Am I A Christian?

[MaxPower]

What is a Christian, how do I join this elite club? I believe in Christ and accept Him as my personal Savior and know that only through Him can I be saved; yet my friend said that his pastor said that I wasn't a Christian.

Can someone define for me what a Christian is so that (a) I can know if I fit in this group and (b) if I want to fit in this group

[MagusYanam]

Hooo boy. In answer to the OP question, I think that Mormonism has some of the same differences from Christianity as Unitarianism, and then some completely different differences.

Historically speaking, I think Mormonism cannot qualify as a branch of Christianity because Joseph Smith rejected Christian doctrine and tradition practically in its entirety, claiming the entirety of the Christian community around him was totally apostate.

(Also, I have a fairly solid distrust of rigid religious hierarchies claiming divinity or infallibility for themselves - the President and the ruling council of the LDS Church claim such infallibility - as the potential for abuse is immense.)

[samuelbb7]

Now the Trinity doctrine which I believe states one GOD three person. In the LDS church there are many different gods. According to them GOD was once a man and worshipped the GOD who created him. But now He is our GOD. So they by definition are polytheists since they believe in multiple gods.

Thats still sounds like the Trinity doctrine to me. Jesus was the son of god, the messiah on earth, fully god and fully man. Does your believe system dispute this? Do you only worship the "Father" part of the Trinity or do you worship god as a whole? If so then are you worshipping two gods as you assert Mormons are doing?

I feel if the text of the Bible is taken literally that Jesus did worship the Father, prayed to him, etc., but yet some how the Trinity doctrine claims this does not mean they are separate gods. When Jesus was praying, was he talking to himself?

The Trinity doctrine is that there is only one GOD yet HE is three distinct persons. Father, Son (JESUS) and HOLY SPIRIT. The Persons of the trinity talk to each other. When JESUS was on earth his divinity was hidden and not used. He lived as just a man. Yes he worshipped the Father.

In the LDS doctrine a different GOD created men on another planet. One of them became so exalted that He became a GOD who created us. One of His spirit children which we all are was JESUS. Now in LDS theology there is also wives of GOD. He has untold wives. So we all have the LDS god as father of our spirits but different mothers. So JESUS and the LDS father are two different gods. The Holy Spirit is a force in their theology if I remember correctly.

[samuelbb7]

Now some do say the KJV is better. I think it is more poetic and sounds nicer but I do not find it better. As pointed out earlier there is no doctrine that the New Translations change.

Some of the New Translations do not state a couple of verses used to support the trinity. But they still support it in others.

The big problem I have is Bible that are not translations but various paraphrases and dynamic readings which deal with what the people who wrote them think the Bible is saying. Also some new Bible versions are by groups who want to support certain religious systems. I have read two Catholic bibles. Both required me to consult the dictionaries since they use words based on PHD theology terms instead or regular english.

If the person who is reading them understands where the writers are coming from I have no problem. I have read the Living Bible by a Baptist preacher and found it very nice. Even though I am not baptist.

The topic of this discussion is supposed to be the LDS. Mangns Yanim makes a very good point about their religious structure.