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“But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent’s cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ. For if someone comes to you and preaches a Jesus other than the Jesus we preached or if you receive a different Spirit from the one you received, or a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it easily enough” (2 Cor. 11:3-4). Who is this “other Jesus” the apostle Paul speaks of? Consider the following: 1) the Jesus of the Mormons is the spirit brother of Lucifer who progressed to Godhood; 2) the Jesus of the Jehovah’s Witnesses is a created being called Michael the Archangel; 3) the Jesus of the mind-science cults (Christian Science, Unity School of Christianity, etc.) is a good man but did not have to die for the sins of mankind because they insist sin does not exist; 4) the Jesus of the Seventh-day Adventists made only a partial atonement on the cross covering just past sins; 5) the Jesus of Catholicism shares His role as mediator between God and man with Mary. These doctrines obviously do not reflect the Biblical Jesus. We find this to be true of RLDS/CoC teachings about Jesus as well. When witnessing to RLDS/CoC members, we often hear them say they believe in Jesus just like we do. But upon close examination of their “three standard books” and other writings, it becomes clear that the Jesus they refer to is not the Jesus of the Bible. For instance, several passages in the Book of Mormon present a modalistic view of Jesus. Modalism is the teaching that Jesus and God are one and the same. The Book of Mormon records Jesus as saying, “Behold, I am Jesus Christ, I am the Father and the Son” (Ether 1:77). Jesus said to Moroni, “He that will not believe me will not believe the Father who sent me. For behold, I am the Father” (Ether 1:107-108). This errant teaching resulted from Joseph Smith’s misconception of the Holy Trinity; that God is eternally existent in three persons, God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. This lack of understanding obscures the true nature of the real Jesus. Furthermore, the Book of Mormon depicts a merciless and vengeful Jesus. When visiting the Americas after his crucifixion, he caused catastrophic destruction and suffering, killing the unrighteous people and sparing only the righteous (3 Nephi 4:6-44). By contrast, the Jesus of the Bible died for the unrighteous. He loved sinners and came to seek and save them, not wanting anyone to perish. The true nature of Jesus is also concealed in Joseph Smith’s Inspired Version of the Bible. In a reputable version of the Bible, John 1:1 reads, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word (Jesus) was God.” In the Inspired Version, John 1:1 reads, “In the beginning was the gospel preached through the Son. And the gospel was the word…” In this scripture twisting Joseph Smith’s gospel replaces Jesus as the Word of God! The Jesus of the Doctrine and Covenants taught Joseph Smith’s followers to “curse their enemies” (Sec. 100:5 b, c); assume Jesus’ exclusive role as high priest (Sec. 26, 42) and keep the commandments in order to be saved (Sec. 12:3b). Each of these requirements contradict Jesus’ teachings in the Bible. In the grove experience, both Jesus and his Father allegedly appeared to Joseph Smith at the same time. However, the Bible teaches that God is invisible (Col. 1:15) so consequently would not have appeared with Christ as a separate entity. In “Teachings of the Prophet” page 370, Joseph Smith stated, “I have always declared…Jesus Christ a separate and distinct personage from God the father, and that the Holy Ghost was a…Spirit: and these three constitute…three Gods” In his “Lectures of Faith” Joseph Smith clearly taught a different Jesus. He stated, “Where is the saved being? We conclude as to the answer of this question…that it is Christ. All will agree in this that …he [Christ] is a saved being ( Sec. 7:9j, k.). This heretical teaching totally rejects Jesus’ deity. Modern RLDS leaders give a distorted view of the Biblical Jesus. Prophet Wallace B. Smith stated, “We accept the universal Christ of the Book of Mormon. This gives us an additional image beyond the Christ of the New Testament…” (Saints Herald, July 1985, pp. 9-10). Robert Mesle, Graceland College professor stated, “It just no longer makes sense to imagine that God cannot forgive and accept us without killing His Son!” (Saints Herald, March 1995, pp. 8, 9). From the beginning, the followers of Joseph Smith have put their faith and trust in the words of fallible, mortal men instead of the Word of the infallible, Almighty God. Good-hearted, sincere RLDS/CoC members have been deceived into believing their church is Christian, perhaps not realizing that the Jesus they follow is not the Biblical Jesus. They have been taught that the primary reason Jesus came to earth was to be an example of righteous living. However, the very heart of the Christian faith is Jesus’ sacrificial death on the cross where He paid the penalty for our sins. His resurrection from the dead demonstrated God’s full acceptance of His sacrifice. This essential Biblical doctrine – the preaching of the cross – has never been the central message of the RLDS/CoC Church and is only vaguely alluded to in their writings, “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing but to us who are being saved it is the power of God” (1 Cor. 1:18). In light of the stark differences between the Jesus of the RLDS/CoC and the Jesus of the Bible, it behooves those of us who have been set free from the deception of Mormonism to share with our families and loved ones the true Jesus, “For false Christs and false prophets will appear and…deceive even the elect if that were possible (Matt. 24-24). Norman Geisler and Ron Rhodes in their book, When Cultists Ask, give this ominous warning; “To die while believing in the Jesus of Mormonism (all factions)…is to die believing in a counterfeit Jesus who preaches a counterfeit salvation, which, in fact, is no salvation at all.”
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