General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Are Mormons Christian? [View all]grantcart
(53,061 posts)the answer is 'no'.
While many assume, including people in this thread, that as long as you believe something in Jesus that you can call yourself a Christian, the movement which now numbers about a billion people has a clearly established orthodoxy and Christology.
That definition was established in the 4th century as different sects had difficulty reconciling the Trilogy and the nature of Christ wider interpretations were made and two fundamental and competing schools were established, Confessional Christianity and Gnostic Christians. The former were better organized, had a more integrated systematic theology and a larger group and they organized Church Councils to develop a consensus of what Christ was, and the basic tenets of the faith which eventually became the Nicene Creed. Gnostics were left out and cut off from mass and eventually withered and died away.
To simply say that the Mormons are Christians because they believe in Jesus doesn't make much sense because the Muslims also believe in Jesus, the virgin birth and so on but would not be considered Christians.
In some
If you call Mormons Christians it corrupts the meaning of 'Christianity' until it has little meaning.
I think that the most accurate description is that "Mormons are a Christ related sect that operate outside of the Nicene Creed", or you could even build a case that Mormons are indeed NeoGnostics, in fact there are a lot of similiarities. If you cannot call Gnostics 'Christian' then it makes sense to use the same standard on Mormons.
Nicene Creed here;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicene_Creed
Gnostic Christians here
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gnostic_Christianity
By the early 4th century, gnostics are kicked out the church and officially forbidden to meet, by the mid 4th century their books are widely banned and by the late 4th century Gnosticism carries a death penalty in the Roman empire. The Sethian Gnostics, Archontic Gnostics, Basilidean Gnostics, Valentinian Gnostics, and Manicheans seem to be the only schools of Christian Gnostics to survive into the 4th century. St. Augustine of Hippo claimed to be a Manichean early in life, but later to have rejected it, and thus was a Church Father who was at one point a gnostic. Likewise, the late 3rd-early 4th century theologian Lactantius has sometimes been thought of as being influenced enough by Gnosticism to be a Gnostic father, but this is by no means clear.