How is mormonism different from Christianity?

[sakartvelogirl]

I've heard Mormons describe themselves as Christians, but am also aware that there are major differences between the two...i.e. Mormons have the Book of Mormon in addition to the Bible.

I'm curious to hear more specifically what the differences are? Are Mormons Christian?

[lolar2]

LDS members (aka Mormons) will say they are Christians. Some denominations of Christianity say that LDS members are not Christians; other denominations (or at least parts of them) do accept LDS members as fellow Christians. However, if you are a non-LDS Christian and want to join the LDS church, you do have to convert. Got all that?

The LDS church recognizes another book, the Book of Mormon, in addition to the Bible used by Christians. This book was written (or revealed) in the 19th century in the US.

[Fuamami]

Yes, the LDS church is Christian. They believe that Jesus Christ was the son of God, they believe in the resurrection, etc. They also believe that Christ came to the Americas, and that there were other groups of people following the teachings of Christ around the same time as the bible. That's what the B of M is about.

[lolar2]

Originally Posted by Fuamami

Yes, the LDS church is Christian. They believe that Jesus Christ was the son of God, they believe in the resurrection, etc. They also believe that Christ came to the Americas, and that there were other groups of people following the teachings of Christ around the same time as the bible. That's what the B of M is about.

Oh, yes, the Christians who do not recognize the LDS church as Christian, base the non-recognition on the addition of the B of M. There are some things some Christians consider incompatible, between the B of M and the Bible.

[Kailey's mom]

Christianity is believing that Jesus Christ is your personal lord and savior, and that he died for our sins. Period.
Christians sin. There are no "rules" You don't have to go to church, but many do. We believe we are going to heaven when we die. We pray and practice loving everyone <3 and treating others with kindness and love.

From what I understand, with LDS, there are rules of the church itself one has to follow. I may be wrong.

[Ann-Marita]

Here is a particularly useful link on "Are the LDS Christians?", produced by the well-respected Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance (aka the Religious Tolerance website):

http://www.religioustolerance.org/ldswho.htm

Basically, whether LDS is Christian depends on who you ask. There's a whole lot of disagreement about it.

But then, there is a fairly large number of Christian denominations (some small, some large) that exclude all or most other denominations from their own definition of what is a true Christian. So LDS isn't alone.

Here is another link, an overview of information about LDS and related faith groups:
http://www.religioustolerance.org/lds.htm

[Krisis]

This is pretty much what I was going to say, as taken from the website Ann Marita posted.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints belongs under the broad umbrella of Christianity because we do believe in Jesus Christ, we do preach him crucified and resurrected, we do have faith in his Atonement, we do love him for his grace and mercy, and we do trust in his eventual return.

Am I a Mormon? Yes. Am I also a Christian? I totally believe that I am - I believe in Christ and know that he is my Lord and Savior. Whether or not other people would define me as Christian doesn't really matter to me; I know what I am and what I believe in my heart of hearts, and that's what's important.

[Shami]

Christian items of the faith that one must hold true in order to be Christian:

• The entire Holy Bible, New Testament and Old Testament, is the Word of God. No other book is considered the Word of God.
• The Trinity is God the Father, Son, and Spirit
• Jesus is not only the Son of God, but He is God
• Jesus died on the cross for our sins
• Jesus resurrected and ascended to the Father
• Anyone who receives Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior will receive eternal life
• Jesus is coming again

Can anyone list the items of the Mormon faith?

I don't think they believe that Jesus is God. I think they believe He is only the son of God. If so, then this is a major difference.

[Ann-Marita]

I would like to point out that the quote Krisis noted above was written by Edwin Slack of the Foundation for Apologetic Information and Research (an LDS positive group), not the Religious Tolerance website.

For an opposing view, (also quoted on the RT website), we can read the words of Bill Broadway of the Washington Post:

The rejection of Mormonism extends well beyond Southern Baptists and other evangelicals to include the most liberal Christian denominations. In a key sign of that rejection, a theological line in the sand, most traditional churches require baptism of all Mormon converts to their faith—the same way Mormons require converts from other churches to be rebaptized.

A survey in Jan 2008 by Barna Research showed that 27% of American adults believed that Mormons are not Christian.

Like I said, it depends on who you ask.

[Ann-Marita]

Ah, this really gets into the whole "Who is a Christian?" conundrum.

Just on this thread so far, we've already seen two different (but related) definitions of who is a Christian:

Christianity is believing that Jesus Christ is your personal lord and savior, and that he died for our sins. Period.

Christian items of the faith that one must hold true in order to be Christian:

The entire Holy Bible, New Testament and Old Testament, is the Word of God. No other book is considered the Word of God.
The Trinity is God the Father, Son, and Spirit
Jesus is not only the Son of God, but He is God
Jesus died on the cross for our sins
Jesus resurrected and ascended to the Father
Anyone who receives Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior will receive eternal life
Jesus is coming again

With over 1500 denominations and related groups in the US that consider themselves Christian, it is extremely hard to reach a consensus on just who is or is not a Christian.

[lilmom]

I think *most* Christians would agree with Shami's definition of Christianity, in particular that there are not additional books beyond the Bible that are the word of God.

Also, Mormons believe that their founder was a prophet of God..other denominations do not.

I think there are many different interpretations of the Bible, however, bringing another book into the mix makes it a whole different ballgame. It's also my understanding that they believe they are the "only ones". (Please feel free to correct me if I am wrong - this is what my stepfather's parents believe and they are Mormons so I am basing this on their particular group..maybe not all Mormons believe this?)

And, I realize a few other denominations do feel they are the only ones...but I am just saying that I don't think that is a common belief of most of Christianity, to exclude other churches.

[mamabadger]

I suppose it also depends on how you are categorizing. Mormonism is certainly Christian in the strictly scholarly sense. If I were dividing world religions into basic classifications, the Mormons would definitely fall into the Christian category, along with any religions which included Jesus Christ as a central figure. That does not mean I would consider all those religions Christian in a stricter sense, or consider them all to be part of the Church.

[Mrs.Burke]

They believe in Jesus Christ so that makes them a Christian. They also say that Jesus Christ appeared to Joseph Smith. They believe in God, the Eternal Father, and in His Son, Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost.

[sakartvelogirl]

thanks for all of the explanation -- very helpful. So does that mean that LDS believe in all the things that Christians do, but that they then also believe in an additional set or beliefs -- like Christianity plus something else?

I know this is a huge question, but what is it that LDS believe (in a nutshell) in addition to "mainstream" Christianity?

[akichan]

I've always thought of myself as Christian and LDS, kind of in the same way that Catholics are Christian, yes, we have additional scripture, but yes, we believe in Jesus Christ, and as such, are "Christian". We don't believe that Jesus is the ONLY son of God, we believe all humans are sons and daughters of God, and that even Satan, the devil, is a fallen son of God. However, we do believe that Jesus it the only begotten son, or favored son, who atoned for our sons (bled in Gethsemane), died on the cross, was resurrected, and indeed will come again (we call this the second coming). Our prophet these days is probably most like the pope of the Catholic church, except that he is not chosen by vote . . . although I don't know EVERYTHING about what popes do. or at least that's how I explain it to friends.

What else we believe in in a very broad question, but perhaps the most controversial is the priesthood, and the power of continuing revelation to our prophet in this day (since the time of the reorganization of the church via Joseph Smith).

[Bluegoat]

LDS have a number of differences with mainstream Christianity.

They do not believe that Jesus Christ was God.
They believe in the Trinity, but understand it in a very different way.
They are not really monotheists. They acknowledge one God as the God of this universe, and so the person to be concerned about for us. However, they also believe there are other gods.
Their understanding of the goal of a LDS family is quite different. It is not like going to Heaven and participating in the beatific vision. Rather, it is to become like a god oneself.
Mormons thing marriage, or to be specific Celestial Marriage, continues after death.
Many would say that Mormonism is essential materialist, in that it sees God, Heaven, etc, as all being a kind of physical thing (that is, made of matter or energy). This seems to account for some of their views on things like the Trinity.
Most Christians believe that God's purpose was fulfilled with Christ, but Mormons do not. This really changes the way they understand what Christ was and did.

There are a lot of other differences theologically.

I don't find it useful to debate whether people are "really" Christians or not. But what I would say is this: the difference between Mormonism and mainstream Christianity is probably greater than the difference between Christianity and Judaism or Christianity and Islam.

[InMediasRes]

I agree that the "who is Christian" argument is really pretty useless. However, I think saying Mormons are Christians because they believe in Christ and that he saved them leaves out some big pieces of information. Mormons have a very different understanding of Christ and God, and they also heavily include "salvation by works" in their doctrine.

[Shami]

Bluegoat...thanks for that list. That is very helpful.

I would like to underscore two things from Bluegoat's post:

the fact that Mormons do not believe that Jesus is God and that Christ is the center. If you don't hold these two things to be true, then, according to the Bible, you are missing MAJOR items of the Christian faith. These are two reasons that LDS cannot fall under the umbrella of Christianity.

I agree that discussing if individuals are Christian is futile. Plenty of people are present in Catholic and Protestant gatherings who believe the Bible and believe in the trinity, and even believe in Jesus Christ, BUT they have never had a personal salvation experience of being re born and receiving Jesus Christ into their being. If you have this experience of salvation then Christ lives IN you and is no longer OUTSIDE of you. Christ becomes your center. Then you are a Christian inwardly and not just outwardly by name only. Once you have this salvation experience you have to be clear on the MAJOR items of the Christian faith that one must hold to be true or else one falls in the category of being a heretic. So according to the strictest definition of the MAJOR items in the Christian faith, LDS's doctrines are considered heretical.

In the New Testament (NT), can't remember which book (maybe John 1, 2, or 3), this heresy (Jesus not being God) was addressed. The writers in the NT had to address other heresies as well. It's all there for all to see. This is why another MAJOR point of the Christian faith is to hold only the Holy Bible as God's word. LDS doctrine says that the Book of Mormon is also the word of God, but Christian doctrine says only the Bible is the W of God. To the OP, you have to decide which Book you believe in order to make your decision. Some groups believe all the books of all of the major religions are from God and there is a group of people who follow that concept (all paths lead to God concept).

Disclaimer: I am speaking of their (LDS) doctrine and not the people or individuals on this forum.


This is why I say to the OP, there is so much more for you to learn than just what you have to give up in order to belong. If having a community of very nice people around you is more important than all of this doctrinal stuff then I would say the Mormon people, generally speaking (sorry if this is a stereotype), are a wonderful, wholesome group of people to be with.

[sakartvelogirl]

I agree that it's not helpful to try and categorize people's beliefs -- I think the aim of my thread was to understand more about LDS beliefs -- and the easiest way to sort of enter the discussion was to understand how the LDS church differs from the more traditional definition of Christianity.

I find the belief in more than one god very interesting -- could someone further explain? Are the other gods of other universes defined? What does celestial marriage mean? How is a marriage continued after death?

[Shami]

Originally Posted by InMediasRes

What I meant was that for OP's sake, the categorization probably wasn't useful as much as just having more information about what the LDS church teaches.

One of the OP's original questions was, are Mormons Christians? My answer is no, but I had to go into the doctrine of Christianity. I agree the OP needs more info on what the Mormons teach, which I asked for earlier in the thread. Bluegoat did help with that.

I am not disagreeing with you per se, just clarifying why I am saying what I am saying about LDS doctrine. Again, I am not talking about the people or individuals on this forum.