Non-LDS view of God

[prisonchaplain]

From time to time I get these questions...are Mormons/Adventists/Catholics Christians?  Like LDS, I start with the reality that not even everyone in our church is a real Christian.  Fruits matter.  Dead faith is worse than none...it's delusion.  Then there are beliefs.  My church has 16 fundamental ones.  Call this a creed, if you wish.  The Articles of Faith are 13, and are scripture for LDS.  If we cross-referenced the Statement of Fundamental Truths (AoG) and the Articles of Faith, we'd find two realities.  Each doctrinal point has some shared truth.  Yet, there is not complete, or even mostly-complete agreement on any one.  So, which is wrong, and is the error disqualifying (of the title Christian)?  The question is more difficult because both groups believe they are led by the Holy Spirit.  Yet...no agreement on doctrine.  It's enough to say that this reality is uncomfortable.  We do well to know what we believe and why we believe it, and then to engage one another with the love we have--love we believe originates with God.

[Guest]

That could be how they feel, but there is no law or rule that says you have to believe or recite a creed to be a Christian. Creeds tend to promote the Trinity, which is a very important belief/doctrine in mainstream Christianity.

 

M.

It is interesting you word it this way.  If we look at the concentric circle model, some place the Trinity in the "core" (bullseye) and others place it in the "dogma" circle (first circle outside the bullseye).  Mormon's of course don't have it at all.  So, those who put it in the bullseye use that as proof that we're not Christians.  Those who put it in the dogma circle question whether they can accept Mormons as Christians or not.

 

The funny thing is that many members of my extended family who are generic protestants (my parents are converts) also don't believe in the Trinity.  My parents themselves converted mainly because they could just never get the concept of the Trinity.  When the missionaries told them that we don't believe in it, they immediately thought "this is the church for us".  The rest of the family is still happy where they are even if they don't believe what is being taught. No accounting for taste.