Mormonism’s God

Mormonism’s god has been described by various Mormon officials, and yet the LDS church today wants to act as if some of the ideas presented were just opinions.  Let’s look at some of what Mormons have been taught over the years, none of which is compatible with the God of the Jews and Christians.

The first concept to review can be found at:

http://www.utlm.org/onlineresources/sermons_talks_interviews/smithpluralityofgodssermon.htm

It is a sermon by Joseph Smith on June 16, 1844, just eleven days before he was killed in a shoot-out (no, he was not martyred - he fought back).  I will just post excerpts.

It has been my intention for a long time to take up this subject and lay it clearly before the people, and show what my faith is in relation to this interesting matter. I have contemplated the saying of Jesus (Luke 17th chapter, 26th verse)—"And as it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of Man." And if it does rain, I'll preach this doctrine, for the truth shall be preached.

I will preach on the plurality of Gods. I have selected this text for that express purpose. I wish to declare I have always and in all congregations when I have preached 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 that 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!

We can immediately see that Smith believed in and taught multiple gods versus the Bible’s one, and only one, GOD.  And if you take the time to read the entire text, you will see how much he had to mangle Scripture to “prove” his case.

I have it from God, and get over it if you can. I have a witness of the Holy Ghost, and a testimony that Paul had no allusion to the heathen gods in the text. I will show from the Hebrew Bible that I am correct, and the first word shows a plurality of Gods; and I want the apostates and learned men to come here and prove to the contrary, if they can.  (my emphasis)

Notice that Smith said he received this information directly from God - a direct revelation.

The head God organized the heavens and the earth. I defy all the world to refute me. In the beginning the heads of the Gods organized the heavens and the earth.

Notice Smith has a “head” god and all he did was “organize the heavens and the earth” - he did not create them!  This is contrary to the Bible, which has ONE God who created everything.

The heads of the Gods appointed one God for us; and when you take [that] view of the subject, it sets one free to see all the beauty, holiness and perfection of the Gods.

Notice now that the god of the earth has been appointed by numerous “heads of the Gods.”

Many men say there is one God; the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost are only one God! I say that is a strange God anyhow—three in one, and one in three! It is a curious organization. ... All are to be crammed into one God, according to sectarianism. It would make the biggest God in all the world. He would be a wonderfully big God—he would be a giant or a monster.

Rather than try to understand the doctrine of the Trinity, Smith mocked it and made a polytheistic universe.

I learned it by translating the papyrus which is now in my house. I learned a testimony concerning Abraham, and he reasoned concerning the God of heaven.

This is an interesting claim about the Book of Abraham, which has been proven beyond a doubt to be a fraud.  Smith did not translate the Egyptian funeral document, no did he get ANY information from it, and yet he makes a claim for his polytheism based on the BoA as well as direct revelation.

If Abraham reasoned thus—If Jesus Christ was the Son of God, and John discovered that God the Father of Jesus Christ had a Father, you may suppose that He had a Father also. Where was there ever a son without a father? And where was there ever a father without first being a son? Whenever did a tree or anything spring into existence without a progenitor? And everything comes in this way. Paul says that which is earthly is in the likeness of that which is heavenly, Hence if Jesus had a Father, can we not believe that He had a Father also? I despise the idea of being scared to death at such a doctrine, for the Bible is full of it.  I want you to pay particular attention to what I am saying. Jesus said that the Father wrought precisely in the same way as His Father had done before Him. As the Father had done before. He laid down His life, and took it up the same as His Father had done before. He did as He was sent, to lay down His life and take it up again; and then was committed unto Him the keys, &c. I know it is good reasoning.

Without biblical support, Smith claimed that the Apostle John discovered that God the Father had a father; where in scripture did he find this?  Then he also made a claim about Jesus speaking of God’s father - where is this in the Bible?

“Go and read the vision in the Book of Covenants.”

Smith appeals to a vision he claimed he had, a vision which defies Scripture.  Since he has been proven a false prophet, that his visions never happened, why should anyone refer to a false vision for verification?

The scriptures are a mixture of very strange doctrines to the Christian world, who are blindly led by the blind.

A very ironic statement from the man who had truly strange doctrines, who was spiritually blind and has been leading the spiritually blind for over 180 years.

Another piece of “Smithism” is Doctrine & Covenants 130:22 wherein Smith says, “The Father has a body of flesh and bones as tangible as man’s.”

What about the 2nd Prophet/President of Mormons, Brigham Young? On April 9, 1852 Brigham taught that Adam was God!  Exactly how this works out with Joseph’s teachings is unclear.  But let’s look at some of this sermon:

Our God and Father in heaven, is a being of tabernacle, or, in other words, He has a body, with parts the same as you and I have;

Looking at these two last statements - one by Smith and one by Young - I wonder why, then, that the Bible would say God is “Spirit” (John 4:24)?  And that a Spirit doesn’t have “flesh and bones” (Luke 24:39)?

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 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

Whoa up there!  Let’s see, Adam was already married to Eve and brought her with him to the Garden of Eden.  (Doesn’t this contradict Genesis 1 and 2?.)  Then Young states that Adam helped to “make and organize this world,” yet the Bible says that Adam himself was created on the last day of God’s creative work!  Wait, then Young said Adam is Michael the Archangel, yet angels are separate creations from man in the Bible.  Further, Michael is also “the ANCIENT OF DAYS,” but Daniel 7 says this is God the Father, who also happens to be the creator of all angels. But wait, Adam is also “our God, and the only God with who WE have to do.”  So God created himself as Adam the man, but really created Adam the angel who just happened to be man at the same time, but who is also God?!?  So God created himself? 

They came here, organized the raw material, and arranged in their order the herbs of the field, the trees, the apple, the peach, the plum, the pear, and every other fruit that is desirable and good for man; the seed was brought from another sphere, and planted in this earth. The thistle, and thorn, the brier, and the obnoxious weed did not appear until after the earth was cursed.

So Adam/God and his wife Eve came to earth with seeds from another planet (directed panspermia?) and organized it all into all the plants?  Does that mean someone else brought weed and thorn seeds from another planet after the curse?  Or did God come as another man with another wife to do this?

And who is the Father? He is the first of the human family; and when he took a tabernacle, it was begotten by his Father in heaven, after the same manner as the tabernacles of Cain, Abel, and the rest of the sons and daughters of Adam and Eve; from the fruits of the earth, the first earthly tabernacles were originated by the Father, and so on in succession.

This does go along with Smith’s teaching here, in that Brigham says God was once a human who had his own “Father in heaven,” “and so on in succession.”  However, Smith never said God was “the first of the human family,” i.e., Adam.

It is true that the earth was organized by three distinct characters, namely, Eloheim, Yahovah, and Michael, these three forming a quorum, as in all heavenly bodies, and in organizing element, perfectly represented in the Deity, as Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

So, the earth was not created, rather it was “organized” out of eternal matter, and this organization was done by “three distinct characters.”  Why does the Bible say God alone created the earth? And we now have another identity - that of the Holy Ghost being Michael!  But I thought Michael was Adam and Adam is the Father?  Are you as confused as I am?

In the June 18, 1873 edition of the Deseret News, on p.308, Brigham Young declared this doctrine was revealed to him by God:

How much unbelief exists in the minds of Latter-day Saints in regard to one particular doctrine which is revealed to them, and which God revealed to me - namely that Adam is our father and God.

So if the Adam-God doctrine was revealed by God to a prophet/president of the LDS church, then Mormons cannot logically deny this belief, so instead claim that Brigham Young misunderstood God!!!!  Another charge, of course, is that the sermon was “erroneously transcribed.”  Contrary to plain history and the documents to back it up, Spencer W. Kimball said this doctrine was “alleged to have been taught.” LDS apostles have even called this a heresy.  Regardless of the fact that Young stated it was revealed to him by God, many LDS officials denounce the teaching and claim Brigham Young just “expressed views.”

This article just scratches the surface of the many facets of the false god of Mormonism, a god who may or may not have been Adam in the Garden of Eden, a god who is fully human and who worked his way to become a god rather than the eternal God of the Bible, and as a fully human god it is impossible for him to be omnipresent and omniscient as the true God of true Christians.


(More on the god of Mormonism can be found at Mormonism Research Ministry)