There are a number of common assertions about Mormons and our beliefs that actually fit orthodox Protestant theology much better. For example, the following is one of those assertions:
Many Christians claim that Mormons believe in a God who creates this mortal experience for the purpose of sifting through his children to find the “best” ones with whom he can live eternally, shutting the rest of humanity out because they aren't good enough. They believe that is the Mormon viewpoint - that only Mormons are saved. They claim that God’s work and glory then becomes “immortality and eternal life for only the cream of the crop”.
This actually is much closer to orthodox Protestant theology than to Mormon doctrine.
Mormonism allows for VERY few true "losers" (the Sons of Perdition), because everyone else "wins" in the sense that they are rewarded with higher glory than they had prior to mortality and everlasting life in the presence of a God. Orthodox Protestantism, on the other hand, condemns billions to everlasting separation from God.
Also, Mormonism claims that everything possible will be done to provide salvation and exaltation to all of God's children, regardless of their religious or denominational affiliation in this life - that eternal rewards will be based individually on sincerity of heart and effort to follow what we know and believe personally. Many Protestants claim that salvation is available only to those who hear of and accept Jesus in this life - and many others take the Calvinist extreme position of pre-destination that posits God has chosen who will be saved and who will be damned, and that the ultimate end of our souls has nothing to do with our agency or choice at all.
Which of these theologies posits "eternal life for only the cream of the crop"?
1 comment:
The crazy thing is that it doesn't matter what we say, they hear only that we damn everyone else. I had a discussion with a dear friend of mine about it, about how everyone gets a shot, how just about everyone is going to heaven in some way. At the end, she told me something along the lines of she just couldn't agree because she believes in a God who loves his children and wouldn't require weird things like baptism and temples to be saved. It was a real headdesking moment for me. It's nuts, we're probably the only non-crazies that think that some of the worst humans to have existed will go to a heaven of some sort (since being evil doesn't automatically make one a son of perdition), but we're considered the exclusionary ones. It breaks my brain.
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