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An Insightful Look Into Mormonism Mormonism: General Facts Mormonism is a very large and powerful religious denomination both in the United States and worldwide. According to Martin Johnson, nowadays there are approximately 4. 2 million Mormons in the United States and 8 million worldwide. (p. 51) Some scholars predict that Mormonism might even achieve popularity comparable to Christianity, Buddhism and other well-known religions in the nearest future. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day-Saints, the primary Mormon Church, founded by Joseph Smith in 1830. Mormons consider that their teaching is aimed to make a man happy both in this and in the next world.
According to their teachings, the destiny of a man is subordinated to the rule of progress and the same concerns the God: 1. The man is the God in fetus; 2. The Fall was programmed by the God; 3. The essence of evil and sin is not the disobedience to the God, but disobedience to the rule of progress. Mormons expect the doomsday and the last battle with Satan. They also consider themselves the Peculiar People of Israel.
Mormons teaching Mormons teaching is based on the Book of Mormon and afflatus of prophets (The Book of Doctrine and covenants and the Millennial Star). The teachings were developed into a compound eclectic system. Mormons consider that actual existence belongs to substance comprising of eternal atoms. Non-material substance means non-existing substance (Linn 130) and the pure spirit is a pure nothing. Even though The Book of Mormon contains more than 300 quotes from the Holy Bible and is often interpreted as something parallel to the Old and New Testaments, Christians who worship the God as a certain spirit, are considered atheists and idolaters by Mormons. Mormon symbols of faith sound Christian-like: they are the Lord, the Eternal Father, in His Son Jesus Christ and in Holy Spirit.
One might assume that Mormons believe in triune God. This assumption is wrong, however. In reality, Mormons consider that the Lord, the Son and the Holy Spirit are three separate Gods (as it is written in the Teachings of Prophet Joseph Smith. 370). The Lord According to Latter-Day-Saints Church, the God was a human who became a God due to the process of eternal development. The Lord, in Mormon interpretation, is a man by its origin.
According Joseph Smith "God himself was once as we are now, and is an exalted man, and sits enthroned in yonder heavens!" (pp. 345 - 347). God has all features peculiar to the man the body of flesh, blood and other features. Mormons believe that people also have a chance to become gods in the celestial kingdom (Doctrine and Covenants 132: 19 - 20): the Celestial Kingdom will literally be this world, our world, but it will be our world perfected, or, as Church members say, transfigured' (Cannell 335). According to Mormons teaching, the process of eternal development has several stages. At the first stage, the man was an eternal substance defined as intellect and eternal intellects had spiritual bodies in the house of Eternal Lord. Intellects are being raised in this house until they reach mature age.
Further, the substances come to the Earth, receive earthy bodies and get the experience of mortality they die by physical death at the end of their journeys (Givens 37). The eternal spirit goes back to the spiritual world to expect for the judgment and death there. At The Kingdom of Spirit eternal spirits achieve either celestial or terrestrial (earthly) glory. The spirits, whose names are in the Book of the Life of the Lamb of God, will enter the celestial glory - some of them will become angels, whereas others will become priests and Kings (or, in other words, the Gods). Jesus Christ Christian Jesus Christ is significantly different from Mormons Christ in the following ways: 1. Mormon Jesus Christ became the God in the process of eternal development.
First of all, Mormons believe that Jesus was a conceived creature, a First-born of his Father, not an eternal God as it is claimed by the Holy Christian Church. The divinity of Mormons Christ was not a primordial concept He achieved the heights of reason and became a God in his pre-existence. Christians, in contrast, believe that Jesus Christ was the God from the very beginning. 2. Mormons call Christ Jehovah (the God), and the Lord is called only as Elochim (The Lord). The Christian Bible mentions Elochim and Jehovah simultaneously and for Christians the link between Father and Jehovah is assumed and they would not anticipate the counter-intuitive view that equates Jesus with Jehovah (Davies 68) 3. Mormon Jesus Christ and Lucifer are spiritual brothers.
Mormons consider that the Creators developed a certain divine project, according to which the key figures were Elochim, the perfect creature in his wisdom, judgment and personality, and two of his sons Lucifer and Jehovah (Gospel Principles, pp. 17 - 18 and Mormon Doctrine, p. 192). Christians believe that Jesus is the creator of all existing, including Lucifer. 4. Mormon Jesus Christ was conceived by the God, the sublime man. Mormons consider that the words of Bible should be interpreted word for word.
Christ is the only son of the God. The only means the only, conceived means conceived, the Son means the Son (West 82). Mormons believe that Christ was conceived by the Lord just in the same manner as any other mortal child was conceived by any other mortal father. In contrast, Christian Jesus was conceived by the Immaculate Conception. 5. Mormon Jesus Christ is unable to expiate all sins.
They claim that a man can commit certain grave sins that will not be expiated by Jesus. They do not believe that Jesus blood is able to expiate sins, and it is necessary to pour the blood (to kill) of the sinner. Christian Bible states exactly the opposite: the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses sinners from any sins. 6. Mormons are not allowed to pray Jesus Christ; they can only worship the Lord. For Christians, the Lord and Jesus Christ are the same, so praying to Jesus is the same as praying to the Lord.
The Holy Spirit Mormons adhere to different points of view concerning the nature and the concept of the Holy Spirit. Some of them consider that the term Holy Spirit and its usual synonyms such as the Divine Spirit, the Spirit of the God, or simply the Spirit, the Consoler, or the Spirit of Truth, have different meanings. Sometimes, these names have attitude to the Lords personality, sometimes to the Spirit itself. Some Mormons believe that the Holy Spirit is a spiritual creature, a non-material creature that is also called the God, which means that the spirit can be present in several places simultaneously. The Ethics of Mormonism The ethics of Mormonism is very simple: the only virtue that makes all other virtues unnecessary is absolute belief and obedience to the sacred priests or prophets who receive the direct prophecies from the God (Givens 45). Therefore, the person can be saved only through the obedience to all orders of the Mormon Church.
Works are considered as necessary conditions for salvation (the Book of Mormon 2 Nephi 25: 23, Pearl of Great Price Third Article of Faith and Gospel Principles, p. 303 - 304). The most severe sin is mistrust and disobedience to the prophet. Mormons acknowledge four main religious rites or sacraments: Christening (at the age of eight years old or more) through the submergence. There is also a christening ceremony for the people who died not being the members of Mormon denomination (Barlow 170). For example, a Mormon can christen for the sake of a deceased person, after which the deceased one achieves all the divine blessings.
Consecration; Marriage. The marriage or sealing is a ceremony of double nature. It can be used either as a temporary ceremony of marriage for the earthly life only, or as a heavenly rite that will not be canceled after death. Women have an option to marry deceased men through assistants (where the assistants have all earthly rights). Civil societies call such practices polygamy and polyandry. Eucharist (by bread and water); Conclusions Mormons do not believe in Trinity, they believe in three separate gods who have separate statuses.
The Lord and Jesus Christ are resurrected gods, whereas the Holy Spirit is personification of a spiritual commencement. Mormons believe that a man is kind by his nature because he is a child of the God free from original sin. Mormons believe that every person who has ever existed has an opportunity to hear the words of the Christ and a choice to either adopt or neglect them. Mormons practice substitutive christening in relation to deceased people. They believe that deceased people can obtain salvation.
Mormon lifestyle is based on fundamental belief in existence of spiritually acknowledged and appropriately structured Universe. The man has the task to follow the divine sample through his belief and actions. Finally, the man can be saved and can further become a god through responsible service to fellow creatures and through creation of family. References Barlow, Philip L. (1997). Mormons and the Bible: The Place of the Latter-Day Saints in American Religion. New York: Oxford University Press Cannell, Fenella. (2005).
The Christianity of Anthropology. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 11: 2, 335 Davies, Douglas J. (2003). An Introduction to Mormonism. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press Givens, Terryl L. (2003). By the Hand of Mormon: The American Scripture That Launched a New World Religion.
New York: Oxford University Press Givens, Terryl L. (1997). The Viper on the Hearth: Mormons, Myths, and the Construction of Heresy. New York: Oxford University Press Johnson, Martin. (1992). Mormonism: Catholic, Protestant, Different? . Review of Religious Research 34: 1, 51 Linn, William Alexander. (1902). The Story of the Mormons: From the Date of Their Origin to the Year 1901.
New York: The Macmillan company West, Ray B. (1957). Kingdom of the Saints: The Story of Brigham Young and the Mormons. Viking Press: New York
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