LDS Prophets warn us of the dangers facing America

Mormons Are New Testament Christians, not Creedal Christians

The Church of Jesus Christ (LDS) is often accused by Evangelical pastors of not believing in Christ and, therefore, not being a Christian religion. This post helps to clarify such misconceptions by examining early Christianity’s theology relating to baptism, the Godhead, the deity of Jesus Christ and His Atonement.

Baptism:

Early Christian churches, practiced baptism of youth (not infants) by immersion by the father of the family. The local congregation had a lay ministry. An early Christian Church has been re-constructed at the Israel Museum, and the above can be verified. The Church of Jesus Christ (LDS) continues baptism and a lay ministry as taught by Jesus’ Apostles. Early Christians were persecuted for keeping their practices sacred, and prohibiting non-Christians from witnessing them.

The Trinity:

A literal reading of the New Testament points to God and Jesus Christ , His Son , being separate , divine beings , united in purpose. . To whom was Jesus praying in Gethsemane, and Who was speaking to Him and his apostles on the Mount of Transfiguration? The Nicene Creed’s definition of the Trinity was influenced by scribes translating the Greek manuscripts into Latin. The scribes embellished on a passage explaining the Trinity , which is the Catholic and Protestant belief that God is Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The oldest versions of the epistle of 1 John, read: “There are three that bear witness: the Spirit, the water and the blood and these three are one.” Scribes later added “the Father, the Word and the Spirit,” and it remained in the epistle when it was translated into English for the King James Version, according to Dr. Bart Ehrman, Chairman of the Religion Department at UNC- Chapel Hill. He no longer believes in the Nicene Trinity. . Scholars agree that Early Christians believed in an embodied God; it was neo-Platonist influences that later turned Him into a disembodied Spirit. For example, it was an emperor (Constantine) . who introduced a term, homoousious, which defined the Son as “consubstantial” (one being) with the Father. Neither term or anything like it is in the New Testament. Harper’s Bible Dictionary entry on the Trinity says “the formal doctrine of the Trinity as it was defined by the great church councils of the fourth and fifth centuries is not to be found in the New Testament.” Furthermore, 11 of the signers of the Declaration of Independence were non-Trinitarian Christians http://scienceblogs.com/dispatches/2009/01/richard_price.php The Church of Jesus Christ (LDS) views the Trinity as three separate divine beings , in accord with the earliest Greek New Testament manuscripts and the Founders.

Theosis

Divinization, narrowing the space between God and humans, was also part of Early Christian belief. St. Athanasius of Alexandria (Eastern Orthodox) wrote, regarding theosis, “The Son of God became man, that we might become God.” Irenaeus wrote in the late 2nd Century: “we have not been made gods from the beginning, but at first merely men, then at length gods” Justin Martyr in mid 2nd Century said: “all men are deemed worthy of becoming ‘gods,’ and of having power to become sons of the Highest” Jerome wrote that God “made man for that purpose, that from men they may become gods.” Clement of Alexandria said worthy men “are called by the appellation of gods, being destined to sit on thrones with the other gods that have been first put in their places by the Savior.” Origen in reference to 1 Corinthians 8:5-6 said “Now it is possible that some may dislike what we have said representing the Father as the one true God, but admitting other beings besides the true God, who have become gods by having a share of God . . As, then there are many gods, but to us there is but one God the Father, and many Lords, but to us there is one Lord, Jesus Christ.” The Gospel of Thomas (which pre-dates the 4 Gospels, but was considered non-canonical by the Nicene Council) quotes the Savior: “He who will drink from my mouth will become as I am: I myself shall become he, and the things that are hidden will be revealed to him,” (Gospel of Thomas 50, 28-30, Nag Hammadi Library in English, J.M.Robinson, 1st ed 1977; 3rd ed. 1988) For further information on this subject, refer to http://NewTestamentTempleRitual.blogspot.com The Church of Jesus Christ (LDS) agrees with Early Christian church leaders regarding theosis.

To paraphrase Origin’s thoughts in the words of Church of Jesus Christ (LDS) Apostle, Bruce R. McConkie: “There is and can only be one who is supreme, who is the head and to whom all others are subject”. Becoming like God is not saying we will ever be equal to Him, frankly we won’t and can’t He, and only He, will forever be worshipped by us.

Concerning the ultimate destiny of man, there are great differences among religions. These differences, in turn, have an important influence on the extent to which our religious beliefs do or do not get reflected in the way we conduct our lives.

The Deity of Jesus Christ

Mormons hold firmly to the deity of Christ. For members of the Church of Jesus Christ (LDS), Jesus is not only the Son of God but also God the Son. Evangelical pollster George Barna found in 2001 that while only 33 percent of American Catholics, Lutherans, and Methodists (28 percent of Episcopalians) agreed that Jesus was “without sin”, 70 percent of Mormons believe Jesus was sinless.

The Cross and Christ’s Atonement:

The Cross became popular as a Christian symbol in the Fifth Century A.D. The Emperor Constantine first used it as a battle symbol for his soldiers in his quest for the Roman Empire . Members of the Church of Jesus Christ (LDS) believe the proper Christian symbol is Christ’s resurrection, not his crucifixion on the Cross. [If your son died in a car accident, would you hang a replica of the smashed car around your neck!] Many Mormon chapels feature paintings of the resurrected Christ or His Second Coming, which give us assurance of the re-uniting of our bodies and spirits. Furthermore, members of the church believe the major part of Christ’s atonement occurred in the Garden of Gethsemane as Jesus Christ took upon him the sins of all mankind.

Grace Versus Works

One Evangelical Christian author wrote of his sudden discovery that his previous beliefs about salvation were very different from those held by the early Christians:

“If there’s any single doctrine that we would expect to find the faithful associates of the apostles teaching, it’s the doctrine of salvation by faith alone. After all, that is the cornerstone doctrine of the Reformation. In fact, we frequently say that persons who don’t hold to this doctrine aren’t really Christians…
Our problem is that Augustine, Luther, and other Western theologians have convinced us that there’s an irreconcilable conflict between salvation based on grace and salvation conditioned on works or obedience. They have used a fallacious form of argumentation known as the “false dilemma,” by asserting that there are only two possibilities regarding salvation: it’s either (1) a gift from God or (2) it’s something we earn by our works.
The early Christians [and Latter-day Saints!] would have replied that a gift is no less a gift simply because it’s conditioned on obedience....
The early Christians believed that salvation is a gift from God but that God gives His gift to whomever He chooses. And He chooses to give it to those who love and obey him.”
—David W. Bercot, Will The Real Heretics Please Stand Up: A New Look at Today’s Evangelical Church in the Light of Early Christianity, 3rd edition, (Tyler, Texas: Scroll Publishing Company, 1999[1989]), 57, 61–62.

The Church of Jesus Christ (LDS) agrees with the earliest Christians that grace is conditioned upon obedience to Jesus Christ’s commandments.
•
Definition of “Christian”: .

But Mormons don’t term Catholics and Protestants “non-Christian”. They believe Christ’s atonement applies to all mankind. The dictionary definition of a Christian is “of, pertaining to, believing in, or belonging to a religion based on the teachings of Jesus Christ”: All of the above denominations are followers of Christ, and consider him divine, and the Messiah foretold in the Old Testament. They all worship the one and only true God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and address Him in prayer as prescribed in The Lord’s Prayer. It’s important to understand the difference between Reformation and Restoration when we consider who might be authentic Christians. . Early Christians had certain rituals which defined a Christian , which members of the Church of Jesus Christ (LDS) continue today. . If members of the Church of Jesus Christ (LDS) embrace early Christian theology, they are likely more “Christian” than their detractors.

• The Need for a Restoration of the Christian Church:

The founder of the Baptist Church in America, Roger Williams, just prior to leaving the church he established, said this: “There is no regularly constituted church of Christ on earth, nor any person qualified to administer any church ordinances; nor can there be until new apostles are sent by the Great Head of the Church for whose coming I am seeking.” (Picturesque America, p. 502.) Martin Luther had similar thoughts: “Nor can a Christian believer be forced beyond sacred Scriptures,...unless some new and proved revelation should be added; for we are forbidden by divine law to believe except what is proved either through the divine Scriptures or through Manifest revelation.” He also wrote: “I have sought nothing beyond reforming the Church in conformity with the Holy Scriptures. The spiritual powers have been not only corrupted by sin, but absolutely destroyed; so that there is now nothing in them but a depraved reason and a will that is the enemy and opponent of God. I simply say that Christianity has ceased to exist among those who should have preserved it.” The Lutheran, Baptist and Church of Jesus Christ (LDS) churches recognize an apostasy from early Christianity. The Lutheran and Baptist churches have attempted reform, but Mormonism (and Roger Williams, and perhaps Martin Luther) require inspired restoration, so as to re-establish an unbroken line of authority and apostolic succession.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .* * *

• Christ-Like Lives:

•The 2005 National Study of Youth and Religion published by UNC-Chapel Hill found that Church of Jesus Christ (LDS) youth (ages 13 to 17) were more likely to exhibit these Christian characteristics than Evangelicals (the next most observant group):

1. Attend Religious Services weekly
2. Importance of Religious Faith in shaping daily life – extremely important
3. Believes in life after death
4. Does NOT believe in psychics or fortune-tellers
5. Has taught religious education classes
6. Has fasted or denied something as spiritual discipline
7. Sabbath Observance
8. Shared religious faith with someone not of their faith
9. Family talks about God, scriptures, prayer daily
10. Supportiveness of church for parent in trying to raise teen (very supportive)
11. Church congregation has done an excellent job in helping teens better understand their own sexuality and sexual morality

. LDS . Evangelical
1. 71% . . 55%
2. 52 . . . 28
3. 76 . . . 62
4. 100 . . 95
5. 42 . . . 28
6. 68 . . . 22
7. 67 . . . 40
8. 72 . . . 56
9. 50 . . . 19
10 65 . . . 26
11 84 . . . 35

So what do you think the motivation is for the Evangelical preachers to denigrate the Mormon Church by calling it a “cult”? You would think Evangelical preachers would be emulating Mormon practices (a creed to believe, a place to belong, a calling to live out, and a hope to hold onto) which were noted by Methodist Rev. Kenda Creasy Dean of the Princeton Theological Seminary, as causing Mormon teenagers to “top the charts” in Christian characteristics. It seems obvious pastors shouldn’t be denigrating a church based on First Century Christianity, with high efficacy. The only plausible reason to denigrate Mormons by calling the church a “cult” is for Evangelical pastors to protect their flock (and their livelihood).

A literal reading of the New Testament points to God and Jesus Christ , His Son , being separate , divine beings , united in purpose.

This is not the case. You just don't understand the concept of the Trinity and who can blame you. It is a difficult concept for human minds to grasp rationally. The Trinity is 3 persons in one God. The Father is not Jesus, Jesus is not the Father, and neither of them are the Holy Ghost yet they are one God. To whom was Jesus praying in Gethsemane, and Who was speaking to Him and his apostles on the Mount of Transfiguration?

See above. The Father and the Son are separate persons but one God. Therefore since Jesus and the Father are Separate persons, Jesus could talk to the Father, because the Father was a separate person but you have to remember that even though they are separate persons, all 3 together are ONE God not three Gods. Thus in Gethsemane Jesus was praying to His Father as also on the Mount of Transfiguration. Sorry to break it to you but you aren't going to grasp this concept rationally in the flesh. It is called a Mystery for a reason. Chances are most of us aren't going to understand exactly how God can be three persons in one God. But God is infinite so its hard for humans to rap their mind around this one. Oh, and just to make things even more fun, God does have a human body, because Jesus became man and as part of taking on human nature means he gets a resurrected body...so God does have a body in the Christian point of view. However, the Father is a Spirit. So it is correct to say that God has a body, but you can also say that God is a Spirit. You just have to remember that the three persons of the trinity are separate yet somehow mystically ONE God.

The scriptures are EMPHATIC that there is only ONE GOD. The Scriptures are also as emphatic that Jesus is God and that the Father is God etc. The literal Hebrew of the Ten Commandments Hear of Israel Jehovah is God, Jehovah alone. If Mormons believe Jesus is Jehovah, then how come you pray to the Father and not to Jesus? Why can Mormons put another God before Jehovah? The Nicene Creed’s definition of the Trinity was influenced by scribes translating the Greek manuscripts into Latin.

What is your source for this information? You realize the Nicene Creed was originally formulated in Greek, right? Most of the bishops at Nicaea were Greek speakers and they approved a Greek version of the Creed, so your argument about translating Greek manuscripts into Latin doesn't work here. The Latin translation of the Bible via St. Jerome won't be commissioned until 57 years after Nicaea already defined the Trinity. Also, the first use of the word "Trinity" to describe three persons in one God comes from Tertullian writing in 180 AD. Before this the concept is present in much earlier writings as well. The oldest versions of the epistle of 1 John, read: “There are three that bear witness: the Spirit, the water and the blood and these three are one.” Scribes later added “the Father, the Word and the Spirit,” and it remained in the epistle when it was translated into English for the King James Version, according to Dr. Bart Ehrman, Chairman of the Religion Department at UNC- Chapel Hill. He no longer believes in the Nicene Trinity.

The Passage to which you refer is I John 5:7-8 and it is called the "Comma Johanneum." There is manuscript evidence for its existence, though there is a vigorous ongoing debate on the subject. I am not particularly convinced that the comma existed in the manuscripts earlier than the 9th century, though its absence does not prove that it wasn't ever there, and even if it wasn't there, that still is not a problem for Trinitarian belief which is substantiated by other parts of the Bible. In any case, it probably doesn't make a difference to an LDS perspective anyway because Joseph Smith left that the Comma Johanneum passage in the Bible when he did his inspired translation of the Bible which was supposed to fix all of the errors that had allegedly crept into the Bible. Scholars agree that Early Christians believed in an embodied God;

Who are these "scholars" of which you speak? Is there were of a high standard? Also of which "Christians" do you speak? Gnostics were known to insinuate some absolutely crazy things...like the serpent in the Garden of Eden was a good guy and Jehovah was bad...another Gnostic scripture says that Judas was doing Jesus a favor by betraying him.

I am sure there are also scholars who would argue the opposite, but it is meaningless to stand behind the work of phantom scholars whose work we can't be scrutinized since it isn't openly stated. For example, it was an emperor (Constantine) . who introduced a term, homoousious, which defined the Son as “consubstantial” (one being) with the Father. Neither term or anything like it is in the New Testament. Harper’s Bible Dictionary entry on the Trinity says “the formal doctrine of the Trinity as it was defined by the great church councils of the fourth and fifth centuries is not to be found in the New Testament.

This is a little misleading. Constantine did not invent the term homoousios at Nicaea in 325 A.D. The Council of Antioch over 60 years earlier discussed the nature of God to clarify the meaning of the word homoousios because it had been misused by Paul of Samosata who was a believer in Monarchianism (the belief that Jesus and the Father are the same being.) So the term and concept had been used in the church for a long time before Nicaea. However, according to Eusebius of Caesarea Constantine did propose the word as a suggestion to the Coucnil Fathers. There is no evidence of force or malice being used to force agreement on the term though. Nicaea defines the term homoousios much more specifically than it had been before. (Even then there are still different ways of interpreting the meaning of the word).

The main point of Nicaea was to condemn the idea that Christ was a created being and that he wasn't the one true God. Furthermore, 11 of the signers of the Declaration of Independence were non-Trinitarian Christians

And by implication 45 of them were. So I am not exactly sure what you're getting at. That argument has no bearing on the truthfulness of the Trinity or even what early Christian practice was. 100% of the founders also weren't LDS, does that prove that the LDS are false? No, it has nothing to do with the argument. Likewise it doesn't disprove the Trinity, do you see what I mean? Lets stay over the target here. The Church of Jesus Christ (LDS) views the Trinity as three separate divine beings , in accord with the earliest Greek New Testament manuscripts and the Founders.

Sorry, this is a really big logical jump. Nothing you have shown disproves the Trinity, and nothing in the manuscripts proves that there are three Gods. The Bible roundly condemns polytheism. The Hebrew of the Old Testament says Hear O Israel Jehovah is our God Jehovah is one. The number it uses in this text means one in number not in purpose. The text of the Septuagint which predates the masoretic texts also agrees with this. Also, the Apostle Thomas calls Jesus, "My Lord, and My God." There can only be ONE God. The Ten Commandments say that I, Jehovah, am thy God, thou shalt not I have any other Gods before me. If you accept the Mormon idea that Jesus is Jehovah and that Elohim is God the Father, then why do you put Elohim before Jesus by praying to him instead of praying directly to Christ? That violates the 10 Commandments command to only worship Jehovah. In the New Testament Jesus was worshiped. So I don't really understand how Jesus can be lowered to becoming a created/organized being. He is God and God always was and was not created and not made. He has not beginning or end. The LDS Jesus has a beginning as a Spirit Child to Elohim. I also find it shocking that the LDS teach that the Love of God is conditional on our works. If that were the case, I don't know why he bothered to send his son to die for us since none of us merit His love.

Sorry, I don't know if this is coming across as bashing, but its not my intention to bash or or belittle. It's a complicated topic that can be very confusing. I just don't understand the claims you're making. But I do think that everyone needs to understand Jesus and come to know Him. He's there for all of us, and if we ask him to to help us know him, he's certain to help us. It blows me away just to think that God became flesh to suffer, bleed, and die to take away my sin, even though, I didn't deserve his love. That is unconditional love.

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