The man who plowed his truck into a meetinghouse of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, shot at and killed congregants and then set the entire building on fire is reported to have said members of the church were the antichrist.

I wish this was a fringe belief, but it isn’t.

Latter-day Saints are used to this kind of demonization, but it’s important to point out how wrong it is. Not just because we now see the lengths someone will go to if they actually believe it, but because it’s factually incorrect.

What is a Christian?

If we want a clear, definitive answer as to what defines a Christian, we should look no further than what Jesus Christ himself said.

Ryan Comer, Standard-Examiner

“Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.” (Matthew 16:24)

“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me:

“And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.” (John 10:27-28)

According to Jesus, a Christian is one who follows Him.

Latter-day Saints certainly follow Christ. We believe that he lived, that he died for our sins, that he was resurrected and that only through him can we receive eternal life. Joseph Smith, founder and first president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, said it well:

“The fundamental principles of our religion are the testimony of the Apostles and Prophets, concerning Jesus Christ, that He died, was buried, and rose again the third day, and ascended into heaven; and all other things which pertain to our religion are only appendages to it.”

Following Christ

If we claim to be Christian because we say that we follow Jesus, what does that look like in practice?

Again, we can go directly to Jesus’ own words.

“A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.

“By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.” (John 13:34-35)

Disciples of Christ, or Christians, are defined by their love for one another.

Love for each other was one of Jesus’ central teachings, as shown in a number of verses in the New Testament.

“Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart⁠, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind⁠.

“This is the first and great commandment⁠.

“And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.” (Matthew 22:37-39)

“But I say unto you which hear, Love your enemies, do good to them which hate you,

“Bless them that curse you, and pray for them which despitefully use you.” (Luke 6:27-28)

There are a lot of people who could claim to be Christians, but what they say is ultimately not as important as how they behave. We can tell how Christian someone is by how they treat the people around them.

“Ye shall know them by their fruits⁠. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?

“Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit⁠; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit.

“A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.” (Matthew 7:16-18)

Latter-day Saints excel at being Christian

So how do Latter-day Saints stack up when it comes to showing love for one another? What are their “fruits?” Interestingly, there’s a poll for that.

In a Pew survey titled “Latter-day Saints feel positively toward other Christian groups in U.S., but the reverse is not true,” we see that Latter-day Saints have a positive attitude about evangelical Christians (+43%), mainline protestants (+51%), Catholics (+53%), Jews (+58%), Muslims (+37%) and even atheists (+6%).

Those are the highest positive attitudes for each group except for atheists. Jews feel positively about atheists at a +19% clip.

For each of those groups where Latter-day Saints had the most positive feelings, the difference between Latter-day Saints and the group with the next highest rate of positive feelings was striking. The group that had the next highest positive-feeling rate for each of the above-mentioned groups were as follows:

Evangelical Christians: Catholics (+4%)

Mainline Protestants: Evangelical Christians (+37%)

Catholics: Evangelical Christians (+22%)

Jews: Evangelical Christians (+39%)

Muslims: Catholics (-1%)

Imagine that. Latter-day Saints have a more positive attitude toward both evangelical and mainline protestants than each of those groups have for each other, by a wide margin.

But, actually, we don’t need a poll to see how well Latter-day Saints excel at Christlike love. More overwhelming, it seems, than all the noise about Latter-day Saints supposedly not being Christian are the people who say Latter-day Saints are among the nicest people in the world.

Why do people say that about Latter-day Saints? Consider the recent reporting that over $275,000 has been raised for the family of the man who committed the despicable attack on the Latter-day Saints in Michigan, a fundraiser started by a Latter-day Saint.

Christian love not reciprocated

Unfortunately, as the poll’s title explained, the reverse is not true.

Only one of those groups has positive feelings about Latter-day Saints, and just barely: Catholics at +2%. Evangelical Christians are -12%, mainline Protestants are -1%, Jews are -13% and atheists are -55%.

Overall, also factoring in agnostics and the otherwise religiously unaffiliated, Latter-day Saints are viewed at -12%. That’s second lowest, better than only Evangelical Christians at -14%. Mainline Protestants are at +16%, Catholics are at +5%, Jews are at +27%, Muslims are at -5% and atheists are at -9%.

That means Latter-day Saints are underwater by a whopping 53.3%, underwater being how much they are disliked (-12%) compared to how much they like other groups on average (+41.3%). Evangelical Christians are underwater by 18.3%. Mainline Protestants are above by 10.5%, Catholics are -2.5%, Jews are +30.83% and atheists are +25.67%. Metrics weren’t recorded for how Muslims viewed other groups.

We can know the truth of this poll based on how members of the church are treated. Consider last weekend when the BYU football team went to Colorado and heard “(expletive) the Mormons” chants. This has become a staple at universities where BYU plays. It has happened at numerous universities during football and basketball games over recent years.

Only a group that’s truly hated could be subjected to that even once – much less multiple times – and not have unanimous outrage and condemnation, which is so very strange because of how nice everyone thinks we are.

This is all distressing for Latter-day Saints, but we take heart in the words of Jesus.

“If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.

“Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also.” (John 15:19-20)

To recap, it’s a sign of being Christian how much you love one another, and it’s a sign of being Christian how much you are hated by others. So being underwater 53.3% should be a badge of honor, even though it can be hard to handle.

Christianity on display at general conference

Beyond the poll, there’s other evidence of how Christian Latter-day Saints are. We’ll have an example of that this weekend when the semiannual general conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is held.

30-plus church leaders will share messages focused on Jesus Christ.

Out of curiosity, I took the text from each talk from the last general conference in April, put them in ChatGPT and asked for a “Christian score” on a scale of 1 to 100.

We’re talking about AI and AI is far from perfect, but I think there’s value to what I believe is a neutral perspective that isn’t jaded by denominational biases.

It first defined a Christian message as one that met the following five criteria:

• Rooted in Christ
• Scriptural alignment
• Spirit of love and grace
• Focus on God’s will, not just human agenda
• Christlike fruits

There were 32 talks given at the April conference, and the average “Christian score” for each talk was 98.0. Of those 32 talks, 17 received a perfect 100.

I then asked ChatGPT whether the speakers could be considered Christian by their words. It said yes for the following reasons:

1. “Christ was central in all of (the talks).
2. “The themes were unmistakably Christian.
3. “The fruit matched Christian preaching.”

It added:

“So while a few talks leaned more on application or specific doctrines (and thus scored in the 90s rather than 100), the identity of the speakers as Christians is not in doubt. Every single one of these talks is unmistakably Christian in content, tone, and intent.”

Here are summaries for just a few of those talks that received a perfect 100.

“This … is scripture-saturated, deeply pastoral, focused entirely on Christ’s love and nearness, and closes with a bold witness of His resurrection.”

“Structures itself entirely on Christ’s own words.”

“This is as pure, scriptural, Christ-filled, and Spirit-driven as a Christian sermon can be.”

“The crescendo is one of the strongest Christological declarations in any of the talks reviewed.”

“Its entire framework is about Christ’s transformative grace, how service and callings prepare us to meet Him.”

“Overflowing with hope, peace, and encouragement–a model of Christian proclamation.”

“… it keeps Christ at the center, makes discipleship practical through stories and examples, is rich in scripture, radiates grace, and overflows with the fruits of the Spirit. It reads like a direct reflection of John 13:34-35–love as the sign of true discipleship.”

If you want to learn about Christ and learn how to become like Him, I can’t think of a better way than watching or listening to general conference.

And it shouldn’t be surprising that the messages are as Christian as they are.

“And we talk of Christ, we rejoice in Christ, we preach of Christ, we prophesy of Christ, and we write according to our prophecies, that our children may know to what source they may look for a remission of their sins.” (2 Nephi 25:26)

But what about the trinity?

Many Christians will point to the Latter-day Saint rejection of the trinity, saying that Latter-day Saints believe in a completely different Jesus, but Latter-day Saints would argue that they believe in the Jesus that’s actually in scripture. They would say they follow his teachings as he taught them, not what became theorized and demanded centuries later.

Quoting Latter-day Saint apostle Jeffrey R. Holland from a 2007 general conference of the church:

“Indeed no less a source than the stalwart Harper’s Bible Dictionary records that ‘the formal doctrine of the Trinity as it was defined by the great church councils of the fourth and fifth centuries is not to be found in the [New Testament].'”

Not only is the doctrine of the trinity as defined centuries after Christ died not in the New Testament, but nowhere in the New Testament does Jesus ever say that in order to be one of his disciples, one has to support or affirm a specific creed, or even any creed at all. To Jesus, being one of his disciples was about whether you followed him and how you loved one another, not whether you affirmed a creed.

It is true that Latter-day Saints don’t believe in Jesus in the same exact way as other Christians, but it’s important to point out that even within various Christian groups, it could be argued that they don’t even believe in the same Jesus.

Is there a direct line from the current pope to Christ, or is there not? Is baptism a requirement for salvation or is it not? Do infants need to be baptized to be saved or not? All these differences result in completely different versions of Jesus: one who saves in certain situations, and one that doesn’t save in others.

A Jesus who would save an infant only if the infant is baptized is a radically different Jesus than a Jesus who would save all infants regardless of baptism.

Two protestants may share the same view of Jesus’ identity as it relates to the trinity and various creeds, but if they disagree on who Jesus would save, then they fundamentally don’t believe in the same Jesus, and that is not something that can be swept under the rug just because you agree on Jesus’ metaphysical nature – which, as they describe it, Jesus never claimed one had to affirm.

I’m just not certain why there is this notion that agreeing on Jesus’ metaphysical nature is the dividing line for Christianity rather than beliefs on authority and baptism. Those issues directly relate to whether one can reach the kingdom of God.

Conclusion

Honestly, I don’t know if much will be gained from this column. Some of these points might be more persuasive than others. But if there’s something that I do hope, it’s that Christians can maybe think a little bit more deeply about their claims about Latter-day Saints. Think more about what Jesus actually said, and think more about how Latter-day Saints actually behave. We’re not perfect, but the evidence is overwhelming that we try hard. We sing a song in our primary classes called “I’m trying to be like Jesus” for a reason.

Personally, that sounds pretty anti-antichrist to me.

Contact Ryan Comer at rcomer@standard.net.