Mormonism

T

tjguitarz

New Member
What is Mormonism?

I was reading an article about a Mormon presidential candidate, and it make me realize that I know virtually nothing about the religion other than they used to be pro-polygamy. So... anybody know?
 
yes.... yet...

are we allowed to talk about it considering how "controversial" the discussion is?
 
It's a cult, TJ. Plain and simple.

You wanted to know all the ins and outs of how it started and why it's a cult, though?
 
Basically, they are a subsection of the Protestant faith. From what I've read, they basically believe that after Jesus ascended to Heaven, He stopped in north america to a settlement here.

This was all brought forth by...Joseph Smith (i think?), that said an angel or God came to him in a dream and had him carve plates with a special language that he had the decoding key, or something-or-other.

From Wiki:
The term derives from the Book of Mormon, which Mormons believe is a scriptural witness of Jesus Christ that is comparable to the Bible. According to the religion's founder Joseph Smith, Jr., this book was written on golden plates, largely by a prophet-warrior-historian named Mormon, who the book says was killed in a great battle between pre-Columbian civilizations during the 4th century.
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I know I've condensed it quite a bit, and likely have made a mistake, but that's the reader's digest version.
 
If you want the simple version, Durrok basically hit it. Mormons believe Joseph Smith received teh book of Mormon from an angle (i believe) which was an "addition" onto Christianity.
The Problem is the book of Mormon teaches things that are, one, contrary to the Scriptures, and two, add-ons to Scripture.
Nothing in the book of Mormon has been proven via archeology... which was the big kicker for me [just the way i think]. This doesn't sound special, yet considering that the book of Mormon states about (and this is a large about) 5 or 6 major ancient cities that run along from centeral / south America, up to mid-Northern American continent. None of these cities, or even traces of the civilizations have EVER been found.
The Book of Mormon states of multiple great battles (great meaning where 2+ million died) and at the locations in which the battles were said to have taken place, NOTHING has ever been found. Not a bone, arrow head, sword, shield, any type of armor, etc. One of these battles was said to have happened on a Hill near New York... that hill has been searched for the past 20 years, and i have failed to hear of ANYTHING ever being found (in a location where supposedly a great battle occurred where 2+ million died).
 
This site may prove helpful. It is the most complete analysis of cults of Christianity that I have found on the internet. I used it as a reference once for a high school paper on Rastafarianism.

In my opinion the major divergence between fundamental Christian doctrines (by which I mean, the beliefs held in common among all major Christian sects worldwide, not meaning the doctrines held by the subset of Christianity that we in the US have labeled "fundamentalism") and Mormonism is not actually their now-remonstrated endorsement of polygamy, but their belief that God used to be a man, and that upon death, believers will themselves eventually become Gods themselves, equal in power to the God that exists in our universe.
 
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Great link, kraniac. Lots of info that I never knew about. It surely is a cult and seems to be anti-Christ and anti-Gospel in every way. It makes me sad :-(
 
kraniac said:
This site may prove helpful. It is the most complete analysis of cults of Christianity that I have found on the internet. I used it as a reference once for a high school paper on Rastafarianism.

In my opinion the major divergence between fundamental Christian doctrines (by which I mean, the beliefs held in common among all major Christian sects worldwide, not meaning the doctrines held by the subset of Christianity that we in the US have labeled "fundamentalism") and Mormonism is not actually their now-remonstrated endorsement of polygamy, but their belief that God used to be a man, and that upon death, believers will themselves eventually become Gods themselves, equal in power to the God that exists in our universe.
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I concur with http://www.watchman.org/ one of the best resources out there to educate yourself for battle... ermm... i mean witnessing ;)
 
Yah, the other thing that seperates itself from us (Christians), is that their faith has changed over time. But not chritianity, the christian faith hasnt changed ever since it started.
 
Though my 'librarian' instinct is often to avoid Wikipedia in favor of more authoritative sources, the last I checked they did have a very good article on Mormonism and Joseph Smith.

Paul
 
Snakebite7 said:
Yah, the other thing that seperates itself from us (Christians), is that their faith has changed over time. But not chritianity, the christian faith hasnt changed ever since it started.
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it hasn't?

Gnosticism? Catholicism? Protestants?

Let's be honest, the Bible as we know it wasn't put into place until a few hundred years after Christ's death. Prior to that there were a number of different gospels floating around besides the four that made it into the Bible. Can we honestly say that someone who was saved via the Gospel of Thomas is any less saved than someone who was saved via the Gospel of John?

And there's huge changes in Christianity recorded in the Bible itself.

Consider, the Christian faith started with Christ's resurrection, yet there was a distinct change in how things were done between the ascension and the day of Pentecost.

And then there was another change in how things were done after Paul converted and began teaching.
 
I haven't read it yet, but my wife has a book called, "One Nation Under Gods". It's a very extensive detailed history of the Mormon church. My wife has read some sections of it to me and there's some strange stuff in their history. I don't know the subject well enough to say much, but if you're interested in learning what they believe, I'd highly recommend the book.
 
tjguitarz said:
It surely is a cult and seems to be anti-Christ and anti-Gospel in every way. It makes me sad :-(
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and the hardest part for me is that i have 2 mormon friends and the mormons aren't taught the truth about their beliefs until they're adults, so they will have built up so much trust in what they're being told that when they are exposed to the outrageous things that mormonism is really about, they will accept them gladly...

i find it redundant for Jesus to go to the new world just to redo the same thing he did in the old world because one of the things the Bible says is that God will not pass judgement until His word has spread to all corners of the world... so basically why redo the Jesus thing if you can just simply spread the word? ESPECIALLY since most of the early trips from the old world to the new world were for two purposes; discovery and missionary work
the new world didn't need Jesus to re-sacrifice himself because humans were going to bring his word there anyway...

besides if He had to do it in the americas, what about australia and all the pacific islands?! that's WAY too much when you can get millions of people to spread the religion for you >.> plus mormonism doesn't believe he went to those places
 
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