What do Mormons believe?

none ^ | 05-27-08 | myself

[ChurtleDawg]

Reading all of these threads about Mormonism, I am utterly confused about what Mormonism is, exactly. What is all of this stuff about Jews coming to America in 600 BC? What is the Book of Abraham and why is Abraham writing in Egyptian Hieroglyphs? What does the book of Mormon? What is the storyline of it?

I am confused as to what all of the Mormon writings are about, and how it is all put together theologically.

Please explain.

[mallardx]

Look it up in the Dictionary.

[ChurtleDawg]

I know Mormons are followers of Joseph Smith who believe they have “restored” the Christianity of the New Testament, but I am trying to learn what exactly is in the book of Mormon.

[mnehring]

I’m not a Mormon, but I find in all questions like this, it is good to go to the source:

http://www.mormon.org/mormonorg/eng/basic-beliefs/the-restoration-of-truth/god-is-your-loving-heavenly-father

[samtheman]

Wikipedia: Mormonism

[Phantom Lord]

Here is a decent site. exmormon.org

[DannyTN]

This is another good source. It's an anti-mormon site run by some former Mormons who converted to Christianity. See the section labeled "Book of Mormon"

Utah Lighthouse Ministry

[Terriergal]

Well from what I hear/read they do seem to keep some of their odder teachings quiet, such as the special undergarments the ministers have to wear in the temple and whatnot, (not sure of specifics there). There are lots of ‘secrets’ that you don’t hear about much until some higher up defects and spills the beans. Whereupon he is immediatly castigated as an untrustworthy source making up stories.

Essentially Mormonism is a form of classic Aryanism (not Nazism, don’t confuse the two) meaning Jesus was an exalted man and men can become gods like him if they live right.

God lives on some distant planet making spirit babies with his wife to impart into human babies here. They have taught in the past that dark skinned people are that way because they are those that sided with Lucifer (who they teach is the brother of Jesus).

Most of these things will take some research for you to understand why their teachings differ from Reformation Christianity (salvation by grace alone through faith alone for the Glory of God alone — the five solas ) and absorb it all. You can start by going to the LDS website and reading for yourself. I find that any church that holds anything up as equal in authority to the Word of God (inerrant in its original manuscripts, a good translation of which is the NASB but many are getting farther and farther from a literal translation - Eugene Peterson’s The Message is a ridiculous NONparaphrase for example) is not worth your time. When people can hold up extrabiblical revelation as something equal to Scripture as a guide for doctrine and its application, they naturally go farther and farther from the truth. It’s human nature. We have enough subjectivism to deal with when we all agree that only the Bible is authoritative, inerrant, and sufficient for all teaching. (that doesn’t mean you don’t read other things of course)

[sevenbak]

Here’s the introduction page of the Book of Mormon itself that explains what it is.

http://scriptures.lds.org/en/bm/introduction

[Manfred the Wonder Dawg]

http://www.mazeministry.com/

[curiosity]

I know Mormons are followers of Joseph Smith who believe they have “restored” the Christianity of the New Testament,

That would describe just about every Protestant sect.

[sevenbak]

Unless of course that one believes that the heavens are not closed, and that God indeed does speak to man, like in times of old, and that all holy scripture is just that, the words given by God to His prophets.

In this day and age, prior to the second coming of Christ, I am grateful that God does have our best interests in mind to prepare us for the great and terrible day of the Lord. I of course am LDS, and put my trust in God, for we are all in His hands, no matter what our faith.

Cheers

[jkl1122]

Hebrews 1:1-2

1 God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets,
2 has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds;

[GOP_Raider]

I am confused as to what all of the Mormon writings are about, and how it is all put together theologically.

"Well I had the right idea with these bastards all along. I get no respect, I get no respect at all..."

[sevenbak]

Considering Paul himself (and others) had his vision and wrote down the words of God, after Christ has been resurrected and ascended, tells me that Jesus intended His words through his apostles and prophets to continue.

That is the message of the LDS Church, that His ways are the same, and the need for prophets and apostles are the same. The reasons are clear as well. Look at the division of modern Christendom, look at how many beliefs and creeds and different doctrines exist.

Here's why it's important to us:

Ephesians 4:
11 And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers;
12 For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:
13 Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:
14 That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive;
15 But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ:

[LiteKeeper]

INTREP

[Resolute Conservative]

except for the Joesph Smith thing, the special underwear thing, Jesus brother of Satan thing, grace by faith alone thing, men are gods also thing, etc...

Yeah same as peas and carrots.

[colorcountry]

MORMONISM vs. CHRISTIANITY

---

MORMON THEOLOGY

CHRISTIAN RESPONSE

The Church has 4 Standard Works that are authoritative:  The Bible (in so far as it is translated correctly), the Book of Mormon, Doctrine & Covenants, and Pearl of Great Price.  Speeches and writings of the current president of the church are also authoritative.  The Bible is far below the other standard Works because it is full of errors (wherever it disagrees with Mormon doctrine).

The only authoritative scriptures given by God are the 39 books of the Old Testament and the New Testament of the Bible.  God promised to preserve his word and to suggest that the Bible was mistranslated and corrupted would be to call God a liar.  If God were to give additional revelations they would be consistent with any prior revelations thus eliminating Mormon writings, since they stand in direct opposition to the divine revelation that has already been given in the Bible.

One God

There are many Gods. Brigham Young-Journal of Discourses 7:333 "How many Gods there are, I do not know.  But there never was a time when there were not Gods.

There is only one God.  (Dt 6:4; 33:26-27; Isa 43:10; 45:5; 46:9; 1Ti 2:5)

The Nature of God

God the Father is an exalted man (a man who has progressed to godhood) with a body of flesh and bones. 

Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, 1973 ed., p. 346 - "God himself was once as we are now, and is an exalted man...I say, if you were to see him today, you would see him like a man in a form-like yourselves in all the person, image, and very form as a man."

D & C 130:22  "The Father has a body of flesh and bones as tangible as man's; the Son also."

The Bible is most explicit in stating that God is not a man (Nu 23:19; 1Sa 15:29; Hos 11:9).  God the Father, the eternal God is Spirit (Isa 55:8-9; 6:1-5; 57:15; Pss 90:2; 113:5-6; 123:1; Jn 4:24: 8:23)  Jesus said that a spirit does not have flesh and bones (Lk 24:39)

God the Father became a God after learning truth, aggressively pursuing godhood, and being obedient to the laws of the gospel.

God the Father has always existed as such (Dt 33:27; Isa 43:10; 44:6; 45:5, 21; 46:9; Mal 3:6; 1Co 8:4; 1Ti 2:5; Rev 1:8; 21:6; 22:13).

 

As Psalms 90:2 and 93:2 state, God has been God "from eternity to eternity."

God the Father has a wife, through whom he procreates spirit children.

"Implicit in the Christian verity that all men are the spirit children of an Eternal Father is the usually unspoken truth that they are also the offspring of an Eternal Mother.  An exalted and glorified Man of Holiness (Moses 6:57) could not be a Father unless a Woman of like glory, perfection, and holiness was associated with him as a Mother" (Mormon Doctrine, 1977 ed., p. 516)

The Godhead determined to make man in their image, not to procreate spirit children (Ge 1:26).  Nowhere does Scripture even hint at the existence of an Eternal Mother.

God is not a uniquely eternal being.  All spirit is self-existent matter and is eternal (without beginning or end).  Such "matter (called intelligences) sometimes becomes organized into a spirit being through birth to celestial parents.  Then that spirit is born through human parents on earth.  Like all people, God took this course and eventually reached Godhood.

God would stop being God if intelligences stopped supporting him as God.

(D&C 93:29, 33; Abraham 3:18-23; Mormon Doctrine, 1977 ed. p. 751)

God is not God unless He is all-powerful, all knowing, absolutely in charge.  If God exists only as God because of support given from other intelligent forms, He is not God at all (Isa 44:6; Ro 3:4; Rev 1:8; 21:6; 22:13)

 

God is unchangingly omnipotent, and no purpose of His can be thwarted.  He is not overruled by anyone (Ge 17:1; Job 36:22-23; 42:2; Isa 14:26-27; 40:13-14; Jer 32:27; Mt 19:26; Lk 1:37; Ac 17:24-25; Rev 19:6)

Man and Sin

Man was also in the beginning with God.  Intelligence, or the light of truth, was not created or made, neither indeed can be"  (D&C 93:29)

Life, intelligence, mind, the 'light of truth' , or whatever name one gives to the center of the personality of man, is an uncreated, eternally existent, indestructible entity...In the first stage, man was an eternally existent being termed an intelligence...The next realm where man dwelt was the spirit world....eternally-existing intelligences were clothed with spirit bodies...numerous sons and daughters were begotten and born of heavenly parents into that eternal family in the spirit world" (The Gospel Through the ages, pp.126-127)

Man is a finite being, not an eternal one.  The first man Adam was created at a specific point in time (Ge 1:26-27; 2:7; 1Co 15:45-49).  Man did not exist in the beginning when God was creating the universe, for if he had, God's question to Job would have made no sense (Job 38:4).  Man was created lower than the angels, so that David wondered why God is even mindful of him (Ps 8:3-5; 144:3).  Not a single verse in the Bible suggests that God has a wife, but Isaiah 44:24 explicitly says that the Lord made all things by Himself.  Moreover, several passages in Isaiah indicate that there is only one God and there is none beside Him (44:8; 45:6) or like Him (46:9).

"...these spirit children were organized, possessing divine, eternal, and godlike attributes, inherited from their Heavenly Father and Mother.  There in the spirit world they were reared to maturity, becoming grown spirit men and women prior to coming upon this earth" (The Gospel Through the Ages, p. 127).

"Jesus is man's spiritual brother.  We dwelt with Him in the spirit world as members of that large society of eternal intelligences, which included our Heavenly Parents and all the personages who have become mortal beings upon this earth or who ever shall come here to dwell...Jesus was the 'firstborn,' and so He is our eldest brother" (Ibid., p.21)

Jesus was and is Almighty God from everlasting to everlasting.  He is the creator of all that exists and is "firstborn" over all creation in the sense that He is the preeminent originator of life and the universe (Mic 5:2; Ps 90:2; Jn 1:1-3; Ac 3:14-15; Col 1:16-17; Heb 1:2).  This meaning for the word "firstborn" can be understood by comparing Genesis 41:51-52, which states that Manasseh was Joseph's "firstborn" son while Ephraim was the second, with Jeremiah 31:9, where God calls Ephraim the "firstborn."  Obviously, "firstborn" does not always mean the one literally born first.

Death and sin came through the fall of Adam and Eve.  But their deed was not actually a "sin."  It was really a blessing because it enabled man to continue progressing on toward eternal life.  "They (the Christian world) have been long taught that Adam and Eve were great transgressors...We, the children of Adam....should rejoice with them, that through their fall and the atonement of Jesus Christ, the way of eternal life has been opened up to us" (Articles of Faith, p. 476)

Rejoicing is hardly the proper response to Adam's sin.  Because of that sin, both Adam and Eve died spiritually and their physical bodies began to deteriorate.  Eve was given pain and sorrow in child-bearing, Adam was required to work and sweat in order to eat, the entire creation was cursed, they were thrown out of the Garden forever, and the entire human race was destined to be born dead in sins and children of god's wrath by nature.  To rejoice in the fall of man is to embrace Satan's lie.  It was Satan who deceived Eve by convincing her that sin was good and would bring her knowledge and reward.  (Ge 3:16-24; Ro 3:23; 5:12-15, 17-19; 8:19-22 Eph 2:1-5; 1Jn 3:4)

The Doctrine of Salvation

Christ's death on the cross (the atonement) canceled the penalty of death imposed on ALL men through Adam's sin, thereby ensuring that all men would be redeemed - resurrected and given immortality (the reuniting of spirit with body)-as a gift.

"If there had been no atonement, temporal death would have remained forever, and there never would have remained forever, and there never would have been a resurrection.  The body would have remained forever in the grave" (Mormon Doctrine, 1977 ed., p.63)

"Redemption from death, through the sufferings of Christ, is for all men, both the righteous and the wicked" (Ibid., p. 65)

"Immortality is a free gift which comes by grace alone without works on man's part" (Ibid., p. 377)

Not everyone is blessed through Christ's crucifixion.  Only those who accept His sacrifice and surrender themselves to Him (Ro 10:9) will receive the benefit of Jesus' death and resurrection, which is forgiveness of sins (Ac 10:43) and salvation (Ro 3:24).  Eternal life "in Christ," and not just simply eternal existence through resurrection, is the gift offered by God to humanity (Ro 6:23).  This gift is obtainable only by grace through faith (Eph 2:8-10).

 

Jesus' death serves to reconcile all believers to God (Ro 5:10).  In dying, Jesus broke down the wall of separation between us and God that was present through man's disobedience to the Law (Eph 2:11-22)

[ChurtleDawg]

Yeah, but Protestants essentially affirm many of the same basic teachings as the older Catholic and Orthodox Churches (ie...The Holy Trinity)

Mormonism has stuff about Jewish Indians, the planet Kolob and brass plates. I don’t understand what the story is with it.