This is an email conversation that I had with my Mom a few months ago. I was thinking about it today and decided I'd share it on the blog. Please understand that I was trying to answer Mom's questions in a basic way that would be clear to a person from an LDS background and not creating a scholarly work on the topics discussed (so forgive some of the generalizations). See below
Mom wrote:
Chris - I am teaching my study group class on Thurs. and the topic is other religions. I am trying to cram in teaching on Zoastrianism, Judaism, Christianity and Islam all in 1 1/2 hours so I don't have much time for each subject but I did have some questions come up about your religion as I was studying, that I was hoping you could answer.#1 - When Mr. Clayton goes to his seminary college does he study with men that are preparing to be ministers (or preachers) in many different religions or faiths or are they all going to end up preaching in the same church (baptist, methodist, etc.)#2 - When you call yourself a Christian what exactly do you mean? Is Christianity to you a religion ( a specific set of beliefs about God, Jesus, the gospel, how to organize a church) or is it more general that that? Do you feel that you are Christian along with the Catholics, Baptists, Lutherans, etc.. because you all believe in Jesus Christ or are you Christian with only non-denominational christian churches? These questions may not make a lot of sense to you because of my terminology but I hope you understand what I mean. Thanks for you help. Mom
I replied:
Greater Christianity, generally, does not have the same view of doctrinal dogma that the LDS church does. When I was LDS, I thought that every church had a specific set of dogma's that they believed were "true", down to the smallest detail of how everything was done (like the LDS church and to some degree the catholic church). To join a church meant to subscribe to all of the dogma's of that church.
I use the word "dogma" to mean a set of doctrines authoritatively laid down by the leaders of the church, like in the LDS church. "Dogma's" in this sense are not up for discussion (ie when the president of the church says "this is true" you either accept or reject, there is no discussion)
The Christian churches (Baptist, Methodist, Lutheran, Episcopal, Presbyterian, Non-Denominational) are almost all in complete agreement on the basics. Each church will have a faith statement of some kind that outlines what they believe and most of these faith statements (or declarations) are almost all the same (not word for word, but generally the same doctrines).
1. Belief in the Trinity. God, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost are one being in three persons. (not just one in purpose)
2. Saved by Grace through Faith in Jesus Christ.
3. Bible is the word of God (most - 99% believe that it is "inerrant" or in other words that though certain words here and there may have been changed in translation or over time, God has preserved the important and necessary doctrines in the Bible so that it can be relied upon as the only guide necessary for Christian living and salvation.)
4. Jesus Christ as the Son of God, begotten but not created (Jesus was God from the beginning).
5. Man's ultimate purpose is to bring Glory to God.
6. God's ultimate purpose is to bring Himself glory (or the Glory of His name).
When a Christian (most protestants and some catholics), talks about the "church", they view this as all Christians everywhere of every denomination, as long as they believe in the basic orthodox Christian beliefs. I won't go into too much detail because I could go on forever on how the different denominations are the same and how they are different. Suffice it to say, that they are much more alike than they are different, and they would probably all agree that they are different enough from the Mormon church so as to require a different description. In other words, when they refer to the "church" as Christianity in general, most Christian churches of all denominations would not include the LDS church. This is not intended as an insult by Christians, but more as a description.
Basically, on all the things that the Christian churches would consider most important (the things that they generally all agree on), the LDS church believes differently.
1. Nature of God (Trinity vs. Three separate beings)
2. Nature of Jesus (God in the Flesh, God from eternity past to eternity future vs. a spirit child of God who became part the Godhead, but was not originally)
3. Means of Salvation (saved by Grace through Faith vs. saved by faith through obedience).
4. Role of Bible (Inerrant scripture as described above vs. lacking "plain and precious" things and in need of correction - ie. JST).
5. Man's Purpose (To glorify and worship God vs. to become Gods ourselves ).
6. God's Ultimate Purpose (To bring himself Glory vs. to "bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man")
As far as your specific questions go.
1. Clayton's college is a Baptist college. This means that it is run by Baptists, affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention, and the theology is generally taught from a Baptist perspective. The students and teachers, however, do not necessarily have to be Baptist. Most however would go on to work with either Baptist or Non-denominational churches.
Different churches have different standards for their pastors/preachers. To be a Lutheran preacher for example (Missouri Synod), you have to go to one of the Concordia universities and get a masters degree. So I would say that usually, you go to a school sponsored or run by the same faith that you want to preach in. Non-denominational churches would probably have the least strict standards (education requirements) for their pastors.
Non-denominational churches are usually run with a baptist style (kind of), but the distinguishing factor in non-denominational churches (that I have seen) is that they try to stay away from non-biblical traditions of the other denominations. In other words, if there are rules, standards of dress, operational traditions, traditional styles of music, that are not from the bible, non-denominational churches tend to avoid or even condemn some of them. They generally try to let the bible define their faith and practice instead of making up their faith and practice and calling it biblical. A better way to say it is that they condemn taking things that aren't biblical and saying "this is how you have to do it". For instance, they don't condemn people wearing suits to church, they only condemn when people say "you have to wear a suit to church as a sign of respect". They don't condemn people not drinking alcohol, they only condemn when people say "no Christian should drink alcohol".
They are generally resistant to the word "religion" because it is associated with the idea of "dogma's" that I described earlier. A lot of the people who go to Non-denominational churches are either defectors from other churches who thought their church took non-biblical traditions too far, or people who haven't ever been to church before and don't like the stigma's attached to "church people" so the unorthodox style appeals to them. There are alot of "over-churched" and "un-churched" people. The non-denominational churches that I know of would call themselves biblically conservative or strict, but culturally liberal.
2. I believe that I am Christian with all those who believe in Jesus Christ. This also means that they understand Jesus Christ as I (and other Christians) understand Him as God in the flesh. If a person believes that Jesus Christ is an old man down the street, they may say they "believe in Jesus Christ" but it is not the same thing. Muslims believe in "Jesus Christ" but only regard him as a prophet and not God in the flesh. In some ways "Christianity" is very specific (who God is, how we are saved, what our overall purpose is, what scripture is.) but in some ways it is much more general.
There are other points of doctrine that Christians differ on (ex. pre-destination, role of baptism, gifts of the spirit, how the Holy Ghost manifests, angels, who can take communion, etc.) Your Articles of Faith are basically addressing some of these issues of interdenominational differences that have risen in the last few hundred years (JS coming down on one side of the argument or the other). The majority of Christians would agree that these issues are secondary to the main beliefs and the differences can usually be reduced to minor semantic differences or differences on practice but not necessarily doctrine.
I, and I think most Christians from most denominations, would consider themselves "citizens in the Kingdom of God" through their faith in Jesus Christ. For example, I was talking to a Lutheran pastor the other day and he refered to Baptists as "my brothers and sisters in Christ from the Baptist church". CS Lewis (Anglican) refers to it as a big house with alot of rooms (the rooms being the different denominations). I would say that most Christians look at it this way. I would also look at it like being an American (which goes with the citizen in the kingdom idea). Americans from New York, Georgia, Texas, Minnesota, and California are often pretty different (accents, hobbies, political ideas) but have much more in common with each other than they do with someone from China, Chile, Germany or Spain, and they would all agree that they are united by a common citizenship and national identity. Same thing with the Christian denominations.
Following this analogy, most Christians would think of the LDS as like Canada or England. We speak the same language for the most part, have alot of the same traditions and practices, but its just not the same country. Hope that helps. Maybe it was more than you were looking for.
Next time I'll have to call you because it take me forever to write about this when I get going.
Chris
