From Dave Mason’s post on being a Mormon and not a Christian.
Mormons assert that because they believe Jesus is divine, they are Christians by default. Christians respond that because Mormons don’t believe — in accordance with the Nicene Creed promulgated in the fourth century — that Jesus is also the Father and the Holy Spirit, the Jesus that Mormons have in mind is someone else altogether
The problem, of course, is that this is not what is taught by said Creeds, which do not affirm that Jesus is also the Father and the Holy Spirit but in fact insist that He is not those two persons.
In any case, I’m afraid Dave might not be the best person to being getting instruction from on the differences between Mormons and other Christians.
And this one from Ray commenting on BCC:
I choose to believe in a physical resurrection and an empty tomb – but it wouldn’t shatter my faith or eternal paradigm if we found out somehow that Jesus was the great figurative scapegoat and the empty tomb was mythological and nothing more than a sincere belief of those who weren’t there. I love grand mythologies (and I don’t mean “falsehoods” in using that word), but I choose to see it literally.
I confess, I would need a lot more information to even make sense of a statement like this.
I consider my own thoughts on this subject. I am the personality type that can’t help but ask “What if it isn’t true? What if Jesus was not really God and wasn’t really resurrected?”
The problem is that how I feel about it depends on what the truth actually turns out to be. If, for example, we all still end up resurrected living in something very much like the Celestial Kingdom — despite Jesus not having been the cause of it — my guess is that I’ll probably shrug my shoulders and not care much at that point. After all, it was all true even though it was all false.
If, on the other hand, there is some true religion out there that I would have been better off being a part of (say, Islam) then I’ll probably hate myself in @#!*% for having chosen to believe in Jesus.
On the other hand, if there is no God at all and the universe is really Lovecraftian, then the fact that I lived a lie will mean nothing and in fact living a lie is probably a good thing by comparison to reality. Besides, when I die, I’ll just be annihilated, so I won’t find out either way. So the real key thing is to make sure I don’t find out the truth before I die and die happy looking forward to a resurrection that isn’t going to happen.
But clearly my eternal paradigm and faith will be shattered (and with good reason) if I find out before I die that Jesus wasn’t resurrected. It’s just that having a false eternal paradigm (literally living a lie) just happens to be a very good thing compared to the truth in this scenario.
I’m sure I could come up with several other scenarios each with their own answer depending on what the truth actually turns out to be. So I am curious in what sense Ray intended this. Because frankly, I find it hard to believe that Jesus not being resurrected could mean anything but that the Christian religion is wrong on all counts.
But in any case, it all boils down to what the truth eternal paradigm is if the Christian one is incorrect.