A Theologian Weighs In on the Mormon Church

New York Times ^ | October 10, 2011 | ERIK ECKHOLM

[greyfoxx39]

A leading Southern Baptist theologian spoke out Monday

-SNIP-

........In a posting today on his influential blog, the theologian, R. Albert Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., spelled out why traditional Christians do not consider the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints to be simply a different denomination of Christianity.

“Mormonism rejects the Bible as the sole and sufficient authority for the faith, and insists that The Book of Mormon and other authoritative Latter-Day Saints writings constitute God’s final revelation,” he wrote. “By its very nature, Mormonism borrows Christian themes, personalities, and narratives. Nevertheless, it rejects what orthodox Christianity affirms and it affirms what orthodox Christianity rejects.”

Dr. Mohler conspicuously did not use the term “cult” and he said: “It is neither slander nor condescension to state clearly that Mormonism is not Christianity.”

-SNIP-

“Competence for public office is also an important Christian concern, as is made clear in Romans 13,” he wrote, even citing a legendary statement, attributed to Martin Luther, “that he would rather be ruled by a competent Turk (Muslim) than an incompetent Christian.”

[doc1019]

I have read many books several times, doesn’t mean I studied what I read ... big difference. IMHO

[aMorePerfectUnion]

Mormonism is not Christianity. FYI -->

Christian churches teach belief in God as an eternal, self-existent, immortal being, unfettered by corporeal limitations and unchanging in both character and nature. In recent years, several Christian denominations have made studies of Mormon teaching and come to the conclusion that there are irreconcilable differences between LDS doctrine and Christian beliefs based on the Bible.
• Statement of the Lutheran Church, Missouri Synod
• Statement of the Presbyterian Church (USA)
• Statement of the Roman Catholic Church
• Statement of the Southern Baptist Convention
• Statement of the United Methodist Church
• Statement of the Assemblies of God Church

Some Mormons undoubtedly become Christians, and evidently leave the Mormon sect they were members of behind.

[grumpa]

Mormons are polytheists, a huge variance from Christianity.

[Guyin4Os]

If I were to state that "Jesus Christ was a gay Buddhist guru who advocates worship of gnats and flies," and then named my own religion "The Assembly of Jesus Christ of Modern-Day Holy Ones," would I have the right to call my religion "Christian?" The answer is "no" because this "Jesus" is different from the Jesus in the Bible.

An extreme example, yes. However, the "Jesus Christ" that Mormonism proclaims was a polytheistic, polyamorous, polygamist who was the offspring of a sexual union between God, the Father, an exalted human being, and Mary, who slept with God the Father while she was engaged to Joseph of Nazareth. His brother was a spirit-child named Lucifer who was upset because Jesus had a better plan for rescuing humanity. This "Jesus" was exalted, is our elder brother, an will teach people how to ascend to godhood, create their own planets, sleep with multiple wives in heaven to create spirit children who will be born on those planets.

You have the right to believe that. But you do not have the right to insist that mainstream Christian denominations concede that your religion is "Christian."

Because it isn't.

[aMorePerfectUnion]

Mormonism is one of the Henotheistic False Religions
(They believe in many gods, but claim to worship one).

These Henotheistic False Religions include:

Mormons Jehovah’s Witnesses
Egyptian Religions at the time of Moses
Canaanite Pantheon of Gods in the OT
Moabites in the OT
Edomites in the OT
Classical Greco-Roman Paganism
Gnosticism
Most Modern Hindus

In contrast, Monotheistic Groups believe in ONE GOD. These include:

Judaism
Christianity

It is quite a sight and would certainly give me pause,
if I was claiming to be a Christian and found my religion
sharing its core belief with the other Henotheistic False Religions
of history.

It also raises the question...

Into that henotheistic world of the Old Testament,
God revealed Himself to the Jews and said,
“Hear, O Israel. The Lord Your God is One God.”

This separated GOD from all religions like mormonism.

And yet, here we are 3,400 years later, after full
revelation in the OT and NT, after the death of Christ and
the revelation of the Gospel that can save us...

And mormonism teaches henotheism, in denial of God’s own
words in opposition to henotheism.

One has to ask, "Why?"

You can spend hours arguing with a mormonite about
any of the thousands of things that are unBiblical about
mormonism. As a cultist, the mormonite isn’t interested
in truth - only in validating what his cult has taught him.
To do otherwise would invalidate his existence!

On the other hand, you need go no farther than God’s own
revelation of Himself to Israel 3400 years ago to see that
mormonism’s henotheistic beliefs can not possibly be true.

We need not even consider mormonism’s claim to be the
restoration of the Church. It denies the very God who
gave us a Savior.

It denies the God of the Church.

[narses]

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[SkyDancer]

.

[reefdiver]

Wow, Did not know that.

[aimhigh]

Mormonism is a cult. However, your post needs a response:

And not to belabor the point, but the book of Revelation doesn’t say a thing about “new” prophets, let alone predicting them.

Revelation 11:3 tells us two witnesses will appear in the last days, "and they will prophesy one thousand two hundred and sixty days, clothed in sackcloth."

[papertyger]

I am aware of the verse. What I said, stands.

[Elsie]

What’s so Non-Christian about that?

Nothing; of course; but you knew that.

What's UNchristian about MORMONism is all the OTHER extraneous stuff that the 'religion' is loaded down with.

[caww]

I will state that some of the nicest people I have ever met were Mormans.

The tactics of the enemy of mens souls is always to disguise himself as other than he is....Eve certainly was not repulsed by him..and fell for the lines he gave her. It's called deception.

When we think of men and woman who have fallen into adultry those who entice them are often "some of the nicest people you'd want to meet".

Many of those caught in the New Age Spirituality of our day are enticed by those using Christian vocabulary and their targets are often Christians.....it "sounds" good to the ear.

Scriptures tell us not to be ignorant of satans devices..... deception, counterfeiting the truth...and using Christian verbage are his tactics for bait and switch....to lead people away from truth as Christ would have us to know.

"Hath God not said".....rings loudly in our nation today.

[Elsie]

Especially when Revelations prophesies future prophets before the second coming of Christ.

I think you are leaving out the verses about the FALSE 'prophets'; aren't you?

[Elsie]

Again .... this Guy is a Theological Nut-Job!

Why would a nice fellow like yourself say a thing like that?

[Tennessee Nana]

BTTT

[Elsie]

So Lets see .... according to this bright Theologian .... if Christ chose to call another prophet before his second-coming ... than Christ himself and all the resultant believers would be Non-Christian?

So Lets see .... according to the BIBLE .... if Christ warned us through St. Paul about False Prophets and False Christs, and along comes a fellow named Joseph Smith and makes all sorts of claims; we should just ignore the bible and listen to HIM?

[BereanBrain]

Understanding “the way” just takes reading and accepting the light, not a burning in the breast, not a TV preacher, or golden plates, or a Pope.

Proof text

Rom 1:20 For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, [even] his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:

So this says — You don’t even need a Bible, much less anything else - because God himself will tell you his nature (including how he exists in the mystery of the Godhead). That’s not to say having a Bible is not a great help - but it’s not a must for salvation.....what you must have is the ability to accept what light you are given (like the parable Jesus tells of the seed).

[Elsie]

Granted not Christian, but I do not hold it against Mitt Romney, Glenn Beck, or anyone I ever met who is Mormon anymore than I condemn a close Japanese friend of ours that has been Shinto from the day she was born, or even the few Sikhs that live in our neighborhood.

I guess that makes you a very nice, accomodating person.

The BIBLE; however; takes a slightly DIFFERENT stand:

John 3:16-18 New International Version (NIV)

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.

[dragonblustar]

In before Mormonism's supporters post, "But no Mormons flew planes into the WTC".

Neither did Scientologists so what's your point?

[Elsie]

I'm not saying they're right - but at least let's get our slurs accurate.

Yes indeed!

---

 

---

Questions put to Joseph Smith: "'Do you believe the Bible?' [Smith:]'If we do, we are the only people under heaven that does, for there are none of the religious sects of the day that do'. When asked 'Will everybody be damned, but Mormons'? [Smith replied] 'Yes, and a great portion of them, unless they repent, and work righteousness." (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 119).

Joseph Smith: "for the teachers of religion of the different sects understood the same passages of scripture so differently as to destroy all confidence in settling the question by an appeal to the Bible" (from Pearl of Great Price 1:12). "What is it that inspires professors of Christianity generally with a hope of salvation? It is that smooth, sophisticated influence of the devil, by which he deceives the whole world" (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p.270).

 

 

Brigham Young stated this repeatedly: "When the light came to me I saw that all the so-called Christian world was grovelling in darkness" (Journal of Discourses  5:73); "The Christian world, so-called, are heathens as to the knowledge of the salvation of God" (Journal of Discourses  8:171); "With a regard to true theology, a more ignorant people never lived than the present so-called Christian world" (Journal of Discourses  8:199); "And who is there that acknowledges [God's] hand? ...You may wander east, west, north, and south, and you cannot find it in any church or government on the earth, except the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints" (Journal of Discourses , vol. 6, p.24); "Should you ask why we differ from other Christians, as they are called, it is simply because they are not Christians as the New Testament defines Christianity" (Journal of Discourses  10:230).

Orson Pratt proclaimed: "Both Catholics and Protestants are nothing less than the 'whore of Babylon' whom the Lord denounces by the mouth of John the Revelator as having corrupted all the earth by their fornications and wickedness. Any person who shall be so corrupt as to receive a holy ordinance of the Gospel from the ministers of any of these apostate churches will be sent down to hell with them, unless they repent" (The Seer, p. 255).

 

 

Pratt also said: "This great apostasy commenced about the close of the first century of the Christian era, and it has been waxing worse and worse from then until now" (Journal of Discourses , vol.18, p.44) and: "But as there has been no Christian Church on the earth for a great many centuries past, until the present century, the people have lost sight of the pattern that God has given according to which the Christian Church should be established, and they have denominated a great variety of people Christian Churches, because they profess to be ...But there has been a long apostasy, during which the nations have been cursed with apostate churches in great abundance" (Journal of Discourses , 18:172).

 

President John Taylor stated: "Christianity...is a perfect pack of nonsense...the devil could not invent a better engine to spread his work than the Christianity of the nineteenth century." (Journal of Discourses , vol. 6, p.167); "Where shall we look for the true order or authority of God? It cannot be found in any nation of Christendom." (Journal of Discourses , 10:127).

James Talmage said: "A self-suggesting interpretation of history indicates that there has been a great departure from the way of salvation as laid down by the Savior, a universal apostasy from the Church of Christ". (A Study of the Articles of Faith, p.182).

 

 

President Joseph Fielding Smith said: "Doctrines were corrupted, authority lost, and a false order of religion took the place of the gospel of Jesus Christ, just as it had been the case in former dispensations, and the people were left in spiritual darkness." (Doctrines of Salvation, p.266). "For hundreds of years the world was wrapped in a veil of spiritual darkness, until there was not one fundamental truth belonging to the place of salvation ...Joseph Smith declared that in the year 1820 the Lord revealed to him that all the 'Christian' churches were in error, teaching for commandments the doctrines of men" (Doctrines of Salvation, vol. 3, p.282).

 

 

More recent statements by apostle Bruce McConkie are also very clear: "Apostasy was universal...And this darkness still prevails except among those who have come to a knowledge of the restored gospel" (Doctrines of Salvation, vol 3, p.265); "Thus the signs of the times include the prevailing apostate darkness in the sects of Christendom and in the religious world in general" (The Millennial Messiah, p.403); "a perverted Christianity holds sway among the so-called Christians of apostate Christendom" (Mormon Doctrine, p.132); "virtually all the millions of apostate Christendom have abased themselves before the mythical throne of a mythical Christ whom they vainly suppose to be a spirit essence who is incorporeal uncreated, immaterial and three-in-one with the Father and Holy Spirit" (Mormon Doctrine, p.269); "Gnosticism is one of the great pagan philosophies which antedated Christ and the Christian Era and which was later commingled with pure Christianity to form the apostate religion that has prevailed in the world since the early days of that era." (Mormon Doctrine, p.316).

President George Q. Cannon said: "After the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was organized, there were only two churches upon the earth. They were known respectively as the Church of the Lamb of God and Babylon. The various organizations which are called churches throughout Christendom, though differing in their creeds and organizations, have one common origin. They all belong to Babylon" (Gospel Truth, p.324).

 

 

President Wilford Woodruff stated: "the Gospel of modern Christendom shuts up the Lord, and stops all communication with Him. I want nothing to do with such a Gospel, I would rather prefer the Gospel of the dark ages, so called" (Journal of Discourses , vol. 2, p.196).