Hmm... Mormonism. That's what WE call it. THEY call is being mormon. Like a denomination. From what I have gathered talking to them personally, they believe to be Christians. And, to be honest, they believe that Jesus is the Christ. The Son of God. So, technically, I guess they're as much Christian as we are.
"But look at all of their wacky beliefs!" Well, I acknowledge that they have some... weird... beliefs. But when I sat and talked to these two mormon missionaries, it FELT like talking to 2 ordinary Christians who knew a lot of scripture. The thing that really struck a cord was believing the Book of Mormon was EQUAL to the Bible. That's the defining difference between us. Once I caught on to this, I began studying this Book of Mormon to try and get a better picture of where they're coming from. I invited them to lunch and, after we ate, had a discussion about how different these two books are. They didn't ONCE come back to something I said, but they still left the place with Mormon beliefs, because in their minds... they are doing what Jesus wants them to do. Therefore... who am I to tell them they are wrong. This doesn't sound too far off from MY beliefs. I know I'm doing what God wants me to do, so who is someone else to tell me my religious beliefs are wrong. I think the only thing we can do is learn from them. Most Mormons I've met live more Christian lives than most Christians I know. lol.
I don't think I really answered the question. They follow Jesus, so it would seem as though they aren't a cult. But at the same time, they listen to The mormonism guy(Joseph something, i think) MORE than they listen to God, which is VERY cultish. It's basically like a Jim Jones type thing without the kool-aid.
My apologies to any LDS members that may be offended. I would ask you to please chime in also.
Christians and mormons are very different in our beliefs. Let me break it down for you.
Jesus is the Word, the Word was with God, and the Word was God (John 1:1). Thou shalt have no other Gods. The One God of Israel. The alpha and omega. There is one God and He will not share His glory with another. God is not a man (Num 23:19). This is what got Satan kicked out of heaven like a bolt of lightning when he said he would be like the most high.
The only other point I have to make on the christian side is that Jesus paid for ONCE for ALL sin. Lets take a moment for this. From the time of the first sin until the last one before He comes back to take me home, PAID IN FULL. My debt is covered and I pray I'm done making Him suffer for my selfish pleasure filled life.
I praise your name Lord and thank you for loving me!
Now back to business. Nothing I can do will get me to heaven but believe and accept His free gift. I show my love for Him to Him by following His commandments. We who study His word know Him.
The LDS church:
We were all born in the spirit world. Heavenly Father (the man god) and his wife had intercourse and gave birth to millions upon millions of spirit children. I haven't studied enough of it to tell you why or how we were sent here to live in mortal bodies. But according to what I have read, and my information comes from their literature and not from outside sources. All of this comes from actual MORMON scripture approved books. My wife left a bunch of this stuff behind.
Well Adam and Eve were in the garden, and Satan tricked Eve, the mormon church believes this was a good thing. With out this first sin mankind would not have the knowledge of good and evil therefore we would not have an opportunity to prove our worthiness. After this heavenly father (god) had a meeting in the spirit world. All the brother and sister spirit children came to vote on how to get the unworthy mortal spirit children back into heaven.
Jesus and Satan were the two most righteous of all the kids. Yes the LDS believe they were brothers. Satan wanted to just let them back in. Satan wanted heavenly father to just forgive them. Jesus said that he would go and redeem them. Then all the kids could show their worthiness by following all of gods rules and maybe one day be righteous enough to even be gods. Apparently this ticked Satan off and he lead a revolt and got the boot. I'm a little fuzzy on that fact so don't quote me on the fall of Satan.
That�s right. I said be gods. According to them, there is no heaven and hell. They believe in the outer darkness, the telestial kingdom, the terestrial kingdom, and the celestial kingdom. Whoa�. Only Satan and the sons of perdition go to the outer darkness. Everybody else goes somewhere else. Each kingdom is progressively better than the next. Those that were able to do enough good deeds will have earned their status as gods and go on to rule over their own little planets and have their own little spirit children. So even unbelievers and the worst of sinners will go to some level of the spirit world and be servants to the righteous ones.
Then there are things that go on in the temple like getting baptized for dead relatives, and eternal marriages so they can have spirit babies. There are a few more that are hard to get information on because they are supposed to be top secret.
They believe that the Roman Catholic church immediately following the death of Christ corrupted the bible, therefore some of it is untrue as being God's word. This they call "The Great Apostasy". The book of mormon is the most correct book on earth. They consider the Book of Mormon, The Pearl of Great Price, Doctrines and Covenants to be the gospel also.
The only person on earth that God actually speaks to is the "living prophet" who is the president of the church. By the way, the presidents revelations from God can override any previous commands given by God, i.e. plurality of wives, and blacks joining the church. All this points to flaws in God's sovereignty, faithfulness, and his unchanging character.
No rapture, earn your own way and salvation, will one day be "exalted" (become a god), Jesus offers a "plan" of salvation not salvation itself, disobeying God as Eve did was a good thing, no heaven and hell, God is a man, God is wishy-washy about making up his mind.
Christians believe God is who He said He is and will always be. But hey what do I know me and Job weren't around when He named the stars.
Ask your missionary friends about this stuff and see if they cut-n-run. If someone finds any of this to be in error please let me know.:stop: and :prayingm:.
Sorry to offend anybody that might be an LDS member but LDS is a trick perpetrated by the Freemasons, just as the Johovas Witness are. What they believe is so far from the Lord its not even funny. The Devil has totally decieved these people as both the founders of the LDS and the JWs were promonantly freemasons,( which i dont have time to get into).That would explain why there churches and members are so close with the organization, and they recruit lots of members from either religon into there fraternity. Im sorry but a true devote christian should never join that fraternity, but they draw so many because of ignorance.
