LDS calling themselves Christians since 1975?

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Mormons would certainly not be Christians in the traditional understanding of the deity of Jesus because Mormons do not believe in the existence of an eternal God – an all powerful God who was God from all eternity. They believe in eternal matter. From this eternal matter came humans; some humans attain/ed deity. They may speak of an eternal god/s, but they are eternal only in the sense that they were formed from eternal matter and pre-existing spirits. Haven’t discovered yet what they believe about the origin of pre-existing spirits. Perhaps any Mormons here could help out.

mormonwiki.org/Creation
eom.byu.edu/index.php/Eternal_Progression
 
Nita said:
Haven’t discovered yet what they believe about the origin of pre-existing spirits. Perhaps any Mormons here could help out.
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Found the answer in the Encyclopedia of Mormonism on the byu website. ( eom.byu.edu/index.php/ ) This Encyclopedia is a good source for finding out what Mormons believe and teach.

eom.byu.edu/index.php/Doctrine#Distinctive_Teachings (about 2/3 of the way down)
……They believe instead that spirit is refined matter and that both spirit and matter are eternal, being neither created nor destroyed. The Prophet Joseph Smith taught that “there is no such thing as immaterial matter. All spirit is matter, but it is more fine or pure, and can only be discerned by purer eyes” ……
 
They can call themselves Venusians and it doesn’t mean that they are actually from Venus.

Mormons and JW’s fancy themselves as being christians but they are not.

Boy, hasn’t that dead horse been beaten enough?
 
perro_sarnoso said:
They can call themselves Venusians and it doesn’t mean that they are actually from Venus.

Mormons and JW’s fancy themselves as being christians but they are not.

Boy, hasn’t that dead horse been beaten enough?
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Nope 😃
 
Thanks, Nita, first time hearing it explained this way…I didn’t know Smith attempted philosophy but don’t follow his line of reasoning too well.

There is another thread that was done in the past…will look it up on premortal spirits…interesting what Mormons drew from the Old Testament to prove their beliefs.
 
There was the thread started by SteveVH, November 11, 2011…seemed like such a short time ago…getting old…that went on for 1000 plus threads and was finally closed.

It was called, ‘Scriptural evidence for pre-mortal existence. Is there any?’
 
KathleenGee said:
There was the thread started by SteveVH, November 11, 2011…seemed like such a short time ago…getting old…that went on for 1000 plus threads and was finally closed.

It was called, ‘Scriptural evidence for pre-mortal existence. Is there any?’
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Kathleen, do you have a link? I am way too lazy and if you have a link handy that would be oh so cool. 😃
 
I went back on old threads going back to Nov 11, 2011…and couldn’t find it.

But I went to top of this page and typed in at top in search: ‘Scriptural evidence for pre-mortal existence. Is there any?’, and it came right up on the page near top of threads. It is pretty long and I remember participating in it through March of last year and also remember a Mormon putting his writing in red to contact me to answer his questions.

The Book of Wisdom is not about some premortal but the first and greatest gift of the Holy Spirit. They also use a passage from Proverbs to prove pre mortal existence, but again I see it laying the fruits of the Holy Spirit: Wisdom, understanding, prudence, counsel, etc.
 
KathleenGee said:
There was the thread started by SteveVH, November 11, 2011…seemed like such a short time ago…getting old…that went on for 1000 plus threads and was finally closed.

It was called, ‘Scriptural evidence for pre-mortal existence. Is there any?’
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Here’s their section on premortal life. eom.byu.edu/index.php/Premortal_Life
It cites 2 Scripture passages:
  1. Jeremiah 1:5 “Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations”
  2. ** Ecclesiastes 12:7** … “the spirit shall return unto God who gave it”
Neither one of them demonstrate premortal life. The Jeremiah passage proves God’s foreknowledge - that He foreknew what soul He would create. The Ecclesiastes passage shows God as the source/creator of our spirit/soul – but it says nothing about when he created it.
 
As a Mormon - though a non-believing one - I have never heard of Mormons ever suggesting that they were not Christians. Did I miss something in one of the posts?

Back to today, they strongly claim that they are Christians. No what meaning do we take however:

  1. *]Someone who does the works of Christ, i.e a “christian”.
    *]2. Someone who believes that their interpretation of who Christ is, is correct and therefore having a correct understanding of Him makes them a Christian.
    *]Someone who believes in the Christ described in the Bible and orthodox literature.

    My view is that Mormons can be called Christians if we take meaning 1 and 2. By the standards of point 3, they are not Christian.

    I have just listened to two full sessions of LDS General Conference. Some good stuff preached. But it was mingled with teachings that you just have to be totally unthinking not to question. At the risk of sounding rude, if Mormons would just stop and apply their God-given reason to some of the things being taught, they would surely question. But then as Elder Holland suggested, just hold on to what you do not have a problem with and the rest you lay to one side.

    I’ll stop there.

    Hal.
 
Christianity is the fulfillment of Judaism, not Joseph Smith

And Christianity thus has fulfilled theology in the Holy Trinity. Furthermore, the understanding of Jesus Christ is intact.

When Christ ascended into heaven after 40 days, the Holy Spirit was then released on Pentecost Sunday, not Joseph Smith 1800 years later.

The Holy Spirit came to the Church – as an unleavened wafer – and filled it with Its Spirit, and the Holy Spirit has never left the Church through its profession of faith and its assembly.

To say that the Holy Spirit decided to leave the Church is a fickle and shallow one at that and does not represent the One True Lord Who is constantly there for us. The other part is the concept of God, which Mormonism is very different.

Apostasy – the turning away from faith in Jesus Christ – is an individual act. It can grow to include apostate believers, who in turn, can invert parts of the institution of Christ, but never the Mystical Church, the Bride of Christ, the Groom.

You can have one remaining Catholic believer in Spokane, WA, and the Church continues to exist there.

The only perfect act of faith the Church can do together is our profession of faith, the Creed at Mass, and our love together covers many sins.

The Lord is very big. Bigger than individual priests, bishops, and errant popes. His mercy and forgiveness is big enough to forgive them, because He died on the Cross for all our sins, including Mormons’.

To condemn believers in Christ because you do not believe in the Holy Trinity and the seven sacraments is a grave error, and a misinformed one at that.

To insinuate that Christ cannot forgive the sins of clerics is very sad indeed.
 
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