St. Faustina vs. Mormonism

[Larry1700]

First, I admit that I have not studied much of either of these topics, but during our “That Man is You” meeting this morning we were talking about the Divine Mercy apparition of Jesus to St. Faustina, and it occurred to me:

What is the difference between Jesus giving St. Faustina a special vision/directive, and Jesus giving the Mormon founder a special vision/directive?

 

[Splagchnizomai]

Mormons don’t believe in Jesus Christ in the same manner that Christians believe in Christ. He is not the Second Person of the Holy Trinity in LDS. When you consider this, consider who may have been delivering the message to Mormons. Was it Christ as Catholics confess Him to be?

St Faustina had a private revelation. Catholics can follow it or not follow it and still be Catholic.

 

[Mintaka]

The first rule of discernment is: Does this teach something against God’s commands? It doesn’t matter if it’s Bob down the street or an angel clothed in light. That’s why St. Paul said, “But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you – let him be accursed.”

After that, you can look into evidence of fraud, delusion, and so forth.

But the most important thing about a vision is whether it’s false and evil in content.

The Devil can disguise himself as an angel of light, as St. Paul tells us in Gal. 1:8. The Devil can even quote Scripture, as he did to Jesus. But he always wants us to do his will in something, instead of God’s will. So an evil vision will include evil teaching somewhere, even if it’s not obvious at first. (A fake vision will probably include the “visionary” asking for money or power somewhere, and a delusional vision usually includes something nutso.)

 

[Scoobyshme]

First, I admit that I have not studied much of either of these topics, but during our “That Man is You” meeting this morning we were talking about the Divine Mercy apparition of Jesus to St. Faustina, and it occurred to me:

What is the difference between Jesus giving St. Faustina a special vision/directive, and Jesus giving the Mormon founder a special vision/directive?

Easy. One’s true and one isn’t true.

Seriously. The Church was founded by Christ, Who promised to remain with it till the end of the world. Because Christ is God, He is immutable (unchangeable). His truths are, therefore, also unchangeable.

Mormons do not believe in the same Jesus we do. They believe he was a human like us, and “chosen” to come here to “be God,” just as they believe if you’re good enough on earth here, you get to be “God” on another planet.

We believe that Jesus is eternal. Always was, and always will be. He did not “come into being” when He was born of the Virgin Mary. He was merely en-fleshed as a human being.

 

[Splagchnizomai]

Mormons do not believe in the same Jesus we do. They believe he was a human like us, and “chosen” to come here to “be God,” just as they believe if you’re good enough on earth here, you get to be “God” on another planet.

We believe that Jesus is eternal. Always was, and always will be. He did not “come into being” when He was born of the Virgin Mary. He was merely en-fleshed as a human being.

Too put a fine point on this, Catholics believe that Jesus is fully human, fully divine – not just human, not just divine.

 

[HB11]

The first rule of discernment is: Does this teach something against God’s commands? It doesn’t matter if it’s Bob down the street or an angel clothed in light. That’s why St. Paul said, “But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you – let him be accursed.”

After that, you can look into evidence of fraud, delusion, and so forth.

But the most important thing about a vision is whether it’s false and evil in content.

The Devil can disguise himself as an angel of light, as St. Paul tells us in Gal. 1:8. The Devil can even quote Scripture, as he did to Jesus. But he always wants us to do his will in something, instead of God’s will. So an evil vision will include evil teaching somewhere, even if it’s not obvious at first. (A fake vision will probably include the “visionary” asking for money or power somewhere, and a delusional vision usually includes something nutso.)

 

[Scoobyshme]

Too put a fine point on this, Catholics believe that Jesus is fully human, fully divine – not just human, not just divine.

Yes. Jesus is 100% Divine and 100% human. On that, we agree.

But, maybe I didn’t make my point well. I’m not surprised.

We believe that Jesus always existed, as part of the Trinity. Forever.

Mormons believe that Jesus came into being, like us, at some point in time, then was “chosen” to “be God” on this planet.

Big difference.

 

[Bataar]

I think the question is more of a nature of revelation than the nature of Jesus. As Catholics, we believe that with Jesus, all truth has been revealed whereas Mormons believe they can get new, even contradictary revelations. He’s asking why St. Faustina’s vision isn’t considered a “new” revelation.

 

[Splagchnizomai]

I think the question is more of a nature of revelation than the nature of Jesus. As Catholics, we believe that with Jesus, all truth has been revealed whereas Mormons believe they can get new, even contradictary revelations. He’s asking why St. Faustina’s vision isn’t considered a “new” revelation.

St Faustina’s vision is considered a private revelation, not a public one.

Public revelation is binding on all Christians, but private revelation is binding only on those who receive it. The Catholic Church teaches that public revelation was completed, and therefore was concluded, with the death of the last apostle (Vatican II, Dei Verbum 4), but private revelation has continued.

catholic.com/tracts/private-revelation

 

[pgnat1]

The difference is this:

Joseph Smith created a totally new (and false) church and religion.

St. Faustina helped illustrate an apparition of Jesus she had, which then became the center point of Divine Mercy Chapels.

 

[Larry1700]

Thanks for all the answers. Several of them I’m embarrassed that I didn’t remember on my own. This is why we should always be studying the Bible, the Catechism, etc., so we will have the answers quickly when a question comes to mind. (Of course old age sometimes causes memory lapses, too!)