Jesus is the Way…
Shortly before His crucifixion, Jesus told His disciples – “’Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. And where I go you know, and the way you know.’” (John 14: 1-4) Jesus spoke words of comfort to the men who had been with Him for the previous three years of His ministry. The disciple Thomas then questioned Jesus – “’Lord, we do not know where You are going, and how can we know the way?’” (John 14: 5) What a unique response Jesus gave to Thomas’s question… “’I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.’” (John 14: 6)
Jesus did not point to a place, but to Himself. Jesus Himself is the way. The religious Jews rejected eternal life when they rejected Jesus. Jesus told them – “’You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me. But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life.’” (John 5: 39-40) John wrote about Jesus – “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, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.” (John 1: 1-4)
The Mormon Jesus is a different Jesus than the Jesus of the New Testament. The Mormon Jesus is a created being. He is the older brother of Lucifer or Satan. The Jesus of the New Testament is God in flesh, not a created being. The Mormon Jesus is one of many gods. The New Testament Jesus is the the Second Person of the Godhead, with there being only one Godhead. The Mormon Jesus resulted from a sexual union between Mary and God the Father. The Jesus of the New Testament was conceived by the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit supernaturally ‘overshadowing’ Mary. The Mormon Jesus worked his way to perfection. The New Testament Jesus was eternally sinless and perfect. The Mormon Jesus earned his own godhood. The Jesus of the New Testament did not require salvation, but was eternally God. (Ankerberg 61)
Those who accept the teachings of Mormonism as true believe the words of Mormon leaders more than they believe the words of the New Testament. Jesus warned the religious Jews – “’I have come in My Father’s name, and you do not receive Me; if another comes in his own name, him you will receive.’” (John 5: 43) If you have accepted the Mormon “gospel,” you have accepted “another” Jesus, a Jesus created by Joseph Smith and other Mormon leaders. Who and what will you trust for your eternal life…these men, or Jesus Himself and His words? Paul’s warning to the Galatians is still true today – “I marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him who called you in the grace of Christ, to a different gospel, which is not another; but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed.” (Gal. 1: 6-8)
REFERENCES:
Ankerberg, John, and John Weldon. Fast Facts on Mormonism. Eugene: Harvest House, 2003.
