Mormonism and Christianity/Did early LDS leaders denounce Christianity

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Criticism

• Latter-day Saints have "admitted" that they are not Christian, since LDS leaders spent decades denouncing mainstream Christianity. It is only recently that LDS leaders have attempted to identify themselves as Christian.
• The "ongoing condemnation of Christianity" is "built into the very core of Mormonism as a central tenet."

Source(s) of the criticism

• Richard Abanes, Becoming Gods: A Closer Look at 21st-Century Mormonism (Harvest House Publishers: 2005). 255, 434 n. 15; 257. ( Index of claims )

Response

Sources

Among the references critics use to support these assertions are the following:

• Joseph Smith, History of the Church 5:218.
• Orson Pratt, "Baptism for the Remission of Sins," The Seer, p. 255.
• Wilford Woodruff, Journal of Discourses, 2:196.
• Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses 5:73.
• Heber C. Kimball, Journal of Discourses 5:89-90.
• Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses 5:229.
• John Taylor, Journal of Discourses 2:25.
• Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses 8:171.
• Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses 8:199.
• John Taylor, Journal of Discourses 13:225.
• Andrew Jenson, Collected Discourses 2:150.
• B.H. Roberts, The Mormon Doctrine of Diety, p. 116.
• Bruce R. McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, pp. 132, 246, 269, 314-315.

Brigham Young

The Christian world, I discovered, was like the captain and crew of a vessel on the ocean without a compass, and tossed to and fro whithersoever the wind listed to blow them. When the light came to me, I saw that all the so-called Christian world was grovelling in darkness. (Journal of Discourses 5:73)

Notice that Brigham didn't say that there were no Christians, but instead stated that they had lost their direction.

Conclusion

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Endnotes

None

Further reading

FAIR web site

• FAIR Topical Guide: