What is so wrong with Mormonism?

[Aprill]

Protestant refers to those who protested against the Roman Church during the Reformation.

All Western Churches that are not Catholic are Protestant.

w00t a vocabulary lesson! Hope that didn't come off sarcastic, I meant it I never know what it is, if it's called a denomination or whatever.

Thanks everyone for clearing that up

 

[Secundulus]

w00t a vocabulary lesson! Hope that didn't come off sarcastic, I meant it I never know what it is, if it's called a denomination or whatever.

Thanks everyone for clearing that up

I didn't take it as sarcastic. In a modern sense, any non Apostolic Church is Protestant. The Apostolic Churches are Catholic. The three main branches of Catholic being, Roman, Orthodox, and Anglican.

The shame is that we have to continue using the prefixes to Catholic because of our continuing schism.

 

[mpok1519]

I dont think anything is wrong with Mormonism. ~shrug~ right and wrong have to do with moral issues, and spiritual develipment/enlightenment intended for a benevolent purpose cannot be 'wrong'.

I do not believe it is unethical to be mormon either. Christianity has a VERY LARGE SPECTRUM of denominations, and they all have their own unique quirks, beliefs and systems. I don't think one can say any single one of them is wrong, or misguided.

For aren't we all guided by one God?

yes Ive heard that mormonism believes in reincarnation in a sense where, the better you are on earth, and the more wives you have, the more godchildren you will be given on your own planet somewhere else in the universe. I don't know if thats necessarily what they believe(Ive spoken to many mormons, and all of them were not aware of this idea), but all religion is skewed, clouded, veiled under mysterious riddles, puzzles and rubixcubes, and I believe that mystery is one of God's greatest assets, for God works in mysterious ways, and if all truth was exposed in the Bible, then there would be no mystery to God's majesty, would there?

 

[Lludmila]

Wrong as in EVIL and MORALLY CORRUPT, or wrong as in ERRONEOUS?

I think that Mormonism is historically erroneous but not morally corrupt or evil.

 

[mpok1519]

wrong as in, something any person should not do.

we all know that there are things we should not do. there are just things that no human being should ever do. Those things are wrong.

Murder, stealing, hurting others and unwanton destruction are generally considered wrong. And since mormonism doesn't support these things, I cannot say mormonism is wrong.

errenous, maybe, but everything, and I do mean everything, is at least just a little bit errenous.

 

[JoshuaM]

people who seek to become equal with God are not serving our God. We are not all guided by the same God unless we are Christian. Mormonism is not a denomination as it isn't based wholly on the Bible. In 1996 Mormons would be angry if you confused them with Christians. Now they will try and lead people to their church by saying they are Christian and they will still tell Mormons that Mormons are different than Christians, but now they say Christians are deceived by Satan, but they believe Satan is related to Jesus. The Bible is extra to them. The key book for Christianity is the Bible.

God didn't write on golden plates. God did write on stone and give it to Moses. A lot of the writing Joseph Smith showed on his "holy" "artifacts" was Egyptian hieroglyphics. Joseph Smith bought an Egyptian Book of the Dead and claimed it was certain commandments from God until later it was proven it was an Egyptian Book of the Dead. Joseph Smith was not only named Smith in name but he was a smith. He was proficient in smithing of many precious metals. He purchased a lot of gold before "finding" golden plates.

saying all religions worship the same God is definitely not true. I am a Christian. We do not worship a god that is shaped like a cow. We do not worship a god born of a goat. We do not worship a god that says people must be made to follow Him by force or else they are killed. We do not worship a god that used to be a man before he was God. We do not worship a god(dess) born out of another god's head fully grown. We do not worship a God who says we will be reincarnated after we die. Therefore, though we as Christians teach there is only one God, we are not saying all gods are the same, but only one God is Truth, other gods are heresy and false.

Back to why mormons are wrong. Another thing, Mormons change their doctrine almost every year and forbid their members to be shows a Book of Mormon that somebody that is not Mormon has. Mormons are kicked out of their church if they have premarital sex. Mormons are given odd "exams" and there are things in their marriage ceremony. many will consider inappropriate. Mormon marriages must be held in private. If you are not a mormon, and you go to a Mormon wedding reception, you will feel like they want you to leave. They all put their eyes on you with weird looks until you go. I know, I went to the reception.

 

[mpok1519]

Yes, I have heard that mormonism is very secretive, and very scrupulous. But I also believe our perceptions of God are shaped and molded by the times, cultures, people, and locations we are indigenous to.

A Mormon will believe Mormonism their whole lives because thats what they were born into. I'm sure if any of us were born in India, the chances that we'd be Hindus would be very high, and theres nothing wrong with that either.

More importantly, what advice, lessons and wisdom mormonism has to impart on us, one would be wise to not turn a deaf ear, but rather, see what one could learn through observation and empiricism and how they relate to your beliefs. But if anyone tries to propogate that mormons are bad, strange, alien, weird, heretic, that would simply be more division amongst faith.

Beliefs of God are all different. But the IDEA of God can never change.

 

[JoshuaM]

no matter if there is an idea of God or not, our job as Christians is to bring people to Christ, to teach them what a true Christian is, teach them about a relationship with Jesus Christ, not to tell them anything they do is okay as long as they are comfortable with it. Our God has been worshiped since the beginning of time, but there has been false gods worshiped and these are even mentioned in the Bible. Gideon tore down an altar of one. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednago were put in a furnace for not worshiping one, Daniel was put in a Lion's den. How many gods will save people from Pharoah, from fire, from lions, from entire armies? only one.

And is culture more powerful than God? No. There are a lot of people born into India, China, Japan, Korea, Middle Eastern countries, Africa, who come to Jesus! They are born into different cultural beliefs and they worship our God, not just a god. We should not ignore Mormons no! We should share the gospel of Jesus Christ with them and help them know Jesus and the difference between following Christ and following Joseph Smith!

 

[mpok1519]

yes we should. youre right

but fervant dogmtic zeal usually pushes people away.

also, a reminder that this topic is 'what is wrong with mormonism', and since wrong is a qualitative term, one cannot say which religion is right, and which one is wrong, for right and wrong are moral issues and its culture itself that defines right from wrong.

 

[JoshuaM]

Mormons want to use the Bible also, though it is not their key doctrine. The central key for guiding of right and wrong is the Bible for Christians, not simply culture. If a Mormon is to say they are Christian, or somebody is to say they are, they must take the Bible as what it claims to be as Christians are supposed to do, but they do not. That is something wrong with it.

 

[mpok1519]

the Bible is apart of Christian culture, is what I'm saying. and it is that culture that defines right and wrong. And it is only within one's own perception of morally right and wrong if Mormonism is 'wrong', so really, it is only a matter of opinion.

 

[JoshuaM]

but a point is one cannot accept the Bible as correct and the Book of Mormon as correct just as they cannot accept the Bible and the Koran as correct. One must accept either or, as the doctrines oppose each other in too many ways. And with their doctrine changing more often the the Bible is translated, then it becomes they are not following "God" nor their doctrine, but they are just following people. If one truly is to follow the Christian God, one must follow Christianity. i think we have discussed what is wrong with Mormonism and why it isn't as solid as people will have you believe.

 

[mpok1519]

God is mysterious. ~nod nod~ Much more in life is greyish than just black and white. And one should love a mormon neighbor, or anyone for that fact, without judging them as 'right or wrong', which is what Jesus teaches us. Judge not others, only judge yourself. for God can only judge others. Love, and forgiveness one can only impart on others, and it is the individual who can only decide which religion is right for them without the influence of others to sway them one way or the next.

but the best tool of all is love.

 

[JoshuaM]

are you uncertain of your faith?

 

[mpok1519]

uncertainty is certainty to many just as grey is a shade of black as white is just a very light shade to grey. There is so much mystery to it all that only prayer and reading the scriptures keeps me certain that I keep on doing it for a purpose.

 

[WashedClean]

God is mysterious. ~nod nod~ Much more in life is greyish than just black and white. And one should love a mormon neighbor, or anyone for that fact, without judging them as 'right or wrong', which is what Jesus teaches us. Judge not others, only judge yourself. for God can only judge others. Love, and forgiveness one can only impart on others, and it is the individual who can only decide which religion is right for them without the influence of others to sway them one way or the next.

but the best tool of all is love.

This sounds all warm and fuzzy, but...

Jesus said we aren't to judge another person's soul, but we are to stay away from false teachings. Love also means warning people of the truth and telling them when they are in error.

We are to love everyone, including Mormons. But we don't have to accept or love their theology. In fact, we are to correct them IN love.

 

[JoshuaM]

Peacelover02 i have not see you responding for a while. are you there? I notice you posted this in questions by non-christians. you say you are catholic. Are you a Christian Catholic? I just ask because of where this is posted.

Certainly even apocryphal Bibles which have text written after Moses' time have these teachings in them about "the great commission" etc and why loving is not always about encouraging every action and choice.

 

[Aibrean]

Galatians 1:8
But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned!

2 Corinthians 11:12-15
And I will keep on doing what I am doing in order to cut the ground from under those who want an opportunity to be considered equal with us in the things they boast about. For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, masquerading as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. It is not surprising, then, if his servants masquerade as servants of righteousness. Their end will be what their actions deserve.

 

[mpok1519]

you cant correct those who think they are the ones who should be correcting, or well, it certainly is not easy or temporaly frugal. ~shrug~ its just been in my experience its hard to lift someone up with rebuking/trying to get them to change. in essence, judging someone for their faith is kinda like judging their soul, for one's faith and their soul are both intertwined. there are so many faiths, even Christianity has schisms, and almost every church disagrees about something,yet I don't see how those peculiar somethings have anything to do with how strong one's faith is in God.

what basic principles any faith and Mormonism share, and the wisdoms they have to offer and what love you can share from learning from it you'll find to be more useful than any means of rebuking. Jesus preached love and tolerance to all faiths who'd listen....

Preach the scriptures, but never make someone feel like they're wrong.

 

[JoshuaM]

we should obey the Lord Jesus above all else in our ministries. Though other beliefs may have similarities, as Christians we have "The Way, the Truth, the Life" in Jesus. By our own relationship with the Lord and His guidebook the Bible, we find that ultimately no matter what is similar among different religions, they are ultimately different. And we ultimately finally must discourage the worship of other gods and ask the Lord Jesus for wisdom regarding words and actions so we can plant seeds and water them so people will know the truth and the Truth shall set them free.

Ultimately as Christians, we must realize our faith is not based on church etiquette or politics, but it is based on faith, our relationship with Jesus Christ and the Word of God= the Bible.

no other belief system is based on a relationship with Jesus Christ, and that includes Mormonism which no matter how much it is doctored up this year to appear Christian, they will admit if in depth conversation, it isn't the same as Christianity, and it is mainly based on being a good person the way Joseph Smith teaches in order to become gods and lead others to learn how to become gods.