So Far ... What is it about Mormonism that prevents its followers from having salvation in Christ?

1) I have been reading the numerous books written by evangelicals about Mormonism. While these books are mentioning the various bad teachings of the Mormon Church, so far I am not reading any author that states why Mormons are not in a saving relationship with Christ.

2) Many of the apologetic books that deal with the false teachings of Mormonism are somewhat selective in their identification. Typically, the authors will take a fundamental Mormon teaching which is taken from the Biblical Scriptures and then attempt to explain why this teaching is taken in the wrong way by Mormons. The problem with this approach is that the authors present their case on the basis of individual interpretations of the Christian Faith which may or may not represent the teachings of the entire community. This is sort of like accusing all of today’s Southern Baptists of Landmarkism based upon the teachings of James Robinson Graves.

That such a problem of interpretation exists among many apologetic authors attempting to explain and repute Mormonism is evident in the frequent references to that most contemporary ignorance to such teachings. The apologetic authors often find modern and contemporary leaders of the Mormon Church who are frequently embarrassed and bewildered by the teachings of Smith and other Mormon Church founders. Thus, these apologetic authors readily admit that most members of the Mormon Church do not know of these old teachings. Indeed, these apologetic authors argue that most Mormons hold to the orthodox Christian teachings on most of the fundamentals and would be shocked to know that Joseph Smith and others taught differently than what they now believe.

So my question is this: if the contemporary leaders hold to the orthodox teachings and the vast majority of the Mormon Church members hold to these teachings, isn’t then the current teachings of the Mormon Church different from what they are currently being accused?


2) Many of the false teachings of the Mormon Church that derive from their misinterpretation of Scripture are false teachings that I see all the time in conservative evangelical churches. Usually, such misinterpretations stem from an overly-literal hermeneutic. No real surprise I suppose. There is a distinctly American form of religion that developed in the 19th century with highly eschatological and separatist tendencies. Such groups and movements include Fundamentalism, Landmarkism, Pentacostalism, Mormonism, Jehovah Witness, Campbellites, Millerites and Dispensationalism. Of course, many of these movements have distanced themselves from the beliefs of their founders. We shouldn’t assume that the 19th century views of William Miller are still the 21st century views of 7th Day Adventists. How would we like it if other believers assumed that today’s Southern Baptists affirm slavery simply because our denomination began over that issue?

Interestingly, one great commonality among these 19th century American apocalyptic separatist Christian traditions was an overly-literal hermeneutic. Indeed, it was from this literal hermeneutic that their distinctive beliefs grew and which enabled them to separate themselves from other Christian traditions.

So I do find it interesting that so many false Mormon doctrines are not only held here and there by various “acceptable” conservative Christian traditions but that these false teachings derive from taking the Bible literally in places where they probably should not. In essence, they are often heretical by believing the Bible literally. Too much fun.

These are just some of my observations. No finality to any of them. I have not reached any decision about which Mormon beliefs separate them from salvation. I have been reading up on their beliefs and practices concerning “salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ” and both Mormon and non-Mormon interpretations of what Mormons believe about this doctrine. We shall see.