Mormon's are not Christians?

[Caesius]

I have always wondered why other religon's consider Mormons (Latter Day Saint's) not as Christians. Why?

[Marqq]

Mormonism was founded on the idea that all other religions had it wrong, so the God and Jesus in their bible are different characters, however similar. Jacob Smith wrote a whole new bible, not just a translation or interpretation of the mainstream christian bible. As such, many of what are considered the main stipulations of Christianity were left out or changed.

 

Here's one side of the debate (they're not xtian).

 

Here's the other.

[Realitycheck]

Smith was the first guy to come along and revelate that God lived in another solar system, selfstyling himself as a living prophet, and reincarnating polygamism, in direct violation of the laws of the land, in direct violation of the Bible itself. Was the Beast of Revelation supposed to be regarded as a savior? If so, I would expect him to be right.

[MrMormon]

"There are a number of arguments used supposedly to “prove” that we are not Christian. It is important to recognize that none of them have anything to do with whether or not Latter-day Saints believe in Jesus Christ. Rather, what they basically boil down to is this: Latter-day Saints are different from the other Christian churches. (We understand that these differences exist because traditional Christianity has wandered from the truth over the centuries, but other denominations see things otherwise.) Their arguments against the Latter-day Saints being Christian generally fall into six basic categories:

Exclusion by special definition...

Exclusion by misrepresentation...

Name calling...

Exclusion by tradition...

The canonical or biblical exclusion...

The doctrinal exclusion"

 

The Latter-day Saint/Mormon religion is unfortunately widely misunderstood, and there is a lot of misinformation out there, but the rest of the article I quoted can be found here and will hopefully explain. It would be too long to directly post.

[Realitycheck]

You're right. The message has changed quite a bit as the world became more enlightened. I guess that stands for something.

[ewmon]

Mr Mormon, please explain to us as to whether and where the Wikipedia description of the Book of Mormon is wrong. Specifically, among other things, Wikipedia states:

 

The Book of Mormon is a sacred text of the Latter Day Saint movement that adherents believe contains writings of ancient prophets who lived on the American continent from approximately 2600 BC to AD 421. [...]

 

According to Smith's account, and also according to the book's narrative, the Book of Mormon was originally written in otherwise unknown characters referred to as "reformed Egyptian" engraved on golden plates. Smith claimed that the last prophet to contribute to the book, a man named Moroni, buried it in a hill in present-day New York and then returned to earth in 1827 as an angel, revealing the location of the book to Smith and instructing him to translate and disseminate it as evidence of the restoration of Christ's true church in the latter days.

 

The Book of Mormon has a number of original and distinctive doctrinal discussions on subjects such as the fall of Adam and Eve, the nature of the Atonement, eschatology, redemption from physical and spiritual death, and the organization of the latter-day church. The pivotal event of the book is an appearance of Jesus Christ to the Americas shortly after his resurrection.

 

The Book of Mormon is the earliest of the unique writings of the Latter Day Saint movement, and its denominations typically regard the text not only as scripture but also as a historical record of God's dealings with the ancient inhabitants of the Americas.

The one reason I have consistently heard throughout my life as to why most Christians perceive the Mormons as non-Christians is because, in addition to the Bible, the Mormons consider as Holy Scripture the Book of Mormon, which of course, Christians consider non-canonical.

[MrMormon]

No, that excerpt is correct. The article I linked to explains many of the reasons why the Book of Mormon is often considered non-canonical, but one main point is whether revelation from God, like the Bible, has stopped. The Church of Jesus Christ of Ladder-day Saints believes that God is "no respecter of persons" and continues to reveal His word to peoples in all times and places, such as the Americas. In fact, we believe there is more besides the Book of Mormon that will eventually become available. Maybe that'll be about people in Asia?

[Braklinath]

I would say yes... merely because of the name. we believe in Christ, and so, would that technically not fit as 'Christian'? adding extra requirements onto what 'constitutes' being a Christian is like saying you have to be white in order to run for president, Prime-Minister, or whatever else (which of course, is blatantly wrong). I think people just like to say that we're not (I've grown up Mormon, fyi. but I tend to have an un-biased world view as well) because it's something new and different, and that we're adding on to what's been the same for almost two millennia. people just naturally don't like change...

 

P.S this I just thought I'd throw in my two cents...

[Caesius]

Thanks everyone for the information. It was very helpful.

[MrMormon]

You're welcome.

[john5746]

I have always wondered why other religon's consider Mormons (Latter Day Saint's) not as Christians. Why?

 

Well, if you really dive into it, you'll find the definition of a christian to be hard to pin down. You will also see inconsistency even within the same person as to who is or is not a christian. I have heard some claim Catholicism isn't christian, yet when listing numbers of followers, will gladly count them.

 

A more interesting question is why is it so important to be considered Christian? My answer: It is a lazy way to exclude or include a person for whatever reason.

[Ophiolite]

There are apocryphal tales that speak of the productive debates of how many angels can fit on the head of a needle. Some readers of this thread will see the connection.