Category: Mormon Theology
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Responding to the Claim that God was Once a Man
Note: The following was originally printed in the December 2019 edition of the MRM Update. To request a free subscription to Mormonism Researched, please visit here. Question: “How do we explain to Latter-day Saints that God is not a man, but is far greater? Answer: First of all, Numbers 23:19 tells us very plainly that “God…
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Do Latter-Day Saints Earn the “Blessing” of Eternal Life?
Note: The following was originally printed in the May/June 2019 edition of Mormonism Researched. To request a free subscription, please visit here. Blessings received by members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are described in a number of ways. For example, eternal life in the celestial kingdom of God has been explained as a…
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Revelations, policies, doctrines, and decrees
By Bill McKeever Note: The following was originally printed in the May/June 2019 edition of Mormonism Researched. To request a free subscription, please visit here. On the morning of February 8, 1843, Mormonism founder Joseph Smith said that he had met with “a brother and sister from Michigan, who thought that ‘a prophet is always a…
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Jesus Index
The Birth of Jesus The Nature of Jesus The Person of Jesus The Cross Viewpoint on Mormonism Podcasts on Jesus Reviews of Teachings of Presidents of the Church
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Progressing Toward Exaltation
President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Russell M. Nelson, recently spoke to a worldwide audience of young adult Latter-day Saints. His topic was, “The Love and Laws of God,” focused on helping Mormons understand that all the rules that make up Mormonism have been given by God for their own protection,…
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Citations Concerning the Word of Wisdom
The following citations are documented in Bill McKeever’s book In Their Own Words concerning the Word of Wisdom. Prophets/Presidents Joseph Smith: “No official member in this Church is worthy to hold an office after having the Word of Wisdom properly taught him; and he, the official member, neglecting to comply with and obey it” (Teachings of the…
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Matthew 5:48 and C.S. Lewis
What did C.S. Lewis mean when he wrote “Be ye perfect” is not idealistic gas? In his chapter 9 of “Beyond Personality: Or First Steps in the Doctrine of the Trinity,” which can be found in his masterpiece Mere Christianity, Christian author C.S. Lewis wrote, The command Be ye perfect is not idealistic gas. Nor…
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To Be or Not to Be? That is the Question (About Perfection in Mormonism)
The word perfection has been emphasized in several different ways by LDS leaders over the years. Today, imperatives like “strive” and “do your best” are often used in response to a word that, in this church’s history, has historically been associated with successfully accomplishing the task (i.e. commandment) at hand. Perfection was the focus of…
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Repentance According to Christianity
According to Mormonism and the official church website, repentance is “one of the first principles of the gospel and is essential to our temporal and eternal happiness.” Because “no unclean thing can inherit the kingdom of heaven” (Alma 11:37), all people are “unworthy to return and dwell in the presence of our Heavenly Father.” To truly…
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Can Families Be Together Forever in the Terrestrial and Telestial Kingdoms?
Check out a two-part Viewpoint on Mormonism series airing August 24-25, 2020. Part 1 Part 2 Not too long ago I spoke to two Latter-day Saint missionaries in northern California. Toward the end of the two-hour conversations, I explained that the two (both admittedly not living according to a celestial kingdom law) would end up…
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Is the Holy Spirit of Mormonism Trustworthy?
The testimony of Latter-day Saint Sunju Kim Muir was included in the June 2019 Ensign magazine, published by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. (As I am unable to discern whether Sunju is a man or woman, I’ll use the universal “he” throughout this article.) In his testimony, Sunju explains that when he first…
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Crash Course Mormonism: Outer Darkness
Outer darkness is a place reserved for the Devil, his angels, and the “sons of perdition.” It is an eternal destination, a place where very few (if any) human beings will ever be sent. According to tenth President Joseph Fielding Smith, Outer darkness is something which cannot be described, except that we know that it…
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Why Practically Nobody–Including You, Former Mormon–Will Ever End Up in Outer Darkness
For many years, those who have forfeited their membership in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints may have been told by other Mormons that they were “Sons of Perdition” destined for Outer Darkness. Although this is an obvious scare tactic, this accusation is not true according to important LDS leaders. What is Outer…
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Crash Course Mormonism: Exaltation / Eternal Life / Eternal Increase
Exaltation, which is synonymous with eternal life, is godhood achieved through complete obedience to all the commandments of God as defined by the leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Those who are exalted earn the right to eternal life in the celestial kingdom with their families. Twelfth President Spencer W. Kimball…
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Crash Course Mormonism: Kingdoms of Glory
After a person dies and the millennium is complete, judgment will take place and all humans will be assigned to one of three kingdoms of glory for eternity. Those kingdoms are the celestial, the terrestrial, and the telestial kingdoms. Telestial kingdom The lowest kingdom is compared in D&C 76 to the glory is that of the lesser,…
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Mormonism Affirms Its Doctrine of “Being Perfect—in Christ”
8 July 2019 The June issue of Ensign magazine (2019), published by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, contains an article in its “What We Believe” section titled, “We Believe in Being Perfect—in Christ” (30-31, emphasis in the original). The LDS doctrine related to being perfect has been examined and discussed several times at…
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Crash Course Mormonism: Judgment
In Mormonism, final judgment is something that takes place at the end of the millennium. The success in keeping the commandments is what determines one’s final destination: the celestial kingdom, the terrestrial kingdom, the telestial kingdom, or outer darkness. Seventeenth President Russell M. Nelson stated, One day we will meet our Maker and stand before…
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Crash Course Mormonism: Intermediate State
Leaders from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints teach that the spirit of a dead person goes temporarily to one of two possible places, paradise or spirit prison, depending on how righteous the person was in mortality. This is an temporary state, with the soul moving to one of the three kingdoms of…
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Crash Course Mormonism: Word of Wisdom
The Word of Wisdom is a special commandment found in Doctrine and Covenants 89 that leaders in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints claim was given by God. It teaches, among other things, that no “hot” drinks should be consumed and that alcohol and tobacco should be avoided. As far as alcoholic drinks,…
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Crash Course Mormonism: Water Baptism
Mormonism teaches that water baptism performed through the authority of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is necessary for a person to not only become a church member but also to receive salvation. Getting immersed into water–typically at a local LDS building–is what is called baptismal regeneration. Verses from the Bible are often…
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