Can some one explain the Mormon religion ????

Question

From what I already heard, it seems the Mormon religion was an effort to make the christian religion patriotic by putting a north american spin to it. I heard they believe Jesus visited a native american in north america before accending to heaven. I'm sure Jesus visited many different people and cultures on the whole planet before accending to heaven. The Mormons consider themselves christians. If so, why the need for a seperate Book of Mormon?

Answer 1

Although it is true that Jesus Christ visited the American continent after His resurrection, we do not claim that He came to North America necessarily. We don't know exactly where on the American continent his appearance was. If you hear something about a specific location, it's an opinion of an individual, not a Church-wide teaching.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is certainly not just a North American church, since there are more than 12 million members in many parts of the world, and more members outside the United States than in.

As far as why the Book of Mormon is necessary, think of it this way: God loves his children in all parts of the world. He spoke to prophets in the Middle East, and those prophets wrote in the Bible. Couldn't he also speak to prophets in the Americas if He wanted to? He did, and those prophets wrote the Book of Mormon.

And for us, we should look to get as much of the word of God as possible. The Book of Mormon teaches the same gospel as the Bible, but through the perspective of different prophets. It establishes the truth of the Bible. In the same way that you can study the writings of different New Testament authors together, for example, to get greater understanding on concepts like faith, miracles, temptation, and so on, we can study the Book of Mormon's teachings in tandem with the Bible to get a greater understanding of the gospel of Jesus Christ. The Book of Mormon explicitly states that its purpose is to convince people that Jesus is the Christ.

Again, feel free to e-mail me if you have more questions. You can also learn more about our basic beliefs here: www.mormon.org. Or please do talk to a member of the Church that you know.

Answer 2

We believe that the Bookof Mormon is another Testament of Jesus Christ.

The church teaches that Jesus Christ is the son of God, who taught all His gospel and the way to return to live with God the Father. Christ's birth, atonement, death and resurrection provide the means whereby God's children can be resurrected and redeemed from their sins through repentance. The church teaches that after the death of Christ and His apostles, some important doctrinal teachings were changed over time from Christ's original teachings; thus necessitating a restoration of His Church and true doctrines before the Second Coming.

The Church teaches of Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost. They are three separate and distinct beings who together constitute the Godhead, united in purpose rather than in substance. All three members of the Godhead are eternal and equally divine, but have different roles. While the Holy Ghost is a spirit without a physical body, God the Father and Christ both possess distinct, perfected, physical bodies of flesh and bone.[18] God the Father is the spirit father in premortal life of the spirits of all people who are, have been, will be born on this earth. He is also both the spirit Father and the Father in the flesh of the Lord Jesus Christ, who is thus the Only Begotten Son, inheriting from His Father power over death. Since Christ is omniscient and has the same purpose as the Father, the church teaches that Jesus Christ speaks often in the scriptures as though knowing perfectly the will and the words of the Father.

Answer 3

I, like you was also curious about the mormon's religion and I was thinking of joining. So I asked this friend of mine who is also of the mormon's religion and she explained everything to me and I was so enticed by it. For some reason I didn't join and I just lost interest.
End of last year some mormon's people came to my house and they were explaining their religion to me. By that time I had the Bible 2 or 3 times over and I knew the word of God perfectly. Because of what I read in the bible and what they were telling me didn't agree I threw them out of my home eventually. But before that they were asking that we (my brother and me) that we pray to God and He will give us the answer whether J Smith is a true prophet or not and whether we can join their church. I told them I was n't going to pray. Nevertheless they said they were going to come back the next day, which they never did.

Sorry for the long answer that I'm giving you.

The next day in the morning I went to research their church and their beliefs and here are a few I can remember.
They believe that Adam, (you know Adam and Eve) is God. They don't believe that Jesus nor the Holy spirit is God, they don't bleieve that Jesus died for our sins, they believe that Jesus and the Devil entered into an agreement that Jesus should come and die for us, they believe that the Devil also wanted to die for our sins to name a few.

Let me advice you to read the Holy Bible first before you go into mormon religion or else you will regret it at a later stage. That religion is a cult. The Bible sayd, "know the truth and the truth shall set you free". They consider themselves Christians but they are not or else they wouldn't have a separate book.

Here's a quote. Chillman9 said, “While the Holy Ghost is a spirit without a physical body, God the Father and Christ both possess distinct, perfected, physical bodies of flesh and bone”, no where in the Bible does it say God is a physical body of flesh and bones. In the old testament he says we are mortal and he is immortal, meaning he is spirit. They have the Bible but in the end they don't believe in it. What's the point. May God bless you with the truth.

Answer 4

Oh honey, they got more than just the Book of Mormon (which by the way was given to Joseph Smith on gold plates in an ancient language which he did not by the Angel Moroni in 1831... He then translated into English and the tablets were taken back into heaven!)

They believe they are the true christian church.
Many conservative Christians consider most LDS denominations to be non-Christian. That is because the latter's beliefs in the nature of God, the Trinity, salvation, Heaven, Hell, the early Christian movement, etc. deviate so greatly from traditional conservative Protestant theology.

Answer 5

the north american spin thing is backwards. the reason the Joseph smith jr. started the Latter Day Saint church of jesus christ is that He couldnt decide which church to join. when he read James 4:1 he decided to pray to ask God which church to join. After that God and Jesus appeared to him and told him to join NONE of them.
Yes, Jesus visited ALL parts of the world and so much were the historical evidences that when the spanich came, they were worshipped as the bearded white God that returned. However, I know specifically the testimony of a man who went to a place where when he got off His Bus the people tried to take of his shoes and looked at his hands to find the marks of the cross.
The book of mormon is a record of a another people who believed in jesus, Although it was a Second Translation it provides enough Faith to prove that Christianity as a tradition does not have all the truth.
it has been called another testament of jesus christ.

Answer 6

Mormon is not a religion. It is a book called "Mormon" which preceeds the bible to its followers who claim to be christians. These people are know as the Church of the latterday saint. Whose founder believed through spiritual intervention met with an archangel of god was told that man had distorted the orginal bible and that he would now be the one chosen to rewrite the entire bible which he renamed it as "the book of mormon." This faction of christianity is regarded as cultic by both the modern day catholics and protestants.

There is a lot more I can tell you about this. You can try emailing me. I m not realli interested in gaining points ijust wanna help out.

Answer 7

The devil will always try and water down the real Word, he uses many religions and wolfs in sheep clothing to do it, This is just one of those, don't get caught up in denominations and other spin offs, read your bible your self and then you will know when somebody is lying. Many liars out there acting like holy men, but are men sent from the enemy to distort Gods word! Do not be deceived. Read john to the end and you will know!

Answer 8

No. No one can explain Mormonism. It makes no sense at all, and like scientology, ought to be considered a joke or a scam.

Laz

Answer 9

Perhaps their false prophets wrote the book. If you google mormon, you will be able to go to their own site..

Answer 10

The term Mormon [6] was first used in modern times in the 1830s as a pejorative to describe those who believed that Joseph Smith, Jr. had been called as a prophet of God, and who accepted the Book of Mormon as scripture.

According to Latter-day Saint theology, the term Mormon also refers to a prophet who lived in the Americas in the 4th century A.D. He was called by God to abridge and compile the records of his people and their dealings with God into a single book. This book is now known as the Book of Mormon. After Mormon's death, his son Moroni witnessed the complete destruction of his people and buried the record compiled by his father in a hill in what is now upstate New York, the hill Comorah. This same Moroni, more than 1400 years later, was sent by God as a messenger to Smith who went to the place where the record was buried, and with a great deal of help from God, Smith translated the record into English. After Smith was murdered in 1844 at the hands of a mob in a Carthage, Illinois jail, the largest body of Latter-day Saints followed Brigham Young, who eventually became President of his denomination, in an exodus to the Salt Lake Valley, arriving there in July of 1847. Smaller groups of Saints followed other claimants to the Church Presidency, some staying behind in Nauvoo, Illinois, and others dispersing to separate locations.

The term Mormon continues to be used to refer to members of this group that followed Brigham Young, including The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but not to related smaller denominations that separated from this group over issues such as polygamy. Individual leaders within the hierarchy of the LDS Church have sometimes made explicit effort to reject the use of the term "Mormon," as it does not include a reference to Jesus, whom the Church asserts to be its central figure.[7] As a general policy, however, while the Church prefers the use of its full name, use of the term LDS or Mormon is not considered offensive or incorrect.[8]


[edit] Claims for exclusivity
By the 1970s, "Mormon" had become so common that the LDS Church began to use the term in its radio and television Public Service Announcements which ended: "A message from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints: the Mormons." More recently the organization has asked the media to use the church's complete name and to follow any second reference with the name "The Church of Jesus Christ."

Claims for exclusivity of usage are primarily to avoid confusion between the LDS Church and "Mormon Fundamentalist" groups. LDS Church officials state that referring to organizations or groups outside of the LDS Church (especially those that practice plural marriage) as "Mormon," "Mormon fundamentalist," or "Mormon dissident" is a misunderstanding of Mormon theology, in particular the principles of continuous revelation and Priesthood authority. In 2006, the current president of the LDS Church, Gordon B. Hinckley, said:

"I wish to state categorically that this Church has nothing whatsoever to do with those practicing polygamy. They are not members of this Church. Most of them have never been members. They are in violation of the civil law . . . If any of our members are found to be practicing plural marriage, they are excommunicated, the most serious penalty the Church can impose. Not only are those so involved in direct violation of the civil law, they are in violation of the law of this Church."

Sometimes Restorationist or Restoration Movement are used as umbrella terms for those derived from the Campbellites or Stone-Campbell churches, for example, the Church of Christ and the Disciples of Christ. Mormons, however, are not a break-off group of the Campbellites. While they share some beliefs, such as the idea of a restoration, they differ in their beliefs about it. Most importantly, Mormons believe that the Restoration in question has already happened: The original church of Jesus Christ, known as the primitive church by historians, is believed by adherents to have been restored through Joseph Smith, the first Prophet of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. There are some general similarities to Campbellite teachings, and many of Mormonism's first adherents (including Sidney Rigdon) were previously Campbellites. But the Book of Mormon, the book of Doctrine and Covenants, and the Pearl of Great Price separate Mormon doctrine from any other Restorationist faiths.


[edit] Scholarly usage
Some scholars, such as J. Gordon Melton, in his Encyclopedia of American Religion, subdivide the Mormons into Utah Mormons and Missouri Mormons.

In this scheme, the Utah Mormon group includes all the organizations descending from those Mormons who followed Brigham Young to what is now Utah. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is by far the largest of these groups, and the only group to initially reside in Utah. The Missouri Mormons group includes those Mormons who did not travel to Utah, and the organizations formed from them — the Community of Christ, Church of Christ (Temple Lot), Remnant Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, etc.

In its October Conference of 1890, the LDS Church declared that it would discontinue the practice of plural marriage. The policy was accepted by unanimous vote of those in attendance. Nearly 20 years later, however, individuals surfaced who said that polygamy was a “fundamental” belief of Mormonism and could not be discarded. They formed several small congregations and communities advocating the necessity of polygamy and other doctrinal differences with the LDS Church. While these smaller groups have memberships in the hundreds or thousands, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints now reports a worldwide membership of over 12.5 million [1]. Due to heavy media focus on these fractional bodies, however, misidentification of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints with these polygamous groups is not uncommon. These groups include the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, the Kingston clan, the True & Living Church of Jesus Christ of Saints of the Last Days and a few others. Most of these groups have headquarters in Utah, with communities in Idaho, Arizona, Colorado, British Columbia, Alberta, Mexico and Great Britain. Additionally, several dozen "fundamentalists" claim affiliation with no group other than their own family.

The terms "Utah Mormon" and "Missouri Mormon" are problematic because the majority of each of these branches' members no longer live in either of these states. Although a majority of Utahns are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the LDS Church has a large membership in other states, most notably Arizona, California, Idaho and Nevada, and the majority of the church's membership today resides outside of the United States. Nor are all "Missouri Mormons" based in Missouri. Notable exceptions include the Pennsylvania-based Church of Jesus Christ (Bickertonite) which considers Sidney Rigdon Joseph Smith's rightful successor and the Wisconsin-based Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Strangite) which considers James J. Strang Smith's rightful successor.

Addressing some of the limitations of the Utah/Missouri designations, some historians have now coined the terms Rocky Mountain Saints and Prairie Saints to rename the "Utah" and "Missouri" branches of the movement. These new terms have begun to gain a following among historians today, but similar to the above mentioned titles, they are not of common usage among the majority of those who call themselves "Mormons."

Additionally, "Utah Mormon" is often used as a derisive term among the LDS themselves. A "Utah Mormon" is one who outwardly lives every tenet of the faith without maintaining a deep spiritual conviction.


[edit] Distinctions from other religious groups
Despite some misconceptions over similar nicknames and stereotypes, Mormons are not the same religious group as Quakers (members of the Religious Society of Friends), Mennonites, or Amish, nor are they Jehovah's Witnesses. Mormons originated separately from these groups and are distinct in culture, practice, and theology.[9]

One source of confusion in some regions comes from a mistranslation in the film Witness (starring Harrison Ford) into Spanish, French, Russian, Polish, Hungarian, and Italian. "Amish" was translated incorrectly to "Mormon." How this happened with different translators into different languages is not clear, but demonstrates a general misunderstanding about the identity of the Amish, the Mormons, or both.


[edit] Basic beliefs
When Joseph Smith was asked about the basic beliefs of the church, he summarized the teachings and doctrines in 13 points, known today as The Articles of Faith of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

The Articles of Faith are:

We believe in God, the Eternal Father, and in His Son, Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost.
We believe that men will be punished for their own sins, and not for Adam’s transgression.
We believe that through the Atonement of Christ, all mankind may be saved, by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel.
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.
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.
We believe in the same organization that existed in the Primitive Church, namely, apostles, prophets, pastors, teachers, evangelists, and so forth.
We believe in the gift of tongues, prophecy, revelation, visions, healing, interpretation of tongues, and so forth.
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.
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.
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 paradisiacal glory.
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.
We believe in being subject to kings, presidents, rulers, and magistrates, in obeying, honoring, and sustaining the law.
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.
History of the Church, Vol. 4, pp. 535-541


[edit] Notes
^ Style Guide - The Name of the Church. AP.org. Retrieved on 2006-12-04.
^ Religion Style Guide - Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Retrieved on 2006-12-05.
^ Most surveys of religion classify Mormons under Protestants. For example see Smith, Tom W. (October 1986, Revised July 1987). "Classifying Protestant Denominations, GSS Methodological Report No. 43". Retrieved on 2006-12-11.. Part of the General Social Survey of the National Opinion Research Center. Both Protestants and Mormons dispute this characterization. Read notes to Report 43 for specific issues in sampling Mormons.
^ Are you Christians?. Mormon.org. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Retrieved on 2006-11-09.
^ Who is a Mormon? Are they Christian? Are they Protestant?. ReligiousTolerance.org. Retrieved on 2006-12-06.
^ The following is Joseph Smith's own explanation of the definition of the word "Mormon," as taken from The Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, pp. 299-300, and edited by Joseph Fielding Smith:

To the Editor of the Times & Seasons:

Sir:--Through the medium of your paper, I wish to correct an error among men that profess to be learned, liberal and wise; and I do it the more cheerfully, because I hope sober-thinking and sound-reasoning people will sooner listen to the voice of truth, than be led astray by the vain pretensions of the self-wise. the error I speak of, is the definition of the word "Mormon." It has been stated that this word was derived from the Greek word "mormo." This is not the case. There was no Greek or Latin upon the plates from which I, through the grace of God, translated the Book of Mormon. Let the language of that book speak for itself. On the 523rd page, of the fourth edition, it reads: "And now behold we have written this record according to our knowledge in the characters, which are called among us the "Reformed Egyptian," being handed down and altered by us, according to our manner of speech; and if our plates had been sufficiently large, we should have written in Hebrew: but the Hebrew hath been altered by us, also; and if we could have written in Hebrew, behold ye would have had no imperfection in our record, but the Lord knoweth the things which we have written, and also, that none other people knoweth our language; therefore he hath prepared means for the interpretation thereof."

Here then the subject is put to silence, for "none other people knoweth our language," therefore the Lord, and not man, had to interpret, after the people were all dead. And as Paul said, "the world by wisdom know not God," so the world by speculation are destitute of revelation; and as God in his superior wisdom, has always given his Saints, wherever he had any on the earth, the same spirit, and that spirit, as John says, is the true spirit of prophecy, which is the testimony of Jesus. I may safely say that the word Mormon stands independent of the learning and wisdom of this generation.--Before I give a definition, however, to the word, let me say that the Bible in its widest sense, means good; for the Savior says according to the gospel of John, "I am the good shepherd;" and it will not be beyond the common use of terms, to say that good is among the most important in use, and though known by various names in different languages, still its meaning is the same, and is ever in opposition to "bad." We say from the Saxon, "good"; the Dane, "god"; the Goth, "goda"; the German, "gut"; the Dutch, "goed"; the Latin, "bonus"; the Greek, "kalos"; the Hebrew, "tob"; and the "Egyptian, "mon." Hence, with the addition of "more," or the contraction, "mor," we have the word "mormon"; which means, literally, "more good."

Yours,