I am confused-recently, a Texas (Baptist) pastor said that Mormonism is not a Christian religion. What he bases this upon I don’t know, but he does maintain that this is the official position of the Southern Baptist Convention.
So, what does the top prophet of Mormon say about other denominations that call themselves “Christian”-are adherents of these sects “Christians” or not?
I can’t answer your question but I’m pretty sure the official position of most Christian sects is the Mormonism is not Christian. Most denominations base their definitions of what it Christian on the Nicean Creed which Mormons consider to be a corrupt aberration.
My understanding is that Mormons view non-Mormon Christians as good but ill informed people who will achieve some of gods grace but not the true paradise that is reserved for the Mormons.
Sort of like Christians view the Jews. They got part of the message but not the whole message.
That’s a fair description. The doctrine says there are three main divisions or kingdoms in heaven: Celestial, Terrestrial, & Telestial.
The Celestial or best heaven is reserved for those who: 1- Accept the full gospel of Jesus Christ as taught by the LDS church. 2- Receive all the necessary ordinances including LDS baptism and a temple endowment. 3- Remain faithful to the faith throughout their lives. God and Jesus live here, and only those that make it this far can become “exalted” and become like God himself.
The Terrestrial is the middle heaven. It is for those that don’t meet the requirements for the Celestial kingdom. This is where most good people, christian and non-christian alike will end up. Christ doesn’t live here… but he’ll visit often.
The Telestial is the least heaven. It is reserved for “liars, and sorcerers, and adulterers, and whoremongers, and whosoever loves and makes a lie.” But evidently it will be a pretty cool place. Not as nice as the others, but still nice enough to be considered heaven. I’ve seen speculation that most of humanity is destined to end up here.
There is a hell in LDS theology, Outer Darkness. But it is reserved for those who, “say that the sun does not shine while he sees it; he has got to deny Jesus Christ when the heavens have been opened unto him, and to deny the plan of salvation with his eyes open to the truth of it.” So only those who deny/oppose God after he has directly revealed Himself to them go to hell. Only prophets and the like can get to hell in LDS theology.
Mormons believe that Jesus visited a certain people in the Americas, and performed a “Reader’s Digest Condensed Version” of His Palestine ministry, and THEN He ascended into Heaven.
The certain people wrote about themselves and this visit from Jesus upon golden plates, which were hidden for centuries until Joseph Smith recovered them and translated them into what is now known as the Book of Mormon. After he finished the translation, an angel took back the plates and they haven’t been seen since.
The Book of Mormon is considered to be ADDITIONAL holy scripture.
Do you want to know about the holy underwear, the temple rituals, the baptisms for the dead, or the progression to God and personal planets?
~VOW
The Mormon’s mission to proselytize is hard to avoid. They appear in neighborhoods all over the world. Men & Women spend two years doing this work for their church.
They wouldn’t be working so hard to convert Christians if the Mormon church was Christian already.
You don’t find Methodists dragging Baptists into their church. or vice versa.
To Aceplace:
Well, the Baptists do have a ministry to attempt to convert Catholics to “Christianity.”
~VOW
Gosh, it’s so much fun to see Christians hate each other.
Everyone goes to each other’s hell.
And that’s that.
Um, no. This was already covered. They don’t.
Its not exactly news. The Nicean creed itself, was a futile attempt by the emperor Constantine to end the infighting and instil a bit of unity on the Christian church.
There was a good line recently in theHistory of Rome podcast episode (which, incidentally, is awesome) about Julian the Apostate (the last pagan emperor) and his edict of toleration:
Much the same argument a Catholic would have used against a Lutheran in 1550. Centuries of war were based on whether this or that denomination was actually Christian.
Yes, the LDS have a number of heretical beliefs, at least according to a Baptist. And yes they have broader differences than exist between Baptists and Methodists. But they worship Jesus Christ, use the Bible as scripture, hold most beliefs in common with the broader Christian community, and perform sacraments (like baptism and communion) that would look entirely in place in any Christian church. They are not ecumenical Christians. Meaning they don’t recognize other churches baptisms as valid… and the other churches mostly hold the LDS baptisms in the same low regard. But that does not make them non-Christian. Otherwise there are no Christians, after all there are no churches that haven’t at some point been out of ecumenical agreement with the other various churches at one point in time or another.
It is also worth mentioning that the Community of Christ, the second largest Mormon church after the main LDS church, is currently in an ecumenical agreement with the members of the National Council of Churches in the US. Which means at least those Mormons are Christians according to the Methodist, Baptist, Catholic, Presbyterians, Episcopalians, Lutherans, various Orthodox churches, and others.
Calling Mormons non-Christians is a variation of the No True Scotsman fallacy. They may be weird fringe Christians. But they are Christians.
Um… no. I already mentioned above, only a Mormon Prophet (or someone else who can deny Christ after having met him personally in his glory) can go to the Mormon hell. Other Christians will go to heaven along with the Mormons. They just won’t be allowed into the private club section of heaven.
My core problem with LDS Theology is “As man is, God once was. As God is, man can someday become.” To posit that God the Father was an exalted man who was deified thru faithfulness to his Divine Father is to turn the historic Christian view of The Father on its head. Israelite Indians, an American-touring Jesus, quasi-Masonic rituals & even the possibility of a Third Testament all come in far behind this one as problematic.
If Jews can consider Messianics outside their pale, then Christians should be able to consider some Theologies as sufficiently aberrant to disqualify them from the title Christian.
That said, while I will debate Theology with them all day long, I won’t label LDS individuals as non-Christians.
Modern LDS attitudes to historic Christians have mellowed, btw. Joseph Smith says in his First Vision of God & Jesus~
"My object in going to inquire of the Lord was to know which of all the sects was right, that I might know which to join. No sooner, therefore, did I get possession of myself, so as to be able to speak, than I asked the Personages who stood above me in the light, which of all the sects was right (for at this time it had never entered into my heart that all were wrong)–and which I should join.
I was answered that I must join none of them, for they were all wrong; and the Personage who addressed me said that all their creeds were an abomination in his sight; that those professors were all corrupt; that: “they draw near to me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me, they teach for doctrines the commandments of men, having a form of godliness, but they deny the power thereof.”
http://www.lightplanet.com/mormons/basic/gospel/joseph_smith.html
And thus, the need for Jesus to appoint a prophet to restore the True Church.
I don’t have a dog in this fight, but that’s not the case:
Also having breifly skimmed the NCC front page…
I strongly suspect Pastor Jeffress, and the Republican base he was appealing to when he made those comments about Romney, would not agree with the NCC’s take on most things.
Helping the poor and turning the other cheek, what is this, communist Russia 
griffin1977 while they may say that, “It also does not deal with the borders of Christianity. It does not, for example, pronounce on whether or not Jehovah’s Witnesses and Mormons are to be considered Christian.” I would argue they are lying to themselves. They have refused the main LDS church membership. But have allowed membership to a Mormon church with a bit more mainstream set of beliefs. They may not be sure if the LDS are Christians and thus aren’t willing to say for sure. But they are sure that the Community of Christ are Christian.
Is there something in there about the rich man giving away all he has if he wants to follow the Lord?
And this is precisely the reason I have always heard given by others, although often less eloquently. I don’t know why people focus on the lack of Trinity, when that’s common to many Christian denominations. It’s the idea that man can become God that is considered heretical–the same thing that was rejected back when the New Testament was put together. It’s adoptionism applied not just to Jesus, but to everyone.
I’ve always said I didn’t have a problem with the idea that Jesus visited the American Indians. I don’t think it fits the historical record, but the idea itself is fine with me.
They call all non-Mormons “gentiles.” So, to a Mormon, a Jew is a “gentile.” An idea that causes most Jews to giggle.