To start, let’s discuss some of the most basic misconceptions about Mormonism, to do so we need to address some doctrinal points that make our religion what it is.

According to the first of the LDS Articles of Faith, “We believe in God, the Eternal Father, and in His Son, Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost.”1 We believe that they are three distinct and separate personages.  The Father and the Son have bodies of flesh and bone, and the Holy Ghost is a spirit.  Which brings us to our first general misconception about how we view the Godhead.

The basis for this post comes from “References: Mormon vs Biblical Teachings about God” The apparent site creator Micheal Davis tries to compare our understanding of the nature of the Godhead to the accepted Christian belief.

The items that Davis addresses are as follows with the LDS standpoint first:

1. God is only one of many gods vs. There is only one God
2. Jesus, God the Father, and the Holy Spirit are three distinct Gods vs. There is one God with three distinct persons in the godhead
3. God was once a man who achieved godhood vs. God is unchangeable, has always been, will always be God
4. God has flesh and bones vs. God is a Spirit, omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent
5. God has eternal wives vs. God stands alone as God and Creator
6. Adam was the God of this world vs. Adam was only a created man

These may seem contradicting but lets look deeper into the doctrine:

Numbers 1 and 2

They coincide with each other.  We believe that God the Eternal Father is God, no surprise there I hope, we also believe that Jesus Christ His Son is also a God, I hope this is also no surprise to anyone.  Now, if we use basic arithmetic, we have two Gods which we believe are two separate personages but they are the same is every way imaginable.  So yes we do believe in a plurality of Gods and here is some of what we feel is scriptural evidence:

John the baptist baptizes the Savior

“And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him:  And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”

Mathew 3:16,17

When Jesus Christ was baptized the heavens opened and Heavenly Father declared that Christ was His beloved Son, we believe that this among other things signify that God and Christ are two separate beings that are perfect and in complete unity with one another, the Holy Ghost is also a member of the Godhead.

Elder Jeffrey R Holland, one of the twelve of our Latter Day Apostles, said that

“We believe these three divine persons constituting a single Godhead are united in purpose, in manner, in testimony, in mission. We believe Them to be filled with the same godly sense of mercy and love, justice and grace, patience, forgiveness, and redemption. I think it is accurate to say we believe They are one in every significant and eternal aspect imaginable except believing Them to be three persons combined in one substance.”2

We believe that they are “one” in the sense that they are one in purpose, that they think as one and act as one. They are perfect beings having one mission, which is the plan of salvation, “to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.” Moses 1:39

Stephen during his last moments of life,” being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up stedfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God and said, Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God.”  ACTS 7:55,56 Stephen saw two beings in the heavens.

When Jesus was asked by the apostles to teach them how to pray he addresses His Father, “Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth.” St Luke 11:2 Christ offers the Lord’s Prayer and opens the prayer by calling upon His and our Father in Heaven.

Besides these wonderfully insightful passages in the New Testament we also believe in current revelation and that God the Father and Jesus Christ came to Joseph Smith (the first prophet of our time)  in answer to a faithful prayer. Joseph said in his own words, “I saw two Personages, whose brightness and glory defy all description, standing above me in the air. One of them spake unto me, calling me by name and said, pointing to the other—This is My Beloved Son. Hear Him!” Joseph Smith-History 1:17

We in the LDS church believe that God the Father and Jesus Christ appeared to Joseph and spoke unto him “face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend.” Ex 33:11 Just as God appeared to Moses thousands of years earlier.

Number 4

Of course we believe that God is omniscient, omnipresent and omnipotent, all things are before his face. The only contradictory case in number 4 is the age old question of who is God? What does He look like?

Jesus himself stood in the midst of them, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you…  Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have. And when he had thus spoken, he shewed them his hands and his feet.  And while they yet believed not for joy, and wondered, he said unto them, Have ye here any meat? And they gave him a piece of a broiled fish, and of an honeycomb.  And he took it, and did eat before them…  And said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day…  And ye are witness of these things.

St Luke 24:36-48

After completing the atonement, Jesus Christ was resurrected into His perfect human form. He was exalted and glorified but He was still a human man. He ate food and allowed his apostles to touch his resurrected body. The God, Jesus Christ, is in every sense a human being. We know that God has a body just as Christ does also, “Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high” Hebrews 1:3

We believe that God and Jesus Christ have bodies of flesh and bone also because we have bodies of flesh and bone, “For in him we live, and move, and have our being… For we are also his offspring.” Acts 17:28 and we, His children, are created in his image according to Genesis 1:26, “And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.”  We believe that God has a body because we have bodies and we are created in His image.

Christ came to earth and took upon himself a mortal body which looks just like ours and was resurrected and is glorified in that very same body for ever and ever.

Topics 3,5 and 6 will be discussed in posts to come…