ICARE, the Institute of Christian Awareness and Responsible Evangelism, helps Christians understand differences between Christianity and Mormonism (and other groups) and teaches Christians to reach them in a non-argumentative manner in which the truth of the Gospel is communicated in a way they can understand.
Mormons, like people in other aberrant groups, use Christian terminology, but with non-biblical meanings to those words. The vast majority of people who convert to Mormonism have a Christian background. About 300,000 people per year (800 people per day) are leaving their Christianity for Mormonism.
ICARE is located in western Idaho, where one-fourth of the residents are Mormons. In the Boise, Idaho area, as well as in the neighboring state of Oregon, Mormonism has grown by 50% during the past decade!
Bruce Levi, founder of ICARE, is available to speak in your church, Sunday School, camp, retreat, men's group, women's group, youth group, Christian school class, or other meetings.
Contact us at (208) 573-1816
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Some Terminology Differences between
Christianity and Mormonism
by Bruce Levi, ICARE Ministries
NOTE: Mormons use the same words as Christians; however, with altogether different meanings.
Often, Mormons do not have a clear understand their own teachings, or will purposely obscure them.
GOD – Christianity
• God has eternally been God and will eternally continue to be God (Genesis 21:33; Exodus 3:14; Isaiah 41:4; Psalm 90:2; Malachi 3:6;
John 5:26; 8:58).
• No other being was, is, or ever can become, God (Isaiah 42:8; 44:6, 8).
• God the Father is an invisible Spirit (John 4:24; Colossians 1:15; 1 Timothy 1:17).
• God exists as One God in a co-equal Trinity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (Deuteronomy 6:4; Matthew 3:16, 17; Mark 12:29; John 14:6;
Acts 5:3, 4; 1 Corinthians 12:4-6; 2 Corinthians 13:14; Colossians 2:9).
• God’s nature and standard have always been, and always will be, perfect (James 1:17; Matthew 5:48).
• God created all that exists outside of Himself (Genesis 1:1; Colossians 1:15-16).
GOD – Mormonism
• God was not always god, but was once a man who earned his way to godhood. God the father and god the son are “exalted men” each of
whom now exists in a body of flesh and bone.
• The holy ghost, although a god, does not have a physical body; is an impersonal force.
• God, and all other forms of matter, are eternal, but are subject to the laws of the universe.
• Father, son, and holy spirit are separate, individual gods; not triune; not a trinity.
• There are many gods, each of whom rules over his own universe with his wives.
• Some Mormons believe that the original god achieved godhood because he had more “intelligence” (eternal matter) than other intelligences.
He is now the chief god among a hierarchy of other gods, one of which is the god over our earth.
JESUS – Christianity
• Jesus has always been and always will be God and is the Second person of the Holy Trinity (John 1:1-3, 18; 8:58; Hebrews 1:8; 5:26;
2 Corinthians 13:14).
• Jesus took on a human nature via miraculous birth of the Virgin Mary (Matthew 1:18-23; John 5:27).
• Jesus retained his full Godhood while yet being fully man (Romans 1:3, 4).
• Jesus created all things (Colossians 1:16).
• Jesus was tempted in all things, yet did not ever sin (Hebrews 4:15).
• Jesus bore our sins in His own body on the cross (1 Peter 2:24).
• Jesus gives eternal life in heaven as a free gift to the true believer (Romans 6:23).
• Jesus is our only mediator and High Priest (1 Timothy 2:5; Hebrews 8:1).
JESUS – Mormonism
• Jesus was not always god the son, but is the firstborn spirit son of god the father.
• Jesus is a separate and distinct god from god the father and not a person of the Trinity.
• Some Mormon leaders denied the virgin birth of Jesus by teaching that Jesus was the literal offspring of god the father’s literal, physical union
with Mary.
• Jesus suffered for sins primarily in the Garden of Gethsemane, not on the cross.
• Jesus’ death and resurrection provide humankind only resurrection.
• Jesus requires that each human earn his/her place in a heaven by religion and good works.
• The current LDS prophet said that the Jesus of Mormonism is not the Jesus of Christianity.
MAN – Christianity
• God created man at a specific time in history on the earth; and created him sinless, for His glory, and in His image, i.e., with mind, will, and
emotions (Genesis 1:26, 31; Isaiah 43:7).
• Man was enticed and deceived by Satan and chose to disobey God (Genesis 3).
• Adam’s rebellion brought sin and death into the world, and humankind’s nature became depraved with a natural desire to sin continually
(Isaiah 53:6; 64:6; Jeremiah 17:9; Romans 3:9-18; 5:12).
• Natural (unsaved) man cannot understand the things of the Spirit of God, is “dead in trespasses and sins,” and is “condemned.”
(1 Corinthians 2:14; Ephesians 2:1-4; John 3:18).
• No person can save himself from his sinful condition (Matthew 19:25-26).
• Man can be restored to fellowship with God, and saved from God’s righteous judgment of man’s sins only by God’s grace that comes through
faith in Jesus Christ (Titus 3:5; Ephesians 2:8-10; John 15:16).
MAN – Mormonism
• All humans originally existed in a state of unorganized matter (“intelligences”) along side the intelligence that is now god and the intelligences
that are now Jesus, Lucifer, and angels.
• God, with his wife/wives, created “spirit bodies” for all these “intelligences.”
• Thus, Jesus, Lucifer, the angels, as well as all former, current, and future humans are literally the spirit sons or daughters of god and are
literally all spirit brothers or sisters.
• Since man is of the same basic substance as god, he is good by nature, not a sinner by nature, and was create to have joy, and to become
a god; women can be a god’s wife.
• Man was created (given a spirit body) by god, given complete free will or “free agency,” and the ability to earn godhood by his own efforts.
• Adam did not sin in the Garden of Eden, but “fell upward” to earn a body, and to pass other tests that are necessary for all men to develop
into gods.
SALVATION – Christianity
• God does all the work of salvation (John 6:28-29; Romans 8”:28-39; 2 Corinthians 5:21; Titus 3:5-7).
• Man believes (trusts) God and receives salvation as a free gift (Romans 3:23-28; 4:3-8; 10:9-13).
• Salvation has always been by grace through faith (Genesis 15:6; 6:8).
• Jesus saves completely and forever (Hebrews 7:25; 10:10-17).
• Keeping the Law, or any set of rules, does not result in salvation (Acts 15: 10; Galatians 3:21-26)
• Salvation, or eternal life, is sure in Christ (John 6:37-47; 1 Peter 1:4-5).
SALVATION – Mormonism
• The biblical, Christian doctrine of salvation by grace alone is a false idea originated by Satan.
• There are three levels of salvation.
A) “Unconditional or general salvation” is resurrection only, which Jesus freely gives to all mankind, so that good non-Mormons (Christians and
others) and lax Mormons will freely go to the second-class heaven, and evil people to a third-class heaven.
B) “Conditional or Individual Salvation” is only for Mormons who earn, by good works, the first-class heaven – the “Celestial Kingdom.”
“Conditional salvation” with its emphasis on good works, is what most Mormons think of when they use, or hear, the term “salvation.”
C) “Exaltation” or “Eternal Life” is salvation in the fullest sense in the Celestial Kingdom. It is the earning of godhood by only the most diligent
Mormons via a difficult process of continual repentance, self-perfection, and enduring to the end in strict obedience to the rules and
leaders of the LDS Church, participation in temple rituals, lifelong service in the LDS church, etc. Also known as full or complete salvation,
godhood, becoming a god, living forever as a family, etc.
• “Outer darkness” is a lack of both resurrection and salvation. It is outside of any heaven, is an existence of eternal torment, and is For Satan,
his followers, and apostate Mormons.
Mormon sources: Doctrine & Covenants, 1971; Pearl of Great Price, 1971; Gospel Principles, 1997; Doctrines of Salvation, 1954; Mormon Doctrine, 1979; The Miracle of Forgiveness 1981; Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, 1973; LDS Church News website.
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Traditional Methods Don't Work
MORMONISM
Contradictions in LDS Scripture
THE GOSPEL
BIBLICAL SALVATION
DOCTRINES of the FAITH
EVANGELISM
APOLOGETICS
PSYCHOLOGY
SPIRITUAL ABUSE
Bruce F. Levi was raised in Mormonism in Idaho’s Treasure Valley, was a Mormon Missionary in Germany and graduated from Brigham Young University.
Helping Christians...
understand people in oppressive religions
and reaching those people with The Gospel.
Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost. – Titus 3:5
