Introduction: Grief Without Confusion
On September 28, 2025, a horrific act of violence struck a congregation of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) in Grand Blanc, Michigan. A gunman drove his vehicle into the building, opened fire on worshipers, and set the church ablaze, leaving multiple dead and many more injured. (1, 2) Families are shattered, lives have been lost, and a community is reeling. As Christians, our first response must be grief, prayer, and compassion for the victims and their families. Violence in any house of worship is an abomination, and we mourn with those who mourn.
Yet in the wake of tragedy, public voices have rushed to interpret the meaning of this event. Former President Donald Trump called it “another targeted attack on Christians.” (3) Brilyn Hollyhand—hailed by many conservatives as Charlie Kirk’s heir-apparent—declared:
“I just left church and now I'm sitting at lunch watching a Michigan church shot up and set on fire. Christianity is under attack. The devil feels threatened by this revival and is working harder than ever. These aren't coincidences. This is spiritual warfare. Wake up!” (4)
Such statements, though passionate, confuse categories at a moment when clarity is desperately needed. The LDS church is not a Christian church in the historic, biblical sense. To conflate Mormonism with Christianity risks misleading new believers—especially those recently touched by the gospel at events like Charlie Kirk’s memorial service, where the true Jesus was proclaimed.
The devil is indeed at work, but his strategy here is subtler and far more insidious than Hollyhand suggests: he is using careless words and theological imprecision to blur the line between the gospel of Jesus Christ and a radically different religion born in 19th-century America.
The Rise of the LDS Church: A 19th-Century Movement
The LDS church emerged in the 1830s under Joseph Smith, during a period of intense religious fervor in America known as the Second Great Awakening. (5) Many were spiritually hungry but biblically illiterate, making them vulnerable to new theologies. Smith claimed to receive golden plates from an angel, which he then translated into what became known as The Book of Mormon. (6)
From its inception, Mormonism defined itself against Christianity. Joseph Smith declared:
“All their creeds were an abomination in his sight; that those professors were all corrupt” (Joseph Smith—History 1:19). (6)
In other words, Smith and his successors originally taught that Christians were apostates following a false religion. Only in recent decades—starting in the 1980s and 1990s—has the LDS church sought to rebrand itself as “Christian” for cultural acceptance.
Key Doctrinal Differences Between LDS Teaching and Historic Christianity
1. The Nature of God
LDS Teaching: God the Father—whom they call Elohim—was once a mortal man who progressed to godhood. He is not unique, but one in an infinite succession of exalted men who themselves became gods. Lorenzo Snow, fifth LDS president, famously said: “As man now is, God once was; as God now is, man may be” (Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Lorenzo Snow, ch. 5). (7) Moreover, the Father is said to possess a tangible, physical body: “The Father has a body of flesh and bones as tangible as man’s; the Son also” (Doctrine and Covenants 130:22) (8)
Biblical Christianity: God is eternal, uncreated, and unchanging. “Before the mountains were born, before you gave birth to the earth and the world, from eternity to eternity, you are God” (Psalm 90:2). Scripture also teaches that God utterly unique: “Before me no god was formed, and there will be none after me” (Isaiah 43:10). He is spirit, not flesh (John 4:24), and “God is not a man, that he might lie, or a son of man, that he might change his mind” (Numbers 23:19). The wonder of the gospel is not that the Father already had a body, but that the eternal Son uniquely took on flesh in the incarnation: “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:14).
2. The Person of Jesus Christ
LDS Teaching: Jesus is the literal spirit-brother of Lucifer, the firstborn of Heavenly Father and one of his goddess wives (Gospel Principles, ch. 2). (9)
Biblical Christianity: Jesus is the eternal Son of God, not a created being, and is eternally co-equal in his divine essence with the Father and Holy Spirit. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1).
3. The Preexistence of Humanity
LDS Teaching: All humans existed as spirit children of Heavenly Father and a Heavenly Mother before birth. In this premortal life, spirits were tested. Those who were more valiant were rewarded with favorable circumstances on earth; those less valiant were marked with limitations. “Before they were born, they, with many others, received their first lessons in the world of spirits and were prepared to come forth in the due time of the Lord” (Doctrine and Covenants 138:56). (10)
Biblical Christianity: Scripture never teaches that humans existed before conception. Instead, God alone is eternal, and human life begins in the womb. “For it was you who created my inward parts; you knit me together in my mother’s womb” (Psalm 139:13).
4. Teachings on Race
LDS Teaching: Building on the doctrine of preexistence, LDS leaders historically taught that Black people were “less valiant” in the premortal life and therefore cursed in mortality. This belief undergirded the priesthood and temple ban that lasted until 1978 (Official Declaration 2). (11)
Biblical Christianity: The gospel proclaims that all people are equally fallen in Adam and equally redeemed in Christ. “There is no Jew or Greek, slave or free, male and female; since you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28).
5. Salvation
LDS Teaching: Salvation is a combination of grace and works, with exaltation (godhood) reserved for the faithful who keep LDS ordinances. “We know that it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do” (2 Nephi 25:23). (12)
Biblical Christianity: Salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. “For you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God’s gift—not from works, so that no one can boast” (Ephesians 2:8–9).
6. The Afterlife
LDS Teaching: The afterlife consists of three “degrees of glory” (celestial, terrestrial, telestial), with exalted Mormons becoming gods and ruling over their own planets (Doctrine and Covenants 76). (13)
Biblical Christianity: There are only two eternal destinies: eternal life with God or eternal separation from Him. “And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life” (Matthew 25:46).
The Danger of Confusion
When leaders like Trump and Hollyhand call the LDS church “Christian,” they unintentionally blur the gospel. Paul warned with sobering clarity:
“But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, a curse be on him!” (Galatians 1:8).
The LDS gospel is precisely such a “different gospel.” It is not a minor denominational difference but a fundamentally different religion. To call Mormonism “Christianity” is to risk leading seekers astray.
Conclusion: Truth in Love
We must hold two truths together. First, we grieve deeply with those who lost loved ones in Grand Blanc. Violence against any worshiping community is evil, and Christians should be the first to extend compassion, prayer, and tangible support.
Second, we must not allow tragedy to blur theological lines. The LDS church preaches a different gospel, one born of 19th‑century American culture, not the eternal Word of God. Only eighteen days before this senseless act of violence, Charlie Kirk was killed—and his memorial service became the single largest gospel presentation in history, reaching well over one hundred million people around the world. Many heard, perhaps for the first time, the true Jesus: the eternal Son of God who saves by grace alone. That moment may well prove to be the spark of a new great awakening. And the devil does not want revival. He wants to kill it in the cradle.
This is why precision matters: if revival is stirring, the enemy will do everything he can to redirect hearts toward a counterfeit gospel—just as he did in the 19th Century. In moments of sorrow, the devil seeks to sow confusion. Let us resist him by speaking with both compassion and clarity: mourning with the grieving, while pointing seekers to the true Christ who alone is “the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6).
And here is where precision matters most: Mormonism is not Christianity. It is a different religion, with a different gospel and a different cosmology. To call it Christian is as mistaken as calling an attack on a cathedral an attack on Muslims, or an attack on a synagogue an attack on Hindus. Different religion. Different theology. Different cosmology. They are not the same. To confuse them is to risk leading souls away from the only Savior who can truly save.
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