Re: Mormonism
Submitted by Compassion on January 25 2000 at 07:35:13
In reply to Mormonism Submitted by Don on January 25 2000 at 00:44:02
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Hi Don, welcome. Here is my beliefs on Mormonism. My first contact with Mormonism was when I was 14 walking down the street I remember bumping into to fellows in white shirts, black pants, and carrying their Mormon book. They asked if they could come over and visit with my parents and myself. Being pretty naive I said 'sure', and they got my name address and phone number. Being Roman Catholic and being their was a lot of tension in our house over religion between my mother and my father [may father came from a fundamental christian background], I thought to myself what have I done! I guess it was quite obvious to my mother, because she said what is the matter. My mother is pretty good at reading me. I remember blurting out crying, 'Oh mom forgive me I have invited two men over to talk to us about religion'. My mother was very calm and said that is alright, which surprised me. I remembered I got a phone call from the two guys the next day and said 'no' as soon as they asked if they could come over, and they said okay. Now what does that have to do whether Mormons are Christian is absolutely nothing. I just thought I would like to share that with you. But now here is what are the fundamental differences. 1.) Mormons do not believe in the trinity. This is the foremost marking of a cult is the denial of the trinity, because it denies the diety of Christ. 2.) Mormons do not associate themselves with other Christian faiths and consider themselves unique. Seperation of themselves from all other christian churches is another mark of a cult. 3.) Mormons do have a totally different view on Jesus Christ, than ourselves. Jesus is considered to have been just like one of us. Then one day raised to godhead and given the earth to rule over. A matter fact they believe we all can be raised to that level, and given a world to govern. That is also why Mormons believe also that it is also okay to have more than one wife and have as many children as possible. So when they become gods they can give their sons worlds to rule over. 4.) Mormons even though they say the KJV bible is okay, they do not consider it the first book. The book of Mormon and two other books are more important. The book of Mormon apparently came to Joseph Smith [in the 1800's] by special revelation by gold spectacles to read special hyogriphics [not sure of the spelling] by the angel of Moroni [notice this spelling Mor-on-i]. Apparently he had three witnesses sign to say this was so in that day. They apparently signed thinking this was another prankster that Joseph Smith and his father were known for. Now his cousin apparently openly opposed this and denied his witness in a New York paper when he found that Joseph was making this into a religion. The book of Mormon in its original state was nothing more than the KJV of its day, with some texts even written backwards, and Joseph adding his own [such as Jesus appearing to the North American Indians]. 5.) Mormons have split into two camps. One group following the teachings of Joseph Smith, the others following the teaching of a later leader [his name skips my mind]. They vemently hate each other and will have nothing to do with each other. My first encounter with Mormonism after I was converted to Christianity comes when I had a lady attend a bible study. She was welcomed and found she was a converted lady and thought they were Christian. Having learned something already of Mormonism from a bible study at my church, and knowing they did not believe in the diety of Jesus Christ. I then asked the lady to go back to the Mormon church and share openly [for they had a time of sharing in their service of what God has done for you] about what Jesus has done for her. Always mentioning Jesus. She was approached by the elders of her church to not mention Jesus in her testimonies. The positives of the Mormon church are they are big on the family, and promoting building a strong family. However, there is apparently big problems with abusive spouses, etc. within the Mormon faith. They are known to help new families coming into the church. Apparently families within the church are assigned to look after any new families coming in. Good qualities, and godly characteristics alone do not qualify us to saving faith. As we know we are saved by faith, appart from good works. Although as James says if you faith without works it is dead. Notice that in the book of James these good works are of a particular nature. It is love of the brethern. This follows with what the rest of scripture teaches. Example, I John 3:10-4:21. If you say you love God and hate your brother, you are a liar. And notice I John 4:1-6, which tells us to test the spirits whether they be of God. Now the test is not just saying Jesus Christ came in the flesh, but is saying much more than that. Here I want to say that I strongly believe the bible is without error, that even down to the names found in the bible. Jesus is Yeshua, which is the Greek name for the Hebrew name Joshua. The New Testament was written in Greek, which was the common language of the day. Now Joshua means 'God is salvation'. Now for the most part when names were given in the days of the bible they were not just labels, but were characteristics to be a part of that child. The second name attached to Jesus, but was not his surname for very few had surnames among the Jews, was Christ. Christ or christos is Greek for the Hebrew name Messiah, which means 'sent one', 'anoited one'. So what the real test was this, that anyone who confesses that this person Jesus was the sent one from God, and is our salvation. To say he came in the flesh, that person is of God. This is the same test in Romans 10. Love in Christ, Compassion....:=) |