Mormonism is not a part of Christianity

I would like to keep this relatively simple. So I would like to thank my opponent for accepting this debate. To open, I would like to pose a question. Does a religion have the inherent right and ability to define itself? I would argue that it does. Whether it defines itself through means of Holy Scriptures, ceremonies, deeply held convictions and beliefs, or through requirements on morals and action... a religion has the inherent right to define itself. Christianity is commonly defined by 4 major things. In protestant circles it is called the Wesleyan (After John Wesley) Quadrilateral. It defines itself by means of Scripture, Reason, Experience, and Tradition. My argument shall focus on Scripture and Tradition. First, Scripture: Scripture teaches many things about Jesus Christ. It teaches that he was the Savior of the World, the Jewish Messiah, and ultimately it teaches that he was an uncreated being who was coequal and coeternal with God Himself (Hereafter: The Father). We see in the opening verses of the Gospel attributed to John that "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." (John 1:1) Later we see that "The Word became flesh and dwelt among them." (John 1:14) There can be no mistake that Jesus was both fully God and fully man when we look at the pages of Scripture. From the Apostle Paul's letter to the Philippians where Christ does not consider equality with God to be something to be grasped (because he already has it)... to the closing pages of Revelation where Christ stands as the worthy Lamb who sits on God's very throne. Christ is clearly seen as coeternal and coequal in the Scriptures. Second, Tradition: The first four ecumenical councils of the Church were held in Nicea, Constantinople, Ephesus, and Chalcedon. These councils are nearly universally held as uniquely authoritative by all major branches of the Christian Church. The unison cry of the first council against the Arian heresy was that Christ was FULLY God, coequal and coeternal. He was not some semi-divine created being, as the Arians taught. The second council clearly taught that Christ was also fully human. That he was not simply a phantasm of a man who only seemed human, rather he was fully human as well as fully divine. The councils of Ephesus and Chalcedon convened to discuss how it was possible that this dual nature existed. And the end result was a formulation known as the symbol of unity, and it exclaimed that Christ's dual natures were eternally existent and did not mingle with each other. That his divinity did not impinge on his humanity, and his humanity did not taint his divinity. These four councils are considered definitive of early Christianity. The entire Church at the time met together to define what it meant to be a Christian. And for them, the primary "non-negotiable" fact of the Christian faith was the fully divinity and humanity of Christ. They went so far as to exile those who did not believe in the divinity of Christ not only from the Church, but from the very empire of Rome. You may be asking what this has to do with Mormonism, and I will answer your question. Mormonism denies the core doctrine that Christ is fully divine. Not only does this scream out in conflict against the early Christian definition of what being a Christian meant, but it cries out against the very Bible itself. Against the very words of Christ who said "Before Moses was... I AM" (defining himself as the eternal and omnipotent God of the Old Testament). Mormonism teaches that Christ BECAME divine through obedience to The Father, but there was a point at which he was not divine. This is untenable to Orthodox Christian teaching. If Mormonism sets itself outside of the boundaries that have been created by the religion itself, it cannot claim to be a part of that religion. To do so would be like a person saying "I'm a Minnesota Viking" but refusing to play football, or "I'm a ballerina" but refusing to dance. The simple truth is this: Minnesota Vikings play football, ballerinas dance, and Christians believe in the Coeternalaity and Coequality of Christ to the Father. Mormons do not believe this, and therefore cannot be Christians.