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What do Latter-day Saints believe?

Other Beliefs & ReligionsIn theological review

The short answer

Latter-day Saints, often called Mormons, teach that God the Father has a body of flesh and bones, that he was once a man who progressed to godhood, and that faithful members may become gods themselves. Their Standard Works add the Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants and Pearl of Great Price beside the Bible, and a living prophet leads the church. Scripture answers that God was God before any other, that no god was formed before or after him, and that salvation is by grace through faith.

The fuller answer

Stated from their own books, Latter-day Saints believe the Bible is the word of God so far as it is translated correctly, and they hold three further volumes as scripture: the Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, and the Pearl of Great Price, together called the Standard Works. The church's Gospel Topics essays explain that God the Father has a glorified body, that human beings are his spirit children, and that, in the essay titled Becoming Like God, faithful members may in eternity become like him. A living prophet receives continuing revelation for the church.

But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be under a curse!

Galatians 1:8 (BSB)

Paul's warning sets the first test for any later message, however impressive its messenger: a gospel different from the one already preached is not to be received. Latter-day Saint teaching also uses familiar Christian words with different meanings, so the dictionary matters as much as the vocabulary. God, Jesus, salvation and heaven do not mean in their books quite what they mean in the Bible, and honest conversation names that early rather than discovering it late.

“You are My witnesses,” declares the LORD, “and My servant whom I have chosen, so that you may consider and believe Me and understand that I am He. Before Me no god was formed, and after Me none will come.

Isaiah 43:10 (BSB)

Isaiah carries the deepest difference. God declares that before him no god was formed and none will be formed after him. That single sentence sits against both a God who once progressed and a future in which believers become gods in the same sense. What the Bible promises believers is adoption, resurrection and glory as God's children by grace. What it never offers is godhood as a rank to attain, because God alone is God, and he was God first and always.

For it is by grace you have been saved through faith, and this not from yourselves; it is the gift of God,

Ephesians 2:8 (BSB)

The second difference is how a person is accepted. Latter-day Saint teaching speaks warmly of grace, and its own scripture says men are saved by grace after all they can do, placing real weight on ordinances, worthiness and endurance. Paul places the weight elsewhere: salvation is God's gift, received by faith, not a result of works. The kind response is not to caricature a devout neighbour, but to ask together what God was before anything else existed, and whether grace is a gift or a wage.

Sources

  • Berean Standard Bible (BSB)
  • The Latter-day Saint Standard Works
  • Latter-day Saint Gospel Topics Essays

Review status: in-theological-review. Every Contend page passes a human theological review against the Statement of Faith before it is published as approved teaching. This section is in that queue.

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What should I say to my Latter-day Saint friend?Start from the friendship, and learn the dictionary. You and your friend use the same words, God, Jesus, grace, heaven, with different meanings, so ask what he means before answering what you mean. Ask how he knows the Book of Mormon is true, listen to his testimony fully, and then share yours: that you trust the Bible's God who never was a man, and a grace that is a gift rather than a wage after all you can do. Paul's test in Galatians 1:8 applies to any later gospel, whoever brings it.Do all religions lead to God?No, and the reason is not tribal loyalty: the faiths contradict each other about God, sin, and salvation, so they cannot all be roads to the same place. More decisively, Jesus did not present himself as one guide among many, saying, I am the way and the truth and the life; no one comes to the Father except through me. Christians can respect their neighbours of other faiths, and should, without pretending the differences are small.What is the gospel?The gospel is the good news of what God has done in Jesus Christ: he died for our sins according to the Scriptures, he was buried, and he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures. It is news before it is advice: a death that pays for sin, a resurrection that proves it, and a living Lord who is to be confessed, believed, and followed.Is Jesus God?Yes. The New Testament calls Jesus God in plain words, shows him doing what only God does, and records him receiving the worship that belongs to God alone. That is why the church at Nicaea confessed him as very God of very God, of one substance with the Father, and why Chalcedon confessed him as truly God and truly man in one person.