Question for members of the LDS?

The LDS church claims to be a restoration of the the church established anciently by Jesus Christ. We are Christians.

Christians are generally categorized as Catholic or Protestant. The Catholics believe they are a continuation of Christ's church after the death of the apostles. The Protestants (from the word protest) believe that the Catholic church is not the original church established by Christ and cite many doctrines (specifics vary among which particular group) that demonstrate how the Catholics have varied from the foundation of Christianity. Many of the leaders who began the protestant movement believed that there would one day be a restoration of the church that was had anciently or that they could somehow reform the church and return it to it's original state. The LDS church is neither Catholic nor Protestant. They claim to be a restoration.

Abraham had the gospel anciently and the Jews and Christians split with the coming of Christ, the Christians claiming Jesus was the messiah Abraham believed in. The Jews believing that he was not. As Christians the LDS church claims to be the Abrahamic religion.

Practitioners of Islam (as I understand it, please correct me if I'm wrong) claim that Jesus was not the messiah but he was a prophet and that Mohammed was also a prophet.

Restorationist. That's the way the church is viewed by those who classify Christians as Catholic or Protestant. It is considered to be a branch of the Christian faith.

One of the biggest separators is the belief in present-day revelation, that there was a "falling away" and a restoration. This puts the religion at odds with traditional Christianity that teaches the days of the prophets are gone and over, that there is no such thing as new revelation from God.

Another factor is the Book of Mormon, which claims to be another witness for Jesus Christ, that he (Christ) visited the Americas after his ressurrection. Encounters such as the well-documented meeting of Cortez and Montezuma suggest that such a thing happened.

Another difference is that Mormons tend to take more of the Biblical New Testament teachings (not events) to be literal. They tend to follow the teachings found in the New Testament more closely than any other denomination (this was documented in the latter part of the last century by a study conducted by students attending the University of Washington in Seattle).

Latter-day Saints believe that the gospel of Christ was first taught to Adam in the Garden of Eden. All religion contains some truth and is to point literally, figuratively or symbollically of the atonement and resurrection of Christ. This includes Judaism, Christianity, ancient Egyptian, etc.

The LDS Church does not follow the beliefs which resulted from the creeds of man, such as the Athanasian, apostle and Nicene councils, The Church has an open cannon and takes its counsel from its head, Jesus Christ.

This site is a good one for comparing Mormonism with Islam.

http://www.bible.ca/islam/islamic-mormonism-simila...

Definitely Christian.

We believe that the original church started by Jesus Christ was lost when the apostles died. The authority to act in His name was lost to the world.

We believe that in 1830 Jesus appeared with His Father to Joseph Smith to restore the gospel to the earth in it's fulness before the last days and in preparation for the Second Coming. We believe that he speaks to his prophets as he did in the days of Abraham, Moses et al.

We're Christians... but I don't think I like to view us as a "branch of Christianity" we didn't "branch" off of any church. We believe our church is the restored church of Jesus Christ. We're a denomination of Christianity.

Christian