I'm a Mormon

Now I figure that pretty much everyone who reads this blog is already aware that I am a "mormon" or are  "mormon" themselves, but I just felt like adding my own testimony and beliefs to the outcry of testimonies from members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints after pastor Jeffress' comments on the question of mormons' christianity. 

First of all, "mormon" is not the proper name of our church.  It is a nick name that was given to us by the (supposed christians) that ran us out of several cities/and settlements robbing, murdering, etc all because of this notion that we are not christians etc.  Not that I'm accusing pastor jeffress of similar levels of bigotry but want to point out that we are no strangers to persecution because of our faith-this is not somehow shocking to us members-we've heard it all.  I was called a "sectantee" (phonetically spelled for ya'll) every day of my mission in Russia which is their own way of calling us (and every other christian church from america) a cult.  Why are we so quick to judge?  I would never presume to understand someone else's relationship with the savior based merely on which church they attended.  Sure we all go to different churches but even within each of our different congregations no matter the church-everyone has a very individual and personal take and relationship with Jesus Christ.

Now people gave us the nickname of Mormon because, yes, we believe in continuing revelation-that God speaks to His children and that He has never lost that ability.  Though the Book of Mormon seems new to most, it is actually quite ancient-most of it having been written by prophets of God (just as the Bible's prophets) who lived in the ancient Americas.  The book is full of testimony about Jesus Christ from prophets who lived before, during, and after Christ's life on the earth.  The actual title of the book is in fact: The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ.  It is only called the Book of Mormon because Mormon was an ancient american prophet who abridged and combined all of the records that the previous prophets and peoples had passed down for generations-all testifying of the life, role, and divinity of Jesus Christ. 

Anywho, I could go on forever.  so the FACTS of the matter: The actual name of our church is The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  The church of who??? now, Jeffress said that our church was founded 1800 years after Christ's church, and was founded by a man-Joseph Smith and not by the divine thus making it a "theological cult".  Sigh, wrong again.  After all of the apostles were killed/murdered/etc. there was a period of apostasy where the authority and fulness of the gospel and church of Jesus Christ was no longer on the earth (there are prophecies about this exact thing happening in the bible btw).  Does that mean that there weren't people who tried to continue to preach and live by the principles of Christ-of course not.  Are they somehow less Christian because they no longer had the fulness of the gospel or priesthood authority?-of course not.  They did the best they could and because of their righteous efforts we now have the Bible.  So this church was not founded by Joseph Smith, but was a restoration of Christ's original church-exactly as He had it when He lived on the earth with all of the same offices, priesthood authority, and the fullness of the gospel once again.  Christ restored His church through His servant, a prophet, Joseph Smith.  But in order to make clear who is at the head of this church it was named: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (the latter-day saints part is to reiterate that just as Christ's church was in ancient days, it is the same now in these latter days).

I know that Jesus Christ is the son of God and through applying His atonement, obeying His commandments, and trying my very best to emulate His example- I and any who do likewise will be able to return to our Heavenly Father and will be in every sense of the word: Christian.