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发帖数: 6300 | 1 Mormons Are Not Christians Because the Mormon Jesus Is Not the Christian
Christ
I am one of three Jim Wallace’s in my family. My father and son bear the
same name, and all three of us are police officers. I often say that we are
the “George Foreman’s” of law enforcement; we’re not very creative when
it comes to names. If someone asked you, therefore, “Do you trust Jim
Wallace as a police officer?” the first thing you’d have to determine is,
“To which officer Jim Wallace are you referring?” In order to answer the
second question, you’d have to examine the nature of the Jim you are trying
to identify. Are you talking about the Jim who worked in Patrol? All three
of us did that. Are you talking about the Jim who crashed his police vehicle
? All three of us did that. Are you talking about the Jim who served on SWAT
? Now you’ve started to limit the field slightly (only two of us have
served in that capacity so far). Are you talking about the Jim who worked
undercover as a surveillance officer? Now you’ve identified only one of us:
me. It turns out that my identity is tied to my descriptive characteristics
; my nature matters. While I am similar to the other Jim Wallace’s in my
family, the more you examine the details, the more dissimilar I become. My
identity is more than my name; it is the collection of my unique
characteristics and features.
Jesus is Not Jesus If You Change His Nature
In a similar way, if you were to ask my Mormon friends and family, “Do you
trust Jesus as your Savior?” the first thing you’d have to determine is,
“To which Jesus are you referring?” In order to answer the second question
, you’ll have to once again examine the nature of the Jesus you are trying
to identify. The Mormon Jesus can be described in the following way:
Jesus was first “procreated” as a spirit child of Heavenly Father and
Heavenly Mother, then later conceived in an act of physical sexual
intercourse between God the Father and Mary. He is the spirit brother of
Satan, and is rather common in terms of His nature (in that he is one of
many gods who share the same nature). Jesus was once sinful and flawed but
earned His salvation through good works, eventually being exalted into
godhood (like other obedient Mormons have been and will be). He is not a
member of the triune Godhead but is instead a separate god from God the
Father.
This description is quite different from the Jesus of Christianity:
Jesus is the uncreated, unique God of the universe, the Second Person of the
triune Godhead. He was conceived by the Holy Spirit who supernaturally “
overshadowed” Mary (she, therefore, remained a true virgin). Jesus was (and
is) eternally perfect and sinless; for this reason, He’s never needed to
earn His salvation.
The Mormon Jesus and the Christian Jesus Are Two Different Beings
While Mormons and Christians may refer to Jesus by name, they are clearly
describing two different beings. Jesus’ identity is more than His name; it
is the collection of His unique characteristics and features. In many ways,
I am far more similar to the other Jim Wallace’s in my family than the
Mormon Jesus is to the historic, orthodox Jesus of Christianity. When we ask
our Mormon friends and family members, “Do you trust Jesus as your Savior?
” they will most certainly answer in the affirmative. But the more
important question is the second one we’ve been examining: “To which Jesus
are you referring?” In answering this second question, it’s quickly
apparent we are talking about two different beings. The earliest prophets of
Mormonism (Joseph Smith and Brigham Young) understood the differences
between the Mormon Jesus and the Christian Christ. Neither Smith nor Young
had any interest in being identified as Christians; they rejected
Christianity as a corrupt theistic system that needed restoration and saw
Mormonism as the true restoration of the faith, including its redefinition
of Jesus. While modern Mormons may want to identify themselves as Christians
, the Jesus that Mormons trust as their savior is not the same Jesus trusted
by Christians. Mormons are not Christians because the Mormon Jesus is not
the Christian Christ. That’s why our team is here in Salt Lake City this
week, talking about the differences between the Mormonism and Christianity
and hoping to introduce Mormons to the Jesus of the Bible.
http://coldcasechristianity.com/2013/mormons-are-not-christians |
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