Mormons believe in a church with prophets at the head, apostles below them, and seventy below these individuals. Then comes stake presidents, bishops under them, and teachers under them. Lastly, they have mission presidents where missionaries are under them. They are all about a hierarchy like we see in any big business. This belief comes from their 6th Article of Faith, which reads, “we believe in the same organization that existed in the Primitive Church, namely, apostles, prophets, pastors, teachers, evangelists, and so forth.” (Articles Of Faith) This thought process comes from the following. “And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ: That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive.” (Ephesians 4:11-14)
Notice that Mormons do not mention Jesus when it comes to His body and His church as it reads in Ephesians. But what they don’t realize is the body of Christ is much different than what they ever thought. Paul also taught, “Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular. And God hath set some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, governments, diversities of tongues. Are all apostles? are all prophets? are all teachers? are all workers of miracles? Have all the gifts of healing? do all speak with tongues? do all interpret? But covet earnestly the best gifts: and yet shew I unto you a more excellent way.” (1 Corinthians 12:27-31) Notice how apostles are most important, not prophets. This is because an apostle is not a gift from God, but means a firsthand witness of Jesus. Are there firsthand witnesses of Jesus in the Mormon church? No. What comes next in the church are gifts. Prophesy, like healings, tongues, and more are gifts of the spirit. Christ’s church isn’t governed by anyone specific. He governs it collectively. Pastors of churches are led by Jesus like others in his body. This is Christ’s church. Amen.
Let us pray:
Oh Lord, I pray for the sake of the Mormon community at large. These people are deceived and aren’t even aware of it. They have Your Name in their church’s title, but all this is done as a deceiving tactic of the devil for sure. Just like they have Your Name plastered all across their Book of Mormon when nobody in the Old Testament even knew about Your Name at this point in time. What a coincidence that Joseph Smith thought he could fool people into thinking his new book was scripture. God, all I see are man-made beliefs and ideas that made it into this fictional book from the 1820s. What is sad is that Joseph never admitted that he and his friends made up the whole thing about their so-called scriptures. God, these people are under a great delusion from Satan. They also believe that it is important to be led by prophets when Your new covenant church was never led by prophets. This is one of Your gifts of the Spirit. Lord, if these individuals could simply have a taste of what the Holy Spirit is like, they would run from their cult and into Your arms immediately for salvation. This is what I hope for. I love them so much as to lead them to You for salvation. I love You, Jesus. I trust in You, God. Amen.
