| Response |
No.
A cult in the refers to "minority religion that is
unorthodox or spurious and that requires great or even excessive devotion."
There are only two reasons that anyone would say that The Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-day Saints is a cult. One reason is a simple lack of
knowledge of the truth of our church. The other is an effort to
intentionally discredit the Church for reasons I don't understand
but that has existed since ancient times, some of which even motivated
the Crucifixion of Jesus and the martyrdom of all of the original apostles
but Judas (suicide) and John (banished to Patmos). This same spirit
motivated the martyrdom of Joseph Smith at age of 38. The martyring mob
thought that his death would end "Mormonism". They didn't realize that
there were twelve apostles who had been chosen and ordained who carried on
the leadership of the Church let alone the divine influence that led the pioneers to the west.
It's sad but there still exists
among some the need to discredit the church.
The claim that we have our own Bible is wrong. We use the King James
version of the Bible. The Bible refers to a branch of Joseph's
descendants who would go over the wall [ocean], even unto the utmost bound
of the everlasting hills [Western Hemisphere], where they would be separate
from their brethren. (Genisis 49:22-26) The Book of Mormon is the record of
that branch, and we do accept the writings of these ancient prophets as scripture.
Ezekiel 37:16-17 speaks of this record of Joseph and his people, that it
would be put with the record of Judah (Bible) and that these two records
would be "one in thine hand". The subtitle of The Book of Mormon is
"Another Testament of Christ" because Jesus Christ is its theme. Once
again, the Bible, John 10:16 quotes Christ as saying, "And other sheep I
have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall
hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd." (John 10:16)
These other sheep were the descendants of Joseph who lived in Ancient
America and Christ appeared to them soon after he was resurrected. He told
them they were his "other sheep" of whom he had spoken. He taught them of
his second coming, a concept that lasted even until Cortez came to America and was accepted by Montezuma as the great bearded God who had
been among their ancestors and promised to return.
I think that one of the things that upsets the professors of religion today the most, is the fact that we don't accept the doctrine of the Trinity. You see, we believe that God is our Heavenly Father and is literally the father of our
spirits (see Romans 8:16-17, Hebrews 12:9, and Acts 17:29) and that he
created us in his own image (Genesis 1;26-27). We believe that Jesus Christ
is the Only Begotten Son of God our Heavenly Father on earth and that he's resurrected and rules at the Father's right hand today {see Mark 16:19,
Luke 22:69, Acts 5:31, Acts 7:55, John 17:3-5) When Jesus left his
disciples, he promised to send them the Holy Ghost. (See John 14:15-17)
The fact that we believe that these three members of the Godhead are three
separate and distinct individuals has always caused discomfort to some of
those who believe in the doctrine of the Trinity. Because of this
different teaching of the Godhead, there are those who have said that we are not Christian. How can that be when the name of it is The Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-day Saints?
I have a personal assurance that God is our
Heavenly Father, just like Christ taught and that Jesus is his Son, and
the Holy Ghost is a separate member of the Godhead. I believe that all of this is clear in the scripture.
This is just a little more than a mere "No", but I felt some explanation was
in order. Thanks again for the question.
Sincerely,
Donny Osmond
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