For family scripture study tonight, we read and discussed Mosiah 5:5-8. Our discussion revolved around King Benjamin’s giving his people a new name as spiritually begotten children of Christ.
That name, of course, is “Christian”.
This led to a discussion I had with my ten-year-old daughter after my son was in bed.
Apparently, one of her friends told her Mormons and Christians are different. This friend asked an adult for confirmation on this, and the adult said Mormons believe Jesus is only a prophet and not our saviour. This has troubled her.
About a year or so before our children are baptized, I start using the old missionary discussions as my family home evening lessons. Tonight, I was able to use the same material to adress my daughter’s concern.
I started by asking her who God is. Her answering, “our heavenly father”, led to a discussion of how that makes us his children, how thus he wants us to be happy, how he gave us the plan of salvation to make us happy, and how Jesus plays the central role in the plan.
We discussed how physical and spiritual death are obstacles to our returning to God, how resurrection and repentance help us overcome death and sin, and how Jesus made resurrection and repentance possible, thus saving us from sin and death and making him our saviour.
At the end of our discussion, she indicated that makes sense to her and addressed her concern. I told her that anyone who says Mormons don’t believe Jesus is our saviour is entirely wrong.
What does “spiritually begotten children of Christ” actually mean?
Also, in answer to the question, who God is — don’t Jesus and the Holy Ghost also count as God? (as in part of the Godhead)?
God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost, yes, three members of the Godhead.
Through His Atonement, Christ has spiritually begotten us, since He gave his life for us, and we accept Him as our Saviour, He becomes our spiritual father.
Am I explaining that right? I can see it in my head…
oh and Kim, she’s still only 9! She doesn’t turn 10 until January.
When we become baptized, we are born again as new spiritual creatures taking upon us Christ’s name, thus becoming his children spiritually.
Right, baptism…oops, left that one out. That’s the key.
I’m not sure what you mean by “spiritually”.
Would it be fair to paraphrase, “When we become baptized, we are [metaphorically] born again as new spiritual creatures taking upon us Christ’s name, thus becoming his children [symbolically]”
Sure, you could paraphrase it like that. He doesn’t literally procreate our new spiritual selves as biological parents do. I view it more like a spiritual adoption.
Mormons are Christians but we are Christians with a difference.
We spend a lot of time differentiating ourselves as the only true church. So it is not unusual that our Christian neighbours assume there is something different about us. We can’t claim to be different but the same.
But we have lots of common ground… that’s a good place to start.
Yes, but this person contended we aren’t Christians because he believes we believe Jesus was only a prophet, and not the Saviour, which is untrue. We do believe Jesus is the Saviour of the world.
We are not Muslims or Jehovah’s Witnesses so I think that one can be knocked on the head pretty easily.
I think you missed my point. What I am trying to say is our theology is quite difficult for our Christian neighbours to get a grasp of. What is official doctrine and what is an unfortunate quote by some well meaning church member is hard to distinguish. I am suggesting we need to be compassionate with the misunderstandings of others. If they are uniformed how will they know unless we tell them.
Well, she did tell them and quite clearly, but they both told her she was wrong. Which she isn’t of course.
Mary,
I am sorry to hear of your daughter’s trials. It is always difficult to be misunderstood. It is a tough lesson to learn Christian courage but here are some words of comfort.
Matt. 5: 11
11 Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.
I hope you and your husband can reassure your daughter and that her faith comes out stronger. Great to hear of youth speaking out so openly about the gospel. Many of us older folks like to hide our lights under bushels and avoid such criticisms.
Mary
http://jesuschrist.lds.org/SonOfGod/eng/
Here is a nice web page for some further discussion points for your family.
She’s not having any trials. She’s quite able to express herself clearly, but thanks. It was just interesting, is all, and I always get a bit miffed when people tell me what I believe and won’t hear anything different and so in behalf of her I was feeling a tad defensive.
She’s quite confident in her faith and testimony and we told her she handled it admirably.