Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!clyde.concordia.ca!uunet!wuarchive!cs.utexas.edu!rutgers!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: jygabler@ucdavis.edu (Jason Y. Gabler) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Re: The Mormon Religion Message-ID: Date: 20 Aug 90 02:49:30 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Organization: University of California, Davis Lines: 35 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu In article vrw@hos1cad.att.com (Verdon R Walker, Jr) writes: >_The Book of Mormon_ is full of such passages and clearly teaches that >salvation comes through the atonement of Jesus Christ. Couple this >with the fact that we accept the Bible as the word of God and it >becomes clear that we believe in Jesus Christ. Does that make us >Christians? I certainly believe it does. > >Verdon Walker Every Mormon family I have know is relentless to the fact this one may believe in Jesus, but if they are not _baptized_ they are still not saved ( taking the verse from John, out of context from the rest of the Bible ). Doesn't Ephesians 2:8,9 state that there is _no_ _act_ by which we can earn salvation? That it is _soley_ a gift from God that we can lift no finger to achieve, but only the spiritual and conscious _acceptance_ of His death. jase Jason Gabler UCD Computing Services, Data Communications Group *cable grunt* ccjason@castor.ucdavis.edu jygabler@ucdavis.bitnet gods-tale-request@ucdavis.edu [While I have problems with saying that baptism is necessary to salvation, this is certainly not a peculiarly LDS idea. It was common in the early church, and Catholic theology has held it to varying degrees. Catholics make allowances for people who are unable to be baptized ("baptism of intent"), etc., but basically think of baptism as being essential. --clh]