WHO IS THE GOD OF MORMONISM?
A Comparison of the God of Mormonism with the God of the Bible
by Cooper P. Abrams III
*All Rights Reserved - February 2001
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INTRODUCTION
In recent years the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints 1 has been involved in an intense public relations campaign aimed at moving its church into the mainstream of Christianity. In 1972 the LDS church established the Church Public Communications Department to promote positive Mormon visibility throughout the Gentile world.2 Part of its strategy to appear Christian includes advertisements with an emphasis on the family, which appear frequently on the major television networks.
From the inception of Mormonism in the early 1800's, mainstream Christianity has recognized the LDS Church as a cult because of its unbiblical doctrines. From it earliest beginnings Mormons were alienated from American Christian society because of their strange beliefs and unbiblical teachings. Joseph Smith, the founder and first prophet of the Mormon church, was killed by a lynch mob on June 27, 1844, at Carthage, Illinois and the Mormons were literally run out of the eastern part of the country. Shortly afterward, Brigham Young, the second Mormon prophet, led the faithful of the LDS Church to the isolated American frontier and the Mormons settled in the Utah Territory near the Great Salt Lake. Geographically separated from persecutors, they formed a theocratic society based on their religion and prospered. Until recently, the church seemed content to be excluded from Christianity.
For several decades, the LDS Church has grown in economic, social, and political power, and with this new status it is seeking recognition as a mainstream Christian denomination. Acceptance of the LDS Church as a traditional Christian church would greatly aid in proselytizing the members of Christian denominations. Further, there would be great political and economic benefits to the LDS if Mormonism was included in mainstream Christianity.
The main argument that Mormons use in claiming to be Christians is that they worship the same God and Jesus Christ as Christians worship. The LDS Church makes a point to assert to its members that they are Christians. However, their understanding of what makes a biblical Christian is different from what the Bible teaches. Although the LDS Church claims they worship the God of the Bible, their God is completely different. He is different in his person, essence, character, function and eternality from the God of the Bible.
Their definition of Christianity differs greatly from the biblical definition. Speaking before LDS members on May 6, 1998, in Atlanta, Georgia, Mormon President Gordon B. Hinckley said:
"We are Christians in terms of following the teachings, the example, and the revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ. And it doesn’t bother me a bit when people say we are not Christians, because they are looking at what they are saying in terms of a long tradition, whereas we speak from the depth of our hearts out of the words of modern revelation." 3
President Hinckley further stated that the LDS Church worships a different Jesus Christ from that of biblical Christianity:
These statements by the LDS Church's current Prophet shows clearly that the church has redefined Christianity according to its own perspective. President Hinckley makes it clear that the LDS Church believes in a different Jesus that has only been revealed to them in modern times and who is different from the Jesus that Christianity has believed in and worshiped for 2000 years. One can draw no other conclusion than the LDS Church believes in a different Jesus than that of the Bible. The name Christian since its inception has only applied to those who followed the biblical Jesus Christ and therefore the LDS Church has no legitimate reason to apply the name to themselves.
However, most Mormons sincerely see themselves as Christians who worship the God and Jesus Christ of the Bible and are greatly offended if told otherwise. Their church tells them they worship the God of the Bible and Jesus Christ of the Bible and accept what they are taught. In reality, a comparison of the LDS God with that of the Bible shows that the LDS Church worships a God that is completely different from the God of the Bible.
Since the early beginning of Mormonism, many books have been written denouncing its unbiblical teachings. Most of this literature addresses LDS beliefs and covers a wide variety of subjects beginning with the seven different accounts of Joseph Smith's supposed first vision to Brigham Young's "Adam-God theory." From its inception many writers have exposed errors in Mormon beliefs. In recent times, Sandra and Jerald Tanner have undoubtedly made the most significant contribution in researching the early beginnings of Mormonism, documenting its unbiblical teachings, beginnings, and "secrets" that the Church would rather not have publicized. 4 Their book Mormonism: Shadow or Reality 5 is the classic work for researchers in documenting LDS beliefs. Writers such as James White have dealt with the many differences between biblical Christianity and Mormonism and covered the wide range of LDS beliefs. The Counterfeit Gospel of Mormonism, 6 written in 1998 by a number of prominent writers, identifies problems with the Mormon doctrines of Scripture, God, Jesus Christ, and salvation. Other modern writers have written excellent works addressing the various aspects of LDS research. 7
However, in determining the biblical authenticity of Mormonism the central issue must first be to distinguish is how it defines God. Most writers only address this issue in the context of the host of other LDS teachings. This presents the need for a detailed work that identifies the person and attributes of their God.
Mormons emphatically proclaim their God as the God of the Bible. All its teachings hinge on the foundational belief that God is an exalted man of flesh and bone who became the God of the earth. In refuting Mormon teachings and showing that the LDS Church is not a Christian church, the focus must address a comparison of their doctrine of God with what the Bible actually teaches. This will settle any questions concerning the validity and authority of the LDS Church.
One problem encountered in this process is that the LDS Church has never produced a systematic theology of Mormonism. This makes it difficult to define its beliefs and leaves the researcher the task of sifting through voluminous pages of its material seeking statements made by its Prophets, Apostles, General Authorities, and other LDS writers addressing its specific beliefs.
It is not the purpose of this paper to write a systematic theology of Mormonism, but to address the theism of Mormonism in seeking to understand its concept of God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit and to compare its beliefs to the Bible. Even this is difficult because of the many confusing and often conflicting statements of LDS authorities. However, an attempt will be made to sort out and present the basic beliefs of the LDS Church in regards to how they define God.
To accurately define the teachings of the LDS church concerning the identity, character, and attributes of its God, this paper will cite:
It should be stated that Mormons often object to quoting past LDS writers and prophets in establishing the beliefs of the LDS Church. They explain that revelation given to their current Prophet supersedes any revelation of the past. Their objections are not surprising because the statements of their prophets expose Mormon beliefs they would rather keep hidden. Their explanation is that their prophets, general authorities, and teachers were giving their own ideas rather than official LDS doctrine. The problem with that defense is these LDS leaders were addressing and teaching the members of their church.
For example, prominent LDS theologian and BYU (Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah) Professor Steven Robinson uses this tactic in trying to explain the unbiblical statements of past LDS authorities concerning the conception of Christ. He says:
"While it is true that certain LDS leaders (mostly in the nineteenth century) have offered their opinions on the conception of Jesus, those opinions were never included among the official doctrines of the church and have, during my lifetime at least, not appeared in official church publications--lest they be taken as the view of the church." 8
Robinson also said: 9
"The only binding sources of doctrine for the Latter-day Saints are the Standard Works of the church. . . . The only official interpretations and applications of these doctrinal sources are those that come to the church over the signatures of the First Presidency or the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles (collectively). All the rest is commentary" [emphasis mine]. 10
This seems a weak explanation considering that most of the statements Robinson is discounting include those of their past prophets and general authorities. For example, Brigham Young and other LDS prophets preached these beliefs from the pulpit of the LDS Church as recorded in the Journal of Discourses. No LDS writer quotes Prophet Young's statements recorded in the Journal of Discourses with the explanation that these were merely his opinions. John A. Widstoe certainly does not think the sermons of Brigham Young were his own opinions and represents how Young's statements were understood by the LDS faithful of his day. He wrote in the Preface of his collection of Young’s sermons:
"The excerpts here presented came from his lips under the inspiration, at the moment, of the Power that guided his life. . . . These discourses are Brigham Young's witness to the existence of God, the divine mission of Jesus the Christ, the restoration of the Gospel in its fulness by Joseph Smith, the Prophet. . . . This volume is but another testimony that the Lord continues to speak through his prophets." 11
In his messages, Brigham Young does not say he is giving his own ideas, but rather speaks authoritatively as the head of the church. If Robinson’s explanation is accepted as valid, it would be natural to wonder how the inspired Prophet who was receiving revelation from God could be wrong about what he was teaching and why he would stand his church's pulpit and preach his opinions.
These past LDS prophets and teachers were teaching current and evolving LDS beliefs of their day. If their teachings were believed by those who were founding the LDS church, why are these teachings considered only opinions by the writers today and not LDS beliefs? One would also have to wonder if the Mormon people in the pew understood that these sermons were only the prophet's opinion and that they were under no obligation to accept them as Mormon doctrine. It appears that the reason the teachings of the earlier Mormon authorities are distasteful to the modern LDS Church is not because they were not believed in the LDS Church, but because they are so foreign to Christian theology which is based on the Bible. The unbiblical statements of its founders continue to embarrass and hinder the LDS Church from being accepted as a true Christian church and rightly so.
On a personal note the author of this paper knows from his research of official LDS publications and literature and his personal experience of living among the Mormons in Utah for more that twenty two years that the teachings of the LDS Church as this paper presents are the beliefs of most LDS people.This paper will present a comparison of the God of Mormonism with God as he has revealed Himself in the Bible. Of necessity, this work will employ the use of quotes more numerously than normally used in a work of this type. Fairness, in addressing the subject, dictates that in authenticating LDS teaching that its beliefs should be presented by its Church’s prophets, General Authorities and commentators.
CHAPTER ONE
GOD
God’s Existence According to Mormonism
God Began as an Intelligence
God, according to Mormonism, is an exalted man who became the God of Earth through the process called eternal progression. 12 This belief teaches that all people begin as primal intelligences, 13 then progress to becoming a spirit being, then to a physical (mortal) being, and then onward toward godhood and beyond.
STEPS IN ETERNAL PROGRESSION How the Earth Got its God According to Mormonism He Began As An Intelligence Somewhere in the Universe He Was Born as a Spirit Child in Heaven to Heavenly Parents He Was Born as a Mortal Man Born on Some Planet in the Universe He Died and Was Resurrected to the Celestial Heaven He Exists and Rules as Man-God of Flesh and Bones This God now Rules the Earth and Progresses Onward
(Eternal progression, currently being referred to as Eternal Salvation, is the process by which all members of the LDS church believe they too can become Gods and have their world to rule if they work hard enough and are worthy of godhood when they die.)
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Figure 1. Diagram showing Eternal Progression
Brigham Young explained the Mormon concept of how man began in a discourse given on January 16, 1853, in the Salt Lake City Tabernacle. Young said: The "Mormons" have a peculiar doctrine in regard to our pre-existence, different from the views of the Christian world, so called, who do not believe that man had a pre-existence.
Young taught that the Mormon concept of man’s beginning is different from that of Christianity. Man was an intelligence, existing from eternity past without a body, (tabernacle) when the universe was created. Therefore, according to Prophet Young, the Mormon God was once a mortal man existing in the universe after the creation.
Young further explained the nature of this pre-existing state: We learn from the writings of Abraham and others, and from modern revelation, that the intelligences that now inhabit these tabernacles of earth were living, active intelligences in yonder world, while the particles of matter which now compose our outward bodies were yet mingled with their native element; that then our embodied spirits lived, moved, conversed, and exercised an agency. 15
Have you any account of this in the Bible? Do the Scriptures declare that the spirit was formed at the time the tabernacle was made? No. . . . Now, where do you suppose all these tabernacles got their spirits?
. . . That spirit that now dwells within each man, and each woman, of this vast assembly of people, is more than a thousand years old, and I would venture to say, that it is more than five thousand years old. 14
These intelligences which are elected by God to later become men existed in another realm of the universe and were able to "converse and exercise agency," prior to earthly existence. Roberts explained:
The difference, then, between "spirits" and intelligences," as here used, is this: Spirits are uncreated intelligences inhabiting spiritual bodies; while "intelligences," pure and simple, are intelligent entities, but unembodied in either spirit bodies or bodies of flesh and bone. They are uncreated, self-existent entities; but let it be observed, in passing, that nothing is here said in relation to the form of these intelligent entities, nor anything as to their mode of existence. Indeed, so far as I know, nothing has been revealed in relation to their form or mode of existence; nothing beyond the fact of existence, their eternity and the qualities necessary to them as Intelligences. 16
Roberts says the intelligences are uncreated, self-existent, eternal entities. He seems to be describing a type of being with similar attributes to the God of the Bible and further says:
So that it could be said that there are four estates in which intelligences exist instead of three; namely; self-existent, uncreated and unbegotten intelligences, co-eternal with God; second, intelligences begotten of God spirits; third, spirits begotten, men and women, still sons and daughters of God; fourth, resurrected beings, immortal spirits inhabiting imperishable bodies, still sons and daughters of God, and in the line of eternal progression, up to the attainment of divine attributes and powers. 17
God Became a Spirit in Heaven
In the course of eternal progression, the Mormon God moved forward in his existence from an intelligence to becoming a spirit child in heaven. This former intelligence received a spiritual body and became a part of the heavenly family when born to his father and mother in heaven. Note how this LDS writer expresses this belief:
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints teaches that every person experiences a series of "births." All were born as spirit children of God in a pre-mortal life. Second, these individual spirit children received a mortal, physical body when they were born on earth. Third, those who accept and live the gospel of Jesus Christ go through a process of being born again in a spiritual sense. Although these births are real, they do not in any way constitute any type of reincarnation . . . In the Council in Heaven, God the Father offered his spirit children the opportunity to progress toward becoming like he is by leaving his presence and being born on earth in a mortal, physical body and learning to live by faith (Abr. 3:22-28). Mortal birth is the event by which one’s spirit body is temporarily joined with a mortal tabernacle begotten by earthly parents. 18
Through eternal progression, one of these intelligences that existed previously somewhere in the universe was chosen by a god of another planet to be born as his spirit child in heaven. Therefore, this spirit child’s father was a god and was conceived by his Father God and one of his wives in heaven. In order to produce spirit children in heaven God must be married.
The LDS Apostle George Cannon addresses God’s martial status saying:
The "Mormons" believe that God is the Father of our spirits-that we are His offspring; and we think it just as consistent and reasonable to believe that He has a partner or partners [emphasis mine] as to think that He sits, isolated and solitary in lonely grandeur, in a state of bachelorship, and yet a Parent of so innumerable a progeny. 19
This is an interesting revelation because it would mean that children are produced in heaven by the Father God and one of his wives in the same way human children are born. The ramifications of this teaching are staggering, considering that billions of people have been born on earth and the LDS people believe that each one was the result of the act of sexual intercourse by their Heavenly Father and one of his heavenly wives. Roberts reasoned that "If none but Gods will be permitted to multiply immortal children, it follows that each God must have one or more wives." 20 The question is not how many wives he has, but how could one man-god of flesh and bone be able to have sexual relations enough times to produce even the current world population of 6.1 billion people, let alone enough times to produce all the world's populations since its creation?
Yet the LDS Church doctrine of "Pre-existence" teaches that the God of Earth sexually produced spirit children in heaven who lived with him and their mother in a spiritual, heavenly family. LDS Prophet Joseph Fielding Smith addressed the pre-existence of man and stated:
Pre-existence is the term commonly used to describe the pre-mortal existence of the spirit children of God the Father. Speaking of this prior existence in a spirit sphere, the First Presidency of the Church (Joseph F. Smith, John R. Winder, and Anthon H. Lund) said: "All men and women are in the similitude of the universal Father and Mother, and are literally the sons and daughters of Deity"; [sic] as spirits they were the "offspring of celestial parentage." 21
Stephen Robinson, in the Encyclopedia of Mormonism expresses this teaching by stating:
While members of other Christian denominations may speak metaphorically of all humankind being brothers and sisters and children of God, Latter-day Saints believe it literally in the sense that a Father in heaven and a Mother in heaven created spirit children in a premortal existence. 22
One of the basic teachings of the Church is that spirit children of God are seeking to come to earth and obtain a physical body, to grow, and to be tested. In that process, adults should marry and provide human bodies for those spirit children who are in heaven waiting to come to the earth. For Latter-day Saints it is a blessing, a joy, and also an obligation to bear children and to raise a family in order to provide human bodies for their brothers and sisters in heaven. Mormon mother Donna Packer expressed this desire of LDS women in her testimony in the Tabernacle to the Latter-day Saint Student Association of the University of Utah March 4, 1970. She said, "Yes, I would choose to be a mother, a mother of spirit children of our Father in Heaven. I would fill my days with useful activities that would give life, spirit, and beauty to our home, realizing that my family's salvation depends to a great degree on my skills as a wife and a homemaker." 23 The late Thelma Geer, a former Mormon and author of Mormonism, Mamma and Me, 24 said that the Mormon Church was the only religion in the world trying to get people out of heaven to come to earth. 25
The LDS writers perfectly articulate this unique Mormon teaching that their God progressed from a premortal state as an intelligence to a spirit child born in heaven. He then existed as a man before he became God.
God Became a Man
The next step in eternal progression was that the Mormon God who existed as a spirit child of his Heavenly Father was born of earthly parents and received a physical body. The LDS God of the Earth was once a man exactly as men are today. Robinson explained, "Latter-day Saints perceive the Father as an exalted Man in the most literal, anthropomorphic terms. They do not view the language of Genesis as allegorical; human beings are created in the form and image of a God who has a physical form and image" (Gen. 1:26). 27 Joseph Smith proclaimed this doctrine in his famous statement at the funeral of Mormon church member King Follet:
God himself was once as we are now, and is an exalted man, and sits enthroned in yonder heavens! That is the great secret. If the veil were rent today, and the great God who holds this world in its orbit, and who upholds all worlds and all things by his power, was to make himself visible,—I say, if you were to see him today, you would see him like a man in form—like yourselves in all the person, image, and very form as a man; for Adam was created in the very fashion, image and likeness of God, and received instruction from, and walked, talked and conversed with him, as one man talks and communes with another. 27
The Mormon Encyclopedia states, "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, basing its belief on divine revelation, ancient and modern, proclaims man to be the direct and lineal offspring of Deity. God Himself is an exalted man, perfected, enthroned, and supreme." 28
The purpose of mortal life within the scheme of eternal progression is to test men to see if they will accept or reject the Mormon gospel.
One purpose of the heavenly council was to allow the spirits the opportunity to accept or reject the Father’s Plan of Salvation, which proposed that an earth be created whereon his spirit children could dwell, each in a physical body. Such a life would serve as a probationary state "to see if they [would] do all things whatsoever the Lord their God shall command them" (Abr. 3:25). The spirits of all mankind were free to accept or reject the Father’s plan but they were also responsible for their choice. 29
Apostle Bruce McConkie expresses the LDS doctrine this way: "These spirit offspring of Deity, endowed with agency and subject to law, had every opportunity to advance, progress, and gain the privilege of undergoing the probationary experiences of mortality." 30
The outcome of eternal progression is determined by how a man lives his life while in his human existence as a man. Brigham Young enlightened the LDS saints concerning this saying:
Every man will be rewarded according to the deeds done in the body. Those who have received pure and heavenly principles, and lived up to them, and kept the celestial law of God, will enjoy a celestial kingdom. Those who have not attained to this perfection, but can obey a terrestrial law, will receive a terrestrial glory, and enjoy a terrestrial kingdom, and so on. But I believe, furthermore, that there are eternal grades of progression, which will continue worlds without end, and to an infinity of enjoyment, expansion, glory, progression, and of everything calculated to ennoble and exalt mankind. 31
Bruce McConkie, the Mormon apostle, explained eternal progression this way:
Endowed with agency and subject to eternal laws, man began his progression and advancement in pre-existence, his ultimate goal being to attain a state of glory, honor, and exaltation like the Father of spirits. During his earth life he gains a mortal body, receives experience in earthly things, and prepares for a future eternity after the resurrection when he will continue to gain knowledge and intelligence. (D. & C. 130:18-19) This gradually unfolding course of advancement and experience--a course that began in a past eternity and will continue in ages future--is frequently referred to as a course of eternal progression. 32
Eternal progression 33 demands that the Mormon God is not at his final existence, but is at a present step moving toward become a greater being. Man must earn the right to eternal progression in order to receive exaltation and godhood. Stephen Robinson in the Encyclopedia of Mormonism says:
The Father desires that all human beings be exalted like himself, receive the powers and the joys that he possesses, and experience a fulness of joy in eternity. The limiting factor is the degree to which humans, by exercising their faith and obedience and by making wise choices, will permit the Father to bless them in achieving this goal. 34
Brigham Young explained that "when we have learned to live according to the full value of the life we now possess, we are prepared for further advancement in the scale of eternal progression—for a more glorious and exalted sphere." 35
In a later sermon, Young revealed that eternal progression was a continuous upward movement from one existence to another, "And when we have passed into the sphere where Joseph is, there is still another department, and then another, and another, and so on to an eternal progression in exaltation and eternal lives. That is the exaltation I am looking for." 36
Young was implying that Mormonism's founder, Joseph Smith, was in paradise waiting for the resurrection. 37 After the resurrection, he could progress to the celestial heaven and become a god and then to a greater god with the process continuing on into the future.
Mormons claim their God is immutable, 38 but LDS President Young in the above quotes certainly believed that God could and did change. This belief grows out of their concept that God was first an intelligence who was born to a father and mother god in heaven and received a spirit body. Afterwards, God was born on earth as a finite man who needed redemption and received a physical or mortal body; then, because he was worthy, he became a God in the celestial heaven after he was resurrected. Clearly this is not the scenario of an unchanging and eternal God. Even the term "exalted man" depicts a process of change. This shows the LDS Church is grossly misusing the word "immutable."
God Progressed to the Celestial Heaven
The Mormon concept of heaven is that it has three divisions in descending order: the celestial, terrestrial, and telestial. 39 The celestial heaven is the highest heaven and is created for those who live a moral life of good works and are faithful to the Mormon gospel. Within the celestial heaven, sometimes referred to as the celestial glory, are further divisions. To obtain the highest degree of the celestial heaven, the Mormon must be deemed worthy and perform his temple rites called the endowments or temple marriage. In the LDS temple marriage, the wife is sealed to her husband for all time and eternity which means the couple will live in heaven with their families throughout all eternity. Completing the temple marriage and going to the celestial heaven makes it possible for man to become a god; then, he can have his own world to populate and rule in the same way the Mormon man-god of the earth did. The LDS Scripture speaks of how those who receive the celestial glory obtained it saying, "Who received the testimony of Jesus, and believed on his name and were baptized after the manner of his burial,...and who overcome by faith, and are sealed by the Holy Spirit of promise, which the Father sheds forth upon all those who are just and true" (D&C 76:51-53).
To obtain the celestial glory, a couple must have a temple marriage referred to as the sealing ceremony or endowments. This marriage is referred to as for all time and eternity and means an eternal marriage. Joseph Fielding Smith gave this answer to the question about Mormon couples who are not married in the temple, "Unless young people who marry outside the temple speedily repent, they cut them-selves off from exaltation in the celestial kingdom of God. If they should prove themselves worthy, notwithstanding that great error, to enter into the celestial kingdom, they go in that kingdom as servants." 40
The unmistakable conclusion is that the LDS God as a mortal man was married and his marriage qualified him for being exalted to godhood. The Mormon Scriptures say:
In the celestial glory there are three heavens or degrees; and in order to obtain the highest, a man must enter into this order of the priesthood (meaning the new and everlasting covenant of marriage); and if he does not, he cannot obtain it. He may enter into the other, but that is the end of his kingdom; he cannot have an increase (D&C 131:1-3).
Further, the teaching is that the LDS God of earth earned his exaltation by the way he lived his life. Elder S. Dilworth Young in a speech at BYU stipulated the necessity of moral living as a criteria for exaltation to godhood. He said, "Sometimes I may think because I have certain authority or a certain priesthood, or a certain ceremony, that I am going to reach exaltation. These will not save me unless my conduct justifies exaltation." 41
The LDS God Became a God
After a faithful life of obeying the Mormon gospel on the earth and having performed the sealing ceremony in an LDS temple, Mormons believe that when they die and after they are resurrected they may be exalted in the celestial glory and there, if they are worthy, be made a god. LDS Apostle Orson Hyde commented on this teaching in his discourse given at the LDS Church’s General Conference in 1853. He said, "Remember that God, our heavenly Father, was perhaps once a child, and mortal like we ourselves, and rose step by step in the scale of progress, in the school of advancement; has moved forward and overcome, until He has arrived at the point where He now is." 42
Probably, the most famous statement in LDS literature concerning its teaching that a man can become a
God is found in Lorenzo Snow's poem, "Man’s Destiny":
As Abram, Isaac, Jacob, too,
First babies, then men to Gods they grew.
As man now is, our God once was;
As now God is, so man may be,
Which doth unfold man‘s destiny... 43
God According to the Bible
The Bible says that God is self-existing. God’s existence is not dependent on outside forces. This is the meaning of God’s statement about Himself in Exodus 3:14, "I am that I am." God was not created, but he was the Creator and called the eternal God, "Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God" (Psa. 90:2). The description "from everlasting to everlasting" means he is self-existing and does not exist because of some outside power. He is a power unto Himself.
The Bible teaches that God was always God and nowhere suggests that he is an exalted man who became a God. The Bible is emphatic in stating that he is eternal and that there are no other gods. 44
Man’s existence comes from God who is life and the giver of life. In contrast, man is God’s creation and exists because of God’s power (Gen. 1:26-27). God "breathed" life into man and he became a living soul (Gen. 2:7).
How one could ignore these clear, unambiguous, statements about God and assert that he was born a finite man and became a god is hard to understand.
God’s Essence
According to Mormonism
Mormon teaching states that God has a body of flesh and bone and is also a spirit. Although God is Spirit, LDS theology does not limit him from being material as well; therefore, God the Father is both a spirit and a material being. This doctrine denies that God is spirit alone.
Robinson states the orthodox Christian interpretation of John 4:24. Then he expresses the confusing current Mormon thought that this is not a definition of God, but rather how man sees God because God gives him the spirit. He says:
Actually John 4:24 should be translated "God is a Spirit," for there is no indefinite article (a, an) in the Greek language, and it is always a matter of subjective judgment as to when the translator should add one. The consensus among biblical scholars is that there should not be an indefinite article at John 4:24. C. H. Dodd insists that "to translate [John 4:24] ‘God is a Spirit’ is the most gross perversion of the meaning." According to Raymond E. Brown the passage at John 4:24 is not an essential definition of God, but a description of God’s dealing with men; it means that God is Spirit toward men because He gives the Spirit (xiv 16) which begets them anew. 45
This is another example of Mormonism’s peculiar way of redefining clear statements to fit the teachings of their Church. When God said that he is Spirit, that is what he means. Robinson’s explanation is that the verse is saying that God is spirit because he begets believers. This is interpretation is absolutely groundless. When God said He was a Spirit He was describing or explaining his essence.
God’s Essence
According to the Bible
The Westminster Catechism has been accepted by most Bible scholars as an accurate description of God as he is revealed in the Bible:
"God is a Spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable, in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth." This is a true definition; for it states that class of beings to which God is to be referred. He is a Spirit; and he is distinguished from all other spirits in that he is infinite, eternal, and unchangeable in his being and perfection. 46
The Bible says that God, as Spirit, is invisible. Deuteronomy 4:1-19 says that at Horeb, God appeared to Israel. The Lord reminded them that they did not see any form of God and only heard his voice. He commands them not to corrupt themselves by making any image of him. They were not to refer to him as either male or female, after the likeness of any animal, or after the sun, moon and stars. Isaiah 40:18 states the same truth, "To whom then will ye liken God? or what likeness will ye compare unto him?" John 1:18 says that "No man hath seen God." In Romans 1:20, Colossians 1:15, 1 Timothy 1:17, Paul refers to God as being invisible. 1 Timothy 6:16 says, "Who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see: to whom be honor and power everlasting. Amen." Thus, the Bible is clear in teaching that God is Spirit (John. 4:24), is invisible, and cannot be seen by material men.
The Bible does say, however, in some passages that God manifested himself to men. God appeared to men in material form to reveal his presence, and they did not see God in his true essence, but saw only a visual manifestation of God. John 1:32 says that Spirit can be manifested in visible form. Genesis 16:7-14 says the angel of the Lord appeared to Hagar. This is a "theophany" which means an appearance of God in visible form. For example, Exodus 3:1-2 states that the angel of the Lord appeared to Moses in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. Thus, the flame in the midst of the bush revealed God's presence, but not his true essence. The flame Moses saw did not represent what God looks like anymore than when God who is Spirit appeared as a man. God used these forms to appear to men in some visible form they could see.
The Bible says God is infinite. This refers to God in relation to space. God created the vastness of space of the universe; thus, God is greater than his Creation. The following passages present this truth:
But will God indeed dwell on the earth? behold, the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain thee; how much less this house that I have builded? (1 Kings. 8:27).
But who is able to build him an house, seeing the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain him? who am I then, that I should build him an house, save only to burn sacrifice before him? (2 Chorn. 2:6).
Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him? saith the LORD. Do not I fill heaven and earth? saith the LORD (Jer. 23:24).
Thus saith the LORD, The heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool: where is the house that ye build unto me? and where is the place of my rest? (Isa. 66:1).
The Bible emphatically states that the infinite God is not limited to space in a material universe. His omnipresence is declared without reservation. These passages cannot honestly be interpreted as allowing any credence to God existing as an exalted man limited in his presence, and having a body of flesh and bone.
God’s Eternality
According to Mormonism
Advancing forward into time through the process of eternal progression, the Mormon God is seen as eternal into the future as explained by Joseph Smith:
And again, verily I say unto you, if a man marry a wife by my word, which is my law, and by the new and everlasting covenant...by him who is anointed, unto whom I have appointed this power and the keys of this priesthood...they shall pass by the angels, and the gods, which are set there, to their exaltation and glory...which glory shall be a fulness [sic] and a continuation of the seed forever and ever. Then shall they be gods, because they have no end; therefore shall they be from everlasting to everlasting, because they continue; then shall they be above all, because all things are subject unto them. (D&C 132:19-20)
The Mormons see God’s eternality as extending backward to his premortal existence as one of the intelligences (see footnote 13). He was not eternally God, but began as an intelligence, progressed to a spirit child of his Heavenly Father, was born on another planet as a mortal infinite man, and afterwards was exalted to becoming the God of the Earth. Top proclaims, "Each person has existed eternally. Prior to spirit birth people existed as individual intelligences with unique characteristics and capacities, inherently able to be enlarged upon through agency." 47 Brewster quotes LDS Scripture to teach the second step in eternal progression, "Although Christ is the ‘Only Begotten of the Father’ in the flesh (D&C 20:21), every babe born into this world came from a previous existence where he had been spiritually begotten of Heavenly Parents. The inhabitants of this world are ‘begotten sons and daughters unto God’(D&C 76:24, Heb. 12.9)." 48
Logically, it would be impossible to honestly claim eternality for the LDS God in the same way it is applied to the God of the Bible. Daniel C. Peterson, FARMS 49 apologist, responded to this criticism, "The fact that God has always been God, or even that he is constant in character and moral resolve, does not entail that he is immutable or timeless." 50 This is a perplexing statement to one who is trying to understand the LDS God. In Peterson’s distorted view, timeless does not mean eternal and immutable does not mean unchanging. Words have meanings and redefining them to suit one’s unique perspective is not acceptable. Biblical Christians do not change word definitions but accept their normal meaning. God, as he has revealed himself in the Bible, is immutable and eternal.
God’s Eternality
According to the Bible
The Bible says in Genesis 21:33 that he is the "Eternal God." This means that God is not subject to time as material men are in a physical world. God created time when he made the heavens and the Earth (Gen. 1:1-2, Heb. 1:2, 11:3). Psalms 102:27 says, "Thou art the same, and thy years have no end." 51 God created time and space and exists beyond them, and he is not subject to either. The Psalmist said in Psalms 41:13, "Blessed be the LORD God of Israel from everlasting, and to everlasting. Amen, and Amen." The first everlasting uses the preposition "from," referring to the past; the second everlasting is prefaced by the preposition "to," which refers to looking into the future or eternity. The second use of the word clearly means without end in the future and the same inference would be applied to the first "everlasting" referring to a past eternality. The passage says God has always been God and precludes him from becoming God by the LDS conception of eternal progression.
The same term is used in Psalms 90:2 and the verse further states, God's existence was before the earth and the world was formed. "Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God" (also see Psa. 106:48).
The God of the Bible is eternal, having always been God. The Bible says that God is self-existing. Man's existence comes from God who is life and the giver of all life. Man exists because of God's power. God "breathed" life into man and he became a living soul. God's existence is not dependent on outside forces. This is the meaning of God's statement about Himself in Exodus 3:14, "I am that I am." He is self-existing and does not exist because of some outside power. He is a power unto Himself.
God’s Function
According to Mormonism
The LDS God's function is, through the process of eternal progression, to fulfill his duties as "Heavenly Father" in a familial role in heaven producing spirit children with his wives who become his heavenly family who then populate the earth.
His function is not only bring glory to himself, but give this same glory to his children who may progress to becoming gods themselves if they prove themselves worthy. 51a
It should be understood that the Mormon God's children are his literal children sexually produced in heaven by his relations with his many wives. It teaches that those of his children who achieve godhood will have spirit children who will worship and pray to them, just as biblical Christians worship and pray to God the Father. Prophet Joseph Fielding Smith said, "Our Father in heaven has from the beginning demanded of his children that they love and obey him. They are to worship him, and unto him they are to pray and give their devotion." 51b
Therefore, the Mormon God exists in order to help his progeny proceed along the road of eternal progression to godhood. His glory does not originate from himself, but comes from the previous God through whom he progressed and was exalted to godhood. Professors at Brigham Young University, the official school of the LDS Church, wrote the following on the work of the Mormon God:
This doctrine of the work of the Father and the Son being one, of glorifying themselves by bringing similar glory to others, is also taught in the Old Testament (Isaiah 53:12 52 ), the New Testament (Luke 22:29 53 ), and the Doctrine and Covenants (D&C 132:31). Thus all four of the LDS standard works teach this eternal principle. 54
The Mormon plan of salvation was formulated at the request of the council of Gods that existed before the creation of the earth. Although Mormons deny being polytheistic 55 , they believe that in the universe there exists innumerable gods. In the LDS creation account, recorded in The Pearl of Great Price, Abraham 4:1-31, it was a council of gods who created the earth. Brewster elaborated on the subject saying, "The Pearl of Great Price makes it very clear that a council of gods helped organize, or create, this earth (Abraham 4, 5). In this council, however, was ‘the Eternal God of all other gods,’ or the Father to whom we should give our obedience (D&C 121:32). In this respect, Joseph Smith declared: ‘I say there are Gods many and Lords many, but to us only one, and we are to be in subjection to that one’ (TPJS, 371)." 56 Clark also explained, "It was not a novice, not an amateur, not a Being making a first trial, that came down in the beginning, after the Great Council, with other Gods, and searched out and found the place where there was ‘space’ (for so the record tells us in Abraham) and taking of the materials which they found in this ‘space’ they made this world." 57
The function of the Mormon God is not of being sovereign in his role as God directing the affairs of earth. This is clearly shown in that it was this council of gods who asked two of the spirit children of the God of the earth to formulate a plan of salvation for the earth, and to whom Jesus and Lucifer presented their plans. Plainly, the Mormon plan of salvation was not authored by their Heavenly Father, but by his first born spirit son. It was this council of gods that accepted Jesus' plan and rejected Lucifer's plan. This indicates that the Mormon God of Earth in his function is subordinate to the council of gods.
God’s Function
According to Bible
God has revealed himself in Scripture as the Creator who sustains the universe through his own power. The New Testament says:
Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth 58 , visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: And he is before all things, and by him all things consist (Col. 1:15-17).
The Bible overwhelmingly proclaims that God is the Creator of the heavens and earth. In comparison, the Book of Mormon, also, presents God as creating the heavens and earth (see Mormon 9:10, 11, 15, 17, 18, 19; Jacob 2:5; Alma 30:44; Helaman 14:12). The Pearl of Great Price says, "And I, God, made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night, and the greater light was the sun, and the lesser light was the moon; and the stars also were made even according to my word" (Moses 2:16). Clearly, the Mormon Scriptures are saying that the LDS God created the universe in its entirely. Elder Anthony W. Ivins, speaking in the LDS General Conference of April 1917, said, "The foundation of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, as has been repeated at this conference, is laid in God the Father, his Son Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost. The Church recognizes God as the creator of the universe, and that he dominates, governs and controls the destiny of all nations" (emphasis mine). 59
This presents Mormonism with a serious problem in regard to their God as being the God of the Bible. Joseph Smith said, "God himself was once as we are now, and is an exalted man, and sits enthroned in yonder heavens! That is the great secret....I say, if you were to see him today, you would see him like a man in form-like yourselves in all the person, image, and very form as a man." 60 The question is simple. How could God be born a mortal man on a planet in the universe and through eternal progression be exalted to godhood and be the creator of the universe?
The Bible teaches, contrary to LDS belief, that God created the universe out of nothing "ex nihilo." 61 On the sixth day of creation God made the first man Adam, who became a living soul (Gen. 2:7). It does not say he had life in some pre-existence, but that Adam received life after God created him and breathed the breath of life into him and he became a living soul. Adam was the first living man and passed life on to his children and their descendants. 62
Mormons do not address the issue that because the LDS God is a material God of both flesh and bone and spirit, the world must have preceded him. This means their God cannot be the creator because the universe existed before he became a god.
God (in the Bible) implemented his plan of salvation which was conceived by him before the foundation of the universe. David proclaimed this truth and wrote; "For God is my King of old, working salvation in the midst of the earth" (Psa. 74:12). Isaiah announced, "Drop down, ye heavens, from above, and let the skies pour down righteousness: let the earth open, and let them bring forth salvation, and let righteousness spring up together; I the LORD have created it" (Isa. 45:8). Habakkuk declared, "Thou wentest forth for the salvation of thy people, even for salvation with thine anointed; thou woundedst the head out of the house of the wicked, by discovering the foundation unto the neck. Selah" (Hab. 3:13).
In the New Testament God says, "Men and brethren, children of the stock of Abraham, and whosoever among you feareth God, to you is the word of this salvation sent" (Acts 13:26). "For so hath the Lord commanded us, saying, I have set thee to be a light of the Gentiles, that thou shouldest be for salvation unto the ends of the earth" (Acts 16:47). 63
The Bible teaches that God is the Creator of the "heavens and earth," meaning all the universe including space, time, and matter. The Word of God says, "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth" (Gen. 1:1).
CHAPTER TWO
JESUS CHRIST
The Existence of Jesus Christ
According to Mormonism
According to Mormonism, Jesus Christ began as all men, as an intelligence somewhere out in the universe. He, through the process of eternal progression, was literally procreated as the first spirit son of the God of earth when he was exalted to godhood. Other children born to the God of earth and his wives were Lucifer and all the angels, including the one-third fallen angels, making Jesus their elder brother. After he was born as a spirit, he existed in heaven with his spirit family and God until he received a material body by being born of Mary, his earthly mother.
Mormon teaching is that Jesus was physically conceived by the Father through sexual relations with Mary. Mormons see functions of life of men on earth as reflecting what is going on in heaven. They conclude that it would be necessary for the Father God to have sexual relations with the mother of Jesus in order that he be conceived. Roberts said:
God, the father of our spirits, became the father of our Lord Jesus Christ according to the flesh. The fleshy body of Jesus required a mother as well as a father. Therefore, the father and mother of Jesus according to the flesh must have been associated together in the capacity of husband and wife; hence the Virgin Mary must have been for the time being, the lawful wife of God the Father. 64
Mormon authority Bruce McConkie states:
God the Father is a perfected, glorified, holy Man, an immortal Personage. And Christ was born into the world as the literal Son of this Holy Being; he was born in the same personal, real, and literal sense that any mortal son is born to a mortal father. There is nothing figurative about his paternity; he was begotten, conceived and born in the normal and natural course of events, for he is the Son of God, and that designation means what it says. 65
McConkie, therefore, teaches "Christ is the only begotten of the Father," "Only Begotten Son," and "Only Begotten of the Father," explained, "These name-titles all signify that our Lord is the only Son of the Father in the flesh. Each of the words is to be understood literally. Only means only; Begotten means begotten; and Son means son. Christ was begotten by an Immortal Father in the same way that mortal men are begotten by mortal fathers." 66
However, the late President of the LDS Church, Ezra Taft Benson explained in 1988 the current Mormon understanding of the conception of Jesus Christ; Mary was a virgin both before and after she gave birth:
He was the Only Begotten Son of our Heavenly Father in the flesh-the only child whose mortal body was begotten by our Heavenly Father. His mortal mother, Mary, was called a virgin, both before and after she gave birth. 67
This is confusing because it is clearly contradictory to state that God the Father was the natural father of Jesus and then to state that Mary remained a virgin. The Bible is not saying that the Holy Spirit was the father of Jesus Christ, but that he was the agent by which Mary conceived. Understanding this truth does not contradict the clear statements in Scripture that Jesus was the only begotten of the Father.
Mormons define the statement that Christ was the "only begotten Son of God" by saying that Jesus was the only son that the LDS God physically produced by a mortal woman. The Mormon God has millions of children; in fact, all the people born or to be born on the earth are his children who were first born as spirit children in heaven. However, mortal men are born on earth through physical relations with mortal women and not by the direct agency of God. Thus, the teaching that all men on earth are the children of God means they are God’s children by being born first in heaven. God gave them spirit bodies and their human parents gave them material bodies.
According to Mormonism this was not Jesus’ first birth. Jesus began as all men do as one of the intelligences and was born as a spirit in heaven to his heavenly father and mother. This is why Mormons refer to Jesus Christ as their elder brother, because all spirit children of the Heavenly Father are brothers and sisters. Roberts commented on this saying:
We read in modern revelation that Jesus Christ was and is our elder brother, the "Firstborn" unto the Father. We accept, as Latter-day Saints, the teachings of the prophets to the effect that Jesus of Nazareth was the Only Begotten Son of the Eternal Father in the flesh; therefore, the revelation I referred to points back to a previous birth, a birth in the spirit world. . . . During his pre-mortal life Jesus Christ rose to the status of Godhood. At that time he was foreordained to be the Savior of this world. Father Abraham was privileged to see in vision the grand council in heaven that was held prior to the peopling of this earth, and he saw, as the Lord showed him, "many of the noble and great ones." 68
Therefore, Jesus’ existence began first as one of the intelligences; next he became the firstborn spirit child of the Mormon God; and then, he achieved his earthly existence by being born to Mary.
The Existence of Jesus Christ
According to the Bible
The Bible declares that "the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth" (John 1:14). Chafer explains, "That in becoming flesh the Word did not cease to be what He was before entering upon this new sphere of experiences, the evangelist does not leave, however, to mere suggestion. The glory of the Word was so far from quenched, in this view, by His becoming flesh, that he gives us at once to understand that it was rather as ‘trailing clouds of glorify’ that He came." 69
Joseph, who was betrothed to Mary, learned that she was with child before the marriage was consummated. God sent his angel to him explaining the circumstances of Mary's pregnancy:
But while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins. Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us (Matthew 1:20-23).
God sent an angel to Mary and explained to her that the Holy Spirit would overshadow her; she would conceive a child and he would be the Son of God. The New Testament makes it clear, there can be no mistake, that the child that Mary would conceive was of the Holy Ghost. Luke 1:35 says, "Then said Mary unto the angel, How shall this be, seeing I know not a man? And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God."
Mary's response at being told she would have a child is important. She asked how she could have a child having not known a man. Mary was stating the fact of her virginity and confirming that Christ was conceived by a special miracle of God by the Holy Spirit. The word overshadow means to throw a shadow upon or to envelop in a shadow. It is not a word used to describe a sexual act. The idea that God was married or had sexual relations with Mary is totally foreign to the Word of God. The Virgin Birth of Jesus Christ was prophesied in the Old Testament, stating that a virgin would conceive and bring forth a son. "Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel" (Isa. 7:14). If Mary conceived Jesus through intercourse, the verse would make no sense. The sentence is making the point that a virgin conceived without physical intercourse. Mary was a virgin when Jesus was conceived.
The Bible says nothing of Jesus being born in heaven as a spirit child to God the Father. The teaching of the Bible is that Jesus Christ is God and is eternal, as is the Father. Strong says:
John 1:1 states, ‘In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.’ This is the Greek phrase qeos hn o logos.
The absence of the article shows qeos to be the predicate. This predicate precedes the verb by way of emphasis, to indicate progress in the thought = ‘the Logos was not only with God’. . . ‘Only o logos can be the subject, for in the whole Introduction [sic] the question is, not who is God, but who the Logos is. 70
Cook states this biblical truth by saying, "Not only was the Word in existence already at the beginning, and not only was He a personal being in fellowship with God, but He Himself was God." 71 Therefore, the statement in John 1:1 can only be grammatically understood that Jesus Christ is God eternal. He did not begin as an intelligence and was not born to heavenly parents who where once mortals that became gods. The Jesus of Mormonism is a different Jesus than that of the Bible.
Robinson admits that there are some things that the Mormons believe about Jesus that cannot be proven from the Bible. He dismisses these differences by saying, "If some Christians think Jesus had siblings and other Christians think that he did not, or if some think he stayed in Egypt for years while others think it was merely for weeks of months, do they worship different beings?" 72 Robinson concludes, the differences in LDS beliefs about Christ and biblical Christianity do not mean Mormons worship another Jesus. He says we should apply this same logic to explain the insurmountable differences between the Jesus of Mormonism and the Jesus of the Bible. 73 This is a good example of the weak and faulty arguments Mormons use to defend themselves when they are told they are not Christians. 74 Christians not agreeing on the interpretation of several passages of Scripture is an entirely different matter from disagreeing over whether Jesus was born a spirit child to exalted heavenly parents, or Jesus being the brother of Lucifer, or whether he is our eternal infinite God as the Bible says. Robinson acknowledges that the Bible does not teach the LDS concept of Jesus Christ. 75 Rather than accept what the Scriptures profoundly teach, it is difficult to rationalize, that the Mormons continue to believe in a completely different Jesus, call themselves Christians, claim they worship the Jesus of the Bible, and become offended when the differences are pointed out.
The Essence of Jesus Christ
According to Mormonism
Jesus Christ of the Mormons is an exalted man. His essence is like the Heavenly Father in that he is both a spirit and material being. The Mormon Jesus existed in several states. As stated earlier, he began as one of the intelligences existing without spiritual or material form. Through external progression, he then received a spiritual body being born to his father and mother god. Elder George Albert Smith said in the LDS General Conference of October 1926, "It was necessary for his Son Jesus Christ to be born into the world in order that he, too, might have a tabernacle like unto the one that his Father has." 76 Therefore, Jesus progressed and became a material man being born a second time to his earthly mother Mary. After his death and resurrection, Jesus possessed a body of flesh and bone (physical) and a spiritual tabernacle.
The Essence of Jesus Christ
According to the Bible
Jesus Christ is God incarnate, the Second Person of the Trinity. He is wholly God and wholly man. Byrum explains the essence of Jesus Christ saying,
The constituent elements in the person of Christ as he is described in the Scriptures are three. (1) He was truly human. So he was known to his apostles and disciples prior to his crucifixion. He had a physical human body, essentially the same as have other men. He was born into the world as a human being, his body grew to maturity, suffered pain and weariness, and later died as other bodies die. He possessed not only a human body, but also a human spirit—a complete human nature. He is said to have "increased in wisdom," which can properly be affirmed only on the ground that he possessed a finite human spirit. (2). Also in addition to a complete human nature, he possessed a complete divine nature. He was truly God. The divine nature in its preexistent form before the incarnation was a person. (3) Yet Christ was one person, not two, though he possessed a complete human and a complete divine nature. This is the doctrine of the person of Christ as revealed in the Scriptures, and as has been commonly held by Christians. 77
The New Testament clearly presents Jesus as God incarnate in man. 78 His miracles demonstrated that he was God as Nicodemus the Pharisee acknowledged (John. 3:2). Before his resurrection, not only did Jesus perform miracles, he also forgave sins which only God could do (Matt. 9:2-5; Mark. 2:5-9; Luke 5:23). After Jesus was resurrected, he appeared at the tomb to Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and the other women (Matt. 24:10), to the men on the Emmaus road, and then to his disciples (Matt. 24:13-43). Later, Jesus appeared a second time to the disciples and spoke to Thomas, and then he appeared to Peter (John. 20:26-28, 21:3-14). The disciples at first were terrified at seeing Jesus because they knew he had died. To calm their fears Jesus ate fish with them, proving himself to have a material body. The men of the Emmaus road talked with him as they walked toward home and invited him to have a meal and spend the night. They did not seem to notice anything unusual in the outward appearance of the Lord. The disciples clearly recognized him and could see the scars in his hands. When he appeared to Peter at Galilee, Jesus prepared fish and again ate a meal (John. 21:4-13).
These accounts demonstrate that Jesus had a material body; however, he was also spirit and was not subject to material limitations. John 20:19 says that Jesus appeared in the midst of the disciples who were gathered in a room with locked doors. Jesus did not enter the room by the doors, but materialized in their midst. This shows us that Jesus’ resurrected body was also spiritual in nature and was not confined to the material limitations of a totally physical body. John said in his first epistle, "Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is" (1 John. 3:2). Therefore, at the Rapture, believers will also receive a resurrected or glorified body the same as the Lord Jesus Christ. The Bible shows the Lord Jesus Christ presently sitting or standing by the throne of God. 79
The Eternality of Jesus Christ
According to Mormonism
Jesus Christ was the firstborn son of the God of the Earth. He pre-existed first as an intelligence, later received a spirit body when he was born as the firstborn son and spirit child of the LDS God. 80 He received a physical body by being born on earth as the only human child directly conceived through the actions of God the Father. The Mormon Encyclopedia says, "For Latter-day Saints, the paternity of Jesus is not obscure. He was the literal, biological son of an immortal, tangible Father and Mary, a mortal woman." 81 Jesus is the only person born who deserves the title "the Only Begotten Son of God." However, Jesus was not eternally God even as the Mormon Father God was not God eternally, but is eternal only in the sense of existing in eternity past as an intelligence.
The Eternality of Jesus Christ
According to the Bible
The Bible tells us that Jesus only began his earthly existence on earth as a man when he was born in Bethlehem, but he has the same eternality as God the Father. William Stevens explains:
Jesus pre-existed in heaven before his descent to earth in the form of man. His birth in Bethlehem was not his beginning; it was merely his advent into flesh. There was no time in the dim recesses of eternity past that he did not exist. . . . It [New Testament] states that he was in the "form of God," but he did not look upon this as something "to be grasped." Instead, he emptied himself" of this divine and heavenly glory (Phil. 2:5-7). These terms discount a merely ideal pre-existence. They speak of a real personal being. 82
Jesus’ pre-existence was as eternal God the Second member of the Trinity. According to the Bible, he did not progress to becoming a god as Mormonism asserts. 83 Both the Old and New Testaments proclaim the eternality of Jesus Christ, "But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting" (Micah. 5:2). 84
God certainly instructs in these passages that Jesus Christ is eternally God. Nowhere in the Word of God is there given any latitude to the Mormon idea that Jesus began as an intelligence, was born a spirit child in heaven and through eternal progression became a God.
The Function of Jesus Christ
According to Mormonism
Jesus Christ formulated the earth's plan of salvation at the request of the council of gods that rule the universe. As stated earlier, the plan was not that of the Heavenly Father, but Jesus’ plan was submitted to the council of gods who approved it and by whose authority it was implemented on earth.
Mormons state that it was through the shed blood of Jesus Christ that atonement was accomplished for mankind. According to Mormonism, the atoning blood of Jesus was shed in the Garden of Gethsemane and on the cross. Chessman explains it this way:
He [Jesus] suffered spiritual agony and spiritual death in the Garden of Gethsemane, and shed his blood, which dropped like sweat, on our behalf. He suffered physical death on the cross in our behalf. By suffering these two deaths, he paid the debt legally and completely. He atoned for Adam's transgressions unconditionally for all men; and he atoned for our sins on conditions of our repentance. 85
They quote Luke 22:44 as their proof text for their doctrine. "And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground." Even a casual reading of the passages reveals that Jesus was agonizing over the terrible pain of the sacrifice he would be experiencing in only a few hours. In the garden, he was agonized over his coming suffering on the cross, not suffering the pain of bearing the sins of the world. Even the passage itself uses the phrase "as it were" meaning his sweat was "like" great drops of blood. The phrase "as it were" modifies the words "his sweat was . . . great drops of blood." If Jesus sweated great drops of blood a simple straightforward statement would have communicated that fact. However, inserting the statement "as it were" changes the meaning and says it was only "like" great drops of blood. Nothing in the wording of the verse suggests that any blood was actually shed in the garden. What did happen, as the verse says, was that Christ, under the intense emotional stress, knowing what he would soon endure, perspired so profusely that it was "like" great drops of blood.
Mormonism teaches a universal salvation of all mankind in addition to a grace plus works redemption. Prophet Joseph Fielding Smith stated:
The atonement of our Savior is twofold in its benefits to mankind through the shedding of his blood. First, all mankind are redeemed from death and will receive the resurrection. This is the free gift of God. Second, it gives to all those who will repent of all their sins, redemption from their sins if they will accept and obey his gospel and endure to the end. 87
The concept that all men are redeemed from death and will receive resurrection is based on the idea that there is no literal eternal Lake of Fire reserved for those who reject salvation. Mormons believe that the faithful of the LDS Church after death will go to Paradise to await the resurrection. However, when a man dies who is not a member of the LDS Church, he goes to a place of darkness called the spirit prison 88 or sometimes called hell. There he remains until he is judged after the resurrection. Jesus’ shed blood and death only ensured that all men will be resurrected. After a man’s resurrection, based on his works, he is assigned to go to one of three heavens. The telestial heaven is a place reserved for all gross sinners such as murderers and those who commit heinous crimes. The second heaven, the terrestrial heaven, will be the abode of people who lived moral lives, but were not members of the LDS Church. The highest heaven or glory, as it is often referred to, is the celestial heaven were the LDS faithful go. The celestial heaven has degrees with the highest degree being reserved for the worthy Mormons, who by their faithfulness and good works are rewarded by becoming Gods with eternal life.
Thus, Jesus’ sacrifice was only sufficient to assure one’s resurrection, but where one exists after death depends on the good or bad deeds done while on earth in the temporary human state.
Another unique teaching of Mormonism is that Jesus came to the Americas after his resurrection and prior to his return to heaven. Matthews explains:
In addition to the Bible we now have the Book of Mormon, which tells of Jesus' personal ministry as a resurrected, glorified being among the ancient Nephites in America a few months after his ascension from among the Jews. It also reveals that Jesus said he was personally going to visit the ten lost tribes of Israel after he left the Nephites. We do not have the actual record of that event yet, but we will have it when the Lord sees fit. 89
The Book of Mormon records that while in the Americas Jesus taught the Nephites and the Lamanites 90 , blessed them, and instituted the sacrament among them as a remembrance of the body which he had shown them (3 Nephi 11:28-30; 3 Nephi. 18:1-11; see also 3 Nephi 11:22, 27:3).
The Function of Jesus Christ
According to the Bible
Jesus Christ is our eternal God, the Redeemer, and the Scriptures proclaim that he was the Redeemer of the world before the foundations of the world were laid (Rev. 13:8). The New Testament states emphatically that the atoning work of Jesus Christ was accomplished on that old rugged cross. Walvood says:
The only point of view which completely satisfies Scriptures bearing on the death of Christ is the substitutional or penal concept of the atonement as embodied in numerous passages unfolding the doctrines of redemption, propitiation, and reconciliation. Christ in His death fully satisfied the demands of a righteous God for judgment upon sinners and as their infinite sacrifice provided a ground not only for the believer's forgiveness, but for his justification and sanctification. . . . The substitutionary character of the death of Christ is further borne out in great doctrines which describe the substance of His work upon the cross such as justification, redemption, propitiation, and reconciliation. An examination of the Scriptural revelation concerning these doctrines will further substantiate the concept of substitutional atonement. 91
The Bible says Christ's substitutionary work in dying for the sins of the world was done on the cross. Gethsemane is only mentioned twice in the Gospels (Matt. 26:36, Mark. 14:32), stating the place where Jesus went to pray with his disciples. Never does the Bible make any reference to Gethsemane in regard to Christ's redemptive sacrifice for sin.
Another element of function in relation to the cross is that Christ intercedes before the Father for believers. Chafer explains:
God justifies rather than charges with sin; and condemnation has been laid upon Another, who died, who is risen, who is at the right hand of God for us, and who also maketh intercession for us (Rom 8:33–34). This chapter of Romans {Rom 8} which begins with "no condemnation" ends with "no separation"; but such complete forgiveness is possible only on the ground of Christ’s work in bearing sin and in releasing His merit to those who are saved through His mediation and are in Him. 92
The Book of Hebrews explains that an important work of Christ related to his intercession is his work as High Priest. 93 Christ was appointed by God the Father as the High Priest, which is unlike modern pseudo-priests who get their authority from hierarchal churches (Heb. 5:4-10). Walvood explains, "Christ in His person and order as a priest fulfilled that which was anticipated by Melchizedek. The supremacy of Christ’s priesthood is supported by its principal characteristics, namely, that it is eternal, untransmissible, and based on supernatural resurrection." 94 As Walvood states, Christ’s priesthood was untransmissible. Stating that his priesthood was after the order of Melchizedek (Psa. 110:4) denotes that it was after the type or symbol of Melchizedek who was a king-priest as Genesis 4:18 records. The position and work of a priest that Jesus performs is unique only to him. As the only Redeemer, Savior, and King, Christ alone fulfills the office as pictured by the King of Salem. Never in the Bible is there a Melchizedek priesthood established and referred to as being held by men as the LDS Church teaches. 95
CHAPTER THREE
THE HOLY SPIRIT
The Existence of the Holy Spirit
According to Mormonism
The Mormons make a distinction between the Holy Ghost and the Holy Spirit, thus making their concept of him confusing. To try and understand their teaching, statements concerning the Godhead must first be examined. Joseph Fielding Smith, the tenth LDS prophet, speaking of the godhead said:
I have always declared God to be a distinct personage, Jesus Christ a separate and distinct personage from God the Father, and the Holy Ghost was [sic] a distinct personage and a Spirit: and these constitute three distinct personages and three Gods. If this is in accordance with the New Testament, lo and behold! we have three Gods anyhow, and they are plural, and who can contradict it? 96
Smith is stating that the godhead is three separate personages or three different Gods. The first Article of Faith of the LDS Church states, "We believe in God, the Eternal Father, and in his Son, Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost." Modern Mormon theologian Robinson confirms that the threeness of God is quite literally an article of faith for the LDS Church. He goes on to say that in the Book of Mormon, 2 Nephi 31:21 states, "And now, behold, this is the doctrine of Christ, and the only and true doctrine of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, which is one God without end. Amen." 97 He states that the LDS Church has believed in the oneness and the threeness of God since its beginnings. However, he makes the distinction that "we believe that the oneness of these three is not an ontological oneness of being (this is a creedal rather than a biblical affirmation), but one of mind, purpose, power and intent. . . . What is not said in the Bible, is said at Nicaea and is rejected by Mormons, is that these three persons are ontologically one being." 98 Clearly, Robinson is making the point that Mormons are not biblical Trinitiarians and see the Holy Spirit as a separate God, as is God the Father, and the Son.
LDS prophet Joseph Fielding Smith taught the Mormon concept of the Holy Spirit teaching:
The Holy Ghost is the third member of the Godhead. He is a Spirit, in the form of a man. The Father and the Son are personages of tabernacle; they have bodies of flesh and bones. The Holy Ghost is a personage of Spirit, and has a spirit body only. As a Spirit personage, the Holy Ghost has size and dimensions. He does not fill the immensity of space, and cannot be everywhere present in person at the same time. . . . President Joseph F. Smith has expressed it thus: "The Holy Ghost as a personage of Spirit can no more be omnipresent in person than can the Father or the Son, but by his intelligence, his knowledge, his power and influence, over and through the laws of nature, he is and can be omnipresent throughout all the works of God.". . . The Holy Ghost should not be confused with the Spirit, which fills the immensity of space and which is everywhere present. This other Spirit is impersonal and has no size, nor dimension; it proceeds forth from the presence of the Father and the Son and is in all things. 99
From Prophet Smith’s statements, several important distinctions can be made as to his understanding of the identity of the Holy Ghost. He is a spirit in the form of a man. This can be understood in the LDS teaching that the Holy Ghost is like the spirit children of God in heaven who have spirit bodies. The LDS God’s spirit children’s bodies appear human in form, but are not physical. Smith makes the distinction that only the Holy Ghost has a spirit body and is not like God the Father and Jesus who have bodies of flesh and bone, meaning he was never born on earth. This means that the Holy Ghost was born a spirit child of the Heavenly Father. Further, the LDS concept is that the Holy Ghost is limited, due to being in a spirit body, and "does not fill the immensity of space and cannot be everywhere present in person at the same time." The Mormons believe there is another being they called the "Spirit" which is not the Holy Ghost and is omnipresent. In Mormon thinking, the Spirit is akin to a power or force that is manifested from God and is everywhere in the universe.
Widtsoe notes the difference between the Holy Ghost and the Holy Spirit in LDS theology by comparing the Holy Spirit to a force like radio waves:
The chief agent or agency by which the Holy Ghost accomplishes his work, is usually spoken of as the Holy Spirit or the Spirit of God. It is a universe-filling medium, or influence, by which divine messages may be transmitted to man, and man's desires carried to the powers of heaven. It may be comprehended, to a limited degree, in our day, by recent discoveries and inventions. Any one of us may send messages by wireless or telegraph to persons far distant, or actually speak with them over the telephone. By radio devices, far distant objects may be controlled and directed in their movements, in the air or on land or sea. 100
The Holy Spirit, then, is the medium by which God is able to exert his influence. This confusing teaching is explained by understanding the LDS concept that the Holy Ghost is a spirit person in a spirit body and this limits him, so that he cannot be omnipresent. The Holy Spirit (or Spirit) is not so limited, being only a force without a body. LDS Apostle Parley Pratt described the Spirit as "a divine substance or fluid, called the Holy Spirit." 101
The Existence of the Holy Spirit
According to the Bible
In the Bible, the names Holy Spirit and Holy Ghost mean the same person. It is somewhat confusing that the King James translators of the New Testament used two words for translating the name of the Holy Spirit. The Greek word pneuma is translated eight times "Holy Spirit" and eighty-four times "Holy Ghost." In the New Testament, 138 times the Holy Spirit is referred to as "Spirit." 102
In every case, the word Ghost and Spirit in the New Testament are translated from the Greek word pneuma. John 7:39 reads, "But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified." Both the words Ghost and Spirit in the verse are the Greek word pneuma. In 1 Corinthians 3:16 the Bible says, "Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit [pneuma] of God dwelleth in you?" In 1 Corinthians 6:19, "What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost [pneuma] which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?" It is obvious that the Holy Ghost and the Holy Spirit are one and the same. All modern English versions of the Bible use the word Spirit exclusively. 103
The LDS concept of making the Holy Ghost and Spirit two distinct beings is not found in the Bible. It seems that Mormonism’s founder, Joseph Smith, made the mistake of following the King James translators’ use of both Spirit and Ghost for the name of the Holy Spirit and formulated his erroneous teaching.
The Holy Spirit is the third person of the Godhead and is not a separate God. Chafer states:
The Holy Spirit is a rightful and equal member of the Godhead Three. In that sense which is true of the Father and the Son, the Holy Spirit is a Person. . . . These Persons are not three separate and independent Beings; rather, the thought of personal identity marks an indefinable distinction in the Godhead—indefinable because it is not fully defined by God in His Word. 0
According to the Bible, the Holy Spirit is the third person of the Godhead and is infinite in his existence. As God, he was not created but has always existed without beginning or end. Chafer explains, "The Bible is neither polytheistic-gods many-, not tritheistic-gods three-, nor Unitarian-one god who exercises his interests and powers in various ways." 105
The Essence of the Holy Spirit
According to Mormonism
The essence of the Holy Ghost to Mormons is that he is both a spirit entity and a spirit man. LDS authority Bruce McConkie wrote, "The Father and the Son have tangible bodies of flesh and bones, while ‘the Holy Ghost has not a body of flesh and bones, but is a personage of Spirit.’ That is, he is a spirit person, a spirit entity, a spirit man." 106 McConkie’s statement is understood when it is taken into consideration that a spirit personage is one that was born in heaven to God as a spirit child. Further, all God’s spirit children are considered to be Gods. McConkie is not saying the Holy Spirit is God the third person of the Trinity.
BYU professor and LDS apologist Steven Robinson affirms the Mormon position as to who is the Holy Ghost: "Moreover, for the Latter-day Saints God most certainly is a spirit when manifest in the person of the Holy Ghost- ‘the Holy Ghost has not a body of flesh and bones, but is a personage of Spirit’" (D&C 130:22). 107 Robinson concludes that God is Spirit only when he is manifested as the Holy Ghost who is a spirit child of God the Father. In counter distinction to the Holy Ghost, the Spirit is a different entity and seems to be best described as the force of God.
Another element of the LDS belief taught by Founder Joseph Smith is that "the Holy Ghost is yet a spiritual body and waiting to take to himself a body, as the Savior did or as God did or the gods before them took bodies." 108 Thus, according to Joseph Smith, Mormonism’s inspired prophet, the Holy Ghost is waiting to take a physical body which means he would have to be born on earth to human parents. The teaching is consistent with the LDS concept of eternal progression and would conclude that the Holy Ghost is progressing toward exaltation and a higher existence.
The Essence of the Holy Spirit
According to the Bible
No reference in the Bible presents the concept that the essence of the Holy Spirit has a spirit form in the image of a human body. God the Holy Spirit, as God, exists in the realm of the spiritual or immaterial existence. He, as God, is spirit, just as his name identifies him and is omnipresent (Psa. 139:7), omnipotent (Job 33:4), and omniscient (1 Cor. 2:11-2). The problem some have in understanding how the Holy Spirit manifests himself is when finite men try to visualize God in human terms. God’s true essence can only be generally understood or conceived by mortal man.
The only passage in the Bible which hints at describing the Spirit says, "The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit" (John. 3:8). In other words one cannot describe the Holy Spirit because he is invisible, but can know his presence by how he affects the things one can see. The process of describing anything is always done by making reference to things that are known and comparing them to the things which are being described. This identifies the problem with trying to describe God as spirit, because there is nothing in the material world with which to compare him. All we know about the Spirit is what is revealed in the Bible, which gives no graphic description other than that he is spirit.
Ryrie explains this by defining the Greek word used for the name Holy Spirit, "The Greek word for spirit is pneuma (from which we derive English words that have to do with air, like ‘pneumatic’ and ‘pneumonia’) and it is a neuter gender word." 109 The Holy Spirit is compared to air: the sense is that being spirit, he is invisible.
The Spirit of God is not a force emanating from God, but in the Bible is always referred to as the third person of the Godhead. Cloud explains:
The Holy Spirit is not merely an influence. He is also not merely the Lord's spirit in the same sense that man's spirit is. Man's spirit is never said to be a separate person in itself. The Holy Spirit, though, is a Person of the Godhead. The Father is God; the Son is God; the Holy Spirit is God. The three divine persons are one God. 110
The Eternality of the Holy Spirit
According to Mormonism
LDS Apostle McConkie stated, "As a member of the Eternal Godhead, the Holy Ghost is an eternal being. As a gift from Deity to man, the gift of the Holy Ghost has been available everlastingly." 111 This appears to be an orthodox statement as to the eternality of the Holy Spirit; however, the LDS teaching is far from that of the Bible.
The Mormon concept of the eternality of the Holy Spirit is the same as earlier stated in regard to God the Father and Jesus Christ. Eternality according to LDS thought is that it extends back in time to their pre-existence as intelligences. The Holy Spirit has not been eternally the Holy Spirit, but first was an intelligence who became a spirit child of the LDS God in heaven.
The Eternality of the Holy Spirit
According to the Bible
God the Holy Spirit is eternal and has no beginning or end in the same way that God the Father and Son are not created beings, but eternal and infinite God. Hebrews 9:14, states, ". . . Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot unto God." Chafer says that in this one verse of "twelve words all three Persons of the Godhead are named. . . . The term ‘eternal,’ which with a propriety can also be assigned to God the Father or God the Son, is here assigned to the Holy Spirit. Since of God alone this attribute may be predicated, the Spirit is to be understood as God." 112 Thus, the Holy Spirit, as God, is eternal.
The Function of the Holy Spirit
According to Mormonism
The Mormon teaching as to the ministry of the Holy Ghost has similarities to the teachings of the Bible. Bruce McConkie explains the LDS understanding of the ministry of the Holy Ghost:
The Holy Ghost is God's minister; he is appointed to teach and testify, to bear witness of the Father and the Son and to reveal all needful things to men. As the Testator, he bequeaths salvation, through an eternal testament, to the heirs of God. The Holy Ghost is a Revelator. Almost always the first great revelation received by any person is a testimony of the truth and divinity of the Lord's work on earth. 113
According to Joseph Fielding Smith, there is nothing more important in the life of a Mormon than receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost. 114 In Mormonism the gift of the Holy Ghost is received by faithfulness to the Mormon Gospel, baptism, and the laying on of hands. 115 The Holy Ghost is limited in a spirit body and is not omnipresent and because of this he cannot indwell a believer as the Bible teaches. This function is carried out by the Holy Spirit. Joseph Fielding Smith said, "When it becomes necessary to speak to us, he [the Holy Ghost] is able to do so by acting through the other Spirit, that is, through the Light of Christ." 116 It is the Spirit that empowers the LDS faithful in a similar way that the Holy Spirit administered in the Old Testament dispensation. 117 Faithfulness would include the following: membership in the LDS church, temple works, temple marriage, living a life following the guidelines of The Pearl of Great Price, and generally doing good works.
McConkie states, "Members of the Church are entitled to the enlightenment of the light of Christ and also to the guidance of the Holy Ghost. If they so live as to enjoy the actual gift of the Holy Ghost, then their consciences are also guided by that member of the Godhead" (Rom. 9:1). 118 Mormons see the gift of the Holy Spirit as a temporary blessing based upon their faithfulness to their Church.
The Function of the Holy Spirit
According to the Bible
The Bible is full of the recorded works of the Holy Spirit in carrying out the plan of God for the world. He worked in the creation of the universe and of the earth (Gen. 1:2; Psa. 104:30; Job 26:13; 33:4; Isa. 40:12-14). He worked in the lives of both the Old and New Testament saints enabling them to carry out acts God wanted them to do. 119
The Bible teaches the work of the Holy Spirit is multifaceted. The following list of the functions of the Holy Spirit is not exhaustive, but briefly identifies his major work in the world:
1. The Holy Spirit illuminates the Word of God (John. 14:26; 1 Cor. 2:13; 1 John. 2:27).
2. The Holy Spirit indwells the Christian (John. 14:17; Rom. 8:9; 1 Cor. 3:16, 6:19; 2 Ti. 1:14; 1 John. 2:27).
3. The Holy Spirit reproves the world of sin
As these passages show, the Holy Spirit is directly involved in every aspect of a believer’s life. These are
the ministries that only the Holy Spirit, as God, can perform.
The Bible teaches that the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament selectively came upon men for specific service (Gen. 41:38; Num. 27:28; Judges. 3:10; 6:34; 11:29; 13:25; 1 Sam. 10:9-10; 16:13; Dan. 4:8; 5:11-14; 6:3). In the New Testament during this dispensation of the church, the Holy Spirit indwells permanently all believers when they by faith receive Jesus Christ as their Savior, and the absence of the Holy Spirit is evidence of being unsaved(1 Cor. 6:19; Rom. 5:5; 8:9). The filling of the Holy Spirit is based upon one’s salvation and is not received as a result of moral living. The filling of the Holy Spirit is different from his indwelling and is based upon obedience to God (Acts 6:7; Rom. 1:5; Eph. 5:18).
The permanent indwelling of all believers is not a part of LDS doctrine. Their works system of redemption bases one’s destiny upon one’s faithfulness and good works and this includes receiving the blessings of the presence of the Holy Spirit in a person’s life.
In summary, the Mormon concept of the Holy Spirit is two separate entities the Holy Ghost and the Holy Spirit. The Holy Ghost is a separate god, who exists in spirit form that has the appearance of a man and is not omnipresent. The Holy Spirit is a force that emanates from God the Father and is omnipresent, imparting the gift of the Holy Ghost as he is directed. This is in sharp contrast to the Bible's teaching that the Holy Spirit is fully God, the third person of the Trinity, and being God has all the attributes of God.
CONCLUSION
In summation, Mormonism has totally redefined God, and in the process has invented a God that does not exist. The description of the LDS God according to their sources shows clearly that he is not the God of the Bible. The concept that God is or ever was a mortal man who progressed to godhood is totally alien to the Bible. It is almost inconceivable that the founders of Mormonism could go so far afield from the truth.
The Bible tells us that God is the only God and is the sole source of all life, not just a product of life that existed before in the universe. God breathed the breath of life into inert matter that He created, and it became a living soul (Gen. 2:7). All men received life from Adam, who received it from God. This means that man cannot be God, because man received his life from God.
Mormonism teaches that life came from its God, but it does not address the question of how its God could create life when he is a created being himself of flesh and bone and is the product of life not its source.
It is probable that Joseph Smith was greatly influenced by the radical claims of evolution that were being widely proclaimed in his day. It seems more than mere coincidence that evolution and Mormonism, which were philosophically born at the same time, have the same basic concept of the eternal progression of all things evolving upward.
In the Bible, God is presented as creating the earth and the universe; thus, he is outside it and exists apart from his creation. The Mormon God differs in that he exists in time, in creation, and is a part of it. God states that there are no other gods and that he is not a man. The LDS Church teaches God is an exalted man, and there are many gods in the universe.
If one rejects God’s statements about himself as revealed in the Bible, then, one must reject the God of the Bible. Joseph Smith and those that have followed him throughout the decades have therefore rejected the God of the Bible. Amazingly, these false teachers ignore all that God said about Himself, inventing a totally alien concept of God, and then claim their imaginary god is God of the Bible (see Isa. 45:9-19; Rom. 1:21-23).
Mormons must answer the question as to how their God could be the creator of the universe. Mormon teaching clearly says that the LDS God began not as God, but as a finite being who progressed through several existences until he became a god. He cannot be the Creator of the universe because it existed before he became a god, and it is totally illogical to proclaim him as such. Without question the Bible declares that God is the Creator of the heavens and earth ex nihilo and that he has been eternally God and Spirit. He was God in eternity past and chose to create the universe and all in it. There is no conflict between God as he has revealed himself in the Bible and the Creation. This simple, yet, profound truth totally refutes the Mormon God as being the God of the Bible.
Also, there can be no mistake that the LDS concept of Jesus Christ beginning as an intelligence and then being born in heaven to God and one of his wives is totally foreign to who he is as presented by the Bible. Christ is eternally God and one with the Father and Holy Spirit. He is not a separate God as Mormonism teaches only being one with God in purpose (John. 10:30). Jesus was wholly God being incarnate in flesh for the purpose of dying on the cross for the sins of the world (1 Pet. 1:10). He was Emmanuel, meaning, as the Scriptures explain, God with us (Matt. 1:23).
As the Bible instructs, the Holy Spirit is God and the third member of the Trinity, being wholly God and one with God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. He is not a son of an exalted man who became a God through eternal progression, but is eternally existing always as God. He is not a force emanating from God the Father, but God personally indwells all believers giving them the very presence and nature of God eternally.
The theism of Mormonism as taught by its Scriptures and authorities is not Christian because it teaches a totally different concept of the person, attributes, and purpose of God as he has revealed himself in the Bible. The LDS God is a figment of the imagination of its founder, Joseph Smith, and those who believed his erroneous teachings about God. The Mormons degraded the uncorruptible God and made him into the image of a corruptible man (Rom. 1:21-23).
The tragedy of Mormonism is that so many sincere people have been taught a lie. These mostly earnest men and women are engrossed in worshipping a god that does not exist. Their sincere faith in a false God cannot save them. The Bible says, "There is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved (Acts 4:12). Jesus himself said, "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him" (John. 3:36). Jesus proclaimed, "I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me" (John. 14:6). God said through the Apostle Paul, "For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus" (1 Tim. 2:6). John proclaimed, "And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life" (1 John. 5:11-12).
Having faith in a counterfeit Jesus will not save the LDS people. God tells us in John 20:31, "But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name." Those who believe in the real God and Jesus Christ, God has promised to save to the uttermost (Heb. 7:10). God’s message, to the Mormons, is simple, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house" (Acts 16:31).
*All Rights Reserved. February, 2001. This paper may be copied for personal use or in limited quantities for use in classes as long as it is distributed free of charge.