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The God(s) of Mormonism.


Rex Banks



Introduction




The Mormon God and The God of the Bible





  1. The Mormon God possesses a tangible body of flesh and bones.

    In Teachings of Prophet Joseph Smith we read:

    "That which is without body, parts and passions is nothing. There is no other God in heaven but that God who has flesh and bones. (emphasis added) John 5:26: As the Father hath life in himself, even so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself. God the Father took life unto himself precisely as Jesus did." (Section 4 p. 181)

    Elsewhere Smith affirms:

    "The Father has a body of flesh and bones as tangible as man's; (emphasis added) the Son also; but the Holy Ghost has not a body of flesh and bones, but is a personage of Spirit." (Doctrine and Covenants [D&C] 130:22)

    "There is no such thing as immaterial matter. All spirit is matter (emphasis added) but it is more fine or pure." (D&C 131:7)

    A recent Mormon writer Edward Watson explains:

    "The prime difference between the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and all other non-LDS Christian churches on the nature of God is we are the only ones who believe God (in this particular case, Heavenly Father) is a male spirit being housed within a physical glorified immortal body (just like we [who are also spirits], are housed within mortal physical bodies which we leave at death) instead of being a nonmaterial omnipresent being, (emphasis added) without form or passions." (Mormonism - The Faith of the 21st Century)

    The Mormon publication Ensign (July, 1987, 56) carried an article entitled Is The LDS View of God Consistent With The Bible? by William O. Nelson in which the writer asks the question "How did the Christian sects come to accept the idea that though three personages comprise the Godhead, they are one immaterial spirit?" He says: "Certainly the ideas are not apostolic in origin. (emphasis added)

    The early Apostles took the gospel into a Greco-Roman world that espoused Neoplatonism-a philosophy derived from Plato's teachings on idealism. One idea that came down from Plato was that matter is essentially evil. (James L. Barker, Apostasy from the Divine Church, Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1960, pp. 229-35.)

    Elsewhere in the same article Nelson tells us how Joseph Smith dealt with Jn 4:24 which reads "God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and truth." (N.A.S.V.) He says:

    "By revelation, the Prophet Joseph Smith translated verse 24 to read "For unto such hath God promised his Spirit. And they who worship him, must worship in spirit and in truth." (JST John 4:26)

    Now despite Smith's "inspired" rendering of John 4:24, it is clear that the consistent teaching of the Bible is that God is spirit, and it is equally clear that only a spirit-being can possess all the attributes of the One who revealed himself to Abraham, Moses and Paul. It is clear that Paul did not have in view a God of flesh and bone when he described his Lord as "invisible" (Col. 1:15 cf. Rom. 1:20; 1 Tim. 1:17) and it is equally clear that only an immaterial can Being can meaningfully affirm, "Heaven is My throne, and the earth is My footstool," (Isa. 66:1) because omnipresence is not possible for a God of flesh and bones. Jeremiah's God can say "Do I not fill the heavens and the earth?" (Jer. 23:23 cf. Deut. 4:39; 1 Kings 8:27; Ps. 139; Prov. 15:3; Jer. 23:24; Acts 17:27) Joseph Smith's God cannot.

    Brigham Young said: "Some would have us believe that God is present everywhere. It is not so. He is no more everywhere present in person than the Father and Son are one in person." (J.D. 6:345) This is an important point because the omniscience and omnipotence claimed for the God of scripture (see below) is possible only for a Being who fills the universe. (but who is not confined by it) The Mormon God who is dependent upon and inseparable from the material universe and subject its laws is not such an entity.

    Our Mormon friends find support for their "flesh and bones" God in the fact that the Bible speaks of "the arm of the Lord," the "eyes of the Lord" and so on, but these are simply examples of anthropomorphism (the attributing of human characteristics to God, animal or thing) and they do not prove that God has human limbs and organs, anymore than Psalm 57:1 proves that God possesses wings or that Hebrews 12:29 proves that He is a furnace and so on. Even if we take such passages as Gen. 18:1 ff and Judges 13:3 ff to mean that God has sometimes taken on flesh and bone, it does not follow that in His essential being God is nothing more than flesh and bone. Moses was told by God "You cannot see My face, for no man can see Me and live" (Ex. 33:20 cf. 23) and when He spoke to Moses "face to face" (Ex 33:11) the prophet beheld, not "the glory of the Lord" (Ex. 33:18) but rather "the form of the Lord" (Num. 12:6-8). When John tells us that "God is light" and that "God is love" (1 Jn 1:5; 4:8) he is telling us that light and love are essential attributes of the divine nature, and when Jesus tells us that "God is spirit" (Jn 4:24 [better than "God is a Spirit"]) He is telling us that God's essential nature is spirit. Since "a spirit does not have flesh and bones" (Lk 24:39) it follows that Jesus' God is not the God of Joseph Smith.

  2. At one time the Mormon God was a man like us. His present exaltation is the result of an evolutionary process.

    In Teachings of Prophet Joseph Smith we have the following:

    "God himself was once as we are now, and is an exalted man, and sits enthroned in yonder heavens! That is the great secret.....it is necessary we should understand the character and being of God and how he came to be so; for I am going to tell you how God came to be God. We have imagined and supposed that God was God from all eternity. I will refute that idea, and take away the veil, so that you may see....he was once a man like us; yea, that God himself, the Father of us all, dwelt on an earth, the same as Jesus Christ himself did; and I will show it from the Bible. (Section 6 p. 345)

    The Apostle Orson Hyde explains the evolution of the Mormon God as follows:

    "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...how would you like to be governed by a ruler who had not been through all the vicissitudes of life that are common to mortals? If he had not suffered, how could he sympathize with the distress of others? If he himself had not endured the same, how could he sympathize and be touched with the feelings of our infirmities? He could not, unless he himself had passed through the same ordeal, and overcome step by step... Hence, our heavenly Father ascended to a throne of power; He has passed through scenes of tribulation, as the Saints in all ages have, and are still passing through; and having overcome, and ascended His throne, He can look down upon those who are following in the same track, and can realize the nature of their infirmities, troubles, and difficulties... Why? Because he has felt the same, been in the same situation." (J.D. 1:123, 124 [emphasis added])

    Having learned that God was once us a child and mortal, we are not too surprised to learn from Brigham Young that He also had a father and mother:

    "The idea that the Lord our God is not a personage of tabernacle is entirely a mistaken notion. He was once a man."

    Brother Kimball quoted a saying of Joseph the Prophet, that he would not worship a God who had not a Father; and I do not know that he would if he had not a mother; the one would be as absurd as the other. If he had a Father, he was made in his likeness. And if he is our Father we are made after his image and likeness. (ibid. 9:286 [emphasis added])

    Orson Pratt picks up this theme in an article which appeared in the Mormon publication The Seer:

    "Looking at things through our imperfect minds, we have been accustomed to suppose that all things which are connected by a chain of causes and effects, must eventually terminate in a First Cause and in a First Effect...We were begotten by our Father in Heaven; the person of our Father in Heaven was begotten on a previous heavenly world by His Father; and again, He was begotten by a still more ancient Father; and so on, from generation to generation, from one heavenly world to another still more ancient, until our minds are wearied and lost in the multiplicity of generations and successive worlds and as a last resort, we wonder in our minds, how far back the genealogy extends, and how the first world was formed, and the first father was begotten. But why does man seek for a first, when revelation informs him that God's works are without beginnings. Do you still seek for a first link where the chain is endless? Can you conceive of a first year in endless duration? Can you grasp within your comprehension the first mile in an endless right line? All these things you will readily acknowledge have no first: why, then, do you seek for a first personal Father in an endless genealogy? or for a first effect in an endless succession of effects?" (1:9:132)

    In an article entitled The Restoration of Major Doctrines through Joseph Smith: The Godhead, Mankind, and the Creation by Donald Q.Cannon, Larry E. Dahl and John W. Welch we read:

    "The Prophet explained that 'God himself was once as we are now, and is an exalted man, and sits enthroned in yonder heavens'; that 'he was once a man like us; yea, that God himself, the Father of us all, dwelt on an earth, the same as Jesus Christ himself did'; and that he 'worked out his kingdom with fear and trembling'." (Ensign, Jan. 1989, 27 [emphasis added])

    In an excellent little book entitled Mormon Claims Answered, Marvin W. Cowan quotes W. Cleon Skousen, a former BYU professor to show the limitations of the Mormon God:

    "Through modern revelation we learn that the universe is filled with vast numbers of intelligences, and we further learn that Elohim is God simply because all of these intelligences honour and sustain Him as such.... (emphasis added) But since God 'acquired' the honour and sustaining influence of 'all things' it follows as a corollary that if He should ever do anything to violate the confidence or sense of justice' of these intelligences, they would promptly withdraw their support, and the 'power' of God would disintegrate.... 'He would cease to be God.' (emphasis added) Our Heavenly Father can do only those things which the intelligences under Him are voluntarily willing to support Him in accomplishing." (The First 2000 Years, pp. 355-356)

    Again it is not difficult to show that the Mormon concept of an evolving God who was once a man is quite foreign to the Bible. Again and again Scripture affirms the immutability of God. It is true that the Lord is said to repent (e.g. Gen. 6:6) and relent (e.g. Jonah 3:10) and to change His mind (e.g. Amos 7:3, 6) at times, but it is clear that in such cases this is the proper response of a perfectly holy God to changes in human behaviour and attitudes. (Jer. 18:8) His nature remains changeless. (Mal. 3:6 ["I the Lord do not change"]) He is God "from everlasting to everlasting." (Ps. 90:2 cf. 93:2) There was never a time when God was not God and with Him "there is no variation or shifting shadow." (Jas 1:17) What's more, as Augustus H. Strong points out:

    "Reason teaches us that no change is possible in God, whether of increase or decrease, progress or deterioration, contraction or development. All change must be to better or to worse. But God is absolute perfection, and no change to better is possible. Change to worse would be equally inconsistent with perfection." (Systematic Theology).

    A multitude of passages teach that God is all-powerful, all-knowing, perfect in holiness ever-present, self-existent etc. (Deut. 33:27; Ps. 41:13; 90:2; Job 28:24; Ps. 139:17, 18; 147:5; Isa. 40:13, 14, 28; 41:21-24; 46:10; Jer. 10:10; Hab. 1:12) and the Mormon concept of an evolving God who needs the support of "intelligences" in order to remain God (above) would have been quite shocking to Moses and Paul.

    As with a number of other LDS doctrines, this teaching that God has evolved to His present state and continues to progress, is in conflict with the view of God which we encounter in Joseph Smith's early writings. For example in the Book of Mormon we have:

    "For do we not read that God is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and in him there is no variableness neither shadow of changing? And now if ye have imagined up unto yourselves a god who doth vary, and in whom there is shadow of changing, then have ye imagined up unto yourselves a god who is not God of miracles." (9:9, 10)

    "For I know that God is not a partial God, neither a changeable being; but he is unchangeable from all eternity to all eternity." (Moroni 8:18)

    Inconsistency of doctrine is just one of many indicators that the Mormon documents are of human rather than divine origin.

  3. According to LDS teaching, men can achieve godhood just as the Mormon God achieved it.

    Speaking of the glory which awaits certain of the faithful, Joseph Smith wrote:

    "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. Then shall they be gods, because they have call power, and the angels are subject unto them." (D&C 132:20 [emphasis added])

    Elsewhere he says:

    "Here, then, is eternal life-to know the only wise and true God; and you have got to learn how to be Gods yourselves, and to be kings and priests to God, the same as all Gods have done before you, namely, by going from one small degree to another, and from a small capacity to a great one..." (Teachings of Prophet Joseph Smith Section Six 1843-44, p. 346 [emphasis added])

    In similar vein Brigham Young affirmed:

    "The Lord created you and me for the purpose of becoming Gods like Himself; when we have been proved in our present capacity, and been faithful with all things He puts into our possession. We are created, we are born for the express purpose of growing up from the low estate of manhood, to become Gods like unto our Father in heaven. That is the truth about it, just as it is. The Lord has organized mankind for the express purpose of increasing in that intelligence and truth, which is with God, until he is capable of creating worlds on worlds, and becoming Gods, even the sons of God." (J.D. 3:93 [emphasis added])

    Elder Boyd K. Packer of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles has written:

    "What is in error, then, when we use the term Godhood to describe the ultimate destiny of mankind? (emphasis added) We may now be young in our progression-juvenile, even infantile, compared with Him. Nevertheless, in the eternities to come, if we are worthy, we may be like unto Him, enter His presence, 'see as [we] are seen, and know as [we] are known,' and receive a 'fullness.' (D&C 76:94) This doctrine is not at variance with the scriptures. Nevertheless, it is easy to understand why some Christians reject it, because it introduces the possibility that man may achieve Godhood." (The Pattern of our Parentage: Ensign, Nov.1984, 66 [emphasis added])

    Having evolved into Gods, faithful men are then able to organize matter and make new worlds. As Brigham Young explains:

    "We can not receive, while in the flesh, the keys to form and fashion kingdoms and to organize matter, for they are beyond our capacity and calling, beyond this world. In the resurrection, men who have been faithful and diligent in all things in the flesh, have kept their first and second estate, and worthy to be crowned Gods, even the sons of God, will be ordained to organize matter. How much matter do you suppose there is between here and some of the fixed stars which we can see? Enough to frame many, very many millions of such earths as this..." (J.D. 15:137 [emphasis added])

    Orson Pratt asks "Who will be the subjects in the kingdom which they will rule who are exalted in the celestial kingdom of our God?" and answers:

    "Their own children, their own posterity will be the citizens of their kingdoms; in other words, the patriarchal order will prevail there to the endless ages of eternity, and the children of each patriarch will be his while eternal ages roll on...There will never be any such thing there as being from under their father's rule, no matter whether twenty-one or twenty-one thousand years of age, it will make no difference, they will still be subject to the laws of their Patriarch or Father, and they must observe and obey them throughout all eternity. There is only one way by which children can be freed from that celestial law and order of things, and that is by rebellion." (J.D. 15:319)

    From The Seer we learn:

    "As soon as each God has begotten many millions of male and female spirits, and his Heavenly inheritance becomes too small, to comfortably accommodate his great family, he, in connection with his sons, organizes a new world, after a similar order to the one which we now inhabit, where he sends both the male and female spirits to inhabit tabernacles of flesh and bones. Thus each God forms a world for the accommodation of his own sons and daughters who are sent forth in their times and seasons, and generations to be born into the same. The inhabitants of each world are required to reverence, adore, and worship their own personal father who dwells in the Heaven which they formerly inhabited." (1:3:37)

    The promise "you will be like God" (Gen. 3:5) gained a great victory for Satan at the dawn of creation, and it is clear that mankind has always been susceptible to the temptation to obliterate the distinction between himself and his Creator. In a popular New Age book (Voyage to the New World) Ramtha, a "spirit guide" says:

    "What be you? You are God! Man expressing as God often forgets that which is termed his Godhood...'Tis not the way it is. You are a God that needs to remember." (emphasis added)

    The teaching of Joseph Smith that "We are created, we are born for the express purpose of growing up from the low estate of manhood, to become Gods like unto our Father in heaven" is not original - but it is very dangerous. Central to this doctrine is the notion that there is no essential difference between the nature of God and the nature of man. (see (5) below) According to Smith "the mind of man is as immortal as God himself" and the idea that God created "the first principles of man" is incorrect, and "lessens man." (See (5) below) Now this view that there is no essential difference between the nature of God and the nature of men, and that men can achieve godhood is not Scriptural.

    First of all, since the Bible makes it clear that there is but one God (see (4) below) the very possibility that other Gods could exist is ruled out. Moreover since all things apart from the one true God have been created by Him (see (5) below) it follows that man's total being (body soul and spirit) are the products of this creative activity. Like the rest of creation man began to exist, and like the rest of creation man continues to exist only because the Lord "upholds all things by the word of His power (Heb. 1:3) Although God's creative activity has ceased (Gen. 2:2) His work of sustaining the universe (including man) is ongoing, (Jn 5:17) and "in Him all things hold together." (Col. 1:17) The fundamental difference between God and man is that He is an eternal, non-contingent, self-sufficient Being who is the source of all that exists, while man is a created, contingent, dependent being. Men who aspire to become Gods would do well to remember the Lord's words to the King of Tyre "Yet you are a man and not God." (Ezek. 28:2)

    Whereas Smith affirms that "We are created....to become Gods like unto our Father in heaven" Scripture tells us that the ultimate end for which we were created is the glorification of the one true God. (Isa. 43:7; 2 Thess. 1:12; 1 Pet. 4:16). Our very salvation in Christ has as its ultimate goal the glorification of God (Eph. 1:6, 12, 14) not the attainment of godhood. God "predestined us to adoption as sons...to the praise of the glory of His grace" (Eph. 1:5, 6) and it is the Lord's intention that through the redeemed "in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus." (Eph. 2:7) Thus according to Paul, the faithful do not enter eternity to rule as Gods over new worlds; they enter eternity to bring praise and glory to their Lord. The faithful do not reign in physical bodies as kings over material worlds, but instead enter into the spiritual dimension to dwell with God in a realm which is closed to "flesh and blood." (1 Cor. 15:40-53; 2 Cor. 5:1 ff)

  4. Mormonism has many Gods (Polytheism)

    Chapter 4 of the Book of Abraham is headed: The Gods plan the creation of the earth and all life thereon - Their plans for the six days of creation are set forth (emphasis added). The chapter begins:

    "AND then the Lord said: Let us go down. And they went down at the beginning, and they, that is the Gods organized and formed the heavens and the earth." (emphasis added)

    Throughout this chapter the creative activity of "the Gods" (plural) is described and the third person plural pronoun ("they") is used repeatedly in connection with this activity. It is interesting to compare this account in Abraham 4 with an earlier account in chapter 2 of the Book of Moses. The chapter is headed God creates the heavens and the earth-All forms of life created-God makes man and gives him dominion over all else. (emphasis added) We read:

    "AND it came to pass that the Lord spake unto Moses, saying: Behold, I reveal unto you concerning this heaven, and this earth; write the words which I speak. I am the Beginning and the End, the Almighty God; by mine Only Begotten I created these things; yea, in the beginning I created the heaven, and the earth upon which thou standest...I caused darkness to come up upon the face of the deep; and my Spirit moved upon the face of the water; for I am God.... And I, God, said: Let there be light; and there was light. And I, God, saw the light ... (vs 1-4)

    Evidently the Book of Moses antedates the Book of Abraham by several years, and it appears that during this period Joseph Smith moved from monotheism to polytheism. Certainly this teaching about a multiplicity of Gods pervades later LDS literature. In the Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith we read:

    "I wish to declare I have always and in all congregations when I have preach on the subject of the Deity, it has been the plurality of Gods. It has been preached by the Elders for fifteen years. 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 a distinct personage and a Spirit: and these three 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?" (Section 6 p. 370)

    Elsewhere Smith says:

    "In the beginning, the head of the Gods called a council of the Gods; (emphasis added) and they came together and concocted [prepared] a plan to create the world and people it. When we begin to learn this way, we begin to learn the only true God, and what kind of a being we have got to worship. Having a knowledge of God, we begin to know how to approach Him, and how to ask so as to receive an answer." (The King Follett Sermon)

    Later Brigham Young endorsed this teaching about a multiplicity of Gods:

    "How many Gods [emphasis added] there are, I do not know. But there never was a time when there were not Gods [emphasis added] and worlds, and when men were not passing through the same ordeals that we are now passing through. That course has been from all eternity, and it is and will be to all eternity." (J.D. 7:333)

    We read in The Seer:

    "In the Heaven where our spirits were born, there are many Gods, each one of whom has his own wife or wives which were given to him previous to his redemption, while yet in his mortal state." (1:3:37)

    Elder Boyd K. Packer of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles tells us that the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit are three Gods:

    "Anyone who believes and teaches of God the Father, and accepts the divinity of Christ, and of the Holy Ghost, teaches a plurality of Gods." (The Pattern of Our Parentage: Ensign, Nov. 1984, 66)

    Probably no teaching of the LDS church demonstrates more clearly the non-Christian nature of Mormonism than this doctrine of polytheism. It is impossible to misunderstand Scripture on this point:

    "You are My witnesses," declares the LORD, "And My servant whom I have chosen, So that you may know and believe Me And understand that I am He. Before Me there was no God formed, And there will be none after Me. I, even I, am the LORD, And there is no saviour besides Me." (Isa. 43:10-13)

    A multitude of Biblical passages affirm the vital doctrine that "he is God, there is no other besides Him." (Deut. 4:35; cf. Isa. 44:6,8; 45:5,18, 21-22; Jer. 10:10; John 17:3; 1 Cor. 8:4-6; Gal. 4:8; 1 Thess 1:9; 1 Tim. 2:5) True, men may offer worship to idols as if they are gods (1 Cor. 8:4-6) but the fact is that "there is no God but one" (1 Cor. 8:4) "for whom are all things, and through whom are all things." (Heb. 2:11) Our Mormon friends insist that these Biblical passages do not teach monotheism and simply affirm that there is but one God with whom we have to do. But this will not do. Clearly the mere fact that God is everywhere, all powerful and all knowing rules out polytheism since the mere existence of other Gods would impose limitations upon Him. Any doctrine such as polytheism, which blinds man to the fact that Jehovah is the one, true, limitless God who deserves to be worshipped by the entire creation because he created all things and owns all things (Rev. 4:8-11; 5:11-14) is a very dangerous doctrine indeed.

  5. The Mormon God did not create ex nihilo (out of nothing), and the existence of the universe is not due solely to His activity.

    According to Joseph Smith "intelligence" cannot be "created or made" and it appears that human "intelligence" existed prior to the organization of the human spirit. It was not created out of nothing by God. He says:

    "I have another subject to dwell upon and it is impossible for me to say much, but I shall just touch upon them; for time will not permit me to say all; so I must come to the resurrection of the dead, the soul, the mind of man, the immortal spirit. All men say God created it in the beginning. The very idea lessens man in my estimation; I do not believe the doctrine, I know better..."

    "The mind of man is as immortal as God himself. I know that my testimony is true, hence when I talk to these mourners; what have they lost, they are only separated from their bodies for a short season; their spirits existed co-equal with God, and they now exist in a place where they converse together...God never did have power to create the spirit of man at all. God himself could not create himself: intelligence exists upon a self existent principle, it is a spirit from age to age, and there is no creation about it. All the spirits that God ever sent into the world are susceptible of enlargement. The first principles of man are self existent with God...(Times and Seasons 5:15:615 [emphasis added])

    Allegedly Jehovah told Joseph Smith:

    "And now, verily I say unto you, I was in the beginning with the Father, and am the Firstborn.... Ye were also in the beginning with the Father; that which is Spirit, even the Spirit of truth... Man was also in the beginning with God. Intelligence, or the light of truth, was not created or made, neither indeed can be." (D&C 93:21, 23, 29)

    This same teaching is found in the Pearl of Great Price where the Mormon God says to Abraham:

    "Howbeit that he made the greater star; as, also, if there be two spirits, and one shall be more intelligent that the other, yet these two spirits, notwithstanding one is more intelligent that the other, have no beginning; they existed before, they shall have no end, they shall exist after, for they are gnolaum, or eternal." (Abr. 3:18 [emphasis added])

    Speaking of the "restoration" of the doctrine of "pre-mortal existence" through Joseph Smith, Elder Neal A. Maxwell Of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles wrote:

    "Furthermore, so much had happened in human history to make the restoration of this key truth necessary. It was needed to confound the false doctrine of a mankind created ex nihilo-out of nothing. (See 2 Ne. 3:12 ) The 'ex nihilo' view, said the Prophet Joseph 'lessens man in my estimation.' (Words of Joseph Smith, Andrew F. Ehat and Lyndon W. Cook, comps., Provo: BYU Religious Studies Center, 1980, p. 359) (Premortality, a Glorious Reality: Ensign, Nov. 1985)

    Moreover the earth itself was not created out of nothing, but is composed of elements which have always existed. Joseph Fielding Smith wrote:

    "The scriptures plainly and repeatedly affirm that God is the Creator of the earth and the heavens and all things that in them are. In the sense so expressed, the Creator is an Organizer. God created the earth as an organized sphere; but He certainly did not create, in the sense of bringing into primal existence, the ultimate elements of the materials of which the earth consists, for "the elements are eternal". (Doc. & Cov. 93:33) (Teachings of Presidents of the Church: The Father and the Son, From the Life of Joseph F. Smith 353)

    In fact "man is, at once, an intelligence or spirit coeternal-but certainly not coequal-with God." (Russell M. Nelson, "The Creation" Ensign, May 2000)

    Nor did God act alone in this work of organization. Joseph Fielding Smith wrote:

    "It is true that Adam helped to form this earth. He laboured with our Saviour Jesus Christ. I have a strong view or conviction that there were others who assisted them. Perhaps Noah and Enoch; and why not Joseph Smith, (emphasis added) and those who were appointed to be rulers before the earth was formed? (Doctrines of Salvation Vol. I, 74-75)

    Smith expresses the view that the very idea that man was created out of nothing "lessens man." As Christians see it, the very idea that creation ex nihilo is an impossibility for God, and that He, along with others, merely organized pre-existent materials into their present form, reduces God to the status of a mere creature, who, along with all other creatures, is subject to the laws of the universe. Unlike the God of the Bible who is outside of creation, independent of it and responsible for its ongoing existence, the Mormon God is simply part of creation, a being who cannot exist apart from matter. (which is co-eternal with Him) Scripture knows nothing of such a limited Being.

    Scripture affirms that in the beginning God "created" (from bara) the world. This word has been the subject of much scholarly debate. According to the Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament "the concept of creation ex nihilo" is "not necessarily inherent within the meaning of the word " but the word " lends itself well" to this concept. We are told that the word also possesses the meaning of "bringing into existence" (ibid) in several passages. (e.g. Isa. 43:1; Ezek. 21:30; 28:13, 15) Another source has: "bara, 'to create, make.' This verb is of profound theological significance, since it has only God as its subject. Only God can 'create' in the sense implied by 'bara'." The verb expresses creation out of nothing and idea seen clearly in passages having to do with creation on a cosmic scale...(Gen. 1:1; 2:3; Isa. 40:26; 42:5)" (Nelson's Expository Dictionary of the Old Testament Ed. Merrill F. Unger and William White Jnr) Again:

    "The O.T. and the N.T. in their doctrine of creation, recognize no eternal matter before creation. We cannot say that the origin of matter is excluded from the Genesis account of creation, and this quite apart from the use bara as admitting of material and means of creation. But is seems unwise to build such an interpretation upon passages of Genesis that can afford only an exegetically insecure basis. The NT seems to favour the derivation of matter from nonexistent - that is to say, the time-world were due to the effluent divine word or originative will, rather than to being built out of God's own invisible essence. So the best exegesis interprets Heb. 11:3 (James Lindsay, The International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia, Vol 2, p. 738)

    (Heb. 11:3 says "Through faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible.") Again the point needs to be made that the very idea that creation ex nihilo is an impossibility for God tells us that the Mormon God is not the God of Scripture.

    Of course the notion that a multitude of Gods and perhaps "Noah...Enoch...Joseph Smith and those who were appointed to be rulers before the earth was formed" participated with God in the formation of the earth, is completely contrary to the teachings of Scripture. The God of the Bible declares "I, the Lord am the maker of all things, stretching out the heavens by Myself, and spreading out the earth all alone." (Isa. 44:24) The Levites of Ezra's time blessed the Lord saying "Thou alone art the Lord. Thou hast made the heavens, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them, and the heavenly host bows down before Thee." (Neh. 9:6) Jesus was the active agent in creation. (Jn 1:3; Col. 1:16) Unfortunately the Mormon teaching that God could not create ex nihilo and is not solely responsible for the existence of the universe, elevates man at God's expense by including the former in the creative process and by reducing the latter to the level of one organizer among many.

  6. The Mormon Jesus is a very different figure from the Jesus of the Bible.

    Because Mormon vocabulary is saturated with Christian terminology, it is not immediately apparent to many Bible believers that Mormon missionaries preach "another Jesus" (2 Cor. 11:4) and a "different gospel" (Gal. 1:6), but it is not difficult to demonstrate that this is the case. Many who know what the Bible teaches about Jesus are shocked to learn the following about the Jesus of Mormonism:

  1. Jesus, Satan and all human beings were spirit children of God in a pre-mortal existence. Thus Jesus, Satan and men all possess the same nature.

    Former President Joseph F. Smith (to be distinguished from Joseph Smith) wrote:

    "God the Eternal Father, whom we designate by the exalted name-title "Elohim," is the literal Parent of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and of the spirits of the human race (emphasis added). Elohim is the Father in every sense (emphasis added) in which Jesus Christ is so designated, and distinctively He is the Father of spirits." (Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Joseph F. Smith, 40: The Father and the Son, From the Life of Joseph F. Smith, 353)

    According to the Encyclopaedia of Mormonism:

    "Jesus Christ is not the Father of the spirits who have taken or yet shall take bodies upon this earth, for He is one of them. He is The Son, as they are sons and daughters of Elohim." (Vol. 4, Appendix 4)


    Brigham Young affirmed that "Jesus, our elder brother, was begotten in the flesh by the same character that was in the garden of Eden, and who is our Father in Heaven " (J.D. 1:51 [ emphasis added]) and that there is no essential difference between Jesus and man. He states:

    "The Saviour was begotten by the Father of His spirit, by the same Being who is the Father of our spirits, and that is all the organic difference between Jesus Christ and you and me. And a difference there is between our Father and us consists in that He has gained His exaltation, and has obtained eternal lives." (4:218)

    According to Milton R. Hunter, member of the Mormon First Council of the Seventy:

    "The appointment of Jesus to be the saviour of the world was contested by one of the other sons of God. He was called Lucifer, son of the morning. Haughty, ambitious, and covetous of power and glory, this spirit-brother of Jesus desperately tried to become the Saviour of mankind." (The Gospel Through the Ages, p. 15)

    Now, when Christians confess Jesus as Lord (Rom. 10:9,10) it is not the Jesus of Joseph Smith and Brigham Young whom they acknowledge as Saviour and Redeemer, but rather the Jesus of John, Paul and the other inspired writers of the Bible. Paul's Jesus is not one whose nature is essentially indistinguishable from the nature of man, but rather one who "existed in the form of God," (Phil. 2:6) and one in whom the "fullness of deity dwells in bodily form." (Col. 2:9) John's Jesus' is "the Word ...(who) was with God and ...(who) was God." (Jn 1:1) He is the one through whom all things were created, (Jn 1:3) the unique son of God (Jn 3:16) who dared to claim equality with God (Jn 5:18), who affirmed His oneness with God (Jn 10:30) and who maintained that He partook of the glory which only God Himself possesses. (Jn 17:1-5; Isa. 48:11) The Hebrew writer describes Him as "the radiance of His (God's) glory and the exact representation of His nature" (Heb. 1:3) and tells us that God addresses the words of Psalm 45:6 to Jesus: "Thy Throne O God is forever and ever." (Heb. 1:8)

    As God, the Jesus of scripture is omnipresent, omnipotent and omniscient (see above) perfect on Holiness and so on. Since man is a created contingent being whose present existence is dependent upon God's sustaining power (see (5) above) it follows that man is fundamentally different in essence from the Jesus of the Bible. By teaching otherwise, Mormon doctrine once again exalts man at the Lord's expense.

    Similarly the Satan of Scripture is not the "spirit-brother of Jesus" whom we encounter in the Mormon writings, and this is clear from the fact that, unlike Jesus, this enemy of the human race is not deity. Evidence that the Satan of scripture is a created being is found (among other things) in the fact that he can act only with the permission of God, (Job chapters 1, 2; Lk 22:31) in the fact that he flees from faithful Christians who resist him (Jas 4:7) and in the fact that he is able to be incarcerated. (Rev. 20:10) Since God cannot create ethical evil, we can only conclude that Satan is a creature who misused his free will to became "the evil one" (Matt. 13:19, 38) sometime after his creation. (Passages like Isa. 45:7 which speak of God's creating "evil" [K.J.V.] have to do, not with God's creating ethical evil, but with His bringing "calamity [N.A.S.V.] upon those whom He is disciplining). Satan was not created evil, since all that God created was "very good" (Gen. 1:31); rather he misused his free will to become evil. Anyway this created being is not, as our Mormon friends maintain, the 'spirit-brother" of Jesus, the Son of God.

  2. Jesus was the product of the union of God the Father in the flesh and Mary.

    From Brigham Young we have the following:

    "Do you believe that Jesus Christ is the only-begotten Son of the Father? 'Yes.' Do you believe the Son was begotten by the Father, as the Apostles said he was? Here I shall have to disagree with you, to begin with; for I believe the Father came down from heaven, as the Apostles said He did, and begat the Saviour of the world; for he is the ONLY-begotten of the Father, which could not be if the Father did not actually beget him in person." (J. D. 1:237)

    Earlier Young affirmed:

    "Jesus, our elder brother, was begotten in the flesh by the same character that was in the garden of Eden, and who is our Father in Heaven...Now, remember from this time forth, and for ever, that Jesus Christ was not begotten by the Holy Ghost. I will repeat a little anecdote. I was in conversation with a certain learned professor upon this subject, when I replied, to this idea - 'if the Son was begotten by the Holy Ghost, it would be very dangerous to baptize and confirm females, and give the Holy Ghost to them, lest he should beget children, to be palmed upon the Elders by the people, bringing the Elders into great difficulties'." (ibid. 1:51 [ emphasis added])

    Also from Brigham Young we have the following on the same subject:

    "The birth of the Saviour was as natural as are the births of our children; it was the result of natural action. He partook of flesh and blood and was begotten of His Father as we were of our fathers." (ibid 8:115 [emphasis added])

    Our Mormon friends maintain that it is proper to speak of Christ's "virgin birth" because Mary did not have sexual relations with a mortal man, but rather with an immortal man. The bottom line is that it is simply not possible to harmonize the Mormon view of Christ's conception with the Biblical account where we read:

    "Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: when His mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit." (Matt. 1:18)

    "The angel said to her, 'Do not be afraid, Mary; for you have found favour with God.' 'And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name Him Jesus.' 'He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David; and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and His kingdom will have no end.' Mary said to the angel, 'How can this be, since I am a virgin?' The angel answered and said to her, 'The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; and for that reason the holy Child shall be called the Son of God'." (Luke 1:30-35)

  3. Jesus was a polygamist who fathered children. The following statements by Orson Hyde are quite startling to those who know something of the Biblical Jesus and of the Lord's teaching on marriage:

    "You will and it in the and chapter of John's Gospel; remember it and read it when you go home. 'And the third day there was a marriage in Cana of Galilee'....We say it was Jesus Christ who was married, to be brought into the relation whereby he could see his seed, before he was crucified. 'Has he indeed passed by the nature of angels, and taken upon himself the seed of Abraham, to die without leaving a seed to bear his name on the earth?' No....I shall say here, that before the Saviour died, he looked upon his own natural children, as we look upon ours; he saw his seed, and immediately afterwards he was cut off from the earth; but who shall declare his generation?" (J.D. 2:82 [emphasis added])

    A little further along we read:

    "I discover that some of the Eastern papers represent me as a great blasphemer, because I said, in my lecture on Marriage, at our last Conference, that Jesus Christ was married at Cana of Galilee, that Mary, Martha, and others were his wives, and that he begat children. All that I have to say in reply to that charge is this - they worship a Saviour that is too pure and holy to fulfil the commands of his Father. I worship one that is just pure and holy enough "to fulfil all righteousness;" not only the righteous law of baptism, but the still more righteous and important law "to multiply and replenish the earth." Startle not at this! for even the Father himself honoured that law by coming down to Mary, without a natural body, and begetting a son; and if Jesus begat children, he only 'did that which he had seen his Father do'." (J. D. 2:210)

    Orson Pratt claimed:

    "We have also proved most clearly that the Son followed the example of his Father, and became the great Bridegroom to whom kings' daughters and many honourable Wives were to be married. We have also proved that both God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ inherit their wives in eternity as well as in time." (The Seer 1:11:172)

    Now Scripture make does not say that Jesus was not married, but if He was married the failure of the New Testament to make any reference to His wife and children is inexplicable. It is clear too that Hyde's assertion that it was Jesus who was married in John chapter 2 is incorrect, since Jesus was "invited" to the wedding (hardly appropriate for a member of the wedding party!) and is clearly not the bridegroom. (Jn 2:9) Too, since polygamy is sinful, Hyde's claim that "Mary, Martha, and others were...(Jesus') wives" must be dismissed out of hand.

    Now some of our Mormon friends find divine condonation for polygamy in the Old Testament; for example in 2 Sam. 12:8 where the Lord says to David: " I gave thee thy master's house, and thy master's wives into thy bosom" (K.J.V.) But it is quite wrong to conclude that the Lord gave Saul's wives to David in marriage. Years earlier Moses had said concerning the king of Israel "Neither shall he multiply wives for himself lest his heart turn away." (Deut. 17:17) Moses also wrote: "You shall not uncover the nakedness of a woman and her daughter," (Lev. 18:17) and we recall that Saul's wife Ahinoam was the mother of David's wife Michal. (1 Sam. 14:49, 50) Had David taken Saul's wives in marriage he would have violated the Mosaic law. Clearly the Lord is reminding David that He had given Saul's wives into his care (2 Sam. 12:8 N.A.S.V.) and this was an important matter because it was generally considered that the individual who possessed the king's wives had a strong claim to the throne. (2 Sam. 12:22; 1 Kings 2:13-22)

    Since polygamy is contrary to creation law, (Gen. 2:18-25) it is not possible that Jesus, the sinless Son of God could have possessed a multiplicity of wives.

  4. The office of the Melchizedek Priesthood is not restricted to Jesus.

    Bruce R. McCronkie explains the importance of the Melchizedek Priesthood for the LDS church:

    "We are the servants of the Lord, his agents, his representatives. We have been endowed with power from on high. We hold either the Aaronic Priesthood, which is a preparatory, schooling order, or we hold the Melchizedek Priesthood, which is the highest and greatest power that the Lord gives to men on earth. (emphasis added) There are in this greater priesthood five offices or callings-elder, seventy, high priest, patriarch, and apostle - yet the priesthood is the same; and the priesthood is greater than any of its offices." (The Ten Blessings of the Priesthood," Ensign, Nov. 1977)

    The following quotation from Basic Manual for Priesthood Holders is quite lengthy but given the importance of the Priesthood in the Mormon scheme of things it is contains some very helpful information:

    "Adam was the first man on the earth to hold the priesthood...All the prophets of the Lord in each dispensation since Adam have held this same authority...

    The scriptures tell us that 'Enoch and all his people walked with God…and it came to pass that Zion was not, for God received it up into his own bosom'...

    After Enoch and the people of Zion were taken from the earth, the wicked people became very numerous. The Lord sent the prophet Noah to warn them and call them to repentance...

    After the flood, Noah gave the priesthood to his righteous children and grandchildren. One righteous man who lived after Noah and who received the priesthood was Melchizedek...Melchizedek ordained Abraham to the priesthood, and Abraham ordained others. Thus, the Melchizedek Priesthood continued to the time of Moses...

    In Moses' day, after he had led the children of Israel out of Egypt, the Lord offered the children of Israel the fulness of His gospel. They rejected it, however, so the Lord took away from them the Melchizedek Priesthood and the higher ordinances of the gospel. They were left with laws that were to direct the physical, or temporal, activities of the people. These laws were administered by the Aaronic Priesthood (named after Aaron, the brother of Moses)...

    Between the time of Moses and the coming of Jesus Christ, several prophets held the Melchizedek Priesthood. Some of these prophets were Elijah, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lehi, Daniel, and Ezekiel...

    When Jesus came to earth He restored the gospel in its fulness. He held the keys, or the full authority, of the priesthood and ordained Apostles (see Matthew 10:1-4) and Seventies. (see Luke 10:1) He organized His Church among His followers, and when He finally left the earth, the Apostles were given the authority to ordain others to various offices in the priesthood. (see Acts 14:23) In this way, the priesthood was passed on and remained the foundation of the Church of Jesus Christ...

    For some time after Jesus ascended to heaven, the Church continued to teach the truth, and thousands of people from many cities joined the Church. However, in time some who had joined the Church refused to obey the laws and ordinances of the gospel and changed them to suit their own ways of thinking. Many members, including the Apostles and other priesthood leaders, were persecuted and killed. As these men were killed and others fell away from the truth, the Church lost the authority of the priesthood. Eventually, the priesthood no longer remained in the Church...

    For many centuries, the fulness of the gospel was not on the earth. Those churches which were organized during the Apostasy did not have the priesthood. As a result, they could not receive direction from God or perform the ordinances of salvation. As Isaiah said they would, they 'transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, [and broke] the everlasting covenant.' (see Isaiah 24:5)...

    Through Joseph Smith, the Lord brought back to the earth His true Church and restored all the necessary principles and ordinances of His gospel. The Lord gave to Joseph Smith the holy priesthood, which was held by Adam and other righteous men through the ages. We have that priesthood today, and the Lord has promised that in this dispensation, the dispensation of the fulness of times, the priesthood will not be taken away again. It will be here when Christ returns to earth...

    The priesthood which worthy male members of the Church hold today is the same priesthood given to Adam and the other prophets through the ages. It is the power and authority of God, and we are His representatives on the earth." (Part A/History and Organization of the Priesthood: The Priesthood from Adam to the Restoration lesson 2)

    Of course this helps us understand why the young man who knocks upon our door and wears the title "elder" is so convinced that he has a message worth sharing. As a holder of the Melchizedek Priesthood he is God's representative upon the earth, armed with divine power and authority. The problem is that such a view of the Melchizedek Priesthood is quite foreign to Scripture, and completely irreconcilable with the pattern of Christ's Priesthood set forth in the Hebrew Epistle.

    Two basic facts concerning Christ's Priesthood are presented in the Hebrew Epistle, namely its order and duties. The order is that of Melchizedek, and the point of Heb. 7:3 is that the scriptural record is silent about Melchizedek's birth, death etc., thereby pointing to certain truths about Jesus: chiefly the fact that He is an eternal being, without beginning or end. Christ was constituted a High Priest "according to the power of an indestructible life," (Heb. 7:16) a life which is inherent, eternal, self-sustaining. Thus He "holds His priesthood permanently." (Heb. 7:24) He has no successors. As to His duties, the Hebrew writer explains that it is necessary that as Priest Christ have "something to offer," (Heb. 8:3) and he tells us that what He offered was Himself, (Heb. 9:14) the sacrifice of a sinless life. In light of all this, the Mormon teaching that weak, frail, created beings with sin-marred lives can function as Priests according to the order of Melchizedek is truly astonishing!

    A partial explanation for this basic misunderstanding about the nature of Christ's priesthood is found in the fact that in his "inspired translation" of the Bible, Joseph Smith changed the meaning of a crucial passage in the Hebrew epistle. At Hebrews 7:3 the N.A.S.V. says concerning Melchizedek:

    "Without father, without mother, without genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but made like the Son of God, he remains a priest perpetually."

    The Joseph Smith translation reads:

    "For this Melchizedek was ordained a priest after the order of the Son of God, which order was without father, without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days, nor end of life. And all those who are ordained unto this priesthood are made like unto the Son of God, abiding a priest continually."

    Thus according to the Joseph Smith Translation, it is the order which is eternal, and it is "all those who are ordained unto this priesthood" who are "made like unto the Son of God," and whose priesthood abides "continually." Should it not be a matter of deep concern that our Mormon friends feel free to produce their own version of Scripture when their doctrines demand it?

  5. Jesus is not the only Redeemer. Brigham Young informs us:

    "But the fact exists that the Father...sent his Son to die for us; and it is also a great fact that the Son came to do the will of the Father, and that he has paid the debt, in fulfilment of the Scripture which says, "He was the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world." Is it so on any other earth? On every earth. How many earths are there? I observed this morning that you may take the particles of matter composing this earth, and if they could be enumerated they would only be a beginning to the number of the creations of God; and they are continually coming into existence, and undergoing changes and passing through the same experience that we are passing through, Sin is upon every earth that ever was created, and if it was not so, I would like some philosophers to let us know how people can be exalted to become sons of God, and enjoy a fulness of glory with the Redeemer. Consequently every earth has its redeemer, (emphasis added) and every earth has its tempter; and every earth, and the people thereof, in their torn and time, receive all that we receive, and pass through all the ordeals that we are passing through." (J. D. 14:71)

    This view that Jesus is one redeemer among a great multitude of redeemers in the universe, demolishes one of the fundamental doctrines of the Bible, namely the teaching that "there is salvation in no one else; (apart from Jesus) since there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved." (Acts 4:12) Jesus said "no one comes to the Father but through me" (Jn 14:6); Paul tells us that there is but "one Lord one faith, one baptism (Eph. 4:5) and "one mediator between God and man the man Christ Jesus" (1 Tim. 2:5); the Hebrew writer tells us that Jesus is "the author and perfecter of faith" (Heb. 12:2), John tells us that eternal life is in God's son (1 Jn 5:11) and that He is "the first and the last and the living one" who possesses "the keys of death and of Hades." (Rev. 1:17, 18) The Mormon view that Jesus is one redeemer among many grows naturally out of the belief that there are many Gods ruling over many worlds, (see above) but sadly having jettisoned the Jesus of Scripture our Mormon friends have discarded humanity's one hope of salvation.

  6. The Mormon Jesus evolved to His present state. As Milton R. Hunter put it:

    "Jesus became a God and reached His great state of understanding through consistent effort and continuous obedience to all the Gospel truths and universal laws." (The Gospel Through the Ages p. 51 [emphasis added])

    Bruce McConkie says of Jesus:

    "He is the Firstborn of the Father. By obedience and devotion to the truth he attained that pinnacle of intelligence which ranked him as a God, as the Lord Omnipotent, while yet in his pre-existent state." (Mormon Doctrine p. 129)

    As we have shown above, the Jesus of the Bible is fully God (see (6 a) above) and God does not change (see (2) above). The evolving Jesus of Mormonism is not the Jesus of John, Paul and the other inspired writers of scripture. The Biblical Jesus has existed eternally, and since all things were created through Him and for him (Col. 1:16; Jn 1:3) there is no room for a multiplicity of Gods with their own worlds and kingdoms.

  7. Jesus is Jehovah but not Elohim

    Elder Boyd K. Packer of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles tells us that the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit are three Gods:

    "Anyone who believes and teaches of God the Father, and accepts the divinity of Christ, and of the Holy Ghost, teaches a plurality of Gods." (The Pattern of Our Parentage: Ensign, Nov. 1984, 66)

    Our Mormon friends identify the Father as the Biblical Elohim, and Jesus Christ as Jehovah:

    "Among the spirit children of Elohim, the first-born was and is Jehovah, or Jesus Christ, to whom all others are juniors." (Joseph Smith: Gospel Doctrine p. 70)

    Clearly this position cannot be harmonized with the monotheism of Scripture, and there are many instances in the Bible where the words "Jehovah" and "Elohim" are used together to refer to the one true God. (This may not be evident in many English translations where "Jehovah" is translated "Lord.") We find the first use of Jehovah Elohim ("Lord God") in Genesis 2:4 (and ff.). Evidently Elohim is from a word which means "to fear" and "depicts the one true God as the infinitely great and exalted One, who created the heavens and the earth and who preserves and governs every creature." (Keil and Delitzsche Old Testament Commentaries Vol 1) Jehovah is explained in Ex. 3:14 ("I AM WHO I AM" [Ex 3:14]) It is the proper personal name of God, depicting Him as the absolute, self-existent One, who enters into covenant relationships with man. Jehovah Elohim is used first in Genesis 2:4, likely to tell us that Jehovah is Elohim the creator of all, and also because it is here that we begin to learn of the Lord's dealing with man. Anyway the words "Jehovah" and "Elohim" are used literally dozens of times together in Scripture to refer to the one true God (e.g. Deut. 4:1; 6:4; Judges 5:3; 1 Samuel 2:30; Isa. 44:6) , and once again we are forced to conclude that on this point too our Mormon friends are involved in egregious error.

Concluding comment:

The God of Joseph Smith, Brigham Young and Orson Pratt is so very different from the God of Abraham, Moses and Paul that it is difficult to know where to conclude this brief study.

We have not discussed the so-called Adam-God doctrine promulgated first by Brigham Young but no longer taught by the LDS church. (In 1852 Young stated that "our father Adam came into the garden of Eden...and brought Eve, one of his wives, with him. He helped to make and organize this world. He is Michael, the Archangel, the Ancient of Days! about whom holy men have written and spoken-He is our Father and our God, and the only God with whom we have to do." [J.D. 1:50, 51] Some church leaders argue that Young was misquoted, but the evidence suggests that this is not the case.)

We have not discussed the infamous doctrine of Blood Atonement (officially denied by the LDS church today) according to which certain sins are beyond the reach of the atoning power of Christ's blood. (Young is on record as saying "It is true that the blood of the Son of God was shed for sins through the fall and those committed by men, yet men can commit sins which it can never remit." [J.D. 4:54 {emphasis added}] This position was openly endorsed by other Mormon leaders.) These and other doctrines could be cited as further examples of the disparity between the Mormon and the Biblical view of God, but hopefully enough has been said to make the point clear.

C.H. Spurgeon expressed the view that "Nothing will so enlarge the intellect, nothing so magnify the whole soul of man, as devout earnest, continued investigation of the great subject of the Deity." Amen! On the other hand it is also true that nothing will do us more damage and nothing will diminish our spiritual lives more than exchanging the truth of God for a lie, (Rom. 1:23) and sadly those who embrace the God(s) of Mormonism do just that. The Bible claims to reveal all that man's Creator intends for him to know about the One who gave him life, and there is good evidence that the Bible is inspired, indestructible and understandable. Let's make sure that we build our spiritual lives upon a sound foundation - namely the "living and abiding word of God." (1 Pet. 1:23)




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