Skip to main content

Who Are Christians?

As members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, we are frequently labeled Mormons/the Mormon Church or Latter-day Saints/the LDS Church. No matter what people call us, they never reference Christ, the Son of God, whom we worship and for whom our church is named. We are never called Christians.

Who are Christians? According to Merriam-Webster's dictionary, a Christian is "one who professes belief in the teachings of Jesus Christ." There are many things wrong with this definition: 1.) it implies that to be Christian you only need to profess belief, 2.) the belief is in Christ's teachings, not in Him, and 3.) there are many interpretations of what His teachings are. The last problem is why people do not consider us Christians. The first two are why I don't consider many people Christians.

Of course, to be Christian you need to believe in Christ. We do. We believe He is the Son of God and atoned for our sins. We worship Him and only Him--not prophets, dead or alive, as some think, which is why we prefer to be called by our church's true name instead of being called Mormons.

However, a true Christian is more than just someone who believes in the Bible and Jesus Christ. Christ said,
Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.
Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?

And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity. (Matthew 7:21-23, emphasis added)
This passage reveals that more than profession of belief and good works are required to be His disciples. We must also do the will of the Father. We must show our true belief by keeping His commandments (John 14:15) and following in His footsteps (3 Nephi 27:21). If we do these things, our Christlike lives will testify to the world that we Mormons are true Christians (Matthew 7:20).

Michael Otterson of Church Public affairs addressed the issue of Mormons being excluded from Christians. “If you try to track the number of references to Jesus Christ in the service, you may lose count,” Otterson says. “So just observe the families, listen to the prayers, leaf through the hymn book to see if any of the hymns seem familiar, and make up your own mind as to how Christian our people are.”

A New Era article adapted from Stephen E. Robinson's book Are Mormons Christians? discusses the question more thoroughly. For more articles on the subject, go to lds.org and type "Christians" in the search box.

Discussion: What else makes a true Christian?
Labels:

Comments

Anonymous said…
you are a consummate Christian-DAD
November 2, 2011 at 12:50 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

New URL Coming Soon To Avoid Using "Mormon"

photo by ilker In light of President Nelson's talk in October 2018 general conference , I will be changing the title and address of this blog very soon to eliminate the use of the word "Mormon." Because I won't be buying a domain name, I don't know what the new URL and blog name will be yet. I'm not very literate in the website world, so please bear with me as I roll out these changes. I'm trying to learn as much as I can quickly to reduce broken links and errors. Thank you, and I hope you keep reading my blog!
Post a Comment
Read more

Callings

lds.org The Church runs on volunteered time and service, organized through callings. We choose to accept or reject these callings when Church leaders extend them to us. When we are faced with this choice we must remember the following: Church leaders truly are inspired from heaven. They know where we need to serve. We must not doubt them even if it is difficult not to. There are many reasons why a certain calling is right for us. Most obvious, we have the necessary qualities and skills for that position or, conversely, we need to develop the needed qualities and skills. Other reasons may not even be related to the calling. In my case, I needed to meet a certain person, who shared the same calling. We have since become close friends and blessings in each other's lives. When we magnify our callings, everyone benefits. We grow and the ward grows; we learn and the ward learns; we love and the ward loves us back. Every calling in the ward is important. 1 Corinthians 12:12-27 e...
3 comments
Read more

Little Girls No More

Read this article . And we wonder why girls as young as eleven are losing their virginity and why there are so many sexual predators out there. The company argues the padding is for modesty. On the one hand, that is understandable. My little sister went through puberty very early, and my mom had a hard time finding a little-girl bathing suit that covered my sister completely. On the other hand, if parents are so worried about modesty, why are they letting their little girls wear bikinis, especially if they are starting to blossom at a young age? Why can't little girls just be little girls? They'll have the rest of their lives to be grown women. Childhood lasts only for a brief moment. And once it's over, most everyone wishes at some time or other that they could go back. I apologize this isn't actually a doctrinal post. But this problem of sexualizing our little girls really bothers me. As members of the Church, we must set the example and dress our children modestly fr...
2 comments
Read more