Are Mormons Christian?

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156. Just because they don't repeat the Nicene Creed doesn't mean that they don't accept the

the Nicene's Creed Christology and the theology of the Trinity.

Are the Baptists and AnaBaptists saying that the Christ wasn't fully human? Are they saying that he wasn't resurrected.

No.

So even those that accept only scripture and will say no creeds accept the theological conclusions that are embodied in the Nicene Creed.

Here is how one Baptist minister explains the conundrum to his flock

http://www.fbcgh.net/archives/16

Among these watershed events, though, one must mention the development of the Nicene Creed—both its conception at the First Council of Nicea in AD 325 and its subsequent expansion at the First Council of Constantinople in AD 381. The Nicene Creed would come to be the most widely used statement of faith in all the Christian Church throughout time. And its popularity can still be seen today as it is recited or otherwise affirmed in the midst of worship by Roman Catholics, Eastern and Oriental Orthodox, Lutherans, Anglicans, Methodists, Presbyterians, and on and on.

But while the Nicene Creed is embraced by millions of Christians of virtually every denominational tradition, some feel a bit uncomfortable with its wording. Some Christians, particularly of a Baptist or otherwise Evangelical stripe, while wholeheartedly supporting the creed’s declaration of the Trinity, flinch at one of the final lines of the text which reads: “We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.” To some these words just seem… well… off. Isn’t it our faith that justifies us? Doesn’t the heart-felt repentance and commitment we make to the Lord in prayer get the job done? Isn’t baptism supposed to be merely an outward expression of an inward and preexistent reality?

Those who feel this way often point to passages in the Bible that support what may be called a direct and immediate view of salvation, that is, a view which implies that justification can be had independent of any outward ritual. As the Apostle Paul declares, “with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.” (Romans 10:10) And as the Apostle Peter proclaims, we are now living in an age in which, “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved!” (Acts 2:21) With these passages in mind Evangelicals generally and Baptists specifically sometimes just can’t bring themselves to embrace the creed—after all, the Bible is the prime authority in our lives and creeds (whether they be ancient or modern) are merely human documents liable to error.

But this kind of unease is simply unnecessary. While the Bible does indeed affirm that salvation comes through faith and repentance, it also affirms that baptism is the normal and God-ordained arena in which these sentiments find their appropriate expression. In the book of Acts whenever a man comes to faith in the Lord he is baptized immediately. One might say that his conversion and his baptism are thus so closely linked that they form a single, indistinguishable event. Therefore, while faith and repentance can be expressed simply through prayer, in the New Testament at least, they are always expressed through baptism as an acted prayer.

So whether or not the recite the Nicene Creed or not they accept the Holy Trilogy and so on.

Mormons do not.

Jesus was independent of God.

God was a man who became sanctified and got his own world to play with. And so on.

To sum up;

For about four hundred years followers of Christ devolved into various schools of thought. Eventually the understanding of the Christ and the Resurrection came to be understood by two different schools, the traditional and the Gnostics. The Church came together and codified these into the Nicene Creed. Follow the Creed and the basic ideas of the Creed then you are a Christian, if you don't then you may be a follower of Jesus but you are not what the rest of the Church calls 'Christian'.

I try to follow the teachings of the Rabbi Jesus who some think was the Christ. I cannot ascribe to the Nicene Creed. So even though I was made a ruling elder of the Presbyterian Church on my 18th birthday and the youngest elder in the history of the Church I do not consider myself a 'Christian'.

This is really basic Christianity 101.

If you accept the Holy Triology, the Virgin Birth (even as a theological analogy and not an actual event) and the Resurrection then you are following the basic tenets of the Nicene Creed whether or not your group acknowledges it or not. Doing so puts you in the Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Protestant, Baptist, Anabaptist, Reformed, Restoration, Anglican, Oriental Orthodox, Assyrian.




Some people might not follow that and call themselves 'Christians'.


Marshall Applewhite believed that he was a descendent of Jesus and took his little sect off our earth to the Comet Hale-Bopp. Marshall thought that he was a Christian because he read the Book of Revelation. He was not.

Individuals may call themselves 'Christian' but if it is to have any meaning there must be boundaries or will include Saint Paul and Marshall Applewhite as the same thing. That definition occurred in 325 AD and whether or not they recite the creed from that council people who follow that understanding all share in that tradition.

Joseph Smith did not follow that. He used the teachings of Jesus to write his own Bible and start his own tradition. Brigham Young followed him. When Young was worried about the flagging faith of the Mormons after they settled around Utah he had a young protege Jedidiah Morgan Grant go around the state and preach fire and damnation. JMG was a big success and when he came back Young made him the first Mayor of Salt Lake City. He picked up some virus (maybe pnumonia) and died within a year. Young raised his son Heber J Grant. Heber J Grant became the second longest serving President of the Mormon Church. When the stock market crashed and the entire church and all of its holdings were about to be foreclosed on HJG started enforcing the 'no polygamy' rule in fact. He went to NYC renegotiated the mortgages held by the Church and saved the Mormon Church.

One hundred thirty years later I told Rick Romney (Mitt Romney's first cousin) in the third grade that I was the direct descendent of JMG and HJG but that after getting a little education every single living member of our family had left the Mormon Church (not true because Senator Bennett is a distant cousin) and he cried.

I googled Rick Romney the other day.

He went into investments and worked for Spieker Properties Inc.

His main project was working on the Bay Meadows Development which included the Bay Meadows Racetrack. Making money from the track that Seabiscuit used to run at. I am sure he tithed his 10% and got and even though the Church is 100% against all forms of gambling I am sure he got some kind of exemption. You can do that when you start your own religion.