The simple answer is NO! Not even close to Christian. To start a new religion by stealing the terminology from an established religion and then redefining the words does not make the new religion the same as the religion they cannibalized.
They wait until you are hooked with “familiar” terminology and only slowly are you indoctrinated with their strange views. They deny the Trinity, the divinity of Christ and the uniqueness of God.
In the whole scheme of things it is a very young and novel attempt at redefining Christianity. They are not the first heretics. The first heretics with similar ideas were debunked by the Fathers of the Church.
(Taken from www.CatholicCulture.org) — Most of us have had Mormon missionaries at our doors, and people keep asking whether Mormons are Christians. Many Mormons believe that they are, but in my latest blog post, I summarize the arguments which show why Mormonism is not Christian in any meaningful sense of the term. See Is Mormonism Christian?
Fr. Richard John Neuhaus, editor of First Things, raised exactly the same question in an outstanding essay eight years ago, which has the same title: Is Mormonism Christian? Fr. Neuhaus reaches the same conclusion, but offers a prolonged reflection on Mormonism and its place in American society.
Fr. Brian Harrison, The Appeal of Mormonism, an interesting essay taken from This Rock in 2003.
Fr. Leslie Rumble, The Book of Mormon I and The Book of Mormon II, from Homiletic & Pastoral Review back in the late 1950’s. For my previous blog on Mormons, click here.
I also have other links available here. My earlier blog on Mormons can be read here.
This Post Has 9 Comments
I see your point Steve but why spend so much time on the Mormons? They are relatively harmless and I have yet to see any of them coming at the Church, the way some evangelicals do. All the best! Pax Christi!
David, You have not lost someone you love to this religion that seems so harmless yet is so non-Christian. There is something satanic in how they present their positions. It puts a screen over truth and hides behind emotion. If you or others see this reply, please pray for my son Steven who are still lost to Mormonism.
David, If you are still out there, please pray for my son Steven. You have not lost someone you love to this cultish non-Christian religion, I have. Every day is sad knowing that I missed the attraction and somehow did not catechize him properly. We really need to make people more aware of the errors that Mormonism teaches. Once they have a person, they seldom come back.
I will pray for your son, Tom.
Hi Steve,
As I read your first two paragraphs, I think "why would this not include all protestant denominations"? Every one of them have stolen terminology and redefined the words to make it look like Christianity, as an example "to be born again means to accept Jesus into your heart as your personal Lord and Savior". Protestant theology is new and strange compared to authentic Christianity.
If anyone in the early Church would deny Jesus' presence in the Eucharist, deny that Baptism saves you, deny infant's Baptism, deny that the Blessed Mother was ever virgin, deny that the Catholic Church is the one and only Church Jesus established, believe in scripture alone, believe in faith alone, they would be deemed a heretic and cast out. But, now out of ecumenism, we say that Protestantism is Christian and that their teachings are Chrisitan.
I have heard people say that we have more in common with protestants than we disagree on. This just doesn't seem to be the reality that I observe. The list I made above is just a tip of the iceberg on the topics that protestants disagree with against the teachings Christ's Church. If we had more in common then why are there so many apologetic books, CD's, websites, literature etc out there to help Catholics defend the faith on a multitude of topics?
Also, I hear from both protestant and Catholic sides that non-Catholics too, will go to heaven even though they are outside of the Catholic Church and even being vehemently opposed to Christ's Church (and I am not trying to say who does and doesn't go to Heaven, only the Lord judges that). These people even go as far as saying the Catholic Church is the "Whore of Babylon" and that all Catholics are going to hell. And these people are described as having good intentions and that they are just following what they believe to be the truth.
And if it doesn't really matter what protestants teach others, even pulling Catholics away from the true faith, and that even they go to heaven, then what is the point of even being Catholic or even holding to the Catholic teachings? Isn't it easier to get to Heaven through protestant theology? Why not "switch sides" and go to where the gate is wider into heaven if it doesn't seem to matter?
Please understand that I am not trying to be combative to you or to be demeaning to anyone. I am just trying to make sense of all of it. Maybe it's above my "paid grade" to try and figure it out. But, after a long time of thinking about it, I wonder why apologetics and defending the Catholic faith matters.
Please pray for me.
Any thoughts,
Mike
Sent from my iPad
STEVE RAY HERE: Mike, your question is easy to answer. Protestants and Catholics share the most essential elements in common. What are they? That God is a personal God not just one God and one universe among many universes run by Mormon men.
Second, that God is a Trinity and the trinity is made up of three distinct persons: Father, Son, Holy Spirit. This is the essence of what it means to be a Christian.
Third, that Jesus is not just a creature but he is both 100% human and 100% divine he is one divine person with two natures.
Fourth, that Jesus as God and man died on the cross in atonement for our sins.
You know and I know that Mormonism doesn't even come close to that. It is a radical and bizarre religion that is just newly invented with very suspect origins and doesn't even come close to the teachings and doctrines of historical Christianity.
Therefore we Catholics consider protestants to be Christians that are not in the fullness of the faith. And we consider Mormons to be heretics and not even Christian.
Yet christianity took its ideals from the Norse, The Greeks, The Romans, Egyptians, Druids, Assyrians … All predate Christian beliefs. All have things stolen and changed by christianity.
STEVE RAY HERE: sorry James but you’re incorrect. Christianity developed out of Judaism and was a proper development. There may be cultural things like dress and language but Christianity is Christianity and Mormonism is not.
I wish that James Tate had offered some evidence to back up his assertions. (There I go again!)
As far is Mormonism is concerned it is clearly not Christian,it is a fake cult invented by a charlatan called Joseph Smit,a quick glance at their doctrine clearly shows us how far removed it is from anything remotely christian.As for Protestants,I firmly believe with due inferences from the Holy gospel and the catechism,that they cannot be called christian in the proper sense of the term,they are heretics.The Church is clearly “Extra ecclesiam nulla salus” -outside the one true Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church in full communion with the Bishop of Rome,there can be no salvation unless in the case of inculpable ignorance(St. Thomas Aquinas – God would make known to such a person at or before the moment of death, by either natural or supernatural means, the Catholic faith) but again we must be clear the modern day meaning of the word christian is rather broad and should be used only say as a statistical term if used out of context.Again We must not judge others who lead lives different from our own and we must remember Christs words to the woman taken in adultery “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone” and it would also do us well to remember Christs own words “be gone and sin no more”.This is also a time of great suffering for Christ and his Church Let us pray to God our omnipotent lord,To Christ his son and our lord,To the blessed mary ever virgin to blessed michael the archangel to all the apostles and saints of the Church to save their Church from the traitors and devils bagpiers within.
Mike is correct to question whether protestants should be considered cults like the Mormons. As protestants get further and further from the Catholic truth they should be considered pagans, not Christians.
STEVE RAY HERE: John, The definition of a cult can be a little fluid but normally it has to do with how a group sees Jesus and the Trinity. If the Trinity is understood as three equal persons in one Godhead, and Jesus is claimed to be both God and man, the need for blood atonement for our sins a few other matters like that, a group is considered to be Christian and even as our separated brethren.
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