Sermon: Mormonism & Christianity

Mormonism to mainstream Christians is and always has been a point of ridicule. Followers of Mainstream Christianity see Mormonism as a distortion of all they believe and hold holy. The distortion of Mormonism is not the preserve of Christians solely non believing secularists also come into the affray seeing followers of Mormonism as strange and dangerous due to our belief in the supernatural as they see it.

The views of these Christian and secularists are commonly based on the LDS (Utah) view of our belief system. The facts are that Utah Mormons only send out an obscure view of Mormonism these teachings are at odds with our founder Joseph Smith. True Mormonism is Christ centred and fits perfectly with the practices of Christianity as laid down by our Saviour. True Mormonism not Utah Mormonism is Christ centred, indeed we could be accused of being obsessed with being Christian.

People criticise us for having modern day revelation and other witnesses of mans interaction with Deity for example The Book of Mormon and the Doctrine and Covenants. However these Books just reaffirm our faith, love, and commitment to Gods teachings as outlined in the Bible. When we preach the gospel we rejoice in Christ, prophecy of him and write of him as the Gatekeeper to our eventual journey into the Eternities. The fact that we have stripped away lots of man inspired practices in a lot of Mainstream Christianity is something that we are very proud of.

Regarding The Book of Mormon mainstream Christians would tell you that the book is a fairy tale. The facts however, are that the Book is supported by Archaeological evidence found in the Eastern states of the United States of America where the Book of Mormon is set. The real point however is this, a book dealing with the history of people relating to their God and how through the Holy Ghost he guides the righteous. Some writers on Mormonism would have you believe that the Mormon view of Christ is at odds with the Christ of Christianity, this is nonsense. The fact is there is no one mainstream Christian view of the Saviour, indeed there are many denominations just like there is more than one view of Mormonism, not every Mormon is LDS (UTAH).

As a Latter Day Mormon (NOT LDS) we believe in a literal Saviour who has a body who was born of a virgin and who took upon himself our sins and died for us. We believe in a Father in heaven who does not have a physical body but is of spirit. Contrary to what most people believe Joseph Smith taught this all his life. Some commentators would have you believe Mormons put the cross secondary to Gethsemane this is simplification gone mad. In fact we hold them both as important. The fact is in Gethsemane the Saviour took up the bitter cup and devoured for our sake all sin, equally on the cross he showed us that as a God he was prepared to lay down his life, this was necessary for the biggest prize we could be given power over death in his resurrection.

In conclusion let us be one in praise of  the Saviour and hope that we can unify all those who praise God under the banner of what we have in common, not what we have dividing us.

 

In the name of Jesus Christ Amen

Elder Philip A. Gill