Replies

If someone believes in our Lord Jesus Christ than he or she is a Christian. If you want to have a religious/theological debate on who is Christian and who is not then Protestants will be fighting Catholics and Catholics will be fighting Orthodox and every sect will claim that they are the real Christians and others are not based on just strictly narrow dogmatic views. Do you want Free Republic to descend to this level? I do not.

Everyone here except Mormons, Orthodox Christians, Jews (of all types), Moslems, Hindus and Buddhists (to name the big ones) belongs to a church that directly, or indirectly, signed on to the Treaty of Westphalia.

Time for the others to get with the picture and sign on. It would change the nature of the criticisms directed at them.

Will a Mormon join a non-Mormon church? Will they, for example, feel free to join a Baptist church, or a Methodist church, or an Evangelical Free church, or a Presbyterian church, or a Pentecostal church? No, because they don’t consider them to be doctrinally sound. They consider them to be holding on to distorted doctrines. Mormons look down on the various Christian denominations; it shows me that they don’t consider themselves in the same camp as Christian churches. They themselves are separating themselves from Evangelical Christian churches and doctrine. It follows that they are not, therefore, Christian (though someone with the name “Jesus” is central to both faiths).

I feel free to attend and join any Evangelical church. Any church that dismisses Scripture as unreliable and faulty, and that trusts the writings of a creative man who translated now-missing Egyptian tablets into English using a hat and a rock, is not to be considered in the same camp as Christian churches that find Scripture trustworthy.

I, as a Christian, concur with Mormons that their faith is fundamentally different from mine.

I’d be happy to see Romney become President. It’d bring a microscope to the false doctrines collectively known as Mormonism.

If someone believes in our Lord Jesus Christ than he or she is a Christian. If you want to have a religious/theological debate on who is Christian and who is not then Protestants will be fighting Catholics and Catholics will be fighting Orthodox and every sect will claim that they are the real Christians and others are not based on just strictly narrow dogmatic views. Do you want Free Republic to descend to this level? I do not.

HA! HA! HA!

It already has.

If someone believes in our Lord Jesus Christ than he or she is a Christian.

Pretty broad brush. Mormons have 170 years of well-parsed answers to the questions, as the "Is Lucifer Jesus' brother" answer so clearly illustrates.

Is it, "'Who do you say that I am?... 'You are the son of an extraterrestial, who is "father" to us all... you are the kolobi messiah!'"

Sheesh, even the "devils" believe and tremble...Regardless, you will need to include Muslims in your category as well. Their recognition of "Jesus" is only a little more weird.

“If someone believes in our Lord Jesus Christ than he or she is a Christian. If you want to have a religious/theological debate on who is Christian and who is not then Protestants will be fighting Catholics and Catholics will be fighting Orthodox and every sect will claim that they are the real Christians and others are not based on just strictly narrow dogmatic views. Do you want Free Republic to descend to this level? I do not.”

Actually, this is not true at all. All the above mentioned denominations of “traditional” Christianity believe in the same Jesus. THAT is the main difference between “traditional” Christianity and Mormonism. The nature of God. It is not a small point. Had Mr. Smith not redefined the nature of God from the start, none of this would matter. The fact is, he did. Therefore the debate will continue.
Call if bashing if you wish, jerivitas, but in truth, it is simply honest theological debate. I am sorry if you are unable to tell the difference. I question and examine my own faith constantly. I am secure in it. Someone else’s critisism of it cannot and will not lessen it. If you truely believe all that is inherent in the history and doctrine of the LDS church, then admit it and proclaim it from the rooftops. Don’t hide from honest debate about it. The fact that you do want to hide from it tells me that perhaps you may have real questions. Blind faith is just that; blind.
Merry Christmas, and may God bless you and your family in this wondrous season.