Focusing on differences, some Christians consider Mormonism non-Christian; others, focusing on similarities, consider it to be a Christian religion.[7][8] Opinions differ among scholars of religion on whether to categorize Mormonism as a separate branch of Christianity or as the "fourth Abrahamic religion" (alongside Judaism, Christianity and Islam).[3][9] Mormons do not accept non-Mormon baptism and most non-Mormon Christians do not accept Mormon baptism. Mormons regularly proselytize individuals actually or nominally within the Christian tradition, and some traditional Christians, especially evangelicals, proselytize Mormons. Some view Mormonism as a form of Christianity, but distinct enough from traditional Christianity so as to form a new religious tradition, much as Christianity is more than just a sect of Judaism.[10]
The early Mormonism that originated with Joseph Smith in the 1820s shared strong similarities with some elements of 19th-century American Protestantism.[3][4][11] Mormons believe that God, through Smith and his successors, restored various doctrines and practices that were lost from the original Christianity taught by Jesus Christ.[12] For example, Smith, as a result of his "First Vision", primarily rejected the Nicene doctrine of the Trinity and instead taught that God the Father, his son Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost are three distinct "personages".[13][14][15] While the largest Mormon denomination, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), acknowledges its differences with mainstream Christianity, it also focuses on its commonalities such as its focus on faith in Christ, following the teachings of Jesus Christ, the miracle of the atonement, and many other doctrines.[16]
^Prakashan, Jnanada (2009). World Encyclopaedia of Interfaith Studies: Global interfaith movement. p. 733.
^Shipps (1985, pp. 148–49) (arguing that "Mormonism differs from traditional Christianity in much the same fashion that traditional Christianity ... came to differ from Judaism.").
^Turner, John G. (2016). The Mormon Jesus: A Biography. Cambridge, Massachusetts and London: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. p. 5. ISBN978-0-674-73743-3..