Dallas Jenkins has brought a great deal of attention to Mormonism by his claim that his practicing Mormon friends worship the same Jesus as evangelical Christians. To read more about his claims, see Amazing Contradictions: Dallas Jenkins and The Chosen.
In this devotion, I'd like to address a foundational difference between Christianity and Mormonism: their beliefs about God's Word.
Even though Mormons typically read and quote from the KJV, their founder claimed that his Joseph Smith Translation (JST) was the only reliable translation of the Bible.
It should be no surprise that in the JST, Genesis 50:33 contains a prophecy of Smith’s birth.
The changes Smith made to the original texts "have no connection to the actual Greek and Hebrew scriptures of the Bible whatsoever." (Source)
Of course, we know that Smith's translation is a hoax because God didn't let His people depend on a corrupted Bible for thousands of years waiting for Joseph Smith to come along and set things straight.
Scripture warns us to test the spirits because there always have been and always will be false teachers.
1 John 4:1: Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.
1 Timothy 4:1: The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons.
I'm grateful that our God has preserved His Word for all time and has is not limited by human beings who die or mis-translate it. Instead, He assures us that "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away" (Matthew 24:35).
Please understand: Joseph Smith is the founder of the LDS (Mormon) church. He is the man who defined the Mormon faith, including the Mormon Jesus. Mormonism is not simply a different denomination. It's a false religion that uses Christian symbols, names, and parts of our Scripture. Mormons deny the Trinity, and their version of Jesus is not the Jesus described in the Bible.
Let's pray for our Mormon friends and relatives that they will know the Truth and the truth will set them free from false books and false doctrines.
And let's pray for Dallas Jenkins that he will quit assuring Mormons they worship the same Jesus as Christians. If you are trusting Jenkins to accurately portray Christ in The Chosen, you are trusting a man who does not have enough discernment to recognize enormous blasphemies in the Mormon descriptions of Christ.
Note: Jenkins clarified his original statement by saying that not all Mormons are Christians just as not all evangelical Christians are Christians. But he maintained his claim that his practicing Mormon friends worship the same Jesus he worships.
Read more here:
Did Joseph Smith Finish His Translation of the Bible? This article addresses the excuse Mormons give for the enormous errors in the JST.
Mormon Research Ministry: The Joseph Smith Translation of the Bible.
The Book of Mormon is their "Word of God" Despite the JST of the Bible, Mormons claim that their most important book is the Book of Mormon. See more on that in this short devotion.
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