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q54332
Guest
What do you guys think? I say yes because they mostly agree with the reformation but some protestants throw them under the bus and say they are not protestants, what do you guys think.
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adamhovey1988
Guest
Mormons are not Protestant, and would probably tell you as much. The Latter Saint denominations are very much their own thing. And yes, denominations, as in plural. There are A LOT of them.
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q54332
Guest
Oh okay, never knew they had their own denominations, I thought they were one. mmmh interesting thanks for the answer 
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adamhovey1988
Guest
No problem. If you can find it (I think it is out of print), there is a Book by Isaiah Bennett called “Inside Mormonism”. He is a former Mormon, but he is very fair. He does a very good job of citing Mormon belief. He briefly touches on the separate denominations, but he belonged to the most well known one, the LDS church based in Salt Lake City, which is usually what people think of when they think Mormon. I have the book, if you can get it, read it. Like I said, Bennett does cite it quite well.
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q54332
Guest
Thanks I’ll check it out. God bless
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adamhovey1988
Guest
Hey, no problem. The book is from the 90s, so it is a little dated on some of the stats, but the information is otherwise correct.
Mormonism is entirely its own entity. I have heard it described as the 19th-century version of Scientology. There are also some Masonic characteristics to it, especially in the temple ceremonies. I say these things not to be critical or condemnatory, I am just stating the fact.
They are good people, clean-living, hard-working, very much devoted to education, family life hearkens back to an earlier time, and they believe in having children, and not just one or two. From a purely secular standpoint, they are a very appealing subculture. I have vacationed in the “Mormon Corridor” and there is something very wholesome and pure in the general atmosphere — very pleasant place to visit. Aside from some of the more bizarre tenets of their religion, and some misgivings about the financial side of things (mandatory tithing, massive investment funds which OTOH can be viewed as good stewardship), I find very little to dislike about them.
They are good people, clean-living, hard-working, very much devoted to education, family life hearkens back to an earlier time, and they believe in having children, and not just one or two. From a purely secular standpoint, they are a very appealing subculture. I have vacationed in the “Mormon Corridor” and there is something very wholesome and pure in the general atmosphere — very pleasant place to visit. Aside from some of the more bizarre tenets of their religion, and some misgivings about the financial side of things (mandatory tithing, massive investment funds which OTOH can be viewed as good stewardship), I find very little to dislike about them.
catholic03
Well-known member
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is - we must understand - not Protestant. They do not have valid baptism and thus it is incorrect to call them Christians.
They believe in a certain amount of Christian morality, and they do have faith and genuine belief in Jesus Christ - but they are still not Christians.
They believe that Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are three Gods. That humans can become Gods and that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit used to be a man who was exalted.
They denied black people the ability to become priests until 40 years ago - and they say that abortion can be moral in some circumstances.
Doesn’t sound very Christian to me…
They believe in a certain amount of Christian morality, and they do have faith and genuine belief in Jesus Christ - but they are still not Christians.
They believe that Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are three Gods. That humans can become Gods and that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit used to be a man who was exalted.
They denied black people the ability to become priests until 40 years ago - and they say that abortion can be moral in some circumstances.
Doesn’t sound very Christian to me…
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They’re very much different, cultish even, as a matter of fact most Christian’s (including the RCC) name them as such.
There is too much that is incompatible with Christianity to even be called Christian, even though they will call themselves as such, they say that they believe in the Trinity but when you read into their beliefs on the Trinity, their view is much closer to an ancient greek’s view on the Greek Pantheon, also they believe that in the next life that they will be Gods and depending on how far you advanced within the church determines your level of Godhood and how many planets that you will have under your dominion (weird right, I know).
This isn’t even getting into the really conservative type Mormons that live on compounds, they are really crazy, and up to a lot of illegal activities, I lived in Salt Lake City for five years and they constantly come on the news about a new compound being busted, usually a lot of incest and children (as young as 9) being taken as wives by old men, just really creepy.
I will say main stream Mormons are very family oriented and for the most part normal (although I can verify for 100% that even the main stream Mormons that will publicly denounce polygamy do practice it, if one spends even a few weeks in Salt Lake City, it is pretty simple to figure out).
Everything I have mentioned can be verified rather easily with a quick google search, I mean it is insane to me that they (conservative Mormons) don’t make national news more often than they do.
There is too much that is incompatible with Christianity to even be called Christian, even though they will call themselves as such, they say that they believe in the Trinity but when you read into their beliefs on the Trinity, their view is much closer to an ancient greek’s view on the Greek Pantheon, also they believe that in the next life that they will be Gods and depending on how far you advanced within the church determines your level of Godhood and how many planets that you will have under your dominion (weird right, I know).
This isn’t even getting into the really conservative type Mormons that live on compounds, they are really crazy, and up to a lot of illegal activities, I lived in Salt Lake City for five years and they constantly come on the news about a new compound being busted, usually a lot of incest and children (as young as 9) being taken as wives by old men, just really creepy.
I will say main stream Mormons are very family oriented and for the most part normal (although I can verify for 100% that even the main stream Mormons that will publicly denounce polygamy do practice it, if one spends even a few weeks in Salt Lake City, it is pretty simple to figure out).
Everything I have mentioned can be verified rather easily with a quick google search, I mean it is insane to me that they (conservative Mormons) don’t make national news more often than they do.
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Neithan
Guest
To be Protestant I think you have to be at least monotheistic. Protestants basically share a belief in some of the sacraments, minus a few they don’t think are essential, and believe in the Bible, minus some books. They are basically Catholic, minus some things and a few distortions, sometimes they remove a lot and have a very minimal belief with unique practices, but still the same basics.
Mormons are henotheists, have their own scriptures and their own rituals and beliefs about their eternal destiny. Sure it’s weird that they believe they’ll be gods on other planets. We Catholics have some bizarre beliefs too, though, just that they’ve been around continually a lot longer. The Incarnation is bizarre. The Eucharist is a very bizarre belief; I mean it does not get more bizarre than that.
Mormons are henotheists, have their own scriptures and their own rituals and beliefs about their eternal destiny. Sure it’s weird that they believe they’ll be gods on other planets. We Catholics have some bizarre beliefs too, though, just that they’ve been around continually a lot longer. The Incarnation is bizarre. The Eucharist is a very bizarre belief; I mean it does not get more bizarre than that.
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ltwin
Guest
How so? The Reformers sought to “reform” the Catholic Church, not repudiate the entire Catholic tradition. The Mormons have a radically different conception of Christianity. If Catholics and Protestants are estranged siblings, the Mormons are the 5th cousin twice removed.
Protestants believe in the Trinity. Protestants believe in Sola Scriptura (Mormons believe in an open canon and prophetic revelation that is equal or greater in authority to the biblical canon). Protestants believe in justification by faith alone, I don’t know what you call the Mormon belief but it isn’t that.
Because they aren’t. Do you know of any Protestants that believe one day the faithful will be gods over their own planets?
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BartholomewB
Guest
Yes, at best they’re borderline Christians, like the Jehovah’s Witnesses. In both cases, they’re not Catholics and they’re not Protestants either.
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gazelam
Guest
Bona fide Latter-day Saint here (which is the preferred term as opposed to “Mormon”) - I’d say in a nutshell we agree that the Reformers helped set the stage for the Restoration spoken of by the Bible by breaking the dominance that the Catholic Church had over society in general. However, we would not claim that Hus, Luther, Calvin, King Henry VIII, Melanchthon, etc. had any authority to act in God’s name at any point in their lives, and that therefore any sacraments that they might have performed would not be recognized in Heaven as valid. I hope this helps…
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stoplooklisten
Guest
Personally, I think that if Protestantism did not already exist, then Mormonism would not have existed or not existed in the same way The context of pre-existing Protestantism made it possible for yet another group to split off and “do their own thing” and make up many of their own doctrines. There can be some admirable people and practices among the Protestants. IMHO, there can be elements of the Body of Christ that are outside the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches. But, the divisions are sad and isolating the gifts and graces into separate sects is also sad. We need the Body of Christ to be whole and not divided. Eternal salvation and eternal destinies are at stake and many can be dangerously deceived by the less than solid doctrines and by being isolated from the gifts and graces (and authority built upon the foundation of the Twelve Apostles) found in the Catholic Church.
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MarkRome
Guest
They believe God the Father was once a mortal man who lived on a planet near the star “Kolob,” he served and worshipped the god who ruled that planet and, after his death, he was judged worthy by his god to become a god himself.
They are their own thing and aren’t Christian.
They are their own thing and aren’t Christian.
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1ke
Guest
Mormons are not Protestants, because Mormons are not Christians.
Mormons reject the Trinity.
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1ke
Guest
Neither Mormons nor JWs are Christian. They both reject the Trinity.
JohnStrachan
New member
Mormonism is a made-up faith. They wrote their own “bible” for heaven sake. They bear very little semblance to Christianity. They are a breed unto themselves.
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Organist78
Guest
Mormons are not even Christian. Mormons, like the JW’s are a pseudo-Christian sect.
The reason for this is that Mormons do not affirm the absolute, complete and full divinity of Jesus Christ. They do not affirm the full equality of Jesus Christ with the Father and Holy Spirit. Mormons, like the JW’s are really just the heresy of Arianism recycled in a modern religion. Many of the arguments they use to support the idea that Jesus is not God from God, light from light, true God from true God are taken right out of the Arian playbook.
When Mormon missionaries come to your door, they will claim to be Christian. They are able to do this because they equivocate theological terminology. They will say “We believe in Jesus Christ” without defining exactly what they mean by that. They will say “We believe in the Trinity” without defining what they mean by that. If you push them to define their terms, it becomes clear that what Christians mean by “belief in Jesus Christ” and “belief in the Trinity” is very different from what the missionaries mean. If you push the missionaries and challenge them, they tend not to like that. They will try to change the subject or otherwise try to focus the conversion on what they want to talk about; namely, their presentation. If you continue to push them, they will eventually leave.
Mormon missionaries are taught to primarily to share their stories with the people they visit. They are not trained in apologetics or encouraged to do apologetics.
The funny thing–is that Protestants think Mormons have more in common with Catholicism than with Protestantism. This is because Mormon’s deny Scriptura Sola, and also have a sort of “pope” at the top of the hierarchy in the Mormon Faith called a prophet. Of course Mormon’s have no more in common with Catholics than with Protestants. While Catholics deny Scriptura Sola, unlike Mormon’s, Catholics do not assert the existence of another God Breathed source of revelation along side the Bible. While Catholics have a pope who is arguably at the “top” of the Catholic hierarchy (if your operative model of the Church is “institutional,” the pope cannot just make up new revelations as the prophet can in the Mormon Faith. The pope is bound by the Faith delivered once for all. Catholics, unlike Mormons believe that revelation ceased with the death of the last Apostle.
The reason for this is that Mormons do not affirm the absolute, complete and full divinity of Jesus Christ. They do not affirm the full equality of Jesus Christ with the Father and Holy Spirit. Mormons, like the JW’s are really just the heresy of Arianism recycled in a modern religion. Many of the arguments they use to support the idea that Jesus is not God from God, light from light, true God from true God are taken right out of the Arian playbook.
When Mormon missionaries come to your door, they will claim to be Christian. They are able to do this because they equivocate theological terminology. They will say “We believe in Jesus Christ” without defining exactly what they mean by that. They will say “We believe in the Trinity” without defining what they mean by that. If you push them to define their terms, it becomes clear that what Christians mean by “belief in Jesus Christ” and “belief in the Trinity” is very different from what the missionaries mean. If you push the missionaries and challenge them, they tend not to like that. They will try to change the subject or otherwise try to focus the conversion on what they want to talk about; namely, their presentation. If you continue to push them, they will eventually leave.
Mormon missionaries are taught to primarily to share their stories with the people they visit. They are not trained in apologetics or encouraged to do apologetics.
The funny thing–is that Protestants think Mormons have more in common with Catholicism than with Protestantism. This is because Mormon’s deny Scriptura Sola, and also have a sort of “pope” at the top of the hierarchy in the Mormon Faith called a prophet. Of course Mormon’s have no more in common with Catholics than with Protestants. While Catholics deny Scriptura Sola, unlike Mormon’s, Catholics do not assert the existence of another God Breathed source of revelation along side the Bible. While Catholics have a pope who is arguably at the “top” of the Catholic hierarchy (if your operative model of the Church is “institutional,” the pope cannot just make up new revelations as the prophet can in the Mormon Faith. The pope is bound by the Faith delivered once for all. Catholics, unlike Mormons believe that revelation ceased with the death of the last Apostle.
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