Posted by:
RPackham
(
)
Date: October 27, 2011 05:47PM
Actually, there are a number of areas where Mormon and non-Mormon Christians agree about Jesus. I am neither Mormon nor Christian, but, based on my understanding of Mormonism and of more traditional Christian doctrine, I suggest that these are some of those areas, and one could certainly argue that anyone with these beliefs could be labeled "Christian":
* Jesus is divine and part of the Godhead.
* He is the Messiah promised in the Old Testament.
* The world was created by him.
* He is the "Only Begotten Son" of God.
* He died to atone for the sins of mankind.
* He was prepared from the beginning of the world for his mission of atonement.
* He was bodily resurrected from the dead.
* By his resurrection he conquered death so that all mankind will be resurrected.
* He was perfect and sinless.
* He founded the true church.
* Only believers in him will be saved.
* He will someday return to earth and usher in a period of peace lasting a thousand years, during which he will rule as king.
The following Mormon teachings differ sharply from the doctrine of many traditional Christian denominations, and are probably the basis for the frequent Christian assertion that "Mormons are not Christian":
* Jesus is a separate person from God the Father.
* Jesus is a literal child of God the Father, both spiritually and physically.
* Since we are all spirit children of God the Father, in that sense Jesus is our spirit brother.
* Jesus was married (early Mormon prophets also taught that he was a polygamist).
* Christ's atonement is not effective for certain very grievous sins (this doctrine of "blood atonement" is not mentioned much by modern Mormons)
* The moment of Christ's atonement was as he prayed in Gethsemane, not his death on the cross.
* One should not "worship" Jesus or pray to him, but only to God the Father, in Jesus' name.
* One should not try to develop a "personal relationship" with Christ.
* To be saved, one must not only believe in Christ, but must "obey his commandments" (that is, "works" are as important as "grace")
It is an ironic fact of Mormon history that when I was growing up Mormon in the 1940s, we Mormons were quite proud of the fact that we weren't "Christian," but rather "Mormon." At that time we Mormons understood that to be Christian was to subscribe to all the false doctrines of the Methodists, Lutherans, Catholics, and other false churches. It is only in the last few decades that the Mormon church has changed its attitude, and now wants desperately to be considered among the "Christian" churches, probably because they consider that by accepting the label "Christian" they will not appear so unusual in the eyes of unaware prospective converts, who only find out later that the Mormons have quite different definitions of "Christian," "God," and hundreds of other terms used by traditional denominations.
(For a more extended discussion, see "Are Mormons Christian?" at
http://packham.n4m.org/lds-xian.htm