The Counterfeit Christ of Jason Wallace

Jason Wallace (anti-Mormon activist; pastor at Christ Presbyterian Church in Magna, Utah) posted a programme of “The Ancient Paths” he did on the topic of “The Mormon Jesus.” One can find it here:

I previoulsy interacted with some of Wallace's "arguments" on a blog post entitled Examination of "Christ Presbyterian Church Issues 95 Theses Against Mormonism"

Here, I will make a few brief comments about the presentation on LDS Christology:

Around the 18 minute mark, Wallace shows his lack of intellectual integrity by claiming that the “Mormon Jesus” is just a “superman” and that 1 Kgs 8:27 (cf. 2 Chron 6:18) contradicts LDS theology:

But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the heaven of heaven cannot contain you; how much less this house I have built! (ESV)

Firstly, in Wallace’s Christology, Jesus remains embodied; such is part-and-parcel of the Christology of Chalcedon in AD 451, so his rather (pathetic) comments on LDS Christology would also come back to bite him vis-à-vis his Trinitarian Christology. Furthermore, the word “contain” in Hebrew does not refer to the temple not having space to contain God (the sense that God’s size is so immense it cannot contain him [how to make sense of that in light of divine simplicity and “spirit” being immaterial in “mainstream” theology is a wonder to behold . . . ]) but to the power of Yahweh—the Hebrew term is  כול and carries the meaning of “restrain”; an analogy would be how a paper bag cannot “contain” a grenade and its power once the pin is pulled.

He also butchers John 1:1c (discussed here) around the 19:30 mark; Wallace’s use of Greek is just a smokescreen covering up his butchering of this text. As for the JST of this verse, the JST represents a Midrash-like expansion, something that is rather common to the JST, as has been discussed by Kevin L. Barney and other JST scholars; furthermore, Joseph Smith preserved the “traditional” reading of this verse, with the “word” (λογος) in D&C 93:8 being predicated upon Jesus.

The “Isaiah teaches strict monotheism” “argument” is simply presented without any exegesis; for exegesis of these texts, see here. And of course, the time-worn canard and great piece of yellow journalism (“Mormons believes Jesus is Satan’s brother!”) is discussed. As usual, Wallace does not deal with texts such as Job 1 that support this theology. Furthermore, Wallace harps on “only-begotten”—the Greek term means “unique” (μονογηνες), a term also used of Isaac's relationship to Abraham, notwithstanding Abraham having another, older son, Ishmael (Heb 11:7). For someone trying to “show off” his Greek knowledge to throw sand in the eyes of those watching the show, Wallace shows his ignorance on this issue.

The “Mormons believe God the Father had sex with Mary” canard is raised, but Barry Bickmore refuted this. As with many other topics, Wallace ignores meaningful LDS responses to this issue. Another example of his lack of research skills and intellectual integrity (see the section, “Virgin Birth” beginning on p. 246). 

I do agree with Wallace that some early LDS were wrong in stating that Jesus was the bridegroom in John 2, as Jesus and his disciples were called to the wedding (v. 2), so Wallace can be right at times, just like a broken watch can tell the time twice each day . . .

Wallace’s butchering of Col 1:16 have previously been answered in my paper, “Latter-day Saints have chosen the True, Biblical Jesus.” In reality, Wallace and other Trinitarians are the ones who preach a false, man-made conception of Jesus, one that falls under the condemnation in 2 Cor 11:3-4, not the Latter-day Saints and our Christology.