Are Mormons Christian?

[ndmom24]

St Veronica:

JW and LDS baptisms are not valid, since they are not Trinitarian.

I spent a year in the LDS Church before becoming Catholic and I will say they are NOT up front about their theology. So it would not surprise me that some of their own members aren’t real clear about it.

Because I am a ‘why’ person, I asked questions and they were VERY uncomfortable with this, telling me that it was too deep of a theological concept for me to understand at that point. I asked to join a specific Bible study and was told the same thing. So I did research on my own and then asked questions which they had to answer. When they confirmed that yes these were their true beliefs, I did not go back.

I/we (dh and I) had the very same experience. We weren’t raised in any particular religion/church, and converted to Mormonism. It looked good from the outside. As we started to learn more about their Doctrine, we found they are waaay off.

We had our names removed from Church records in 2001.

I am not Catholic…yet.

 

[ContraFool]

rich123456:

The Mormon Faith could not be further away from Christianity. There is nothing that we as Christians have in common with them when it comes to Christianity. Although Christ still works through them and good is indeed done. Because they do not have the revelation of the Trinity they do not understand that it is Christ doing these works. As a once Mormon, Now Catholic it is so wonderful to come to this Revelation as to who I am, as to whom Christ is. It is a Relief! The treasure found! The more one learns, is willing to learn about Catholic Christianity the more one finds them selves in complete awe. Life becomes living for others well being. You want everyone to find this gift. All Glory is Gods Glory. We on the other hand can discover this Glory and pass it on to others in need of it. The biggest difference is that we do not worship the same God, the same Christ, the same Holy Spirit. the Mormon god is not the same. Because of this they could never be called Christian. There is only One in Christianity, you and I have come to know this God, love this God, and give our lives up to Him. Our Creator.
Peace in Christ always
From Logan Utah
Rich Horrell 435-881-5722
www.catholic-rcia.com
Questions? utahmission@aol.com

Thank you. Stories like your’s are why I have hope for my friends. And also, I would say that your story is proof that not all Mormons think exactly the same when it comes to religion. Thanks for sharing.
–Erik

 

[Asa_Ben_Judah]

YES, YES, YES!!! Mormons, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, are Christians…

Holy Scripture teaches us that salvation is and through the name of Jesus Christ, by that we mean that the proclamation made my the apostles that Jesus of Nazareth is indeed the Promised Messiah of the Old Covenant prophecies and that he died on the Cross and was Resurrected from the dead.

KERYGMA - The Message of Salvation.

You are now witnessing or experiencing the workings of the Holy Spirit; If the Spirit has been poured upon Israel in such abundance it is a sign that the ‘latter days’ foretold by the Prophets have arrived;

This has come about through the birth, life, and miracles of Jesus of Nazareth whom the unbelieving Jews killed, but whom God raised from the dead as we ourselves bear witness;

This Jesus God has constituted Lord and Messiah by taking him up to heaven and placing him at his right hand; (two persons here as seen by and wirtnessed by Stephen by martyrdom)

All this took place according to the scriptures. It is part of God’s saving plan ‘for our sins’, and fits in with the faith of our fathers;

The risen Jesus is the New Moses who will come to lead the Eschatological Israel to final redemption as the Son of Man on the clouds of heaven;

If you believe the word that is being preached to you, repent and be baptised, you will be saved.

The passages from which the Kerygma can be re-constructed are: Acts, 2:14-39; 3:13-26; 4:10-12; 5:30-32; 10:36-43; 13:17-41

which are reflected in:-

Galatians, 1:3,4; 3:1-3; 4:6; 1 Thessalonians, 1:10;

1 Corinthians, 15:1-7; Romans, 1:1-4; 2:16; 8:34; 10:8,9; to these must be added Hebrews, 6:1.

Now all this guff about what the Mormons believe or what they do not believe is based upon urban myth, perpetuated by those who are not sure about their own position as ‘saved’ Christians.

For pitys sake behave like Christians and recognise that anyone who confesses Jesus Christ as lord and Saviour, which the Mormons do, ARE CHRISTIANS.

Are Mormons Catholic? NO, but there again there is nothing in the scriptures that supports the Roman Catholic teaching of the Ecumenical Councils of the 3rd and 4th centuries CE.

In His love and Service…

 

[Sophie]

Asa Ben Judah:

YES, YES, YES!!! Mormons, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, are Christians…

Sorry, but one must believe in the real Jesus to be a Christian. Not a false Jesus. Joseph Smith made up a fictional character he named Jesus and plopped this false Jesus into a story he wrote called “The Book of Mormon”. Mormonism has nothing to do with Christianity.

IF MORMONS ARE CHRISTIANS, ARE CHRISTIANS MORMON?

 

[Asa_Ben_Judah]

Sophie:

Asa Ben Judah:

YES, YES, YES!!!

Mormons, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, are Christians…

Sorry, but one must believe in the real Jesus to be a Christian. Not a false Jesus. Joseph Smith made up a fictional character he named Jesus and plopped this false Jesus into a story he wrote called “The Book of Mormon”. Mormonism has nothing to do with Christianity.

IF MORMONS ARE CHRISTIANS, ARE CHRISTIANS MORMON?

A rather simplistic outlook on Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon! Christians have been arguing about, and fighting about, and killing each other for the past 1600 years about who is the real Jesus and who are his true agents in this sin sick world. I happen to believe that the real Jesus was a Jew who was indeed the Promised Messiah of the Jewish Scriptures and not the God whom he called his Father and whom he worshipped and prayed to in Gethsemane.

 

[rich123456]

I would love to talk about who Jesus is to a Christian as A Christian . but I do not have the time as I have an appointment to make. Evenings is the best for me. I will be back, The biggest revelation a Mormon can have, our anyone else for that matter is about who Jesus is, who we are. This is the same revelation that the first Christians received. There is no compromise here.

The question I would like to pose to the Mormon on this forum is this

Who is Jesus? But please get more in depth and be honest here. I Know as one who was once taught the Mormon faith who He is to you. But I would like you to tell me, then we can have a great discussion. As a fairly new Catholic I do believe that with all my heart that I have come to the revelation as to whom our savior truly is. I was told that Catholics have no further revelations, but then as I learned about the First Church, it was there among others that I my biggest revelation, and this one revelation has transformed my entire life. I would love to talk about who Jesus is. (Humbly and Honestly) with you.

God Bless

Rich

www.catholic-rcia.com

 

[rich123456]

"Better to know the planner than the plan"

Lord, you are not pleased with someone simply because that person is knowledgeable. In fact, it would be possible for one to know everything there is to know in the whole wide world, except for knowing you, and consequently know nothing. Just as another person could live in blissful ignorance of the great sum of human knowledge, but know you, and be both happy and content. After all, who is better placed - the person who owns a tree and gives You thanks for all the good things it provides; or the one who owns a similar tree and knows its weight and dimensions down to the least leaf, but does not realize that You are its Creator and that it is through You that he or she has use of it? In essence, the latter person is ignorant, though full of facts, and the former person wise, though bit short on details.St. Augustine

catholic-rcia.com/pages/cHumility_page.html

 

[rschermer2]

ContraFool:

Does anyone know if the Catholic Church considers Mormons to be Christian or not? I know that they believe in the Divinity of Christ and that He died for our sins to gain us salvation, and they are baptized by water “In the name of the Father…etc” My guess would be that their baptism is valid because they converted so many Christians, even Catholics who had proper baptisms…but they believe in a lot of other odd stuff that makes me unsure. Does their belief that they have the potential to be gods one day prevent them from being considered Christian?

Contra,

Actually they may believe in the divintity of Christ but not the Holy Trinity. I believe they are considered a pseudo-Christian cult by the Catholic church.

I’m thinking their baptisms are not valid.

God Bless,
RS

 

[ContraFool]

Asa Ben Judah:

Are Mormons Catholic? NO, but there again there is nothing in the scriptures that supports the Roman Catholic teaching of the Ecumenical Councils of the 3rd and 4th centuries CE.

Well, actually, if Mormons were Christian, they would indeed be Catholic, as all Christians are. Whenever I feel like making a Protestant mad it is always fun to tell them that by virtue of their baptism they are in reality Catholic. In any case, being that Mormons do not have a valid Baptism they are not Christian, so you are correct in saying they are not Catholic, just not for the reason you think you are.
And in the few instances where the Church makes decisions that are not directly supported by Scripture, these decisions are certainly not contradictory to Scripture. The Bishops of the Church, who are always guided by the Holy Spirit in making Doctrine, have the authority to do and say things that are not explicitly stated in the Bible because of the authority given to their predecesors, the Apostles, by Jesus Christ. And btw, why did you call it the Common Era and not Anno Domini? Do you not believe that since the Savior has come we are living in the year of the Lord? I only ever see CE used by people who either do not accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior or are trying to be “politicaly correct.” Please, from now on use AD if you are posting in my threads.

 

[WICatholic]

ContraFool:

Yeah, I think you may be wrong about that last one, because I’ve heard my Mormon friend tell me before that Jesus died for our sins so that we may enter Heaven, and she did not specify which sins so I assumed that she meant all of them.

Don’t ‘assume’ they mean anything… ask. Most of their words that sound like ours actually have VERY different meanings, including Jesus being the ‘son of god’… There is nothing Christian about their religion, and it is not remotely like Catholicism.

 

[WICatholic]

ContraFool:

Yeah, i knew that, but I wasn’t sure if that would prevent their baptism from being valid as long as they kept proper form and had an un broken line of baptised people going back to Christ. I guess part of me was hoping it was valid for the sake of my friend, but I guess I also knew that it probably wasn’t.

 

[WICatholic]

ContraFool:

Yeah, i knew that, but I wasn’t sure if that would prevent their baptism from being valid as long as they kept proper form and had an un broken line of baptised people going back to Christ. I guess part of me was hoping it was valid for the sake of my friend, but I guess I also knew that it probably wasn’t.

There is no unbroken line of baptized people from the mormon church going all the way back to Jesus… the farthest it can go back is to Joseph Smith and the angel moroni who preached another gospel (see Galatians) There is no connection what so ever with Jesus Christ of Nazareth. There is over 1800 years between Jesus and the beginning of the mormon religion.

 

[WICatholic]

FightingFat:

I think that officially, the Catholic Church, and to be honest, most Christians would not accept that Mormons are Christians, the fact that they are Polytheists is a good reason but I also know we do not accept Morman Baptism, where we do, for example, accept Church of England Baptism.

That said, I think that the LDS church is trying to move more towards mainstream Christianity and they should be applauded for that. Many Mormons do live very Christian lives and they should be loved and respected for that.

They will never be able to ‘move more toward mainstream Christianity’. They are not Christian. Jesus that they know is the ‘spirit brother’ of Lucifer, NOT Jesus Christ of Nazareth as we know Him. They want to LOOK more Christian, true. They try to convince us that they are Christian, true. But they are not, and will not be able to move into Christianity as Mormons.

They are able to leave the mormon church and BECOME Christian… but the church will never be able to move into Christianity without renouncing all of their teachings. They live good lives on the face of things, true… their ‘works’ mean that they must, in order to be Temple Recommend … but often, behind the scenes, they are simply not what they appear on the outside, just as can be true for anyone else.

Looks can be deceiving, just as their teachings are. They are not Christian.

 

[WICatholic]

ContraFool:

I actually know this to be false. I have heard my Mormon friend acknowledge the Divinity of Christ about 1000 times. Granted she thinks He’s separate from the Father and the Holy Spirit, but still she knows He is Divine.

Their terminology and YOUR terminology is NOT the same… when they speak of their Jesus as ‘divine’ they do NOT mean the same as we do. Caution, MUCH caution is needed to speak to the mormons about their religion!!!

Their Jesus is ‘divine’ because he is the spirit son of Father God Adam… just as is Lucifer… He is NOT Divine because He is God from all eternity, part of the Trinity as WE know it. They ‘speak’ of him in the terms that we use, but with very different meanings.

Part of their training with others of different faiths… it brings others into their church. Read Isaiah Bennet’s book, or find something by Thomas Smith (he may be ordained by now…was a mormon, then converted and was led to become a Catholic priest)

DON’T just accept your friend’s word. Isaiah Bennet was a PRIEST who was fooled!

 

[WICatholic]

ContraFool:

So can anyone tell me why all of this weird stuff about Mormons isn’t widely known? I mean everyone is pretty familiar with beliefs central to Catholics and Protestants. Are Mormons some how ashamed of what they believe? Or is it, like it appears to me, that the average Mormon isn’t that familiar with some of the stranger beliefs of their church? Like I have said before, I highly doubt my LDS friend or her family know that they are supposed to be anti-Catholic, or anti-any religion for that matter.

If they spoke to you as an ‘anti-catholic’ would you hear what she is saying? Would you continue to grow close to her? Would you let your defenses down? Do you trust someone who comes on like gang busters and tells you that you are an apostate? Nope.

They are trained from little on to be friendly and to share their gospel with others. They do not suddenly become missionaries on their two year Mission… this is the culmination of their whole lives of learning how to speak to others to draw them into their Church.

If they are Temple Recommend Mormons…they know. If they are working to become Temple Recommend mormons, they will know. They study long and hard not only their faith, but how to draw others into their faith.

 

[ContraFool]

WICatholic:

There is no unbroken line of baptized people from the mormon church going all the way back to Jesus… the farthest it can go back is to Joseph Smith and the angel moroni who preached another gospel (see Galatians) There is no connection what so ever with Jesus Christ of Nazareth. There is over 1800 years between Jesus and the beginning of the mormon religion.

Yeah, but a really really huge percentege of there members come from Christian churchs and were given valid baptisms before they became Mormon. I thought this might be a reason for their baptism to be valid, but it turns out I was wrong and there is more to it than that.

 

[maxjohnson]

This is my first post to the forum, thus I offer a warm “hello” to everone here. I was raised Catholic, but I became a Mormon for over 11 years. During that time I served as a full-time missionary, married in the Mormon Temple, and served in many Mormon callings (i.e. Elders’s Quorum President, Stake Missionary, Executive Secretary, and etc). Towards the end of my time as a Mormon I began to study the history of Mormonism and began a deeper study of the Bible. The results of my efforts was the Lord letting me know I belonged to a cult (don’t mean to be harsh, but I cannot be nicer in my description). I was blessed because I was able to leave the Mormon Church with my wife and children. I know of several people who are not as luck to have a spouse leave the Mormon Church with them. They have my constant prayers. I am twice blessed because my wife and children have all since entered the Catholic Church. I had the love and support of a devout Priest (Thank you Father Maurus.). I don’t have enough room to post all my thoughts on Mormonism here, but I do have a copy of my family’s exit letter online (please note I was leaning toward becoming a Protestant when this was first composed, thus may read a little Evangelical). This letter is required to be submitted and approved before the Mormon Church will remove your name off their rolls and stop sending Ward (Parish) members to check on you monthly. It is really quite a bothersome process. Any way, “hello” again everybody. I hope to learn much while I am here.

Sincerely,
Max Johnson

 

[Bryan]

I have a friend who is mormon and claims they are indeed Christians. Him and I agree that the word “Christian” means two different things to them and us. Still, everytime I hear the “gold plates in N.Y.” story, my bullcrap detector goes hay-wire.

 

[ContraFool]

Bryan:

I have a friend who is mormon and claims they are indeed Christians. Him and I agree that the word “Christian” means two different things to them and us. Still, everytime I hear the “gold plates in N.Y.” story, my bullcrap detector goes hay-wire.

Yes, I know that they claim to be. And I agree with you about the gold plate story, but I try not to make fun of it too much because I’m sure stories of Jesus set off the bullcrap detectors of many non-Christians. Yes, Jesus is backed up by thousands of pages of recorded history and Smith’s claims are not…but I try not to let that stop me from being respectful of their beliefs.

 

[Psalm45_9]

I would have to say that anyone who denies the doctrine of the Holy Trinity cannot be called a Christian. Instead I call them quasi-christians.