I've had LDS missionaries to my house any number of times over the years. I've never had any of them fail to affirm that their god has his own father-god, who has his own father-god, who has his own father-god,... well, you get the idea.
I HAVE noticed that in recent years, I get this caveat, “But we don't really know what that's all about, so we should just all acknowledge that we all pray to the same god.”
Which sounds reasonable enough, but then we get down to creation, and they readily affirm that they don't believe that God created everything ex nihilo. Rather, they affirm their belief that their god “created” by organizing pre-existing chaotic “stuff” into his “creation.”
They readily assert that their god is eternal. But when we get into the details, it turns out - we're ALL eternal, as we all existed as some sort of pre-existing unorganized intelligence or something (this is where I personally get fuzzy - I'm not sure whether unorganized intelligence exists separately from unorganized other stuff, or whether their god takes unorganized stuff and “makes” it into intelligent stuff which then can be made into souls).
No one has ever refuted my analogy that our God is the Founder of the Company, Chairman of the Board, building the business from literally nothing and their god is essentially a junior-level executive in a very large multi-level marketing organization, creating his own small empire within the firm from what already exists. Some of the missionaries actually chuckle at this. Others just grimace.
I've never had an LDS missionary fail to accept that we are of the same “substance” as their god. When I get into the idea that God is of divine, uncreated substance and their god is not, they tell me that their religion doesn't get too far into metaphysics. Which it doesn't. That's a fair cop, in my view.
Although I don't accept much of anything in LDS theology, I do very much like most of the LDS folks I've met in my life, and at one point, had a very dear friend who was LDS - we worked through our masters degree program together, and we relied on each other as we had to work through “group projects,” as we found that nearly everyone we ever came across in a group wouldn't pull their wait. My friend pulled his weight, and then some.
I also believe that although their theology isn't Christian, I think that it is very possible that many individual devout LDS folks have such a great love of God, that something along the lines of Baptism by Desire may effect, and in some sense, they are, as individuals, Christians, in spite of their wacky theology.
sitetest
Well, I leave the personal relationship realities to the Living God.
Still, we know Jesus Christ went this far...and that is He offered a vision to the apostle John in critiquing a number of the early churches (Revelation 2, 3).
This discussion goes beyond sin. We all have sin, much of it tucked away and marked "private." But we also have public sin. IOW, things, in which we negatively impact others. Some of this public sin is by acts of commission, and others by acts of omission.
And Jesus Christ "dinged" some of the early church on acts of omission -- tolerating heresy and false teachings.
No matter what might be said about "many individual devout LDS folks hav[ing] such a great love of God", a public sin still attached to these Mormons is their failure to find a voice to critique false teachers within their own religious structure.
Frankly, that is what is commonly unique about the cults. Speak out vs. some false teachings amongst Jehovah's Witnesses -- even in a low-key fashion among a few leaders, before you know it, you're disfellowshipped. We've had one FReeper who said the same thing happened to him as a member of the RLDS (Church of Christ, Missouri...offshoot of the Mormons).
Many Mormons cater to fear about speaking out vs. false teachings by their past leaders -- even if they have an anonymous name on a Web site like this. (Some also simply don't want to throw out what they deem the baby with the dirty water; and therefore stay silent because they don't want to provide "fuel" to those openly critique the church).
Jesus talked about confessing Him before men. And part of that confession, He seems to indicate in Revelation 2, is to also confess what is false about competing claims. After all, darkness cannot coincide with light. Jesus said:
14Nevertheless, I have a few things against you: You have people there who hold to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to entice the Israelites to sin by eating food sacrificed to idols and by committing sexual immorality. 15Likewise you also have those who hold to the teaching of the Nicolaitans. 16Repent therefore! Otherwise, I will soon come to you and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth...20Nevertheless, I have this against you: You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess. By her teaching she misleads my servants into sexual immorality and the eating of food sacrificed to idols. 21I have given her time to repent of her immorality, but she is unwilling. 22So I will cast her on a bed of suffering, and I will make those who commit adultery with her suffer intensely, unless they repent of her ways. 23I will strike her children dead. Then all the churches will know that I am he who searches hearts and minds, and I will repay each of you according to your deeds. (Revelation 2)
In my heart, I know Mormon FReepers and lurkers have come across statements made by their past "prophets" and general authorities they know are utterly false. Whether it was Brigham's Adam is God theory, or blood atonement, or statements & practices that justified polygamy, or statements vs. the skin color of others, or whatever. And yet they've never publicly critiqued those leaders.
They've just let those leaders' comments go unchallenged by ANYBODY who is a current Mormon. So instead of standing with the truth, and the One who is The Living Truth (John 14:6), they stand with the status quo. With the "I won't ruffle the waters."
"I won't shake the boat," they say. "I'll therefore lend my identity as 'Mormon' to what this leader has said. And I won't stand with the truth of opposing that particular falsehood because of the personal social and family cost to me. I won't count the cost of aligning myself with the truth through and through. I'll tolerate the false teachers, past & present, in my midst."
To that mindset Jesus says: 16Repent therefore! Otherwise, I will soon come to you and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth...all the churches will know that I am he who searches hearts and minds, and I will repay each of you according to your deeds. (Rev. 2:16,23)
(BTW, this same thing applies to many of us in the Christian churches!)