[Ldsoss] Re: Ldsoss Digest, Vol 39, Issue 5

[Sean M. Cox]

It looks to me like the comparison between the teachings of our church 
and the teachings of Arius is rather easy to make and they rather 
explicitly made it. We differ in some rather significant respects, but 
that doesn't negate the reality that there are similarities. 
Nevertheless it didn't seem to matter whether or not there was a 
tangible connection. The point of the listing was that people perceived 
a connection and they used the term "Arian" derisively to describe us. I 
think it's a shame that we should launch a jihad on a non-issue such as 
this. It just makes us look paranoid, simple, and/or desperate for 
attention. There is so much of real anti-mormon activity.

> "Mormons, followers of the various churches of the Latter Day
> Saint movement, who believe in the unity in purpose of the
> Godhead but that Jesus is a divine being distinct from, and
> created by, God the Father, but similar in every other respect
> (thus roughly Homoiousian rather than Anomoean). Thus, Jesus is
> literally (physically, by God placing his own seed within Mary,
> thus making Jusus both mortal and divinity) the Firstborn of the
> Father. Also in line with Arianism, Mormons believe that the
> pre-incarnate Jesus (the Logos of John 1) created the Earth under
> the direction of the Father. In fact, they go further than most
> on this point, equating the pre-existent Jesus with Jehovah,
> the God of the Old Testament (perhaps as a spokesman for the
> Father, for whom they reserve the Old Testament title Elohim).
> Although the LDS Church views the doctrinal schisms of the late
> Roman Empire as a sure sign of the Great Apostasy, they do not
> officially claim any allegiance to Arius."
>
> Looks right to me. 
>
>   
> That's pretty correct, but it doesn't support how we can be compared
> to the teachings of Arius.  I do not think we believe Christ is
> subordinate to the Father, but One with the Father, as all other
> Christian faiths believe (minus the 1 being and Spirit thing).  We
> also do not believe that at one time Jesus did not exist.  We were
> intelligences forever, and all have existed forever.  I think if you
> were to study what Arius actually taught you would see he wasn't
> necessarily teaching this thing either.  Arius taught that Christ was
> created out of nothing, not begotten, and he taught against the
> doctrine of eternity.  He also taught that Christ was not of the same
> substance as the father (Hence the entire reason for the Nicene
> Creed).  We believe that Christ, born with a body, was of the same
> substance of the Father.  The thing is, with so many things lost in
> the Christian religions, the secular view of Arius is much different
> than ours, so we can easily get pegged in the category that follow his
> teachings.  I don't think we really want to be in that category
> though, as Arius, I think even among Mormons, would be a heretic.