Has Mormonism Preached a "Different Gospel"?

Romans 4:5 · Romans 4 · Psalm 32

I think this really is one of the biggest issues in Mormonism. If you're looking for a really clear articulation of the gospel, there are a number of verses that you could go to, but one of my favorites is Romans 4:5, which says, "And to the one who does not work, but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness." I love it because it says it's the person who stops trying to work and just trusts in God who justifies ungodly people. That's the one whose faith will be credited to him as righteousness. What's so crazy about this, and one of my biggest issues with Mormonism, is that Joseph Smith changes this verse in his Joseph Smith translation.

I actually have a paper version of the Joseph Smith translation, sometimes called the inspired version. And if I go to Romans 4:5, here is what this reads. Joseph writes about him who believeth on him who justifieth not the ungodly. This says that God justifies the ungodly. Joseph changed it to say God justifieth not the ungodly. And I think the reason that Joseph did that is because of where Paul goes next in Romans 4. Verse 6 through 8 in Romans 4, Paul goes on to talk about David and explains how David is a perfect example of someone to whom God counts righteousness apart from works. Why does he bring up David?

Well, because David is a murderer and an adulterer. If you want to pick out sins that make someone seem ungodly, that would be it. And yet David writes in Psalm 32, "Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven and whose sins are covered." And so, Paul is saying that ungodly people can be justified by faith. David was an ungodly person and he was forgiven and he was justified. And if David, an adulterer and murderer, can be forgiven, then you and I can be forgiven as well. But Joseph seems to have a problem with that. Not just because he changes the verse here in Romans 4:5, but this is nuts to me.

He changes the whole story of David. In 2 Samuel 12, there's this interaction between the prophet Nathan and King David. You know, David has sinned by committing adultery with Bathsheba and then killing Bathsheba's husband Uriah. And the prophet Nathan confronts David. In 2 Samuel 12, Nathan is like, "Hey, imagine that there's a" He doesn't say imagine. He says, "There was a man, a rich man who had tons of livestock and whatnot. Then there's a poor man who has one little ewe lamb. And the rich man takes the poor man's ewe lamb and then kills it because he didn't want to take one of his own." And David is outraged and he's like, "This man deserves to be put to death." And in this bone-chilling moment, Nathan says to David, "You are the man." And then goes on to give a word of the Lord about how God is greatly displeased with what David has done in his murder and adultery.

2 Samuel 12 · 2 Samuel 12:13 · D&C 132

Well, David repents in 2 Samuel 12, David said to Nathan, "I have sinned against the Lord." And Nathan said to David, "The Lord also has put away your sin. You shall not die." So, as you might expect, David repents of his sin and God forgives him. And Psalm 32 presumably is delighting in the forgiveness of God, that God is not holding or counting David's sins against him. But Joseph changes this verse as well in the inspired version. 2 Samuel 12:13 in the Joseph Smith translation says, "The Lord also hath not put away thy sin." So, was David's sin forgiven or not? Paul seems to use David as the chief example of an ungodly sinner who is justified by faith.

But Joseph says, "No. God does not justify the ungodly and he did not put away David's sin." In fact, we see the same attitude reflected in Doctrine and Covenants. In D&C section 42, this is what it says, verse 18. "And now, behold, I speak unto the church, thou shalt not kill. And he that kills shall not have forgiveness in this world nor in the world to come." Not in this world or in the world to come. There's no forgiveness for he that kills. It's really interesting because as he goes on in Doctrine and Covenants section 42, he lists other sins like lying and stealing and looking upon a woman with lust and committing adultery and other things and he says, "If you repent, you will not be cast out.

If you don't repent, you will be cast out." But the only sin where he doesn't mention repentance is killing, is murder, shedding of innocent blood presumably. He doesn't say repentance has anything to do with it. He says, "If you kill, you will not have forgiveness in this world or in the world to come." And I actually think he ties this principle specifically to David in Doctrine and Covenants section 132. Now, that section might sound familiar to you because it is probably the most infamous of all Doctrine and Covenants sections cuz it's the section on polygamy, on plural marriage. In this section, there's a whole lot of things that happen, but one of the things that is going on is that D&C 132 is talking about how the patriarchs did not sin in their taking of additional wives or in concubines.

And speaking about David, this is what D&C 132 verse 39 says. "David's wives and concubines were given unto him of me by the hand of Nathan, my servant, and others of the prophets who had the keys of this power. And in none of these things did he sin against me save in the case of Uriah and his wife. Okay, so he's saying David didn't sin in polygamy, in having concubines or wives, but he did sin in murder, the murder of Uriah. Here's the consequences of this according to D&C 132. Therefore, he hath fallen from his exaltation and received his portion and shall not inherit them out of the world for I gave them unto another.

Psalm 51

So David has fallen from his exaltation. He will not receive his inheritance because of what happened with Uriah. Now Joseph also made other statements about this. I want to read two more Joseph Smith statements. Actually, there are statements from other leaders as well, but I'll I'll get there in just a second. Joseph said, you can read about this in Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith on page 339. He said, a murderer, for instance, one that sheds innocent blood, cannot have forgiveness. David sought repentance at the hand of God carefully with tears for the murder of Uriah. Perhaps he's speaking about Psalm 51, which is a psalm of repentance, where David is crying out to God.

He's saying, purge me with hyssop and I'll be clean. Cleanse me. He's he's asking for forgiveness and for cleansing. He might be talking about that. He says, David sought repentance at the hand of God carefully with tears for the murder of Uriah, but he could only get it through hell. He got a promise that his soul should not be left in hell. So Joseph seems to say that David is paying for his sins in hell. And not that he'll be condemned out of darkness, but that he's suffering and one day he he won't receive exaltation in the celestial kingdom. He'll receive a lesser glory, but only because he suffered for uh, for his murder, before his sin.

In the book Discourses of the Prophet Joseph Smith on page 221, Joseph Smith says this. This is a crazy statement to me. Remission of sins by baptism was not to be preached to murderers. All the priests of Christendom might pray for a murderer on the scaffold forever, but could not avail so much as a gnat towards their forgiveness. So, the priests of Christendom could do nothing for their forgiveness. There is no forgiveness for murderers. You really can't get it much clearer than that. Lest you think this is just a particular Joseph Smith thing that kind of faded off into the annals of history, 10th President Joseph Fielding Smith taught the same thing.

He says, John says that there are two kinds of sins. One kind that can be forgiven, and the other kind, a sin unto death, for which there is no forgiveness. Murderer is one of the latter class. So, he's also agreeing murder is a case where there is no forgiveness. Now, again, I don't think they're saying they're sent to outer darkness, but rather that they will be kept out of glory in the celestial kingdom because of this. In fact, there are other LDS leaders who have specifically said, I think Bruce McConkie specifically said that, uh, David will inherit a terrestrial glory because he is a murderer.

In the very infamous book, um, The Miracle of Forgiveness by 12th President Spencer W. Kimball, he says in here, John wrote that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him. The murderer denies himself salvation in the celestial kingdom, and in this sense, he cannot be forgiven for his crime. He even appeals to the fact that, uh, it was Joseph Smith who taught of the seriousness of this crime. He says, "The Prophet Joseph Smith underlined the seriousness of the sin of murder for David as for all men and the fact that there is no forgiveness for it. Another really crazy quote by Spencer Kimball, though it doesn't appear in The Miracle of Forgiveness, is found in The Teachings of Spencer W.

Kimball on page 69. He says, "Some religionists claim that the murderer dying on the gallows can go immediately to God if he has made confession of belief in Christ. This is unthinkable and untrue. To think that the criminal hanging beside the Lord on Calvary would receive the same reward as the martyr Stephen is unreasonable and untrue. If one wishes to be forgiven of his sins and reach the celestial kingdom and have associations with the Father and the Son, he must repent and serve and do the proper works." This was even taught by current LDS president, 18th president of the church, Dallin H.

Oaks in the book The Lord's Way on page 213. President Oaks says, "A deliberate murder is what the scriptures call a sin unto death. It deprives the murderer of eternal life because there is no forgiveness for this act. In other words, a person who deliberately kills another shall die spiritually." This is about as clear an issue as you can possibly get regarding the differences in our views of the gospel. It comes down to a simple question. Was David forgiven? Seems like Joseph Smith, it seems like Joseph Fielding Smith, and Bruce McConkie, and Spencer Kimball, and even Dallin H. Oaks would say, "No." But Paul uses David as the primary example of someone who is completely forgiven apart from their works, even the work of murder.

That's the whole point of Romans 4:5 here. The one who does not work, the one who's evil and wicked, who doesn't do good, who doesn't seek for God, even murderers and adulterers. If they believe in the God who justifies ungodly people, then that person's faith is counted as righteousness. He cites here from David's Psalm 32. And Psalm 32 is a beautiful Psalm. David says, "Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin." You and I have sinned. Perhaps you're even a murderer, I don't know, or an adulterer.

Galatians 1:8 · Galatians 1

Our lawless deeds can be forgiven. Our egregious sins can be completely cleansed, and we can be counted as perfectly righteous in God's eyes, not because we are righteous, but because we receive righteousness that is credited to our account through faith. David is the poster child of this kind of forgiveness. David is, in one sense, the perfect example of the gospel. If you're a Latter-day Saint, you have almost certainly heard evangelicals appeal to Galatians 1:8, the dangers of another gospel. And I know a lot of Latter-day Saints kind of push that away and say, "Nah, that's not the not talking about us, that's talking about Judaizers and circumcision and stuff like that." But I think the danger is very real.

What makes a gospel a different gospel? What is it that makes something so problematic that the teacher should be eternally condemned, like Paul says in Galatians 1? I think the issue of forgiveness and who has entrance into God's kingdom rises up to the level of the right gospel or a wrong gospel. Which is it? Can people so ungodly as murderers be given entrance into God's eternal kingdom or not simply by trusting in the work of Jesus on the cross? I say exactly what Paul said, that God justifies the ungodly. If you reject the teachings of LDS prophets and apostles, this is not something that is so minor that you can kind of ignore it.

I think it requires substantial repentance. If what Joseph Smith, if what Spencer W. Kimball, if what Dallin H. Oaks taught is false, then you must reject them. You need to repent publicly of the teachings. The LDS Church needs to publicly distance themselves from these teachings because that is a different gospel from what Paul was teaching right here in Romans 4. And that is why I cannot, with a clear conscience, call Mormonism Christianity because its leaders, its prophets and apostles have taught a gospel contrary to the one that I've received.