Yes, Mormons Are Christians (Part III)

Dear Gentle Readers,

Madame L interrupts her series of explaining the beliefs of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints through the church's Articles of Faith to bring you this interesting item, thanks to Ellen:

Answering a question about his belief in Christ, President Gordon B. Hinckley answered that he does NOT believe ONLY in "the traditional Christ" --- the suffering Italianate Christ of many Renaissance paintings and romanticized characterizations of our Savior through centuries of tradition. Rather, he said, he believes ...

".... in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the greatest figure of time and eternity. Believe that His matchless life reached back before the world was formed. Believe that He was the Creator of the earth on which we live. Believe that He was Jehovah of the Old Testament, that He was the Messiah of the New Testament, that He died and was resurrected, that He visited the western continents and taught the people here, that He ushered in this final gospel dispensation, and that He lives, the living Son of the living God, our Savior and our Redeemer."

The full article is found at fairmormon.org, the website of the Foundation for Apologetic Information and Research, which provides facts and clarifications about misunderstandings of the church's doctrines.

The organization is not about "apologizing" in the sense most often thought of but about "apologetics," or defending the truth.

The organization's website is not only for doubters, but also for church members who want to know more than they've picked up casually over the years, as in this quote on the site's main page:

“No one knows anything about Christ’s work simply by being born a member of the Church, and often he knows little about it after years of unmotivated exposure in meetings or classes. He must learn. And learning involves self-investment and effort. The gospel should be studied ‘as carefully as any science.’ The ‘literature of the Church’ must be ‘acquired and read.’ Our learning should be increased in our spare time ‘day by day.’ Then as we put the gospel truth to work in daily life, we will never find it wanting. We will be literate in the most important field of knowledge in the universe, knowledge for lack of which men and nations perish, in the light of which men and nations may be saved.”

—Elder Marion D. Hanks, First Council of the Seventy, “Theological Illiterates”, Improvement Era (September 1969): 42

Madame L recommends this website to all who are interested in understanding the beliefs of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.