More Mormons and Christians

See previous post Mormon Muslim or Christian for the conversation leading to this post.

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So that everyone understands, I am not accusing individuals [who are Mormon] of not being christian persons because of their specific religious affiliation. Only God knows a man's heart and whether or not He lives in it and if His kingdom is established in that person. If Jesus knows a person as a believer in Him and as His follower and they are living a different life as a result of that, then I would definitely say they would be a 'christian person', perhaps maybe even a Christian, denomination or affiliation is of no consequence at this point.

With that in mind, let me explain where I am coming from about the question of Mormons being Christians. Now we are talking about churches or denominations, not individuals. Christian churches in the mid-west consist of your Baptist, Lutheran, Methodist, Pentecostal, etc type churches. They say they are christian churches and have for decades, because most of them have roots born out of the Reformation (protestant christians). These christian churches say the Mormon church is not christian mainly because they have doctrine that goes beyond the Bible and they turn to more than the Bible for direction and authority in their life. Some of the battle cries of the Reformation were 'the bible alone', 'justification by faith alone', 'the cross alone' to name a few. I know when we were growing up, we mormons did not call ourselves christians. I did not even know what a christian was other than it was someone who went to a different church than the one I grew up in. But here recently the family started using the word Christian in their speech and email about themselves and I just wondered why and when that had started.

To clarify another point, when I say 'a Bible believing Christian' I am refering to a 'bible alone' believing Christian which would make a distinction between groups or churches.

As for my statements of belief presented, I presented it so that there would be an understanding of what I think as I understand the writings in the bible to present concerning how a person goes to heaven versus what you said the Qur'an said about all good people go to heaven. It should be clear I don't think being good has anything to do with whether a person goes to heaven. (What is good and how good is good enough?). I also wanted it to be clear that I believe the Bible, the Bible alone, as the holy God-inspired, every verse is translated correctly (it is inerrant), authority in my life. I thought this was an important aspect to share as part of my belief foundation (so readers would know where I was coming from) because the Mormon church says it only accepts the KJV bible "insofar as it is translated correctly". Previous Mormon church leaders have written about how the Bible is subject to translation error and imply that it can't be trusted as a solitary source of doctrine. I disagree with that.

'"He [Joseph Smith] stands alone as a source of doctrine," says Dallin H. Oaks, member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles [high ranking LDS church leadership] ...' ('The Mormon Odyssey', Oct 17 2005 Newsweek)

'Because of Mormonism's unique theology, some of which challenges early Christian creeds, many Christian denominations don't consider the LDS Church to be Christian. "There is no rightful claim by historic Mormon doctrine to the name Christian, because they deny almost every one of the major fundamental doctrines of Christendom," says Norman Geisler, founder of the Southern Evangelical Seminary.' ('The Mormon Odyssey', Oct 17 2005 Newsweek)