The have to wear consecrated undergarments (holy underwear). They believe that if you obtain salvation, you get your own planet to rule over and a celestial "wife" to populate the planet with. Our "god" is actually a man who is from the planet co lob. Also ask them about the "secret password" that you need to have to get into "heaven" (having your own planet). They also believe that native Americans (Indians) are a lost tribe of Israel. They believe that dark skin is a curse from "god", and that Missouri, USA is the promised land. I could go on forever, but there is too much. I can't even make this stuff up. very funny.
ADD: for the Jehovah's witness who answered: you are just as ridiculous, Jehovah's witnesses "predicted" that "Jesus" would return to earth in 1910, but then changed their story after wards to, he returned but was "invisible". I could rip you a new one as well, but it would take too long.
It would take a while to explain it all, and I'm too lazy to type it all out. However all you need to know is that its normal crazy Christianity with an extra helping of crazy piled on top of it.
they believe that some wackier looked into his hat and read out the scriptures, after God spoke to him. but no one else could look in the hat to prove it, they just believed him. i sh*t you not. i saw it on south park.
We believe in Christ. We believe that only in and through His mercy a man can be saved.
Unlike most Christians who read the bible as a book of how God once acted, we read it as how God acts. We believe that prophecy and revelation are not discontinued but exist today as they did in the past.
Through revelation we have additional scripture, notable the Book of Mormon. Feel free to browse it on line or order a free copy; you'll find a powerful witness of our Savior Jesus Christ in it.
Facts like us not drinking coffee are a small footnote about our religion, nobody is a Mormon because they don't like coffee; but rather because of a testimony of Jesus Christ and a commitment to follow Him.
Unlike many other religions we don't think that all others will be damned, but that God will show mercy to all of his children to the extent that we allow Him to.
As for the other answers on here, many are creative but talking about underwear, hats, south park, and you tube won't help you understand my religion at all. People trying to mock or disprove it aren't focused on education but discrediting.
Mormon.org as well as reading from the Book of Mormon, asking our missionaries, or members will help you understand what we believe.
http://scriptures.lds.org/en/bm/contents
I'd be happy to suggest certain passages that might interest you.
An angel called Mormon visited their founder, Joseph Smith, and gave him a new scripture on gold tablets. This scripture was in an angelic language, which only Smith could translate, because he had a pair of magic glasses.
These videos will help you understand. A brief summary; they believe the Bible is corrupt, even though the Bible says it is from God and cannot be corrupted. They believe that God the Father was once a man on a different planet and worked His way up to be God. The Bible tells us that God the Father was always God, uncreated. They believe that we can all work our way up to becoming God's of other planets. But the Bible tells us that there is only one God, comprised of the Trinity; Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and that there will always only be one God. They believe that Jesus is the brother of Satan, but the Bible tells us that Jesus is also uncreated, but Satan is a created being. They believe that God is from a star close to the planet Kolob. Sorry but no Biblical reference to this outlandish lie. They also believe that the American Indians were decedents of Israelites, which has been 100% pr oven false by DNA. I could go on and on, but look at these videos and do your own research....
The Bible vs book of Mormon..... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTtq62XQ4jw
DNA vs book of Mormon.... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GF_SxbPLb0
These two sites from the (Mormon) Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints will be far more useful than any of the potentially confusion and clashing answers you'll receive.
http://www.mormon.org/mormonorg/eng/
http://jesuschrist.lds.org/SonOfGod/eng/
this is my field. Robyn this is long, but i wanted a good overview for you.
this is for the biggest sect of Mormonism, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
first things first, Mormons believe in the Bible, but not the Songs of Solomon, and not the Apocrypha as a whole. they also believe in the Book of Mormon, scriptures by ancient native Americans, the Doctrine and Covenants, revelations to modern (or 19Th Cen) prophets of their church, and the Pearl of Great Price, a random collection of writings that i can't even explain why they're put together.
with this in mind, they believe everything in those writings. of course there is some discrepancies in the Old Testament with what laws you would still follow or not. it's difficult to find a book of their beliefs and doctrines where EVERYTHING is stated.
the coffee thing is called the Word of Wisdom. most will say its tonic acid, some will say caffeine but theirs no written statement on caffeine being bad within the Mormon church. that comes from the Doctrine and Covenants.
the missionaries for the church carry little cards that have their most basic beliefs. the top is the belief in God the Father, His Son Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost.
they don't believe in original sin, but everyone is responsible for themselves. though the view is different of what Christ's sacrifice was, they hold the belief that He died for our sins, or for them, everyone sins. but this started in the Garden of Gethsemane, and ended with His resurrection. seems to downplay the cross, but the average Mormon will say His death was necessary, but the cross wasn't the most important part.
they believe that their President of the church is a prophet, and have had a line of prophets since Joseph Smith.
women don't have priesthood within the church, which means that they don't have as much leadership opportunities. however, modern leaders within the hierarchy have stated that women are more holy and closer to God than men, making them 'better' and men need to treat them special. they also believe in a Mother God, but rarely talk about her.
blacks didn't hold the priesthood till 1978. reasons why are vague, racism seems obvious, but polls were taken on the church in the early 70s and the Mormon church actually was average with the rest of the U.S. in the amount of racism.
practiced polygamy in the 1800s till the government made them stop. unfortunately the U.S. government did a bad job with this. threatening, and imprisoning polygamists, and splitting up polygamist families that already had kids who then would usually live in poverty with all the separate homes and no government support. also, this makes me laugh, women were actually strong politically in Utah, and the government removed their right to vote to stop women from voting for polygamy. but it's all gone now, since the late 1800s and early 1900s, and the average Mormon will say they don't want any more wives.
also, little known fact, there were a few cases of women married to more than one man.
the Fundamentalist LDS church still practices polygamy, and other sects of mormonisn do too, such as the tragic Texas compound incident years back.
mormon's believe that you have to follow Christ and live his commandments. if you mess up you have to repent, through Christ's Atonement. it's a combination of faith, grace, and works because Christ made those three things all possible.
you don't have to be mormon to go to heaven, and heaven has different levels of ... happiness? the highest you live with God, whereas the others are okay, but you miss out on what the average Christian wants.
lastly, i want to give you some advice. i've read the other comments, even the silly stuff is true, for the most part ..., but as with anything, if you want to know something, you ask someone who knows their stuff! the mormons who gave you sites are right about visiting the sites, that would give you a better idea. talking to a pastor is a good idea. in my studies of religions i've had ppl say that Baptist Evangelists are just like Islamic terrorists, and that Church of Christ ppl are actually atheist. everyone looks down on Islam, but Islam, when founded, was more morally correct than Christianity at the time.
ive found that when i go to the source i learn the truth. AS LONG AS i ask questions. if u dont ask they might hide things. as for you other users who give half-@$$3ed answers i hope you learn to study things so you can decide on ur own, like myself, if you believe or disbelieve something.
Robyn, if you're already Christian, then the mormons don't believe too much that isn't as radical as anything you believe if you believe the Bible or implications of protestant believes. if you're of no faith, realize the amount of commitment religion brings on you, especially the mormon church. hope this helped.
ps: they do wear special underwear, undergarments, but that's mormon's who go to modern temples. that follows some similarities to Judaism, Old Testament, and Catholics.
also, DNA is used for all sorts of religious reasons, and to disprove the Bible by pointing out that mankind evolved in separate areas of the world. however no one wins this. it is IMPOSSIBLE to go back and find traces of some genetic culture thousands of years ago and compare to genetic cultures of today. someday it might be possible, but i'm curious to see if that day will prove whether we all came from one person or not.
The link of designate is very well to understand Mormonism for people who know nothing more about Mormons than that they do not drink coffee.
There are lots of people who spread silly rumors about Mormons,(especially in this question here), but people who prefer to believe in rumors instead of believing in the truth are not to help. If you have any questions about this rumors, you can ask them here
http://www.allaboutmormons.com/ENG_addquestion.php
ore here
http://www.fairlds.org/contact.php
All I can say for a non-Mormon answer Joey did a fine job for answering. There were a few points I disagree on, but that's a few.
They are speaking on a neutral position and so it speaks very well for a neutral ground position on the church.
I have to say my position isn't so neutral and never will be since I am a member of the LDS church.
We believe in an open canon of scripture, this includes the Book of Mormon and the writings in the Pearl of Great Price. The writings from the Pearl of Great Price are from Joseph Smith's inspired translation of the Bible as well as scrolls of papyrus that hold teachings that come from Abraham. A lot of people try and discredit these teachings, however there are some parallels that can be found in them in gnostic and Kabbalic Jewish writings. There is really nothing new under the sun about LDS beliefs, the beliefs are incredibly diverse and come from all sorts of religious ideas. All this from an American young man who obviously didn't have much knowledge in regards to a lot of religious philosophies in the 1830's.
We believe hat the everlasting gospel, according to the promise of John the Beloved, has been restored to the earth in the last days so that it can be preached in its pure form through the whole world preparatory to Christ returning in glory to the earth.
We believe that our church is more nearly Jesus' ancient church than any other that exists today, with all the offices that are necessary until we come to a unity of the faith (with thousands of Christian churches, I doubt anyone can say that we have any unity of the faith), including apostles, prophets, pastors (bishops), teachers, evangelists, etc.; and Jesus' permission to minister in his name (priesthood authority) so that we can perform baptisms, marriages, etc., that will be recognized in heaven.
This is not to say that I think all the other churches are wrong, but that my church has a couple of extremely important and precious things to offer all of God's children.
Plus we believe what the Bible says about Hell being temporary (more like a last chance to be purified than anything else), the gospel being preached to the dead, the vicarious baptism by proxy on behalf of the dead, and the five (at a minimum) glorious rewards that await the vast majority of the children of God, even if they never knew Jesus in this life or cared much about him. (Yes, all of that is in the Bible.)
Plus we believe what the Bible says about us being the children of God and, one hopes, eventually sitting with Jesus in his throne and ruling kingdoms in his name.
Mormonism understanding?
