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The Fundamental Difference

IS MORMONISM CHRISTIAN?

Dr. Timothy L. Hudson

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 "I have more to boast of than ever any man had. I am the only man that has ever been able to keep a whole church together since the days of Adam. A large majority of the whole have stood by me. Neither Paul, John, Peter, nor Jesus ever did it. I boast that no man ever did such a work as I. The followers of Jesus ran away from Him; but the Latter-day Saints never ran away from me yet. . . . " (History of the Church, Vol. 6, p. 408-409).

JOSEPH SMITH ON JOSEPH SMITH

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Biblical Christianity affirms:Ontological Monotheism: The belief in one God by nature 

LDS Doctrine affirms:Polytheism: The belief in more that one true God 

THE FUNDAMENTAL DIFFERENCE

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I will preach on the plurality of Gods . . . I have always and in all congregations when I have preached on the subject of Deity, it has been the plurality of Gods. . . . Jesus Christ a separate and distinct personage from God the Father, and that the Holy Ghost was a distinct personage and a Spirit: and these three constitute three distinct personages and three Gods

(Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, 370; emphasis added).

JOSEPH SMITH: (THE KING FOLLET DISCOURSE, AUGUST 15, 1844):

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There was never a time when there were not Gods and worlds, and men were not passing through the same ordeals that we are now passing through

(Brigham Young, Discourses of Brigham Young, 22-23).

BRIGHAM YOUNG SECOND PRESIDENT AND PROPHET:

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God himself was once as we are now, and is an exalted man, and sits enthroned in yonder heavens…it is necessary we should understand the character and being of God and how he came to be so; for I am going to tell you how God came to be God. We have imagined and suppose that God was God from all eternity. I will refute that idea, and take away the veil, so that you may see.These are incomprehensible ideas to some, but they are simple. It is the first principle of the Gospel to know for a certainty the Character of God, and to know that we may converse with him as one man converses with another, and that he was once a man like us; yea, that God himself, the Father of us all, dwelt on an earth, the same as Jesus Christ himself did; and I will show it from the Bible. Here then, is eternal life--to know the only wise and true God; and you have got to learn how to be Gods yourselves, and to be kings and priest to God, the same as all Gods have done before you, namely by going from one small degree to another, and from a small capacity to a great one. . . .

(Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, 345-347; emphasis added). 

JOSEPH SMITH DEFINES THE THEOLOGY OF

THE LDS CHURCH:

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Mormon Doctrine states that God was once a man that lived on a planet similar to this one. He progressed and was exalted to become the God of this planet by His Father God Who Himself is an exalted man that lives on the planet Kolob.

Christian Doctrine stands on the Word of God that says: "For I am the LORD, I change NOT. . . . " (Mal. 3:6)

MORMONS WORSHIP A CHANGING GOD THAT IS NOT ETERNALLY GOD. 

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 God does not create anything He merely "organizes" eternal matter. Joseph Smith explains:I am right, I might with boldness proclaim from the house--tops that God never had the he power to create the spirit of man at all (Teaching s of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 354).

IN LDS THEOLOGY :

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Yes and NOMormonism holds four books as Holy Scripture:• KJV Bible • The Book of Mormon • The Pearl of Great Price• Doctrines and Covenants

DO THEY BELIEVE THE BIBLE IS THE WORD OF GOD?

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Brigham Young:When the Virgin Mary conceived the child Jesus, the Father had begotten him in his own likeness. He was not begotten by the Holy Ghost. And who is the Father? He is the first of the human family; and when he took a tabernacle [body], it was begotten by his Father in heaven, after the same manner as the tabernacles of Cain, Abel and the rest of the sons and daughters of Adam and Eve. . . . (Journal of Discourses (hereafter:JD), 1:50; emphasis added).

THE MORMON JESUS

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The birth of the Savior was as natural as are the births of our children; it was the result of natural action. He partook of flesh and blood--was begotten of his Father, as we were of our fathers. . . . (JD, 8:115).

When the time came that His first-born, the Savior, should come into the world and take a tabernacle, the Father came Himself and favoured that spirit with a tabernacle instead of letting any other man do it. . . .(JD, 4:218; emphasis added).

BRIGHAM YOUNG’S JESUS

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