An apologetic from Romans 1:18-25

18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their ungodliness and unrighteousness suppress the truth. 19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. 21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. 24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen. (Rom 1:18-25, ESV)

In Paul's opening of the book of Romans, as he lays the groundwork for the necessity and efficacy of Christ's substitutionary atoning sacrifice on the cross, he points out where the "ungodliness and unrighteousness of men" (v. 18a) leads. They, and by they, Paul really means all of us before the justification and sanctification of Jesus (Rom 3:22b-25a), "suppress the truth" (v. 18b), ignore the "things that have been made" that point to God (v. 19-20), and "did not honor him as God or give thanks to him" (v. 21b) even though "they knew God" (v. 21a). As a result, they "became fools" (v. 22) and exchanged God's glory for "images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things" (v. 23). Paul reemphasizes this point in verses 24-25. God gives them over to what is in their hearts because they worshiped the creature rather than God. Now clearly, Paul is talking about traditional forms of idol worship as forbidden by God in the 10 commandments:

4 You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. 5 You shall not bow down to them or serve them... (Exo 20:4-5a, ESV)

 The parallel phrases between the two passages make this evident:

Exodus	Romans
carved image	image
likeness	resembling
in the heaven above	birds
in the earth beneath	mortal man, animals, creeping things
not bow…or serve	worshiped and served the creature

The point I am about to make was not the point on Paul's mind. Paul's point was that idol worship, or creature worship, is a result of the unrighteousness of men. So, if we see someone worshiping "the creature rather than the Creator", we know that they are unrighteous and need the Lord Jesus Christ before they perish in their unbelief. From here, I think we can develop a powerful offensive apologetic for our Mormon friends and family. For starters, we have to look at the Mormon conception of Jesus Christ.

"Now who is Jesus Christ, and how could he bring about the resurrection when no other man nor all men put together could do so? The Scriptures respond to these questions. They make it clear that the spirit person Jesus Christ-as are the spirits of all men-is the Son of God, our Eternal Father. In this respect he is like all other men. He differs from all other men, however, by reason of the fact that men's bodies are begotten of mortal men and are, therefore, subject to death, being descendants and inheritors from Adam, while Christ's physical body was begotten of God, our Heavenly Father-an immortal being not subject to death. Christ, therefore, inherited from his Father the faculty to live on indefinitely." (Marion G. Romney, Conference Reports, April 1975, pp. 123-4)

The emphasis above is mine. So, Jesus Christ is just like all other men. He is a Son of God by virtue of the fact that he is a spirit child of the Eternal Father just like the rest of us. All of us, on the Mormon conception, were begotten in the pre-existence by Heavenly Father and Heavenly Mother.

"Jesus was born of heavenly parents in a premortal world-he was the firstborn of our Heavenly Father" (Robert D. Hales, "Your Sorrow Shall Be Turned to Joy," Ensign (Conference Edition), November 1983, p. 67)

Jesus was the firstborn to heavenly parents. What does this mean? What does this have to do with the Romans passage I talked about earlier? The Mormon Jesus is a created being whom Mormons worship as the savior of mankind. Make no mistake that this is a different Jesus from the one in the Bible.

"As a church we have critics, many of them. They say we do not believe in the traditional Christ of Christianity. There is some substance to what they say." (Gordon Hinckley, "We look to Christ," Ensign (Conference Edition), May 2002, p. 90)

Their own leaders reluctantly admit that this is a different Jesus. Their doctrine proclaims that he is just another creature, an exalted one perhaps, but a creature none-the-less. But this is a major problem for them according to Paul in Romans 1:18-25. They are worshiping the creature rather than the Creator if Jesus Christ is not God, the creator. They are unrighteous as evidenced by the fact that they worship a created Jesus who is not God. I think this could be an effective apologetic for use with Mormons. I wouldn't expect any Mormon, on the spot, to admit that you are right and then ask how they can be saved. But, I think a major task of apologetics is just to "put a stone in their shoe" as Greg Koukl says. Just give them something to think about that ruffles their worldview.

Why I am Not a Mormon

I grew up Mormon or a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS). I have family that is still very involved and devoted to the teaching of the LDS church. The basic story of the LDS church is that the true gospel (the one we have in the Bible) was lost from the earth when the apostles died out and God chose to restore it through Joseph Smith in a series of visions and revelations (that later with even more revelation became the Doctrine and Covenants) and by showing him where the Book of Mormon was buried and then helping him translate it. The Book of Mormon is supposedly another testament of Jesus Christ. Specifically, it is the story of the peoples of the Americas, who are supposedly Israelites, and their eventual descent into corruption when all the good peoples were wiped out. You can read more in detail about their beliefs here.
In 2012 when God began to call me and draw me to his Son I started to investigate the claims made by Christians. In particular, I watched Lee Strobel's documentary of his book The Case for Christ. In it he made a claim that I had never heard: that the Bible generally and the New Testament in particular was reliable beyond any doubt. From there I  read until, on an intellectual level, I was convinced that that claim was true. As I continued to struggle towards salvation and trust in Jesus Christ, I gave Mormon claims the same evaluation that I gave to Christian ones. Eventually, I came to the conclusion that Mormon claims don't hold up to even the slightest scrutiny. Here are some of the things that I found in my studies and why I am not a Mormon (anymore).

1. The claim that the Bible has been changed and corrupted is false. This is a primary claim of the LDS church. Nobody in this debate is disputing that what the apostles and prophets wrote in biblical times is actually from God. What is disputed is whether or not the writings have survived accurately down to this time. Well, they have and I have posted about it here after reading and studying this issue on both sides for a couple of years. The other problem with the Mormon view of the Bible's corruption is that they accept the King James Version as being correctly translated, but the KJV has passages that clearly contradict doctrines that arose later in Mormon development.

2. The Book of Mormon does not hold up to the same investigation that the Bible does. It isn't historically reliable. There are no specific places mentioned that can be identified today. It has many anachronisms that are very hard to explain. For instance, at the end of Jacob 7:27 it says: "Brethren, adieu." This supposedly took place around 544-421 B.C. The French language doesn't start to appear until the 1st century A.D. How did a French word appear in writings from 500 B.C.? The LDS church offers this answer:

"Some have questioned the use of the French word adieu in Jacob 7:27. One author explained:

“The choice of words came through the manner of the language of Joseph Smith, so that we might have understanding. This is why words not known in Book of Mormon times are found in the translated text.

“The word adieu is defined in a dictionary of Joseph Smith’s day as ‘a farewell; an expression of kind wishes at the parting of friends’ [meaning that I commend you to God]. (Noah Webster, An American Dictionary of the English Language, 1828). While the word is of French origin, it had found common usage in early nineteenth century New England” (Edward J. Brandt, “I Have a Question,” Ensign, Oct. 1985, 17)."

It was given in Joseph Smith's language in which adieu was common at that time. This leads me to my next point.

3. The language of Jospeh Smith's time was not King James English. The Book of Mormon was "translated" into King James English, but this was not the spoken dialect of western New York state in the mid-1800's. The story of the Book of Mormons' translation is this: Joseph Smith was directed to recover the buried plates and by the use of a seeing stone God gave him the translation word for word. But why would God render it in an English translation that he didn't speak and then insert a French word that Smith used with the lingo of his time? Why didn't God translate the entire Book of Mormon in Joseph Smith's lingo as the LDS church says they did for the word adieu? Numbers 2 and 3 go together and are a small example of the enormous problems with the text of the Book of Mormon.

4. No one actually saw the golden plates that constituted the Book of Mormon. Joseph Smith goaded and intimidated people into saying they saw the plates. No one really did. You can read a long article here. 

5. The 11 witnesses at the beginning of the Book of Mormon had problems staying true to the faith. They are split into a group of 3; Oliver Cowdery, David Whitmer, and Martin Harris and a group of 8; Christian Whitmer, Jacob Whitmer, Peter Whitmer, Jun., John Whitmer, Hiram Page, Joseph Smith, Sen., Hyrum Smith, and Samuel H. Smith. All of these men attested to seeing the plates. The 3 witnesses were all excommunicated from the LDS church, 2 of the 8 witnesses apostatized while another of the 8 witnesses was excommunicated. This is very curious. Having seen what could be considered the lynchpin of the Mormon faith, the Book of Mormon on the golden plates, 6 of the 11 witnesses then left or were forced to leave the LDS church. When you compare this with the apostles of the New Testament who similarly testified to the make or break event in Christianity, the risen Christ, and then died for that claim, never recanting and never being driven out by the body of Christ, the Mormon claim becomes befuddling at best and downright dishonest at worst seeing as how the LDS church keeps the testimony of these witnesses in the front of the Book of Mormon.

6. The Mormon conception of god suffers from a vicious infinite regress that cannot be real due to the fact that it would constitute an actual infinite set. In LDS doctrine, god was once a man who was exalted through a process of learning and improvement. He "created" the universe by forming chaotic matter into what we now see as the space-time universe. This means two things. One: there had to be another god who made it possible for the god of the Bible to become exalted and achieve godhood. Two: There are other universes and planets where the path to exaltation is playing out right now like it is here on earth. The problem with both of these implications is the same. If earth god (EG) had a higher level god (HLG) that enabled him to progress to godhood, then the HLG had to have HLG2 that did the same for him. And HLG2 had to have HLG3. And HLG3 had to have HLG4. And so on. This actual infinite set of gods cannot exist. William Lane Craig has shown very convincingly why actual infinites cannot exist.

7. Finally, the Mormon conception of Jesus Christ is wrong based on the Biblical account which their latter-day prophets have reinterpreted. They see Jesus as an entirely separate being from God the Father. He is a spirit child of Heavenly Father as we all are, including Satan. This means that Satan and Jesus are brothers. The former chose the evil path while the latter chose the righteous one. As I said above, the LDS church accepts the KJV of the Bible as being correctly translated. The problem with this is that the New Testament, whether in the KJV or other modern versions, sees Jesus Christ as something more than just another Son of God or child of God as Mormons say. He is equal in ontological status with the Father and he is above Satan in many ways. He is the unique Son of God in a way that we are not since we are adopted Sons of God (Rom. 8:14-17; Gal. 4:4-7; Eph. 1:4-6). Colossians 1:16 says about Jesus: "For by him all things were created, that are in heaven and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, powers: all things were created by him, and for him". If Jesus created everything, then he created Satan. The Mormon doctrine that God formed the universe means that Jesus formed the universe (according to Colossians) while at the same time he was born as a spirit child of God after the creation of the universe. Jesus could not have created the universe after it was created; that is logically impossible. Also, Jesus is so far above Satan that he doesn't even fight with him. It is Michael the Archangel that disputed about the body of Moses with the devil (Jude 9) and it is Michael who will lead the battle against him in the end of time (Rev. 12:7-9). That doesn't sound like they are equals who merely chose the right and wrong paths.

I could list another bunch of reasons why I am not a Mormon, but I think you get the point. The simple fact of the matter is that Mormonism doesn't hold up to the reality it makes claims about. This means it isn't true and that means it is part of the wide path to destruction that Jesus warned us all about.