LDS & Mainstream Christianity

[Rippon]

It seems on some points Mormon theology is at one with mainstream Christianity . A distinctly Pelagian flavor converges between the two regarding election and related teachings .

In Joseph Smith's Translation for Acts 13:48 he has it the way many professing Evangelicals wish it would read : ... " and as many as believed were ordained unto eternal life . " Dave Hunt would prefer that rendering .

There's a book by Mormons called : Verse by Verse : Acts Through Revelation . The authors are D. Kelly Ogden and Andrew C. Skinner . The following is found on pages 200 and 201 .

But Paul teaches that foreordination preserves our agency and choice . God can foreordain us to our various callings and assignments in mortality , and he can know in advance our response , because of his omnicience , his perfect foreknowledge . He is not guessing , hoping , or expecting ; he knows all things . Still he does not fix our destination beforehand ; we are agents and make the choices that will determine our destiny .

 

[OrovilleTim]

It seems on some points Mormon theology is at one with mainstream Christianity

It seems that on some points Buddhist, Islamic, whatever, theology is at one with mainstream Christianity too. Monkeys have many things in common with humans... doesn't make them human though.

 

[Rippon]

Hi , OT . First of all let me say at the outset that Mormonism is serious heresy . Mainstream Christianity comes in various flavors . A lot of it is sweet but not too nutritious . A great deal of the mass has imbibed sub-biblical teaching . A number are more faithful to the Word of God . One size does not fit all.

I know that Calvinistic Christianity has been charged ( wrongly , I might add ) with the same kind of fatalism as Islam . But I fail to see where Buddhist concepts are present in mainstream Christianity . If I am mistaken here -- I guess that proves I'm an optimist after all .

 

[DQuixote]

It seems on some points Mormon theology is at one with mainstream Christianity

It would be a real stretch for me to consider that as worthy of consideration. Mormon theology is heresy at its finest, if not blasphemy.

I understand your position on Mormonism. I'm just curious as to why even one word in Mormon theology would be compared to God's gift to us, His Word. I'd rather spend one hour reading Corinthians or Collosians or John than any length of time reading from Mormonism. I do it from time to time, not to test it on "some points", but to utterly discredit it.

Now, pray that God will grant an opening for me to talk to my Mormon neighbor about the path she is on.

Thanks!

:thumbs:

 

[DeeJay]

It seems on some points Mormon theology is at one with mainstream Christianity . A distinctly Pelagian flavor converges between the two regarding election and related teachings .

They work hard to make it seem that way.

In Joseph Smith's Translation for Acts 13:48 he has it the way many professing Evangelicals wish it would read : ... " and as many as believed were ordained unto eternal life . " Dave Hunt would prefer that rendering .

There's a book by Mormons called : Verse by Verse : Acts Through Revelation . The authors are D. Kelly Ogden and Andrew C. Skinner . The following is found on pages 200 and 201 .

But Paul teaches that foreordination preserves our agency and choice . God can foreordain us to our various callings and assignments in mortality , and he can know in advance our response , because of his omnicience , his perfect foreknowledge . He is not guessing , hoping , or expecting ; he knows all things . Still he does not fix our destination beforehand ; we are agents and make the choices that will determine our destiny .

Mormons have a interesting mix of Calvinist and non-calvinist theology. On one hand they believe in "free will", but only because of the fall. They also believe that Adam and Eve ate the fruit and fell because god made them do it.

They believe that god made them fall because that is the only way they could come to earth and have free will. And coming to earth and useing their free will to follow their "plan of salvation" is the only way they could advance past being human.

In other words Adam and Eve did not have free will to eat the fruit or not. God forordaned them to do it and they had to. Calvinisem?

 

[mcdirector]

AT the heart of this is the fact that that Mormonism "appears" enough like mainline Christianity to be mainline Christianity to the ill-informed. Satan at his finest.

 

[OrovilleTim]

AT the heart of this is the fact that that Mormonism "appears" enough like mainline Christianity to be mainline Christianity to the ill-informed. Satan at his finest.

Eggs-actly! They go out of their way to appear that way. They should add asterisks to their Articles of Faith. Here's a small selection:

1. We believe in God, the Eternal Father, and in His Son, Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost.*

* We just belive that the Eternal Father, also known as Elojim Yahweh, was once a man who elevated to a position of godhood; Jesus Christ (Satan's brother), who happened to be the only child of his born as a result of physical relations with an earthly being; and the Holy Ghost are not the same entity like those other apostate "non-True-Church" people who refer to themselves as Christians. They are three distinct individuals.

or

5. We believe that a man must be called of God, by prophecy, and by the laying on of hands by those who are in authority, to preach the Gospel and administer in the ordinances thereof. *

*This authority was removed from the Earth when Jesus and John the Baptist split the scene. It was off the Earth until they returned as ghosts and laid hands of Joseph Smith. So, anybody that has not had hands laid upon them by someone in the laying-of-hands-chain-of-command that was restored back through Joseph Smith (in other words, "us Mormons") is not from God and should be ignored. This is why we are the "true church".

or

13. We believe in being honest, true, chaste, benevolent, virtuous, and in doing good to all men*

* Well, all men of our faith. Which is why at MTC we forbid Missionaries to do charitable things for people they are trying to convert in third world countries like those silly Christians. If we spent all of our tithe money on poor non-beleivers, how would we be able to remodel our MULTI-BILLION dollar Temple Square, including the new world class shopping mall where we'll have all the finest stores!

 

[DeeJay]

Tim I am not sure I entirely agree with your third astrisks. The LDS church certenly has charitable missionarys. And they do give alot of money in charity.

However, they are also a huge money making corperation. Every one of us has bought their products. They hold their money and do spend it on extravigant decorations, building, etc. So I half agree.

What the LDS church has done is take Christianity and redefine everything about it so as to be understandable to humans. They dont understand how God can create out of nothing so they say he pro-creates like we do. They dont understand how he can be eternal, without begining, so they give him a begining. What happens is they use the same words, their doctrines sound like ours. But when you study them you find their words and docrines have entirly different meanings.

Did anybody watch "The Mormons" on PBS last night. I thought PBS did a great job with it. Told both sides, but the side against was from creadable historians, archiologists and such. Everybody for was cleargy of the LDS church. They did a good job destroying LDS doctrine.