Who Is Jesus? - Correcting LDS Fallacies | thebereancall.org

Higley, Dennis and Rauni

When an LDS person is asked the question, “Do you know Jesus?”, many will say, “Of course I know Jesus, I have read stories about Him, I have heard talks about Him, I pray in His name, and I belong to a church that has His name on our buildings.” When they say this, the next question to ask is, “Does He know you?” More often than not they then tell about the preexistence, heavenly parents, and how Jesus is our elder brother and that we grew up there with Him – and thus we know Him and He knows us as His siblings, for we all came from heaven. This answer gives an opening to ask how this could be, for the Bible tells us that Jesus alone came from heaven—we did not (John:8:23; 3:13, 31; 6:62; 1 Corinthians:15:46-47). The Bible teaches of Jesus who is God who became a man to save us from our sin (Matthew:1:23; John:1:1, 14, 29; 3:16).

When Adam sinned and death entered the human race, God promised to send a Redeemer, “the seed of the woman” (Genesis:3:15; Isaiah:7:14). Jesus of the Bible is that Virgin-born Son of God; God, who is Spirit (John:4:24; Luke:1:26-31). Jesus is indeed Immanuel, God with us. (Matthew:1:23; John:1:1, 14; Galatians:4:4). He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John:1:29). Jesus compared knowing Him to having eternal life (John:17:3). In other words, just knowing about Him without knowing WHO HE IS will not give us eternal life. We have to have a personal relationship with Him. The Bible warns about false prophets and teachers who teach of another Jesus (same name but a different person – 2 Corinthians:11:4, 13-15). Jesus himself said “Not every one that saith unto Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven.” Knowing His name and even having done “wonderful works” in His name but not having personal relationship with Him will not do. “On that day,” Judgment Day, He will have to say, “I never knew you: depart from Me” (Matthew:7:21-23). Jesus is God who came to save us from our sins, but if we do not know and acknowledge who He is, the Great I AM, we will die in our sins and therefore cannot enter the kingdom of heaven (John:8:24; 58-59). Only God can forgive sins (Mark:2:7). Jesus is 100 percent God and 100 percent man. “In Him dwells all fullness of the Godhead bodily” (Colossians:2:9). He is the image of the invisible God (Colossians:1:15). He came to fulfill all that the prophets of the Old Testament had foretold about Him. Every book of the Bible is about Him (Luke:24:25-27, 44-47). His life, death, and resurrection is for all who in faith accept Him (1 Corinthians:15:1-4; Romans:10:9-10; Ephesians:2:8-9). When we receive Him, we BECOME children of God (John:1:12-13; 3:7) and are born again of the Spirit of God.

The Mormon Church and its leaders have taught that Jesus was married and a polygamist—as their God the Father also is married and a polygamist—and that all mankind were born as spirit children to him and his many wives in the preexistence, Jesus being the eldest of all of them/us. They teach that since marriage is a requirement for gaining exaltation and godhood in the celestial kingdom, Jesus likewise had to be married in order to become fully a god.

It is amazing how many different ways the enemy of our souls tries to confuse people’s minds of the purpose of God becoming a man in Jesus; namely that He became a man to die for our sins, and through faith in Him as our substitute to provide the way for us to go to heaven.

A few years ago, there was Dan Brown’s popular novel, The Da Vinci Code, which many, many Mormons and others took as a sure confirmation that Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene and that they had at least one child….This same confusion, and even excitement is up again among Mormons because some fourth century “faded papyrus fragment, only 1.5 inches by 3 inches, likened to the size of a business card or small cell phone has been found—suggesting that Jesus Christ of Nazareth was actually married.” This fragment was brought to light a couple of weeks ago by Harvard Divinity School professor, Karen King, who also says “the papyrus fragment, even if it’s determined to be authentic, does not provide evidence that Jesus was married, but merely that hundreds of years after Jesus’ death and resurrection, some believed He had a wife….The Bible never even hints that Jesus was married.” Wolf-Peter Funk, a Coptic linguist, (among others) doubts the authenticity (of this fragment), calling its form “suspicious.” He told the AP “there’s no way to evaluate the significance of the fragment because it has no context. There are thousands of scraps of papyrus where you find crazy things,” said Funk, (co-director of a project editing the Nag Hammadi Coptic library at Laval University in Quebec). “It can be anything,” he said. “Part of the mystery of the fragment is that no one seems to be sure of its origin and provenance, a history of where it has been. Plus, its owner has asked to remain anonymous. This is now being labeled by experts as fraudulent….” (Copied from WND report of 9/19/12, emphasis added.)

It is amazing to see how gullible people indeed are. The New Testament, written during the First Century A.D. by eyewitnesses of Jesus’ life and His death, burial, resurrection, and ascension to heaven, does not say anything about Jesus being married, but a tiny fragment by an anonymous writer, without context to anything, written about 350 years after Jesus’ life, is all of a sudden taken as “proof” that He was married! It is incredible that people are so eager to believe something like this, and by so doing they discredit God’s purposes and Jesus as the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world (John:1:29).

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About H.I.S. (He Is Savior) Ministries International:

HISMIN is dedicated to helping Mormons who have questions about their belief system being Christian or not.

Dennis was a sixth-generation Mormon who became an Elder’s Quorum president while still in his early twenties. About a decade later, he was ordained a High Priest and called to serve on the Stake High Council. Rauni worked as a translator and language coordinator for the LDS Church for over 14 years, and held teaching positions in Sunday school and in the Relief Society. Her privileged position allowed her to study Mormon history from many books not generally available to LDS membership, which eventually led her to share these growing concerns about discrepancies hidden by the Church with her husband. Together they launched the helpful website, www.hismin.com.