Fruits and sincerity do not settle doctrine

Many Latter-day Saints are devout, generous, family-oriented, disciplined, and sincere.

Those virtues do not make LDS doctrine the same God, Christ, gospel, and church taught by the apostles.

Matthew 7 warns about fruit, but it also warns that people can call Jesus Lord and do impressive works while still being rejected. Biblical fruit includes truth, obedience, and fidelity to Christ's teaching.

If fruits alone defined Christian doctrine, any disciplined religious community could become Christian by sociology.

A church can be large, organized, missionary-minded, and morally serious without being doctrinally Christian in the historic sense. Size and discipline answer sociological questions, not the identity of God.

The official LDS statistical report is useful for acknowledging the movement's scale. It cannot make the LDS Godhead, exaltation, or restoration claim apostolic.

A respectful argument can admit that many Latter-day Saints pray, sacrifice, serve, and love Jesus as they understand Him. That admission is not a concession that LDS doctrine is Christianity.

Scripture tests teachers and spirits by truth. The question remains whether the fruit is joined to the apostolic doctrine of God, Christ, and gospel.