In America, we undoubtedly have what’s called a Western Mindset. This is informed by Ancient Greece and Rome (600 BC – 400 AD), medieval ideas (400 – 1600 AD), and modern philosophical movements (1600 – Present).
Those modern philosophical movements are varied, but we can essentially break them into the Enlightenment (1700 – 1850), Modernism (1850 – 1950), and Postmodernism (1950 – Present).
To understand the American false religions that have permeated both our nation and the world, we have to zoom in on the Age of Enlightenment. It was during that time that America was founded. And it was able to be founded partly because enlightenment ideas were breaking people out of the structures of religious institutions.
Results of Enlightenment Thinking
1) Denial of the Bible’s God
During the Enlightenment, we see the development of deism. Deism is the belief that God is not a personal God, but one who created the universe and stepped back. Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Paine were prominent deists among the Founding Fathers.
2) Mocking of Religion
Freemasonry became the first real cult in America, though it wasn’t really a cult yet, because it began as a mockery of organized religion, particularly the Church of England, in which so many of the Founding Fathers were raised. To break out of that, and yet be (or claim to be) God-fearing and religious, they became Masons. Out of the 56 men who signed the Declaration of Independence, nine were Masons. George Washington, Paul Revere, John Hancock, and James Monroe were prominent Freemasons among the Founding Fathers.
In contrast, Robert Williams founded the first Baptist church in America in 1638. He also founded the Providence Plantations, which became the Colony of Rhode Island. He was a staunch advocate of religious freedom, separation of church and state, fair dealings with Native Americans, and one of the first abolitionists.
Most of his contemporaries thought those ideas were a prescription for chaos and anarchy. The majority believed each nation had to have a national church, and had to require that dissenters conform their practices to it. Yet it was Williams’ idea of church-state separation — based on the biblical idea of soul liberty and freedom of conscience — that influenced the American Constitution.
So American democracy was founded as a great political experiment. No one knew if it would really work to reconstitute the Roman Republic of 2000 years ago and seek to create a New World Order from there. But within fifty years of the Declaration of Independence, it was working.
3) Inventing your own Christianity
One thing that was working really well was separation of church and state, which meant there was no state religion. You could belong to any church you wanted instead of being forced into one by the government. So a revival now known as the Second Great Awakening started to spread in America in the 1800s.
Because there was no state religion, there was freedom for true Christians to preach the true gospel and for their hearers to be truly born again. However, because there was no state religion, there was also freedom to start any kind of church you wanted. The Devil decidedly took advantage of that to counterfeit what God was doing.
In western New York in 1820, he started with Joseph Smith’s visions, leading to the invention of Mormonism. Then with William Miller’s prediction of the Second Coming date as 1844, he founded Seventh Day Adventism. And he continued in the 1870s with the movement founded by Charles Taze Russel, now known as Jehovah’s Witnesses.
These are all Homegrown Heresies. The Holy Spirit started moving in the Great Awakening, and a deceitful spirit started countering it. Though the doctrines may seem different among these groups on the surface, the underlying deceptions are the same. This post will use Mormonism as the core discussion, as it’s the first of the major American cults. But the concepts we’ll discuss also apply to other post-enlightenment counterfeit religions like Jehovah’s Witnesses, Seventh-Day Adventists, Grace Communion International, and others.
A Brief History of Mormonism
Mormons started in western New York, Adventists in upstate New York, and Jehovah’s Witnesses headquartered in New York fairly early on. But to avoid confrontations, Mormons moved west to Kirtland, OH. Then they came all the way to Independence, MO, saying that the location of today’s temple is actually the place of the Garden of Eden, and the spot Jesus will return to at his Second Coming.
They hoped to establish a New Jerusalem or City of Zion here. But things like setting up your own religious militia did not set well with Missourians. So they bought a town in Illinois and renamed it Nauvoo. But again there was conflict, Joseph Smith was killed, and now there was a split.
The smaller group followed Joseph Smith III and eventually became the Community of Christ, headquartered in Independence, MO. The larger group followed Brigham Young to the Utah Territory, because no one wanted Utah. But they built their community out of that kind of pioneering journey. This group became The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS).
Though the two groups have grown over time to differ some in certain beliefs and foci, the foundation and history of their beliefs is the same. Both groups still rely on The Book of Mormon as part of their canon of scriptures.
Same Terms, Different Definitions
The Bible has a distinct meaning to its terms which we can easily determine through context-keeping Bible study. Catholicism, Buddhism, and Islam all have their own terms that are not founded in scripture. But when you are dealing with Homegrown Heresies, we tend to use the same terms, just with different definitions.
I could point to a lot of things we seem to share in common with groups like the LDS, but with all of them we have to ask: is it common truth or just common terms? That is what makes things tricky. But while false doctrines can be extremely subtle and insidious, the scriptures define their deception, including what we see in American cults.
Mormonism preserves the Americana of frontier westward expansion. They are smart and industrious businesspeople. And as you work in their religion (as also in JW teaching), you can upgrade your status in eternity. As such, in Mormonism, grace is not defined as the finished work of Christ operating on your behalf as you activate it by faith (Eph 2:8-9). Grace is something God only adds after you do everything you can do. Thus, Mormonism has been called the quintessential American religion. It says you must be good, be American, and be Christian.
We share many values with American cults. Mormons place a high value on human life, whereas many Americans have a higher value for animals than we do for some humans (e.g. partial-birth abortion). Mormons are pro-human, and like Catholics and Muslims, typically have lots of children. Mormons carry a value for children, a value for family, a value for community. A truth you could say we share is that we all believe early Christianity was lost. However, the details of this belief are drastically different between us.
Mormons believe it was lost until Jesus himself appeared to Joseph Smith. As a matter of fact, almost every Homegrown Heresy teaches that the true gospel was lost until their founder rediscovered it. Taking Mormons as an example, Jesus and God told Joe not to join any of the churches at that time of Great Awakening, because God would use him instead to establish the true Christian church.
Then, according to Smith, an angel named Moroni showed him some golden plates with “reformed Egyptian” writing, containing the Book of Mormon. It contained correct doctrine for this restored church. And he could translate that writing using what he called the Urim and Thummim, which were giant eyeglasses, and some special seer stones.
We do not believe primitive Christianity was lost and only recently found. We believe earth’s earliest church continued to exist, but we do believe it is lost in modern church history! After the Roman Empire spent two centuries killing all the converts, the only Christians left were ones who were willing to compromise. So Constantine took what was left of the early church, married it to the pagan priesthoods, gods, and goddesses, and came up with the Imperial Church.
When you read a book on church history, it is almost always invariably a history of the Imperial Church until the Reformation, and not a history of the true church which has always existed, though persecuted. So it is lost in that sense, though kept alive by churches like us.
We and the American cults all believe life must be built around Jesus, but again we are back to the issue of terms versus definitions. We both use the same words, but not the same truth. Mormons would say Jesus is the Son of God. It does not mean the same thing as what we believe, although they say the same words.
In Mormonism, the Father and Son both have perfect physical bodies, and only the Holy Ghost has a spiritual body. And by the way, they are three separate gods in Mormonism (though not so much in the Community of Christ). There is also a Heavenly Mother in the LDS church, though not a lot is said about her. Jehovah's Witnesses take the position of the ancient Arian heresy that there is no trinity, and Jesus is not Almighty God.
A Mormon would say that Jesus’s central act was to die on the cross for the sins of the world. This Jesus of course sounds right. The problem is, it has to be added to. They say that Jesus and his finished work was necessary for salvation, but it is not sufficient for your salvation!
You have to add to it your repentance, baptism, and good works at the temple. And it is only after you have done everything you can do that God will then make up the difference. That is their definition of grace.
Because so many of our beliefs seem similar on the surface, it can take some digging to find the actual belief behind the words used in groups like the Mormons. For instance, we all teach the authority of the Bible. But very much like Islam, in Homegrown Heresies it is never the Bible alone.
Both Islam and Mormonism believe the Bible is a foundational authority, but they both add to it another more recent “revelation”. Islam had the prophet Mohammed to take them further, and the Mormons had Joseph Smith, but also have continuing revelation. Adventists were supplied with Ellen G. White's 2,000 visions.
So, they say the Bible is not sufficient, because it is incomplete. Like Catholicism, they believe in active, progressive revelation. Those are big words that say God tells our leaders new stuff not contained in the Bible. So while they say the Bible is authoritative, they do not really believe in biblical authority the way scripture defines it.
When the Pope speaks ex-cathedra, it is the same as scripture. And when the president of the Mormon church speaks and declares revelation, it is deeper, more special, and supersedes what came before. So there while we share a common intersection with the Bible, there is added material for a Mormon — much added material. The Bible is incomplete because they have added three other sources of scripture.
Extra-Biblical Reliance
The three other sacred books in Mormonism are:
• The Book of Commandments (now called Doctrine and Covenants), which is “revelations and inspired declarations” given to govern the Church of Jesus Christ in the latter days
• The Pearl of Great Price, which is revelations, translations, and writings of Joseph Smith
• The Book of Mormon
Because these each came after the Bible, what they add supersedes it. For reference, this is the new narrative in The Book of Mormon:
When the ten tribes of Israel were lost around 722 BC, some families migrated to America and integrated themselves with the early Native Americans. They were called Nephites, descendants of Nephi, fourth son of the prophet Lehi. And they believed in Jesus Christ hundreds of years before his birth. They believed in him, because Jesus appeared to them, in America, and established a society that approached the ideals of Zion.
So, they say Mormonism started here in America, long before Christianity started in the Middle East. So, according to these writings from the 1800s, Jesus has always had a special focus on America since long before much of the Bible was penned.
Now, a lot of Christianity today, even some Baptist pastors, do the same. Mormonism salts its theology with our country’s founding documents, because Mormons say the Declaration of Independence and Constitution were inspired by God. Even some pastors today will call both the Bible and the Declaration of Independence sacred documents. Maybe those who say that mean it differently than Mormons, but either way we know the Bible is the only inspired word of God and the only Holy Book.
Losing Sight of the Jews
Mormons equate America — and what Jesus supposedly founded here before he showed up in Palestine — as the true Israel. Of course, this isn’t a teaching exclusive to Mormonism. Grace Communion International (formerly Worldwide Church of God) teaches British-Israelism, meaning the ten lost tribes migrated through Europe, to England, and over to America, and so America is really the true Israel. Black Hebrew Israelites believe the Bible was talking about them when it referred to God’s people going into slavery, and that they are the true Israel.
Anyone who tells you to check bloodlines because the Rothschilds down the street are not really Jews is antisemitic, because they do not believe Israel today is the true Israel. Neither does “Bible Answer Man” Hank Hanegraaf. Neither do Catholic or Reformed theologians, who teach that the church replaces Israel.
Can you see how the Devil has a central deception he wants you to buy into, in contrast to rightly dividing your Bible and understanding sound theology and biblical doctrine? Because if you lose the Jews, you lose the key to the Second Coming.
Mormonism has said America is at the core of God’s plan. This is where Jesus came, this is where he established Zion. Independence, MO is where paradise was and where Jesus will return. America is the epicenter of God’s activity in the universe, and the Mormon temple is the corkscrew he will step back on.
What a slander against God’s people and God’s plan. But this is possible because of the true origins of their beliefs about God and his plans for humanity.
Pay No Mind to the Devil Behind the Curtain
Joseph Smith sees an angel, receives some tablets, translates a new sacred book. I believe God can speak to any lost person at any time, through any means to direct them to the gospel or to someone who will give them the gospel. But what happened with Joseph Smith and others, like Ellen G. White, is a very different thing. Let’s let the Bible call it like it is:
Galatians 1:6 I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel: 7 Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ. 8 But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.
1 Timothy 4:1 Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils;
These additions to the gospel are defined in the Bible as perversions which at their core are doctrines of devils. How can we be sure this is true of the additions of Mormonism? Well, what is the ultimate goal of humanity from the Mormon perspective? Check this:
Joseph Smith taught the following idea in Nauvoo, and the fifth president of their church, Lorenzo Snow, put it concisely: “As man now is, God once was; as God now is, man may be.” In Mormonism, God was once a mortal who lived on planet earth. He died but merited being resurrected and glorified, and grew into his deified status. And any other human can one day be a god in this way.
Talk about human potential! Human beings were spirits of intelligence, the same species as God. But there was a revolt and Lucifer broke out of the system, and took a third of those entities with him to earth. But the other two-thirds of us were sent to earth by God the Father. And he made us mortal beings so we could work and merit our own immortality, or divinity. So with enough righteous living, we will one day be not just godly, but gods ourselves.
Take a minute to read Genesis 3:1-5 and Isaiah 14:12-15 and see if you can figure out who originated doctrines like these.
Only One God
In Mormonism, the fall of humanity into sin is not seen as a problem, just part of the process of us becoming gods again. So while in the Bible God is the only one who is eternal and has always existed, in Mormonism, even matter existed before God.
The Bible says when God created, he created out of nothing. Mormons believe there was something there before God, and that God himself is subject to transcendent laws and principles.
The Bible teaches that God is holy, which means set apart from everything else. And even though we were created in his image — and the mission of God is to restore to men and women the image of God lost at the fall — that does not mean we were, are, or will become deities.
Yet there is a tension that has been present for the last 2000 years. Who are we? We ask all these questions about who God is and who Jesus is, but what we really struggle with is, who are we? We know in our hearts that there is a Higher Power (Rom 1:20), but we struggle to see who we are in light of him. There is this undeniable moral dimension, so humanity tries to find definition in religion, even apart from Christ. But the light and insight the Bible brings is this:
John 14:4 And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know.
Don’t you think Jesus drove the disciples crazy? When he would say things like, "You know this," but they didn’t know that they knew? Yet despite their assumed ignorance, he would tell them, "You know where I am going, and you know how to get there."
John 14:5 Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way?
Thomas is thinking spatially and temporally, in spacetime. Jesus is talking spiritually and eternally. So Jesus adds a dimension, that way he can include our presence with God. That is why this is his answer to Thomas:
John 14:6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. 7 If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also: and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him. 8 Philip saith unto him, Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us. 9 Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father?
Jesus is saying, "I am going to the Father; you know that. I am likewise the way to the Father, and that’s how you get there! But if you want a spatial and visual representation in time, you know God because you know me, and because you have seen me, you have seen God, just like Moses and the 70 elders did on Mount Sinai. Just like Jacob did wrestling with me at the Jabbok."
God’s True Plan for Humanity
In the final analysis, we all share the sense that there is something potentially divine inside. The Mormon narrative says your spirit started that way before you were born, you just didn’t know it. This is a concept held in common with Scientology, which says you are a thetan inside of a body.
Mormons say this sense of divinity is because you are divine and have to work your way back to being God. Jesus and the Bible say the feeling of divinity is because you are created in the image of God, but are fallen.
Ignore the Bible’s teaching, and you act like you are only a highly evolved animal. Act like that, and your conscience is calibrated to drive you insane with psychosis. You feel the deep anxiety and hollowness of a spirit disconnected from Christ your creator.
Do not think too highly of yourself and believe you are a God, because you are not. But likewise, do not fail to recognize who you are by spiritual adoption and your identity in Christ after you get saved by being born again.
Step into the truth that you are not God, but that you were given the likeness of God. And by being reconciled to God through the death of Jesus Christ, you can become Christlike and restore his image through discipleship.
Too often we pursue the parts of God not available to us and neglect the aspects of God that were always intended for us. God gives you his Spirit and his word. And through that, you cannot be God, but you can be like Jesus.
If you’re interested in hearing more on heresy and how to deal with it, check out this interview with Pastor Alan Shelby on the Postscript.
Alan Shelby is the senior pastor of Harvest Baptist Church in Blue Springs, MO and the dean of Living Faith Bible Institute.
