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Man, those Romans had some crazy fanfictions.
It’s like Plato and the Kabbala had a love child.
Thanks Dope! The comment thread on Facebook got pretty nasty when two Mormons piped in to say they were Christian, and the brother called them liars. Yikes!!!
But you guys have provided some great links and info. I did quite the internet dive last night, and feel slightly better informed for it. Ignorance fought! 
If Catholics aren’t Christian then the other churches are using the RC and Orthodox book as the word of God. The New Testament was Called the Word of God, and inspired by God, by the decision of the Roman and Orthodox Bishops it was they who threw out anything that the didn’t call inspired’; that was at the Council of Nicacea. in 325 (at the suggestion of Constantine). There were other writings that were in existence but were discarded. . So their beliefs are based on the words of people they don’t call Christian.
And also according to that Same Bible it says; “Faith without work is dead”!
If you follow that line of reasoning, then you’d have to consider Jews for Jesus to be Jews, but IMO they aren’t. I guess you could question whether they really think they are Jewish or do they know they are part of a scam.
And if you follow all lines of reasoning to their ridiculous extremes we’d have to abandon all lines of reasoning…but that’s not something reasonable people do, is it? “Jews For Jesus” is a known con job, And the purpose behind it is easily researched.
Since no one has mentioned this, this is the main difference of Mormonism from classical Christianity-
That our God the Father was once a mortal man from a prior Creation who became God through faithful obedience to His Divine Father, and through faithful obedience to our Divine Father, we can become Divine like Him. The difference between our Father God and us is not a difference of nature but of degrees.
New Scriptures, modern-day prophets, proxy rituals for the dead, polygamy, Jesus visiting the Western Hemisphere, pre-existence, and degrees of Heaven & Hell are all minor compared to the doctrine of Eternal Progression. It turns the very definition of the Biblical God on its head.
And THAT is why no major Christian organization, no matter how doctrinally liberal & ecumenical, can acknowledge Mormon teaching as consistent with Biblical Christianity.
That is not to say that individual Mormons might not be Christians, but it’s by God’s graciousness in overlooking such a blatantly wrong belief.
If we agreed on what makes a Christian, there’d only be one Church [sigh] “Let not the eye saith to the foot ‘I have no need of thee’” or some such.
Simplest – A Christian is anyone who believes that Christ is the Son of God.
As to what makes a Christian-
Trust in the God of the Bible, OLD and New Testaments (Marcionites are not Christian);
that Jesus is God’s Only Son, His Fullest Revelation, maybe even in sharing Deity with the Father & the Spirit (I will include Arians & Trinitarians, tho I think Arianism is a major misunderstanding);
that somehow Jesus died to save us from our sins;
that God then raised Jesus bodily from the dead & through Him offers us eternal life with Him;
that Jesus reigns with God as Lord of everything;
that the Bible is a reliable God-given account of all this.
Personal commitment, a good faith effort to obey what God/Jesus commands, baptism into a fellowship, a practice of prayer & Bible study, & graciousness to others should our of faith in God/Jesus.
(bolding mine)“Can” and “does” do not necessarily mean the same thing. Are you saying that no major Christian organization recognizes The Church Of Latter Day Saints as a Christian religion, or are you saying that no major Christian organization should recognize them as a Christian religion?
If you mean the larger movement of Messianic Jews, no, it’s not, and I would also say neither is the specific JFJ organization, tho I at least understand that accusation.
The National & World Councils of Churches certainly don’t. If you can point to a major Christian organization outside of the LDS which does recognize it as Christian, I will certainly retract that.
That narrows the field a wee bit, doesn’t it? Of the major Christian organizations, no matter how doctrinally liberal & ecumenical, which ones don’t qualify(besides the Mormons, of course)?
If I had meant it, I would have said it.
The Mormons are a “major Christian organization” if they think they are, and can simply recognize themselves. And no doubt do.
No major Christian organization outside of Mormonism.
There are major Catholic or Protestant or Orthodox or Ecumenical Christian organizations which recognize each other as Christian. But AFAIK, no such organization recognizes the LDS.
(They may recognize the former Re-organized LDS Church, now Community of Christ, which had always rejected the doctrine of Eternal Progression.)
OK, some people use “Jews for Jesus” to mean the entire Messianic Jewish movement. Heck, there are probably people who don’t realize JFJ is just one group in it.
FriarTed it’s strange to me that you would consider Marcionites not Christian. (Im not one, but I have more than a few sympathies that way myself). Their opponents considered them heretical Christians, but Christians nonetheless. I think Arianism makes much less sense than Marcionism- marcion was surely right that the Old and New Testaments are very hard to reconcile, both morally and theologically, though it can be done. Steven Runciman, the historian of Manichaeanism and it’s precursors and successors, is clear that it was a Christian heresy, not a heresy of anything else.
At the loosest possible level, I’d say a Christian believes in God, that God lives us, and that Jesus Christ is the fullest and best self-expression of God, and that his life and death redeemed us.