Here’s a podcast featuring J. Warner Wallace that I listened to twice on a recent road trip. This is an after action report from Wallace’s recent missions trip to Utah to evangelize Mormons.

The MP3 file is here. (74 minutes)

Topics:

• Mormons disagree with Christians about the nature of God, Jesus and salvation
• The differences are so dramatic that the two religions are completely different views
• Mormons try to portray themselves as a denomination of Christianity
• The Utah missions trip: how Christians were trained to engage with Mormons
• Mormonism is a works-based religion – you earn your way to eternal life by doing works
• In Christianity, eternal life is a free gift from God to anyone who accepts Jesus as their leader and redeemer
• Mormons believe that doctrines can change from generation to generation (progressive revelation)
• Mormons commonly make the case for a works-based theology by appealing to Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount
• Mormons believe that you have to be perfect in order to get “exalted” eternal life
• Christians are perfect because Jesus has paid the price of our rebellion against God
• Christians: Jesus’ sacrifice pays for anything evil that we have done and could do
• Christians are made perfect because Jesus’ perfection is applied to them
• Christians are not practically perfect, but they are perfect by accepting that the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross
• God credits righteousness to Christians because Jesus has already died to pay off the punishment for their sins
• The good works that Christians do are a voluntary response to this free gift of salvation
• The good works do not secure a Christian’s salvation, they are the natural outworking of accepting the gift of salvation
• The Mormon view of the afterlife is different from the Christian view
• The best Mormon afterlife (“exaltation”) requires continued righteousness to the end of one’s natural life
• This is not compatible with Christian teaching about salvation being by grace and not by doing good works (Gal 3:10-14)
• Mormons can never know whether they are saved or not until the day they die
• Christians can be sure of their salvation from the moment they accept Jesus as their leader and redeemer
• The Bible is clear that we can know whether we are saved or not (John 5:9-14)
• It is inconsistent for Mormons to claim to be Christians and then try to convert Christians to Mormonism
• The reason why Mormons go door to door is because they think Christians are wrong
• The Mormon view of Jesus is nothing like the Christian view of Christ (from the Bible)
• Mormonism is polytheistic, whereas Christianity is monotheistic
• Mormon “gods” are just beings who have a human nature who were “exalted” for doing good works
• When debating Mormons, they will try to argue that Mormonism is true because it results in good works
• The Biblical standard for a good prophet is to see whether his prophecies come true
• The Mormon view is that Joseph Smith is reliable because he did good works
• But good works are not a good way to test truth claims – a person could be “good” and still say false things
• A good question to ask Mormons: is the Book of Mormon ancient? It claims to be ancient, but is it?
• They may try to answer this question by appealing to fideism: praying for confirmation by burning bosom
• But this is not a question that can be assessed by subjective feelings (just pray about it)
• This is a question that needs to be assessed by historians using historical evidence
• There is no historical or archaeological support for the claims in the Book of Mormon
• In contrast, we have direct eyewitness testimony about the life of Jesus in the New Testament
• We have fragments of NT manuscripts dating back to first century so we know that the New Testament is ancient

Previously, I posted my refutation of Mormonism which used two evidential arguments. And J.W. Wartick has posted two philosophical arguments against Mormonism as well.