Frequently Asked Questions about Mormons

Would you like to contribute an FaQ?  Just send it to Flournoi@yahoo.com.

Q: Why don't Mormons use the cross as a symbol?

A: In Romans 5:10 we read: For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.  As Latter-day Saints we certainly do believe Christ's death was necessary for our salvation, and we strive to remember that this was done for our sins.  We also remember what Paul said about the resurrection in 1 Corinthians 15:14 And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain.  Latter-day Saints celebrate Christ's victory over death because it not only means he died for us, but that he continues to guide us and to plead for us this day!  Instead of choosing the instument used to kill the Son of God as a symbol, we feel it best to live our lives as symbols of Christ's continuing love and mercy.     

FaQs contributed by Eric Lassen

Q: Why do people call us Mormon?

A: The name is derived from the Book of 'Mormon.' Mormon is the name of an ancient American Prophet. Mormon was the editor and compiler of the Book of Mormon. He gathered together many scriptures of his day and put them into one book interlacing his thoughts and impressions through out. Thus it is titled "The Book of Mormon." Early persecutors of the LDS Church used the term with ill intent to identify the Latter-Day Saints. Much similar to the 'Christians' in the bible days. Those that were against the early Christians called them 'Christian' as a demeaning term. Over time the term mormon has been accepted and most Latter-Day Saints won't be offended if you call them as such. An interesting correlation from the Old Testament. The first five books were written and compiled by Moses, which is also referred to as the Mosaic Law.

-Q: What's with the term Saints and why do you call your selves The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints?

A: The term Saint is found in the Old and New Testament. On a few occasions in the Old Testament when a prophet wrote about the followers of God, he referred to them as Saints. More frequently in the New Testament, when Paul would write epistles to the various branches of the Church he usually referred to the lay members of the Church as the Saints. Go ahead check it out for your self. A side note, in the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Qumran People who wrote the scrolls called them selves Saints. The Qumran people were a break off group from the main body of the Jews at Jerusalem. Today most people think of a Saint as some holy and revered religious person who is set apart from the lay people. That understanding is from the Catholic faith, where certain Church leaders who met some special requirements were set apart as Saints. There is no evidence that this practice was done in the Bible. This practice developed long after the Biblical books were written.

Our Church is called The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. The Church is named after the one who we believe in and follow. It is his church and not ours, we are apart of his church. We do not call our church the Church of Baptist or the Church of Luther or the Church of Moses. Those were mere men; we name it after the Savior and Son of God. Which makes perfect sense to me. The term 'Latter-Day Saints' refers the fact we are living in the Latter-Days and since we are the followers of God in the Latter-Days thus we are the Latter-Day Saints. We could call the early Christian church, the Church of Jesus Christ of Former-Day Saints. We believe we are Saints in the very sense that the early Christians believed they were Saints.

-Q: Are Mormons Christian? Do Mormons believe in Jesus?

A: Yes and Yes. By the very name of our church it should be clear that we are Christian and do believe in Jesus. My guess as to why people don't think we believe in Jesus is because they only think of us as 'Mormons' and not members of the 'Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.'
One thing that I encountered on my mission was that most fundamental Christians would not accept our acceptance of Jesus and would deny our belief in him, on the basis that we do not believe in the same Jesus. Since we do not ascribe to the Trinitarian view of Jesus and the Godhead, we are kicked out of Christ’s' camp. We do not ascribe to the Trinitarian view because it is not biblical.

The counsel that drafted and voted on the Trinitarian view was the counsel at Nicea circa A.D. 300, well after the biblical books were written. One reason the counsel was held was to decide who God was and how he is defined (there was much confusion and contention going on at the time). At this point the prophets and Apostles of the Church were martyred and killed, all that was left were the local branch church leaders, the people who received the epistles from the Apostles, not the Apostles themselves. The counsel it self was not smooth going either, there was much debate and hostility. No one could agree on a single view for there were many. Had there been a Prophet or Apostle around, he could get revealed knowledge from heaven and resolve the issue with the stroke of a pen.
But after much debate the counsel produced the non-biblical doctrine of the trinity. Which basically describes The Father, The Son and the Holy Spirit as one God. Or how I like to understand it 1+1+1=1. It is very complicated to try and understand the trinity, and many Christians devote there lives trying to understand it, they describe it as a beautiful mystery, how can three be one and so...
Well three can't be one, which is why we believe that The Father, The Son and the Holy Spirit are three SEPERATE personages, but that they are ONE on purpose. Which makes perfect sense to me, I mean everytime when Jesus was praying in the Bible was he praying to himself? Or when he was on the cross did he forsake himself?

-Q: What's up with you Mormons and your 'special underwear'?

A: I can remember when I was getting ready to leave for my mission when my parents and other family members teased me about my funny Mormon underwear. Even on the mission people would ask me about my underwear. And some Christians would accuse me of being a cult member because of my underwear. What's with my underwear that gets people all in a frenzy. I would jest with some and respond, 'why do you want to know about my underwear, isn't that a little too personal?'
Seriously though, after a worthy member of the church has proven his valiance and commitment to the Gospel of Jesus Christ that person makes covenants with Heavenly Father in a Temple. We are instructed to wear Temple garments so that we are daily reminded of those special covenants we have made.
It can be compared to a Catholic priest who wears a white collar or beautiful flowing robes. They adorn them selves that way to show their commitment to God and a daily reminder of their priestly responsibilities. It is an outward expression of their inward faith.
With us Saints, we wear our garment to remind us of our commitment to serve God. We just don't go about making a show of it. It is a personal thing. It is an inward commitment and by wearing our garment we are reminded daily of the covenants we made, which is between us and the Lord.

-Q: Do you believe that you can become gods? Because my pastor said that you guys want to be gods. What's up with that?

A: Yup that was the favorite question to ask a Mormon missionary in my mission. Usually fundamental Christians asked that. Well that is a tricky question and if I am not careful things can get pretty hairy here.
Let me do as the savior would do and answer a question with a question.
Do I personally want to become a god? Hmm No, because that would entail much responsibility and I am really lazy. Hehehe But if God asked me to, how can I deny him.
Seriously though all kidding aside, what do you think Paul meant in his epistle to the Romans, when he said, "The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: And if children, then heirs; heirs of God; and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together" (KJV Rom. 8:16,17).
Okay there are many implications in those two verses alone. Not the only verses which discuss the matter, but the most obvious one. So let's break it down. The Spirit of God bears witness with our spirit that we are God's children, (Paul in other places refines this statement by calling us God's offspring, an interesting statement when you remember from Genesis that God created man in his express image) So if we are God's kids then eventually we are going to grow up, because every kid grows up to be big and strong like dad.
What does it mean to be an heir? Well when a family member dies, the heirs receive EVERYTHING that they owned (debts included) and not implying here that God is going to die. So if we are God's heirs then at some point in our eternal progression, we can obtain everything that God has. Paul further states that we are joint heirs with Christ. Christ started out as a mortal man and eventually became immortal like his Father in Heaven sharing his glory and power. We are joint heirs with Christ meaning we can receive all the things he has, and what he has the Father gave him. Clear as mud?
So to answer the question yes we do believe that we can be joint heirs with Christ, having all that he has. Yes we believe that we can be heirs of God. But the prerequisite to attain such a feat, we have to suffer with Christ, or basically we have to be really really really good, with his help of course (through the Atonement). And if we obtain that particular inheritance does that make us equal with God? No, he'll always be our Father, and Dad is always one step ahead of us. We believe these things as they are taught in the scriptures and in this particular instance the New Testament. And you thought I was going to use some Mormon scripture.

-Q: Why do Mormons do baptisms for the dead?

A: Why would we do this and is there any thing in the Bible that supports this practice? This practice is performed in the Temple. No, we don’t go to graveyards and dig up corpses and dip them in water. I say this because that is actually what some people think. We research our family history and bring the names of loved ones who have passed on to the Temple. In the Temple we perform the ordinances for ourselves and for loved ones that have passed on. Jesus said that everyone must be baptized in order to go to heaven. Well not everyone who ever lived on the earth had a chance to hear the gospel let alone be baptized. Paul, while preaching to the people at Corinth (KJV 1 Cor. 15:29) about the resurrection, mentions this doctrine. He says; "Else what shall they do which are baptized for the dead, if the dead rise not at all? Why are they then baptized for the dead?" Paul trying to prove to the people that the resurrection will occur, he asks them, if the dead won't rise then why do you do baptisms for them? What are the implications of this scripture? That in Paul's day the early Christians practiced baptisms for the dead.
There are literally millions of people who have died in this world who have not had a chance to hear about the Gospel. This practice is done out of mercy and love. Further scriptures from the Bible shed more light on this doctrine. We believe that the millions of people who have passed on who have not had a chance to hear the gospel are being taught right now. Let's see what Jesus himself had to say about this.
Jesus here is talking about his coming trial upon the cross and his eventual death. (KJV John 5:25-29) "Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live... Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice." You say this is a little vague? Let's read on and see what the Apostles have to say as well.
(KJV 1Pet. 3:18-19) "For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit: By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison;" (KJV 1 Pet. 4:6) "For for this cause was the gospel preached also to them that are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit."
Peter speaking here, says that when Christ died on the cross, he went and preached the gospel to the spirits in prison.
When people die, they either go to spiritual prison or spiritual paradise. Those who had the gospel in their life and received the ordinances go to spiritual paradise. Those who did not have a chance, go to spiritual prison, there, they are taught the gospel and are given a chance to accept it or not (they still have a choice). We bring their names to the Temple and perform the ordinances for them by proxy hoping that they accept it.
If you were to study early Christian history after the Bible, you will find that the early Christians did baptisms for the dead, but because of the Great Apostasy of the Church this doctrine was not longer practiced (like many other doctrines).

-Q: What is the 'Great Apostasy' you keep referring to?

A: The term 'apostasy' as we Latter-Day Saints understand it, means a falling away from God's revealed truth. Veering off of God's prescribed path onto a path of wickedness and believing and preaching false doctrine. It being called, the 'great' apostasy implies that this type of apostasy has happened more than once and is greater than the rest.
We believe and the scriptures support, that the Early Christian Church, after Christ's and the Apostle's personal ministry, fell away into apostasy. Because of persecution from without and unfaithfulness from within, the Church of Jesus Christ of former-day saints fell away. A skeleton or a shadow of the Church remained, but all that made it a heavenly institution vanished with the deaths of the Apostles.
Scriptural evidence of this is found in: Acts 3:19-21; 20:28-30; 2 Thes. 2:1-3; Titus 1:10, 11, 16; 2 Pet. 2:1
The importance of having Apostles and Prophets is that they have priesthood authority from God to teach the Gospel and it's doctrines, they have authority to perform vital ordinances which are necessary for entry into Heaven and they receive revelation from God so they can run the Church. This revelation enables them to know the mind and will of God concerning any issue. 
Scriptural References: Eph. 2:18-20; 4:11-14; Gal. 1:9-12
Common sense supports this idea. Was there more than one church in the Apostle's day? No, there was only one church of Christ. You say yes, well you are right in that there was more than one branch of the Church, but there was still only one Church. Was there more than one set of doctrines among the branches of the early Church? No, constantly the Apostles were sending epistle after epistle to the branches of the Church, so to correct false doctrines that began to prevail among them. The doctrine of the Church was established by what was written in their cannon and also by what Christ and his Apostles taught them.
They had the written word to guide them, and they had the spoken word to guide them as well.
I like the parable of the rowboat. You need both paddles to get you where you are going. If you have only one or the other you will find your self going in circles. The written word and the spoken word are the two paddles of the Church
Many times the Saints would start on a path of false doctrine, or would be confused on a particular point. The Apostles and Prophets were available then to clarify doctrines, correct false doctrines, reveal new truths or resolve general Church issues.
So when these inspired leaders were killed and were not to be found among the branches of the Church, the Saints were left with only one paddle, the written word, and without both paddles in the water, you don't get very far.
Eventually the Church crumbled and fell away because of the loss of revelation from God. If you know anything about history, you would find this to be true, considering what has been done in the name of Christianity in the past 2000 years. You have to ask your self this, if the Church never fell away, and God was still in contact with it's leaders, via revelation, would a loving and merciful Father in Heaven allow his leaders to change his doctrines, murder people, forbidding people to read and write, forbidding his leaders from marrying and declaring war on those who don't share the same beliefs? I don't think he would either.
For more information on the effects of the apostasy, please review my "Religious Chronology of the World."

-Q: Has this type of apostasy occurred elsewhere in the scriptures?

A: Many times in history this type of apostasy has occurred. The following is a very brief account from the Bible of the several apostasies that have occurred.
Let us consider Adam, the first patriarch of the human family. He taught his children the Gospel, he was a righteous man. God spoke with him many times. His teachings  endured for a time among his children, but his posterity eventually became corrupted, or apostate. Remember the story of Noah where he was preaching to the people to repent and keep God's commandments. But because they did not listen God destroyed the whole earth with a great flood. Because  Adam's children veered so far off the path into apostasy, God ordered a flood to baptize the earth. After the flood, Noah and his family were to repopulate the earth. Noah then taught his Children the Gospel, and they followed for a time. But      eventually human nature prevailed. Man returned to his wicked ways by building  the Tower of Babel. God was displeased, so he confounded man's language causing the people to scatter over the whole earth.
We fast-forward to Moses' time. God's chosen people, the Israelites, fell into apostasy after living in Egypt for 400 years. They worshipped idols and did all sorts of perverse things. God again sent a prophet, Moses, to deliver the Israelites and restore the Gospel to them. He did both by leading them to the Land of Canaan and giving them the Mosaic Law.
Numerous times in Israel's history, they fell into apostasy and wickedness. God sent them prophets to tell them to repent, but time and again, the people rejected the Lord's chosen servants and killed them and resumed their wicked ways. They had times of obedience, but on the whole, they were a backsliding people.
Which brings us to Jesus. Most importantly he came to atone for our sins, but he also came into the world to teach truth and correct false doctrines that plagued the Jews. Like all the prophets before him, they rejected Him. They killed him. After his death and resurrection he left the responsibility of running the Church to his Apostles.
But he didn't leave them alone, he left them the Holy Spirit, so they could  receive revelation from God on how to run the Church and teach the people what they needed to know. 
  

-Q: My friend told me that you Mormons think you are the only ones who are going to heaven. Is that true?

A: In order to get to heaven, we ALL have to receive ordinances, ordinances such as baptism and the gift of the Holy Ghost. Jesus himself said that unless a man is born of the water and the Spirit he could not enter into the kingdom of heaven (cf. John 3:5). So no one on this earth can go to heaven unless they receive those ordinances. And the only people who have the Priesthood authority to perform these ordinances are priesthood holders in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

-Q: Okay, then the question is; "well I was baptized at my Methodist church, doesn't that baptism count? Doesn't my minister have this authority too?"

A: Let’s cover some important things here; first of all we believe that Christ’s Church fell away 2000 years ago. After Christ and the Apostles were killed, the power and authority from heaven, which was present in Christ’s Church, vanished with them. So since we believe that, any religion or sect, which promulgated after that time period would not have the same authority. And any ordinance performed after this falling away would not be sealed in heaven.
In Acts 8:9-20 Phillip has gone into the land of Samaria and teaches the people the Gospel. After they believe his teachings he baptizes them in the name of Jesus. A certain man named Simon who before time used sorcery and bewitched the people, was among these recent converts to the Church. He was so amazed at all the miracles that these disciples of Christ had wrought. When the Apostles which were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the Gospel they sent John the beloved and Peter to give the people the Gift of the Holy Ghost, for they had not yet received it, and Phillip had not the authority to administer it. When they arrived they laid their hands on the heads of the people so that they would receive the Gift of the Holy Ghost. After seeing this, Simon offers Peter money and asks if he could have this power, so that who ever he lays his hands on would receive the Holy Ghost.
Peter rebukes Simon and tells him that this power (or priesthood) cannot be purchased with money and that it is a gift from God.
So the question is, does your minister have this authority? If so, where did he get it? Who gave it to him? Was it from some theological seminary? Remember, this power cannot be bought with money. What, he said that he just felt that God called him to be a minister? Well I am not going to put your minister down for being well intentioned, don't get me wrong here. I am simply talking about doctrine, amen to that minister who wanted to help out his fellow man.
But the scriptures state in Heb. 5:4 that "no man taketh this honor (remember that word) unto himself unless he is called of God as was Aaron." How was Aaron called? Moses who was a prophet received some revelation that Aaron was to have his calling in the priesthood. How exactly did Moses give this authority to Aaron? Well it is not exactly clear how Aaron received it. But in Num. 27:18-23 explains in detail how Joshua received his priesthood.
Again Moses received revelation from the Lord and was instructed to give some of his ‘honor’ (or priesthood authority) to Joshua by laying his hands on Joshua’s head. Joshua received it from some one else who already had it.
So in order to receive priesthood authority Paul says you have to receive it the same way Moses gave it. By revelation and by some one else who has Priesthood and administered by the laying on of hands.
Again the question is, did your minister receive his calling and authority in the above-mentioned manner? Did a prophet of God call him; did a priesthood holder lay hands on his head and set him apart?
Since the Primitive Church did fall away (and I have covered that else where), there is no one on this earth who has this authority and anyone who claims that they do are taking this honor unto them selves no matter how well intentioned they maybe. The only people who have this authority to perform the ordinances are the priesthood holders in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.