The Bible makes the claim that it is Truth (whether this is true or not I put entirely up to the individual reader to decide, but I affirm that it has proven itself thus to me). The Book of Mormon contains many historically impossible claims (even after the reportedly 4000+ revisions that have been made to it since 1830), including an iron, steel, and horse using civilization that stretched from sea to sea circa 600 BC.
"It can be stated definitely that there is no connection between the archeology of the New World and the subject matter of the Book of Mormon. There is no correspondence whatever between archaeological sites and cultures as revealed by scientific investigations and as recorded in the Book of Mormon, hence the book cannot be regarded as having any historical value from the standpoint of the aboriginal peoples of the New World." (F.H.H. Roberts, Jr, Smithsonian Institution, 1951)
From a theological standpoint, Mormonism also claims that
a) God was a man
“I am going to tell you how God came to be God. We have imagined and supposed that God was God from all eternity. I will refute that idea, and take away the veil, so that you may see. He was once a man like us; yea, that God himself, the father of us all, dwelt on an earth, the same as Jesus Christ Himself did.” (Joseph Smith, quoted in 'LDS History of the Church', Vol. 6, p. 305)
b) Mormons will become Gods and populate their own planets with ‘spirit children’.
“...thus a man and his wife when glorified will have spirit children who eventually will go on an earth like this one we are on and pass through the same kind of experiences, being subject to mortal conditions, and if faithful, then they also will receive the fullness of exaltation and partake of the same blessings. There is no end to this development; it will go on forever. We will become gods and have jurisdiction over the world, and the world will be peopled by our own offspring. We will have an endless eternity for this” (Doctrines of Salvation, Vol. 2, p. 48)
This is far from a complete analysis of the differences between Mormonism and Biblical Christianity. Other noteworthy areas include a view of being Black as punishment for earlier spiritual neutrality on another world, a view that Christ's sacrifice was not fully sufficient for salvation, and that Satan, demons and Christ are actually all 'spirit brothers'.
I do not seek to defame or slander Mormonism in any way, and invite any LDS to correct me on any point I have presented inaccurately. Mormons have every right to believe as they choose, but to claim that they are 'Christian' (meaning 'followers of Christ') is not factual.
There are far too many differences between Mormonism and what is taught to us by Jesus Christ.
When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. (John 8:12)
!!!
The LEAST?!? I am speechless that a Christian would say such a thing! :O
“The Bible makes the claim that it is Truth”
The Bible claims to be the word or God, and we Mormons accept that to the extent that it matches with how it was as originaly written. The Bible doesn’t claim to be complete (in fact it references several books of scripture that are now lost to mankind) nor does it claim to be perfectly inerrant in every respect.
http://en.fairmormon.org/index.php/Biblical_completeness
http://en.fairmormon.org/index.php/Biblical_inerrancy
“The Book of Mormon contains many historically impossible claims”
There are many claim in the BoM that have been validated, and there are others for which there currently is no validating evidence, but none of these claims are beyond the realm of what is possible. Arguing against the BoM on the basis of claims that currently don’t have supporting evidence is a logicaly flawed argument, many times claims people pointed to as evidence against it have been later validated by new discoveries.
http://en.fairmormon.org/index.php/Book_of_Mormon_anachronisms
“the reportedly 4000+ revisions that have been made to it since 1830”
These revision are things like standardizing the spelling to modern norms, breaking it into chapters, numbering the verses, and other matters of no consequence. There were a handful of verses that had the wording changed to clarify the intended meaning and these were all done by Joseph Smith who originally translated it.
http://en.fairmormon.org/index.php/Book_of_Mormon_textual_changes
“(F.H.H. Roberts, Jr, Smithsonian Institution, 1951)”
A lot has been found since 1951, but even back then the Smithsonian got it wrong and soon stopped using the statement you quoted.
http://www.jefflindsay.com/BMEvidences.shtml
“From a theological standpoint, Mormonism also claims that
a) God was a man”
And don’t orthodox Christians also believe that God was once a man called Jesus Christ? We believe that Christ was God before, during, and after his mortal life. So experiencing a period of mortality doesn’t have to mean any loss of divinity or godhood.
Now the quote you use talks of Heavenly Father, not Christ who we consider to be a separate being, but that speech was never accepted as doctrine by the Church. It represents the views of the speaker and calling it doctrinal is false and misleading. We have no doctrine that attempts to explain the origin of Heavenly Father.
“b) Mormons will become Gods and populate their own planets with ‘spirit children’.”
We believe in deification as did the early Christians...
Saint Irenaeus
- “Do we cast blame on him [God] because we were not made gods at our beginning, but first we were made men, then, in the end, gods?
- How then will any be a god, if he has not first been made a man?
- Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Word of God, of his boundless love, became what we are that he might make us what he himself is.”
(the above quotes taken from: Henry Bettenson, The Early Christian Fathers: A Selection from the Writings of the Fathers from St. Clement of Rome to St. Athanasius (London: Oxford University Press, 1956)
Clement of Alexandria
- “Yea, I say, the Word of God became a man so that you might learn from a man how to become a god.”
Clement of Alexandria, Exhortation to the Greeks, 1.[
and
- “if one knows himself, he will know God, and knowing God will become like God. . . . His is beauty, true beauty, for it is God, and that man becomes a god, since God wills it.”
Clement of Alexandria, Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor, 3.1 see also Clement, Stromateis, 23
Justin Martyr
- “[in the beginning men] were made like God, free from suffering and death,” and that they are thus “deemed worthy of becoming gods and of having power to become sons of the highest”
Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho, 124.
Athanasius, bishop of Alexandria
- “The Word was made flesh in order that we might be enabled to be made gods. . . . Just as the Lord, putting on the body, became a man, so also we men are both deified through his flesh, and henceforth inherit everlasting life.”
Athanasius, Against the Arians, 1.39, 3.39.
and
- “He became man that we might be made divine.”
Athanasius, On the Incarnation, 54.
Augustine of Hippo
- “But he himself that justifies also deifies, for by justifying he makes sons of God. ‘For he has given them power to become the sons of God’ [John 1:12]. If then we have been made sons of god, we have also been made gods.”
Augustine, On the Psalms, 50:2.
Then you have more modern theologians teaching the same idea and acknowledging deification was part of early Christianity...
C. S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory
“It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship.”
C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity
“The command Be ye perfect is not idealistic gas. Nor is it a command to do the impossible. He is going to make us into creatures that can obey that command. He said (in the Bible) that we were “gods” and He is going to make good His words. If we let Him-for we can prevent Him, if we choose-He will make the feeblest and filthiest of us into a god or goddess, dazzling, radiant, immortal creature, pulsating all through with such energy and joy and wisdom and love as we cannot now imagine, a bright stainless mirror which reflects back to God perfectly (though, of course, on a smaller scale) His own boundless power and delight and goodness. The process will be long and in parts very painful; but that is what we are in for. Nothing less. He meant what He said”
Westminister Dictionary of Christian Theology:
Deification (Greek Theosis) is for orthodoxy the goal of every Christian. Man, according to the Bible, is ‘made in the image and likeness of God’...it is possible for man to become like God, to become deified, to become God by grace. This doctrine is based on many passages of both O.T. and N.T. (Psalms 82: (81) .6; 2 Peter 1:4), and it is essentially the teaching both of St. Paul, though he tends to use the language of filial adoption (Romans 8:9-17, Galatians 4:5-7) and the fourth gospel (John 17:21-23).
William R. Inge, Archbishop of Canterbury:
“God became man, that we might become God” was a commonplace of doctrinal theology at least until the time of Augustine, and that “deification holds a very large place in the writings of the fathers...We find it in Irenaeus as well as in Clement, in Athanasius as well in Gregory of Nysee. St. Augustine was no more afraid of deificari in Latin than Origen of apotheosis in Greek...To modern ears the word deification sounds not only strange but arrogant and shocking.
If you want to get the full reference for the quotes, they are at http://fairwiki.org/index.php/Deification_of_man
As for having your own planet, that isn’t doctrine and again you reference non-doctrinal sources.
“Other noteworthy areas include a view of being Black as punishment for earlier spiritual neutrality on another world”
Also was never our doctrine. Comb through the personal opinions of any clergyman from 200 years ago and you’ll find something to complain about. Back then it wasn’t uncommon for orthodox minsiters to question if blacks had a soul, and if so could it be saved.
“a view that Christ’s sacrifice was not fully sufficient for salvation”
Why did Christ and the apostles teach people to repent, to be baptized, to obey the commandments? If Christ’s sacrifice was fully sufficient those are not needed, so why bother teaching them?
Also, Christ said there was a sin a person would not be forgiven of, blasphemy against the Holy Ghost.
“and that Satan, demons and Christ are actually all ‘spirit brothers’.”
Along with all of humanity too. Heavenly Father is the father of all spirits (Heb 12:9), if not so, where did they come from? Some of Heavenly Father’s children are obedient, some are rebellious. Lucifer chose to rebel and became Satan.
“I do not seek to defame or slander Mormonism in any way”
I certainly hope so. There is a lot of misinformation around about us. I hope you will take what I said here into account in any future posts.
“There are far too many differences between Mormonism and what is taught to us by Jesus Christ.”
There are many differences between Mormonism and what YOU HAVE BEEN TAUGHT about Christ’s gospel.
You believe in certain doctrines so when you read the Bible you interpret it through that lens. Our teachings are inconsistent with your interpretations of the scriptures, but they are not inconsistent with how we see the scriptures. Likewise your teachings are not consistent with our interpretations. Who is to say who interprets correctly? I say a person should go to God in prayer and find out directly from Him rather than rely on man’s wisdom.
Mormonism is not a rejection of the Bible or of Christ, it is a rejection of the interpretations of men.