Are Mormons Christians?

A lot has been written this election year about the Mormon religion. Front running Republican Mitt Romney is a life long Mormon. As he works hard to convince conservative evangelical Christians they ought to vote for him he is trying to position himself as a solid Christian conservative. As he does so, many people have called his Mormon religion into question. This is bringing out commentators from the left and the right to declare what they believe about Mormonism. A Texas pastor called Mormonism a "cult" in a speech given on behalf of another Republican candidate. Is Mormonism a cult? More to the point, is it Christian?

The short answer is "no." Mormonism shares NO doctrines with Christianity, either liberal or conservative. Even Mormons will say "We have to be Christians we have the name of Jesus in our church's name." The official name of the Mormon church is "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints." The are called the "LDS" church for short.

The LDS church was founded in the mid 1800s by a New York man named Joseph Smith who taught that he was a direct descendant of Jesus Christ and Mary Magdalene. He was concerned about which Christian church to join when he was visited by an angel of God who told him ALL Christian churches were apostate and that the religion of Christ had passed off the earth. He had been appointed by God to restore the true faith to the earth. In another visitation an angel named "Moroni" led the young Smith to a hill in Palmyra, New York where Smith retrieved golden plates written in "Reformed Egyptian" detailing a civilization on the North American continent. This race were descendants of the Hebrews and were eventually wiped out in an epic battle. But a survivor carried the golden plates with their history on them to New York and buried them to be found by Smith at the right time.

Smith, using a magic seer stone, translated the tablets which taught truths foreign to any Christian church up to that time.

The core of the Mormon religion is summed up in the sentence "As man is God once was; as God is man may be." Mormons teach that a man can become a god by learning to perfectly the "Word of Wisdom" ... a list of 1000 commandments which include abstaining from caffeine and tobacco, among other things. Through successive lifetimes (one on earth and continued on other planets) one learns to obey. When perfect obedience is achieved the man has become a god. He appears before a Council of gods on the planet Kolob. The council includes Jesus, Elohim (the name of the god of our world), and Joseph Smith. That new man-god is assigned a planet over which he will be god. While alive, the man will have women sealed to him in celestial marriage ceremonies and each of these women are given secret names that only he knows. When he arrives on his planet, he uses the secret names to call his wives to himself. Through celestrial sex his wives produce babies who will become the people of the planet over which this man will rule as god.

Thus, there are many gods.

Joseph Smith taught that when Elohim wanted to set his children's feet on the pathway to godhood, he called his sons Jesus and Lucifer to him and asked them to present a plan of salvation which would lead them to godhood. Lucifer presented a plan whereby Elohim used his power to force his children to obey the word of wisdom and thus become gods too. Jesus presented a plan wherein he joined the human race physically and lived so as to show Elohim's children how they ought to live and thus set their feet on the path to eventual godhood. Elohim sided with Jesus. Lucifer then rebelled against Elohim and led one third of the spirit children in the heavenly realm to fight against Elohim. Jesus led the loyal forces and defeated Lucifer. Lucifer was given the name "Satan" and was cast out. His followers were forever denied human bodies and so could never become gods. Those who followed Jesus in heaven were promised to be born on earth "white and delightsome." This guaranteed they would eventually become gods.
Those who remained neutral in the heavenly war were to be born in dark skinned bodies to mark them to the loyal followers of Jesus. In 1978, Mormon prophet Spencer W. Kimball had a revelation from Elohim in which the stigma against black people was removed and they could begin the pathway towards godhood with their white brothers.

Women, by the way, only become goddesses if they are sealed to a Mormon man who will become a god. On their own, there is no pathway to godhood.

All I have typed so far should be more than enough to demonstrate that Mormons are in no way Christians. And all I have typed so far by no means covers all the differences Mormons have with Christians.

Mormons are taught to be strong supporters of strong families. This is good. They are generally good people who are honest and hard working. They believe sincerely in their religion. But they are not Christians. It is not mean nor antimormon to admit this. This is simple Christian discernment. It is just being honest.

So are Mormons Christians? Emphatically "NO!"