We are particularly vulnerable to temptation in the area in which we build our “brand.” One of the individuals caught up in a recent scandal branded himself as the consummate family man who loved and valued his wife and family. Yet he now leaves the public eye just hoping he will be able to regain their trust and confidence and salvage something of a relationship with them. Another was an advocate for justice who was found to have committed acts of great injustice.

Though we would never wish for a scandal to take place and make its way into the headlines, and while we should always regret the circumstances that bring one about, a scandal does offer the opportunity for personal introspection. A wise man will heed its lessons, for it inevitably provides the context to consider whether sin is sneaking up on us as it has on someone else, to practice the biblical admonition “let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall” (1 Corinthians 10:12).
In recent months the news around these parts has carried stories of a number of highly-publicized scandals, some of which involve professed Christians and some of which do not. And while none overlap my life or social circles in any significant way, I’ve still found myself pondering the public facts to consider what lessons I can draw from them.
The lesson that is most prominent in my mind is that you’re never too old to destroy your legacy—which is to say that you’re never beyond the temptation to sin. Some of these people had enjoyed many years of service in the public eye and had earned an upright reputation. And then, in the blink of an eye, they had to resign in disgrace. Some tried to express the hope that, because they had done so much good for so long a time, their legacy would not be entirely undermined. Yet, while they may have done much good, they will never outrun the context in which their careers came to so sudden a halt. The lesson is that we can never coast, we can never relax our vigilance against sin until we have safely landed in heaven.
Just behind that lesson is this: sin will often bring the most pain and harm to those we love the most (or are meant to love the most). It is almost unbearable to consider the cost to a wife in shame as news of her husband’s affair crisscrosses the world (and, of course, to a woman’s husband if the wife is the one who has transgressed). Every story will tell of a marriage that must now be in peril because of one spouse’s thoughtlessness, one person’s transgressions. That husband may have enjoyed his sin while it was taking place but his wife and family will know only pain, shame, and confusion. That pastor may have gained some enjoyment while committing his sinful deeds, but now he has resigned and his church is left rocked and hurting. So often the cost of our sin is disproportionately paid by the very people we are charged to love, protect, and care for.
Here’s another lesson: Some people stick around too long. They grow so accustomed to being in the public eye that they cannot tolerate the thought of obscurity, of being a former politician, a former athlete, or even a former pastor. Yet there comes a time when remaining in the public eye (or the pulpit or the conference circuit or …) may reflect idolatry more than necessity or service. That public prominence may have become a matter of identity so that the individual doesn’t know who he would be without the position and the acclaim that comes with it. And there is grave danger that comes to those who are in the public eye to work out their own identity rather than to serve others. Sometimes what’s best for a person, his family, and the people he has served is to step aside—to quit while he is ahead. (The people who most need to quit are probably the very ones who find the thought most unbearable!)
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In Song of Solomon the sin of the bride is like great mountains or hills that separates her from her beloved Groom.  Sin separates us from God.  Here is One Altogether Lovely.  And yet we cannot come near Him.   We have no right of access, no privilege of communion.  We are by nature condemned and separated from the only One who is good.  But our Groom, the Lord Jesus, came for us. 

When I began this series I wrote: “God has not only furnished us with a world that speaks of His power and majesty, but a world also which is full of what Jonathan Edwards called “divine images”.   Because of the Bible, these things which God has created bear witness of Him.  With a Bible in our hands the world is – in a sense – transformed, so that everywhere we go we cannot help but think of Him who loved us and gave Himself for us.” 
When you look at the mountains, what are you meant to think of?  They are beautiful of course, and they are a testament to the creative might of God.  But they are more than evidence of a great Creator.  We know that because God has said more than that.
When you see the mountains or perhaps large hills remember the following:
First, remember that God’s righteousness is like great mountains.  In other words, as Spurgeon explains, His righteousness is “firm and unmoved, lofty and sublime.”  God is immovable, and as He is immovable so is His righteousness.  He cannot be anything but righteous.  He cannot act in unrighteousness because He is righteous.  Even as the great mountains cannot be moved, nothing can ever move Him to be otherwise.  Like the great mountains His righteousness is high and awesome.  It is a righteousness that is beyond our comprehension.  It is also a righteousness that – to the eye of His believing children – is glorious to behold.  His is a righteousness that is very great.  Unlike our shallow weak and shakeable righteousness, His is a towering, wonderful and unshakeable righteousness.  The psalmist says, “Thy righteousness is like the great mountains; thy judgments are a great deep (Psalm 36:6).”  
Second, remember His great power.  Though the mountains are very great, the Bible says that God moves them.  He overturns them as if grabbing them by their roots.  Think for a moment of the power needed to grab a medium sized tree and pull it up by the roots.  How great and mighty is God?  As if pulling weeds from a garden He overturns the mountains by the roots (Job 28:9).  Job 9:5 says, He “removeth the mountains, and they know not: which overturneth them in his anger.”  Psalm 65:6 says, Why by his strength setteth fast the mountains; being girdeth with power.”  It is by their strength that the great mountains rest where they do.  He created them out of nothing, He holds them fast, and He removes them at His pleasure.
Third, remember God’s wonderful protection of His people.  Psalm 125 says, “As the mountains are round about Jerusalem so the LORD is round about his people from henceforth even for ever.”  Ponder those glorious words for a moment.  There is nothing like the strategic advantage that mountains provide.  In olden days cities surrounded by mountains were close to impenetrable.
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 Mormons believe Jesus died for sins and rose again from the dead. The atonement is the central event in history and essential to their theology. And yet, Mormons do not have a precise doctrine of the atonement. They do not emphasize Christ as a wrath-bearing substitute, but emphasize simply that Christ somehow mysteriously remits our sins through his suffering.

The aim of this article is to provide a brief overview of Mormon history and theology. My purpose is not to debunk Mormonism or to prove Christianity. But I hope this quick survey will demonstrate that the two are not the same.
A quick note on secondary sources: Christian materials do not always treat Mormonism fairly or go the extra mile to present Mormon ideas as a Mormon would recognize them. One book that does is Andrew Jackson’s Mormonism Explained: What Latter-day Saints Teach and Practice. I also recommend A Different Jesus? The Christ of the Latter-Day Saints by BYU professor Robert Millet. Richard Mouw concedes too much in his Foreword and Afterword, but it is still helpful to get Mormon Christology from a Mormon himself.
Mormon History
Joseph Smith was born in rural Vermont in 1805, the fourth of nine children. With little success farming in Vermont, the Smith family moved west to Palmyra, New York. There Joseph Smith was exposed to different revival movements, and most of his family became Presbyterians, though Smith later said he leaned toward Methodism.
The presence of so many variations of Christianity bothered Smith. Which one was right? How could he choose? At one revival meeting, a preacher quoted from James 1:5 “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him” (KJV). Smith, 14 years old at the time, went home, reflected on these words, and went into the woods to pray.
According to Mormon tradition, this is when Joseph Smith had his first vision. In this vision, which is foundational to the Mormon faith, Smith claimed to see two “personages.” The one—God the Father—pointed to the other and said, “This is My Beloved Son. Hear Him!”  Smith asked them what sect he should join. They answered that he should join none of them. They were all wrong. All their creeds were an abomination, and all their believers were corrupt.
Three years later, Mormons believe Smith received another vision. In this vision the angel Moroni told Smith of golden plates buried under a hill near Palmyra. The plates were revealed in 1827 when Smith was provided with two reading crystals—Urim and Thummim—by which he could translate the writing (Smith claimed the plates were written in hieroglyphics). In 1830 Smith published The Book of Mormon, which contains the story of the lost Israelites who migrated to America in the sixth century BC but were killed in battle in AD 428. Smith later received another vision from John the Baptist giving him the Aaronic Priesthood.
That same year (1830) Smith founded the “Church of Christ.” In 1838 he changed the name to “The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.”
Smith continued to receive revelations telling him to move from New York to Ohio to Missouri and eventually to Illinois where he and his followers built a town called Nauvoo. There Smith and his followers tried to live out a utopian vision of society. They also instituted polygyny as early Mormon leaders argued that Jesus had had many wives. Smith and his brother were arrested in 1844. Later a mob stormed the jail and killed them both. Mormons consider Smith a martyr. Others say he died in a violent shoot-out.
Following Smith’s death there was a schism. A small group called the Josephites became the Reorganized Church with headquarters in Missouri. Most followed Brigham Young, who became their First President and prophet. In 1847, Young took the followers to Utah and built Salt Lake City.
Today, according to LDS figures, there are nearly 17 million Mormons worldwide—with about 7 million living in the United States. Mormonism is the largest new religious movement from the West since Christianity (which can be said, more accurately, to have come from the Near East). Mormonism is also the first homegrown American religion. Mormonism continues to grow (though at a slower rate) because of its missionary impulse, its relatively high birthrate, and its commitment to doctrinal and ethical distinctives.
Mormon Theology
Let me highlight seven areas of Mormon doctrine. I won’t try to refute the Mormon position, but I hope you will see the explicit (and often intentional) deviation from historic Christianity.

View of history. In Mormon thinking, the rise of Mormonism was not merely a reformation or renewal of the church. It was a complete restoration. Following the death of Christ’s apostles, the church fell into complete apostasy. The church lost divine authority and true doctrine. There is no unbroken continuity from the early church to the present. Christianity, for almost all of its history, was false and without the truth—until Joseph Smith and his revelation. Mormonism not only rejects historic orthodox Christianity, the entire religion is based on the need for such repudiation.

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