Are Mormons Christian?
Perhaps it’s time for Christians to stop asking each other whether they are Christian or not. It’s too easy, and too divisive, for one creed to tell the other that they don’t actually worship Christ and can, then, be dismissed out of hand. If a group of people follow Christ and believe him as their Savior, there seems no reason to decide that they are not Christian. How do differences in doctrine compare against that? Mormons do indeed follow Christ and believe in Him and His life and ministry as written in the New Testament. But many Christians claim that Mormons aren’t Christian at all. Why is this?
There are many reasons why some other Christians won’t allow Mormons into the community. Some say that Mormons believe in a different Jesus from real Christians. Mormons may indeed believe more about Jesus Christ than many other Christians, which we will cover in our discussion about additional Mormon scripture, but the core is the same. They believe that Jesus Christ was the divine Son of God and that He died for our sins. Mormons believe everything written in the Bible regarding Christ, New Testament and Old, the Gospels and the writings of the Apostles. But Mormons and most Christians do differ on certain points on the nature of God and Jesus Christ.
Most Christians believe in the doctrine of the Trinity, as set forth by the Nicene council. This doctrine determined that God is immaterial and that God, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost are the same Being in One. In Mormon belief, this is not supported by scripture or by revelation and they do not recognize the doctrine of the Trinity as coming from God, but, rather, believe it to be a theory made by men. What Mormons believe about the nature of God is that Jesus Christ, God, the Father, and the Holy Ghost are every one of them separate and distinct beings, a Godhead instead of a Trinity, united in purpose. Jesus Christ is God’s Son, not an aspect of God, the Father made flesh. Both God and Jesus Christ possess immortal bodies of flesh and bone. Can Mormons really not be considered Christian because of different doctrine about the immateriality or materiality of God, or whether God, Jesus, and the Holy Ghost are a Trinity or a Godhead? Nowhere in the New Testament does Christ Himself state anything of the sort.
Another reason some Christians do not consider Mormons Christian is that they believe in additional scripture to the Bible and continuing revelation. In the beliefs of Mormonism, God still speaks to us through prophets. The great period wherein no revelation was given is called the Great Apostasy and is thought to have come about through the death of the Apostles and the straying and confusion in the Church, and the loss of the priesthood, or the authority to act in God’s name. It is not believed to be a matter of God having no more to say.
In the 1820s, God restored prophetic and apostolic authority to the founder of Mormonism, Joseph Smith. With this authority, Joseph Smith translated the Book of Mormon, another testament of Christ written by ancient prophets on the American continent. He also brought forth the Doctrine and Covenants and the Pearl of Great Price. To many Christians, this must be a sign that Mormonism has no Christianity in it, and believe that the Bible contains all scripture we need and that God has given. They cite such scriptures at Revelation 22: 18-19, ignoring the fact that the Bible did not exist at the time that scripture was written. The Bible was compiled well after the fact, out of existing material (much of which did not make it in) and does not represent everything prophets of God has ever said. Mormons believe that a living prophet restored the Church and that living prophets have led the Church under the guidance of the Lord ever since (the prophet today is Gordon B. Hinckley) and these prophets have always wholly affirmed Christ as our Savior and our salvation through Him.
Mormons do not consider other creeds unchristian because of differing doctrines, even if the same consideration is not always returned.