From: Troy Waller <>

Subject: Mormonism 1.3

Date: Mon, 5 May 1997

Continued from 1.2

The Good News Of Justification By Grace Through
Faith

Robinson claims that Mormons teach salvation by grace
and not works, and soare well within the spectrum of views that
are generally accepted as Christian. How can
Mormons claim to teach salvation by grace alone? Robinson
answers: ‘It is mpossible to earn or deserve
any of the blessings of God in any sense that
leaves the individual unindebted to God’s grace’ (105).
‘We participate in our salvation as we attempt
to keep the commandments of God, but we can
never earn it ourselves or bring it to pass on our own
merits, no matter how well we may think we are doing’
(106). Robinson also holds that redemption
is not of individual effort; one must be born again and
so grace is an essential condition for salvation (106-7). As good
as these statements sound, they do not uphold
salvation by grace alone.

Bruce R. McConkie explains: ‘All men are saved
by grace alone without any act on their part,
meaning that they are resurrected and become immortal because
of the atoning sacrifice of Christ.'[13] In Mormon theology,
all people are raised from the dead and become
immortal through grace alone. But not many
will be exalted. How can one achieve exaltation? ‘This is
called salvation by grace coupled with obedience
to the laws and ordinances of the gospel.'[14]
Then, after ridiculing the idea of Christ’s shed blood as the
sole ground of forgiveness, McConkie adds: ‘Salvation
in the kingdom of God is available because
of the atoning blood of Christ. But it is received only
on the condition of faith, repentance, baptism, and
enduring to the end in keeping the commandments
of God.'[15]

Differences may be acknowledged among Christians
on the general issue of grace and works, but
there is little excuse for confusion regarding one’s legal
status before God’s law. Justification, an essential element of
the Good News, is only mentioned twice by
Robinson and is neither defined nor affirmed.

Both grace and works are involved in the Christian
experience, it is true, but they are exclusive
of each other in relation to a sinner’s moral and spiritual
standing before God’s law. Mormons tend to confuse the forensic
(legal) and experiential categories. The divine Judge
has found all people who depend on merit for
their own acceptance with God falling short. In God’s
sight, a score of ninety-nine is not a passing grade.

Even the best Mormons are guilty before God, who
knows their hearts. All Mormons trusting in
their own works are now under the verdict of condemnation
(Rom. 3:10-23). The only basis on which God can be just and
accept any Mormon as righteous is the perfect, once-for-all
sacrifice of Christ (Rom. 3:25-26). By adding
works to faith, Mormons make justification a
matter of merit, not grace. The principles of works and grace
are mutually exclusive for acceptance before
the moral Judge of the universe. ‘And
if by grace, then it is no longer works; if it were, grace would
no longer be grace’ (Rom. 11:6). The
four laws of the Mormon gospel (faith, repentance,
baptism, and commandment-keeping) involve works from beginning
to end.

Justification pardons from the guilt and penalty
of one’s past and present sins, not just from
Adamic guilt. ‘Whoever believes in him is not condemned’
(John 3:18). ‘I tell you the truth,’ Jesus
said, ‘whoever hears my word and believes
him who has sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned’
(John 5:24). ‘I want you to know,’ Paul
wrote, ‘that through [Jesus] the forgiveness
of sins is proclaimed to you. Through him everyone who believes
is justified . . . ‘ (Acts 13:38-39). ‘Since
we have been justified through faith, we have
peace with God’ (Rom. 5:1). ‘There is now no condemnation
for those who are in Christ Jesus’ (Rom.
8:1).

So long as Latter-day Saints ignore or ridicule justification,
it is impossible to assure them that they
have the perfect righteousness of Christ that
comes from God as a gift (Rom. 10:3-4). Like Paul, Mormons need
to consider their own law-keeping as rubbish
in contrast to the perfect righteousness that
comes from God through faith in Christ (Phil. 3:8-9).

Being a Christian begins as sinners repent of their
self-justification and trust the atonement
of Christ alone for acquittal and a righteous moral status.
Belief in Christ’s Incarnation, death on the cross for our sins,
and resurrection from the dead directs repentant
believers personally to trust the living and
exalted Christ of whom the gospel speaks.

Individual Mormons and Baptists are Christians if
they believe Christianity’s central message,
the gospel; neither Mormons nor Baptists are Christians
if they do not trust the Christ of the biblical gospel. With all
this, an LDS leader, recently addressing my class,
brought everything down to the test of a religion’s
fruit. The LDS faith has produced an impressive worldwide
movement, but the question of the reliability of the one it trusts
remains. In his classic book, Christianity and Liberalism,
Machen summarizes the heart of the problem:

If the object is not really trustworthy then the
faith is a false faith. It is perfectly true
that such a false faith will often help a man. Things that
are false will accomplish a great many useful things
in the world. If I take a counterfeit coin
and buy a dinner with it, the dinner is every bit as good
as if the coin were a product of the mint. And what
a very useful thing a dinner is! But just
as I am on my way downtown to buy a dinner for a poor man,
an expert tells me that my coin is a counter-fiet. The miserable,
heartless theorizer! While he is going into his uninteresting,
learned details about the primitive history
of that coin, a poor man is dying for want
of bread. So it is with faith. Faith is so very useful, they tell
us, that we must not scrutinize its basis
in truth. But the great trouble is, such an
avoidance of scrutiny itself involves the destruction of faith.
For faith is essentially dogmatic. Despite
all you can do, you cannot remove the element
of faith from it. Faith is the opinion that some person will do
something for you. If that person really will do
that thing for you, then the faith is true.
If he will not do it, then the faith is false. In the latter
case, not all the benefits in the world will make the faith true.
Though it has transformed the world from darkness
to light, though it has produced thousands
of glorious healthy lives, it remains a pathological phenomena.
It is false, and sooner or later it is sure to be found out.[16]

……….

Gordon R. Lewis, Professor of Systematic Theology
and Christian Philosophy at Denver Seminary,
chairs the Philosophy of Religion department. (In its two-year
MA degree one may concentrate electives on ministry to new
religions and cults.)

……….

Notes

1 Gordon R. Lewis, Confronting the Cults (Phillipsburg,
NJ: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Co.,
1966), 3.

2 Ibid., 60; chapter 3 in booklet form, ‘The
Bible, the Christian and the Latter-day Saints,’
22.

3 The scriptural documentation is given in Gordon
R. Lewis, Decide for Yourself: A Theological
Workbook (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1970),
41-45; and in Gordon Lewis and Bruce Demarest, Integrative Theology,
vol. l (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1987): 251-89.

4 B. B. Warfield, ‘Trinity,’ International
Standard Bible Encyclopedia (Grand Rapids:
Eerdmans, 1949), 5:3012.

5 Bruce R. McConkie, Mormon Doctrine (Salt Lake City:
Brookcraft, 1966), 239.

6 Athanasius, The Incarnation of the Word of God
(New York: MacMillan, 1946), 35.

7 Ibid., 95. 8 Vigen Guroian, ‘The Shape of
Orthodox Ethics’ Epiphany Journal, Fall
1991, 9.

9 C. S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory, rev. ed. (New
York: Macmillan, 1980), 18.

10 C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (New York: Macmillan,
1960), 153, cf. 164.

11 C. S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters, rev. ed. (New
York: Macmillan, 1982), 38.

12 C. S. Lewis, Miracles (New York: Macmillan, 1948),
107.

13 Bruce R. McConkie, What the Mormons Think of Christ
(n.p.: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints, n.d.), 24.

14 Ibid.

15 Ibid. 9, 28.

16 J. Gresham Machen, Christianity and Liberalism
(Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1946), 142-43.

……….

Troy Waller

PO Box 1091 Box Hill 3128 Australia

+61-3-9898-5672





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