Why does the author claim that this is what we believe? Talk about setting up a strawman and knocking it down!
If they cannot show it from the LDS Scriptures, they should not pretend it is what we believe.
>> CHRISTIAN MORMON
These headings are incorrect. They should read "Other Christians" and "Latter-Day Saints", since Latter-Day Saints are Christians no matter how many times others deny it.
This does not bode well for the rest of the article. Is this table part of the article? Written by the same authors? (I ask because the table follows the footnotes.)
Has Mormon scripture or doctrine ever changed?
These headings are incorrect. They should read "Other Christians" and "Latter-Day Saints", since Latter-Day Saints are Christians no matter how many times others deny it.
The headings are fine as they are. Christians, by definition, are followers of the Christ of the New Testament, Jesus - the Son of God. Mormons have redefined the God and Christ of the Bible and follow a false god. By definition, Mormons are not Christians as defined in the Bible.
The teaching of normative Christianity affirms creation ex nihilo. By implication, the Hebrew verb bara' refers to ex nihilo creation as well. Not so the teachings of the Restoration. The Doctrine and Covenants affirms that "the elements are eternal" (D&C 93:33). Joseph Smith, in his sermon at the funeral of King Follett, stated:
You ask the learned doctors why they say the world was made out of nothing; and they will answer, "Doesn't the Bible say He created the world?" And they infer, from the word create, that it must have been made out of nothing. Now, the word create came from the word baurau which does not mean to create out of nothing; it means to organize; the same as a man would organize materials and build a ship. Hence, we infer that God had materials to organize the world out of chaos-- chaotic matter, which is element, and in which dwells all the glory. Element had an existence from the time he had. The pure principles of element are principles which can never be destroyed; they may be organized and re-organized, but not destroyed. They had no beginning, and can have no end. [Joseph Smith, "King Follett Discourse," in Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, 350-52.]