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While Mormons and Christians believe in many of the same things, and both require great faith to keep those beliefs, there are differences between what I believe is Mormonism and other Christians. Here are 21 major differences as I see it, and do understand this is simply what I believe – I’m not declaring doctrine for the LDS Church. I do hope I’m in line with that Church:

  1. We follow the living prophet over ALL written scripture.
  2. Life is a matter of becoming, not barely missing or making heaven.
  3. Absolute circle of life began before beginnings.
  4. Man is co-eternal with God. That means, among other things, that we’ve always existed.
  5. Man was not created to bring Glory to God, for God is not the Universe’s egotist or megalomaniac, but He created us to bring about our Eternal (meaning God-like) existence.
  6. The Afterlife is for doing, not praising and playing harps. God expects us to do things – progress eternally.
  7. Worship is an individual, not a collective matter and not from another human.
  8. Ordinances won’t save you, but they are part of becoming like our Father.
  9. All of the laws, ordinances, rules, commandments are given to help man become like our Father.
  10. God is not a vengeful, punishing God. He wants all of his children back and has eternal patience in achieving this goal.
  11. Doing something or not doing something has nothing to do with going to hell because there is no such singular place except as a result of the realization of lost opportunities.
  12. Christ was real… but he was not a wimp, nor a peace-nik, or hippie, and he didn’t come to unite families and peace (his words) but rather to clearly state his mission with the sword or in other words, power.
  13. I take God at his word, that He is the Father who is a distinct and separate being from two other members of the Godhead. Jesus was Jehovah and the Word who was the son of the Father before this life through whom all things were made. Jesus became the only physically begotten son of the Father.
  14. Jesus did not come to have us worship him, nor center our lives on him. Instead he came for the expressed purpose to bear record of his Father and to do his will. He is now a resurrected being who is on the right hand of the Father.
  15. I avoid mood modifying substances because they are counterfeits to revelation; they slow our “becoming.” I’ve been taught to demand and savor reality.
  16. I find little that is admirable or reasonable in the Nicean Creed and I’m not interested in fitting completely into the conventional Niceanic Christian wisdom.
  17. I find that Mormonism is a doctrine which blends in undivided and indivisible portions faith, hope, charity and works.
  18. When I say marriage is forever, I mean it; it’s not just a cheap Hollywood line. I believe we err, make mistakes, have conflicts and sometimes dissolve those unions, but when those unions stick during this life, they are unions forever.
  19. Families are forever too. Keep in mind that forever means time without end and that refers to time in front of us, time behind us and time that is now.
  20. The Canon of scripture never has been closed or sealed. God has always and will always communicate with his children. He revealed His will and restored His church through Joseph Smith.
  21. We are literally the children of the Father, created spiritually by him before this Earth began. He did not create us out of Nothing (ex nihilo) but housed our Intelligences in a spirit body. Like all children we hope to become like our Father in every way. And we mean EVERY way.