Just curious: is LDS considered Protestant?

Question

Or is it completely separate?

I'm especially looking for answers from members of the LDS church but anyone can chime in.

Thanks!

Vishal: that's how I've learned it in any religion class I've taken...there's the orthodox (split between RCC and Eastern Orthodox) and then the Protestants (split tons of times), but it seems like the LDS is unique, I was just wondering if there's any general classification or not.

Answer 1

Some non-LDS people think we're "Protestants" and some think we're "cultists". Everybody has a label for everybody else.

Well, we don't consider ourselves Protestants. We consider ourselves the latter-day restoration of the original church that Jesus established when He lived on the Earth. Thus, we are not a breakaway from the Catholic church.

Answer 2

While they share much in doctrine and heritage with Protestants, Latter-day Saints see themselves as embodying an independent Christian tradition. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is not a reformation of a previously existing ecclesiastical body but is a restoration through heavenly ministrations of authority, truths, and scriptures that God returned to the earth through the Prophet Joseph Smith and his successors.

Since the time of Martin Luther, Protestants are generally considered those Christians who are neither Roman Catholics nor Eastern Orthodox. Although Protestant theology is varied today, it can be characterized by four basic beliefs: (1) the Bible is the Word of God and all authority resides within its pages; (2) the Bible should be in the language of the people, who, by the power of the Holy Ghost, can gain their own understanding of God's will; (3) all church members hold the priesthood, meaning no mediatorial priesthood is necessary; and (4) people are saved by faith, through the grace of God, and not by any works they may do. Latter-day Saints share with Protestants a conviction of the importance of the scriptures, an extensive lay priesthood, and the primacy of faith in Jesus Christ.

But they differ from Protestants by affirming a centralized authority headed by a latter-day prophet, by performing temple ordinances for the living and dead, and by asserting the eternal nature of the marriage covenant.

Answer 3

I'd say no, since Protestant churches are traditionally held to be the ones that were born in the Reformation - the Lutheran, Calvinist, and Anglican traditions and their descendants. The LDS post-dates those traditions by two centuries or more.

Some people will argue that LDS isn't even Christian, although I'm inclined to use the self-designation test: if a sect says it's a Christian sect, then I'll call them Christians. I'm not very fond of the 'not a true Christian' name-calling ninjitsu.

Answer 4

Protestant is not everyone that steamed off of the catholic church, you would have to be protesting about something to be protestant. Baptist were around the same time the catholics were around we were just called anabaptists. That name simply means to re-baptize because of the baptism given to infants means nothing, so the catholics that left that church came to become a true christian and got baptized the right way. Lds just came out of a "christian" denomonation as did mormons and so forth. They all come from somewhere, they just take out of the bible what they want and keep parts of the bible of what they want. But yes it is a cult because of the false doctrines, soul sleep is not true read lazarus and the rich man.

Answer 5

I always thought that all non-Catholic denominations of Christianity were considered Protestant, and LDS falls under that category.

My definition might be wrong, though.

Answer 6

No. Protestants are considered Christian, even though they have rejected many of the beliefs and practices of original and full Christianity. LDS have rejected so much of original Christianity, and introduced so many doctrinal beliefs directly opposed to genuine Christian doctrine, that they cannot be considered Christian by any stretch of the imagination. Therefore they are not Protestant, even though they are derived from Protestantism. The same is true of JW's.

Answer 7

A Protestant is defined as someone who believes in sola Scriptura, the 66 books as found in published Bibles. The LDS believes in the Book of Mormon as divine revelation, so cannot be Protestant.
.

Answer 8

It is the RESTORED church, not the reformed church. Jesus used an example of putting new wine in old casks.

Answer 9

NO, their Biblical theology is false which makes them a cult...