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MORMONISM
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
is considered a Christian church by Mormons
themselves (though some critics deny even that basic claim).
It was founded in 1830 in Palmyra, New York by Joseph
Smith, Jr., who Mormons view as a prophet of God.
Although the Mormon Church 'today' bears the name of Jesus
Christ, this wasn't always so. When the Church began in 1830
the official name was, "The Church of Christ."Many
critics do not consider Mormonism to be a Christian religion
because Mormonism idenies some of the essential doctrines of
Christianity, including: 1) the deity of Christ, 2)
salvation by grace, and 3) the bodily resurrection of
Christ. Furthermore, Mormon doctrine contradicts the
Christian teaching of monotheism and undermines the
authority and reliability of the Bible in the fact that
Joseph Smith replaced the text with his own Book of
Mormon.
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Current membership is approximately 12
million, with hundreds of thousands of new members joining
each year in many parts of the world. Headquarters of the
worldwide church are in Salt Lake City, Utah, where early
members of the Church settled after being driven out of the
eastern and Midwestern states by violent mobs.
For I know that God
is not a partial God, neither a changeable being;
but he is unchangeable from all eternity to all eternity.
Moroni 8:18
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