Aren't Mormons Christians?

Are Mormons
Christians?

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Crossroads Press

This question has been asked by orthodox Christians and by Latter-day Saints, and both are ready with an answer. The Saints claim to be Christians, members of the only true Church of Jesus Christ on earth. Mormons do pray "in the name of Jesus Christ." And the Book of Mormon does carry the subtitle "Another Testament of Jesus Christ."

However, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was founded on the premise that all other churches were false. Joseph Smith described his church as "the only true and living church on the face of the earth." Among a number of other vital differences, this exclusionist claim by the LDS church does separate Mormonism from orthodox Christianity.

While there is plenty of common ground between the major Protestant denominations, significant theological differences separate the Latter-day Saints from the rest of Christendom. For example, LDS theology states that God is a being of flesh and bone and that "as man is, God once was; as God is, man may become." To Latter-day Saints, Christ is our "elder brother;" the firstborn son of God as we are sons of God. Latter-day Saints do not accept the Christian doctrine of "original sin" but claim that salvation is attainable through keeping the commandments and enduring to the end (Doctrine and Covenants 14:7). The authority of the Bible is superseded by the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants, and the Pearl of Great Price as well as by continuing revelation from modern prophets.

The question of whether Mormons are Christians has been more thoroughly addressed in the book, How Wide the Divide?, a polite dialogue between Craig Blomberg of Denver (Conservative Baptist Theological) Seminary and Stephen Robinson of Brigham Young University and published by InterVarsity Press in 1997. In their insightful book Mormon America, authors Richard Ostling and Joan Ostling (HarperSanFrancisco, 1999) also devote a chapter to answering this question.