Saturday, August 17, 2019

Refuting Christina Darlington's Claims about "Mormonism" being "Christian" and "Historic" Christian Teachings


Showing that she is living proof of “Novak’s Rule” ("When you become an anti-Mormon, expect your IQ to drop 85 points. To put it another way, God strikes you stupid"), Christina Darlington wrote:

This essay admits that Mormonism rejects the foundational creeds that have historically defined the “Christian” faith. As such, a Mormon claiming to be a “Christian” while rejecting the foundational beliefs that make Christians who they are, is no different than a Christian claiming to be “Mormon” while rejecting the Book of Mormon and the teachings of Joseph Smith that are foundational to Mormonism.

If we allow the Mormon Church to redefine Christianity to whatever new set of belies they decide to accept while rejecting the historic teachings of the Christian church, that word can be applied to nearly all religions because at least most religions of today claim some sort of “belief in Jesus,” that he was a “good teacher,” or a “prophet” of God. Obviously, there is more to being a Christian than merely claiming belief in Jesus Christ. (Christina R. Darlington, Misguided by Mormonism But Redeemed by God’s Grace: Leaving the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for Biblical Christianity [2d ed.; 2019], 43; the essay Darlington refers to is Are Mormons Christian?)

Just because something has been believed for a long period of time (and is “historic” in that sense) does not mean that it is true—the Jews of Jesus’ day had a “historic” belief in the Korban rule which turned out to be a false tradition (Matt 15//Mark 7). If Darlington was, heaven forbid, consistent, she would have to claim Jesus was wrong in rejecting this historic belief. For a discussion of the Korban rule, see my discussion of Matt 15//Mark 7 in Not By Scripture Alone: A Latter-day Saint Refutation of Sola Scriptura.

The belief that Mary was a perpetual virgin is actually very early (and I say this as a critic of Roman Catholic Mariology), and can be seen in the late first/early second century, and has a very good pedigree of belief (e.g., Augustine; Amrose; Jerome; First Lateran Council), even among Protestant Reformers (Luther and Zwingli held to it; Calvin was inconsistent in holding to it) and their followers (e.g., Francis Turretin [1623-1687] defended it in his Institutes of Elenctic Theology]). I am sure, however, that Darlington rejects belief in such (and she is correct in doing such; see Chapter 4: The Perpetual Virginity of Mary in my book, Behold the Mother of My Lord: Towards a Mormon Mariology, pp. 83-138; I bring this up to show that Darlington is being disingenuous and inconsistent in her arguments and appeals to “historical” beliefs within Christianity).

But LDS can turn the tables on Darlington, a Protestant who holds to a symbolic understanding of water baptism. The unanimous consent of early Christians and Christian theologians up to Calvin held to baptismal regeneration. For a discussion (as well as an exegesis of John 3:1-7), see:


In case Darlington argues that texts such as 1 Cor 1:17 refute this doctrine, as she does elsewhere in her book, see:

Refuting Douglas Wilson on Water Baptism and Salvation (provides an exegesis of 1 Cor 1:17, Acts 2:38, and 1 Pet 3:21)

Also, on Luke 23:43, see The Good Thief on the Cross

As with so many “counter-cultists,” Darlington’s “arguments” against the Latter-day Saint faith is clearly not aimed at informed Latter-day Saints; instead, she is simply engaging in “boundary maintenance.”