Is Catholicism and Mormonism closer than the two like to admit?

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I’ve heard something similar on more than one occasion from Jewish folks, opining about Christianity. (They don’t talk about churches, of course.)
Nice to here the alternate perspective. I think the Jewish complaint as you put it is easily answered. God is not fickle and he certainly hasn’t rejected Jacob. Jesus is their messiah more than ours. In the Torah we read about more than one code from God for different people at different times. The ademaic laws are different than the Noahide laws which are different than the mosaic laws. God doesn’t change but he has a long term plan to redeem mankind. But from the foundation of the world he has always loved Jacob and always will. I pity the fool who disrespects that love–Devine wrath is assured.
 
Hello,
I am a LDS. I am also a former Catholic. While I am well aware of differences, I see great similarities as well.
Ordained priesthood.
Claims to authority.
Sacraments : LDS have solid parallels for 6/7 Catholic Sacraments and a weak parallel for reconciliation. We are even closer after Vatican 2 restored the proper (IMO) emphasis upon Extreme Unction.
Similar resistance to societies slide. Catholics are better here if judged by binding doctrine IMO, but both of us are better than most Evangelical congregations.

There are many reasons I am a LDS and some reasons I am not a Catholic, but I would be at reconciliation in less than 24 hours if I all of the sudden discovered my church was not at all what I think it is. I do not recognize the church former Mormons here left (and they do not recognize things I see as part of Catholicism)

As I think about it. In real life there is far more wonderful things present in both our faiths than is evident in the bowels of the Internet that is our religious dialogue.
Charity, TOm
You gave up the Eucharist for bread and water. There is nothing in Mormonism that can come close to the Catholic Church. There is no true ordination in LDS.

And you are still a Catholic. If you were baptized into the Catholic Church you will never not be Catholic. Perhaps not one in full communion but taking yourself to confession could solve that problem.
 
I’ve heard something similar on more than one occasion from Jewish folks, opining about Christianity. (They don’t talk about churches, of course.)
I can see your analogy. Christianity began as a sect within Judaism. It became a splinter. And then became a full-fledged religion,** while (in large part) acknowledging and appreciating its Judaic roots. **. The exception in the bolded phrase amounts to a fail to the analogy.
 
Not only does Christianity celebrate its Hebrew roots, as we understand it, biblical Judaism is before the messiah, Christianity is after. secondly, Judaism is the prescribed religion for the children of Jacob. It is not as if I as a gentile was ever under the Mosaic covenant to begin with.

Jesus fulfilled the law and the prophets. He kept and completed them. Judaism was not lost. God did not lose his people. Actually it was fulfilled. The mission to separate a nation to God through which the Messiah could be revealed was completed. Still, the Jews continue to give evidence of the existence and power of God in their national identity. The law points to Christ, and so do the prophets. A Jew who accepts Christ as Messiah hasn’t left Judaism–he has simply encountered the culmination of it. Christianity is Judaism celebrating the historical advent of the Messiah and the work He did. (I do not mean that Christians are obligated to keep the whole law. That would be a different thread.)

Mormonism is an allegation the church was ever lost–gibberish.
Code:
                              vs
Christianity is a claim God kept his promise to send the seed of the woman and crush the serpent’s head–quite expected.
 
Hello,
I am a LDS. I am also a former Catholic. While I am well aware of differences, I see great similarities as well.
Ordained priesthood.
Claims to authority.
Sacraments : LDS have solid parallels for 6/7 Catholic Sacraments and a weak parallel for reconciliation. We are even closer after Vatican 2 restored the proper (IMO) emphasis upon Extreme Unction.
Similar resistance to societies slide. Catholics are better here if judged by binding doctrine IMO, but both of us are better than most Evangelical congregations.

There are many reasons I am a LDS and some reasons I am not a Catholic, but I would be at reconciliation in less than 24 hours if I all of the sudden discovered my church was not at all what I think it is. I do not recognize the church former Mormons here left (and they do not recognize things I see as part of Catholicism)

As I think about it. In real life there is far more wonderful things present in both our faiths than is evident in the bowels of the Internet that is our religious dialogue.
Charity, TOm
What you claim to be similarities simply are not close at all. Your ordinances may sound like the seven true sacraments but in no way mean the same thing. Your baptism isn’t a true baptism as it is not Trinitarian. The LDS have no ordination or Holy Orders as any 12 year old boy is “ordained”, that ordination takes zero higher level education or discernment of a life given to serve only God. The LDS communion is merely bread cubes and water, not even close to the Eucharist.

The LDS claims to authority are based on a tale told by a farm boy known for his dishonesty. The Catholic Church has an documented unbroken line of succession from the direct founder of our Church, Jesus Christ. Even you have to admit it’s not close to being similar.
 
An interesting aspect of the Mormon Church is its denial of one of the basic principles of the Reformation–that there is no such thing as a divinely sanctioned institution that can settle theological disputes and interpret scripture. The Mormon Church claims to be such an institution, but which the Reformation decided did not exist. Joseph Smith et al realized the need for such a Church, so they founded the Mormon Church.

So in that sense the Mormons are protesting the Protestants; they are reforming the Reformation! From a Catholic point of view Mormonism represents the Protestant heresy gone to seed. The Reformation curling back upon itself!
 
I agree that Mormon’s are usually amazingly friendly people, so friendly as to almost be sort of fake. But even when you get to know them they are often really good people with faith in Christ. But there are a lot of serious issues with Mormonism. It is not the same thing as Protestantism at all. They add new text (Book of Mormon), new prophecies, really bizarre stuff. (19th century American) Ask one of your Evangelical friends about Mormons some day. I have never been able to reconcile what I know about Mormonism with actual Mormons. For one thing, they never try and convert me, so we don’t get into religious discussions. I shut that down. I would recommend that you read up on Mormonism - but don’t stop engaging with Mormons. Just be aware. I do still befriend them.
They are friendly people and have a lot of similiar thoughts on abortion and SS marriages, but their beliefs are blizzare. I do have Mormon friends but here in Utah at least they don’t encourage being too friendly and social with non Mormons, including your children playing with theirs. They also have a nasty habit of shunning Mormons who leave their faith and convert, similiar to Saturday Adventists. When a husband particularly does this most of the time he loses both his wife and children. It may be different in other states, but here in Salt Lake City it occurs frequently. Some of them are also encouraged to invite you to their meetings and social activities in order to convert you. Yes they’re helpful and all, but be aware that most believe that the Catholic Church is in apostasy.
 
I’ve been shunned before. It’s delightful. It’s a sure sign of holiness to leave your husband or wife. It’s also highly persuasive. Once I got shunned I realized I was in the wrong and I needed to go back obey the little church of a few thousand souls who knew better than the whole rest of Christendom.
 
. . . . . . I think we should focus more on our similarities and show love like Christ would. We do both love Jesus dearly. I only bring this up because I have noticed some anti Mormon rhetoric quite often on this page. And I just want to say I don’t care of you are Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican, Protestant, Mormon, or even Jehovahs Witnesses… We all love Christ and just have a different view of Christ’s truth.
It is important to understand the Mormon god as taught by second prophet Brigham Young, who claimed he received this from first prophet Joseph Smith.

Discourse by Second Mormon Prophet Brigham Young, 1873:
“Our Father Adam helped to make this earth, it was created expressly for him, and after it was made he and his companions came here. He brought one of his wives with him, and she was called Eve, because she was the first woman upon the earth.” (The Desert News, Discourse By President Brigham Young, Delivered in the new Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Sunday Afternoon, June 8th, 1873)


Mormon Prophet Brigham Young taught Adam is Michael the Archangel, Ancient of Days, and God. Young said he could not find any man on the earth who could tell him this, until he met and talked with Joseph Smith.

**April 9, 1852, Mormon Prophet, Brigham Young:
"Journal of Discourses Volume 1:50-51
"Now hear it, O inhabitants of the earth, Jew and Gentile, Saint and sinner! When our father Adam came into the garden of Eden, he came into it with a celestial body, and brought Eve, one of his wives, with him. He helped to make and organize this world. He is MICHAEL, the Archangel, the ANCIENT OF DAYS! about whom holy men have written and spoken–HE is our FATHER and our GOD, and the only God with whom WE have to do. . . .

When the Virgin Mary conceived the child Jesus, the Father had begotten him in his own likeness. He was not begotten by the Holy Ghost. And who is the Father? He is the first of the human family; and when he took a tabernacle, it was begotten by his Father in heaven, after the same manner as the tabernacles of Cain, Abel, and the rest of the sons and daughters of Adam and Eve; from the fruits of the earth, the first earthly tabernacles were originated by the Father, and so on in succession. . .

. . .It is true that the earth was organized by three distinct characters, namely, Eloheim, Yahovah, and Michael, these three forming a quorum, as in all heavenly bodies, and in organizing element, perfectly represented in the Deity, as Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

. . .What a learned idea! Jesus, our elder brother, was begotten in the flesh by the same character that was in the garden of Eden, and who is our Father in Heaven. Now, let all who may hear these doctrines, pause before they make light of them, or treat them with indifference, for they will prove their salvation or damnation.

. . .Now remember from this time forth, and forever, that Jesus Christ was not begotten by the Holy Ghost.

. . .Treasure up these things in your hearts. In the Bible, you have read the things I have told you to-night; but you have not known what you did read. I have told you no more than you are conversant with; but what do the people in Christendom, with the Bible in their hands, know about this subject? Comparatively nothing." (Journal of Discourses of the General Authorities of the LDS Church, Volume 1)
**
More than 20 years later, BJ still claimed Adam is God. Today, the LDS claim this was never taught.

**June 8, 1873, President Brigham Young, Delivered in the new Tabernacle, Salt Lake City:
"How much unbelief exists in the minds of the Latter-day Saints in regard to one particular doctrine which I revealed to them, and which God revealed to me—namely that Adam is our Father and God—I do not know, I do not inquire, I care nothing about it. Our Father Adam helped to make this earth, it was created expressly for him, and after it was made he and his companions came here. He brought one of his wives with him, and she was called Eve, because she was the first woman upon the earth.

Our Father Adam is the man who stands at the gate and holds the keys of everlasting life and salvation to all his children who have or who ever will come upon the earth. I have been found fault with by the ministers of religion because I have said that they were ignorant. But I could not find any man on the earth who could tell me this, although it is one of the simplest things in the world, until I met and talked with Joseph Smith."(The Desert News, Discourse, By President Brigham Young, Delivered in the new Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Sunday Afternoon, June 8th, 1873.)
(© THE UNIVERSITY OF UTAH | J. Willard Marriott Library 295 S 1500 E SLC, UT 84112-0860)**

See:** LDS Scripture Citation Index

The Mormon teachings have changed over time. Today, they will tell you they worship the same Jesus you do.

Mormons have said this to me. It’s just difficult to reconcile this with the claims of the first two prophets.
**
 
We both of hierarchies. But I don’t think they function all that similarly.
 
What I often see in this forum is people mistaking criticism of the belief with criticism of its adherents. They are two different things.

Mormonism is not even close to Catholicism. Mormonism does not believe in the Trinity which is the cornerstone of Christianity. Catholics believe that there is no marriage in heaven, Mormons believe not only in marriage in heaven but polygamy is heavenly marriage. So many differences that the Vatican has concluded that Mormons do not have a valid Christian baptism unlike other Christian denominations.
There is, however, a tendency among some posters to attack the belief and attack the opinion rather than have a meaningful dialogue with the opposite party. There are lots of threads on Mormonism on these forums, but they always devolve into Catholics attacking Mormons and their beliefs. It’s annoying. I disagree with Mormonism but I’m always interested in seeing LDS faithful try to defend their beliefs.
 
There is, however, a tendency among some posters to attack the belief and attack the opinion rather than have a meaningful dialogue with the opposite party. There are lots of threads on Mormonism on these forums, but they always devolve into Catholics attacking Mormons and their beliefs. It’s annoying. I disagree with Mormonism but I’m always interested in seeing LDS faithful try to defend their beliefs.
I agree 100%. However the op asked the question in terms of debate. “Are mormons more like Catholics…” So this thread was doomed from the start. I love spending time with a practitioner of another religion and just being the one to ask questions. I will post a thread for that purpose.
 
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