Are you a part of the true ‘body’ of Christ?
Paul continues to highlight for the Colossian believers who Jesus is – “And He is the head of the body, the church; Who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything.” (Colossians 1: 18)
Ephesians 4:4 teaches us – “There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all.” (Ephesians 4: 4)
Paul taught the Corinthians – “For even as the body is one and yet has many members, and all the members of the body, though they are many, are one body, so also is Christ. For also by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.” (1 Corinthians 12: 12-13)
The church was spiritually ‘born’ at Pentecost – “And gathering them together, He commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, ‘Which,’ He said, ‘you heard of from Me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.’” (Acts 1: 4-5)
From the John MacArthur Study Bible – “The church, the spiritual body of Christ, is formed as believers are immersed by Christ with the Holy Spirit. Christ is the baptizer who immerses each believer with the Spirit into unity with all other believers. Paul is not writing of water baptism. That outward sign depicts the believer’s union with Christ in His death and resurrection. Similarly, all believers are also immersed into the body of Christ by means of the Holy Spirit. Paul’s point is to emphasize the unity of believers. There cannot be any believer who has not been Spirit-baptized, nor can there be more than one Spirit baptism, or the whole point of unity in the body of Christ is convoluted. Believers have all been Spirit-baptized and thus are all in one body.” (MacArthur, 1524)
In order to be a part of the one and only true church of God, we must become a part of the spiritual ‘body’ of Christ. We learn from Romans – “However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him. But if Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.” (Romans 8: 9-11)
MacArthur’s commentary on Colossians 1: 18 – “Paul uses the human body as a metaphor for the church, of which Christ serves as the ‘head.’ Just as a body is controlled from the brain, so Christ controls every part of the church and gives it life and direction…The church had its origins in the Lord Jesus and He gave life to the church through His sacrificial death and resurrection to become its Sovereign.” (MacArthur, 1601)
From Grudem’s Systematic Theology – “The term ‘Arianism’ is derived from Arius (d. 336), a presbyter (elder) of the church in Alexandria whose views were condemned at the Council of Nicaea in AD 325. Arius taught that God the Son was at one point ‘created by God the Father,’ and that before that time the Son did not exist, nor did the Holy Spirit, but the Father only. Thus, though the Son is a heavenly being who existed before the rest of creation and who is far greater than all the rest of creation, he is still not equal to the Father in all his attributes – he may even be said to be ‘like the Father’ or ‘similar to the Father’ in his nature, but he cannot be said to be ‘of the same nature’ as the Father, according to Arian teaching.” (Grudem, 285) Grudem continues – “In response to Arianism, church leaders who defended the full deity of the Son concluded that whatever ‘only begotten’ means in John 3: 16 and elsewhere, it cannot mean ‘created’ but must refer to something in the eternal relationship between the Father and the Son.” (Grudem, 286)
In response to the Arian ‘heresy,’ the church fathers established the Nicene Creed in AD 325 to affirm that Christ was ‘begotten, not made.’ (Grudem, 287)
When Joseph Smith founded Mormonism, he claimed to have a vision of two people – God the Father, and Jesus Christ. He claimed he was told not to join any church because all of their creeds were an abomination. As a Mormon I was taught that the Nicene Creed was not true. However, through my study of theology over the past seventeen years, I see the error Joseph Smith taught.
The Nicene Creed states – “I believe in one God the Father Almighty; Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible. And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds, God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father; by whom all things were made; who, for us men and for our salvation, came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary, and was made man; and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate; he suffered and was buried; and the third day he rose again, according to the Scriptures; and ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of the Father; and he shall come again, with glory, to judge both the quick and the dead; whose kingdom shall have no end. And in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of Life; who proceedeth from the Father and the Son; who with the Father and the Son together is worshiped and glorified; who spake by the Prophets. And one Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church. I acknowledge one Baptism for the remission of sins; and I look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen.” (Grudem, 326)
Jesus was miraculously born without an earthly father. He was born of a virgin. Mormonism denies the virgin birth because of their teaching that God, the Father had a body and that Mary had relations with Him. Mormon theology began with Joseph Smith. He claimed to be a prophet of God. Mormons believe Joseph Smith was a very ‘righteous’ man. Historical evidence completely repudiates this. Joseph Smith was a practicing occultist.
If Mormons would do a serious study about who Joseph Smith really was and how he started Mormonism, they would doubt the theology of the church he began. Many Mormons today realize they have been lied to about how Mormonism began. I would challenge those active in Mormonism today to study the differences in how Mormonism began and how its theology was formed and New Testament biblical Christianity.
Personally, I have been studying biblical Christianity for the past seventeen years after having been a Mormon for thirty years. From the research I have done, the theological foundations of Mormonism are fraught with ignorance and heresy. No doubt it is a very large and wealthy international organization that began in America during the early 1800’s, but in our world today of instant access to historic information and documentation, it is not difficult to determine its foundation was completely fraudulent.
I challenge the Mormon prophet, apostles, and other Mormon leaders, including BYU professors to take a critical look at their historical theological foundation. Should you base your eternal life on early Mormon leaders’ theology? Would you consider that the Bible, including both the Old and New Testament has everything you need to develop a personal theology of Jesus Christ? I challenge you to lay aside your Mormon Scriptures and prayerfully study the New Testament.
REFERENCES:
Grudem, Wayne A. Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine. Zondervan, 2000.
The McArthur Study Bible, 2nd Edition. 2020. Thomas Nelson.
https://clearlyreformed.org/7-reasons-why-mormonism-and-christianity-are-not-the-same
https://blog.atriresearch.org/articles/the-mormon-view-of-jesus
