It literally means "Christ ones" (Acts 11:26, 26:28, 1 Peter 4:16). The correct definition of the word is one who is a follower of the Jesus Christ of the Bible. For almost two thousand years it has never had a reference to anyone other that the historical Jesus Christ of the New Testament. .
There are several differences between mainline Christians/Protestant and the LDS church. To quickly clarifymainline?, I am talking about religions such as Pentecostal, Southern Baptist, Fundamentalist, Evangelical, Lutheran, Assembly of God etc. .
The first difference that I see is the belief in Deity. Mormons do not follow or believe in the historic Jesus Christ of the Bible, but rather in a different Jesus. This is why most Biblical Christians emphatically insist that Mormons are not Christians. .
The god of the Mormons is not the God of the Bible. To the Mormons, Jesus is the firstborn son of an exalted "man" who became the god of this world. The man-god of Mormonism was made the god of this world because of his good works on another planet somewhere out in the universe. He "earned" godhood, and was thus appointed by a counsel of gods in the heavens to his high position as the god of planet Earth. The Mormon god of this world was a man, like all men, who became a god. This is what the celestial marriage and the temple vows are all about. LDS men, by doing their temple work, are striving for exaltation by which they, too, shall one day become gods. Their wives will be the mother goddesses of "their" world and with their husband will produce the population of their world. This is the Mormon doctrine of "eternal progression." .
The LDS church teaches that Jesus Christ is not God incarnate. That he is God's firstborn son. Yet, they do teach that Jesus is the Lord and Savior. Jesus is the God of the Earth and he is the one who created the Earth and Heaven under God's direction. They also believe in a "Godhead" of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit as three separate entities united in purpose.
