What confuses me on this issue is the fact that there were Christian “heresies” which existed in the Early Church which had all kinds of odd ideas about the nature of the Trinity and personality of Christ, yet they were considered Christians, even though they were thought ot be heretical.
I think the distinctions as laid out by other posters indicate other issues beyond the Trinity one.
Sorry about posting this in News. I made a mistake.
But its interesting to see the responses.
I am not a Mormon, just curious about why so many people apparently dislike them.
Just for the record, I don't dislike "them". I am friends with many mormons, I am married to a mormon. I dislike SLC's church doctrines/tenets/history, etc. A distinction many fail to consider.
Some/many will argue that it's not possible to dislike an organization that one bases their faith on without disliking the individual.
I would argue otherwise. There are many of us who are in "part-member" families, yet still speak out/attempt to discuss our reasons for not agreeing with mormonISM.
I didn’t see a single post on this thread about dislike of individual Mormons, but I saw many posts about the insufficiency of MormonISM as a doctrine.
In polite societies, it is encouraged to actually discuss ideas. I wonder why so many people are averse to the discussion of the ideas of Mormonism.
It was kind of settled in the Council of Nicaea and by Emperor Constantine. That council and his efforts are worth reading about. It’s part of the reason the LDS church has a problem with what the Christian community believes and why none of the Christian denominations accept the LDS as Christian (they rejected us we didn’t reject them). I think it was Orgin that believed in reincarnation and there were all kinds of fights about the nature of Jesus (a man, totally divine, created by God which makes Jesus a creature not a child, etc) Every line in the Nicene Creed was fought over and is a dense theological statement. You need to study it line by line and find out why it was written that way and what heresy(ies) it was addressing. It underlies pretty much all future theology and fights over theology. I’ve noticed that the Methodist Church here on the Left Coast has been downplaying it and the earlier creeds in favor of the “social creeds”. It would require a lot of teaching to get the people to understand the what and why of what they were reading and saying. I’ve got to think about it, but it might put the brakes on some of the liberal theology that is being pushed here on the left coast as well. Time for more study.
Heresies existed before and after the Council of Nicaea. Man trying to explain the nature of God is always tough. It was over heresies and sharing of power that the Eastern Orthodox split from the Catholic Church. Protestantism was founded on heresies (in eyes of Catholic Church) and they haven’t been reconciled to this day which is why the Catholic Church doesn’t recognize communion in the Protestant Churches and if you’re a Protestant you aren’t supposed to take Communion in a Catholic Church (honestly, I think it’s now about power and tradition than it is about important things. I’m about 100% sure that the Calvinists and Presbyterians no longer believe in predestination for example. To me that’s a major heresy, but I’m a Methodist we’re like the Anglican and Catholic Church and don’t accept predestination at all)
Go to the LDS main site and look at: http://lds.org/ensign/1972/11/the-great-apostasy-as-seen-by-eusebius?lang=eng&query=Great+Apostasy Then search the site using the phrase The Great Apostasy. Then look at what the various mainline Christian churches have to say about LDS. You’ll quickly see the problems and why the mainline Christian Churches say that the LDS Church isn’t Christian because they’ve rejected major portions of Christian doctrine that are key to being a Christian.
There are some denominations like the Baptists (if memory serves) who take a more extreme view of the LDS church and some continue to call it a cult and the spawn of Satan, etc. Heck, I’ve heard the Catholic Church still called a cult (do a Google search for a laugh)and there are some small churches that don’t believe that Methodists or anyone who aren’t “born again” as they define it or doesn’t go to there church are Christians. I’ve been told the latter a couple times and had a good laugh.
We don’t dislike them.
They need to go through a reformation and drop the superior attitude of “I’m better than you because I’m Mormon”.
I use to consider them another sect within the larger body of Christ until, after 20 years, I was given information that was so starkly unchristian.
It caused me to start reading their books, student manuals and writings.
Additionaly, their history was uncovered on issues I had just never thought of and wouldn’t.
But then I grew up in an age and time these things shouldn’t be issues.
For instance, LDS was being pursued in a lawsuit alleging racial discrimination. I believe the suit began in 1974 and alleged people of color could not join the priesthood.
Now, up until that time apparently people of color could not join the priesthood and LDS Inc did everything they could to avoid a change in their policy or allowing their positions to see the light of day with their position papers.
In 1978 they were ordered to allow discovery to proceed and provide all relevant records.
Mysteriously and propitiously LDS suddenly had a new revelation and blacks could now join the priesthood.
Interestingly, prior to 1978, LDS excluded those whose lineage was found to have black blood in it and many who were already in the priesthood had to step down.
Here is a link that starkly demonstrates what LDS believed in regards to blacks in general and for the priesthood:
http://www.exmormon.org/blacks1.htm
“You see some classes of the human family that are BLACK, UNCOUTH, UNCOMELY, DISAGREEABLE and LOW in their habits, WILD, and seemingly DEPRIVED OF NEARLY ALL THE BLESSINGS OF THE INTELLIGENCE that is generally bestowed upon mankind. The first man that committed the odious crime of killing one of his brethren will be cursed the longest of any one of the children of Adam. Cain slew his brother. Cain might have been KILLED, and THAT WOULD HAVE PUT A TERMINATION TO THAT LINE OF HUMAN BEINGS. This was not to be, and the Lord put A MARK upon him, which is THE FLAT NOSE AND BLACK SKIN. Trace mankind down to after the flood, and then another curse is pronounced upon the same race — that they should be the “servants of servants;” and they will be, until that curse is removed; and the Abolitionists cannot help it, nor in the least alter that decree.” LDS “Prophet” Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, Vol. 7, p. 290, 1859
So they say people of color are marked by dark skin and a flat nose.
Now they call them Laminites and in the context of their meaning and intent I consider it a foul and racist description in the extreme or a completely bigoted remark that slaps others with a term designating them as inferior FOR THEIR COLOR ALONE.