Mormonism and Islam: comparisons are incredible

[Damascus]

Maybe most Muslims don’t support terrorism, I don’t know. I do know that most terrorist are Muslim, therfore I don’t trust any Muslims until they prove they are trustworthy.

I got a piece of wire in my Chicken at KFC. I no nonger buy chicken there.

 

[Lance]

I got a piece of wire in my Chicken at KFC. I no nonger buy chicken there.

I don’t blame you. I don’t buy it because I don’t like it but no one at KFC is threatening to kill either of us because we say bad things about their chicken.

 

[Mr.Ex_Nihilo]

Jesus warned about false prophets, and it is pretty interesting to compare them when they come along. Joseph Smith and Mohammad are two interesting cases. Both lived in a time when religious unity among the people they knew was non-existent. Mohammad wanted to unite the warring tribes with all of their various pagan Gods. He wound up with monotheism and tried to build upon Judaism and Christianity by coming up with an angel coming to him and giving him a book from heaven to unite the various factions. Joseph Smith saw religious differences in his own time. His answer? An angel from heaven comes and gives him a book which would united the differing Christian groups and restore the true gospel. Both Mohammad and Joseph Smith rejected the Trinity and denied the ultimate divinity of Jesus. I’m sure there are other similarities as well. We had a discussion on Islam last night at my parish, and I was struck by how much Joseph Smith seemed to be like Mohammad.

I am so glad I became Catholic!

Me too.

This actually reminds me of Galatians 1:8.

I guess if I could draw one distinction, I don’t think Islam actually claims to preach the gospel, especially since they don’t believe that Jesus was actually crucified or even died for that matter. Whether or not they claim to preach the ‘true gospel’ of Jesus uncorrupted is another matter.

Mormonism, on the other hand, does claim to preach some kind of gospel-- even if it is significantly distorted from mainline Christian theology. As far as I understand, Mormans believe that when Jesus died on a stake (not a cross), he allegedly become in someway non-existent and was raised (or, more accurately, recreated) three days later as a spirit creature (that is, Michael the Archangel). In other owrds, they do not believe a physical resurrection occured.

According to their own words recorded in Studies in Scriptures vol. 7 (produced by the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society in 1917)…

We deny that He was raised in the flesh, and challenge any statement to that effect as being unscriptural.

With all due respect toward Morman theology, to say something like this seems to represent a significant deviance from the more traditional interpretations regarding Christ’s resurrection. Islam never made such a bizarre claim-- excepting that someone else took Christ’s place on the cross and that Jesus never really died at all.

Of course, I disagree with both Mormon and Muslim theology in regards to Jesus’s death. Jesus, as the Son of God, indeed himself died on a cross (not a stake) and rose from the dead with his own true body glorified-- and he was not some bizarre angelic simulacrum.

 

[George_Waters]

Yawn.

This is the most bare similarity. Might as well mention that both Muhammad and Joseph Smith ate food, just like Jesus.

I guess that means they were both Gods…after all, God ate, drank, and slept, and so did Muhammad and Joseph Smith.

Amazing similiarity!

You know Pro, you don’t have to respond to these posts if they bore you so. As a “former Catholic” you should be well aware that we Catholics consider every “prophet” after Jesus to be a false prophet so if you want a major similarity there it is. While the lives and impact of Mohammed and Joseph Smith are not identical there is a resemblance if you want to acknowledge them or not or find this a worthy discussion or not. Other’s do, so accept it and let them discuss this.

 

[PaulDupre]

Mormonism, on the other hand, does claim to preach some kind of gospel-- even if it is significantly distorted from mainline Christian theology. As far as I understand, Mormans believe that when Jesus died on a stake (not a cross), he allegedly become in someway non-existent and was raised (or, more accurately, recreated) three days later as a spirit creature (that is, Michael the Archangel). In other owrds, they do not believe a physical resurrection occured.

According to their own words recorded in Studies in Scriptures vol. 7 (produced by the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society in 1917)…

That’s the Jehovah’s Witnesses, not the Mormons. Mormon teachings are even weirder than that.

Paul

 

[inJESUS]

That’s the Jehovah’s Witnesses, not the Mormons. Mormon teachings are even weirder than that.

Paul

the JW are very similar to some early Christian heresies…seems satan ran out of ideas.

 

[Mr.Ex_Nihilo]

That’s the Jehovah’s Witnesses, not the Mormons. Mormon teachings are even weirder than that.

Paul

ahhh…my apologies…you are correct.

I always get them mixed up.

 

[PaulDupre]

the JW are very similar to some early Christian heresies…seems satan ran out of ideas.

Yeah, there is nothing new under the sun.

 

[BJRumph]

Yes, it is interesting how both make the same claim about Christ, yet do so from opposite perspectives;

Muslim: Christ as just a man called to be a prophet; he was of no nature different than ours. (Jesus not God)

Mormon: Christ was chosen by God in the pre-mortal council to fulfill the role of savior in this world; but he was made of no different nature than ours. (Jesus closer to God, but not “God” anymore than we are, because we are made of the same stuff as god)

As to why Islam had more converts than Mormons? Easy, as both religions presented themselves as restorations of a presently decadent religious society, they had the potential to grow at the same rates. The big difference is, Islam stuck to its doctrines (even granting the development of such), whereas the mormons abandoned everything they claimed to be from god as soon as it became too burdensome. As such, they could not hold onto the appeal of those yearing for a God-directed life as the muslims could thanks to their adherance to their restored values. Mormon polygamy, from start to finish, is a classic example of the mormon leadership’s refusal to stand by their “faith”. Even had they denounced mormonism altogether, they still would have been run off bacause of their actions at the time, so the event of the utah exodus is not really a support to the contrary.

 

[PaulDupre]

The differences are just as incredable. Mormans don’t crash planes into office buildings full of workers, Mormons don’t get on a bus full of people and blow themselves and the bus to bits, Mormons don’t blow up trains loaded with people, Mormons don’t behead people just because they are not Mormon, Mormons have never threatened to kill the pope. Mormons want to convert the world by talking you into joining them not be threatening to kill you if you don’t.

Not yet, anyway.
Joseph Smith:

I will be to this generation a second Mohammed, whose motto in treating for peace was ‘the Alcoran [Koran] or the Sword.’ So shall it eventually be with us—‘Joseph Smith or the Sword!’