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Mormon View of Christians
I am a child of the 60s and 70s. My version of Mormonism is based on the truth claims that were prevelant at that time. Boyd K, Packer, Bruce R. McConkie, and “As man is, God once was” (Lorenzo Snow) shaped my understanding of “the only true church on the face of the earth (Docterine and Covenants 1:30).
My Missions
I served two missions for the church in the 70s and 80s. In that era, Mormon missionaries were required to memorize discussion content word-for-word. The first discussion always included Joseph Smith’s account of the first vision. Our focus was on one specific part of this account:
18My object in going to inquire of the Lord was to know which of all the sects was right, that I might know which to join. No sooner, therefore, did I get possession of myself, so as to be able to speak, than I asked the Personages who stood above me in the light, which of all the sects was right (for at this time it had never entered into my heart that all were wrong)—and which I should join. 19I was answered that I must join none of them, for they were all wrong; and the Personage who addressed me said that all their creeds were an abomination in his sight; that those professors were all corrupt; that: “they draw near to me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me, they teach for doctrines the commandments of men, having a form of godliness, but they deny the power thereof.”
Joseph Smith History 1:18-19, Canonized a scripture in the Pearl of Great Price
The First Vision, more that anything else, caused Mormons of my generation to hate born again Christians. In my mind, the very idea of being born again congered visions of absolute evil.
At that time, I had no reason to suspect that God and Joseph might have different views regarding Christanity.
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