Mormonism Has Another Jesus?

This is a letter I wrote and sent a couple of years ago while living near Lexington, Virginia. I never received a response or acknowledgment of any sort.

I might add, I tried to use the same sort of rhetoric and judgment passing that their tract contained in sort of a mocking way. I don't know if it really came through.

Enjoy.

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Fellowship Tract League
P.O. Box 164
Lebanon, OH 45036

May 28, 2006

To Whom It May Concern:

“Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.” Thus God’s voice thundered from Mount Sinai. I write this to you in a spirit of meekness, kindness and out of pure love. As custodians of the truth of God, at times it is expedient to reprove the sinful actions of others out of love and concern for the salvation of their souls. It is in this spirit that I write this letter to you. As followers of Christ, I am confident that you will take the time to read and respond to this letter.

Yesterday, May 27, I discovered a tract published by the Fellowship Tract League on the shelf at a local business entitled “Mormonism has Another Jesus.” It is an unfortunate and misguided attempt to explain the basic tenets of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and to arouse feelings of hatred and misunderstanding towards Mormons. I will here address a few of the many inconsistencies and false witness found in this tract. You may believe Mormonism to be a false religion, and it is by all means your right to preach against it, but I believe it to be sinful to do so by purposeful manipulation of the facts and through lies.

The overall tone of the tract is degrading. The first three words exemplify that fact. There is no organization on the face of the earth named “The Mormon Church.” The proper name of the church is The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In order to be more scholarly and less degrading, it would be proper to reverse the word order of the sentence from “The Mormon church (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints)” to “The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (or the Mormons).”

The second paragraph says that the LDS Church denies the virgin birth and that the Holy Ghost begot Christ. Latter-day Saints do reject that the Holy Ghost begot Christ, but they do not reject the virgin birth. The scriptures cited in the tract (Matt. 1:18-25, Luke 1:26-35) do not say the Holy Ghost begot Christ. That the Holy Ghost played an important role in the process is made clear, but the scripture says that Christ is the “Son of God” and “the Son of the Highest.” Latter-day Saints reject that the Holy Ghost was Christ’s Father and accept the clear statement of scripture that the Highest, the Most High God was Christ’s Father. Surely we are not in disagreement concerning this thing

The pamphlet quotes Mormon Doctrine by Bruce R. McConkie in an attempt to support the unfounded statement that “the Mormon Jesus was begotten by a sexual relationship between Mary and God the Father.” However, under “Virgin Birth” in Mormon Doctrine we find the following statement:

Our Lord is the only mortal person ever born to a virgin...Modernistic teachings denying the virgin birth are utterly and completely apostate and false (Mormon Doctrine, 822).

As you can clearly see Mormons do not believe that the Father and Mary had sexual relations. She was a virgin and any other teachings are considered “utterly and completely apostate and false.” Now, the tract says Mormons believe otherwise. Is this done in ignorance of the clear and unequivocal statement found under “Virgin Birth” in Mormon Doctrine? If it is not done in ignorance, then the author of the tract is purposefully baring false witness against his neighbor. If it was done in ignorance, then the error has now been brought to your attention and you are compelled to correct it or you will now be baring false witness with full knowledge of the truth. I call upon you to correct the tract and/or repent or you will be held responsible before Almighty God.

The tract continues to be deceitful when it states, “to a Mormon, Jesus is merely ‘an important member of the Godhead.’” The obvious use of the word “merely” is to imply that Mormons reject that Christ is fully divine or that He is God. However, this is not true. The use of quotation marks makes it appear to be some sort of a citation of a LDS reference, however it is not. However, this is clearly not the case.

The Book of Mormon states in very clear terms that “JESUS is the CHRIST, the ETERNAL GOD” (Title page), “the Lord Omnipotent who reigneth, who was, and is from all eternity to all eternity” (Mosiah 3:5), “The Father of heaven and earth, the Creator of all things from the beginning” (Mosiah 3:8), “the very Eternal Father of heaven and of earth,” (Mosiah 15:4) and “God himself” (Mosiah 15:1), etc.

The tract then compares the events, such as the earthquakes and storms, surrounding Christ’s death and resurrection in the land of Jerusalem and Israel with those events mentioned in the Book of Mormon that took place in the Americas. Obviously they are talking about two different places. It is a well established and scientific fact that everyone knows that you can have massive earthquakes, storms, fires, tornadoes, etc in one part of the world while the another part of the world might be passing through a time of complete peace and prosperity. There is no conflict in the two accounts for any rational and intelligent human being. This is a rather pathetic attempt to slander the Book of Mormon account in an illogical way in order to promote further misunderstanding. Once again, this is baring false witness.

There are many more things that could be said and written about this tract. It is nothing less than lies, slander, and misrepresentation in print. The Jesus of the Bible spent his time lifting up those around him, caring for their burdens and bringing them peace. This tract represents, ultimately, a different Jesus than the Jesus of the Bible. It is full of hatred, lies, and is a poor attempt to tear down the religion of another. Have you not anything to offer? Wouldn’t it be better to offer what you have in an attempt to save the souls of man than to tear down what others have? In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Jesus of the Bible, I call you to repentance or my testimony will stand as a bright witness against you at the day of the great white throne judgment. May you repent and may God have mercy on you is my humble and heartfelt prayer.

In Jesus’ Name,

(signed) Andrew Miller

PS. Please feel free to respond. I sincerely hope that you will correct the tract’s errors or to stop printing it. If not, lest I bear witness to God at the last day that you are guilty of false witness against my beliefs, please try to justify what the pamphlet says. Further, don’t try to tell me what I believe. I know what I believe. My beliefs, as a Latter-day Saint, are not accurately represented in the tract.