“Are Mormons Closer to Muslims or Christians?” (Part 4)

Last updated on: September 5, 2018 at 9:53 am by Dan Peterson

“Are Mormons Closer to Muslims or Christians?” (Part 4) 2018-09-05T09:53:45-06:00 Dan Peterson

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The mosque-university of al-Azhar in Cairo, founded in the early 970s AD.
(Wikimedia Commons)

I continue with my brief response to a terrible 2012 Huffington Post article by a certain Ms. Eliza Wood:

Ms. Wood explains that “both Islam and Mormonism are at best very distant cousins of Christianity with some of the same overarching guidance.”

It’s impossible to know what Ms. Wood means by the phrase some of the same overarching guidance. But here are some facts about Mormonism that she somehow fails to mention: Mormons believe, while Muslims do not, that Jesus atoned for our sins, that we must be baptized in his name, that he is our Redeemer, that he is the Only Begotten Son of God, that his is the only name under heaven whereby humankind has any hope of salvation, that he was crucified, that he physically rose from the tomb on the third day, that he ascended into heaven where he sits at the right hand of God the Father, that he is the second person (with the Father and the Holy Spirit) of the Godhead, and that he will return again at the last day to judge the living and the dead.

I wonder why Ms. Wood omitted those matters. They seem relevant.

“Neither Islam nor Mormonism,” says Ms. Wood, “is a close enough relative to ever be confused with Christianity.”

But she’s provided not a single actual fact to justify her position with regard to Mormonism. (Muslims, of course, don’t claim to be Christians.)

“If,” continues Ms. Wood, “a Christian of any denomination inadvertently walked into a Mormon tabernacle or a mosque, which would be fairly difficult since both allow only members of their faith to enter, there is no way the service could be recognized as a Christian devotion to Christ, but there is plenty of devotion to God going on.”

Flat nonsense. All Mormon tabernacles (there aren’t that many of them) are open to the public, as are all Mormon chapels, the ordinary places of Sunday worship. As are virtually all mosques. Ms. Wood is confusing Mormon temples, which are closed to the public, with Mormon chapels. This is an elementary distinction that somebody presuming to lay down such judgments as Ms. Wood is offering ought to be clear about.

But Ms. Wood is wrong, in any case. Every prayer in every Mormon service and every sermon given is closed “in the name of Jesus Christ.” Every week, the sacrament of the Lord’s supper is administered in Mormon worship services, commemorating Christ’s atoning flesh and blood. Hymns are sung about Christ and his sacrificial atonement. Lessons are taught and talks given about Christ. Paintings of Christ adorn the walls of our buildings. The name of Christ is emblazoned on their external walls: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The Book of Mormon proclaims itself “a second witness for Christ.”

Ms. Wood is bearing false witness, a sin explicitly condemned in the Bible.

Posted from Cairo, Egypt

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