Mormons as the fourth Abrahamic religion


Juan_P
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A baptist pastor, Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, said today to MSNBC:

He said it was a fourth type of Abrahamic religion, in addition to Christianity, Judaism and Islam.

Now I for one am a bit sick and tired of telling people "We're Christian too" but it isn't getting through and it isn't working. And I know that in the end it doesn't matter that much but I have to keep talking to evangelical friends I have.

Wouldn't we be under the general Christianity umbrella but on our own in there? separate from Protestants, Catholics and Orthodox, as a new form of Christianity?

Can people here explain to me why it is that other Christians are so uptight and don't see us as Christians? I now we reject many of traditional Christianity's claims, like the Trinity view and saved by grace only and not works but how do they define Christianity to be able to claim that we aren't Christians too? I'm more interested in what they, other christians, say about what a christian is to be able to then conclude that mormons aren't Christians because I know what we say about the issue obviously.

I have a few friends who are evangelical christians, born again pentacostal type, so any explanation and argument will come in handy during my discussions with them. By the way they told me we aren't christians because we make God to be a man with special powers and not the all powerful God, if that makes some sense.

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By the way they told me we aren't christians because we make God to be a man with special powers and not the all powerful God, if that makes some sense.

Yeah, it does make some sense.

"God himself was once as we are now, and is an exalted Man, and sits enthroned in yonder heavens...I say, if you were to see him to-day, you would see him like a man in form -- like yourselves, in all the person, image, and very form as a man....it is necessary that we should understand the character and being of God, and how he came to be so; for I am going to tell you how God came to be God. We have imagined and supposed that God was God from all eternity, I will refute that idea, and will take away and do away the veil, so that you may see....and that he was once a man like us; yea, that God himself the Father of us all, dwelt on an earth the same as Jesus Christ himself did." Joseph Smith Journal of Discourses vol 6, p. 3

Don't deny the truth. Embrace it.

Explain that we believe that God is omnipotent and omniscience because of his knowledge, wisdom and past experience. He understands and commands the very universe because of his complete dominance of the laws of nature and physics. And even though He is all powerful he chooses to be our Father because he recognizes that true joy comes from a life filled with service, family, and mastery of self and the environment.

I believe that as our society becomes more and more educated and begins to learn the mysteries of the universe, Christians that base their beliefs on mysticism will continue to lose membership.

Ask your friends to imagine where our society will be in say 1000 years if we are able to avoid war and continue to progress and collaborate socially and scientifically. Will we be able to travel to other stars and populate other worlds? Look where we were 200 years ago...

Then explain that we believe that God once was a man. That He became an immortal and that He predates the creation of our Universe. It is difficult to understand the concept of eternity, but if you realize that the Universe is around 14 billion years old and try to understand the time span of our life compared to God's life you might start to come to a realization of how incredibly knowledgeable and experienced that he is...

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I laugh when people talk about Universes and when they started, etc. Universe means all yet we are determined to put limits to it, same as we do for how long God has existed, how long we have existed, etc.

It really has no beginning and no end no matter how hard we try to put limits on it. God wasnt here before the Universe. They are both endless.

Now if you mean this area of space then i can go with that. :D

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A baptist pastor, Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, said today to MSNBC:

Now I for one am a bit sick and tired of telling people "We're Christian too" but it isn't getting through and it isn't working. And I know that in the end it doesn't matter that much but I have to keep talking to evangelical friends I have.

Wouldn't we be under the general Christianity umbrella but on our own in there? separate from Protestants, Catholics and Orthodox, as a new form of Christianity?

Can people here explain to me why it is that other Christians are so uptight and don't see us as Christians? I now we reject many of traditional Christianity's claims, like the Trinity view and saved by grace only and not works but how do they define Christianity to be able to claim that we aren't Christians too? I'm more interested in what they, other christians, say about what a christian is to be able to then conclude that mormons aren't Christians because I know what we say about the issue obviously.

I have a few friends who are evangelical christians, born again pentacostal type, so any explanation and argument will come in handy during my discussions with them. By the way they told me we aren't christians because we make God to be a man with special powers and not the all powerful God, if that makes some sense.

As I understand the necessity of a restoration in the last days there will evolve two religions. Like in the days of Noah there will be a separation. The time will come that we will be accepted or rejected - there will be no middle ground. And as in the days of Noah the uniting of the righteous will be to perserve family.

The Traveler

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A baptist pastor, Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, said today to MSNBC:

Now I for one am a bit sick and tired of telling people "We're Christian too" but it isn't getting through and it isn't working. And I know that in the end it doesn't matter that much but I have to keep talking to evangelical friends I have.

Wouldn't we be under the general Christianity umbrella but on our own in there? separate from Protestants, Catholics and Orthodox, as a new form of Christianity?

Can people here explain to me why it is that other Christians are so uptight and don't see us as Christians? I now we reject many of traditional Christianity's claims, like the Trinity view and saved by grace only and not works but how do they define Christianity to be able to claim that we aren't Christians too? I'm more interested in what they, other christians, say about what a christian is to be able to then conclude that mormons aren't Christians because I know what we say about the issue obviously.

I have a few friends who are evangelical christians, born again pentacostal type, so any explanation and argument will come in handy during my discussions with them. By the way they told me we aren't christians because we make God to be a man with special powers and not the all powerful God, if that makes some sense.

I don't tell people i'm christian anymore, I just tell them I follow Christ.
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There are some LDS scholars, such as Richard Bushman that agree we are a 4th Abrahamic religion. And in some ways I do agree with it, as we are not traditional Christians, just as Catholics are not in the Jewish faith, but a separate tradition.

I agree that the best we can do is tell people that we worship God and Jesus Christ, and let them decide from there what they will think.

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Yeah, it does make some sense.

"God himself was once as we are now, and is an exalted Man,

Don't deny the truth. Embrace it.

Then explain that we believe that God once was a man. That He became an immortal and that He predates the creation of our Universe. It is difficult to understand the concept of eternity, but if you realize that the Universe is around 14 billion years old and try to understand the time span of our life compared to God's life you might start to come to a realization of how incredibly knowledgeable and experienced that he is...

yeah I know our doctrine, the issue is that once you say God was once a man, for them its heresy and wrong and one of the excuses they give to say we aren't Christians because all other christians reject the notion and reject any similar.

I can repeat our doctrine to them but it doesn't make things any better, actually it makes things worse.

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I don't tell people i'm christian anymore, I just tell them I follow Christ.

I couldn't do that. If I follow Christ, if I'm a follower of Jesus of Nazareth then I'm as much a Christian as those early dudes who were fed to the lions. -Now it seems that we get thrown to the evangelical pits!!!

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There are some LDS scholars, such as Richard Bushman that agree we are a 4th Abrahamic religion. And in some ways I do agree with it, as we are not traditional Christians, just as Catholics are not in the Jewish faith, but a separate tradition.

Is there a reference or somewhere to read up on Bushman's claims? because for me its a massive stretch to make us the 4th Abrahamic religion. We may not be traditional Christians, no issues there, but surely its wrong to say that we aren't Christians.

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I couldn't do that. If I follow Christ, if I'm a follower of Jesus of Nazareth then I'm as much a Christian as those early dudes who were fed to the lions. -Now it seems that we get thrown to the evangelical pits!!!

I've seen so much debate and criticism of what constitutes a christian, that its not worth the baggage for me- hence why i say I follow Christ, call it whatever you want.
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