5 Reasons to Prefer Christianity to Mormonism

• John Vandivier

I've just completed reading through the Book of Mormon, and this article kicks off a series of articles that will collectively describe both some of the things I like about Mormonism and also some of the issues I have with it. This article begins with five reasons, but this list is hardly comprehensive. It's simply a starting point.

I. A Note on Non-LDS Mormonism

Over ninety-eight percent of Mormons are members of the LDS Church, and more than one and a half percent of Mormons are members of the RLDS Church. For these reasons, I will now briefly make two important notes about the RLDS Church. In later sections, I will then equivocate between the LDS Church and Mormonism:

  1. The RLDS Church is trinity-affirming and accepts a non-literal reading of the Book of Mormon and other Mormon revelations. As such, it might be easier to fold back in with traditional Christianity.
  2. The RLDS Church is affirmed by Joseph Smith III, which gives this branch a strong claim to scriptural authenticity under the same Mormon scriptures that LDS members claim affirm Joseph Smith II.

II. Ironmanning Christianity

For the sake of this article, I will be optimizing with respect to Pascal's Wager, which can be done by selecting a subset of Christian denominations and doctrines to defend.

Specifically, I'm defending a roughly Sola Fide form of Christianity, which seems accepted by about half of protestants. Despite the poll data, I believe that most protestants, as well as many Roman Catholics and Eastern Orthodox believers, would come to agree with my point here within minutes of discussing the edge case of the Penitent Thief.

In addition to affirming salvation by faith alone, the iron-manned form of Christianity used in this comparison will also affirm Eternal Security. We see that these two doctrines combine to make winning Pascal's Wager rather straightforward under this kind of Iron Christianity.

III. Issues with LDS Mormonism

  1. Mormonism is a strict loser to Protestant Christianity under Pascal's Wager
    1. Note this 2009 message from Apostle Jeffrey Holland, a high member of Mormon leadership, called Safety for the Soul. It will be reference throughout the issues.
    2. In this message, Apostle Holland states that the elect can be deceived by the wicked one. This raises at least four issues:
      1. In a broad swath of protestant
  2. Mormon leaders are poor exegetes of their own scripture.
  3. Mormonism lacks internal consistency.
    1. This is true in several ways, but a key issue will be the view of the Trinity:
      1. A plain reading of the Book of Mormon agrees with the doctrine of the Trinity. See, for example,
  4. Mormonism lacks external validity.
    1. Historical and archealogical evidence is a huge problem here. Most of the Book of Mormon describes the Nephites and the Lamanites, among several other groups.
    2. Cosmology and philosophy are a unique problem for Mormonism.
      1. Typically these fields would be to the benefit of the Christian.
      2. The Kalam Cosmological Argument argues for God's existence from the finite past.
      3. Unusual among self-identified Christian denominations, Mormonism rejects the finite past and argues for a non-transcendental God with a physical body.
      4. A seperate but related problem is the infinite regress of gods in Mormonism. In Mormonism, there is no concept of a monadic God as first mover, creator of all, and so on. Mormons regard physical matter as eternal (D&C 93).
  5. Mormon leaders are poor exegetes of their own scripture.
  6. Mormonism