Mormon, Muslim or Christian?

Okay, the following post came from a family blog, where a relative of mine (a nephew maybe) posted the following thoughts:

"The main reason that I was unsure about the war in Iraq was that I was afraid of the course that it would set and the fact that I was worried about the possiblity that the war begun in Iraq would spread to many other nations. I believe that there is no solution to the current problem in the middle east. I believe that we should try as hard as we can and do what is right in the middle east to bring peace. I believe that the issues facing the middle east are not only political in nature. I believe that a far more powerful force is to be found in the religious ideology of those involved. The jews, The Christians and the Muslims will have conflict in the future because of those different belief systems. As the as-Mahdi Army militiaman said, now to them we are Jews. "Amongst them we have placed enmity and hatred till the Day of Judgment. Every time they kindle the fire of war, Allah doth extinguish it; but they (ever) strive to do mischief on earth. And Allah loveth not those who do mischief." - the prophet Muhammad."

"I respect every man and his religion and I even think that Muhammad was a very good man and that the Qur'an in full of wonderful passages encouraging peace and love and unity. The Qur'an teaches that no matter what religion you follow as long as you are a good person you will go to heaven.

"There is also a great deal of hate and many statements in the Qur'an that can explain why those who focus on that small part of the book can be driven to feel justified in deliberatly killing innocent people and themselves at the same time. The Jews and Christians are refered to as "Infidels" in many passages. The idea of Holy war or war against not only nations but Religions as well is not a new idea for Muslims. In india many years ago the major religion was Hinduism and then the Muslims came in and killed many of their leaders and spread the religion of Islam throughout india. In many nations that are composed of a majority of Muslims there is little tolerance for other religions or belief systems (Such as women's rights) I do not condemn or hate the religion of Islam and I also realize that the messages at it's heart from the prophet Muhammad is the source of many of the problems we face today. I also want to share my opinion that Muhammad was only reacting to the times in which he lived. As a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints I believe that the true Church of Christ was not on the earth in 570 A.D. (Having been lost even in America by 421 A.D.) I believe that Muhammad was a very good man who was only reacting to the behavior of the Apostate Jews and the Apostate Christians who both claimed to speak and act for God but in truth were misguided and wrong."

"I offer my belief that the truth was restored to earth in it's fullness through the prophet Joseph Smith and that those truths contain the answers. Our Father in Heaven, Allah, loves all of his children and commands us to do the same. As Christians I believe that we are called upon to love and forgive all of the people of the earth and to work for their greatest happiness, freedom and good whatever it is. I am given comfort in the hope and faith that the Son of God, Jesus Christ will return to the earth to save the just and righteous in every nation and religion and destroy the wicked in every nation and religion. My greatest hope is to be found among those, in the words of Muhammad, "who believe in Allah and the Last Day, and work righteousness"."

--------------------------------------------
I left this reply to his post on the family blog:

"I'm confused. Is my relative a Book of Mormon believing Mormon, a Holy Bible believing Christian, or a Qur'an believing Muslim? I would think he could only be one of the three.

For the record, I am a Holy Bible believing Christian, who believes that it is by grace through faith in Jesus Christ that I am saved and no other way. Not by being good enough, not by being religious or having religion, or by knowing it all. Jesus paid the price for my sin, plain and simple, I accept that. He saved me from eternal damnation in a sinner's hell because of what He did. There is not a single work (including self righteousness) that I could ever do as a human being on this earth to save myself, get myself into or earn my way into heaven, save to believe in Jesus. There is not any other name under Heaven by which I can be saved, for no man goes to the Father (not Allah) except by Jesus.

As a Holy Bible believing Christian, I believe the Holy Bible (the Scriptures), both the Old and New Testaments, are verbally inspired of God and are the revelation of God to man, the infallible, authoritative rule of faith and conduct. Having said that, this immediately will cause me to reject any teaching by any other man, any other book, or any other 'prophet' that does not line up with the Word of God (The Holy Bible).

That, my friends and relatives, is why confrontation between religions is a sure thing. Everyone thinks their teaching or religion is correct and if it's different than your's or mine, well then, we have a problem. One of us has to be wrong.

Bible believing Christians embrace the Bible as their solitary single source of truth because not doing so opens the door to not having an authoritative standard by which to judge or discern things by. Christians believe the Bible is the 'acid test' of truth, not prayer. If someone presents a teaching or a theology or a prophetic message to me that I can't prove out in the Bible, I don't turn to prayer to figure out if it is truth. I either reject it as a falsehood or I don't embrace it as part of my theology.

It is interesting to me, when I was growing up, we Mormons never called ourselves Christians. But a few years ago, I discovered that Mormons were in fact doing that now, and after researching it, found that this started back in the early 80's in church writings presenting reasons why Mormons were Christians. What was the purpose of that? If you start looking really hard at the theology of Protestant Christianity (aka Christians) it is so much different than that of Mormons it doesn't make sense. If Mormons are oranges and Christians are apples, why does the Mormon church want the world to see them as apples when they are oranges? Muslims aren't trying to call themselves Christian, yet many of them believe Jesus (Christ) was a great prophet, a good man. If they are pears, they are pears, they are not trying to be apples.

Anyway, that was my two cents worth.

I have been on both sides of the fence, Mormonism and Christianity, and on the surface they seem very similar, but when you get down to the nuts and bolts of it, the doctrines are very different. What appears to be the same belief on both sides is very different when you analyze it and dig deep into the theology behind the belief.

My greatest hope is Jesus and what He did on the cross when He shed His blood for me, giving His life for me, so that I might have eternal life.

--------------------------------------------