Why do Mormon's claim to be Christians,?

It is stranger still when you realise that it is a polytheistic religion, that God supposedly has a wife, and that humans can become gods.

There is no way they qualify as Christians.

I'm afraid you have your facts wrong. I'm a Mormon and we do believe that Jesus was a God. In fact we believe that he was a God even before being born. He went by Jehova then. And we do believe in the Virgin birth. We Respect Mary the mother of Jesus greatly. She was "favored among women" after all. We typically don't call her the Virgin Mary because she had children with Joseph after Jesus was born.

because they are

first of all, the BoM has been called another witness of jesus ! though many christians who are trinitarians believe in Gal 1:6-9 as definitive proof that mormons are not christian because its a "new church", they are wrong. christianity has been transformed from the original jewish foundation to a gentile foundation. and was changed with the roots of Constantine and the Nicean council. (from a theocratic religion to a Government controlled religion) and then when protestants protested the pope the gentiles changed the religion yet again.

i think the gentiles changed the gospel even after they admitted the popes changed the gospel. and the changes the popes made still exist among the traditions of protestants in various forms.

with the church of jesus christ of latter day saints. it is professed that all christianity and their creeds are in apostacy, therefore there must needs be a restoration.

in the BoM itself, every other page declares jesus to be the saviour and redeemer of mankind. by that reasoning alone the LDS people are believers in christ and a church that believes in christ are therefore defined as christians.

look for the book: Are mormons christian.

http://cid-fff19b48ee821aa4.office.live.com/self.a...

p.s, there are those who say if one does not believe in the "trinity", that they conclude they are not christian. but i dont know any bible verse that says this. ! in fact, in Acts 10:34-35, it actually said God is not a respecter of persons....therefore God accepts (all men) who fear God and do works of righteousness.

this verse has to be reconciled with other verses which teach that all people who do not believe in jesus are damned already, or in modern traditions that say only one group of society will be saved. http://classic.scriptures.lds.org/en/acts/10

Anyone can call them self a Christian. Jesus, from what I gather, never used the word Christian. Jesus didn't say, "In order to be saved, you have to become a Christian."

So don't hold onto the word Christian like it's gold. Hang onto God's promises as though it were gold. At least, I think that is good advice.

Because Mormons believe that Jesus is the son of God, he came to earth as a human to teach us how to live, and then he gave his life to atone for the fall of mankind, and for any sins we repent of.

because they are.....

and the LDS (aka Mormon church) absolutely accepts the divinity of Jesus Christ. they simply do NOT accept the idea of a 3-in-1 Trinitarian God, but take God @His word that Jesus Christ is HIS SON.

they also accept the biblical account of the virgin birth.

perhaps you don't know as much about "Mormons" as you thought you did....

Well, Christians shouldn't believe in the virgin birth either, because the correct tranlsation of the hebrew was that Mary was a young woman, not that Mary was a virgin.

Why not lots of other people do who have even stranger ideas than the mormons

Mormons are Christians.

Because they believe in bible jesus as messiah.

That makes them christians.

Yes, they aren't YOUR kind of christians, but then again neither are any of the other 30,000+ other sects of christians that aren't YOUR sect.

They aren't the first Christians to preach that, you know?

It's just that, nowadays, other Christians can't burn them at the stake for preaching it.

I assume you've never heard of Arianism or Nestorianism.