The quoting system is glitching out on me, So I'll have to use a different method.
"I am Tyler, and I'd like to partake (or lead, if need be) a discussion on Mormonism, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, their beliefs, doctrine, scriptures, history, and their relationship with the other religious groups of the world."
Hello, Tyler. Thank you for coming to our union-- it's good to have you here. I hope you enjoy your time here.
"Without Him our Church would have no reason to exist. It is all about Him, really."
I disagree with that. It's technically about the Father and Jesus (since they're seperate beings in LDS teaching).
"While some would say that we worship a different Jesus than the one in the Holy Bible, I would ask why, then, would we be reading the Holy Bible and canonizing it as one of our Standard Works when we do not profess to believe in the central character of that Bible? The answer would be, of course, that our Book of Mormon teaches a different Jesus. It is still funny how one would claim that we would preach two different and antagonizing Gospels. No, they are the same Gospel. That's why the two books fit well together."
I would agree with the notion that they teach of a different Jesus than the Bible. A church can claim to follow the Bible in it's entirety, but that's an empty claim if the church doesn't follow through with it. The LDS church is guilty of doing that in the way that it distorts salvation by making it work based rather than purely by grace (as Ephesians 2:8-9 declares).
"We believe that Jesus was the firstborn of the Heavenly Father, and chosen by Him to be our Saviour."
That's an unbiblical few, I believe. John 1 makes it clear that he always existed and thus couldn't be the first born.
"These three members of the Godhead are separate in personality and substance, but One in purpose and will. This is how we, at least, explain how the Son is subordinate to the Father, and how the Son could be forsaken by the Father on the cross, and how the Son could pray to the Father. We do not accept the normal reasoning of modern Protestants who essentially say that God forsook Himself, prayed to Himself, and was subordinate to Himself."
That explanation makes more sense than the popular christian tradition that God prayed to himself. Props to the church for that.
"Not only was Christ (or Jehovah, the name we use at times to distinguish Him from the Father, usually before He was born in the flesh) the firstborn of the spiritual children of Heavenly Father, but He is the Only Begotten Son of Heavenly Father in the flesh, and therefore the only One worthy of making the Atonement."
This is one case of deceptive wording that mormon apostles like to use. By "only begotten son in the flesh", they don't mean that they believe that Jesus is the only son of God, but rather, that God had sex with Mary to provide her with Jesus' earthly body. Mormon leaders use the same terminology as christian leaders do, but the mormon definition is almost entirely different.
"We believe that Christ died for our sins, living a perfect life, and was lead as an unblemished lamb to the cross. In this we are certainly no different than our other Christian brothers. Were Christ not to have died for our sins, we would have died in permanent separation from God."
I was under the impression that mormons believe that Jesus paid the atonement when he sweated blood in the garden of Gethsemone-- not when he bled on the cross. That would imply that Jesus bled for people's sin, but didn't die for them. What you said contradicts that, so did the church change it's teaching or something?
"However, He did die. We all agree on that. It is through faith in Him, repentance of our sins, offering a broken heart and contrite spirit to the Lord, baptism by immersion (after an age of accountability, eight years old), and the gift of the Holy Ghost through the laying on of hands that we are able to obtain salvation in its highest degree: the celestial kingdom."
Isn't it by repentance and then LDS ordinances that one gets to the highest level of the kingdom (according to the church)? Hence my assertion that one must earn their way into heaven in the other thread.
"It is not works which saves us, but then again, faith doesn't either. It is the grace of God, and those who have faith, and who exercise that faith, will be blessed with the grace of God."
Once again, I would encourage you to read Ephesians 2:8-9. Works have nothing to do with it (in christian doctrine).
"Are we Christians? Of course. Our cornerstone is Christ."
I would say that the cornerstone is man-- not Jesus. Your sig is a fine testament to that.
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