I have talked with many unchurched people who have recently viewed that particular tv commercial and what I am reporting to you basically amounts to a condensed version of their collective responses.
Not that they do not believe mormons are their neighbors, but rather they see the intent of those spots as being to paint the LDS church as being just like any other church in the community .
Not saying that directly does not negate the impression left with unchurched people who may have little or no frame of reference to know the differences. I think those kinds of people are the highly desireable target audience for the ad spots. Especially the one-in-however-many it is who may be thinking seriously about G_d and developing a spiritual life for themselves.
We agree that the doctrinal differences are marked and profound - but you will not notice any mainstream orthodox Christian church running an ad that makes them seem on first blush to the uninitiated to be indistinguishable from the mormon church...
And as far as calling mormons ‘christian’ - if you choose to call yourselves that, it is between you and the Lord.
As for me and the majority of the Orthodox Christian world, we will not, nor will most of us accept your practices as such. Although Protestants and Catholics disagree on some issues of interpretation and practice, and some denominations have their sticking points with one another- in principle, they accept the same theological basics of the faith to be true. They would not (as do the mormons) eschew the Nicene Creed, or Apostle’s Creed...and at the heart of the matter, a majority of Protestants I know consider Catholics to be Christians ( a fringe few think of them as nothing but “Mary worshippers”, or in toto, “the whore of Babylon”, but these folks are on the margins where they belong.) and Catholics I know pretty uniformly refer to Protestants as “our Protestant brothers and sisters in the Lord...” or “Protestant fellow believers”.
Those in either camp who consider Mormons “fellow Christians” are a tiny minority; Catholics do not consider any mormon (or JW) baptisms valid, I’m told - although they do accept the previous baptisms of any other protestant Christian tradition.
You do not have to interpret things as I do - indeed - but doing so makes you definitively NOT a Christian. Christ came into the world to be the perfect sacrifice one time for all sinners and all sin.
By Mormon standards, he need not have come at all, because the mormon church takes the doctrinally indefensible POV that there is no such thing as “original sin”
Your church and its elders regard what happened in the Garden of Eden as “The Wise choice”, and you’ll pardon me for thinking that Eve made anything BUT a wise choice.
It was Sin, plain and simple - for which Adam and Eve were cast out of the garden, and for which all mankind has suffered consequences ever since.
To say otherwise is an outright LIE of the Devil, Lucifer (who, by the way was a sheltering seraph - an angel of sorts...NOT the brother of Jesus Christ, as the LDS church also wrongly teaches).
THe LDS church also teaches that we can ourselves become gods, and be eternally married and populate our own planet - kind of like the planet Kolob where we all originated - according to J Smith and his wild hallucinations, anyway.
I do not think anyone will ever “...Hie thee to the planet Kolob in the twinkling of an eye...” as the old hymnbook has it - but those who want may keep on hoping against reasonable hope and faith that is not blind.
I cannot recall whether it is Cantonese or Mandarin, but in one or the other of the two major Chinese dialects, “mormon” means literally ‘gates of hell’.
Unsurprisingly the church had huge problems making inroads until they effectively repackaged themselves as THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST, Latter Day SAINTS. I don’t know how successful their proselytizing of Chinese folk is these days, I just know it used to really suck.
Of course in fairness the Chinese have long been rather xenophobic, but that did not prevent the arising of such believing men as Watchman Nee and his brother.
A.A.C.
Yea the coke logo means "bite the wax tadpole". Doesn't mean you bite it, it's made of wax, nor is there tadpoles in it.
But that's besides the point.
This are the Chinese characters for "Mormon" the first two characters having no real meaning other then allowing translation between English and Chinese. They sound similar "mo men". The third character meaning church, it is used by the Catholics, Presbyterians, Jewish, Islam, and Tao in the same context.
Again back to the first character:
In order to get Mormon meaning gates of hell you have to replace the first character (which spoken sounds the same) with . It sounds the same but means "devil". A little shell game going on there. Replace the real character with one that sounds the same but is nefarious.
In Chinese there are thirty four different characters that are pronounced mo. Pick any and spoken sounds the same, but written mean entirely different things, and thus the problem with Chinese.
If you take that has the same first character, and replace the first character with the one from above meaning devil, it means "Western Devil". The proper characters are the name of Moses. Though spoken sounds the same.
The proper name for the LDS Church in chinese is . Translated means "Jesus Christ Last-days Saint Church" pronounced Yesu Jidu Moshi Shengtu Jiaohui.
"Mormon" does not mean "gates of hell" in Chinese, Cantonese, nor Mandarin. That is a fallacy made up by anti-mormons.
It was Sin, plain and simple - for which Adam and Eve were cast out of the garden, and for which all mankind has suffered consequences ever since."
Some quotes from their own documents:
*Adam fell that men might be; and men are, that they might have joy (11 Nephi 2:25).
*Adam deliberately and wisely chose (to touch the forbidden tree) and partook of the fruit (Talmage, DC, p. 65)
*Adam cried, "Because of my transgression my eyes are opened, and in this life I shall have joy" (Pearl of Great Price, Moses 5:10-11)
*We ought to consider the fall of our first parents as one of the great steps to external exaltation and happiness. (Mormon Catechism)
*We believe that men will be punished for their own sins, and not for Adam's transgression. (Articles of Faith, 2)