Basic Mormon Beliefs
What do Mormons believe? A good question. Soon after the founding of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the Prophet Joseph Smith wrote thirteen Articles of Faith, which are straightforward statements of basic beliefs in the Mormon Church, many of which set the Mormon Church apart from other religious denominations. In a similar effort we have chosen to divide Mormonism into a few basic groups of beliefs which will help you understand the Church.
By reading about Mormon basic beliefs, you can better understand how a foundation both in ancient scriptures and latter-day revelation makes Mormonism what it is today. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is founded on the same principles and doctrines of the Church that Jesus Christ Himself set up when He lived on the Earth. After the death of the Apostles, the authority to lead the Church was lost, and many important doctrines were changed. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, often called the Mormon Church, is Jesus Christ’s Church again established upon the earth. This restoration began through the Prophet Joseph Smith, and revelation continues today.
You can start where you prefer.
You may want to know more about the Church of Jesus Christ itself and its basic Gospel principles, such as faith, baptism, and prayer.
Or you may want to read about what Mormons believe about the Family, and what they see as the Purpose of life and the Nature of God.
i am doing a report on Joseph Smith and i have found out a lot about Mormonism. i think that people should really learn more about him and the religion. Smith was a good man and i think he died a very wrong way and people shouldn’t post things they don’t know about.
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“But examine everything carefully; hold fast to that which is good.”—1 Thessalonians 5:21
“I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him…for a different gospel; which is really not another; only there are some who are disturbing you, and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even though we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to that which we have preached to you, let him be accursed.”—Galatians 1:6-8
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karenrose Reply:
April 26th, 2009 at 1:44 pm
Jenn, I do hold fast to the truth, even the fulness of the gospel. You might want to formulate a list from the Word of the things that the Savior had and did in His Church and ministry while on the earth and then ask yourself where those are found. I testify that it is His gospel in its fulness–and not the doctrines of men mixed with a measure of scripture–to which we adhere, for the Savior restored His Church to the earth with living prophets and apostles. The Temple is important to Him, for He commanded to have it built anciently and has again in our day. To criticize the temple is to criticize the One you claim to love and want to follow. I believe you do, but you are not yet knowledgeable about the ways the Lord works and the purposes He has. The unrepentant aren’t baptized. Likewise, not all have all privileges. The Lord decides–just as He did anciently. Not everyone had access to the Holy of Holies, if you recall your OT history.
I testify to you that the Savior does have unconditional love for us, atoned for us, and that He also has ordinances necessary for salvation and a way to follow those ordinances. Anyone who follows His way can enter His temples.
God bless you in your spiritual journey.
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“and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people.”-Matthew 24:11.
Karenrose, let me start by saying that you are a wonderful and gifted person. God made you special, and loves you more than you have ever been loved or could ever be loved.
You are breaking His heart everyday by how you are living your life. This is not how He has intended your life to be lived. I’m just a person. I’m not the Lord Jesus Christ, I’m not even the best Christian out there. I do not know what you think, or what you are thinking right now. But I do know this, you and many other persons’ views around the world are being distorted. But it is not you or anyone who is a mormon’s fault! It is us Christians’ fault.
Since the death of the first (and I believe only) Apostles, the Christian church has never stood firmly. We have been divided into branches,and seperated into radical groups. In fact I applaud the LDS church for standing firm in faith when us Christians do not. That is why many times people confuse Catholicism with Christianity. Catholics and Mormons have stood firm when Christians have not.
I will end on this note. “Watch out for false prophets…”-Matthew 7:15. And, “…all have sinned and fall short of the glory of
God.”-Romans 3:23. But! “…the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”-Romans 6:23.
I understand if you do not believe what I have written, as I would not believe your teachings. But if anyone considers these words, let God touch his/her heart and change their life for the better. In Christ Jesus my God and Master, Amen.
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Rameumptom Reply:
May 24th, 2009 at 8:45 pm
Kiara,
Thanks for your thoughts. I agree that the Christian church has become divided over the centuries. This is in stark contrast to Paul’s admonition that we need living prophet, apostles and teachers, until “we all come to the unity of the faith” in Christ (Ephesians 4:11-14).
Several of the Reformers also saw this division, the loss of correct Biblical principles, and the need for modern apostles in order to restore the primitive Church. Yes, there would be false prophets in later times, but also true prophets as predicted by the apostle John and others.
You can read up on this here:
http://rameumptom.weebly.com/apostasy.html
By the way, LDS are Christians. We just are not traditional Christians. We are restorationist Christians, believing many mistakes have entered into the Church over the centuries, and God sent angels in our day to correct those mistakes.
Today, more and more traditional Bible scholars are coming around to seeing LDS concepts as correct with the actual Biblical view. These are seeing concepts such as openness theology, Jesus as the Messiah/Great Angel, and Temple theology all beginning to resemble LDS teachings. Why is this so? Either Joseph Smith was a great guesser, or he was called to be a true prophet of God.
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Wes Reply:
June 11th, 2009 at 5:03 am
One thing I note in your post here. You say that Jesus is the Messiah/Great Angel. I wonder, which is it?
The Bible teaches that Jesus is God (John 1:1), who saves us from our sins (Matthew 1:21), raided himself from the dead (John 10:17), and received worship before and after his resurrection (Matthew 2:2, Mark 5:6, Luke 24:52).
The Bible also teaches that Jesus had been made better than the angels (Hebrews 1:4), that they worshiped him (Hebrews 1:6), and that angels are ministering spirits (Hebrews 1:7).
Now, if Jesus was an angel, how could he die for our sins? God is our only Savior (Isaiah 43:11). Only Jesus can pay for our sins(John 14:6), since God is the one we sinned against (Gen 3:3).
This seems to conflict with LDS teachings.
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Rameumptom Reply:
June 11th, 2009 at 9:07 pm
Thanks for your question. The word “angel” comes from the Greek word for “messenger.” Many angels ARE ministering servants, and none is greater than Jesus. The Messiah was viewed anciently as a Son of God, who would come as THE Savior of mankind. Many Jews believed he would be a great warrior, who would vanquish their enemies.
Jesus is the Son of God. He is our Savior and Redeemer. But he also held other roles: prophet, apostle, healer, and Messiah.
One thing LDS believe is that God, angels and man are all from the same substance, like an acorn is a baby tree, we are potential gods, or Sons of God in embryo. There are varying angels, depending upon which level of salvation they receive. When Jesus went with his apostles to the Mount of Transfiguration, they were ministered to by Moses, Elijah and Elias, who were angels or messengers. Gabriel, the archangel also came to Mary to pronounce Jesus’ birth.
In early Jewish/Christian writings, archangels were often viewed as higher angels with god-like abilities. Enoch in one ancient book, arises to heaven, where he is clothed in white robes, sat upon God’s throne, and is given the name of Metatron, one of the archangels. His being sat upon God’s throne makes Enoch an angel who has the full power of God.
In D&C 93, we read that as a mortal, Jesus did not have a fulness of God’s glory and power. He went from grace to grace, receiving grace for grace. IOW, as a babe, he truly was an innocent baby who did not know what was going on. As he grew, the teachings of Joseph and Mary, and the guidance of Heavenly Father taught him truths, until he received a fulness of all things. For this reason, the resurrected Jesus told Mary Magdalene to not touch him, for he had not yet ascended to His Father (to receive his fulness), but days later told the Nephites that he had received that fulness (3 Nephi 11).
As a messenger of God, the Messiah and Great Angel of the Presence of God, Jesus was able to perform important tasks, including saving Israel.
For more information, Barry Bickmore explains Methodist Preacher and OT scholar, Margaret Barker’s view well at this link:
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Parthenon/2671/Presence.html
And you can read more from her at margaretbarker.com
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i have the book but i dont know how to use it plse try to help me b’cos i am much interested
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the Ogre Reply:
May 30th, 2009 at 2:22 pm
Martin, the Book of Mormon can be a challenge. For your first time though, you might want to skim a few chapters. The chapter heading will indicate which ones are from Isaiah. I love Isaiah, but not everyone gets it. It is very important to the Book of Mormon, but you can pass by them and still understand what is going on.
Latter-day Saints generally view the Book of Mormon as a history. I do as well, but I recognize there are allegorical lessons that can be gathered from any scripture and history book.
I recommend just jumping in. If you don’t get something, let it go by and come back to it if you have a chance.
I hope you enjoy it as much as I do. It is a wonderful book that has enlightened so much in my life.
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Leigh Reply:
June 8th, 2009 at 12:42 am
I was raised mormon so I know the teachings, however when I had questions I went back to the True word of GOD,,,, the Bible. it tells us not to add or take from the scriptures, it also tells us that every person must be reborn, Jesus died so that our sins are paid in full because we humans are sinful if we think it we did it, so each of us sins everyday, you would be chatting with the bishop every hour of everyday to repent,
the Bible tells us that God’s love for each of us is deep, he wants us to be with him again, and so he sent Jesus to pay our sin debt, the Bible also tells us that we can’t get into heaven by works so that no one should boast, I praise God each day for “free will” another gift from God, because of it I have a personal relationship with my savior. I don’t know if you have taken as much time reading the Bible as you have reading the book of Mormon, but if not you should… Pray about it and see what the word of God can do.
God Bless you
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Rameumptom Reply:
June 11th, 2009 at 9:14 pm
LDS do not quite believe as you write here. We do believe that mankind is not to add to nor take away from the Bible. However, if God wishes to add to it via a prophet, as he has done in the past, then he is welcome to do so. We also believe that people must be reborn (see Alma 5) through the atonement of Jesus Christ in order to be saved. We do not believe that bishops forgive us our sins. That is Jesus’ job. Bishops are called upon to assist us in repentance, so we can receive Jesus’ forgiveness. And they primarily deal in major sins, allowing us to work our own repentance on most everyday issues.
I agree that we should definitely study the Bible. It is the word of God, and people have been blessed by its words for thousands of years. The Book of Mormon is “Another Testament” of Jesus Christ. It is a primary text, like the Bible, but goes hand in hand with it. It does not supplant the Bible in anyway.
One of my favorite Book of Mormon quotes is this:
“And we talk of Christ, we rejoice in Christ, we preach of Christ, we prophesy of Christ, and we write according to our prophecies, that our children may know to what source they may look for a remission of their sins.
“Wherefore, we speak concerning the law [of Moses] that our children may know the deadness of the law; and they, by knowing the deadness of the law, may look forward unto that life which is in Christ, and know for what end the law was given. And after the law is fulfilled in Christ, that they need not harden their hearts against him when the law ought to be done away” (2 Nephi 25:26-27).
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karenrose Reply:
May 31st, 2009 at 2:44 pm
Martin, do you have the Book of Mormon in your own language? If not, we can get that to you. There is a study guide online if you are interested in reading along with the Book. It helps to know the context of the book as well. Let us know what you would like help with, and we’ll try to guide you through.
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I live in the Bible Belt and was raised protestant and I would like to say that I fully believe that there is only one thing a person needs to be a Christian. You need to believe that there is a being called God and he is more amazing than the human mind can even cultivate and he sent a being named Jesus who brought a new light into the world and died on the cross to save our sins. Therefor Mormans are christians. Everything else is just details.
I would also like to point out that the bible is almost like a game of telephone and biased. Some of the stories were passed down numerous times before they were actually documented. Also there were numerous books that were left out of the bible because the people assembling the book wanted to control the beliefs of its readers. Another thing to keep in mind is that a lot of the bible was letters and its people writing their feelings. Its only one side of a story.
every religious book holds wisdom even if it doesnt contain truth so be careful to judge mormans and their religious books as well.
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