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Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS), often called Mormons by those of other faiths, accept the principle of continuous revelation as an essential feature of faith in God and Jesus Christ, whose relationship with His children is ongoing, and His words to us, continual.
Joseph Smith, the first prophet and the first president of the LDS Church, received in 1842, from the Chicago Democrat‘s editor John Wentworth, a request for information about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In his reply, the prophet Joseph Smith included a list of 13 main beliefs of members of the LDS Church. In time this collection of beliefs was formally adopted into the standard scriptures of the Church, and is known today as the Articles of Faith.
While they are not a complete summation of every doctrine of the LDS Church, the Articles of Faith nonetheless provide great insight into the basic theology of The Church of Jesus Christ.
Elder James Talmage, a former member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, wrote as part of his introduction to his book Articles of Faith, that the articles ”present important doctrines of the Church in systematic order, and they suggest themselves as a convenient outline for a study of the theology of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.” This section of the website will offer the complete text of his book.
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The Articles of Faith of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
1 We believe in God, the Eternal Father, and in His Son, Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost. (Read more)
2 We believe that men will be punished for their own sins, and not for Adam’s transgression. (Read more)
3 We believe that through the Atonement of Christ, all mankind may be saved, by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel. (Read more)
4 We believe that the first principles and ordinances of the Gospel are: first, Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; second, Repentance; third, Baptism by immersion for the remission of sins; fourth, Laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost. (Read more)
5 We believe that a man must be called of God, by prophecy, and by the laying on of hands, by those who are in authority to preach the Gospel and administer in the ordinances thereof. (Read more)
6 We believe in the same organization that existed in the Primitive Church, viz., apostles, prophets, pastors, teachers, evangelists, etc. (Read more)
7 We believe in the gift of tongues, prophecy, revelation, visions, healing, interpretation of tongues, etc. (Read more)
8 We believe the Bible to be the word of God as far as it is translated correctly; we also believe the Book of Mormon to be the word of God. (Read more)
9 We believe all that God has revealed, all that He does now reveal, and we believe that He will yet reveal many great and important things pertaining to the Kingdom of God. (Read more)
10 We believe in the literal gathering of Israel and in the restoration of the Ten Tribes; that Zion will be built upon this [the American] continent; that Christ will reign personally upon the earth; and, that the earth will be renewed and receive its paradisiacal glory. (Read more)
11 We claim the privilege of worshiping Almighty God according to the dictates of our own conscience, and allow all men the same privilege, let them worship how, where, or what they may. (Read more)
12 We believe in being subject to kings, presidents, rulers, and magistrates, in obeying, honoring, and sustaining the law. (Read more)
13 We believe in being honest, true, chaste, benevolent, virtuous, and in doing good to all men; indeed, we may say that we follow the admonition of Paul-We believe all things, we hope all things, we have endured many things, and hope to be able to endure all things. If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy, we seek after these things. (Read more)
(Joseph Smith).
I have recently begun a quest of inquiring the Mormon faith. I was raised in a Baptist church and was taught that as Christians our salvation is graced based and not based on actions. I am confused because along with the Book of Mormon you also study the Bible, where Paul constantly speaks of Grace. Romans 3:23 says “our righteousness comes through faith in Jesus. For all have sinned and are justified freely by his grace.” I am curious of why the Mormon faith teaches salvation through actions. Also curious was deems sections of the Holy Bible to not shape the faith while other parts of the Bible do.
That is an excellent question! We believe that when “Adam fell” all men fell from God’s presence and became mortal, or in other words physically removed ourselves from God’s presence, Christ freely overcame death to save each of us, so we can have eternal life and live with him again. But also, when we ourselves were born into this world, and as we have grown up we have sinned. And as the scriptures say, “No unclean thing can enter into the presence of God” So once we sin we have spiritually removed ourselves from Christ. But we can not justify our own actions and just behave better and try to make our good acts cancel out the bad. It doesn’t work that way. We can never make ourselves clean and we can never save ourselves no matter how hard we try. Christ can though, because only he was capable of making the sacrifice necessary to “pay our debt”. However, God will not force anything upon us, and if we wish to receive the blessings from his atonement we must accept them. “Ask and ye shall receive” God will forgive us, but first we must ask forgiveness. And it must be a true repentance. We can not sin one day and ask forgiveness but then commit the same sin the next day and everyday thereafter and ask for forgiveness each time, that is not true repentance. We must truly repent and come unto Christ and prove our conversion to Him by our actions. By our works and the ways that we live our daily life. His atonement, his death and suffering for us was sacred and should not be mocked or underappreciated. And to take advantage of it by thinking we can sin our whole lives and not do good works and reap the benefits from Him is wrong. So when we say works also, we do not mean we have any part in the saving process. It is God’s grace that saves us. But, you can not have one without the other, you must show the Lord you want it and you are willing to live worthy of his sacrifice, and he will never refuse to give it.
Gale,
in response to your comment, #130:
The LDS conception of Heaven and Hell doesn’t make Heaven more inclusive, it just makes Hell all inclusive and with nicer levels above. This is certainly true from a Christian perspective.
From a Christian perspective, Heaven is the presence of God. So only the Celestial Kingdom would count. From a Christian perspective, Christ saves us all the way to the Father and we share in all the inheritance of the Son. So only the top-most level of the Celestial Kingdom would count.
From an LDS perspective, only the Celestial Kingdom and really only the top-most level of it counts because… well, just ask any LDS “Do you want to be in the Terrestrial Kingdom?” Their answer will always be “no.” Why?
Because LDS know that everything below the highest level of the Celestial Kingdom is a form of damnation, mostly referred to as “limitation” or something like that. Unless you are on your way to godhood and eternal progression and fruitfulness then you are limited and damned.
Just because the Terrestrial and Telestial are comfortable doesn’t make them any less the real LDS Hell.
PS-since one of the moderators has confirmed repentance as stopping the sin and the Book of Mormon says you have to repent, then no one is going to be in the Celestial Kingdom, let alone the top-most level. So Hell, even the nice levels, is going to be completely full, and God the Father is going to be awfully disappointed.
Not so. Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon experienced a vision of the kingdoms of heaven and said that the lowest, the telestial, is glorious beyond description. That’s a lot more than “comfortable.” Those who deny Christ on earth and after death and refuse to repent or to believe in Christ’s saving power will inherit this kingdom. The fact that it is so glorious demonstrates that God’s influence is there, otherwise there would be no light at all, which is the case in hell, also called “outer darkness,” into which Satan and his angels will be cast. The only others who will inherit a kingdom without glory are those who commit “the sin against the Holy Ghost,” which is to actually be in the presence of Christ on earth and then deny Him. This sounds merciful to me, more merciful than that of any other theology. To live forever in the actual presence of God defines the celestial kingdom, and it appears that a suffering of soul occurs when there is any degree of separation from God, it is true. The word “damned” is sometimes used by Latter-day Saints and in the Doctrine and Covenants to refer to any degree of separation from God, but all realms of heaven are wonderful and glorious.
I have been blessed to have friends who are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. I do not have the same beliefs, but I have great respect for their beliefs, largely because they are admirable people. I would strongly oppose anyone who would oppose someone with their beliefs for any job or public office, including the Presidency of the United States. I never met a Mormon I didn’t like.