Loin cloths and robes, locusts and wild honey…and a message about a carpenter that does magic tricks? Who really cares about the priesthood in these days anyway? Mormons do. Jeepers Paul. Did you also teach about baptism for the dead, while Peter was teaching that the gospel would be preached to those that were living in the spirit world?
In those early days there were bishops, deacons, evangelists, elders and others that were tasked with running the local branches of the church. None of those people had theological degrees or got paid for what they did. Paul had to build tents and Peter had to catch fish. Mormons actually believe that what took place in the river Jordan was an important part of salvation! Jesus was the only one that had the words of eternal life. Keep following only the scriptures I am trying to get a bible discussion going if anyone have any question no matter what we can discuss them.
The point of baptism for the dead is to give them a second chance at baptism if they did not have the chance or did not what to be baptized. So that they can go to the kingdom of god. It is a covenant that you have to do. Did this answer your question? I want to understand what makes the Mormon congregation Christian? What makes us Christian? We believe in Jesus Christ as the savior of the world, and only through his grace do we believe we can be saved. We follow him.
If you study other Christian religions you will also find differences between them baptism for one example. Does that make them non-Christian?
His church would have his name in the name of the church. Are they then not Christian? We believe Jesus is God in the Flesh, as John 1 testifies to. Without belief that Jesus is God, you will die in your sins, as Jesus says. We simply care for you. Hope that helps. Interesting How can you believe in any religeon as no human has ever made contact with God I respect the good the Mormons do.
Jos Bots. We actually do believe that some people have made contact with God like Joseph Smith and other prophets in the Book of Mormon and Bible.
Also we believe that when we pray we are talking to god and he can answer our prayers. Why is there not a cross on the steeples at the Mormon churches…do you call where you worship a church? Why is they have already been baptized in a Christian Church do all Mormons have. Why do Mormons keep to themselves and not mingle with non-Mormons? I have experienced this in Salt Lake City, the east coast, in the south and in Colorado.
The Mormon church? Hi Diane. I just personally like to think of him coming out of the tomb in victory. We believe authority is required from god to perform baptism, so if someone was baptized previously but not by someone with the priesthood, that it should be done again. A member of a cult? Well, I go to church and learn about loving others.
I serve in my community, never harm anyone, and love my family. I study the Bible daily. They say they believe and teach the Bible. I am glad we have religious freedom in America according to our own consciences. However, I would encourage any legitimate seeker of truth to put their confidence and trust in what the Bible says and not be led astray with any who teach otherwise. God so loved the world that He gave His Only Son so that whoever believes on Him would have eternal life.
The Gospel of John the Beloved is a good place to start. Thank you for your blog. Click here to learn more. A leading-edge research firm focused on digital transformation. Good Subscriber Account active since Shortcuts.
Account icon An icon in the shape of a person's head and shoulders. It often indicates a user profile. Log out. US Markets Loading H M S In the news. Grace Wyler. Mormonism is one of the fastest-growing religions in the U. Membership in the Mormon church has more than doubled since the s. Modern-day Mormon prophets relay God's messages to the faithful. The Twilight saga is actually about the Mormon belief in eternal marriage. The Mormon church thinks polygamy might be okay in the afterlife.
Mormons have special underwear. Mormons believe that when Jesus returns, he's coming to the U. I personly think that judging people on their religion is dumb and that you should judge them on their actions and not judge the religion off of those actions. Have you read about the Mormon Leaders, starting with Joseph Smith, and how many men the killed?
Please read about those men. You should be afraid if youre not a member. Although men do hold priesthood powers in Mormonism, a family cant be had without women, and the family is central to Mormonism. So next time you go bashing on a religion you should study and learn about that religion.
You are on of the people that this article was written for. We have articles of faith, small passages that tell you a lot about what we do. We are a christian religion, and we have another scriptural book. Christan you got to be kidding true christananity is the believing in the God ove the bible the one that has always been God not previously a man from a defrent planet.
Please get your information from reliable unbiased sources. It is culural, as specific areas of the world have culture, and specific people do. We do not scilence voices, in fact we ask for all sorts of people to talk to us, and to travel to talk to others. I am currently enrolled at the Univ of Utah and i can tell you that there are plenty of polygamist colonies still around out here and I know several students who come from that life.
Matt- Yes, it is true that the Church in had to be coerced strongly into giving up polygamy. They were terrified of what that would mean for their families. At the time, many members were okay with the thought of no future polygamous marriages, but what did it mean for the existing ones? It had become illegal for a man to be in the same room as his wife. How would you like being told that you could never see your wife or children again?
Would you jump for joy and sign the dotted line? Marriage and family are central tenets of the LDS faith. They loved their wives. They adored their children. They wanted to be a part of their lives. And somehow you see that as a negative and something to tar all current Mormons with? I think that was a very kind, compassionate, and entirely understandable position for them.
However, I think you would be severely hard pressed to find a modern Mormon that was interested in bringing the practice back to the Church. In fact, we are asked in an interview by our congregational leaders every other year if we support polygamous groups.
It is not a supported opinion. And others. Apparently all of u are not aware of the real beliefs of LDS. Latter Day Saint men respect and love their spouses. Would never degrade them the way you are talking about.
Whether it be in UT or any other state. You want to know the truth, contact the missionaries. They can set you straight and maybe you might even feel the spirit tell you that what you are hearing is correct. Without knowing history of the church, you could easily be persuaded by others that have no factual information based on rumor, and partial facts.
Just like small children that pick up profanity, it being negative and easy to say. I feel as adults we do the same thing on different topics disagree.
A: We tell people that only they can decide whether they believe in the church or not, which is true!
And if they decide not, No hard feelings! I disagree that this article is thoughtful or intelligent, it reflects a completely false view of Mormons and asserts that they are victims of untruths related to historical facts. Come live here in Utah ans see the manipulation and interference in our community by the LDS and the rest of the ignorant followers. If this lady got her PHD then it should be invalidated.
I agree with the article and wish more people were educated on the history of discrimination against church members and why it exists. I appreciate the acknowledgement that a lot of what Americans think they know about Mormonism is wrong. It will only let me post one or hopefully two. Let me just say this. I have been raised Mormon.
Secondly there is nothing to fear about Mormons. We are kind loving people that are close knit famines. That raise our children to be kind to serve others and to be good examples to their peers. We do not worship Joseph smith nor do we worship the book of Mormon. Joseph Smith was a young boy, his daddy was a Presbyterian preacher. He went to that church and all the other churches and he was a confused kid that asked his dad why are there so many different churches and yet they all teach some of the same but yet so many different things.
Well this bothered him all thet time do he decided he was going into a grove in the woods and was going to ask God. A curious and confused little boy. So he goes to the woods gets down obvious knees and ask God I go to all these different churches.
They all teach good things but they all teach different things about the bible. Which one do I believe? Which one is true? God answers pin none of them as they only have part of the truth.. So as he lays in bed a couple nights later he is woken by the presence of these same 3 heavenly beings Heavenly Father is son Jesus Christ and the Holy ghost. All dressed in white and could see into their buzz on. He describes what they look like. They then festive the place he needed to go and their he would find golden plates.
He follows the instructions , finds these plates and there was a grimy and things in which he woukd use to translate these plates. He did and this is where the book of Mormon, doctrine and covents and pearl of great price came from. Ok so you say this seems just to far fetched but think about it even though I was raised in the Mormon church lament to many other churches because I was c aligned with what I was taught.
I would ask my friends questions about things and add but does your preacher ever tell you this or that. They said niurious about what they taught. I would ask my friends does your preacher or priest ever teach you this or that..
I knew the only way I could find the truth he only way I could establish my own testimony of my church or these other churches was to pray about it. I was 15 yrs old. So I prayed about it. I asked shod if the book of Mormon was indeed another testament if the ancient America the Indians that lived here before us and was it the word of God along with the bible. I got my answer loud and clear. So it may seem far fetched to you but if you just imagine a little boy being so curious and so confused about all these different churches why would it be so strange that he go before God and ask?
I wanted to know the same thing and I got my own answer but Joseph Smith had a special calling and that was to bring forth the book of Mormon and lead the people. Yes we believe he was a modern day Prohet. We believe God used him to restore the gospel as you remember in the bible the gospel was lost and we believe as I said that Joseph Smith was called as a modern day Prophet.
The Mormon church teaches the important e of the family unit and kick g our lives to the best of our sanity do that we can return one day and live in his presence.. We believe in Jesus Christ that he is the son of God.
We believe he suffered those bearings carried his own cross and was nailed to the cross died for bus that each of our sins would be forgiven and then rise from the tomb 3 days later so that we to would rise from our graves be resurrected and have eternal life. We believe in the gift of the Holy ghost. That he softly whispers to us to guide us direct us to lead us back to our Heavenly father for all time and eternity.
We are not a strange people. There is nothing to fear of us. We would love you accept you and help you. First of all the church does not talk about politics with members. All they ever say or do is to encourage the members to be diligent in their prayers as they pray for guidance to invite for the president that they feel sure shod is directing them to vote for.
Should a Mormon be called adolescent I can promise you that the church itself would not allow him to use any of the church doctrine in any of his speeches nor in any of his dealings as president. The church leafetd6 would never allow it. We have millions of missionaries through our the world to carry the gospel to every corner of the earth. That is their calling but not the calling of a president. I did not write this with intent to create debates over religion.
I did write this to help people see there is nothing to fear of any of us that are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. We all have been given our free agency ur free will, the right to our opinion. I find it quite offensive to hear so many talk against my church. Yet they only know what they have been told. They have never stepped foot inside the door of a Mormon church for a meeting. They have never sat down with the missionaries and talked with them and felt their sweet spirits.
They just read anti morni literature often to people such as this man who wrote this article that professes to have all the facts. The Mormon Church has taught me so much about Christ.
Who would know more about the church me as a member my entire life or someone who claims to have researched it when his research has been anti Mormon. That would be the same as me reading and I Baptist material and then comi g on a public site and tell I g people you need to fear Baptist. I would want to know that whoever is running believes in God and would like to know that to run this country you would be leaning on God for direction.
If you believe in prayer ask God if you need to fear a Mormon or a Mormon president ask sincerely and with an open mind and I know you would be led to not have to fear.. I know this was long. I appreciate anyone who took the time to read this. I will be able to enter into the temple for the first time in about 5 years. This artical is false and wrong. I want to be able to tell all of you the truth that I have witnessed in the church. I have a true testimony to know this is the true church.
God loves each and everyone of you. This article is only true in some parts if you really want to know about the odd church talk to the prophet or general authority of the church. I laughed at this pretty hard. The Mormon church or Latter day Saint church is not a cult like what the heck, they belive in God and they are definetly christians.
I know a bunch of mormons and they are one of the nicest people I know. If you are curouis just go to their churchand look for your answers instead of looking at crap on the internet. Hear me out, other churchs are competing for you to go to their church and infact other churches beside the mormon church get paid for the amount of people there so if a mormon writes a web page about them they are going to make sure it is seen as good of course, but someone else from a different church is most likely going to protray it as bad as an effort for you to not go to the mormon church and to come to theres.
It seems to me they made up lies and again I am not even mormon and I know this is lies haha. The church of Jesus Christ of latter day saints. We care about our families and we care about other people.
This guy who wrote the article and the people who responded to this have us so mixed up. I never say anything but when i see how people are towards a group of good people, its honestly upsetting. I think we need to fear any organization led by men who will lie, cheat and gaslight to maintain the viability of their corporation.
Surveys have shown that an atheist candidate for U. Is there some reason why an individual with a different, yet equally unacceptable idea about a god, or many gods, should not be scrutinized for unproven mysteries they choose to accept as a personal truth?
Anyone who. By all means, go to mormon. Then visit exmormon. To learn what any organization teaches or represents, you have to go to the source — the organization itself. Anything else would only be heresay and biased, personal opinion. I certainly hope no one in America is shallow enough to base their vote for President of the U.
Mormons are biased in favor of Mormonism, main-stream Protestants are biased in favor of main-stream Protestantism. Atheists are biased in favor of Atheism. It would be foolish for anyone to presume they are devoid of bias. However, since biased sources of information are all we have to work with, it is best to proceed by simply taking that bias into account and trying to collect the primary-source information.
Furthermore, all organizations have unsavory elements E. Church congregants who gossip behind your back, political fraud in the white house, mounting student debt for BU students, etc… , but those organizations are unlikely to tell you about the unsavory elements upfront because they want to present themselves positively.
Of course those students will be biased by heaps of student loans and a potentially daunting future, but that does not make their case illegitimate. I am a Mormon cultural or middle-way , and I recommend mormonthink. There are many different belief levels of Mormons. Obviously, most ex-mormons will have a negative bias, and most actively practicing Mormons will have a positive bias.
Many Mormon fans of Mormonthink. Go to en. Please, do not try to represent a biased anti-Mormon site as somehow unbiased. They clearly are not. For example David likes to breath heavily and thrust himself up and down upon children. Creeper right? But what if David is a life guard performing CPR on a child who is not breathing after nealry drowning?
I was a Protestant from birth but converted to the Church of Jesus Christ. No bias either way. Well, if you want a simple direct answer, it calls into question the intelligence and gullability of that individual. You should absolutely consult ex-Catholics and ex-Baptists about those religions. Plenty of crazy BS from all of them. I think then you would be implying that Ken Dahl is crazy.
Mormons are good at deflecting information they choose not to deal with. The truth is Mr. No one responding could argue that, so they choose to divert your attention to what he was associated with, hoping they could convince, the reader he was misinformed.
So argue facts if you going to give Mr. Dahl a hard time you have no idea what it takes to be an ex-Mormon. Just sayin. And where they are not accurate, well, those are just pernicious lies masquerading as accuracies.
And all his comments are aimed at hurting the LDS church. There is only one standard to really judge the LDS church — go and visit one yourself! See the people, ask them questions, hear the range of answers, and be prepared to challenge yourself in your assumptions. You control the pace of the research, and if you do not like it or get uncomfortable, you can leave at anytime. But at least you will know much more than you ever will just by reading the opinion of others.
Same goes for the Book of Mormon. Those answers may come as thoughts, words, or feelings, but when they do, you will recognize them for what they are: words from the Holy Ghost testifying of the truth of what you are reading. The belief system of an individual, however solid or absurd, speaks volumes about their character and value system.
Ken, all religions read like nonsense to unbelievers. Is it reasonable to believe that salvation depends on whether or not one consumes certain animals or combines certain food products? Christianity absolutely claims to be the only truth, to the exclusion of other religions. Christianson, well stated.
I was going to say something similar and then read your thoughtful response. Many thanks. Ken, I think you forget…we are 14 million strong and growing fast. Mormons will not be stopped by someone with small, demeaning, innaccurate, ugly thoughts like yours. You really sound like you have personal problems and hate yourself.
I hope you find more worthwhile things to do in your life. You think your snide remarks will change any of that? Even states have ordered our extermination…Hey! So Ken…in the end.
Save yourself some study time by doing your homework instead of writing ignorant things on here. Do you really think at this point in time that a Hindu, Jew, Buddhist, Muslim, atheist, or anyone of any faith other than Christianity could be elected president of the US regardless of their qualifications?
This seems obviously hypocritical to me when these same churches not just LDS campaign for the banning of gay marriage, for example. I have the same problem with the Catholic Church or any church that spreads hate.
The reason why my church got so involved is because prop 8 was a moral issue. We push for anything that betters the community morally. But what we do not get involved in is political parties. The reason why we are against gay marriage and gay acts in general is because we believe that marriage is a very sacred covenant towards god and the between the spouses.
And should only be done between a man and a woman. We also believe in a pre-mortal life and when were spirits we had a gender already with us.
Thus a man acting like woman or woman acting like man is wrong and is a mockery to god. I cannot over state how sacred marriage is to our religion. We do not hate gays we hate the sin not the person.
For more information try this website. This would be true if the organization itself wanted to be identified as unique entity. Yes they are like a Chameleon changing colors based upon who they are talking to. If The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints please note the real name of the Mormon Church were to present itself as Christian, and not actually be Christian, how many converts do you think would stay in the Church, after finding out they were duped into thinking the Church is Christian?
I am a convert of many years, and I can guarantee any and all that this church is a Christian Church. If it were not, I simply would not be a member. Yes, you should absolutely talk to ex-catholics and ex-baptists. Your distorted representation of the faith I believe appears designed to discount the merits of the individual without considering their actual position on a given issue. You should know better. On this basis, honest people from any political persuasion should be anxious to see a Mormon candidate from their party elected.
Mormons are absolutely Christians. A Christian, by definition, is someone who believes in the gospel of Jesus Christ, believes that Christ is their Savior and the Redeemer of mankind. They stand with conviction to declare the Jesus is the Christ and give a lot of attention to spreading His gospel throughout the world. Furthermore, they provide humanitarian efforts throughout the world that are unparalleled by other large service organizations and non-profits.
Service is a central concept of the Mormon belief system that stems from Christs teachings. The church does nothing to hurt humanity or individuals. In other words, I am a Mormon. I have learned many things about Jesus Christ while attending meetings there, and one day after partaking the emblems of the Sacrament I wrote the following. I hope you like it, and that you and all others who read this will realize that Mormons are indeed Christians.
Sacred are the things of Christ; so great the price he paid. Reverently I ponder how his life he freely gave. I promise to remember him; my Savior ever more. Sacred are the things of Christ; I eat the broken bread. I recall his body bruised; to the cross how he was led. I promise to forsake my sins; I plead forgiveness now. I feel my burdens lift from me; I make this holy vow. Sacred are the things of Christ; I take and drink the cup.
In Gethsemane he bled; On the cross they raised him up. He is my Covenant Father now; Oh, praise his saving grace. Justin, the Bible calls Jesus the Son of God.
The Bible also says that all humans are children of God, and therefore heirs and jonit heirs with Christ. That makes Jesus and all humans brothers and sisters, unless you want to add or take away from the words of the Bible. Furthermore, many of the early Christian fathers wrote that God became man to teach man how to become god. You are right that most western Christian sects do not believe these things.
I understand that as LDS you want to take pieces of scripture and twist them to fit Josephs theology. This is not Christian theology at all and is not a correct understanding of the passage if you study it. Romans is Paul telling the Jews they were not part of gods new order John They had not been born again with regenerated eyes. To be part of this family you have to be in Christ, associated and identified with even His sufferings that you may share in His glory. We are joint heirs if we are born again.
We will inherit the kingdom of heaven. I do not respond to belittle you. In fact I have a great amount of love for you and I want you to find freedom in a world without legalism. Don take my word for it. I will name a few of your own. You also mention that many of the early christian fathers wrote that god became a man to teach… You are correct it was called Arianism and it was abolished and swept off the face off the earth because it was a heresy.
Last, you are telling me that god almighty could not preserve the words of his prophets and Jesus so he had to have a court documented occult treasure hunter lead a restoration that still has only 10 million members 4 million active. Please study and research your faith and its history. The Joseph Smith quote about God once being like us and we having the potential to become like him is being misused. God is perfected in his attributes and character. Jesus asks his disciples to be perfect like God is.
Thus through Grace, we too will become perfect.
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