Disclaimer; I am not LDS.
“When you are in a faith where your “prophets” and “apostles” can’t even agree whether or not it’s “OK” to pray directly to Christ, to have a personal relationship with Christ, and to worship Christ, then you know you have built a Haiti-like structure in a bad earthquake zone.”
I have always been under the impression that LDS taught that Jesus was not “the Christ”, “God”, “God’s only begotten Son”.
C. S. Lewis;
“I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: “I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept His claim to be God.” That is the one thing we must not say. A man who said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”
... I am LDS
The name of the “Mormon” Church is “The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints”
We Teach that “God the father is on the literal father of Jesus Christ, Jesus the Christ is the Litteral Son of God, and the Holy ghost is a personnage of Spirit, three distinct personages”.
If you pray to Christ rather than God the Father you are in direct violation of Christ’s teachings!
In every instance of prayer, Christ taught us to pray to the Father!
It is your reliance on a 4th Century document known as the Nicene Creed which defines your version of God that keeps you from understanding the true nature of the relationship between God and Christ
VS, Mormons will say that Jesus is "the Christ" but they tend to downplay His uniqueness. In effect,the Mormon jesus is "a" son of god, but so are we. (We're all "sons of god" from the pre-existence...he just was spiritually born first...so the Mormon jesus is your elder brother...but Lucifer was likewise born pre-mortally before you, so Lucifer is supposedly another "elder brother" to Mormons).
I have always been under the impression that LDS taught that Jesus was not...“God”...
Well, this is where it gets very dicey for Mormons, 'cause here's where they speak out of both sides of their mouth. They like to present themselves as monotheistic Christians, but in fact are polytheistic Mormons. They'll say, "Well Jesus is part of the Godhead" -- their version of sounding as "trinitarian" as possible minus being trinitarian. But when you ask them direct questions, or look @ their lit, you see they concede that they think of Jesus as a "second" god.
Now that presents a real contradiction when they start studying both the Bible and even the Book of Mormon. Why is that?
Well, Thomas calls Jesus his God in John 20:28; even the Nephite disciples likewise called Jesus “their Lord and God” (3 Nephi 19:18) [You can see from my last post & Teppe's last post, though, that most Mormons seem to steer clear of 3 Nephi 19]. But Lds are without excuse, 'cause "Jesus is God" is actually even found in several other Book of Mormon passages as well:
2 Nephi 10:3;
2 Nephi 11:7;
And three passages clearly say that Jesus Is the eternal God (2 Nephi 31:21; 2 Nephi 26:12; Alma 11:38-39, 44)
Another Mormon "scripture" -- Doctrines & Covenants -- says Jesus is God in several places (19:4; 38:1-3; 62:1; etc.) Since there’s only one true God in the bible and in the LDS scriptures (for example, Pearl of Great Price says "no God besides me" (1:6), either Jesus is a false god or the one true God. As Jesus Christ is a God to Thomas (John 20:28) -- so Thomas has two gods?
The Bible makes it clear that Jesus has always been God (John 1:4, 14; John 17:5).
I testify that Jesus Christ is my Lord, my Savior, my God! He is the Only Lord, the Only Savior, the Only True God!
I have always been under the impression that LDS taught that Jesus was not “the Christ”, “God”, “God’s only begotten Son”.
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I used to be LDS for several years. I am now a Born Again Christian. The LDS do not use the same words but have different definitions from Christians.
They believe Jesus was the Christ (only in that He was annoited)...
That He is only 1 of 3 Gods...iow, he is A god not THE GOD...
And that Jesus is the only begotten son of God in a VERY LITERAL and PHYSICAL SENSE, like you are the begotten child of your father. IOW, God had sex with Mary...
They call Him “the savior”, but the only thing He really saves them from is physical death. Because of His death, we will all be resurrected. As far as covering sins, Jesus is only a creditor, the LDS believe we have to PAY HIM BACK with our “good works” and the rites and rituals of Mormonism.
I can provide quotes from LDS sources for the above, if you wish.
Hope this helps.