Views on Mormonism?

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I cannot wrap my mind around some of their beliefs. Comments?
 
I cannot wrap my mind around some of their beliefs. Comments?
Me neither. I mean I watched a video that was supposed to show “what they believed” until some people said some of it was not true, some they didn’t believe anymore, and some they believed, but it was misrepresented. But it’s a little strange how I see a lot of Catholics said “Mormons are not Christians!” and then they whine and complain when Protestants say that about them. I’m Catholic but hey, who am I to judge? 🤷

That’s just my two cents. :twocents:

God bless :byzsoc:

David
 
I cannot wrap my mind around some of their beliefs. Comments?
If you are struggling, then you probably have faulty information.

Nobody should feel they understand a religious faith after watching a cartoon, made by detractors. It would be like me claiming I know the Catholic faith because I read all the Chick tracts on Catholics
 
If you are struggling, then you probably have faulty information.

Nobody should feel they understand a religious faith after watching a cartoon, made by detractors. It would be like me claiming I know the Catholic faith because I read all the Chick tracts on Catholics
Where did I mention I got my information from a cartoon?
 
This is a good article for non-LDS

What Evangelicals Now Need to Know About Mormonism

Two paragraphs I liked
For some reason Evangelicals like to “serve notice” to Mormons that they are not Christian. As if we can wash our hands of the souls of any missionaries who visit our doorsteps because we’ve let them know they are going to hell. This isn’t particularly useful or effective. Please avoid dismissing Mormon missionaries with the words “you aren’t Christians” as you close the door on them.

If you’d like to debate Mormonism’s place in the Kingdom, I’ve found that engaging the question “are Mormons Christians” is not a great place to start. Mormons and Evangelicals are talking about different things. Mormonism comes straight out of Christianity. It doesn’t make any sense outside of the larger religious context of Christianity. So at least in one sense Evangelicals can acknowledge how Mormons are Christian. If you want to talk about the same thing with your Mormon friend, I’d recommend asking the question “Does Mormonism teach a saving faith?” You may not come to any better of an agreement, but at least you’ll be talking about the same thing.
 
I cannot wrap my mind around some of their beliefs. Comments?
If you look at the teachings of Joseph Smith you can see that a lot of his beliefs don’t match up well with the Bible and are crazy when compared to mainstream christianity.
 
While I’ve been a Catholic my entire life, half my family is LDS and I was married to a Mormon for 7 years. I didn’t have any extreme difficulties in understanding the faith and all that happened due to my marriage was that I became a stronger believing Catholic who was able to respect my wife’s faith.

Unfortunately, my ‘not converting’ was a deal breaker for my wife even though I was told it wouldn’t be in the beginning of my marriage. 😦 Oh well.
 
Okay, I hung with the Mormons and was involved with them for nearly a year about 26 years ago.
Let me state, first off, doctrinal disagreements aside,
you’d be hard-pressed to find a kinder or sweeter bunch of people, generally-
speaking (there are a few exceptions, of course, which is only to be expected).
They have many outreaches to help people, such as Relief Society.
They fast weekly and donate the cost of two missed meals, or more,
for feeding the hungry and poor. For their own church members, and even just non-LDS visitors, their parish churches (“wards”) have employment-finding services to help unemployed people be able to make a living again. These people are lovable and have
many genuine, good virtues.
Doctrinally, they believe that Jesus of Nazareth was indeed the promised Messiah of the Jews and conceived by God (but not by “the Holy Ghost”, whom they believe is a real person, but do not define Him the same way mainstream Christians do.), and that Jesus’s death is the atonement for our sins and that His resurrection is the guarantee of our own.
Where they diverge from historic Christianity is that they believe that God
the Father has a resurrected body of flesh and bone and “as man is, God once was.”
They also believe, although it’s not talked about all that often, that God the Father
has a literal wife (our heavenly mother), and that all of us who have ever lived on earth,
were first born in heaven as their spirit-offspring. There was a Great Council held in Heaven, and Jehovah volunteered to come to earth as a man. This outraged Lucifer, and he rebelled. A war broke out in heaven. Those of us who have been born in bodies on earth were those spirit sons in our previous lives in heaven, who sided with Heavenly Father and Jehovah (who would later come to earth as Jesus, born of holy Mary).
We come to earth to get a body, to experience growth, failure and success, and to begin the process of Eternal Progression, by which we marry, which marriages are sealed in a LDS temple for time AND eternity.
Our bodies will all one day be resurrected, and depending on our individual degrees of faithfulness and progression, we will inherit one of three kingdoms:
the Telestial Kingdom, the Terrestrial Kingdom, or the Celestial Kingdom.
Only those few who have willfully committed the Unpardonable Sin will be barred from one of these Kingdoms. Thus, most people will be saved. However, baptism is necessary for salvation for all people, without exception, and since billions have died over the milleniums without being baptized, worthy Mormons practice vicarious baptism or “baptisms for the dead,” as part of their Temple work. In this way, they believe that every LDS member helps contribute to the salvation of everyone else.
I hope I remembered everything pretty much correctly. There is a lot more to it than that,
but that’s the “gist” as best as I remember it.
Love,
Jaypeeto4
+JMJ+
 
I would say the biggest factor that led to my non-conversion to Mormonism was not finding a real need for Joseph Smith or the BoM. The LDS church is a restoration church (which is different from Protestants which are Reformation churches) with the belief that the keys of the priesthood was removed from the earth. As a believer in the succession of Popes that started with St. Peter, I never felt there was a need for the Apostacy that LDS claim. Without that, gaining a testimony about the LDS didn’t happen for me. In the same sense, I respected my wife’s LDS testimony. Oh well.

The only LDS picture I did not wish to be displayed in the house was of the First Vision. My wife had a major issue with having a crucifix but allowed me to have a resurrected Christ on the Cross. Hmmm…
 
**My wife had a major issue with having a crucifix but allowed me to have a resurrected Christ on the Cross. Hmmm… **

Hi, as I remember it,
this preference of theirs for not displaying crucifixes,
is based on the fact that during the Crucifixion, Christ was being
shamed, assaulted and degraded by his executioners.
They definitely believe that his crucifixion was Salvific,
but they believe that the Resurrection is far, far, far more worthy to be emphasized.

We Catholics emphasize both the Crucifixion and the Resurrection equally.
Yes, Christ’s killers were trying to degrade him by subjecting him to crucifixion.
But His crucifixion, brutal as it was,
highlights and emphasizes both the terrible evil of sin and crime, and
the fact that it took the crucifixion of an Incarnate DEITY to pay for sin,
is emphasized by the crucifix, and that the DEITY would incarnate and knowingly
and intentionally subject Himself to such horrific degradation as crucifixion, is evidence
of the DEPTH of the love and benevolence of God for his sinful, wicked human children of fallen Adam and Eve. So we are not horrified by the crucifix, nor repulsed by it.
Both Mormons and Protestants, when they do use crosses, prefer to use
empty crosses and not crucifixes, to thus emphasize the resurrection instead.
Love,
Jaypeeto4
+JMJ+
 
Their core and foundational theology is radically different from traditional Christian theology. It’s understandable you have a hard time with it.

I lived it, breathed it, day in and day out for many years in the heart of the Mormon corridor. Had been thru the temple, was a Relief Society pres for a brief time etc etc.

I have wonderful memories, but the belief system was a house of cards. Once you realize the error of their foundational doctrines, the cards collapse and quickly.

It’s devastating and take time to heal.

It always goes back to their foundational doctrines
 
Both Mormons and Protestants, when they do use crosses, prefer to use
empty crosses and not crucifixes, to thus emphasize the resurrection instead.
Love,
Jaypeeto4
+JMJ+
Do they uses crosses now? They didnt when I was LDS.
 
**Do they uses crosses now? They didnt when I was LDS. **

Hi. As I remember it,
they don’t display crosses, even empty ones, on their walls nor
on the steeples of their ward-houses (local church houses), or in their homes
as decoration.

However, their books do have depictions sometimes of Christ being crucified on
a cross, etc. But no, they don’t “use” crosses decorationally. You are right.

Jehovah’s Witnesses would NEVER picture Christ being crucified on a cross.
They believe it is a pagan idol and even a “phallic” symbol.
Therefore, THEY insist Christ was “impaled” on a single, upright pole
without a cross-beam. (( Although to ME, THAT would seem much
more likely a candidate for a phallic symbol than a two-beamed cross, ironically enough )).
Love,
Jaypeeto4
+JMJ+
 
**My wife had a major issue with having a crucifix but allowed me to have a resurrected Christ on the Cross. Hmmm… **

Hi, as I remember it,
this preference of theirs for not displaying crucifixes,
is based on the fact that during the Crucifixion, Christ was being
shamed, assaulted and degraded by his executioners.
They definitely believe that his crucifixion was Salvific,
but they believe that the Resurrection is far, far, far more worthy to be emphasized.
In regards to the Passion of Christ, Catholics tend to put more emphasis on the crucifixion while LDS tend to put more emphasis on Jesus’ Agony in the Garden’ where they believe the atonement occurred. Both faiths recognize the entire Passion, I just believe the emphasis is stressed in two different places.
We Catholics emphasize both the Crucifixion and the Resurrection equally.
Yes, Christ’s killers were trying to degrade him by subjecting him to crucifixion.
But His crucifixion, brutal as it was,
highlights and emphasizes both the terrible evil of sin and crime, and
the fact that it took the crucifixion of an Incarnate DEITY to pay for sin,
is emphasized by the crucifix, and that the DEITY would incarnate and knowingly
and intentionally subject Himself to such horrific degradation as crucifixion, is evidence
of the DEPTH of the love and benevolence of God for his sinful, wicked human children of fallen Adam and Eve. So we are not horrified by the crucifix, nor repulsed by it.
Both Mormons and Protestants, when they do use crosses, prefer to use
empty crosses and not crucifixes, to thus emphasize the resurrection instead.
Love,
Jaypeeto4
+JMJ+
All Christians stress the importance Easter and the Resurrection. I just enjoy the Catholic experience in it’s celebration much better with the 40 days of Lent, Holy Week, and then 50 days of Easter celebration that ends on Pentecost. For myself, Easter Sunday in the LDS church is just a special Sunday. I realize the correct understanding of the LDS faith is that Easter is celebrated every Sunday but it falls short as compared to the Catholic experience.

LDS do a better job on Mother’s Day than Catholics do IMO…🙂
 
I just enjoy the Catholic experience in it’s celebration much better with the 40 days of Lent, Holy Week, and then 50 days of Easter celebration that ends on Pentecost. For myself, Easter Sunday in the LDS church is just a special Sunday. I realize the correct understanding of the LDS faith is that Easter is celebrated every Sunday but it falls short as compared to the Catholic experience.
Oh my, my first Lent, Holy Week and Triduum. Then the the Octave of Easter and the 50 days.

I had never worshipped like that before. :angel1:

It was profound in every sense of the word and for a prolonged period of time.
Now, for me, Advent and Christmas are great, but I prefer Lent, Holy Week, Triduum, and the Easter season thru Pentecost.

I also deeply appreciate the liturgical seasons of the church. Advent, Christmas and the above mentioned arent just a day where an event in Christ life is remembered and celebrated. But they are seasons to be entered into, and you become one with the season and the Mystery.

It’s a very active act of worship.

Worship. I never knew what that really ment until I entered into my first Holy Week.
 
While I’ve been a Catholic my entire life, half my family is LDS and I was married to a Mormon for 7 years. I didn’t have any extreme difficulties in understanding the faith and all that happened due to my marriage was that I became a stronger believing Catholic who was able to respect my wife’s faith.

Unfortunately, my ‘not converting’ was a deal breaker for my wife even though I was told it wouldn’t be in the beginning of my marriage. 😦 Oh well.
The only reason Mormons associate with “gentiles” in any way is to convert them. I’m sure your LDS wife assumed that you would convert to Mormonism. When you did not, she dumped you. That is how Mormons deal with non-Mormons. If a Mormon befriends you, it is only because she wants to convert you. Once she realizes you will not convert, she will drop you like a hot rock. There is no such thing as a “Mormon friend”. There is only a Mormon who has targeted you for conversion.

The technique is known officially as “friendshipping” - making friends with someone to lure them into the LDS church.

Among young Mormons, it is known as “date’ em and dunk 'em”. If you will not convert, the Mormon will move on to the next prospect. If you convert, the Mormon will move on to the next prospect.

Hi-ho.
 
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