Question: Are the Mormon Jesus and the biblical Jesus the same?

Question: In “The Chosen Livestream: Our 2022 Launch” on Youtube, Derral Eves (a Mormon) says he is “excited . . . to go after the unreached.” Are the biblical Jesus and the Mormon Jesus the same?

(The following is excerpted from the Lighthouse Trails booklet on The Chosen)

Answer:“For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him” (2 Corinthians:11:4For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him.
See All..., emphasis added).

The apostle Paul warns that some will present a “Jesus” to the church who is not the Jesus of the Bible but is one who brings a spirit that is not the Holy Spirit and a gospel that is not the one that can save men’s souls. Paul’s concern is that some members of the church will embrace and “bear with” a false Christ.

The Chosen’s director, co-writer, and chief publicist, Dallas Jenkins, has gone on record stating that the Mormon Jesus is the same as the Bible’s Jesus. In an interview Jenkins did in May of 2020 on a Mormon program, he stated:

“I can honestly say . . . one of the top three most fascinating and beautiful things about this project has been my growing brother-and-sisterhood with people of the LDS community that I never would have known otherwise, and learning so much about your faith tradition and realizing, gosh, for all the stuff that maybe we don’t see eye to eye on, that all happened; that’s all based on stuff that happened after Jesus was here. The stories of Jesus, we do agree on, and we love the same Jesus. That’s not something that you often hear. . . . I mean I’ll sink or swim on that statement, and it’s controversial, and I don’t mind getting criticized at all for the show, and I don’t mind being called a blasphemer. . . . I’ve made it very clear that if I go down, I’m going down swinging, protecting my friends and my brothers and sisters . . . I don’t deny we have a lot of theological differences, but we love the same Jesus”(italics added).

In the book The God Makers, Ed Decker and Dave Hunt state:

“Mormon missionaries claim to be bringing true Christianity to the world. . . . When questioned, Mormons insist that their gospel comes from the Bible and that they have the same God and the same Jesus as Christians. In actual fact, they have a completely different God from what the Bible presents, a different Jesus, and a different gospel. These differences are denied or glossed over by the missionaries, who are often evasive and unwilling to tell the whole truth to a prospective convert for fear of losing him.”

Below is a list of some of the “attributes” of the Mormon Jesus:

·       Jesus is Lucifer’s brother.

·       Jesus is a spirit child conceived through physical means between an exalted man (Heavenly Father) and the virgin Mary.

·       Jesus is not eternal and had a beginning (i.e., not part of an eternal Trinity).

·       Jesus was not always God but earned his way to godhood just as we will become gods someday.

·       The work of the Mormon Jesus was insufficient for man’s salvation, and to complete it, one has to believe in Joseph Smith that he came from God to restore the church (i.e., Smith has a role in salvation).

·       Mormon doctrine teaches that without our own righteousness, there is no forgiveness of sins (contrary to Romans:4:5But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.
See All... and many other Bible verses).

These, and many other teachings of the Mormon church, clearly show that the Mormon Jesus is not the same as the Jesus of the Bible. For Dallas Jenkins to say otherwise helps to legitimize Mormonism as true Christianity and to bring it into the evangelical fold.

In 2021, Dallas Jenkins further defended what he calls his “brothers and sisters” in the Mormon religion when he states: “[The] calling of my life is to make the authentic Jesus known to the entire world, and anyone who’s going to help me do that is welcome” (italics added).

Jenkins’s open invitation to “anyone” who wants to help present his alleged “authentic” Jesus is a prime example of what the apostle Paul was warning about in 2 Corinthians:11:4For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him.
See All....

By calling Mormons his brothers and sisters (obviously in a spiritual sense), this implies there is no reason to introduce them to the one eternal God and evangelize them to a true biblical faith.