Posted on 02/18/2008 7:30:16 AM PST by Alex Murphy
A prominent Hindu leader met a senior leader of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) in Salt Lake City (Utah) yesterday and discussed similarities in both the religions.
Rajan Zed, prominent leader of Hindus and Indo-Americans, and Neil L. Anderson, member of the Presidency of the Seventy of LDS Church, met in LDS headquarters in Salt Lake City, and talked about various issues concerning their religions.
Similarities examined were "law of the harvest" of LDS and karma doctrine of Hinduism; life does not begin with birth nor end with death; Brahman is unlimited and pervasive, so is the Light of Christ; Bhakti in Hinduism and worshipping Heavenly Father through devotion.
Rajan Zed recited the historical first Hindu prayer in Utah Senate and visited prominent LDS leader Brigham Young's grave in downtown Salt Lake City before the meeting yesterday.
Hinduism, oldest and third largest religion of the world, has no datable beginning but some scholars put it around 3,000 BCE. It has no founder, no one authoritative figure, and no single prophet or holy book. There are about one billion Hindus in the world. Moksha (liberation) is the ultimate goal of Hinduism.
LDS Church was started by Joseph Smith in 1820 and currently has about 14 million followers worldwide. Jesus Christ is viewed as head of the church and central to LDS belief is the Restoration. Thomas S. Monson is President of the Church who is also considered a prophet.
14 million members for the number of Mormons is a false number. Non-mormon analysts seem to think that more than half of that number have left the church, with a majority of new converts leaving within a year. They just don’t delete the members from thier official rolls. The census numbers of nations versus the Mormon claims don’t match up in most instances. The church has some sort of pain in the butt formal process for taking your name off the roll, requires paperwork etc.
Good. I’d rather they call themselves Hindu than Christian. Either would be equally inappropriate.
Yea but LDS don't believe they will be reincarnated as a cow.
Similarity #1:
Both religions are polytheistic.
So is traditional christianity, i.e. Father, Son and the Holy Ghost. 1 god + 1 god + 1 god = 3 gods
I know for certain they can only claim 13,999,998. It is truly amazing how that number continues to grow. I think all ex-Mormons need to start the subtraction process to help bring that number into line.
First remove the 60-70% that have abandoned, resigned, been excommunicated or never cared.
Voila!
4,000,000-6,000,000.
How special. Must we always be PC with all these Harry Reid idiots?
If they’ll lie about their membership numbers, what else will they lie about?
NO. Traditional Christianity is this:
1 God x 1 God x 1 God = 1 God
Mormonism follows the polytheistic formula you posted.
Nice try, but no dice. 3 = 3.
I guess that’s why you are a Mormon. You believe in 3+ Gods.
That is why you are not Christian, you don’t believe in one God.
Hindu is a better classification for you guys IMO.
If your definition of a christian is that you must accept the trinitarian idea set forth in post-biblical, man made creeds, then you are right!
I don’t believe in any man made creed. I believe in God as described in the Bible.
Since you don’t you are not Christian.
I was wondering how long it would take for Monson to start backing off the Hinckley charge towards demanding Christians accept mormons as being Christian...didn't take long, after the message given in the primary election.
Are we NOW in for a deluge of posts by the mormon apologists posting similarities of Christians to Hindus?
....
Similarity #1:
Both religions are polytheistic.
TheDon SAYS:
So is traditional christianity, i.e. Father, Son and the Holy Ghost. 1 god + 1 god + 1 god = 3 godsHey TheDon, buy a clue. The Trinitarian belief is monotheistic.+
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LDS Church was started by Joseph Smith in 1820 ...Thomas S. Monson is President of the Church who is also considered a prophet.
That pretty much says it all now, doesn’t it?
OR.....How Many People Have Left the Mormon Church?
No, from what the posters here on FR say, I have learned they believe in a god who has schizophrenia with a split personality. This god of there made man so he could send himself to earth to be able to spend time in pain.
It would be nice if they understood the true God.
Yup. Colossians 2:9: For in him [Christ] dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.
This couldn't be if you had the Mormon segregated gods.
This verse is quite interesting when you break down the Greek words:
(1) The Greek word for "godhead" here is theotes [whereas the Greek word theiotes would be translated "divinity"]...so the verse is NOT simply saying For in him [Christ] dwelleth all the fulness of divinity. Paul is actually emphasizing the fulness of the Godhead dwells in the body [Greek: somatikos] of Christ.
(2) The rendering of "dwelleth" is present tense and is the Greek word katoikei. So here Paul is writing a quarter of a century past Christ's death and yet he says that fulness is a present-tense indwelling. [OK, if LDS want a bodily God, there He is]
(3) The word for "fulness" is tied to the word for "volume." What's the God-derived formula for volume? No, thedon is wrong...the formula is not what he said (1+1+1=3), it is as ColorCountry stated, 1x1x1...(height x width x depth = volume).
Our God is one multiplied entity...but He's still ONE!
Why, I can hear Joseph Smith's echo across the generations now if he was to hear that...I'm sure he'd say something almost exact as what he said just prior to his death in June 1844 when he was trying to re-introduce a new "gospel" even for Mormons by trying to propagandize about multiple gods...He'd probably say something like [actual quote follows in last graph]:
Many men say there is one volume; height, width, depth are only one full volume! I say that is a strange measurement anyhow-—three in one, and one in three! It is a curious organization...All are to be crammed into one measurement, according to mathematical sectarianism. It would make the biggest volume in all the world. It would be a wonderfully big volume—it would be giantuous or a voluminous monster.
(Poor Joseph. If only he had not flunked early 19th-century math...he did have one phrase right--tho with the wrong inflection...and I wished he would stuck to that & let all else go when he confusingly described God in so many contradictory ways: It would make the biggest God in all the world. He would be a wonderfully big God... [Indeed He is!!!])
Many men say there is one God; the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost are only one God! I say that is a strange God anyhow—three in one, and one in three! It is a curious organization...All are to be crammed into one God, according to sectarianism. It would make the biggest God in all the world. He would be a wonderfully big God—he would be a giant or a monster. [Joseph Smith, History of the Church, June 16, 1844]
Read post #25. (It'd be nice if Mormons didn't follow in the math-flunking pathways of Joseph Smith...Surely "educated" Mormons can easily see where Smith started going way off-track in his last year or so.)
I am just repeating back to you folks what you have told us.
Was he a 'prophet' beFORE he moved into this managerial position?
(Is PRESIDENT another office of the church instituted by Jesus?)
Quite true.
They think they'll be a GOD.
Hey there; Mormon!
Why are you trying to tell folks what 'traditional christian's believe?
And incorrectly at that!
I notice that as yet; no Mormon has addressed the SIMILARITYS that are found between their belief and those of Hindus.
That was almost coherent, resty, though deeply flawed.
So much for being unequally yoked!!
How many dead people in that cemetery? All of them. They all know the truth now. Trouble is they’re still counted down at the COB.
It is rather odd. I think a bit of deception would also be implied, which I think we can all agree that is not God's way. We can thank the Greeks for preserving the witness of Jesus Christ transmitted to us by the New Testament, but the whole metaphysics thing really messed up the traditional christian understanding of the nature of God.
Looks like the yolks on YOU!
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The FUNDAMENTALIST Church of
Jesus Christ
of Latter Day Saints
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That was quick! LOL
... "law of the harvest" of LDS and karma doctrine of Hinduism;
That's only assuming if your soul trans-migrates. I don't think if Gordon Hinckley's soul came back as my son (Hindu belief of reincarnation) that my son would carry Gordon's karma, right?
A big difference between the Christian concept of you-reap-what-you-sow and Karma is that altho both operate on a "payback" basis, karma payback is always incomplete. Folks stuck in Hinduism don't even know the total amount the of the bill they owe, let alone express any hope of "paying it off."
Likewise, the Mormon concept of atonement is also incomplete. That's why through the generations, Mormon leaders (like Brigham Young) taught that Christ's blood was so anemic. (Young introduced "blood atonement" as an LDS teaching based on the notion that there were certain sins Christ's blood wouldn't cover).
Even though that notion has been "tabled" for a while (but never formally rejected), similar concepts exist today: For example, the belief that murder is an unforgiveable sin. (I guess there goes both Moses & David & perhaps persecutor Saul-Paul from any degree of glory). Another example of viewing Christ's blood as anemic is the LDS 2nd article of faith: We believe that men will be punished for their own sins, and not for Adam's transgression. [IOW, Christ's blood only really covered Adam's sin]
The reality is that Jesus' blood was powerful enough not only to atone for Adam's sin, but mine. I bear you this testimony that I have his rich blood streak running over every part of my sinful body, my sinful mind, my sinful soul, my sinful spirit. I am drenched in His blood; saturated in it; bathed in it. It cleanses me entirely of all past sins, my present sins, and every sin I'll commit (or action I'll fail to responsibly commit) because I entrust that His blood is sufficient for me.
...life does not begin with birth nor end with death;
Yes, there is no ultra God in either. All are "sub-gods"--bit players in things eternal.
...Brahman is unlimited and pervasive, so is the Light of Christ;
Well, if this is true, hell won't be such a dark place, after all, despite Jesus' words describing it as "outer darkness" (Matthew 8:12).
...Bhakti in Hinduism and worshipping Heavenly Father through devotion.
Yup. This is true. And neither version of devotion is Christian. They're both pagan-based. "Bhakti" is to be devoted in Hinduism to one deity or incarnation among many other supposedly true deities or true incarnations. In Mormonism, being devoted to anyone who had his start in eternity as a less-than-divine creature is idolatry (creature-worship). Mormon devotion is to an ex-man/exalted man creature who serves as the Mormon god as just one god among many other supposedly equal, higher-level, & lower-level gods. In contradisction, the true Jesus Christ is the unique son of God from eternity past who shared glory with the Father (John 17:5) and who was a God-become-man according to Phil. 2--not a mortal god-wannabe. To be devoted to Him, is to be devoted to Heavenly Father. ("He who has seen me has seen the Father" & several other similar statements)
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temples of
Jesus Christ
of Latter Day Saints;
eat yer hearts out!
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Is your yoker S A T A N?
Many arms to hug my many wives!
I know I should not ask but is this a joke article?
Does not appear to be.
I’ve been told the the Taj is one fine edifice. Was it not created in honor of women?
Aren’t cows Gods in India?
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