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why mormon (LDS) worshipers are not Christians

Unfortunately what religion or not someone professes says little about the person, their character, or ability to lead. Why, Nixon was a Quaker.

There is a lot of talk and concern about what religion (or not) our leaders are. I find a little bit of hope in that - we have a desire for more honesty and transparency and also have a growing awareness that we are diverse.

If we can overcome the distrust of people who don't think like we do, maybe my hope would be more than wishful thinking.
 
Once you realize how arbitrary human language is you'll realize how futile it is to argue that X denomination is not a real subset of a particular religion.

Let people define themselves as they see fit, especially in cases where the definition is already contested by practitioners who embrace the term! I have often heard that the LDS concept of God being different than the traditional Christian definition somehow undermines the LDS claim to being a part of Christendom. But so too were the gnostic, Nestorian, Arian, and Donatist concepts of God. Were they not Christian?

The way I see it, I give believers the benefit of the doubt and classify them as they see fit (within reason of course). And yes, that means I readily accept that the Nation of Islam is a legitimate, howbeit not traditional, form of Islam, that the Jehovah's Witnesses are legitimate, howbeit not traditional, Christians, that Messianic Jews are legitimate, howbeit not traditional, Jews, because each of these groups arose in cultures professing these faiths, share some sort of patrimony, and ultimately consider themselves part of the greater movement.

Similarly, I don't consider Islam a sect of Christianity or Christianity a sect of Judaism because the practitioners themselves don't see themselves as such.
 
dvictr said:
alright, i see where you are going.. but to correct you "a few" would be an understatement.

the core concept they are missing- is that the bible is God's final word and and any subsequent book claiming to be holy violates a commandment.
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No, that's not entirely honest. The Book of Revelation, in chapter 22 instructs anyone even thinking of changing what's written in that book to think long and hard about the divine consequences thereof. A similar instruction is given in Deuteronomy chapter 4, a verse which is often employed by Jews to discount the "Christian addition of beliefs" as heretical. Given that Christians revere the Old Testament as scripture it seems silly to me that Revelation would preclude further scripture (including scripture which is alleged to have been written prior to the Book of Revelation) while the command in Deuteronomy wouldn't preclude any scripture being authored after the Torah.
 
Sword_Of_Truth said:
Definitions conceived by other christian sects that compete for the same converts and donations as the Mormons do.

Don't listen to anyone who says that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints aren't Christians. They wouldn't be saying it if there wasn't money involved.
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I don't know about that. There are some Christians who do have a genuine concern for the souls of others and consider Mormonism to be such tantalizing error that it must be stopped in the bud.
 
Sword_Of_Truth said:
It says in Revelation that nothing can be added to Revelation. The Bible as we know it, wasn't established until centuries after its component books were written.

EDIT: fromdownunder beat me to it.
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Thank you for clearing that up. I was wondering if you were going to weigh in on this issue. I always thought that Mormons were Christians, just with one more testament.

Frankly, it's hard for me to understand how anyone could say Mormons are not Christians; it's in the very name of the church, as you pointed out. It might be the same sectarian stuff as ever... "yes, but they're not TRUE Christians."

I have a number of friends who are Mormon, and they are without doubt, as a group, the nicest people I have ever known. The world could use more of them, frankly.
 
Mormons believe that they are closer to original Christianity than all other denominations.
 
dudalb said:
The issue is the Mormon concept of "God". I won't go into details..just google search it...but The Mormons beleive that God The Father was once a Man and became a God. This is directly against classic Christian theology. It's a very basic difference .
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Not a position that the Mormon Church approves of or teaches as far as I know.

In fact I think it is regarded as a heresy by the LDS.
 
The Nimble Pianist said:
I don't know about that. There are some Christians who do have a genuine concern for the souls of others and consider Mormonism to be such tantalizing error that it must be stopped in the bud.
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And I'm sure they do. But the fact remains that their leaders who coughed up this gibberish and fed it to their flocks did so because of money.
 
jhunter1163 said:
It says in Revelation somewhere that nothing can be added to the Bible. It's not a commandment as such, not one of the Big Ten, but it is in there. My understanding of the anti-Mormon position is that something written in the 1830s would be considered an addition, and therefore heretical. Thus, Mormons are heretics.
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I must say that is pretty rich for a book that only barely made the Bible itself. There was plenty of debate over whether it should be included or not.
 
Joseph Smith was a con-man.

He hit the jackpot.

Not surprisingly, the anti-Christians defend every counterfeit.
 
Until christianity starts putting in some quality control, the debate over whether one is a christian is a moot point.

There is no system in christianity to say " if you do X your not a christian" some christians like to think they are the judge of this, but in reality there is no set of rules, nothing to define, specifically what a christian is. There are sects that don't believe in any supernatural bits of the bible, for kord's sake.

I can say someone is not a police officer because one has to do certain things to become one and if one does certain things one gets kicked out of the group. Christianity on the other hand has no such set of procedures, so in reality anyone claiming christianity is just as much of a christian as the next guy.

I wonder why a religion would want that...... couldn't possibly be to inflate numbers or anything, must be a holy reason.
 
dvictr said:
its comes down to the idea that the "book of mormons" is blasphemous, and Joseph Smith being a charlatan (albeit an epic one).

wiki-



if your not familiar with the text, imagine a david ike novel hijacking an established religion, rewriting "history"

its a shame that in the United States the propaganda the LDS group has created, has left many to assume a Christian relationship. i have nothing against mormons personally, neither am i a practicing Christian .. but the book of mormon is otherwise a disgrace to Christianity.
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Not Christian in creed or deed?

If it's creed, then Mormons are not mainstream Christians because of a fundamental rejection of established Christian beliefs regarding God, Heaven, and grace.

If it's deed, I tend to think of it this way. In my lifetime, at least, the church has raised its standards ever more regarding dress, temple attendance, and missionary service. Few, if any of these standards regard faith or good character. To be a good Mormon, you dress conservatively, pay a full tithe, and attend 3/4 of your church meetings. You can lie about most everything else to keep social recognition.

It's not to say that Mormonism is full of liars. It's to say that the inevitable hypocrisy from focusing on appearances at least drove me and my father away.

In that sense, Mormons are also not regarded as Christ's followers, since he panned religious acting.
 
XLDS03 said:
Not Christian in creed or deed?

If it's creed, then Mormons are not mainstream Christians because of a fundamental rejection of established Christian beliefs regarding God, Heaven, and grace.

If it's deed, I tend to think of it this way. In my lifetime, at least, the church has raised its standards ever more regarding dress, temple attendance, and missionary service. Few, if any of these standards regard faith or good character. To be a good Mormon, you dress conservatively, pay a full tithe, and attend 3/4 of your church meetings. You can lie about most everything else to keep social recognition.

It's not to say that Mormonism is full of liars. It's to say that the inevitable hypocrisy from focusing on appearances at least drove me and my father away.

In that sense, Mormons are also not regarded as Christ's followers, since he panned religious acting.
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All that sounds a lot like every Christian denomination I ever heard of.

Personally, I don't care who is Christian or not. By definition, it's a matter of opinion. Those who have an opinion are welcome to it. Sure is funny to see them sniping at each other though.
 
dvictr said:
its comes down to the idea that the "book of mormons" is blasphemous, and Joseph Smith being a charlatan (albeit an epic one).

wiki-



if your not familiar with the text, imagine a david ike novel hijacking an established religion, rewriting "history"

its a shame that in the United States the propaganda the LDS group has created, has left many to assume a Christian relationship. i have nothing against mormons personally, neither am i a practicing Christian .. but the book of mormon is otherwise a disgrace to Christianity.
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What makes Joseph Smith any different than any other charlatan who said he was a Prophet? I don't believe Moses climbed a mountain and got the ten commandments from the top of a said mountain. You name the so called prophet and I say he's a charlatan too. Buddas a charlatan and so was Mohammad etc. Why single Joseph Smith out? All so called Prophets are liars.
 
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Isn't questioning whether Mormons are True Christians(TM) a lot like questioning if bat guano is a legitimate form of scat?
 
Sword_Of_Truth said:
And I'm sure they do. But the fact remains that their leaders who coughed up this gibberish and fed it to their flocks did so because of money.
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Do you have any reason to believe this, or is this just your gut feeling? It sounds to me a lot like what critics of Mormonism say about the General Authorities: "the rank and file Mormons are likely genuine, but the fact remains that their leaders who coughed up this gibberish and fed it to their flocks did so because of money."
 
Christianity, whatever else it is, is monotheistic. Mormons believe there are many gods. I believe that is the root of why many Christians do not accept the LDS as a Christian church.
 
Pixel42 said:
Christianity, whatever else it is, is monotheistic
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Christianity claims monotheism but I've never heard a reasonable explanation for the trinity or for Jesus is god but wasn't responsible for all that nasty stuff in the OT.
 
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/christian
Chris·tian
–adjective
1.
of, pertaining to, or derived from Jesus Christ or His teachings: a Christian faith.
–noun
7.
a person who believes in Jesus Christ; adherent of Christianity.
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http://scriptures.lds.org/en/a_of_f/1
We believe in God, the Eternal Father, and in His Son, Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost.
We believe that through the Atonement of Christ, all mankind may be saved, by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel.
We believe that the first principles and ordinances of the Gospel are: first, Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; second, Repentance; third, Baptism by immersion for the remission of sins; fourth, Laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost.
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Mormons are Christian.

End of discussion.
 
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