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Mormonism and Christianity/Grace and works/Impossible Gospel
< Mormonism and Christianity | Grace and works
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Contents
- 1 Evangelicals use quotes from Mormon sources to try and paint a picture of an "impossible gospel"
- 1.1 Quick Navigation
- 1.2 Question: Do Mormon scriptures portray an "impossible gospel" in which nobody can be saved?
- 1.3 Non-LDS Christian Stephen H. Webb: Joseph Smith does not reject the efficacy or necessity of grace
- 1.4 Question: Is it impossible to receive the grace of Jesus Christ so long as we are sinning?
Evangelicals use quotes from Mormon sources to try and paint a picture of an "impossible gospel"
- Question: Do Mormon scriptures portray an "impossible gospel" in which nobody can be saved?
- Non-LDS Christian Stephen H. Webb: Joseph Smith does not reject the efficacy or necessity of grace
- Question: Is it impossible to receive the grace of Jesus Christ so long as we are sinning?
Question: Do Mormon scriptures portray an "impossible gospel" in which nobody can be saved?
A recent approach that Evangelicals have taken in preaching to Mormons is to use quotes from LDS sources to try and paint a picture of an "impossible gospel" that doesn't save anyone from their sins
A recent popular approach that Evangelicals have taken in preaching to Mormons is to use quotes from LDS sources to try and paint a picture of an "impossible gospel" that doesn't save anyone from their sins. They argue that various passages in LDS scriptures and comments from LDS leaders indicate that salvation is only attainable if we keep all of the commandments and forsake all sin. Since nobody does that, the argument goes, Mormonism is a gospel in which nobody can logically be saved.
Latter-day Saint leaders make it clear that we cannot achieve perfection in this life
Neal A. Maxwell:
In a kingdom where perfection is an eventual expectation, our feelings of anxiety and inadequacy should not surprise us. Just as earlier disciples were anxious and even "astonished" as Jesus taught certain demanding doctrines (Mark 10:28), so today there is really no way present prophets can describe where we must yet go without creating a sense of distance. We are not merely journeying next door or even across town. - Neal A. Maxwell, Notwithstanding My Weakness (Salt Lake City, Utah: Deseret Book Company, 1981), 1
Neal A. Maxwell:
Some may still say, "I know I am not doing all I could, so how could what I am doing be enough?" Ah, but that is not the real question. The real question is, "Why should I desire more than to perform the work to which I have been called?" (Alma 29:6.) That is the question—for a mother, son, home teacher, Young Woman's leader, elders quorum president, or neighbor. The task is, therefore, to perform in one's callings. On that score each of us should seek to do more. But it is not another task we should seek! [ Neal A. Maxwell, We Will Prove Them Herewith (Salt Lake City, Utah: Deseret Book, 1982), 53.
Non-LDS Christian Stephen H. Webb: Joseph Smith does not reject the efficacy or necessity of grace
Non-LDS Christian Stephen H. Webb wrote:[1]
Two corrections of common misrepresentations of Smith’s theology need to be made at this point. First, Mormons are often charged with denying the efficacy of grace and thus making salvation dependent upon the exercise of the individual’s free will. All theologians use the language of effort, reform, and growth, so this is not a fair charge.... In any case, Smith describes the process of sanctification as being “from grace to grace.” Rather than replicating Pelagianism, Smith is siding with that aspect of the Christian tradition best represented by Thomas Aquinas, which says we can and must cooperate with divine grace in order to permit it to actualize our potential for divinization. [2]:96–97
Question: Is it impossible to receive the grace of Jesus Christ so long as we are sinning?
We can be cleansed of our sins through Jesus Christ, and thereby be capable of being saved
Critics interpret Alma 11:37 to mean that we cannot receive the grace of Jesus Christ so long as we are sinning. Since we are all sinners, according to their argument, this would mean that nobody can receive the grace of Jesus Christ.
Critics misuse this text by misinterpreting the word "saved" to mean something it does not. Amulek taught that we cannot be saved (enter into God's kingdom) in our sins. He then taught that we can be cleansed of our sins through Jesus Christ, and thereby be capable of being saved (entering into God's kingdom).
This passage comes in the context of a debate that Amulek, a Nephite minister and companion of Alma, is having with a lawyer named Zeezrom. Zeezrom first tempts Amulek with money if Amulek will deny the existence of a "Supreme Being". Amulek refuses, and Zeezrom continues with various questions about God and his purpose with mankind.
At one point in their discussion Zeezrom asks the following question to Alma (Alma 11꞉34):
34 And Zeezrom said again: Shall he save his people in their sins? And Amulek answered and said unto him: I say unto you he shall not, for it is impossible for him to deny his word.
Later, in verse 37 Amulek makes it clear that he interprets Zeezrom's question to be whether a person can enter into heaven if they still are burdened down by sin. Amulek equates "saved" with "inherit the kingdom of heaven" in this passage. So, a person cannot be "saved", or, enter into God's kingdom, if they have not somehow been cleansed from their sins.
Alma 11꞉37 reads:
37 And I say unto you again that he cannot save them in their sins; for I cannot deny his word, and he hath said that no unclean thing can inherit the kingdom of heaven; therefore, how can ye be saved, except ye inherit the kingdom of heaven? Therefore, ye cannot be saved in your sins.
Critics misinterpret the word "saved" in this passage by reading it through their fundamentalistic Protestant lenses. They assume that "saved" refers to the cleansing act of Christ's atonement. Thus, when they read this passage they interpret it to mean that a person cannot be cleansed by Christ's atonement so long as they are committing sin.
But that is not what the term "saved" means in Alma 11:37, as Amulek makes clear. Amulek has in mind the entering into God's kingdom. Nobody can enter into God's kingdom if they are burdened by the effects of sin. Something must be done in order to remove that taint. Amulek explains how in verse 40 (Alma 11꞉40):
40 And he shall come into the world to redeem his people; and he shall take upon him the transgressions of those who believe on his name; and these are they that shall have eternal life, and salvation cometh to none else.
To enter into God's kingdom, or "eternal life", one must first be cleansed of transgression by believing on the name of Jesus Christ. That is the gospel of the LDS Church.
Index to criticisms about the "Impossible Gospel" of Mormonism
Criticisms about the "impossible gospel" of Mormonism stem from their reading of the following passages. Click on them to find the page that discusses them.
Moroni 10:32
D&C 25:15-16
Notes
- ↑ "Webb is Professor of Philosophy and Religion at Wabash College in Crawfordsville, Indiana. He is a graduate of Wabash College and earned his PhD at the University of Chicago before returning to his alma mater to teach. Born in 1961 he grew up at Englewood Christian Church, an evangelical church. He joined the Disciples of Christ during He was briefly a Lutheran, and on Easter Sunday, 2007, he officially came into full communion with the Roman Catholic Church."
- ↑ Stephen H. Webb, "Godbodied: The Matter of the Latter-day Saints (reprint from his book Jesus Christ, Eternal God: Heavenly Flesh and the Metaphysics of Matter (Oxford University Press, 2012)," Brigham Young University Studies 50 no. 3 (2011).