Mike Lee Wants Us to Read the Book of Mormon. Fine. I Have a Different Challenge.
The recent controversy surrounding Senator Mike Lee and the Pentagon has managed to reopen one of the oldest theological disputes in America. Reports emerged that a military religious classification system had categorized Mormonism separately from Christianity. Lee objected. Other Latter-day Saints objected. Soon the familiar arguments returned to the surface.
Then came Lee’s challenge.
The problem is that Lee is answering a question nobody is asking. The debate has never been whether Mormons believe in a person named Jesus Christ. The debate has always been about who Jesus Christ actually is. That distinction changes everything.
Muslims believe in Jesus. Jehovah’s Witnesses believe in Jesus. Various cults throughout history have believed in Jesus. Countless false religions have attached themselves to the name of Jesus while teaching doctrines that would have made the apostles tear their garments in horror.
The mere use of a name proves absolutely nothing. The issue is identity.
Who is Jesus?
That is the question. It is the question that dominated the New Testament. It is the question that produced the great creeds of the church. It is the question that fueled centuries of theological battles.
It is the question that separates Christianity from every counterfeit religion that has ever borrowed Christian vocabulary while quietly replacing Christian doctrine.
The earliest heretics did not arrive announcing that they rejected Jesus. They claimed to honor Him. They claimed to follow Him. They claimed to possess deeper knowledge about Him. But what they offered was a different Christ altogether.
The apostles understood this danger well. Paul did not simply warn against abandoning Jesus. He warned against receiving “another Jesus” and “another gospel.” John wrote warnings against deceivers who distorted the truth concerning Christ. The church fathers spent generations fighting heretical doctrines that used Christian language while smuggling entirely different beliefs into the faith.
Heresy has always operated this way. It borrows the vocabulary of Scripture but changes the definitions. That is exactly why Christians have historically measured all religious claims against Scripture rather than against self-description.
If a man tells me he is a doctor, I do not simply accept the claim because he says so. I examine his credentials. If a man tells me he is a police officer, I do not simply accept the claim because he says so. I examine his authority, I ask to see his badge.
And if a religion tells me it follows Jesus Christ, I do not simply accept the claim because it says so. I examine its doctrine.
The question is not what a group calls itself. The question is whether its teachings align with the revelation God has given concerning His Son. This is where the entire Mormon argument begins to collapse.
Before we ever examine Joseph Smith—before we ever examine Brigham Young or even the Book of Mormon—we must first establish who Jesus is according to Scripture itself. The book of Hebrews provides one of the clearest descriptions in all of Scripture.
Hebrews opens by telling us that God has spoken finally and decisively through His Son. This Son is not presented as a lesser deity. He is not presented as a highly exalted creature. He is not presented as a man who progressed into godhood. He is not presented as one god among many gods. The author says that God made all things through Him.
He says that Christ is the radiance of God’s glory. He says that Christ is the exact imprint of God’s nature. He says that Christ upholds the universe by the word of His power. He says that angels worship Him. He applies Old Testament passages concerning Yahweh directly to Him. Most devastating of all, Hebrews chapter one quotes Psalm 102 and applies it to Christ:
“You, Lord, laid the foundation of the earth in the beginning, and the heavens are the work of your hands.”
The Son is not part of creation. The Son is the Creator.
The Son is not a product of the universe. The universe is a product of the Son.
The Son is not progressing toward deity. The Son possesses deity eternally.
The Son is not one god among countless others. The Son is the eternal God through whom all things exist.
This historic doctrine and understanding did not originate at Nicaea nor at Chalcedon. The creeds simply articulated what Scripture already taught. When the Nicene Creed declared Christ to be “God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made,” it was a defense and affirmation of Hebrews and the rest of Scripture.
When Chalcedon declared Christ to be one person possessing two natures without confusion, change, division, or separation, it was defending Scripture. The historic church did not invent these doctrines. The church recognized them. The church defended them. The church preserved them because the alternative was to abandon Christianity itself.
Now compare that Christ with the Jesus of Mormon theology. The differences are not minor or secondary offenses nor are they merely denominational. The differences strike at the very identity of God Himself.
Mormonism’s founder, Joseph Smith, taught that God the Father was once a man who lived on another world. Smith famously declared:
“God himself was once as we are now, and is an exalted man.”
Brigham Young and later Mormon leaders expanded this framework into a vast cosmology of exaltation, eternal progression, and godhood. Within that system, God was not always God. He became God.
Jesus was not eternally what He is. He progressed.
Human beings can ultimately do the same. Faithful Mormons can become gods. They can participate in the same process. They can inherit divine status. They can continue the pattern.
Stop and think about what that means. If God the Father became God, who was God before Him? If there was a God before Him, who was God before that God? And before that one? And before that one?
The system creates an endless chain of gods stretching backward without beginning. An infinite genealogy of deities and an eternal pyramid scheme of godhood, with each god having his own god, each father-god having another father-god, and each generation reaching backward forever.
Meanwhile Scripture stands in direct opposition to such speculation. Isaiah records God’s declaration:
“Before me no god was formed, nor shall there be any after me.”
That is pretty straightforward, it seems to me. No gods before Him. No gods after Him. No divine ancestry. No future deities. No celestial family tree. No eternal chain of exalted men becoming gods.
The God of Scripture does not discover divinity. He possesses it eternally. He does not ascend into godhood—he exists eternally as God. He does not inherit His throne—he possesses it by nature. This distinction matters because the Mormon system ultimately diminishes God while simultaneously inflating man.
Biblical Christianity teaches that God became man by taking on flesh. But Mormonism teaches that man can become God. Those are not remotely the same message. One magnifies divine grace while the other magnifies human exaltation. And one reveals the infinite distance between Creator and creature while the other steadily erases that distinction until the categories themselves begin to collapse.
The deeper a person digs into Mormon theology, the more apparent the divide becomes. The problem is not just that Mormonism teaches unusual things. Every religion teaches unusual things. The problem is that Mormonism teaches things about God, Christ, and reality itself that directly contradict the plain testimony of Scripture.
This is where most Mormons, like Mike Lee, become frustrated with evangelical criticism. They often insist that critics focus on obscure teachings while ignoring the central role Jesus plays in Mormon devotion. Yet the doctrines being discussed are not obscure. They flow directly from the very structure of Mormon theology itself.
If God the Father was once a man who became God, then deity is not eternal in the biblical sense. If human beings can become gods, then the distinction between Creator and creature becomes temporary rather than absolute. If countless gods exist throughout the cosmos, then biblical monotheism gives way to something far closer to polytheism.
That is not a caricature. That is simply following the Mormon system to its logical conclusion.
The true God of Scripture is categorically different from everything He has made. He does not belong to creation. He does not share an essence with creation. He does not exist on the same ladder as creation.
He is God.
Everything else is not.
The entire Bible rests upon that distinction. Genesis opens with it. The prophets defend it. The apostles proclaim it. The book of Revelation concludes with it. The line between Creator and creature is unmistakable in Scripture. It is never softened, negotiated, or crossed.
Yet Mormon theology repeatedly crosses it and the result is a radically different universe than the one described in Scripture.
The differences become even more pronounced when examining Mormon teachings concerning the origins of Jesus Himself. Historic Christianity teaches that Christ is the eternally begotten Son of God. He did not come into existence. He has always existed. There was never a moment when He was not.
John begins his Gospel by declaring, “In the beginning was the Word.”
Not “came into being.”
Not “was created.”
Not “was born.”
Was.
Before creation existed, the Son already existed. Before time existed, the Son already existed. Before the first atom, the first angel, the first star, the first moment, the Son already existed.
This is why Christ can say, “Before Abraham was, I am.” He’s not simply asserting seniority over Abraham. He claims the divine name itself. The Jews understood exactly what He was saying, which is why they immediately picked up stones.
Mormon theology cannot accommodate this understanding because Mormon theology places Christ within a larger framework of spirit offspring. Traditional LDS teaching has taught that Jesus is the spirit child of Heavenly Father and Heavenly Mother. Within that same framework, all human beings are likewise spirit children. The distinction becomes one of degree rather than kind.
In their view, Christ becomes our elder brother. The implications are impossible to miss. The eternal Son of Hebrews becomes a spirit offspring. The uncreated Creator becomes part of a larger genealogical chain. The One who spoke galaxies into existence becomes a participant within a cosmic family structure that precedes Him.
The Christ of Scripture cannot be squeezed into such a system without fundamentally altering His identity.
The problem becomes even more serious when Mormon theology addresses Lucifer.
Historically, Mormon teaching has described both Jesus and Lucifer as spirit offspring of Heavenly Father. Once again, Mormon apologists often rush to clarify the nuances, but the broader framework remains.
Just think about how foreign this sounds to Scripture. The biblical Christ is not one spirit being among many. He is not one member of a heavenly family or one participant among countless pre-existent intelligences. He is the Creator of angels, worshiped by angels, obeyed by angels, and infinitely above angels.
The distance between Christ and Lucifer in Scripture is the distance between Creator and creature. The distance between Christ and Lucifer in Mormon theology becomes something entirely different.
At this point the Mormon may object.
“You’re focusing on technical theology. We still worship Jesus.”
Again, the question returns. Which Jesus? The Jesus who is eternally God or the Jesus who progressed within a system of exaltation?
The Jesus who created all things or the Jesus who exists within an endless chain of divine beings?
The Jesus who shares eternally in the one divine essence or the Jesus who is one god among many gods?
These are not small differences. These are not secondary issues. These are not denominational disagreements comparable to disputes over baptism, church government, or eschatology. These doctrines strike directly at the identity of Christ Himself.
This is precisely why Christians throughout history have rejected similar distortions regardless of where they originated.
Jehovah’s Witnesses speak of Jesus while denying His full deity.
Muslims speak of Jesus while denying His crucifixion and divine Sonship.
Rabbinic Judaism speaks of Jesus while denying that He is the promised Messiah and eternal Lord.
Each system may preserve certain truths but they reject the most fundamental truths of His identity. Each system reconstructs Jesus according to its own theological framework. Each system ultimately presents a Christ who differs from the Christ revealed in Scripture.
Mormonism belongs in that category.
The issue is not sincerity. Many Mormons are sincere. The issue is not morality. Many Mormons are good, decent, caring people. The issue is not family values. Many Mormons possess strong family values. A lot of that is undeniable, however you want to take it.
The issue is truth.
The issue is whether the Christ proclaimed by Mormonism is the same Christ revealed by God.
Once the doctrines are laid side by side, the answer becomes increasingly difficult to avoid. The Jesus of Mormonism bears the name of Christ. The Jesus of Scripture bears the nature of God.
Those are not interchangeable claims.
So this brings us back to Senator Mike Lee’s challenge.
Read the Book of Mormon. Pray about it. Then determine whether Mormons believe in Jesus Christ.
Very well. I have a challenge of my own. Read Hebrews. Read all thirteen chapters. Read it slowly. Read it carefully. Read it without Joseph Smith whispering in your ear. Read it without Moroni. Read it without Doctrine and Covenants. Read it without the Pearl of Great Price. Read it without the theological baggage of nineteenth-century frontier religion.
Read it on its own terms. Then answer a simple question.
Does the Christ revealed in Hebrews resemble the Christ taught by Mormonism?
The Christ of Hebrews is the One through whom God made the worlds. The Jesus of Mormonism exists within a framework of countless worlds populated by countless gods.
The Christ of Hebrews is the exact imprint of God’s nature. The Jesus of Mormonism exists within a system where God Himself was once a man.
The Christ of Hebrews upholds the universe by the word of His power. The Jesus of Mormonism exists within a cosmos populated by exalted beings progressing toward godhood.
The Christ of Hebrews receives the worship of angels. The Jesus of Mormonism is placed within a larger genealogy of heavenly offspring.
The Christ of Hebrews is addressed by the Father with the words, “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever.” The Jesus of Mormonism ultimately becomes one participant in an endless cycle of divine progression.
The Christ of Hebrews is the same yesterday, today, and forever but the Mormon system is built upon the notion of progression, advancement, and becoming.
The two visions are not compatible and the two Christs cannot be reconciled. One of them must yield to the other.
This is precisely why the early church fought so fiercely against heresy. The battle was never about preserving abstract theological formulas. The battle was about preserving the identity of Christ Himself—and the battle continues to rage on today.
A false Christ cannot save.
A diminished Christ cannot save.
A created Christ cannot save.|
A progressing Christ cannot save.
A Christ who stands inside creation rather than over it cannot save.
The entire hope of Christianity rests upon the fact that Jesus hanging upon the cross was none other than God incarnate. Not a god. Not one god among many gods. Not a future god. Not an exalted man. Not a spirit offspring climbing the ladder of celestial advancement.
God.
The eternal Son. The second Person of the Trinity. The Creator entering His creation to redeem His people.
That is why Paul pronounces anathema upon those who preach another gospel, why John warns against deceivers, and why Peter warned that as they deny Christ, they will bring swift destruction upon themselves.
It’s why Jude commands believers to contend for the faith once delivered to the saints.
Truth matters. Doctrine matters. Christ matters.
Far too many people today treat theology as though it were a matter of branding. If the logo says “Jesus,” they assume everything underneath must be essentially the same. But Christianity has never operated that way.
Put a Ford emblem on a Chevy Suburban, it does not become an Excursion. Put a Christian label on a false gospel, and it does not become Christianity.
Words matter because meanings matter. Names matter because identities matter. And nowhere is that more important than with Jesus Christ.
Mike Lee wants Christians to read the Book of Mormon. I want Senator Lee to read Hebrews…and the rest of Scripture. It is all the self-revelatory testimony of the real Jesus. The word made flesh.
Don’t read it selectively, or even devotionally. And certainly don’t read it through the lens of Joseph Smith.
Read it as it stands, let it speak. Let Isaiah speak. Let John speak. Let Paul speak. Let the Scriptures testify concerning the Son. Then compare that testimony to the theology of Mormonism and ask honestly whether they are describing the same person.
The answer becomes increasingly difficult to escape. The Jesus of Mormonism may borrow the vocabulary of Christianity, but the Jesus of Scripture needs no borrowing. He stands alone.
Uncreated. Eternal. Self-existent. Worshiped by angels. Creator of all things visible and invisible. The Alpha and the Omega. The First and the Last. The One before whom every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that He is Lord.
Not one god among many. Not an exalted man. Not the product of celestial progression. The living God. The Christ revealed in Scripture.
And that Christ bears little resemblance to the Jesus Mormonism asks us to accept.
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