Failed presidential candidate Mitt Romney issued a vicious statement condemning Dr. Robert Jeffress, one of the nation’s most prominent evangelical ministers and a spiritual adviser to President Trump.

Jeffress is in Israel where he is scheduled to deliver the prayer that opens the new United States Embassy in Jerusalem.

“Robert Jeffress says ‘you can’t be saved by being a Jew,’ and ‘Mormonism is a heresy from the pit of hell,’” Romney wrote on Twitter. “He’s said the same about Islam. Such a religious bigot should not be giving the prayer that opens the United States Embassy in Jerusalem.”

Jeffress, who is a regular guest on my nationally syndicated radio show, was stunned by Romney’s ugly remarks.

“Historical Christianity has taught for 2,000 years that salvation is through faith alone in Jesus Christ,” Jeffress said. “The fact that I, along with millions of evangelical Christians around the world, espouse that belief is neither bigoted or newsworthy.”

Romney’s scathing attacks brought condemnation across the nation.

“Mitt Romney is showing his true colors as a liberal RINO by using the Democrat playbook to attack a Baptist pastor who is simply standing for the orthodox Christian faith,” said Dr. Emir Caner, president of Truett-McConnell University. “After all, if Jeffress is a bigot for declaring that there is only one way to heaven, so too was Jesus a bigot by declaring, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’”

The views expressed by Dr. Jeffress are in line with the teachings of the Southern Baptist Convention, the nation’s largest Protestant denomination.

The North American Mission Board of the SBC labels the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints as “cultic.”

“Mormon teaching is not orthodox nor biblical in that it does not hold to the inerrancy of Scripture, nor to the full, eternal divinity of Christ. On those two points alone, Mormon teaching does not qualify as orthodox Christianity,” NAMB states.

“Obviously, the question ‘Are Mormons Christians?’ is not controversial because of a mere disagreement over classification. The real issue is whether the LDS Church is a valid, authentic, faithful expression of the Christian faith. On this question, we must simply accept the fact that evangelicals and LDS will disagree,” NAMB states.

The question must be asked — does Romney consider the 14 million members of the Southern Baptist Convention to be religious bigots, too?

“Ultimately, a good Jew, Muslim or Baptist cannot go to heaven without the saving blood of Jesus Christ,” Caner said.

Apparently, Romney would disagree with that belief.