[teppe]

So how does Mormonism denigrate Christianity? I am a Mormon, and believe that he is the Son of God the Eternal Father in Heaven, that he obeyed his Father’s will and died on the cross so that I and all mankind may be saved.

I’m sorry if this belief denigrates your Christianity. On many occasions Christ through the Holy Ghost has spoken to my heart and let me know that my faith in him is acceptable to him.

I’m sorry that it is not acceptable to you, but I care more about my Savior Jesus Christ’s opinion than yours.

[PROCON]

I am a Mormon

God Bless you, but you are wrong in your beliefs, that is my opinion.

Free Republic is a great sounding board for everyone.

[Steelfish]

The best article ever written on Mormonism. A pre-eminent Lutheran scholar who converted to Catholicism and founded the renowned journal “ First Things” Its a long read but a read well worth every minute. This is not a read for lazy FReeper readers.

http://www.firstthings.com/article/2000/03/is-mormonism-christian

[RBStealth]

>So how does Mormonism denigrate Christianity

Mormonism calls Christian denominations an abomination to God, calls our Bible so full of errors that it is false.
Something shared with Muhammed and Islam calling our Christian bible so full of errors that he needed to replace it. J. Smith tried to rewrite the KJV, but died unexpectedly before he was finished.

Died from gun shot, being pursued by out of control townspeople, J. Smith tried to shoot himself out of that situation. But died, and this is what Mormons have elevated to a status of martyr. There are no Christian martrys outside of Mormonism who use this definition of martyrdom. For us, it is voluntarily or willingly giving up your life for the faith or another.

Luke 23:9 Jesus said: “ If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me”

This is why many of us wear the symbol of the cross, which mormons do not!... and even criticize the idea.

However our Bible we have thousand of thousand of copies that have been copied over and over from antiquity and they all agree by 98%, differing only in very small ways. When people moved, they made copies of their sacred texts and took them with them.

What do we have of the Book of Mormon which presumably existed as the first true Bible in North America, presumably as the religion spread and people moved, copies were made. None now exist! That is substantial evidence of a Book of Mormon never existing until J. Smith made it so.

OTOH, my faith, Catholicism, sees other Christian denominations as our brothers in so much as they have truth.
Catholicism sees itself as the fullness of truth, but other Christian denominations as having lesser truth, but still Christian and our brothers.

Being Christian is roughly defined by most within the circle of Christianity as having a valid baptism following Matthew 28:19
“Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit”

(1)In other words, baptising in the name of the Father, Son, Holy Spirit ,
(2_)with the right intention and a proper understanding of God/Christ and Christianity.

Having a proper understanding of God the Father , Jesus and Holy Spirit in a trinitarian formula. That understanding of God would be one of that he was pre-existant, nothing was before God and he created the earth/universe from nothing(didn’t require preexisting matter).....

Mormonism is not within the circle of historic Christianity.
It fails on (2) and in so many other areas of historic Christianity.

We, us Christians don’t view Mormons as Christian, but some strange sect who has unfailing belief in a person of high disrepute whom you follow as a prophet. Mormons have good values, and are good people, but they are following a psuedo Christianity. One needs to only look at the official record of how the “Book of Abraham” came about supposedly through translations of Joseph Smith.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_of_Abraham
http://www.mormonthink.com/book-of-abraham-issues.htm

A considerate reading of the facts by anyone not invested with faith in Joseph Smith creates a reading/understanding of a complete charlatan.

You say you are mormon but it would seem you have not looked at your own religion with a discerning eye nor comparitively compared it to either Protestantism, Bible Christianity, etc. You perhaps are steeped in Mormonism but little else.

The first Bishops of the early Church wrote from appx. 100AD to 300AD, if you read what these first bishops of the Church wrote, remember all of them were martyred, these were times of heavy persecution, unlike seen at any other time. During times of heavy persecution and matrydom, religion doesnt morph and change. During periods of martyrdom/persecution, people perservere and pass on the faith. These first Bishops and their writings are collectively known as “The Early Church Fathers”.

If you were to actually read the “Early Church Fathers” you wouldnt find Mormonism but you would find Christianity that coincides with our Christian Bible. Concepts of God, Heaven and Hell not coinciding with the book of Mormon.

Its easy enough to say well after the last Apostle the Christian religion went to sh*t, and changed. However, the historical writings dont tell us that. There are no writings bemoaning the vast changes in Christianity. Further there are no historians from that time telling us so. But there are writings from that time from Bishops and others who were associated with the church writing on the faith. People of old were not country bumpkins! They wrote things, they carried on traditions, they loved God.

[SkyDancer]

To begin with, the Jesus of the Mormons was not conceived by the Holy Spirit, but by a sexual act between Mary and the Father in Heaven. When the Virgin Mary conceived the child Jesus, the Father had begotten him in his own likeness. He was not begotten by the Holy Ghost. And who was the Father of Jesus?

"He is the first of the human family; and when he took a tabernacle (Body), it was begotten by his Father in heaven, after the same manner as the tabernacles of Cain, Abel and the rest of the sons and daughters of Adam and Eve; from the fruits of the earth, the first earthly tabernacles were originated by the Father and son in succession…..Jesus, our elder brother, was begotten in the flesh by the same character that was in the garden of Eden, and who is our Father in Heaven" (Journal of Discourses, 1:50-51)

Best read your own literature.

[Elsie]

I am a Mormon, and believe that he is the Son of God the Eternal Father in Heaven, that he obeyed his Father’s will and died on the cross so that I and all mankind may be saved. I’m sorry if this belief denigrates your Christianity. < P>Uh...

Don't you 'believe' just a WEE bit MORE than what you've posted here?

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What Joseph Smith Means to Us  (From: various sources )

 

 

 

"He (Joseph Smith) is the man through whom God has spoken... yet I would not like to call him a savior, though in a certain capacity he was a god to us, and is to the nations of the earth, and will continue to be."

- Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses 8:321

 

 

 

 

"You call us fools; but the day will be, gentlemen and ladies, whether you belong to this Church or not, when you will prize brother Joseph Smith as the Prophet of the Living God, and look upon him as a god..."

- Herber C. Kimball, Journal of Discourses 5:88

 

 

 

 

"If we get our salvation, we shall have to pass by him [Joseph Smith]; if we enter our glory, it will be through the authority he has received. We cannot get around him [Joseph Smith]"

- (as quoted in 1988 Melchizedek Priesthood Study Guide, p. 142)

There is "no salvation without accepting Joseph Smith. If Joseph Smith was verily a prophet, and if he told the truth...no man can reject that testimony without incurring the most dreadful consequences, for he cannot enter the kingdom of God"

- Joseph Fielding Smith, Doctrines of Salvation, vol. 1, p.190

 

 

 

 

"I tell you, Joseph holds the keys, and none of us can get into the celestial kingdom without passing by him. We have not got rid of him, but he stands there as the sentinel, holding the keys of the kingdom of God; and there are many of them beside him. I tell you, if we get past those who have mingled with us, and know us best, and have a right to know us best, probably we can pass all other sentinels as far as it is necessary, or as far as we may desire. But I tell you, the pinch will be with those that have mingled with us, stood next to us, weighed our spirits, tried us, and proven us: there will be a pinch, in my view, to get past them. The others, perhaps, will say, If brother Joseph is satisfied with you, you may pass. If it is all right with him, it is all right with me. Then if Joseph shall say to a man, or if brother Brigham say to a man, I forgive you your sins, "Whosoever sins ye remit they are remitted unto them;" if you who have suffered and felt the weight of transgression—if you have generosity enough to forgive the sinner, I will forgive him: you cannot have more generosity than I have. I have given you power to forgive sins, and when the Lord gives a gift, he does not take it back again."

- Orson Hyde, Journal of Discourses, Vol. 6, p.154-155

 

 

 

 

"It is because the Lord called Joseph Smith that salvation is again available to mortal men.... If it had not been for Joseph Smith and the restoration, there would be no salvation,"

- Bruce McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, p. 396, 670

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They succeeded in killing Joseph, but he had finished his work.

He was a servant of God, and gave us the Book of Mormon.

He said the Bible was right in the main, but, through the translators and others, many precious portions were suppressed, and several other portions were wrongly translated; and now his testimony is in force, for he has sealed it with his blood.

As I have frequently told them, no man in this dispensation will enter the courts of heaven, without the approbation of the Prophet Joseph Smith, Jun.

Who has made this so?

Have I?

Have this people?

Have the world?

No; but the Lord Jehovah has decreed it.

If I ever pass into the heavenly courts, it will be by the consent of the Prophet Joseph.

If you ever pass through the gates into the Holy City, you will do so upon his certificate that you are worthy to pass.

Can you pass without his inspection?

No; neither can any person in this dispensation, which is the dispensation of the fulness of times.

In this generation, and in all the generations that are to come, everyone will have to undergo the scrutiny of this Prophet.

They say that they killed Joseph, and they will yet come with their hats under their arms and bend to him; but what good will it do them, unless they repent?

They can come in a certain way and find favor, but will they?

Brigham Young,

--JOURNAL OF DISCOURSES, vol. 8, p. 224

[Elsie]

I’m sorry that it is not acceptable to you, but I care more about my Savior Jesus Christ’s opinion than yours.

Do the FACTS of your chosen religion's second Living Prophet® have any influence at all upon your belief?

Do you disavow his words quoted here?

Or hug them to your breast?

"Now if any of you will deny the plurality of wives, and continue to do so, I promise that you will be damned;

and I will go still further and say, take this revelation, or any other revelation that the Lord has given,

and deny it in your feelings, and I promise that you will be damned.

Brigham Young - JoD 3:266 (July 14, 1855)