Impossible Gospel

(Excerpt from a paper of the same name written for Christian Theology II)

"Convince us of our errors of Doctrine, if we have any, by reason, by logical arguments, or by the Word of God and we will ever be grateful for the information and you will ever have the pleasing reflections that you have been instruments in the hands of God of redeeming your fellow beings."
- Apostle Orson Pratt

The Impossible Gospel, as presented by Daniel Thompson in The Mormon Scrapbook, is a method of evangelizing Mormons which uses LDS scriptures to show how Mormon soteriology is internally incoherent. The intent here would be the same: to prove to the reader that there is no means within the Restored Gospel by which man can be saved. First we will do a proper exegesis of the text and look at the significance of that exegesis and then survey what Mormon doctrine actually makes of that particular text.

Moroni 10:32
Yea, come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness; and if ye shall deny yourselves of all ungodliness, and love God with all your might, mind and strength, then is his grace sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ; and if by the grace of God ye are perfect in Christ, ye can in nowise deny the power of God.

We must come to Christ in order to become perfected in him, but we must also deny ourselves of all our ungodliness. And by denying our ungodliness and loving God his grace then becomes sufficient to save us and make us perfect. This is all done by the power of God. This passage here really seems to chase back around itself: Grace allows you to be perfect, but you must deny unrighteousness and, by doing that, grace becomes sufficient to make you perfect, its all jumbled up. So, we must turn our attention away from the cyclical argument to avoid further confusion and to the linear argument or the if/then statement.

This sets some pretty definite priorities on how one might go about being saved. First, the antecedent makes clear that all ungodliness must be rejected. By a lack of further explanation and clarification it must be assumed that this is an all encompassing statement; all really means all. This goal must be achieved to produce grace that is sufficient. Work as defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary is an "activity in which one exerts strength or faculties to do or perform something." The definition fits, sadly, and grace loses all meaning. Grace as defined by the Baker Evangelical Dictionary of Theology is, "undeserved blessing freely bestowed on humans by God.1" Works destroy grace by making it something that is earned not something that is an expression of the love of a Creator (1 Tim. 1:14).

Increasingly, who is good enough that they would be able to put behind them their sinful nature in full and never sin. This is an impossibility; no one can be perfect on their own (Rom. 3:23-24). The mention of grace in this Moroni passage mucks things up quite a bit. The inattentive reader will assume that grace is the instigator not works, but we know better than that. We also know that grace on the basis of works is no longer grace its a contradiction (Rom. 11:6). This maybe enough proof to say nay to Mormonism, but we shall press onward to remove all doubt.

2 Nephi 25:23
For we labor diligently to write to persuade our children, and also our brethren, to believe in Christ, and to be reconciled to God; for we know that it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do.

Here Nephi is speaking to his people about the Christ who will be coming 600 years later to save them. Belief in Christ reconciles you to God and it is by grace that we are able to have such belief. This is completely Christian. Forgetting the strangeness of this text, meaning the New Testament language used during pre-exilic times, there really aren't any criticisms to be had. The problem is a small statement that changes everything. "After all we can do" is not about how man falls short even after trying very hard and that grace swoops in and saves him. It is works.

"The word grace, as used in the scriptures, refers primarily to the divine help and strength we receive through the Atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ.2" This is an odd statement for Christians, not because we don't think of grace as helping us, but because of the lake of totality this quote gives to that help. A common couplet might give a better sight of what this looks like, "we do our best and Christ does the rest." There has to be effort on your part; you must do something to instigate this grace. In order to have such a doctrine as this, Mormons must forget the depraved state of man. Consider Ephesians chapter two. We were dead doing nothing but the dead things that dead people do; incapable of doing anything that might bring ourselves out of this spiral. But, God saved us by his lonesome and gave us life by the free gift of grace. Pointedly, this was not of our own doing, not a result of works, but it was a gift from God. Grace is not what helps save you, it is what saves you.

Spencer W. Kimball wrote:

"The gospel is a program of action - of doing things. Man's immortality and eternal life are God's goals. (Moses 1:39.) Immortality has been accomplished by the Savior's sacrifice. Eternal life hangs in the balance awaiting the works of men. This progress toward eternal life is a matter of achieving perfection. Living all the commandments guarantees total forgiveness of sins and assures one of exaltation through that perfection which comes by complying with the formula the Lord gave us... He would never require anything from his children which was not for their benefit and which was not attainable. Perfection is an achievable goal.3"

The preacher of Ecclesiastes would be upset at what Kimball is building up here, it is very windy indeed. What is the need for Christ if you are already perfect? Christ is reduced to something like Ghandi who did great things to inspire his people, but he was only a initiator not a Savior. Remember that Christ is who saved you, he is not what gave you the ability to save yourself. Books such as Kimball's clearly show that ideas of work based salvation are not based upon a clever and misguided exegesis of a text, rather it is a doctrine put forth by the church's leaders.

Alma 11:37
And I say unto you again that he cannot save them in their sins; for I cannot deny his word, and he hath said that no unclean thing can inherit the kingdom of heaven; therefore, how can ye be saved, except ye inherit the kingdom of heaven? Therefore, ye cannot be saved in your sins.

It is not possible for man to be saved while in a state of sin. Yet, man is inherently sinful and desperately wicked (Jer. 17:9). There's a pretty obvious problem with this; how is man supposed to pull himself out of sin? The Mormon reasoning for this is that Christ's atoning sacrifice wiped away man's original sin, thus leaving him able to strive to be perfect. This reasoning makes a bit more sense, but it still isn't biblical and has some inherent problems.

Lets looks at the gospel reference True to the Faith:

"...you cannot be saved in your sins; you cannot receive unconditional salvation simply by declaring your belief in Christ with the understanding that you will inevitably commit sins throughout the rest of your life... To receive this blessing, you must exercise faith in Jesus Christ, strive to keep the commandments, forsake sin, and renew your repentance and cleansing through the ordinance of the sacrament.4"

The opposite is true, you do receive unconditional salvation simply by belief in spite of the fact that you will inevitably commit sins probably every day of your life. Romans 5:8 tells us that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us, meaning that his sacrifice was for sinners who were still sinning.

1 Nephi 3:7
And it came to pass that I, Nephi, said unto my father: I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded, for I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them.

By the power of God, man has the ability to do all things. This applies to keeping the commandments and ordinances. But, what does it mean if you are not perfect? This view that Mormons hold does not make sense. If you sin then God must not have commanded you to be perfect, which either means that you don't have to be perfect or that salvation isn't for you. Since the Lord has commanded man to be perfect, man should be able to be perfect. Let us consult the gospel reference again:

"As you ponder your progress on the 'strait and narrow path,' be assured that eternal life is within your reach. The Lord wants you to return to Him, and He will never require anything of you that you cannot fulfill... Remember that as you give your greatest effort and repent of your sins, the Atonement of Jesus Christ will compensate for your weakness and for the inequities, injuries, and pains you experience in this life...5"

So, it seems that Christ's death was only to aid you in a never ending quest for perfection. This doesn't seem so bad. If you stumble, Christ comes along and picks you back up and points you in the right direction again. We shall see the problem with this later.

Doctrine and Covenants 58:42-43
Behold, he who has repented of his sins, the same is forgiven, and I, the Lord, remember them no more. By this ye may know if a man repenteth of his sins - behold, he will confess them and forsake them.

We are given a definition of repentance here. It is more than sorrow for sin and more than attempting to pay back whom you have wronged: It is acknowledging the sin and never doing it again. A repentant heart is a heart that has completely turned away from the evil it once loved. This is true repentance. What makes this so hard is that no one has ever been able to achieve this. Yet, we must. Kimball gives a story of how this plays out:

"An army officer called a soldier to him and ordered him to take a message to another officer. The soldier saluted and said, 'I'll try, sir! I'll try!' To this the officer responded: 'I don't want you to try, I want you to deliver this message." The soldier, somewhat embarrassed, now replied: 'I'll do the best I can, sir." At this the officer, now disgusted, rejoined with some vigor: 'I don't want you to try and I don't want you to 'do the best you can.' I want you to deliver this message.' Now the young soldier straightening to his full height, approached the matter magnificently, as he thought, when he saluted again and said: 'I'll do it or die, sir.' To this the now irate officer responded: 'I don't want you to die, and I don't want you merely to do the best you can, and I don't want you to try. Now, the request is a reasonable one; the message is important; the distance is not far; you are able-bodied; you can do what I have ordered. Now get out of here and accomplish your mission.6'"

In short, you must do what you very well might not be able to do. Attempting with everything you have is not enough; if you die without delivering the message, that's it, you've failed. There's no hope in that, no grace. Trying is not sufficient and doing your best isn't nearly good enough, "you must do better than you can.7" Gospel means good news right?

Doctrine and Covenants 82:7
And now, verily I say unto you, I, the Lord, will not lay any sin to your charge; go your ways and sin no more; but unto that soul who sinneth shall the former sins return, saith the Lord your God.

What is interesting about this passage is that the one preceding says that "none doeth good," which makes the events of this one inevitable. As we have seen in previous verses this one starts off good then gets a bit weird toward the end. The seemingly free forgiveness at the start is betrayed by the return of sin upon sinning again. Sin isn't forgiven then; it is put in a back room, waiting for your next mistake. "Forgiveness" is conditional, if you sin and sin again from time to time they all pile up.

"To return to sin is most destructive to the morale of the individual and gives Satan another hand-hold on his victim. Those who feel that they can sin and be forgiven and then return to sin and be forgiven again and again must straighten out their thinking. Each previously forgiven sin is added to the new one and the whole gets to be a heavy load.8"

Maybe the full weight of sin isn't felt until you enter such a system as this. When the burden is on your shoulders you can see the impressive weight of the cross and see that there is no way that you'll ever be able to carry it.

Alma 34:32-35
For behold, this life is the time for men to prepare to meet God; yea, behold the day of this life is the day for men to perform their labors... I beseech of you that ye do not procrastinate the day of your repentance until the end... Ye cannot say, when ye are brought to that awful crisis, that I will repent, that I will return to my God... For behold, if ye have procrastinated the day of your repentance even until death, behold, ye have become subjected to the spirit of the devil, and he doth seal you his; therefore, the Spirit of the Lord hath withdrawn from you, and hath no place in you, and the devil hath all power over you: and this is the final state of the wicked.

If you do not repent before you die you belong to Satan and, as we have seen, repentance is quite a feat. Since this is such a strong proposition we should default to a prophet and use his words to help describe what is going on here.

"Because men are prone to postpone action and ignore directions, the Lord has repeatedly given strict injunctions and issued solemn warnings. Again and again in different phraseology and throughout the centuries the Lord has reminded man so that he could never have excuse. And the burden of the prophetic warning has been that the time to act is now, in this mortal life. One cannot with impunity delay his compliance with God's commandments.9"

Because of the sinful nature of man, man is warned not to sin. Warnings and rules will do no good to aid man, it will only show him how far short he falls (Rom. 7:13). Nonetheless, man must move to action and flee from sin and to the commandments of God.

"This is the state of those who knowingly fail to live the commandments in this life. They will bring upon themselves their own hell.10" If you willingly break the commandments you're obviously not keeping them, but more than that if you set out to break what God has commanded you you can't have a high view of God in the first place. This is in keeping with mainstream Christianity. The mention of hell is strange as far as Mormon doctrine goes seeing as how most Mormons don't really ever mention it. The hell talked about here is outer darkness and, suffice to say, it isn't a pleasant place and is reserved for the most loathsome of people, heretics. Outer darkness is reserved for those who have heard the truth of Mormonism, but have turned away from it11. This doctrine is often used to keep people in the church by making them afraid of becoming sons of perdition (Heretics) and doomed to outer darkness.

Helaman 13:38
But, behold, your days of probation are past; ye have procrastinated the day of your salvation until it is everlastingly too late and your destruction is made sure; yea, for ye have sought all the days of your lives for that which ye could not obtain; and ye have sought for happiness in doing iniquity, which thing is contrary to the nature of that righteousness which is in our great and Eternal Head.

This is a very disturbing part of the Book of Mormon, not because of the demons swirling about their heads (verse 37), but because this is the end all men must face. You have sought all the days of your life for that which you could not obtain. The shocking truth of Mormonism, the impossible gospel, is that you will never obtain what you are looking for. It will always be just out of reach no matter how hard you search for it. "Do or do not, there is no try."


Foot Notes:
1. Walter Elwell, Evangelical Dictionary of Theology, P.E. Hughes, "Grace," (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2001), p. 519.
2. True to the Faith, "Grace," (Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 2004), p. 77. (Emphasis Added).
3. Spencer W. Kimball, The Miracle of Forgiveness, (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1969), p. 208-209.
4. True to the Faith, p. 151.
5. True to the Faith, p. 53.
6. Kimball, p. 164.
7. ibid, p.165.
8. Ibid, p. 170.
9. Ibid, p. 9.
10. Ibid, p. 14.
11. True to the Faith, "Hell," p. 81.