Ch. -1: What Is This "Mormon" Thing?

Some people wonder why we are called Mormons, and some people wonder whether we are called Christians.

We are called Mormons because we tend to believe in The Book of Mormon.

And, yes, we consider ourselves Christian. We believe in Jesus Christ as the Son of God and as our Savior. We accept His teachings and try to follow them.

This bears a bit of explanation.

There is this book called The Book of Mormon. It presents itself as a record of people who lived in the Americas well before they were called the Americas, who believed in Jesus Christ. (See the title page.) And it claims to contain the teachings of Jesus Christ. (See, for instance, 2 Nephi 25: 26, also 3 Nephi, beginning with chapter 11.)

According to the book, there was one ancient American disciple of Jesus Christ, whose name was Mormon, who was directed by God to compile the book from records he had access to in the late second to middle third centuries after Christ. (See Words of Mormon 1: 1.) The book bears his name.

His son, Moroni completed the compilation after his death. (See Mormon 8: 1.)

Now, I am not offering any proof of these fantastic claims. That is not my purpose. I assume, if you are reading these pages, you are interested less in proofs and more in what it means to be a Mormon, what we believe in, and how those beliefs affect the way we live.

Now, as to whether we call ourselves Mormons or Christians, sometimes, when we are being lazy, or when we just don't want to argue with people who call us Mormons, we call ourselves Mormons.

We did not originally call ourselves Mormons. We consider ourselves Christian. (I think Mormon himself would quite disapprove of people becoming his disciples, just as Paul expressed around 1 Corinthians 1: 13.)

Mormon was just another prophet of God, just another disciple of Christ. A great prophet, but not someone that we should be a disciple of.

And the Church is not named after Mormon. Jesus directed us to call the Church after His name. (See 3 Nephi 27: 7 and Doctrine and Covenants 20: 1.)

(The Church has an informational website here.)

Jesus Christ is our Lord and Savior.

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