Mormons and The Thirteen Articles of Faith

What do Mormons believe?  A good place to start is their Thirteen Articles of Faith.  I would like to respond to them briefly here.

1. We believe in God, the Eternal Father, and in His Son, Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost.

That almost sounds good, except it is clear that only the Father is eternal in this statement.  I am not sure how that fits with the Mormon picture of God as once being a human man.  The biblical picture is that of one God.  At the same time all three persons, Father, Son and Spirit, are affirmed as God and are all co-eternal.

2. We believe that men will be punished for their own sins, and not for Adam’s transgression.

“For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous.” (Romans 5:19 ESV)

3. We believe that through the Atonement of Christ, all mankind may be saved, by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel.

“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” (Ephesians 2:8–9 ESV)

4. We believe that the first principles and ordinances of the Gospel are: first, Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; second, Repentance; third, Baptism by immersion for the remission of sins; fourth, Laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost.

At least the first three are important.  The laying on of hands to receive the Spirit is from Acts when new people groups, such as the Samaritans, came to faith.  The apostles laid hands on them to indicate they were now included in the miracle of Pentecost.  There is no indication that the laying on of hands was necessary.  In fact when Peter preached to Cornelius and his household, they began to speak in tongues by the Spirit while Peter was still preaching and not even thinking about laying on hands.

5. We believe that a man must be called of God, by prophecy, and by the laying on of hands by those who are in authority, to preach the Gospel and administer in the ordinances thereof.

While God sometimes uses those means, there is no indication that was to be the only way.  All Christians should preach the Gospel and there is no biblical indication of who administers ordinances.

6. We believe in the same organization that existed in the Primitive Church, namely, apostles, prophets, pastors, teachers, evangelists, and so forth.

That is not organization, those are gifts to the church.  It could be argued that the only organization was that of bishops and deacons.  I have no problems with those gifts, they are just not a hierarchy in the church.

7. We believe in the gift of tongues, prophecy, revelation, visions, healing, interpretation of tongues, and so forth.

Me too.

8. We believe the Bible to be the word of God as far as it is translated correctly; we also believe the Book of Mormon to be the word of God.

I agree with the first part of this statement, but not the way the Mormons do.  There must be a proper translation of the Hebrew and Greek, they mean a spiritual translation like what Joseph Smith attempted.  I believe scholarly translations provide the accurate word of God.  I do not believe that the Book of Mormon is the word of God.

9. We believe all that God has revealed, all that He does now reveal, and we believe that He will yet reveal many great and important things pertaining to the Kingdom of God.

While God does reveal various things, the message of the Kingdom has been fully presented.  We already have all that we need to know.

10. We believe in the literal gathering of Israel and in the restoration of the Ten Tribes; that Zion (the New Jerusalem) will be built upon the American continent; that Christ will reign personally upon the earth; and, that the earth will be renewed and receive its paradisiacal glory.

I have no idea what will happen with the Ten Tribes, I doubt very much that New Jerusalem will be in America and as for where it is built, it is built in heaven and descends to earth (Revelation 21:2).  The last part of the statement regarding the remaking of the earth I agree with.

11. We claim the privilege of worshiping Almighty God according to the dictates of our own conscience, and allow all men the same privilege, let them worship how, where, or what they may.

Agreed.

12. We believe in being subject to kings, presidents, rulers, and magistrates, in obeying, honoring, and sustaining the law.

Sounds good as long we are not commanded to go against our faith.

13. We believe in being honest, true, chaste, benevolent, virtuous, and in doing good to all men; indeed, we may say that we follow the admonition of Paul-We believe all things, we hope all things, we have endured many things, and hope to be able to endure all things. If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy, we seek after these things.

This is very good as long as we do not think that this earns our salvation.

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