Critics say Latter-day Saints worship ‘another Jesus.’ Is the Jesus of the Restoration a different person from the Jesus of the New Testament?
They quote this
They say we preach ‘another Jesus.’ Paul was targeting a rival gospel in Corinth, not a later creed quiz.
King James Version
But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. 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.
NRSVUE
But I am afraid that, as the serpent deceived Eve by its cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ. For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it readily enough.
How we read it
Paul’s “another Jesus” is a rival gospel in Corinth, not “fails a fourth-century creed quiz.” John’s test is Jesus Christ come in the flesh (1 John 4:2). We confess the Jesus born of Mary, crucified under Pilate, risen the third day. “Different” usually means “not Nicene.” That is not the test the apostles gave.
The Bible answers
John’s test is Jesus Christ come in the flesh — which we shout.
King James Version
Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God: And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God.
NRSVUE
By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God.
We say what Thomas said: my Lord and my God.
King James Version
And Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God.
NRSVUE
Thomas answered him, ‘My Lord and my God!’
The Book of Mormon answers
3 Nephi 11:14
The risen Jesus in the Book of Mormon offers the wounds. That is not a different Jesus.
Arise and come forth unto me, that ye may thrust your hands into my side, and also that ye may feel the prints of the nails in my hands and in my feet, that ye may know that I am the God of Israel, and the God of the whole earth, and have been slain for the sins of the world.
Also restored
Doctrine and Covenants 110:4
Jehovah identifies Himself as the crucified, resurrected Christ.
I am the first and the last; I am he who liveth, I am he who was slain; I am your advocate with the Father.
Dead Sea Scrolls and related extra-biblical texts that illuminate the same pattern the Restoration restores.
1 Enoch 48; 4 Ezra 13 — the named, preexistent Messiah
Second Temple texts already know a Messiah named before creation who shares the Lord of Spirits’ throne and judges the nations — without the later language of ‘one substance.’
The New Testament’s Jesus is Israel’s Messiah, come in the flesh, crucified and risen. That is John’s test (1 John 4:2). Nicea is a later glossary. Refusing the glossary is not preaching ‘another Jesus.’
Gospel Topics
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
The charge is a word game. Critics define ‘the Jesus of the Bible’ as ‘the Jesus of the creeds,’ then declare anyone outside the creeds to be outside Christianity. By the New Testament’s own tests we pass: He is the Christ, come in the flesh, Jehovah of Israel, crucified, risen, coming again. We take the sacrament of His body and blood every week. We baptize in His name. We pray in His name. We do not worship a second, lesser mascot named Jesus.
We believe in the Jesus of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John — not in a different person with the same name.
Interpreter Foundation
Daniel C. Peterson / Interpreter Foundation
Peterson and others have pointed out for years that evangelical polemics need a different Jesus, because a shared Jesus would make the argument a family dispute about metaphysics. So the critic redefines Jesus until only his systematic theology can own the name. That is not exegesis. It is branding.
We do not follow a counterfeit Christ. We follow the New Testament’s Christ and refuse to let a fourth-century committee own His name.
Faithful voices only. Most of these are independent — not official Church productions unless marked as such.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Be the first to tell us if this case is strong.
