How does mormon faith differ from christianity

A New Witness for the Articles of Faith. Smith, Joseph, Jr. The Doctrine and Covenants. Edited by B. The Pearl of Great Price. Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith. Published March 30, How should we use the Bible in apologetics? Historic Christianity. The one God is a Spirit who is the personal, eternal, infinite Creator of all that exists.

Jesus Christ was the virgin born God incarnate who existed in all time with the Father and Holy Spirit in the eternal Trinity.

Human beings have chosen to sin against God, rejecting His nature and pursing life opposed to His essential character and revealed law. Eternal life in heaven with God for those who have trusted in Jesus Christ. One of three levels of glory: 1. Christians congregate together in local bodies and along denominational lines sharing distinctive doctrinal and ecclesiastical concepts. Asserts that the LDS is the one true church on the face of the earth. The Latter-day Saint belief in a restored Christianity helps explain why so many Latter-day Saints, from the s to the present, have converted from other Christian denominations.

Members of creedal churches often mistakenly assume that all Christians have always agreed and must agree on a historically static, monolithic collection of beliefs. As many scholars have acknowledged, however, Christians have vigorously disagreed about virtually every issue of theology and practice through the centuries, leading to the creation of a multitude of Christian denominations. One who sincerely loves, worships, and follows Christ should be free to claim his or her understanding of the doctrine according to the dictates of his or her conscience without being branded as non-Christian.

A third justification argued to label Latter-day Saints as non-Christian has to do with their belief in an open scriptural canon. For those making this argument, to be a Christian means to assent to the principle of sola scriptura, or the self-sufficiency of the Bible. But to claim that the Bible is the sole and final word of God—more specifically, the final written word of God—is to claim more for the Bible than it claims for itself. Nowhere does the Bible proclaim that all revelations from God would be gathered into a single volume to be forever closed and that no further scriptural revelation could be received.

Moreover, not all Christian churches are certain that Christianity must be defined by commitment to a closed canon. No branch of Christianity limits itself entirely to the biblical text in making doctrinal decisions and in applying biblical principles. Roman Catholics, for example, turn to church tradition and the magisterium meaning teachers, including popes and councils for answers.

Protestants, particularly evangelicals, turn to linguists and scripture scholars for their answers, as well as to post—New Testament church councils and creeds. For many Christians, these councils and creeds are every bit as canonical as the Bible itself. This text, which reads something like the Old Testament, tells the story of an ancient Hebrew patriarch and prophet named Lehi, who, in roughly B.

The group established themselves somewhere in North America and, according to this history, at least some Native Americans descended from these immigrants. From this civilization, God continued to call forth prophets, including one named Mormon, the original author of the text that would be engraved on plates of gold that Mormons believe Joseph Smith unearthed in the late s.

Along with the plates, Smith said he found the Urim and Thummim, a translating contrivance that allowed him to read the engravings on the plates. A group of followers coalesced around Smith as he dictated his translation of the plates to scribes. Soon after the Book of Mormon was published in , the prophet and his followers organized the Church of Christ, an ecclesiastical institution that differed from all other Christian churches at the time because it was led by a prophet and had another sacred text in addition to the Old and New Testaments.

Revelation told the members of this new church that theirs was the restoration of the New Testament church that had been removed from the earth during a "Great Apostasy" that occurred at the end of the apostolic era.

Another important element of the Latter-day Saints' doctrine is their concept of a "plan of salvation" that encompasses the spirit's existence before, during and after time spent on earth. The Saints believe that prior to being born, each person has a pre-mortal life. In the pre-mortal realm, spirits dwell with God, the literal father of all people, and develop talents and knowledge to prepare for mortal life. When their preparation is complete, individuals must progress and spend time on earth.

Gaining a physical body, they practice actively choosing between good and evil the Articles of Faith reject the concept of original sin and gain new levels of knowledge that will allow them to become like God, the ultimate goal of Mormon spiritual development. Mormons believe that after death, the spirit leaves the body and moves on to the spirit world to wait for resurrection. During this time, those who did not embrace the Gospel are segregated from those who lived according to God's word, and the spirits of individuals who never had a chance to hear the Gospel are given this opportunity.

The Plan of Salvation teaches that Heaven is divided into three separate kingdoms of glory: the celestial, the terrestrial, and the telestial. These kingdoms are where all men and women except a certain few known as Sons of Perdition, who will go to Outer Darkness will go after they are judged by God and their spirits are reunited with what will be their immortal bodies. Those judged to have followed the Gospel move on to the celestial kingdom, ruled by God himself.

Those who did not devoutly follow but also did not actively reject the word of God are sent to the Terrestrial Kingdom, and those who actively rejected the Gospel or committed grievous sins must dwell in the Telestial Kingdom, away from God's light.

Latter-day Saints believe entrance into each kingdom depends on a person's worthiness and their adherence to the commandments of God and the ordinances he has prescribed. Since God is the ultimate judge, all people will be judged fairly and put into the kingdom where they will be most happy. Even so, according to Mormon theology, all three kingdoms are kingdoms of glory, and even the lowest is more glorious than man can currently comprehend.

While it is true that the church has recently placed more emphasis on their Christian-ness than it once did, from the time the church was organized in onward, church members have always regarded themselves as Christians. Their name, "Latter-day Saints" references the fact that members of the "primitive" church in New Testament times were called Saints.

Gordon B. Hinckley , president of the church, has said, "We are Christians in a very real sense and that is coming to be more and more widely recognized.

Once upon a time people everywhere said we are not Christians. They have come to recognize that we are, and that we have a very vital and dynamic religion based on the teachings of Jesus Christ. There are Christians -- particularly among the modern evangelical and fundamentalist communities -- who argue that Mormons are not Christians.

They base this contention on the fact that the Mormon conception of God -- summarized by LDS President Lorenzo Snow, who said, "As man is God once was, and as God is man may become" -- differs from traditional Christian ideas.

They also point to the Mormons' avoidance of the cross as a religious symbol Mormons believe it is a symbol of Christ's death, and they prefer to focus on his life, his suffering in the Garden of Gethsemane, and his resurrection ; their belief in the fallibility of the Bible because of its human translation ; their acceptance of continuing revelation which gives Mormonism an open canon ; and their rejection of the Nicene Creed, a list of common Christian beliefs originally authored in AD and subscribed to by most denominations.

Animosity between fundamentalist Christians and Mormons peaked in the s, when the Southern Baptist Convention held an annual meeting in Salt Lake City, partly in hopes of converting Mormons to Protestant Christianity. More recently, some high-profile fundamentalist Christians have gone on record apologizing for past discord and accepting Mormonism as a branch of Christianity, but some tension remains.

The Mormon temple is considered an earthly point of contact with higher spheres of being. Mormons believe that God is present in the temple space.

This makes it a sacred place set aside to learn things that allow individuals to progress toward becoming like God -- the temple ordinances, especially celestial marriage, make "eternal progression toward Godhood" possible.

The family unit is central to Mormonism, and the primary ritual function of the temple is to perform ceremonies that seal families together, thus allowing them to dwell together for eternity when they pass on to the celestial kingdom.

The specific rituals supporting this function are marriage and family sealing ceremonies -- in which a husband, wife and children are officially bound together -- and baptism for the dead -- through which individuals who died without accepting the Latter-day Saints' Gospel and no longer possess the physical body required for baptism are represented by living proxies, thereby granting them the opportunity to join their families in the celestial kingdom.

The temple is also used to perform the Mormon endowment ceremony. During this ritual, adult Mormons go through a series of lessons and exercises to deepen their faith, and they make covenants with God to keep his commandments. After receiving their endowments, Latter-day Saints wear a distinctive underwear on which special marks are embroidered. Known as "garments" , this underwear, worn next to the skin at nearly all times , is meant to remind individuals of their commitment to their faith and to God.

Men generally receive their endowment before going on a mission and women before they marry, but it is not a one-time ceremony like baptism. Saints are encouraged to return to the temple throughout their lives to continue growing their faith by experiencing the rituals of endowment.