“Mormons worship a different Jesus.”

[Another in the series of “Responding to Bumper Stickers,” or “Long Answers to Short Questions,” in which I try to give a Latter-day Saint response to a question or accusation commonly lobbed against us on X.]

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This is arguably the most common of the “bumper sticker” accusations against Latter-day Saints, and is the Platonic ideal of what I mean by “bumper sticker.” It sacrifices any sort of accuracy or understanding in favor of simple denunciation, asserting that Latter-day Saint belief is counterfeit, entirely Other than “real” Christianity.

Is it true? Or rather, in what sense could it be true?

Let’s take someone about whom there’s absolutely no debate on his existence: Donald Trump. We all agree that there is such a person as Donald Trump, and we agree on his current address at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW. Beyond that, the disagreements abound.

An adherent of one viewpoint might consider him a literal godsend, a man protected miraculously to do a great work of cleaning up so many illegitimate power structures in the nation’s government.

An adherent of another viewpoint might hold him to be Hitler 2.0, a perniciously corrupt man who is simultaneously dumb as a stump and fiendishly clever, whose occupation of the Oval Office is an existential threat to everything America is.

If these two adherents find themselves in a discussion about Trump, is it accurate for one to say to the other that they’re talking about “a different Trump?”

In a sense, I suppose, in that the understanding that each holds in their head is impossible to reconcile with the other’s. But they would also agree that they’re arguing about the SAME man. They just believe different things ABOUT him.

Now let’s do Jesus.  Despite what creedal Christians will say, the Jesus we worship is literally the same person, and unlike the two adherents above, we agree about so much.

• He was the Jehovah of the Old Testament, whose coming as the Messiah was prophesied.
• He was born miraculously to Mary in Bethlehem.
• He grew up sinless, and in His short ministry He “went about doing good,” healing the sick, casting out lepers, teaching the children of Israel of a higher law than the checkbox-based religion that Judaism had become.
• He was crucified.
• He rose physically on the third day.
• He taught His disciples more after His resurrection, including laying the “great commission” on them, and ascended into Heaven.
• He will return and reign as King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
• He is MY Savior, whose Atonement was meant to bring me back into the presence of the Father beyond all I could ever do.

I mean, our Bibles have the same four biographies of Him as theirs do. We’re talking about the same Jesus.

Do we believe different things ABOUT Him? Of course! We’ll readily, eagerly explain those to all who will listen. We believe that the description of His nature and His relationship to the Father and the Holy Ghost propounded by the Creeds is, at best, a warped view caused by trying to make the Gospel fit in with “respectable” Hellenistic philosophies.  We believe that through both that and other regrettable trends in the first few centuries AD, many of the “plain and precious” truths known in both Old Testament and New Testament times were lost, leaving the earth with a kind of “Christianity Lite.” We believe that He has set His hand to restoring what was lost in these latter days, preparatory to His Second Coming.

Do I believe things about Him that you think are wrong?  Sure. Do you believe things that I think are wrong? Of course. Do we each believe things that are probably just plain incorrect? I can’t see how we wouldn’t, since we’re trying to comprehend things so far out of our limited experience and viewpoint that, even with the help of the Holy Ghost, we’re still seeing through a glass darkly.

But that doesn’t mean that I can’t look to my Savior for my salvation, and live my life as close to how I understand He wants me to with all my heart, might, mind and strength.  We agree on so many things about Jesus, saying that “Mormons worship a different Jesus” is simply bearing false witness — something condemned in ALL our Bibles.