The Apostle Paul warned the Corinthian church about those who might preach “another Jesus” (2 Corinthians 11:4). Paul also warned against “a different gospel—which is really no gospel at all” (Galatians 1:6-9). These are sobering warnings—and ones that demand we examine every claim about Christ against the measuring rod of Scripture itself.

The differences between the Jesus taught in Mormonism and the Jesus revealed in the Bible aren’t minor variations on a theme. They represent fundamentally different persons with radically different identities, accomplishments, and claims on our lives. What’s more, the distinctions carry eternal weight. Getting Jesus wrong doesn’t just affect our theology—it determines our destiny. Identity matters infinitely.

Here are 5 critical differences between the Jesus in Latter-day Saints (LDS) theology and the Bible’s Jesus.

1. HIS DIVINE NATURE: CREATED OR CREATOR?

The Bible’s Jesus is eternally God. John’s Gospel opens with the staggering claim: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him” (John 1:1-3). When confronted by hostile religious leaders, Jesus declared, “Before Abraham was, I AM” (John 8:58)—invoking the sacred divine name from Exodus 3:14. Paul affirms “in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell” (Colossians 1:19) and that Christ is “the exact imprint of [God’s] nature” (Hebrews 1:3).

Mormonism’s Jesus is fundamentally different. LDS theology teaches Jesus is a created spirit being—the literal spirit offspring of Heavenly Father and Heavenly Mother. He is our elder brother, as is Lucifer. Through obedience and progression, Jesus achieved godhood. He is one god among many in a vast cosmology where worthy humans can also become gods.

What’s at stake: If Jesus is created, He cannot be the Creator. John 1:3 is explicit: “All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.” A created being, no matter how exalted, cannot bear the weight of infinite sin or mediate between holy God and fallen humanity. The Jesus who saves must be the eternal God Himself, or He cannot save at all.

2. HIS ATONING WORK: FINISHED OR INCOMPLETE?

The Bible’s Jesus accomplished complete salvation at Calvary. His final cry—”It is finished” (John 19:30)—means exactly that. Paul declares we’re “justified by faith apart from works of the law” (Romans 3:28) and saved “by grace through faith…not a result of works” (Ephesians 2:8-9). Christ’s blood alone cleanses from all sin (1 John 1:7), and His single sacrifice perfected for all time those being sanctified (Hebrews 10:14).

Mormonism’s Jesus provided an atonement that makes resurrection universal but not salvation complete. LDS theology teaches a salvation that requires faith plus works plus ordinances plus temple ceremonies. Jesus’ sacrifice opened the door, but we must walk through it by our accumulated obedience. Grace enables works; works complete salvation.

What’s at stake: Paul’s letter to the Galatians reserves his harshest language for those who add requirements to grace: “If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed” (Galatians 1:9). Adding human achievement to Christ’s finished work doesn’t honor His sacrifice—it diminishes it. Either Jesus’s work is sufficient, or it isn’t. Scripture thunders that it is.

3. HIS RELATIONSHIP TO THE FATHER: ONE GOD OR SEPARATE GODS?

The Bible’s Jesus shares one divine essence with the Father in the Trinity. Jesus prayed, “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30). The Great Commission is to baptise “in the name [singular] of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 28:19). The writer of Hebrews declares Christ “the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature” (Hebrews 1:3). To see Jesus is to see the Father (John 14:9).

Mormonism’s Jesus is a separate god entirely. LDS theology rejects the Trinity in favour of a “Godhead”—three distinct gods united in purpose but not in essence. Jesus is the literal physical son of Heavenly Father and Heavenly Mother, a different being with a different body and different origin.

What’s at stake: Israel’s foundational confession is unambiguous: “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one” (Deuteronomy 6:4). God Himself declares, “Before me no god was formed, nor shall there be any after me” (Isaiah 43:10). Denying the Trinity doesn’t just alter a doctrine—it fundamentally misidentifies who God is and how He has revealed Himself.

4. HIS SOVEREIGN AUTHORITY: LORD OF ALL OR LORD OF ONE WORLD?

The Bible’s Jesus reigns supreme over all creation. Paul writes God “put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church” (Ephesians 1:22). In Christ “all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible…all things were created through him and for him…in him all things hold together” (Colossians 1:16-17). There is no corner of existence outside His absolute authority.

Mormonism’s Jesus governs only this world. LDS theology teaches countless gods ruling countless worlds. Jesus is the Saviour and God of Earth, but His jurisdiction is limited. Worthy Mormon men can become gods of their own worlds, exercising similar creative and salvific authority elsewhere.

What’s at stake: This reduces biblical monotheism to henotheism—worshiping one god among many. But Scripture knows no such limitation. God declares, “I am the first and I am the last; besides me there is no god” (Isaiah 44:6). A Jesus whose authority is merely planetary cannot be the Jesus whose name is “above every name” (Philippians 2:9).

5. HIS SUFFICIENCY: COMPLETE SAVIOUR OR PARTIAL HELPER?

The Bible’s Jesus saves completely. He “is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him” (Hebrews 7:25). Believers are sealed by the Holy Spirit as a guarantee (Ephesians 1:13-14). Nothing—not tribulation, distress, persecution, or anything else in creation—can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:38-39).

Mormonism’s Jesus makes exaltation possible but not certain. Even after baptism, temple ordinances, and faithful obedience, ultimate salvation remains uncertain. Mormon theology adds layers of requirements that make assurance impossible. Jesus becomes an enabling partner rather than a sufficient Saviour.

What’s at stake: Jesus asked, “Who do you say that I am?” (Matthew 16:15). Our eternal destiny hinges on getting the answer right. If Jesus is merely a created being who enables but doesn’t complete salvation, who governs one world among many, He isn’t the Jesus of Scripture—and He cannot save. But if He is the eternally divine, fully sufficient, universally sovereign Lord that the Bible proclaims, then He is worthy of our complete trust and worship.

THE GOSPEL’S CLARITY

These differences aren’t semantic quibbles. They represent fundamentally different persons. The Mormon Jesus and the biblical Jesus cannot both be true. Paul’s warning echoes across centuries: test everything against Scripture (1 Thessalonians 5:21). The Bereans were commended for examining “the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so” (Acts 17:11).

The Jesus of the Bible is eternally God, not a created being. His atoning work is finished, not merely begun. He is one with the Father in the Trinity, not a separate god. His authority extends over all creation, not just one planet. And His salvation is complete, not conditional on our uncertain performance.

This Jesus—the true Jesus—invites us to come just as we are, to rest entirely in His finished work, to trust in His divine sufficiency. “Whoever comes to me I will never cast out” (John 6:37). That’s the promise of the real Jesus. And that changes everything.

 

MORMONISM’S JESUS VS. THE BIBLE’S JESUS: RELATED FAQs

Do Mormons worship a completely different God, or just misunderstand the Bible’s God? Reformed theologians including James White and Robert Bowman argue the differences are so fundamental that Mormons worship a different deity altogether. The Mormon god was once a man who progressed to godhood, has a physical body, and is one among many gods—claims that contradict Scripture’s revelation of God as eternally spirit, unchanging, and the only God who exists (Malachi 3:6, John 4:24, Isaiah 43:10). While Mormons use biblical terminology, the underlying reality they describe bears no resemblance to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

• What about the Mormon claim that Christians added the Trinity doctrine centuries after the apostles? This claim collapses under historical scrutiny. Reformed scholars point to clear Trinitarian formulations in the earliest church fathers—Ignatius of Antioch (c. 110 AD), Justin Martyr (c. 150 AD), and Irenaeus (c. 180 AD)—all writing within living memory of the apostles. More importantly, the biblical data itself requires Trinitarian logic: Jesus receives worship reserved for God alone (Matthew 14:33, Hebrews 1:6), claims divine prerogatives like forgiving sins (Mark 2:5-7), yet distinguishes Himself from the Father (John 14:28). The Council of Nicaea (325 AD) didn’t invent the Trinity—it defended apostolic teaching against heresy.
• How do we respond to Mormon claims about the “Great Apostasy”? The notion that true Christianity disappeared from earth until Joseph Smith’s restoration in 1830 contradicts Jesus’ explicit promises. Christ declared “the gates of hell shall not prevail” against His church (Matthew 16:18) and promised to be with His disciples “to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20). Reformed scholars like RC Sproul noted an apostate church couldn’t have preserved the very Scriptures Mormons claim to believe, translated them, and spread them worldwide. The unbroken chain of Christian witness, martyrdom, and biblical manuscript evidence demolishes the apostasy narrative.

What about Mormon claims that verses like “ye are gods” (Psalm 82:6, quoted by Jesus in John 10:34) support the idea that we can become gods? This interpretation ignores the context completely. In Psalm 82, God rebukes unjust human judges who, though called “gods” (elohim) by virtue of their God-given authority, “will die like men” (Psalm 82:7). Jesus is in fact arguing if mere humans could be called “gods” in a representative sense, how much more can the divine Son claim unity with the Father? Reformed exegetes emphasise Jesus is contrasting His essential deity with humanity’s derived, limited, and mortal authority. Peter’s reference to “partakers of the divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4) speaks of moral transformation and communion with God, not ontological transformation into deity—a pagan concept foreign to biblical monotheism.

• Did early Christians believe Jesus was literally the spirit brother of Lucifer, as Mormon theology teaches? Absolutely not. This teaching appears nowhere in Christian history before Joseph Smith and contradicts Scripture at every turn. Colossians 1:16 states that “by him all things were created…whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him.” This explicitly includes angelic beings—both faithful and fallen. Jesus is Creator; Lucifer is creature. They share no common origin, no fraternal relationship, no parallel development. Reformed scholars note that this Mormon doctrine reduces Christ to the creaturely order, destroying His unique status as the eternal Son and making salvation by a fellow creature impossible.
• How do Reformed apologists address the Book of Mormon’s teachings about Jesus appearing in the Americas? Archaeological, linguistic, or genetic evidence for the Book of Mormon’s historical claims are completely absent. In addition, the theological problems are insurmountable. The Book of Mormon’s Jesus preaches salvation by works (2 Nephi 25:23: “it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do”), contradicting the biblical gospel of grace through faith apart from works. Mormon scripture also contains anachronisms and King James English errors that expose its 19th-century origin. Reformed scholars like Eric Johnson emphasise no alleged revelation can supersede or contradict the biblical witness, which warns against adding to God’s completed Word (Revelation 22:18-19, Galatians 1:8-9).

What’s the most important thing Christians should understand when discussing Jesus with Mormon friends or family? Know the biblical Jesus deeply before critiquing the Mormon Jesus. Reformed apologists consistently emphasise effective witness flows from confident grasp of Scripture’s Christology—His eternal deity, virgin birth, sinless life, substitutionary atonement, bodily resurrection, ascension, and promised return. Approach conversations with genuine love, asking questions that encourage Mormons to examine their sources: “Where does the Bible teach that?” or “How do you reconcile this with what Jesus said in John 8:58?” The goal isn’t to win arguments but to point people to the sufficient Saviour who alone can reconcile us to the Father.

 

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