Are Mormons Christians?
Question:
I have heard them say this, but Are Mormons Christians?
Answer:
When you come close to Mormons and hear what they believe, you can see a vast difference from what other Christians believe, even if you are without any theological knowledge. But the problem isn’t just that their beliefs are different; it is because of something fundamental that unites every Christian believer: Jesus is fully God and fully man.
The Mormons do not believe that Jesus is the eternally Begotten Son of God, present with the Father from all eternity. We believe He is the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity. However, they hold that Jesus was not always divine, but he was once an “intelligence” such as us, who existed from eternity. They believe God chose him to become the “firstborn” among the intelligences and gave him the first spirit body.
Their leadership released the following statement in 1909:
“The Father of Jesus is our Father also. . . . Jesus, however, is the firstborn among all the sons of God—the first begotten in the spirit, and the only begotten in the flesh. He is our elder brother, and we, like him, are in the image of God.”
Talking to Mary Magdalene when he rose from the dead, Jesus made an unusual statement:
“Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.'”
John 20:17
He made this statement this way because Jesus’s sonship is not only hierarchically different but essentially different from our sonship with God. Jesus is Son of God by Nature, which means he is God too. We are children of God by Grace.
But the Mormons believe Jesus is like us but only hierarchically higher, which reduces him from being the Eternal Creator of the universe to being merely one highly praised part of it. This belief is not a Christian one.
Are Mormons Christians?
Read More
