, no matter how pro-family they might be, they remain under the judgment and wrath of God.

We must remind first ourselves of this, and then we must remind them. Our charge must not be softened: you must repent and believe the gospel. That message is not optional. It is not negotiable. It is not secondary to policy or patriotism. It is life or death, heaven or hell, truth or error.

Let us love our neighbors enough to be clear, even when clarity is costly. It is not unkind to confront someone with their error, with their sin. That is not unloving. It is not unkind. It’s not unloving and unkind to be direct.

John the Baptist was direct. Jesus was direct. Peter was direct. Paul was direct. Moses was direct. God doesn’t stutter. He doesn’t hesitate.

Now, one of the most prominent false religions in our day is Mormonism, and that is the subject of today’s rant. It’s probably going to be a little bit longer of an episode, but we need to cover it, okay? Let’s talk about Mormonism.

I’m going to start with the documents in Mormonism and just work my way through quite a bit of what they believe. So if you’ve never really sat down and been through any kind of teaching, read anything on the actual teachings of Mormonism, this is not going to cover every single thing, but it’s going to give you more than enough for you to say, well, wait a minute, there’s no way this is a Christian religion—not even close, okay? So we’ll start with the documents in Mormonism.

In Mormonism, scriptural and authoritative documents are collectively known as the Standard Works. The Standard Works form the foundation of LDS doctrine and practice. These documents, along with some other official statements made by LDS leaders over the years, define the theology, the ethics, and the ecclesiology of the LDS Church.

So let’s begin with the Standard Works, and we start with the official canonized scriptures of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Number one: the King James Version of the Bible. The King James Version is the official Bible of the LDS Church. It is used in all English-speaking congregations. Gosh, I wonder what they do in churches where they don’t speak English.

It is accepted only as far as it is translated correctly—this is according to the Article of Faith number eight. LDS theology teaches that the Bible has been corrupted over time, which justifies the need for additional scripture. The Bible has been corrupted over time, and therefore, we need additional scripture.

Enter the Book of Mormon, subtitled “Another Testament of Jesus Christ,” claimed to be a record of ancient Israelites who migrated to the Americas. It describes Jesus’ post-resurrection appearance in the New World, which is also what we call ancient America, translated by Joseph Smith in 1827 through 1829 from golden plates using seer stones.

To listen to this full podcast, click here: Podcast: The False Religion of Mormonism