It is my impression that the public rhetoric of Mormons has been shifting. I do not know what they teach in their stake houses, but the young missionaries that ring my doorbell affirm that as Mormons they believe and Mormonism teaches exactly what I say as I state to them certain basic teachings about Christianity, such as the identity and personhood of Jesus of Nazareth, God’s only begotten son, the Messiah, his miraculous incarnation, et cetera.
Like Muslim’s and Takiya, Mormons tell outsiders what they want to hear.
But this quick summary of the differences between Christianity (Orthodox, Catholic, or Protestant) and Mormonism is indeed correct. And there’s much more, but the basic statement is correct.
A Christian cannot become a Mormon without converting.
Do they state their belief before you do, or do they say they agree with your beliefs after you state them first?
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Also, Mormons believe that the Father lived a mortal life, died and was resurrected and achieved godhood
Now this is a fundamental difference between Christianity (or Judaism or even Islam) and Mormonism
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I see no problem in people speculating like this and having their own religion (which is distinct from Christianity) -- philosophically even Scientologists believe what they believe, so ok for Mormons
BUT as a historian, the way in which the LDS beliefs hinge on fiction makes it far more a fiction religion than Scientology -- the religion was cleverly made up by J Smith by taking aspects of Baptist philosophy (the Great Apostasy) and British-Israelism -- in the latter he made the biggest long-term mistake. Mormon belief states there were Israelites, i.e. Semitic people before Columbus who had large populations, large cities and civilisations, cultures and whose descendents are the modern day Native Americans and who used a language called "Reformed Egyptian" -- the problem is that there were no Semitic peoples in pre-Columbus America: there is zero archaeological or historical evidence for large cities with Old World technology or culture (pottery etc.) or religious aspects and the Native Americans are genetically, linguistically, anthropologically and historically (by their OWN history) not Semites.
There is no such and never was such a language as Reformed Egyptian -- the only evidence given is scribbles -- and it seems strange that Israelites who had left egypt 400+ years earlier should revert to using the Coptic language in any "reformed" way and the one used is completely unlike the demotic of late Egypt.
The "Book of abraham" given as proof was actually a cut-out of the Egyptian book of the Dead showing the god Anubis.
J Smith was the L Ron Hubbard of his day, but his fiction cannot hold know in the light of discoveries made since the late 1800s in Egypt (remember - hieroglyphs had not yet been deciphered during J Smith's time) and the strides made in genetical and linguistic studies
They say that because within their minds mormonism has gutted the Christian definitions of those terms/teachings and replaced them with their own definitions.
You mention the identity of Jesus - in your mind do you define that as Jesus - God the Son, Second Person of the Trinity - eternal God? Mormons define Jesus as another 'god' in their polytheistic view - who floated around for an undeterminable amount of time as an 'intelligence' before being 'begotten' as the first 'spirit child' of one of the 'gods' named Elohim and one of is spirit wives.
Does the difference in definitions clarify things a little bit.