I hate to use Southpark as a source.....but really I've dug around and it's spot on: http://www.southparkstudios.com/guide/episodes/s07e12-all-about-the-mormons
A Mormon is an adherent, practitioner, follower, or constituent of Mormonism, which is the largest branch of the Latter Day Saint movement. Most commonly, the term Mormon refers to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), which is commonly but imprecisely referred to as the Mormon Church. In addition, the term Mormon may refer to any of the relatively small sects of Mormon fundamentalism, and any branch of the Latter Day Saint movement that recognizes Brigham Young as the successor to founder Joseph Smith, Jr. The term Mormon applies to the religion of Mormonism, as well as its culture, texts, and art.
It depends on who answers you. Unfortunately, if a Mormon does, you will be even more confused.
Mormons do not hold to the bible alone as doctrine. They also have another book, called the book of Mormon, that they believe is from God. They are very confused people who follow the teachings of the false prophet Joseph Smith. They insist that the bible has not been correctly translated, and wherever true doctrine (the bible) differs from false (their other books), they reject the bible.
Mormons believe, among other things, that if they do all the correct things (and you have to jump through quite a number of hoops to get there) you will one day be a god yourself and have your own planet. They believe Jesus is the brother of Lucifer. They believe "as man is, God once was". Mormons are very nice people, sadly misled by their church.
God and Jesus are tow separate people, just like any other Father and Son. The Spirit shared between them is simply a shared Divine Power. The Godhead is shared abilities of a Divine Nature and they share a like Godhead with one another like a son inheriting the genes form Daddy. Second is that we can become gods like the Father and the Son because God is like some alien dude who was once human like us but was able to ascend to his God status and what not. We are then as children of God have the God potential in all of us and we all as potential gods share in the same godhead with the Father and the Son and will have the same usage of their spirit power. etc. Its Henotheistic really.
For The most important facts of your question, please visit the website http://www.mormon.org
&
THE GOOD SECRET EVIDENCE
Just read these important things
1)Absence of anything is nothing and the life is you, you can not come from nowhere so even god can not pop out from nowhere. You are like software and your body is like hardware of the computer, even god can not get anything from nothing especially you are the life. The Life has to come from life. You are a Spirit child of God.
2) God can not change the past because time has no beginning and end as numbers -2,-1, 0, 1, and 2 so on.
3)God can not do the wrong things because god does not have the option to choose so the god is not capable of doing wrong things.
Please have a look this http://www.youtube.com/user/seemlyme#p/u/9/l_MbHz2EUOQ , http://www.youtube.com/user/mikebatie
The Evolution is Assumption. Why? The Life comes from dead chemicals? No, if you believe dead things come to life, then why don?t you believe in Jesus Christ resurrection. The Lord is living God for instant think about who programmed the unlearned Prue-program data (the skills) for birds to built the beautiful nest and communicate so another animal skills like extraordinary navigation skills for turtle to navigate thousands of miles to the same beach to lay eggs, where previously hatched from and more on and on the intelligences so with The Evolution Missing Links Assumption these are impossible intelligences to work as they are now. There are so many investments from co operations to misinterpret the actual evidences for the profit of weak atheism but The God is real with us.
The Law of mercy cannot rob the Law of justice so Justice demands the punishment of our sin but The Law of mercy requires the forgiveness to give to us & God is perfect in perfection so he cannot violate his laws so The God provided the way to our salvation to overcome our sin so Jesus Christ sacrifice is much needed to return to live with God, so Jesus Christ is our savior.
New Testament ? John ? 5:19 Then answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seethe the Father do: for what things soever he doth, these also doth the Son likewise.
If god always perfect in perfection then there have to be beginning with God for the organizing progress of all things. So, there is No end & also No beginning for all things, including this on going organizing progress.
If every one is perfect like god then there is noting to do for every one. So god has the plan for us to be perfect like him.
http://www.mormon.org/plan-of-happiness/
The Book of Mormon ?And if ye shall believe in Christ ye will believe in these words, for they are the words of Christ, ??.and they teach all men that they should do good.? 2 Nephi 33:10
If you are humble, Please, Pray to know the truth from true God (from the true source of all things) by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit with great faith (by your real earnest feelings)
And I pray that you will take what I say seriously. If you truly believe what you believe is important, then you will think about what I wrote. There is one true God, one God, he created this world, and he created everything.
Mormons are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (also called LDS).
They have 13 basic beliefs that can be read at this link:
http://lds.org/library/display/0,4945,106-1-2-1,FF.html
(My answer would look like a book if I typed them all out)
They don't believe in the Trinity in the traditional sense they believe God the Father, Jesus Christ as his son and the Holy Ghost are 3 separate beings in one godhead. (But not one god...God the Father is god.)
They don't believe in hell in the traditional sense. They believe most people will go to one of three degrees of heaven. The first degree is for the best Mormons in good standing and is considered the best place in heaven. The second degree is for the really great people in the world who did great things and treated everyone with kindness, but never became Mormon.
The third degree is for the people on earth who robbed, stole, or broke a major commandment of god's law. But it's still heaven and they believe it will be much like the joy and suffering we experience on Earth.
They believe only a handful of people (like Hitler) will go to Outer Darkness.
It is not a part of Christianity, they believe that God and Jesus are 2 separate being and Christians believe they are the same but also different. Anyway, they believe you are married in heaven,after you die you can become a god, that God was once a man, that Adam is the archangel Michael. I could go on and on.
As has been said, Mormonism is a rather broad term nowadays, referring to an adherent of either the church set up by Joseph Smith Jr. or an offshoot of that church such as the Restoration Church of Jesus Christ, The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ, the Community of Christ, etc.
Though all the churches have some obvious differences, the churches believe in God, Jesus CHrist, and the Holy Ghost, sometimes as the traditional trinity but usually as separate beings in the Godhead, in the Book of Mormon (a belief ranging from respect as useful stories to official historical scripture, depending on the church). They believe in the return of temples to the earth in order to perform covenants. They believe in modern-day revelation through prophets.
A lot of other doctrine varies between the churches, though you also must understand that there is very little "official" doctrine with any of the churches. As with all religions, there's a lot of musings and theories. I tried to give the basic official doctrine common to all forms of Mormonism.
For the religion itself, it falls under Restoration Christianity.
Here is an overview of their beliefs compared to Christian beliefs:
LDS: God (Elohim) was once a man
Bible: God is omniscient and all powerful and eternal ? God was never a man
LDS: The first offspring of God (Elohim) and his wife was Jehovah, who became Jesus
Bible: God has no wife and has never procreated ?children? or other beings
LDS: Jesus was born just as all people are born. He is not the eternal, only God
Bible: Jesus Christ is eternal and was not created
LDS: The Holy Ghost is a spirit person but does not have the qualities of God
Bible: The Holy Spirit is the third person of the Trinity and was not created
LDS: The Bible is accurate only as far as it has been translated properly, but the Book of Mormon, given to Joseph Smith, is more accurate
Bible: The Bible is God?s unchanging inspired word ? all of it ? and no other written word has been issued by God
LDS: There are three levels of salvation, all dependent on works, or lack of works
Bible: Salvation is a complete and finished work in Christ, a free gift of grace that cannot be earned
LDS: Man?s destiny is to one of three heavens / kingdoms but no-one knows what resurrection they will get
Bible: There is only one destiny for those whom God calls into his kingdom and they are promised a glorified resurrection body
LDS: There is no place of eternal torment (hell)
Bible: Those who are not saved are condemned to a place of eternal torment
LDS: Man had a Prue-existent life before being born into the world
Bible: Man was not Prue-existent before he was born as a human
LDS: The Aaronic and Melchizedek priesthoods have been restored to LDS, giving them their authority
Bible: Jesus Christ is our great High Priest, like Melchizedek ? he is our authority and has done away with temple worship and the priesthood
LDS: Only temple-sealed, married Mormons who remain faithful to all Mormon requirements will attain the celestial kingdom
Bible: All Christians are sealed with the Holy Spirit at conversion and become born again into God?s family and will be with Christ in heaven
There are other significant theological differences between LDS and Christianity. For more information on Mormon beliefs, go to:
http://www.utlm.org/onlinebooks/changech7.htm
http://www.utlm.org/onlineresources/mormonshopetobecomegods.htm
http://www.utlm.org/newsletters/no110lhtm
http://www.utlm.org/images/eternalprogressionutlm.gif
http://www.carm.org/teachings-of-mormoni?
http://www.carm.org/problems-with-the-bo?
http://www.utlm.org/onlineresources/bibl?
Edit - Questions @ Marvel:
Are you saying Mormons do NOT teach that God/Elohim was once a man and that you do not aspire to become like God?
Are you saying no sexual intercourse was involved between your God (who was once a man) and one of his wives in order to produce Jehovah, their first offspring?
Are you saying Christ Jesus, before he came to earth in human form, was NOT Jehovah?
Are you saying Christ Jesus was created and is not co-equal and co-eternal with the Father?
Are you saying that although the Bible has been mistranslated, the Book of Mormon has not?
Are you saying LDS believe there is a place of eternal torment?
Finally, to clear up your misunderstanding about the Christian doctrine of the Trinity, check out these links which explain how the One Being that is God is composed of three separate personages and that is why, when Jesus the man died, the Father and the Holy Ghost did not also die. You may be confusing the Christian doctrine of the Trinity with the Oneness Pentecostal understanding of the Trinity. These links might help you to get a grasp of what the Trinity doctrine actually is:
Just a little heads up in regards to the South Park reference people like to make, that show includes a talking towel that gets high, a talking teed, and a kid that dies in every episode.
"LDS: God (Elohim) was once a man
Bible: God is omniscient and all powerful and eternal ? God was never a man"
Elohim is Hebrew for God. Saying Elohim is the same thing as saying God just like saying Jesus and saying Christ is the same thing when talking about Jesus Christ.
"LDS: The first offspring of God (Elohim) and his wife was Jehovah, who became Jesus
Bible: God has no wife and has never procreated ?children? or other beings"
It's never been taught God has a wife. Grow up. Fyi, begotten means offspring.
"LDS: Jesus was born just as all people are born. He is not the eternal, only God
Bible: Jesus Christ is eternal and was not created"
That's funny, I thought the Bible says Christ was born of the virgin Mary. By the way, read Hebrews 1. That's the scripture that tells of the nature of God the Father and Jesus Christ. You'll notice a verse that says Christ was MADE better than the angels.
"LDS: The Holy Ghost is a spirit person but does not have the qualities of God
Bible: The Holy Spirit is the third person of the Trinity and was not created"
No. The Bible doesn't teach the trinity you believe in. You say all 3 are 1 one God. Since Christ is the Son of God you're saying Christ is the son of Himself, God the Father, AND the Holy Ghost.
"LDS: The Bible is accurate only as far as it has been translated properly, but the Book of Mormon, given to Joseph Smith, is more accurate
Bible: The Bible is God?s unchanging inspired word ? all of it ? and no other written word has been issued by God"
Wrong again. Saying there is no other thing than the Bible is denying the Bible's own words. It talks about other books that aren't in the Bible. And the Bible has been pr oven to be mistranslated. The true meaning is unchanging, it's the people that translated it to English that made errors in the wording. The italic words were added, they weren't in the original Bible.
"LDS: There are three levels of salvation, all dependent on works, or lack of works
Bible: Salvation is a complete and finished work in Christ, a free gift of grace that cannot be earned"
You mean there's 3 degrees of glory. And yes, the Bible does teach good works are needed. Do you not know the Bible says we'll be judged according to our works?
"LDS: Man?s destiny is to one of three heavens / kingdoms but no-one knows what resurrection they will get
Bible: There is only one destiny for those whom God calls into his kingdom and they are promised a glorified resurrection body"
2 Corinthians 12:2 I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, (whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth such an one caught up to the third heaven.
If you don't think there are 3 degrees of Heaven why did Paul teach it?
"LDS: There is no place of eternal torment (hell)
Bible: Those who are not saved are condemned to a place of eternal torment"
Yes we believe there's a Hell.
"LDS: Man had a pre-existent life before being born into the world
Bible: Man was not pre-existent before he was born as a human"
The Bible teaches of the pre-existence.
"LDS: The Aaronic and Melchizedek priesthoods have been restored to LDS, giving them their authority
Bible: Jesus Christ is our great High Priest, like Melchizedek ? he is our authority and has done away with temple worship and the priesthood"
Wrong. The Bible doesn't say He did away with the priesthood. The word you want to use is unchangeable. It means just that, it doesn't mean non-transferable.
"LDS: Only temple-sealed, married Mormons who remain faithful to all Mormon requirements will attain the celestial kingdom
Bible: All Christians are sealed with the Holy Spirit at conversion and become born again into God?s family and will be with Christ in heaven"
Yes they'll be in Heaven. The Telestial and Terrestrial Kingdoms are part of Heaven. They just won't be in the presence of God the Father and Jesus Christ.
Umm you should also be careful who you ask. You should ask an atheist who doesn't care much for Mormonism, because other religions will bash it, the Mormons will make you more confused, and atheists could direct it in a negative way, although that could happen either way.
Remember: Joseph Smith read stuff out of a HAT and couldn't prove it. That should be enough to tell you the RELIGION is crazy
The best place to go to about information about the church is lads.org; since anything you could ever want to know about us is in there. In addition, feel free to ask me whatever you will. I am a faithful member of the church.
in addition, i have posted a link that will describe everything in detail about what we believe
Just another Christian church, but it claims to be the result of the everlasting gospel being restored to the earth by angelic ministry in fulfillment of Rev. 14:6 and other scriptures. Its structure, authority, and doctrines are very similar to Jesus' original Christianity, closer than most Christian churches.
The Saints themselves? Human beings. Some worthy, some unworthy, some good, bad or indifferent.
There's a lot, and I mean a LOT, of anti-Mormon doctrine out there. If you go ogle "Mormonism", that's your first mistake. Members of the church don't consider it to be Mormonism. They call it the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or LDS. Mormon.org and lads.org are some of the best, and then Fields.org to explain some of the things you have questions on. Be very careful, though, because people are always trying to tear the religion down and make it seem like something it's not. If you have questions, you ask the source, right? You wouldn't ask an ex-Christian what they think about Christianity. You wouldn't ask a democrat what they think about a republican view. You go to the source.
Good luck with your investigation! Don't give up, it's going to take some time. Start going to church. You can go to http://lds.org/maps/index.jsf and enter your address and it will show you the closest meetinghouses for you to go to. Browse around the site and read whatever you can to learn. Mormon.org has many answers for one question, written by members themselves. It's a lot of fun to learn and grow.
But be careful asking questions on Y!A. There are a lot of ex-Mormons that are going to try to bring you down. But don't give up, and keep learning. Independent study would be best. If you go to church, there will be missionaries there that can give you lessons and teach you about the church, and on Mormon.org you can chat on line with missionaries or call them on the phone. All up to you.
Good luck! I have some resources below that are I mentioned above.
Edit: Marvel did a great job explaining something the person above him said and clearing it up. Example #1 that you have to watch what people say.
Go to the official website of the LDS Church, there you can have a Miltie-dedia experience of learning what and who Mormons are.
http://www.lds.org and http://www.mormon.org
Also, here are 13 basic beliefs of the LDS Church.
1. We believe in God, the Eternal Father, and in His Son, Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost.
2. We believe that men will be punished for their own sins, and not for Adam's transgression.
3. We believe that through the atonement of Christ, all mankind may be saved, by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel.
4. We believe that the first principles and ordinances of the Gospel are: first, Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; second, Repentance; third, Baptism by immersion for the remission of sins; fourth, Laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost.
5. We believe that a man must be called of God, by prophecy, and by the laying on of hands by those who are in authority, to preach the Gospel and administer in the ordinances thereof.
6. We believe in the same organization that existed in the Primitive Church, namely, apostles, prophets, pastors, teachers, evangelists, and so forth.
7. We believe in the gift of tongues, prophecy, revelation, visions, healing, interpretation of tongues, and so forth.
8. We believe the Bible to be the word of God as far as it is translated correctly; we also believe the Book of Mormon to be the word of God.
9. We believe all that God has revealed, all that He does now reveal, and we believe that He will yet reveal many great and important things pertaining to the Kingdom of God.
10. We believe in the literal gathering of Israel and in the restoration of the Ten Tribes; that Zion (the New Jerusalem) will be built upon the American continent; that Christ will reign personally upon the earth; and, that the earth will be renewed and receive its paradisaical glory.
11. We claim the privilege of worshiping Almighty God according to the dictates of our own conscience, and allow all men the same privilege, let them worship how, where, or what they may.
12. We believe in being subject to kings, presidents, rulers, and magistrates, in obeying, honoring, and sustaining the law.
13. We believe in being honest, true, chaste, benevolent, virtuous, and in doing good to all men; indeed, we may say that we follow the admonition of Paul--We believe all things, we hope all things, we have endured many things, and hope to be able to endure all things. If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy, we seek after these things.
Can I please get a thorough description on Mormons?
such an one caught up to the third heaven.
