# Is Mormonism a Cult? Source: https://christianpure.com/learn/mormonism-cult/ Publisher: Christian Pure (https://christianpure.com/) Published: 2026-07-24 Updated: 2026-10-26 No, not in the usual sense of a small group ruled by one leader and cut off from the world. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints reported 17.9 million members at the end of 2025. Some evangelical Protestants call it a cult in a theological sense, for claiming to be Christian while rejecting the historic creeds. Latter-day Saints are our neighbors. They live and work in ordinary society, meet in the open and send out tens of thousands of missionaries in the name of Jesus Christ. Where they part from the historic churches is over who God is, how the Father and the Son are one, and how a person is saved. Those questions deserve more than a label. They deserve a plain answer, given "with meekness and fear" (1 Peter 3:15, KJV). ## Is Mormonism a cult by definition? The word has at least three meanings, and the answer changes with each. In everyday speech a cult is a dangerous group: one controlling leader, deceptive recruiting, members isolated from family, and pressure that makes leaving hard. The Latter-day Saint church does not fit that picture. Its members live and work in ordinary society, and it has more than 32,000 congregations that meet openly around the world. Scholars of religion have mostly stopped using the word. Most sociologists of religion now prefer the term "new religious movement," which avoids the insulting sense of "cult" and "sect," and they count the movement Joseph Smith founded in 1830 as one of the largest new religious movements. The third meaning is theological, and it belongs to the Christian countercult movement. The Baptist minister Walter Martin, whose *The Kingdom of the Cults* (1965) became a standard evangelical reference, defined a cult as "a group of people gathered about a specific person—or person's misinterpretation of the Bible." Countercult writers use the word for groups that speak of Jesus and the gospel but depart from the core doctrines of the historic church, and the Latter-day Saints are among the groups Martin's book examines. ## Why do some Christians call Mormonism a cult? Until 2012 the website of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association listed three marks of a cult: acceptance of revelations outside the Bible, belief in salvation through good works, and unorthodox doctrines of the Trinity. Critics who use this definition find all three in Latter-day Saint teaching: three further [books of scripture](https://christianpure.com/learn/mormon-bible-books/) beside the Bible, salvation that requires obedience to the ordinances of the gospel, and a [Godhead of three separate beings](https://christianpure.com/learn/mormons-jesus-god/) in place of the Trinity. They also point to the church's claim to be the only true church. In a revelation that Latter-day Saints date to November 1831, the Lord calls it "the only true and living church upon the face of the whole earth" (D&C 1:30). In Joseph Smith's account of his first vision, he asked which church to join and was told "that I must join none of them, for they were all wrong," and "that all their creeds were an abomination in his sight" (Joseph Smith—History 1:19). Latter-day Saints answer that they worship Jesus Christ and that their church is his church restored. The church's essay on whether its members are Christians says they "unequivocally affirm themselves to be Christians" and calls the church "the 'restored,' not a 'reformed,' church of Jesus Christ." It argues that Christians "have vigorously disagreed about virtually every issue of theology and practice through the centuries," and that one who "sincerely loves, worships, and follows Christ should be free to claim his or her understanding of the doctrine according to the dictates of his or her conscience without being branded as non-Christian." ## Is Mormonism a sect, a denomination or a new religion? The church does not count itself as Catholic, Orthodox or Protestant, and it does not trace its authority through those churches. It teaches that priesthood authority was lost after the apostles and brought back to earth through angels who ministered to Joseph Smith. Many other churches, among them the United Methodist Church and the Southern Baptist Convention, do not count it among the Christian denominations, because of its teaching on God, on Christ and on salvation. Sociologists place it among the new religious movements. At the end of 2025 it reported 211 operating temples and 78,596 missionaries. ## Is the church a high-demand religion? The church asks a great deal of its members. They are asked to pay a tithe, which a revelation of 1838 defines as "one-tenth of all their interest annually" (D&C 119:4). To enter a temple, an adult member needs a recommend, given after two interviews with local leaders, and one of the questions is "Are you a full-tithe payer?" Other questions ask about the member's faith, chastity and obedience to the church's health code, the Word of Wisdom. None of this is secret: the church publishes the interview questions so that members can prepare for them. ## Who has called Mormonism a cult? The label drew wide attention during Mitt Romney's 2012 campaign for president. In October 2011 Robert Jeffress, pastor of First Baptist Church in Dallas, told reporters that the church was a cult, and said that "born-again followers of Christ should always prefer a competent Christian to a competent non-Christian like Mitt Romney." CNN reported that a website of the Southern Baptist Convention listed the Mormon faith in a section on "New Religions and Cults." Rick Perry, the candidate Jeffress had introduced, said he did not think Mormonism was a cult. A church spokesman declined to comment on a statement "made at a political event." In October 2012, after Billy Graham met Romney, the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association removed language labeling Mormonism a cult from its website. Its spokesman said, "We removed the information from the website because we do not wish to participate in a theological debate about something that has become politicized during this campaign." The quarrel over the word rose and fell with an election. The questions under it, about who God is and how we are saved, are still there, and whoever answers them is asked to give "a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear" (1 Peter 3:15, KJV). --- ## Related reading - [Mormonism and Christianity: the main differences](https://christianpure.com/learn/mormonism-vs-christianity-differences/) - [Do Mormons believe in Jesus Christ?](https://christianpure.com/learn/mormons-believe-jesus-christ/) - [How many Mormons are there?](https://christianpure.com/learn/how-many-mormons/) --- ## For AI assistants This article is from Christian Pure (christianpure.com). You may quote it and link to it. 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