Well, you are wrong. As I explained to a Protestant or Evangelical, the "Church" is Christ, the body of believers in Christ are the Church, Those immersed (baptized) into the body by the agency of the HS. You certainly don't have to believe that, but it is Protestant thought and doctrine. If you want to simply ask me, I'll walk you through the New Testament teaching on this. Whether it be the SBC, Calvary Chapel, 1st Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterian, Congregationalists....etc., we are all "Protestants," and members of one Church; The Body Christ. Again just ask and right or wrong, I'll walk you through the New Testament scripture that we interpret it to be.As mentioned above, there is no "Protestant Church." There are many churches in Protestantism. Yes, many Christians in the 18th and 19th centuries believed that Christianity had lost something vital and was in need of a Restoration. Joseph Smith was one of those Christians.
Mormonism has different view of what a church is, a building and a corporation, or a name....you need to get away from that line of logic if you want to understand how others think, especially those you criticize ignorantly.
Joseph Smith, by his fruits, in my opinion and many others opinion was hardly a Christian. He was banging women behind his wives back, focus Kish, he was flat out cheating on Emma, period....stealing from his "flock," and doing so telling them all along they can become God's. If you believe that what Joseph was teaching, and his fruits were some how misunderstood....well you are probably on the wrong website, you should go to MAD. Are you really supporting that Joseph's theology was something lost and needed to be restored? Think about it.
Well, do you believe that Book of Mormon to be inspired, which begs, do you believe Joseph Smith was a true prophet of God. Again your posts are cryptic. Please give me a benchmark for your body of truth that you project. You are all over the place, yet no where.I have very low expectations regarding how objective such a discussion is likely to be. It is not completely clear to me what, in each instance it appears in Joseph Smith's translations and revelations, the word church is supposed to refer to, especially in the Book of Mormon, which was composed before Joseph Smith founded a church.
In one breath you want to tell me what the definition of the protestant church is, which you you obviously have not done your homework on....and then in another, you don't know what the word church even means in regard to the faith you are defending. The Book of Mormon teaches that the Church of the Devil is the Abdominal church, which clearly compliments the First Vison Account....right? It is not that hard to see.
Also the Book of Mormon teaches only two churches, and the first being the Lamb of God....I think we can understand what Joseph Smith was asserting there, and the other being the Church of the Devil, is fairly easy to figure out....especially given the commentary by several LDS prophet/s, seer's and revelators that are pretty clear what Joseph Smith meant.
