The Bickertonites

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Can anyone give me any information on the Bickertonites. Here is what I know already: 1) The official name of their church is The Church of Jesus Christ. 2) They belive in the Book of Mormon, but none of the other teachings of LDS. I.E. They are Trinitarian, they do not believe in the pre-existence of the soul, they do not condone plural marriage, they do not believe that Joseph Smith was the “Choice Seer,” all of their ceremonies are open even to non-members, et cetera. Since they are truely Trinitarian and reject many of the LDS beliefs, can they be considered Christians, or does the belief that Christ walked the Americas and other “scripture” from the Book of Mormon preclude them from this consideration?
 
smach said:
Can anyone give me any information on the Bickertonites. Here is what I know already: 1) The official name of their church is The Church of Jesus Christ. 2) They belive in the Book of Mormon, but none of the other teachings of LDS. I.E. They are Trinitarian, they do not believe in the pre-existence of the soul, they do not condone plural marriage, they do not believe that Joseph Smith was the “Choice Seer,” all of their ceremonies are open even to non-members, et cetera. Since they are truely Trinitarian and reject many of the LDS beliefs, can they be considered Christians, or does the belief that Christ walked the Americas and other “scripture” from the Book of Mormon preclude them from this consideration?
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They are Christians as long as they believe in the Trinity. The Catholic Church accepts the baptism of those who are members of the Community of Christ, so I assume they would accept these as well.
 
They don’t appear to be true trinitarians. Their beliefs include:

** God “has a form…[and] can speak, hear, see, feel…[and] moves about freely.”

Having a body, God the Father can only be in one location at a time. However, his spirit is omnipresent.

The Holy Spirit is not “the Third Personage of the Godhead.” Rather, the Spirit is “the invisible power and glory that emanates from God.” **

Source: religioustolerance.org/cojc.htm

Beware of Mormon groups use of Christian terms. They often mean something completely different from Christian usage.
 
The Bickertonites are a very small splinter group in the LDS family. The more significant group is the Community of Christ (formerly the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints). This group also rejects the cultic teachings found in the Mormon Church. They accept the Trinity and are, except for the acceptance of the Book of Mormon, basically Protestant. Indeed, many of their leaders attend Protestant seminaries.
 
RHooker said:
The Bickertonites are a very small splinter group in the LDS family. The more significant group is the Community of Christ (formerly the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints). This group also rejects the cultic teachings found in the Mormon Church. They accept the Trinity and are, except for the acceptance of the Book of Mormon, basically Protestant. Indeed, many of their leaders attend Protestant seminaries.
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According to the same source I cited above, this group is also squishy on their definition of the Trinity:
  • They view God as the “eternal Creator, the source of love, life, and truth.” Most view God as the first element of the Trinity
  • They consider Jesus Christ as the “living expression of God in the flesh.” They believe in Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection. Most consider Jesus to be the second element of the Trinity; some Jesus and God as two different persons.
  • Most perceive the Holy Spirit as a person and as the third component of the Trinity. Some consider the Holy Spirit to be the “continuing presence of God in the world.”
    religioustolerance.org/rlds.htm
 
Just to correct some false information here and clarify some points.
  1. The Church of Jesus Christ does not accept the doctrine of the trinity as commonly associated with mainstream Christian religion and moreover the catholic church
  2. Ministers in The Church of Jesus Christ do not attend protestant seminaries or any seminaries for that matter. It is not pre-requisite for becoming a minister, although some ministers have taken scripture classes for their own personal reasons.
  3. The Church of Jesus Christ is a seperate entity from the LDS church and aside from a common historical heritage (~14 years) has no affiliation with the LDS church or any other church.
If you have any other questions feel free to PM me or leave them here. Thanks

jrn
 
I am a member of The Church of Jesus Christ,

We absolutely in no way are affiliated with any Mormon sect, nor do we use the term Mormon to describe ourselves. All mormon sects besides ourselves use additional books and scriptures, mainly consisting of a book called The Doctine and Covenants, which contains revelations by Joseph Smith that they believe to be scripture…We believe that the greatest portion of these writings do not coincide with the teachings of the Bible or The Book Of Mormon. Though we believe that Joseph Smith was used by God to interprit the record of the Native Americans that became the Book Of Mormon, we do not believe he was given the right to “Revelation”, and that all writings by Joseph Smith were irrelevant.

We believe that the Book Of Mormon is a record of the Native Americans, and their dealings with God on this land, not to be a replacement for the Bible, but a complimet to the Bible, and to be used hand in hand " …believing that the great power of the Almighty God was not limited to one Geographical area. God commanded his poele to write and record their witness, and we believe that "The Book Of Mormon is one of those records, being just as the Bible , and abridged compilation of writings from diciples of God on this main land. These people being descendants of Ephraim. One of the twelve tribes of Israel.

Anyway, we do consider ourselves Christians, We believe in Jesus, preach about, worship, and love Jesus only. We do not follow a prophet as the Mormons do. We have to endure the “Mormon” tag, and people see Book of Mormon, and automatically associate us with Mormons, but we are not. The teachings in the Book of Mormon do not sway from the teachings of the Bible, though they are percieved to by the odd practices of the Mormons that do not in any way come from the Book of Mormon. Our church unlike the Mormons, is modeled soley from the New Testament Church, as layed out by Jesus in the Bible, and we will not and do not ever believe on or accept anything that would not coincide with the Bible.

We do not practice plural marriage, celestial marriage, temple practices, or anything that differs from normal Christian churches. All of those practices were derived from the Doctrine and Covenants book used by Mormon churches. Also we believe that the ministry is a volunteer right, and not a paid job. No one in the church ministry or entire membership recieves a salary. Jesus was not paid to preach his word, and neither were his diciples.

All our beliefs are referenced in the Bible

I believe the worship of Christ, and entrance to heaven is open to all that follow Christ and his teaching, and not just limited to a member of a Mormon church as they believe. or a member of our church, I believe all are “judged by what they know”

Just wanted to explain who we are in my words, not here to argue,
God Bless you
 
I believe the Church of Jesus Christ also use the Book of Mormon with chapters and verse divisions as the LDS version instead of the chapter and verse divisions of the RLDS(Community of Christ.

I found a Book of Momon published by the CoJC Monogahalia(sp) Pennsylvania at the Goodwill.
 
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