Issue 5, Feb 2008
Governor Mitt Romney is currently vying for the Republican Party's nomination for President of the United States. Mitt Romney is an active member of the Mormon Church, also known as the Latter Day Saints. Those facts have raised again the question about whether Mormons are Christians. To many of us, the answer to that question is a resounding No! Mormons are not and never have been Christians, particularly if you measure them by the historical Creeds accepted by the vast majority of Christians.

 

Lutherans evaluate any church body's claims on the basis of two principles we call the Formal and the Material. These two principles relate to one another and depend upon one another. A 1972 report of the Missouri Synod's Commission on Theology and Church Relations on the Gospel and Scripture put it this way in the paper's introduction:

 

        "Lutheranism has always emphasized that the center of its faith and theology is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The historic Lutheran Confessions as well as theologians in every age have taught that God's justification of the sinner by grace for Christ's sake through faith is the "chief article" of the Christian faith and the "article on which the church stands or falls." Because of its central role in faith and theology, some theologians have described the Gospel as the "material principle" of Lutheranism.

 

 

These principles may be applied to any church body by asking two questions:

 

·         Material Principle: What is your central or core teaching around which everything else revolves?

·         Formal Principle: What is the source, norm and basis for your teachings and doctrines?

 

So there are religious bodies with a wide variety of Material Principles. Here are a few examples:

 

·         You are saved for eternal life by the good works you perform. These may include alms, prayers, obedience of superiors, attendance at rituals and self-sacrifice.

 

·         Accept the fact that God has chosen some for salvation and others for damnation.

 

·         You will know whether you are saved or not by the active presence and power of the Holy Spirit in your life, demonstrated by the gifts of tongues, revelations, etc.

 

There are others.

 

Likewise there are many Formal Principles among religious bodies, including:

 

·         Holy Scripture plus tradition and human reason

 

·         The ongoing, active presence of the Holy Spirit ever opening new understandings and interpretations of Scripture and the practices of the church.

 

·         The interplay of Scripture, philosophy, reason and science, revealing a God who is himself ever evolving, growing and changing.

 

·         The inner, mystical experience of the living Christ, speaking to one's heart and revealing His presence, power and will for your life.

 

I do not have room in this brief discussion to evaluate either the material or the formal principles outlined above. I lift them up only to illustrate and to suggest that one must apply the same questions to the Mormon faith. What are the material and the formal principles of that faith?

 

Latayne C. Scott shares her experience of converting to historic Christianity from Mormonism in her highly rated 1979 book The Mormon Mirage. In "Mormonism and the Question of Truth," a 1992 article for Christian Research Institute Journal, she wrote as follows about the Formal Principle of Mormonism:

 

"If one asks any Latter-day Saint for the primary proof that the Book of Mormon is true, he or she will assuredly point to the promise it gives in Moroni 10:4--5: "And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true; and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost." A physical sensation called a "burning in the bosom" is the spiritual confirmation from the Holy Ghost often said to accompany the conviction that a given thing is "true."

 

". . . The introduction of new doctrine is a touchy subject for Mormons, showing that there are limits to this subjective approach. As noted earlier, only the church's president can "go beyond" previous doctrine in giving the church new revelation. Mormon doctrine also states that one can only receive revelation -- personal communication from God -- for oneself and for those of inferior rank in the church."

 

She goes on to point out that not only is the Book of Mormon a new revelation and superior to Holy Scripture, but the president of the Mormons continues to receive new revelations, some even rescinding earlier practices and teachings. Examples include the rescinding of polygamy or plural marriage and the announcement that blacks are now eligible for the priesthood or full membership in the church.

 

The material principle of Mormonism is that the ultimate truth-giver, its god, the being who made this earth was himself once a mortal human. This god is ever changing, becoming more perfect each day. The task of each human is to follow his example. They affirm the central doctrine expressed in the famous couplet of Lorenzo Snow, fifth President of the LDS church, [which] states:

 

     'As man now is, God once was; 
As God now is, man may be.'

So the Mormon view makes Christ a man who became divine. Those who follow him learn from him how to walk the path leading to divinity.

Christians do not ever teach that human beings are able to become God in His essence. Christ is very God of very God from all eternity, of one substance with the Father, by whom all things were made. For us men and for our salvation He came down from heaven, born by the power of the Holy Spirit from the womb of the virgin Mary. Because He is and always has been God, His suffering, death and resurrection are full payment for the failure of all men to obey God. We are thus saved by putting our entire faith in Him and in His gracious work for us.