Quick Question
Posted on January 28th, 2008 by catalyst into the Uncategorized categorySince a lot of the readers of this blog consider themselves to be Evangelical Christians, I have a couple of quick questions:
Do you consider Mormons to be Christians? And secondly, are Mormons going to heaven?
I know growing up in the church, I was taught that Mormonism is a cult, but I wonder if views have changed now that Mormonism is so much more mainstream. I ask this question, because the likely Republican Presidential candidate is a mormon, and I wonder if the Evangelical base will rally behind him like they did George W. Bush.
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January 28th, 2008 at 9:57 am
School was delayed 2 hrs this morning because 10 flakes of snow fell… so I have some extra time.
The question:
What I consider is irrelevant. It’s God’s “Book of Life” — not mine. His criteria is simple: Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. And we all know that’s more than an acknowledgement that He exists (even the demons do that).
Official mormon doctrine has unbiblical teaching regarding the nature of God and the deity of Jesus Christ. But God looks at the heart, and there may be many in the mormon church who love Him and have asked for forgiveness for their sins through Christ’s blood.
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However, they do tithe, so that’s probably a point in their favor.
January 28th, 2008 at 10:47 am
This is an interesting question, since I went to a Mormon bookstore on Thursday and asked a bunch of questions because of Mitt Romney.
The issues I have are they make God like us…basically saying we can be like God, and He was once like us.
Also, they are not monotheistic. They believe there are other gods out there, and our god is only the god of this universe or planet (I can’t remember what one they said).
From my conversation with the bookstore worker (not official LDS doctrine) it seems like they worship a different god than us. One who had two sons Satan and Jesus, one who was once a man like us, but obtained godhood by doing the LDS sacrements…and we can be like God if we do all the right things (doesn’t that remind you of the garden of eden?)
I would say their teachings are far enough off that we should fear enough for their salvation to warn them about the false teachings of Joseph Smith.
Remember Jesus said that not everyone who calls him “Lord, Lord” will be right with Him….I just think lowering the nature of God and elevating the status of man has never sat well with God.
January 28th, 2008 at 4:29 pm
I think that anyone who believes that right thing about salvation and identifies themselves in the bible’s definition of Christ can be saved as long as they don’t exhault other irrelevant traditions and philosophies above that core belief. There are a lot of people who sit in pews in mainstream churches who are not saved because they don’t truely believe in their own salvation when it comes down to it or they base their salvation on their own righteousness. You can be a morman and be saved (as long as you stay away from the freaky fringes), contrary to what a lot of evangelicals think you can be catholic and be saved, etc.
January 28th, 2008 at 8:27 pm
Craig is right. I almost became LDS (Mormon) once. But first I read the Book of Mormon, The Pearl of Great Price and the Docrtines and the Covenants. I also read another book they esteem called Jesus the Christ. Here is how I found they differ from “normal Christianity”. They believe in the Bible, but only the Joseph Smith Translation. In it Jesus is not “God”, but “a God” JST John 1:1. They also believe that Jesus died on a tree, not a cross. They believe the atonement blood, was the blood Jesus sweated in the Garden of Gethsemane. The believe in a heavenly Father and a Heavenly mother. They believe that the miracles of Jesus all have some sort of scientific explanation, much as a TV would have been considered a miracle 100 years ago. The list goes on and on. My final conclusion, that I still hold is that they are not Christian. They may go to heaven by some act of God’s grace, but they themselves do not believe in Jesus (by our definition of who he is), the Bible (by our definition of what it is), or God’s unmerited, unearned grace (as we hold as our only hope of salvation).
January 29th, 2008 at 10:33 am
Here are 3 quotes from the Mormon teachings. Walter Martin use to say "a cult is any group that denies Jesus is GOD. "The Father has a body of flesh and bones as tangible as man's" (Doctrine & Covenants 130:22). "God himself was once as we are now, and is an exalted man, and sits enthroned in yonder heavens!" (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, pg 345) The Encyclopedia of Mormonism declares that "Latter-day Saints deny the abstract nature of God the Father and affirm that he is a concrete being, that he possesses a physical body" (Vol 2, GOD THE FATHER). One of the Christian senators said that Orrin Hatch (R-Utah)was one of our best allies. Even if Romney doesn't know the Lord, he would get my vote over what the Dems have to offer
January 31st, 2008 at 7:42 pm
Funny you should ask about the Mormons or Latterday Saints as they call themselves. I just read the ” book of mormon” and it was an eyeopener!
In an article in the daily paper about Romney, the Mormons were not happy about what they called misunderstandings regarding their faith. At the end of the article there was a list of the key tenets of their faith.
1. God was once a mortal who became an eternal being after a great trial.
2. Jesus Christ was God’s first born spirit child, his only earthly child and the only perfect mortal.
3. Mormons reject the idea of a Christian Trinity. Instead theybelieve the three are separate beings joined in a common purpose.
4. Before their human birth, humans existed in pre-mortality and were born in the spirit world to heavenly parents. They also believe in the resurrection and believe that most people will receive some measure of salvation and have a place in a three level eternal kingdom.
5. Only true church. Not protestant, catholic or orthodox but holds a unique place as “restored New Testament Christianity.” Founder Joseph Smith said God told him none of the existing churches were practicing Christianity as it was intended.
6. Book of mormon: The text on which the church is based is said to have been translated from an ancient language inscribed on gold plates. Mormons believe it is an account of Christ’s interaction with inhabitants of the ancient Americas before he ascended into heaven.
7. Second coming of Christ: Smith believed the Garden of Eden was originally in North America, near today’s Independence Mo. Mormons migrated to Missouri in 1831 because Smith taught that would be the new
Jerusalem, where Christ would return.
(They believe in a different Jesus than I do. I believe that JESUS is GOD!)
February 2nd, 2008 at 12:23 pm
Do you consider Mormons to be Christians? And secondly, are Mormons going to heaven?
No, and MAYBE (If only by grace)
February 2nd, 2008 at 2:51 pm
Sandra Tanner, great-great granddaughter of Brigham Young, said on Nightline(ABC) Dec.6, 2007
The Mormon church has a PR department probably better than anybody else. And they are very careful in painting a public image that tries to make Mormonism sound like it’s just about the same as evangelical Christianity, but it really isn’t…..I think it’s kind of similar to saying that a cat is a dog.
And no I don’t consider Mormons to be Christians. After reading their book of mormon and other writings by Mormon leaders, I believe it is a cult.
Will they go to heaven? Not by believing in the fake jesus of the book of mormon.
Mormons teach that one’s lot in this life is a consequence of one’s obedience to the laws of the spirit world during one’s pre’existence (pre-mortality) so they believe one’s lot in the afterlife will reflect one’s obedience to the laws of Mormonism in this life. The ultimate goal of eternal progression is to reach the highest level of heaven wherein one attains exaltation to godhood and eternally gives birth to spirit children who then progress toward godhood themselves.
Joseph smith, founder of mormonism said, “I am going to tell you how God came to be God. We have imagined and supposed that God was God from all eternity. I will refute that idea and take away the veil, so that you may see….It is the first principle of the Gospel to know of a certainty the Character of God….that he was once a man like us; yea, that God himself the Father of us all, dwelt on the earth.”
February 11th, 2008 at 1:35 pm
I have been thinking about the Mormons. Their big thing is obeying all the rules and regs and working their way up to be gods.
Well, isn’t this what the serpent told Eve? In Genesis 3;5 it says’ for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened and ye shall be as God knowing good and evil.”
Then in Isaiah 14:13,14 Lucifer is saying I will exalt myself above the stars of God……….I will ascend above the heights of the clouds: I will be like the most High.
They have been duped by the evil one just like Adam and Eve.