There are key doctrinal criteria that define if a denomination or religion is Christian or not and that judgement is commanded by the Apostles in the NT.
1. Who is Christ? Their own late prophet Hinkley stated they do not worship the same Jesus as Christianity (first clue). Mormon Jesus is not God the Son, Second Person of the Trinity, but is ontologically the same as you and I and the devil. A created being, never eternally God.
2. Who is God? Mormonism believes that the universe is populated by an uncountable number of Gods, each tending to their own planet and making spirit children with their multiple wives. Christianity is monotheistic trinitarinism - One God, three Persons who share the same - for a lack of a better word - essence that is God.
3. Mormon teachings are that they are the only 'true' Christian. Until recently Christian denominations and believers were openly hostile. This changed as the general public has become more aware of these open attacks and mormon prosyltizing and pr has changed to soften their exterior presentation. Until 1990, in their temple ceremony a protestant minister was depicted in the pay of the devil.
These are just three quick comparisons. One could just about go line by line on nearly all of their doctrines and find that they are diametrically opposed to Christianity.
They will be judged by Christ by His standards, the standards he applies to His followers —
And they have, by the standards found in the Bible. Remember Jesus also said to those who said they were His followers - depart from me, I never knew you.
> And they have, by the standards found in the Bible. Remember Jesus also said to those who said they were His followers - depart from me, I never knew you.
Possibly we are approaching this same argument by different angles, because I don’t disagree with this.
Yes, they will be judged by the Christian standards that they claim they operate to. Possibly at their peril.
We all run a similar peril, tho’ — and we have to be careful that we don’t fool ourselves into thinking we are doing what Christ wants just because we label ourselves “Christians” — rather like those who called out “Lord! Lord!” in that passage you just cited.
Labels aren’t what saves us, and actually neither are our works. Grace does. Our works only happen as an evidentiary byproduct of our Faith, which is in turn a demonstration of our belief in Grace.
The Label is merely a convenient way for us to identify ourselves.
In a nutshell, that’s what I believe on that subject. I don’t know how it synchronizes with your belief, but the passage that you quoted signaled we might actually agree more than disagree.
Dunno.
(Well so did Mary Baker Eddy -- believing in a "christ" -- and working that "christ" into the title of her new religion, "Christian Science" -- neither Christian nor Scientific!)
No, I weigh in on one of Godzilla's notes:
Who is God? Mormonism believes that the universe is populated by an uncountable number of Gods, each tending to their own planet and making spirit children with their multiple wives. Christianity is monotheistic trinitarinism - One God, three Persons who share the same - for a lack of a better word - essence that is God.
Otherwise, we have a "pick your Christian brand":
Choice A: One God
Choice B: Three gods (might include some non-temple Mormons)
Choice C: Thousands or millions of gods (includes more temple Mormons -- who aspire to godhood)
I'm sorry, but a gymnastic pretense of "polytheistic monotheism" tends to yield such damage to sheer language that we need to use a common autowreck phrase to describe it: "It was totaled."