Biblical Concept: Comparative Religions, Mormons
Describing Their gods
The Judeo-Christian
Scriptures describe God as follows:
Psalm
90:2, “Before the mountains were born, or Thou didst give birth to the earth
and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, Thou art God.” (The
underline is mine.)
Isaiah
46:9, “Remember the former things long past, for I am God, and there is no
other; I am God, and there is no one like Me.” (The
underlines are mine.)
Isaiah
43:10, “You are My witnesses,” declares the LORD, “And My servant whom I have
chosen, in order 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.” (The
underline is mine.)
Compare how Mormons
describe their gods:
God himself was once as we
are now, and is an exalted man, and sits enthroned in yonder heavens! . . . 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 dwelt on an earth, the same as Jesus Christ himself did. . . . ”(Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith,
p. 321).
“In the beginning, the head
of the Gods called a council of the Gods; and they came together and concocted
a plan to create the world and people it” (Teachings
of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 349).
“The Father has a body of flesh and bones as tangible as man’s: the Son also;
but the Holy Ghost has not a body of flesh and bones, but is a personage of
Spirit ” (Doctrine and Covenants,
130:22).
“Gods exist, and we had better strive to be prepared to be one with them”
(Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses,
7:238).
“As man is, God once was: as God is, man may become” (Prophet Lorenzo Snow,
quoted in Milton R. Hunter, The Gospel
Through the Ages, 105–106).
“Each of these Gods, including Jesus Christ and His Father, being in possession
of not merely an organized spirit, but a glorious immortal body of flesh and
bones ” (Parley P. Pratt, Key to the
Science of Theology, ed. 1978, 23).
“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” (Abraham 4:1).
“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”
(Apostle Orson Hyde, Journal of
Discourses, 1:123).
“Mormon prophets have continuously taught the sublime truth that God the
Eternal Father was once a mortal man who passed through a school of earth life
similar to that through which we are now passing. He became God—an exalted
being—through obedience to the same eternal Gospel truths that we are given
opportunity today to obey” (Milton R. Hunter, The Gospel Through the Ages, p. 104).
“Christ was the God, the Father of all things. Behold, I am Jesus Christ. I am
the Father and the Son” (Mosiah
7:27 and Ether 3:14, Book of Mormon).
“When our father Adam came into the garden of Eden, he came into it with a
celestial body, and brought Eve, one of his wives, with him. He helped to make
and organized this world. He is MICHAEL, the
“How much unbelief exists in
the minds of the Latter-day Saints in regard to one particular doctrine which I
revealed to them, and which God revealed to me—namely that Adam is our father
and God.
“ ‘Well,’ says one, ‘Why was Adam called Adam?’
He was the first man on the earth, and its framer and maker. He with the help
of his brethren brought it into existence. Then he said, ‘I want my children
who are in the spirit world to come and live here. I once dwelt upon an earth
something like this, in a mortal state. I was faithful, I received my crown and
exaltation’ ”(Brigham Young; Deseret News, June 18, 1873, 308).
"[A] plurality of gods
exist . . . there is an infinite number of holy personages, drawn from worlds
without number, who have passed on to exaltation and are thus gods."
(Mormon theologian and apostle Bruce McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, pp.
576-577.)
“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.” (Teachings of the
Prophet Joseph Smith, pp. 345-347)
"[T]hat God the Father
was once a man on another planet who 'passed the ordeal we are now passing
through. . . '" (Brigham Young, Teachings of the Presidents of the
Church: Brigham Young, p. 29).
"God is a glorified and
perfected man, a personage of flesh and bones. Inside his tangible body is an
eternal spirit." (Doctrine and Covenants 130:22)
Conclusions:
Mormons claim to
be Christians. Employing the terms God
and Jesus Christ in a religious fashion does not make one a Christian.[1] Believing in the Biblical Savior Jesus Christ
makes one a Christian.
[1] NAS Matthew 7:21 "Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven; but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven. 22 "Many will say to Me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?' 23 "And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.' (The underlines are mine.)