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Saturday, October 25, 2014

Mormonism: Lesson #2


LDS Mormons theologically are Pentecostal + Roman Catholic + Semi-Pelagians
Intro Question: Leo Tolstoy, the famous Russian author of War & Peace and Anna Karenina said of Mormonism, “It’s the quintessential __________ religion.”  What is the blank:  A) Heretical      B) American   C) Western   or   D) works-based?      Correct answer is:   B) American. Joseph Smith is lauded as the only real American “Moses”, the prophet of a distinctly American religion. 
More History
1826 Smith faced charges of fraud called “glass-looking” which is pretending to be able to use seer stones to find lost objects & hidden treasures. He was a treasure hunter for hire.  

NY – age 24 wrote Book of Mormon, Mormonism founded during the 2nd Great Awakening. In my opinion ALL of the problems with the current state of the American Church came out of the 2nd Great Awakening, if you want to learn more about it I’d recommend an article called The Disturbing Legacy of Charles Finney – by Dr. Michael Horton.

 

Kirkland, OH Pentecostal religious culture at the time included enthusiastic demonstrations of spiritual gifts including fits, trances, rolling on the ground & speaking in tongues
1832 – OH residents incensed over Smith & his VP Rigdon financial handling of the town caused them to be beat by a mob, tarred & feathered & left for dead
1833 – Word of Wisdom – Smith encouraged a natural/organic movement, counseled a diet of wholesome herbs, fruits & grains, a sparring use of meat, to avoid “strong” alcoholic drinks & “hot drinks” meaning no coffee or tea
1844 local paper Nauvoo Expositor publically verified for non-Mormons, the Mormon doctrines of many gods, polygamy, Smith’s desire to rule Mormon settlements in several states beside OH, IL & MO, he also had plans for TX, CA & OR & the paper attacked Smith for “using Religion as a pre-text to lure unassuming women to Nauvoo in order to seduce & marry them” **The NT makes a point as to the motivation of false teachers. They are either seduced by greed, lust or a desire for power.
How do M’s view Authority? - We looked last week that M views Authority with lots of companions to the Bible – Doctrines & Covenants – Book of Mormon – The Pearl of Great Price.  In 1843 JS ran as a 3rd party candidate for President of the US - during Pres. campaign JS declared the US Constitution (especially the Bill of Rights) to also be inspired by God 
How do M’s view God? - They view God as not a Trinity but a Triumvirate (or Tre + Vir = meaning 3 man leadership) & we also learned moral obedient people can become gods themselves.
Ex) Julius Caesar, Pompey the Great & Marcus Crassus  


The Atoning Gospel –
Quote: “One of the most fallacious doctrines originated by Satan and propounded by man is that man is saved alone by the grace of God; that belief in Jesus Christ alone is all that is needed for salvation,” (Miracle of Forgiveness, Spencer W. Kimball p .206)
In Mormonism the central part of God’s plan for exaltation (you becoming a god), is the atonement of JC, Mormons believe that the purpose of this earthly life is to learn to make good choses over evil choices. To obtain this state of godhood, the church teaches that one must have: faith in Jesus Christ, repent of their sins, strive to keep the commandments faithfully, participate in a sequence of ceremonial covenants called ordinances, (which include baptism & receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost via the laying on of hands), the endowments (sacramental washings and anointings based off freemason rites), and celestial marriage (means you are married for eternity, not just life).
Mormons believe these ordinances are seen as necessary for salvation, but are not in & of themselves sufficient. For example, baptism is required for salvation but being baptized doesn’t mean you will be saved. Because a baptized person is expected to be obedient to God’s commandments & to receive all other needed saving ordinances in order to be saved, Mormons will often perform ordinances (like baptism) for the dead (founded by Smith in1840). Baptism for the dead are for people who failed to obey in life, these ordnances are performed by “proxy” on behalf of the dead. As Mormons are hyper-Arminian they believe that the dead can accept or reject these proxy ordinances done for them of their own free will in the afterlife.
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Mormons see “accepting JC as your own personal savior” as a good work that Protestant teach must be done in order to be saved. They say, both groups [Protestants & Mormons] agree that at least one act is required of all of us in order to be with God. Its just a question of how many works are needed in order to be saved.
To Mormons grace means everyone will experience eternal life somewhere: either in various levels of heaven or in hell and that your obedience determines where your eternal life will be spent. To them, grace is an enabling power that allows men and women to lay hold on eternal life and exaltation after they have expended their own best efforts. 
Theological note: Christ’s Atonement produces grace. Grace means everyone can have Eternal life + grace makes possible this EL with God, through good works.
“Each person then, is resurrected and given a place to spend eternity. However, living forever isn’t the total sum of our goals for eternity if we love God. We who love Him want to live with Him in His home forever. This requires a bit more.”  
We see then, that faith and works must work together as a unified total in order for either of them to “get us into Heaven.” (2 Nephi 25:23)
LDS, Articles of Faith 1:3 says,
We believe that through the Atonement of Christ, all mankind may be saved, by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel.
Mike and Ann Thomas’ book - Mormonism: A Gold-plated Religion, Alpha, p.258
 “Those who join the Mormon church are not set free in Christ but instead are introduced to a whole new set of laws and ordinances through which they prove their faith and earn their salvation. The imposibility of keeping all the commandments, especially in their own strength, imposes an increasing burden of guilt, unworthiness and condemnation for Mormons.”  
The Book of Mormon says, “For we labor diligently to write, to persuade our children, and also our brethren, to believe in Christ, and to be reconciled to God; for we know that it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do. (See 2 Nephi 25:23) Ephesians 2 says we’re saved by Grace (period); NOT after all we can do.
As both Faith & repentance are actions, and therefore, we see that Christians who believe in grace alone do actually do believe in works—it comes down to a discussion of how many works are required, not whether they are required. Stating our faith in Christ is most certainly an act.
Understanding this we see that the issue of faith and works is really not controversial at all. Atonement is a gift of Jesus Christ and cannot be bought or earned. Salvation, however—the right to live not just forever, but with God, is conditional on righteousness. Faith and works must come together in complete unity within our hearts in order for us to receive everything God wants us to have.
Jesus’ sacrifice was not able to cleanse us from all our sins, (murder and repeated adultery are exceptions),” (Journal of Discourses, Vol. 3 p. 247)
“Good works are necessary for salvation,” (Articles of Faith, James Talmage p.92)

The blending of works with repentant-faith in order to be saved has been the biggest and most common heresy in all of Christianity from the Judaizes in the NT, to free-will Pelagians in the 400’s, to free-will semi-Pelagians in 500’s & Arminians in 1600’s AD – this is the biggest theological fight in all of Christianity. 
Questions??
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Mormonism & Christianity
Quote: “If it had not been for Joseph Smith and the Restoration, there would be no salvation. There is no salvation [the context is of the full gospel including exaltation to Godhood] outside the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,” (Mormon Doctrine, Bruce McConkie p. 670).
“There is no salvation without accepting Joseph Smith as a prophet of God (Doctrines of Salvation, Vol.1 p. 188)
Mormons categorize themselves within General Christianity & Mormons self-identify as Christian. However Mormonism’s differences place it outside of the umbrella of Christian orthodoxy.  Mormonism is seen as a heretical different religion, amongst Catholics, Eastern Orthodox & Protestants.
Mormonism also believes that they are also the only true form of Christianity since the 1st century AD, according to Mormons (not long after Christ’s ascension) Christianity became corrupted by Greek philosophy, known as the General Apostasy. And they believe that all valid priests ceased following the martyrdom of the Apostles & therefore no true church leader aside from an ordained Mormon leader have valid authority to lead a Church or to administer its ordinances. 
Similarly Catholics believe their popes have a direct line of authority from Peter to today even though there were no Popes prior to 500 AD & there have been multiple popes at various times in history, which would mess up that direct line of authority. Mormons believe that they exemplify the practices of the Early Church & are now the restored version of True Christianity.  
Questions??
Does Joseph Smith Jr. play a role in our salvation?
  • Brigham Young stated: "no man or woman in this dispensation will ever enter into the celestial kingdom of God without the consent of Joseph Smith...every man and woman must have the certificate of Joseph Smith, junior, as a passport to their entrance into the mansion where God and Christ are" (Journal of Discourses, vol. 7, p.289).
Can salvation come only through the LDS Church?
  • Joseph Smith stated: "This [the LDS] Church...is the only true and living church upon the face of the whole earth" (Doctrine and Covenants 1:30).
  • President Ezra Taft Benson said: "This is not just another Church. This is not just one of a family of Christian churches. This is the Church and kingdom of God, the only true Church upon the face of the earth..." (Teachings of Ezra Taft Benson, p.164-165).



Statements by Mormon Leaders about Christian churches (made by many of the LDS Prophet-Presidents):
  • Joseph Smith stated that God told him: "they [other churches] were all wrong; and the Personage who addressed me said that their creeds were an abomination in his sight; that those professors were all corrupt" (from Pearl of Great Price, Joseph Smith-History 1:19).
  • Questions put to Joseph Smith: "'Do you believe the Bible?' [Smith:]'If we do, we are the only people under heaven that does, for there are none of the religious sects of the day that do'. When asked 'Will everybody be damned, but Mormons'? [Smith replied] 'Yes, and a great portion of them, unless they repent, and work righteousness." (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 119).
  • "Should you ask why we differ from other Christians, as they are called, it is simply because they are not Christians as the New Testament defines Christianity" (Journal of Discourses 10:230).
  • Orson Pratt proclaimed: "Both Catholics and Protestants are nothing less than the 'whores of Babylon' whom the Lord denounces by the mouth of John the Revelator as having corrupted all the earth by their fornications and wickedness. Any person who shall be so corrupt as to receive a holy ordinance of the Gospel from the ministers of any of these apostate churches will be sent down to hell with them, unless they repent" (The Seer, p. 255).
I have more to boast of than any man had. I am the only man that has ever been able to keep a whole church together since the days of Adam.  A large majority of the whole have stood by me.  Neither Paul, John, Peter, nor Jesus ever did it.  I boat that no man ever did such work as I. (History of the Church, Vol 6, p. 408-409)

Famous Mormons:
Singer – Marie Osmand
Twilight author – Stephanie Mayer
Senate Majority Leader – Harry Reid
Governor of Mass. & 2012 Presidential Candidate – Mitt Romney
Cowboy Outlaw – Butch Cassidy

So to wrap us up: You’ve got a little taste for the violent history of Mormonism in America & their flight Westward from NY to UT.  And we’ve seen how they distinguish from Protestant theology in 4 big areas: 1 – Authority, the bible’s no enough; 2- God, isn’t a trinity its 3 separate guys acting in unison; 3 – their gospel, is 1 of grace + works not by grace alone through faith alone on account of Christ alone & 4 – They not only believe they are Christians but that they are the only real Christians, thanks to Joseph Smith whom they revere near equal to Christ.

The Model American President?


The Model American President:
As a history buff, I know that come presidential election time in the US everyone starts to talk about the “ideal presidential candidate” or this “Founding Father” or that other one and how they compare to the candidates of the day.  So to assist in that endeavor I have created this list of attributes based off of a historical study of our Founding American Presidents…
These are the traits you should be looking for in your next presidential candidate if you want to “make America Great – just like it used to be:”
-he must be a he (no girls allowed)
- he must be an opium addict
- he has to only have 1 of his own original teeth, when elected 
- has to own about 600 slaves at least 1 of which he regularly rapes and has several children by
- must be from Virginia
- must be a plantation owner
- must be vaguely spiritual, but definitely not an actual Christian, ideally a Deist or a Mainline Liberal – basically believes in a god (of some kind) but believes that god is all but unknowable in any factual sense
- must be bad with money
- must be incapable of deciding if he wants the majority of political power to rest with the states authority or with the federal government
- must be a lawyer
- must be for the forcible intergradation of Native Americans into the American Union
- must be against women’s right to vote   
- must be willing to only serve 2 terms
- must be pro-libraries
- must be moderately educated, but not greatly educated
- has to be willing to die on the 4th of July
- and most important, has to be an active member of the Democratic Republican Party!!  
There you go. Now it should be easy deciding the next American President now that you know what to look for in our next American Hero.

Why Baptist & why SBC: (handout)


Why Baptist & why SBC: (handout)

Tracking down the origins of the Baptist Church is an exercise in ancient church history. From the days of the apostles, there was one Church of Jesus Christ, with a single body of doctrine taught by the apostles. The various local churches preached repentance and confession of sins, along with baptism. Under the authority of the apostles themselves as to doctrine, each church was independently governed by the leaders God placed in them. There was no denominational hierarchy, or distinction of “us/them” within the various churches. When disputes over sound doctrine arose, the apostles declared God's teaching based on the words of the Lord and the Old Testament Scriptures. For at least 100 years, this model remained the standard for all churches. Thus, the characteristics that defined the earliest churches are the same that most Baptist churches identify with today.

To be Baptist is to be part of a church or denomination that, broadly speaking, holds to adult believer baptism (typically by full immersion) following a credible statement of faith as the only biblically acceptable way to administer the sacrament of baptism as commanded by our Lord in his Great Commission. This is the view called credo-baptism (“believer” baptism), which is held over against the view of paedo-baptism (“infant” baptism) that is commonly practiced by Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, Anglicans, Lutherans, Presbyterians, and many continental Reformed churches.

The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) is a denomination comprised of over 16 million members in over 42,000 churches in the United States. Individual church membership is typically a matter of accepting Jesus Christ as personal Savior and submitting to believer's baptism by immersion. The SBC is considered to be an evangelistic, mission-minded church with a generally conservative doctrine, which focuses on the fact that Jesus died for our sin, was buried, and then rose from the grave and ascended to heaven.

 In forming the denomination, Southern Baptists wanted to maintain the autonomy of the local churches while creating an alliance of churches working in friendly cooperation. The primary goal of the denomination is to identify with like-minded churches and pool resources to establish and advance the work of the Gospel.  

Overall, Southern Baptist churches are good, strong, biblically-based churches. As with any church denomination or association, though, there can be bad churches and/or bad pastors. Just as you should with any other church, sincerely ask God to lead you to the church of His choosing for you. Carefully examine the teachings and practices of a church before officially joining it.

Lesson #1 "On Mormonism"


Intro Question: Leo Tolstoy, the famous author of War & Peace and Anna Karenina said of Mormonism, “It’s the quintessential __________ religion.”  What is the blank:  A) Heretical B) American C) Western or D) works-based? Correct answer is: B) American.
                  If you’ve ever taken a writing class in college you may have heard of a great little book called “Eats, shoots & leaves” written by a BBC radio 4 host Lynne Truss.
The title comes from a story were once upon a time, “a panda walks into a pub…He orders a sandwich, he eats it, then he draws a gun and proceeds to fire it at the other patrons.
"But, why?" asks the confused, surviving waitress amidst the carnage, as the panda makes towards the door; the panda produces a badly punctuated wildlife manual and tosses it over his shoulder.
"Well, I'm a panda," he says in his best tough-guy voice. "Look it up."
The waitress turns to the relevant entry in the manual and, sure enough, finds the explanation, under the header of panda it says, “Panda: A large black-and-white bear-like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoots and leaves."
The error, of course in the story, is that the manual should have said pandas eat shoots & leaves (with no commas) instead of eats, shoots & leaves.  This is an example to us as well because even a little error can completely change the application of a passage.  Like Jay recently talked about Jesus-himself would stress that even the most minute punctuation of a passage is important to rightly understanding it (Matt 5:18).
This is a great example of why studying Mormonism is important for Christians because as I hope we’ll see today that just a few small errors or ½ truths (all of which are still common in churches today) can lead people into a completely different religion.
So what we’re gonna do today?  I’ll start out with a brief history of Mormonism, and then we’ll double back & review just a few of the specific differences between Christianity & Mormon theology & see why they are important.
Feel free to interrupt me at any time with questions, okay?
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Brief History of Mormons:
1820 NY- The movement was founded by Joseph Smith in about 1820, in only 10-20 years it had separated from the rest of Protestant Christianity.  Joseph Smith claimed to be led by an angel to find buried golden plates (or tablets) & in a reverse to Charismatic “speaking in tongues” Smith is said to have been divinely enabled to translate the unknown language into English.  The name Mormon comes from this Book of Mormon translated by Smith.  The word Mormon like “Christian” was initially a pejorative but is now more commonly accepted.  The Book was supposedly a history of BC Jews that had left the Middle East & moved to America, before Christ was born.  Today there is generally no support amongst mainstream historians or archaeologists for the historicity of the Book of Mormon.  Scientist have even gone as far as DNA sequencing to review any genetic correlations between Jews & Native Americans, there appears to be none.
1820 “First Vision” – Smith claimed a vision of both God & Jesus Christ where he asked them which denomination he should join & God told him none of them because they were all wrong.  Please be wary of anyone who says 2000 years of Christianity, they were all wrong, trust me instead. By 1830 Smith said God would use him to re-establish the True Church & that his Book of Mormon would establish correct doctrine for this new corrected version of Christianity.
1830 OH - In 1830 tensions between New England Christians & the new Mormons worsened & the Mormons left NY for Kirkland, OH then continuing to move West & hoping to establish a new version of the city of Jerusalem called Zion in Jackson County, MO.  Can anyone guess what metro city this is today? (Independence).
1833 MO - In 1833 violent conflicts with Missourians resulted in an “extermination order” from the governor expelling all Mormons from the state of MO.  The governor claimed that the Mormons had committed "open and avowed defiance of the laws", and had "made war upon the people of this State," Governor Boggs directed that "the Mormons must be treated as enemies of Missouri, and must be exterminated or driven from the State if necessary for the public peace—their outrages are beyond all description". The Mormons left or were driven from MO to IL, establishing the city of Nauvoo in 1844. (Please note that the city is Nauvoo, not Naboo which is a planet from Star Wars ep. 1).    
1844 IL (died) - Tensions between Mormons & non-Mormons in IL lead to Smith & his brother being charged with treason & being killed by an angry mob.  It was at this point that Mormons split into 3 forms: LDS Mormons being the most common, however there are also even more conservative Mormon Fundamentalists which still practice polygamy today & more liberal Cultural Mormons, who are very moral, like other Mormons, but don’t necessarily follow Mormon theology.  The LDS Mormons choose Brigham Young as their new prophet/leader who moved the LDS Mormons from IL to the Utah territory.  There they were free to openly practice a form of polygamy (Does anyone know what this is? plural marriage), called polygyny, (anyone want to guess what polygyny is?) which allowed for multiple wives a practice Smith had founded back when they lived in Nauvoo, IL.  This polygyny & polygamy are illegal because both cause bigamy, which is when a married person marries another additional spouse.
1890 Ends LDS Polygamy – Almost 50 years later; it wasn’t until the 1890 Manifesto after years of vigorous opposition of Mormon teachings by the US Congress, that Congress dis-incorporated the LDS’ church status & wars between US troops & Mormon legionnaires & militias broke out which finally brought about LDS abandonment of polygamy which they had to do for Utah to be able to join the Union as a state, a ban on polygamy was forced into their state constitution, Article 3 section 1: The Utah State constitution which states: Perfect toleration of religious sentiment is guaranteed. No inhabitant of this State shall ever be molested in person or property on account of his or her mode of religious worship; but polygamous or plural marriages are forever prohibited.  And honestly that pretty well brings us up today….any Mormon history questions before we move into Mormon theology?
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Theology errors:
Remember how I said it only took a few small errors to end up in a completely different religion.  You have to envision theology like a ship with a bad rudder or compass which can cause a ship to end up completely off course.
Authority –
Quote: “The Book of Mormon is more correct than the Bible,” (History of the Church, 4:461). Why is this quote dangerous?  What does this passage say about how Mormon’s view authority?
Mormons accept the Old & New Testament using the KJV as their official text (like KJV only Baptists) Mormons believe the Bible is mostly accurate but that you have to look to Joseph Smith’s Book of Mormon because wherever the Book of Mormon disagrees with the Bible, the Bible is wrong.  This is much like Catholics who, we’ve mentioned, added the Apocrypha to the Bible & then accepted doctrines only found in the Apocrypha over the teachings of Scripture.  The whole of a Mormon Bible collects the regular KJV Bible, the Book of Mormon, a book of saying & prophecies called Doctrines & Covenants & the Pearl of Great Price. The church characterizes the Book of Mormon as "the most correct of any book on earth and the keystone of [their] religion.”
Another source of authoritative doctrine is the pronouncements of its current Apostles and members of the First Presidency. The church teaches that the First Presidency (the church's president and his counselors) as well as the Quorum of Twelve Apostles are prophets and that their teachings are generally given under inspiration from God through the Holy Spirit. Members of the church acknowledge them regularly as prophets and seers—this is done publicly twice a year at the church's worldwide general conference.
Like Charismatics, Mormons believe in Continuous Revelations meaning that their leaders continue to expound God’s perspective on any issue at hand via “I feel like the Lord is telling me to say…” or by claiming visions or visitations from angels & relaying direct conversations with persons from heaven.
This is also similar to the Visions & visitations claimed by Catholics who take visions of Saints or Mary as well as the Pope speaking ex-cathedra as scriptural or dogmatic. Do you guys know what ex-cathedra means?
Ex-cathedra means when the Pope speaks from his office of as Shepherd & Teacher of all Christendom, due to his supreme apostolic authority he can define any doctrine concerning faith or morals intended to be held by the whole of Christianity.
So the note of caution to us is do we take anything ideas, thought, feelings and place them above or equal to the Bible as authoritative.
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God –
Quote: “Many men say there is one God; the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost are only one God. I say that is a strange God [anyhow] -- three in one and one in three…It is a curious organization… All are crammed into one God according to sectarianism (Christian faith). It would make the biggest God in all the world. He would be a wonderfully big God – he would be a giant or a monster,” (Joseph Smith, Teachings, p.372). What are your initial thoughts about this Mormon view of God?
This is the hard part about studying Mormonism because the will use “Christian” terms but have their own different meaning for them live Sovereignty or Trinity.
Mormonism is distinctly non-Trinitarian, the LDS teaches that Elohim, Jesus Christ & the Holy Spirit are 3 separate & distinct beings, & while Elohim & JC have perfect physical bodies, the HS only has a spiritual body, and even though these are distinct beings Mormons uses Christian language of “One God or the Godhead”, because they believe these 3 different people are still unified in singular purpose, action & thought.
Elohim is literally the father of the spirits of all men & women and these spirits existed prior to their mortal existence. Mormons believe JC is literally the firstborn son of Elohim, explaining what “Son of God” means.  
Further all humans (as spiritual children of God) can themselves earn the right to become gods themselves through Mormonism’s moral obedience (process called theosis or exaltation). 
While in Kirkland, OH Joseph Smith established ceremonies, which he stated the Lord had revealed to him, to allow righteous people to become gods.
 “After you become a good Mormon, you have the potential of becoming a god,” (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 345-347, 354).
“The trinity is three separate Gods: The Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. That these three are separate individuals, physically distinct from each other, is demonstrated by the accepted records of divine dealings with man,” (Articles of Faith, James Talmage p. 35)
“The birth of the Savior was as natural as the births of our own children; it was the result of natural action [intercourse between Mary & Elohim].  He partook of flesh and blood—was begotten of his Father, as we were of our fathers,” (Journal of Discourses Vol. 8 p. 115)
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The Atoning Gospel –
Quote: “One of the most fallacious doctrines originated by Satan and propounded by man is that man is saved alone by the grace of God; that belief in Jesus Christ alone is all that is needed for salvation,” (Miracle of Forgiveness, Spencer W. Kimball p .206)
In Mormonism the central part of God’s plan for exaltation (you becoming a god), is the atonement of JC, Mormons believe that the purpose of this earthly life is to learn to make good choses over evil choices.  In this process if Mormons sin then they prove they are unworthy to return to the presence of God. To obtain this state of godhood, the church teaches that one must have faith in Jesus Christ, repent of his or her sins, strive to keep the commandments faithfully, and participate in a sequence of ceremonial covenants called ordinances, which include baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost via the laying on of hands, the endowments (sacramental washings and anointings), and celestial marriage (marriage blessings which extend beyond mortality).
Mormons believe these ordinances are seen as necessary for salvation, but are not in & of themselves sufficient. For example, baptism is required for salvation but being baptized doesn’t mean you will be saved. A baptized person is expected to be obedient to God’s commandments or to repent of each sin committed following baptism & to receive all other needed saving ordinances. Because Mormons require obedience to ordinances in order to be saved, Mormons will often perform ordinances (like baptism) for the dead who failed to obey, these ordnances are performed by “proxy” on behalf of the dead. As Mormons are hyper-Arminian they believe that the dead can accept or reject these proxy ordinances done for them of their own free will.
“We accept Christ’s atonement [The gospel] which consists of laws and ordinances: As these sins are the result of individual acts it is just that forgiveness for them should be conditioned on individual compliance with prescribed requirements –obedience to the laws, commandments and ordinances of the gospel.” (Articles of Faith, p. 79 & Gospel Principles, Corporation of the President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1979, p.68.)
Jesus’ sacrifice was not able to cleanse us from all our sins, (murder and repeated adultery are exceptions),” (Journal of Discourses, Vol. 3 p. 247)
“Good works are necessary for salvation,” (Articles of Faith, James Talmage p.92)
“There is no salvation without accepting Joseph Smith as a prophet of God (Doctrines of Salvation, Vol.1 p. 188)
The blending of works with repentant-faith in order to be saved has been the biggest and most common heresy in all of Christianity from the Judaizes in the NT, to free-will Pelagians in the 400’s,  to free-will semi-Pelagians in 500’s & Arminians in 1600’s AD – this is the biggest argument in Christianity. 
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Mormonism & Christianity
Quote: “If it had not been for Joseph Smith and the Restoration, there would be no salvation. There is no salvation [the context is of the full gospel including exaltation to Godhood] outside the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,” (Mormon Doctrine, p. 670).
Mormons categorize themselves within General Christianity & Mormons self-identify as Christian. However Mormonism’s differences place it outside of the umbrella of Christianity, Mormonism is seen as a heretical different religion, amongst Catholics, Eastern Orthodox & Protestants.
Mormonism believes that they are also the only true form of Christianity since the 1st Cent AD, according to Mormons (not long after Christ’s ascension) Christianity became corrupted by Greek philosophy, known as the General Apostasy. And they believe that all valid priests ceased following the martyrdom of the Apostles & therefore no true church leader aside from an ordained Mormon leader have valid authority to lead the Church or to administer its ordinances. 
Similarly Catholics believe their popes have a direct line of authority from Peter to today even though there were no Popes prior to 500 AD. Mormons believe that they exemplify the practices of the Early Church & are now the restored version of true Christianity.  
Famous Mormons:
Singer – Marie Osmand
Twilight author – Stephanie Mayer
Senate Majority Leader – Harry Reid
Governor of Mass. & 2012 Presidential Candidate – Mitt Romney
Cowboy Outlaw – Butch Cassidy

So to wrap us up: You’ve got a little taste for the violent history of Mormonism in America & their flight Westward from NY to UT.  And we’ve seen how they distinguish from Protestant theology in 4 big areas: 1 – Authority, the bible’s no enough; 2- God isn’t a trinity its 3 separate guys acting in unison; 3 – their gospel is 1 of works not by grace alone through faith alone on account of Christ alone & 4 – They not only believe they are Christians but that they are the only real Christians thanks to Joseph Smith whom they revere near equal to Christ.