DR. LOREN PANKRATZ Can Something Valuable Really Be Free?
Summary
The definition of grace in Mormonism is different from what the Bible teaches. Mormons are taught that grace is nothing more than God’s “enabling power” to help them keep commandments in order to qualify for exaltation. However, by using the example of Abraham and the teaching of Paul, Christians can explain a clear scriptural understanding of God’s grace.
Introduction
After leading many mission trips into Utah as the college pastor of a church in California, my wife and I concluded that if we really wanted to see the spiritual landscape change in the Beehive state, we needed to plant communities of salt and light in towns and cities where there were no Christian churches.1 Thus, we moved to Utah in 2010 and launched The Bridge Community in Centerville, Utah, on April 3, 2011.
I recall many conversations in the early days of ministry where I left frustrated because a Mormon seemed to agree with everything I had said about the gospel of grace. I learned that in order to minister to LDS members, I needed to gain a better understanding of different ways we use the same words. I ultimately wrote my doctoral dissertation in 2012 contrasting saving grace as defined by the Bible versus the grace preached by Mormon leadership.
During my study, I discovered important distinctions that have aided my ministry with Mormons. I believe that a Christian’s ability to successfully share the good news with Mormons will improve when he or she fully grasps these differences in order to discuss them in evangelistic conversations. Let’s compare and contrast the biblical and Mormon views of grace before offering a practical strategy for having conversations with Mormons about grace.
What Is Everyone’s Problem?
To begin, we must start at the fall of humanity. Romans 3:23 says everyone has sinned and comes short of what God expects, which is complete obedience. The result of this is eternal death, as Romans 6:23 adds.
Mormonism offers a much different view by teaching that God procreated spiritual children in a celestial abode called the preexistence. He intends these spirits to gain bodies and come to this earth so they can become “exalted” as gods like him. Adam and Eve transgressed by disobeying something that was formally prohibited, yet in Mormonism this act is not considered a sin because they did not do something inherently wrong.2
According to 2 Nephi 2:25 in the Book of Mormon, “Adam fell that men might be; and men are, that they might have joy.” Prior to the fall, the following four statements were true of Adam and Eve, according to Mormonism:
1. They had an intimate relationship with God.
2. They were immortal.
3. They were innocent with no capacity for good or evil, joy or sorrow.
4. They were incapable of multiplying in their pre-fallen state.
God had instructed Adam and Eve to be fruitful and multiply as well as refrain from eating from the Tree of Life. According to Mormonism, this put Adam and Eve in a catch-22 situation. One church teacher’s manual explains it this way:
Explain that Adam and Eve could not keep both these commandments. If they chose to eat the fruit, they would be cast out of the Garden of Eden. But if they did not eat the fruit and remained in the garden, they would not be able to have children (to “multiply and replenish the earth”). Because the Garden of Eden was a place of innocence, while Adam and Eve lived there they could not change or progress in any way, including having children.3
Mormon leaders have taught that Adam and Eve chose to eat the fruit in order to prioritize God’s command to be fruitful and multiply. Tenth president Joseph Fielding Smith remarked, “So don’t let us, brethren and sisters, complain about Adam and wish he hadn’t done something that he did. I want to thank him.”4 Smith also said the “fall of man came as a blessing in disguise, and was the means of furthering the purposes of the Lord in the progress of man, rather than a means of hindering them.”5
This “fortunate fall” had consequences that are crucial to understanding the meaning of grace in Mormonism. After the fall, each of the four statements above was changed in marked ways. Humans went from being immortal to being mortal. Humans who were innocent were blessed with agency. Adam and Eve changed from being incapable of multiplying to being descendent-capable and from having an intimate relationship with God to being distant. The effects of the fall (Mortal, Agency, Descendent-capable, Distant) can be recalled by the initials MADD.
In Mormonism, humans are blessed with agency and have the ability to procreate. However, they also inherit a distant relationship with God and a life that will end at the grave, making them unable to progress to their potential to be exalted like God, where, according to LDS Apostle Stephen L. Richards, they can become “as intelligent and omnipotent as God.”6
Grace According to Mormonism
Christians and Mormons both talk about grace as an “enabling power” given by God. For Christians, God’s saving grace is the activity undertaken by God to save them from their sins. We received this grace from Him as a gift through faith (Ephesians 2:8-9; Philippians 3:9; Colossians 1:12-14).
Interestingly, LDS theology does not make a distinction between God’s enabling grace and the grace that saves. In fact, grace never really escapes the “enabling power” dimension. The onus is on the individual to obey to qualify for exaltation, which is achieving godhood and qualifying to be with one’s family forever.
Mormonism teaches that the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ heals the two negative effects of the fall for all humans who have ever lived. Jesus “saves” all humans from mortality and allows them to have intimacy with God. We know that people are unable to raise themselves from the dead, no matter how many good works they perform. In Mormonism, this saving work of the atonement is universal and unconditional. Mormon Apostle Jeffrey R. Holland summarized this thinking when he said,
Some gifts coming from the Atonement are universal, infinite, and unconditional. These include His ransom for Adam’s original transgression so that no member of the human family is held responsible for that sin.7
Thus, one of the positive effects of the fall is that humans gained agency, meaning that everyone is able to make the right choices. This creates opportunities for spiritual growth as well as the potential for spiritual death, which occurs as humans use their agency to sin. When people sin, they are kept from reaching their full potential.8 It’s as if sin damages the stairway that humans can use to climb to the peak, making it impossible to achieve the heights that God intends for them. Mormon leaders teach that Jesus’s atonement is key to fixing the staircase. This healing is individual and conditional.
Joseph Fielding Smith explained the difference between the universal/unconditional and individual/conditional healing power of the atonement:
Redemption from the original sin is without faith or works; redemption from our own sins is given through faith and works. Both are the gifts of free grace; but while one is a gift forced upon us unconditionally, the other is a gift merely offered to us conditionally. The redemption of the one is compulsory; the reception of the other is voluntary. Man cannot, by any possible act, prevent his redemption from the fall; but he can utterly refuse and prevent his redemption from the penalty of his own sins.9
In Mormonism, eternal life (or exaltation) comes with many strings attached. While trusting Jesus for eternal life is necessary, it is insufficient by itself. Seventy Adhemar Damiani explained to a General Conference audience that earning eternal life depends on faithfulness to the commandments:
Obedience is essential for us to obtain exaltation and eternal life and thus become like our Father—beings of flesh and bone, immortal, exalted, and glorified. Only then will we be heirs of all He possesses.10
It should be clear that, in the LDS context, the grace Jesus gives does not elevate the human to a new relationship with God; it merely fixes the staircase allowing humans the chance to climb their way to the top by their obedience. Second Nephi 31:4-20 in the Book of Mormon depicts Jesus as opening a way to eternal life, but that way is traversed by keeping God’s commandments.11
Recent voices in the LDS Church have emphasized God’s love or compassion in explaining this enabling grace. While this is refreshing to some Mormons, I have not yet seen any real shift from traditional LDS perspectives. BYU professor Brad Wilcox gave a popular address in 2011 titled “His Grace Is Sufficient: How Does God’s Grace Really Work?” where he recalls a meeting with a student who knew that she would never measure up to God’s standards to merit eternal life.12
Wilcox gives a twofold response. First, he affirms the universal and unconditional aspects of the atonement. He says that each person’s obedience in this life will determine “what kind of body we plan on being resurrected with and how comfortable we plan to be in God’s presence and how long we plan to stay there.”
With this response, Wilcox reinforces the traditional LDS perspective that God’s grace enables a person to obey, which ultimately qualifies the individual for exaltation. Robert Millet is another Brigham Young University professor who sounds like a biblical Christian to many. But as his book Grace Works identifies, the enabling power of grace offered to humans is only as effective as one’s obedience to their covenantal commitments.13 Trusting Jesus’s work remains insufficient for eternal life.
Sharing the Gospel of Grace
Understanding Mormon theology regarding grace can help equip Christians to communicate the gospel effectively. When I speak about grace as a Christian, I am not referring to something that everyone receives universally and unconditionally, nor am I talking about a stairway to heaven where I can become like God through the performance of many works.
To show the Latter-day Saint what the Bible is talking about, I like to organize my conversation several ways to make my points very clear. First, I explain how God gives eternal life as a free gift. Then I explain an important Old Testament text. Finally, I show how Paul saw that text as paradigmatic for our own approach to God.
1. Getting the Conversation Started
A great way to start is to ask, “What is the best part about being a Mormon?” When the Latter-day Saint answers, ask, “May I share with you what I believe to be the best part about being Christian?” I’ve never had a person say no. This is the perfect opportunity to talk about grace.
2. Pointing Out the Abrahamic Prototype
Once I’ve announced that eternal life is free because of God’s grace, I’ll ask, “May I show you why I say that?” Genesis 15:6 explains how Abraham “believed the LORD, and he counted it to him as righteousness.” It is absolutely critical that the Mormon does not interpret this text through the lens of Genesis 22 (the sacrifice of Isaac).
I once took an LDS class on the Old Testament at the Institute of Religion near the university where I lived. Following the Old Testament student manual, the teacher claimed that if Abraham had failed the test of Genesis 22, he would have “lost his position.”14 I raised my hand and asked, “Don’t you think it is instructive that God gives Abraham his position in an unconditional covenant seven chapters before this ‘test’ in Genesis 22?”
To help the Mormon experience how radical Genesis 15:6 is, ask him or her to read Genesis 15:12-21. The Old Testament covenant ratification process involves splitting an animal into two parts and having each member of the covenant walk through the animal carcass, which signifies their fate if they did not uphold their covenantal commitments. Jeremiah 34:18 explains the consequences:
The men who transgressed my covenant and did not keep the terms of the covenant that they made before me, I will make them like the calf that they cut in two and passed between its parts.
I’ve found that it is important to let the Mormon make the “discovery” that it is God, symbolized by the firepot, who passes through the carcass alone and commits Himself to the promises made to Abraham. To help emphasize this, I’ll ask, “Who does not pass through the carcass?” Abraham does not pass through the carcass, meaning he has no obligations to meet to uphold God’s covenant to him. Then I point out that this is a binding business contract signed by only one party: God. God’s promises to Abraham were truly a gift. Explaining this, I’ll say, “This is what the Bible calls ‘grace.’ God’s favor is not something that Abraham earned.” What a radical idea!
After helping the Mormon see the radical grace involved in God’s covenant with Abraham, turn to Romans 4:1-5. Verses 4 and 5 explain:
Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due. And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness.
A wage is what a person earns such as from working at a job. Ask, “Does Paul see Abraham’s standing before God as a wage he earned or a gift he received?” It should be clear that Abraham was considered righteous not because of his labor but based on his faith in God. For emphasis, point out that Abraham was justified by grace. Then move a few verses down and read Romans 4:23-25:
The words “it was counted to him” were not written for his sake alone, but for ours also. It will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.
Here Paul argues that Abraham is a prototype of how all humans can come to have a right standing with God. Just as Abraham believed and so inherited God’s promises as a gift, so the Christian trusts the life and death of Jesus as sufficient for eternal life. Once the Mormon sees this connection, ask, “If God gave you your wage—what you’ve earned from your labors—do you think you’d earn God’s best rewards?” Then turn to the first part of Romans 6:23 and ask, “What does the apostle Paul think our sins have earned us?” Wait for the answer (“death”) and point out the second part of the verse. Ask, “What is the free gift God gives?”
When the Mormon sees how the Bible teaches that trusting Jesus is sufficient for eternal life, say, “This is incredibly good news, isn’t it? Trusting Jesus is enough to receive God’s graceful gift of eternal life. Does your church teach the same gospel of grace?”
As these examples show, there is a clear distinction between what the Bible explains about grace and what Mormon leaders have taught. Mormons need to be shown that trusting in Jesus alone is all that is required for eternal life. Using this method, it is possible to invite the Mormon to trust in Jesus for his or her salvation and flee any false gospel that is contrary to the grace offered through the atoning blood of Jesus (Galatians 1:8).
Dr. Loren Pankratz (Centerville, Utah) graduated with a double major in religion and philosophy from Chapman University in 2001. After graduating from Princeton Theological Seminary with a master’s of divinity, Loren accepted a position as college pastor at a church in Fresno, California, and in 2011, Loren planted The Bridge Community where he serves as the lead pastor. In 2012, Loren graduated from Talbot Theological Seminary with his doctor of ministry degree.