Thanks for yet another response. I’ll throw Gal 1:6-9 in my idea bucket for an upcoming post. Have a great 4th of July weekend!

All the best!
lehislibrary@gmail.com

Thank you for your constructive follow up comment. You are right in your assumption that we both come at these types of issues from a different set of premises. Also, you correctly identified that my previous response implies that I believe the LDS message to be false. I’m afraid you’d have to strip away an awful lot of Mormonism to make it compatible with Christianity. In fact, I think you’d just have to put down Mormonism all together because it offers a false gospel. (See Gal. 1:6-9) Also, I disagree with your final quote. While a man may believe something with all his heart, if what he believes is false, he could very well be on the path to eternal condemnation without even realizing it.

That being said, I’m unaware of any authoritative statements by LDS leaders to that effect. We recognize that truth can be found in all faith traditions, and that it brings much happiness and joy to it’s adherents.

As for your comments regarding the potential eternal consequences to LDS if the case be that the LDS message is false, I simply disagree with the premise (of course). This probably isn’t the right place to dive into this discussion, but I sense that even were one to strip away those elements of Mormonism which are incompatible with mainstream Christianity, we would still find a basic set of beliefs which God would find acceptable. As Joseph Smith once said, a man is never condemned for believing too much.

Thank you for your comment. While I can’t speak specifically for Latayne, it seems within the realm of possibility that she was taught folks outside of the LDS tradition are “secretly unhappy”. Chances are that her experiences some 30 years ago and your experiences today in the Mormon Church will probably vary at least a bit. As far as the LDS gospel goes, it is possible that embracing the LDS gospel and becoming a part of the Mormon Church may “better one’s life” and offer some temporal benefits. Temporal benefits aside, if the LDS gospel is unable to deliver on the eternal promises it makes, it is all for nothing. An uncertain eternity seems like a steep price to pay for a “happy”, but deceived life.

I suggest that your former perception of non-LDS Christians as being “secretly unhappy” was not a product of something the LDS Church taught you. As a Mormon myself, I am confident that individuals in every religious tradition have found much peace and satisfaction in their faith.

There is a difference between believing that the LDS gospel can better one’s life, and believing that all are secretly unhappy without it.

As for your three suggestions, they seem pretty good to me.

I say that because Mormons are trained to put others on the defensive, posing questions that most Christians aren’t Biblically prepared to answer. And, when I was a Mormon, I assumed that all Christians secretly were unhappy and needed the LDS gospel to be happy. How surprised I was to learn the opposite.