FAIR is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing well-documented answers to criticisms of the doctrine, practice, and history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Latter-day Saint scripture/Supposed contradictions/Multiple versus single creators/Further Reading
Contents
- 1 Further reading
- 2 God the Father
- 3 Mormon beliefs regarding the characteristics of God
- 3.1 Jump to Subtopic:
- 3.2 Elohim and Jehovah in Mormonism
- 3.3 God's knowledge
- 3.4 Mormonism and biblical statements that "God is a Spirit"
- 3.5 Joseph Smith's King Follett discourse on the nature of God
- 3.6 Do Latter-day Saints actually believe in a practice called "Celestial sex"?
- 3.7 Criticisms regarding the character of God
- 3.8 Mormonism and the belief in the corporeality of God
- 4 Early teachings about God in the Book of Mormon, from Joseph Smith, and among Church members
- 5 Latter-day Saint views of the Trinity
- 6 Theodicy: The Problem of Evil
- 7 How Latter-day Saints worship God
- 8 Mormonism and the multiplicity of gods
- 9 Man's interaction with God
- 10 Jesus Christ
Further reading
Further reading
FAIR wiki
God the Father
Jump to Subtopic:
- Characteristics of God
- Early teachings
- Deification of man
- Trinity
- Theodicy
- Worship of God
- Multiplicity of Gods
- Interaction with God
- Heavenly Mother
Mormon beliefs regarding the characteristics of God
Jump to Subtopic:
- Elohim and Jehovah in Mormonism
- God's knowledge
- Mormonism and biblical statements that "God is a Spirit"
- Joseph Smith's King Follett discourse on the nature of God
- Do Latter-day Saints actually believe in a practice called "Celestial sex"?
- Criticisms regarding the character of God
- Mormonism and the belief in the corporeality of God
Elohim and Jehovah in Mormonism
Summary: It is claimed that Elohim, Jehovah, Adonai and other similar Old Testament Hebrew names for deity are simply different titles which emphasize different attributes of the "one true God." In support of this criticism, they cite Old Testament scriptures that speak of "the LORD [Jehovah] thy God [Elohim]" (e.g., Deuteronomy 4:2; 4:35; 6:4) as proof that these are different titles for the same God.
Jump to Subtopic:
God's knowledge
Summary: Most Latter-day Saints hold to unlimited foreknowledge. This has been the traditional view of most Christians since the post-New Testament period, and it is one doctrine that Joseph Smith didn't seem to question, as there are no revelations that address it. Indeed, it appears that most LDS leaders and scholars simply haven't questioned its veracity.
Jump to Subtopic:
Mormonism and biblical statements that "God is a Spirit"
Jump to Subtopic:
- Question: Does the Mormon doctrine that God has a physical body contradict the Bible's statement in John 4:24 that "God is a Spirit"?
- Question: Does the Book of Mormon teach that God is a spirit?
- Question: Is the doctrine that God the Father and Jesus Christ have physical bodies not Biblical?
- Question: How would a statement that "God is a spirit" be interpreted in ancient Judasism?
- Mormons have "picked up" discarded beliefs of early Christians
- Mormonism does not use the Nicene Creed, and invokes earlier Christian ideas that were overshadowed by Plato
- Question: What are the Lectures on Faith?
- Question: What does Lecture 5 of the Lectures on Faith say about the nature of God?
- Question: Did Joseph began his prophetic career with a "trinitarian" idea of God?
- Question: What are modern Church leader's views on the Lectures on Faith?
Joseph Smith's King Follett discourse on the nature of God
Jump to Subtopic:
- Question: Does what Joseph Smith taught about the creation of spirits contradict the scriptures?
- Question: What was Gordon B. Hinckley's opinion about the King Follett Discourse?
- Question: Why does TIME's report make it appear the Pres. Hinckley is downplaying Joseph Smith's statements in the King Follett Discourse?
- Question: Why didn't Gordon B. Hinckley say more about the King Follett Discourse in the TIME Magazine interview?
Do Latter-day Saints actually believe in a practice called "Celestial sex"?
Summary: Mormonism and the nature of God/"Celestial sex"
Jump to Subtopic:
- Question: Do Latter-day Saints believe in a practice called "celestial sex," and that this is the manner in which "spirit children" are formed?
- Question: What have Latter-day Saint leaders actually said about the method of procreation in the afterlife?
- Question: Did Bruce R. McConkie claim that our heavenly parents created our spirits "through some kind of sexual union"?
Criticisms regarding the character of God
Jump to Subtopic:
- Elder Jeffery R. Holland: "it is a characteristic of our age that if people want any gods at all, they want them to be gods who do not demand much"
- Question: Why would God send poisonous serpents to kill the Children of Israel?
- Question: Do Latter-day Saints believe in a "part-time racist" and "psychopathic schizophrenic" god?
- Question: Does the Book of Mormon refute Joseph Smith on the nature of God?
- Question: Did Elder Dallin Oaks say that "so-called Christianity sees God as an entirely different kind of being"?
Mormonism and the belief in the corporeality of God
Summary: Some Christians object to the Mormon belief that God has a physical body and human form by quoting scripture which says that "God is not a man" (e.g. Numbers 23:19, 1 Samuel 15:29, Hosea 11:9). Some have also asked how God can be material and do things like float and move through walls.
Jump to Subtopic:
- Question: Why do the Latter-day Saints believe God has a body?
- Question: What are the common objections to a belief in God's corporeality?
- Question: Does the doctrine that God has a physical body contradict the Bible?
- Question: If only God the Father had a physical body at the time Adam was created, why did He say 'Let us make man in OUR image'?
- Question: Since Mormons believe that God possesses a physical body, does that mean that He cannot be omnipresent?
- Question: Is the doctrine that God the Father and Jesus Christ have physical bodies not Biblical?
- Non-LDS Christian view of Joseph Smith's theology of divine embodiment
- Non-LDS Christian Stephen H. Webb: The "sameness of Jesus" and humanity
- Non-LDS Christian Stephen H. Webb: Mormonism an exciting mirror for other Christians
- Mormonism does not use the Nicene Creed, and invokes earlier Christian ideas that were overshadowed by Plato
- Mormons have "picked up" discarded beliefs of early Christians
- Non-LDS Christian Stephen H. Webb: Revelation versus "historical guesswork" about Jesus
- Mormons are not Arians
- "Smith would have held his own in debating with" Neo-Platonists, Gnostics, and early Christian theologians
- LDS doctrine rejects Neo-Plantonic accretions, but this does not make them automatically false
- Augustine's views about matter are perhaps less coherent than Joseph Smith's
- Non-LDS Christian Stephen H. Webb: Creedal Christians can learn from LDS views about Jesus Christ and creation
Early teachings about God in the Book of Mormon, from Joseph Smith, and among Church members
Jump to Subtopic:
- Early Mormon beliefs regarding the nature of God
- Lecture of Faith 5 teaches the Father is "a personage of spirit"
- Brigham Young's Adam-God theory
Early Mormon beliefs regarding the nature of God
Summary: Some evangelical Christians attempt to show that the LDS idea of deification is unbiblical, unchristian and untrue. They seem to think that this doctrine is the main reason why the LDS reject the Psychological Trinity.
Jump to Subtopic:
- Question: What is the historic church's concept of the Trinity and why do Mormons reject it?
- Question: Did Joseph begin his prophetic career with a "trinitarian" idea of God?
- Question: Does the Book of Mormon teach that Christ and the Father are a single individual expressing himself in different modes?
Lecture of Faith 5 teaches the Father is "a personage of spirit"
Summary: Lectures on Faith, which used to be part of the Doctrine and Covenants, teach that God is a spirit. Joseph Smith's later teachings contradict this. More generally, critics argue that Joseph Smith taught an essentially "trinitarian" view of the Godhead until the mid 1830s, thus proving the Joseph was "making it up" as he went along.
Jump to Subtopic:
- Question: What are the Lectures on Faith?
- Question: What does Lecture 5 of the Lectures on Faith say about the nature of God?
- Question: How would a statement that "God is a spirit" be interpreted in ancient Judasism?
- Question: Did Joseph began his prophetic career with a "trinitarian" idea of God?
- Question: What are modern Church leader's views on the Lectures on Faith?
- Question: Is the Father embodied or a spirit in the first edition of the Doctrine and Covenants?
Brigham Young's Adam-God theory
Summary: Brigham Young taught that Adam, the first man, was God the Father. Since this teaching runs counter to the story told in Genesis and commonly accepted by Christians, critics accuse Brigham of being a false prophet. Also, because modern Latter-day Saints do not believe Brigham's "Adam-God" teachings, critics accuse Mormons of either changing their teachings or rejecting teachings of prophets they find uncomfortable or unsupportable.
Jump to Subtopic:
- Question: What is the Adam-God Theory?
- Question: What is the history of Brigham Young's Adam-God Theory and why was it rejected by the Church?
- Stephen E. Robinson: "Yet another way in which anti-Mormon critics often misrepresent LDS doctrine is in the presentation of anomalies as though they were the doctrine of the Church"
- Matthew Brown (2009): "Brigham Young repeated these ideas and expounded upon them during the next 25 years. His viewpoints have been variously classified as doctrine, theory, paradox, heresy, speculation, and some of the mysteries"
- Question: If the Adam-God doctrine isn't true, how come D&C 27:11 calls Adam the Ancient of Days which is clearly a title for God in Daniel 7?
- Question: What attempts have been made to reconcile the Adam-God Theory with the doctrines of the Church?
- Question: Was the "Adam-God" theory ever taught as part of the temple endowment ceremony as something called "the lecture at the veil"?
Mormon belief in the deification of Man
Jump to Subtopic:
- Gospel Topics: "Latter-day Saints see all people as children of God in a full and complete sense"
- Question: Do Latter-day Saints believe that they will one day 'supplant' God?
- Question: What were the views of early Christians on the deification of man?
- Question: Was the Latter-day Saint concept of deification derived from Greek philosophy?
- Question: What Biblical scriptures discuss the doctrine of the deification of man?
- Question: If a person faithfully practices Mormonism during this life, do they become a god after they die?
- Question: Do Mormon men believe that they will become "gods of their own planets" and rule over others?
- Question: If God was once like us, does that mean that God was once a sinner?
- Question: What do Mormons believe regarding the nature of angels?
- Theosis
Latter-day Saint views of the Trinity
Summary: A collection of articles that address the Latter-day Saint view of the concept of the Trinity.
Jump to Subtopic:
Early Mormon beliefs regarding the nature of God
Summary: Some evangelical Christians attempt to show that the LDS idea of deification is unbiblical, unchristian and untrue. They seem to think that this doctrine is the main reason why the LDS reject the Psychological Trinity.
Jump to Subtopic:
- Question: What is the historic church's concept of the Trinity and why do Mormons reject it?
- Question: Did Joseph begin his prophetic career with a "trinitarian" idea of God?
- Question: Does the Book of Mormon teach that Christ and the Father are a single individual expressing himself in different modes?
Mormons and the Nicene Creed
Jump to Subtopic:
- Gospel Topics: "Latter-day Saints Do Not Accept the Creeds of Post–New Testament Christianity"
- Question: Does the definition of the Trinity predate the Nicene and Athanasian Creeds?
- Question: Does the Nicene Creed define who is Christian, and who is not?
- Mormonism does not use the Nicene Creed, and invokes earlier Christian ideas that were overshadowed by Plato
- Augustine's views about matter are perhaps less coherent than Joseph Smith's
- Question: Was Nicean Trinitarianism always a key part of Christian belief?
- Question: Why was Nicean Trinitarianism introduced at all?
- Question: What were early Christian beliefs on the nature of God?
- Question: Does the Bible contain also the necessary elements for Trinitarianism?
- Question: Are there new ideas necessary for creedal Trinitarianism?
- Question: What does John 10:30 have to do with Trinitarianism?
- Question: What does 1 John 5:7-8 have to do with Trinitariansim?
- Question: Is modern Trinitarianism understood in the same sense by all who accept it?
- LDS doctrine rejects Neo-Plantonic accretions, but this does not make them automatically false
- "Smith would have held his own in debating with" Neo-Platonists, Gnostics, and early Christian theologians
Theodicy: The Problem of Evil
Summary: This page discusses the problem of evil—can one believe in a good, just, loving God when one considers all the suffering and evil in the world?
Jump to Subtopic:
Why would a loving God allow the death of innocents?
Jump to Subtopic:
- Question: Why would a loving God would kill innocent children in the flood of Noah's day?
- Question: Why would a loving God kill the firstborn of Egypt? (Exodus 12:12)
- Joseph Fielding Smith: "This was also in the similitude of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ"
How Latter-day Saints worship God
Jump to Subtopic:
- Why do we worship or praise God?
- Do the Latter-day Saints use praise of God as part of their prayers and songs in worship?
- Question: Does the Church violate the Biblical command against "graven images" by displays sculptures of Christ?
Mormonism and the multiplicity of gods
Jump to Subtopic:
Mormonism and the concept of infinite regress of gods
Jump to Subtopic:
- Question:Is it true that Mormon doctrine teaches a "genealogy of gods," in which God the Father had/has a god, and this god had a god, and so forth?
- Gospel Topics, "Becoming Like God"
Mormons, polytheism and the Nicene Creed
Summary: Some non-LDS Christian claim that Latter-day Saints are polytheists because we don't believe the Nicene Creed. Others say Mormons are polytheists because they believe humans can become gods. Is this an accurate characterization of LDS belief?
Jump to Subtopic:
- Question: Are Mormons polytheists because they don't accept the Nicene Creed?
- Question: Are Christians monotheists?
- Question: What scriptures explain the Mormon view of Jesus' divine Sonship?
- Question: How is Mormon belief compatible with Isaiah's statement that beside the Lord "there is no God?"
- LDS trinitarian views are not polytheistic
- Mormons are not Arians
- Joseph Smith's theology is not pagan—his theology is vast as the multiverse, and eliminates Neo-Platonism and Augustine
- Common misrepresentation: Joseph Smith does not teach polytheism or "supplanting God" with his doctrine of human divination
- Gospel Topics on LDS.org, "Becoming Like God"
Man's interaction with God
Jump to Subtopic:
Mormonism and biblical statements that no man has seen God
Summary: It is claimed by some that the Bible teaches that God cannot be seen by mortals, and that therefore claims by Joseph Smith and others to have seen God the Father or Jesus Christ must be false. The most commonly used Biblical citation invoked by those who make this assertion is John 1:18, which reads “No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.”
Jump to Subtopic:
- Question: How could Joseph Smith have seen God if the Bible says that God cannot be seen by mortals?
- Question: Does Doctrine and Covenants 84 say that one cannot see God without holding the priesthood?
- Question: Why did Jesus say “Never have I showed myself unto man whom I have created” to the Brother of Jared, when Enoch and others had already seen Jehovah face to face?
- Interpreter: A Journal of Mormon Scripture, "Can a Man See God? 1 Timothy 6:16 in Light of Ancient and Modern Revelation"
Heavenly Mother
Jump to Subtopic:
- Gospel Topics: Our theology begins with heavenly parents. Our highest aspiration is to be like them
- Question: Do Latter-day Saints believe in a female divine person, a "Heavenly Mother" as counterpart to God, the Heavenly Father?
- Question: Are we allowed to pray to our "Heavenly Mother"?
- Question: Is it true that little is known about our Heavenly Mother because she is "protected"?
- Question: Is Heavenly Mother not talked about more because the prophets are sexist?
- BYU Studies Article: A Mother There
Jesus Christ
Jump to Subtopic:
- The Atonement of Jesus Christ
- Latter-day Saints and the symbol of the cross
- Latter-day Saint views of Jesus Christ
- Are Latter-day Saints Christians?
- The "Mormon" and the "Christian" Jesus
- Jesus as the Jewish Messiah
FairMormon web site
God FairMormon articles on-line |
- Corporeality
- Barry R. Bickmore, "Does God Have a Body In Human Form?"
- Roger Cook, "God's 'Glory:' More Evidence for the Anthropomorphic Nature of God in the Bible."
External links
God on-line articles |
- Donald Q. Cannon, Larry E. Dahl, and John W. Welch, "The Restoration of Major Doctrines through Joseph Smith: The Godhead, Mankind, and the Creation," Ensign 19 (January 1989), 27–33. off-site
- Gordon B. Hinckley, "In These Three I Believe," Ensign (July 2006), 3.off-site
- William O. Nelson, "Is the LDS View of God Consistent with the Bible?," Ensign (July 1987), 56.off-site
- Corporeality
- Jacob Neusner, "Conversation in Nauvoo about the Corporeality of God," Brigham Young University Studies 36 no. 1 (1996–97), 7–30.off-site
- David L. Paulsen, "The Doctrine of Divine Embodiment: Restoration, Judeo-Christian, and Philosophical Perspectives," Brigham Young University Studies 35 no. 4 (1995–96), 6–94. PDF link
- David L. Paulsen, "Divine Embodiment: The Earliest Christian Understanding of God," in Noel B. Reynolds (editor), Early Christians in Disarray: Contemporary LDS Perspectives on the Christian Apostasy (Provo, Utah: FARMS, 2005),239–293. ISBN 0934893020. off-site off-site
- Infinite regress of Gods?
- Geoff J. et al., "Yes, God the Father does have a Father," www.newcoolthang.com, blog post and discussion of 25 May 2006. off-site
This post and subsequent discussion demonstrates a wide range of approaches to the question of whether God the Father has a God "above" Him. - Blake T. Ostler, "Review of The Mormon Concept of God: A Philosophical Analysis by Francis J. Beckwith and Stephen E. Parrish," FARMS Review of Books 8/2 (1996): 99–146. off-site
- LDS doctrine and primary sources
- Van Hale, "The Doctrinal Impact of the King Follett Discourse," Brigham Young University Studies 18 no. 2 (1978), 209. PDF link
- Stan Larson, "The King Follett Discourse: A Newly Amalgamated Text"," Brigham Young University Studies 18 no. 2 (1978), 193. PDF link
- Joseph Smith, Jr., "Sermon in the Grove," (16 June 1844): all versions available off-site
- Trinitarian issues
- Barry R. Bickmore, "Not Completely Worthless (Review of: "Christ," In The Counterfeit Gospel of Mormonism)," FARMS Review of Books 12/1 (2000): 275–302. off-site
- Ari D. Bruening and David L. Paulsen, "The Development of the Mormon Understanding of God: Early Mormon Modalism and Other Myths (Review of: Mormonism and the Nature of God: A Theological Evolution)," FARMS Review of Books 13/2 (2001): 109–169. off-site
- Jeffrey R. Holland, "The Only True God and Jesus Christ Whom He Hath Sent," Ensign (November 2007), 40–42.off-site (Key source)
- Russell C. McGregor and Kerry A. Shirts, "Letters to an Anti-Mormon (Review of Letters to a Mormon Elder: Eye Opening Information for Mormons and the Christians Who Talk with Them)," FARMS Review of Books 11/1 (1999): 90–298. off-site
- Blake T. Ostler, "Review of The Mormon Concept of God: A Philosophical Analysis by Francis J. Beckwith and Stephen E. Parrish," FARMS Review of Books 8/2 (1996): 99–146. off-site
- David L. Paulsen and R. Dennis Potter, "How Deep the Chasm? A Reply to Owen and Mosser's Review," FARMS Review of Books 11/2 (1999): 221–264. off-site
- Daniel C. Peterson and Stephen D. Ricks, "Comparing LDS Beliefs with First-Century Christianity" (Provo, Utah: FARMS, no date). off-site
- Stephen E. Robinson, Are Mormons Christians? (Salt Lake City, Utah: Deseret Book Company, 1993). off-site FAIR link
Printed material
God printed materials |
- Corporeality
- Edmond LaB. Cherbonnier, "In Defense of Anthropomorphism," in Reflections on Mormonism: Judaeo-Christian Parallels, ed. Truman G. Madsen (Provo, UT: BYU Religious Studies Center, 1978), 155–173. ISBN 0884943585.
- Carl W. Griffin and David L. Paulsen, "Augustine and the Corporeality of God," Harvard Theological Review 95/1 (2002): 97–118.
- James L. Kugel, The God of Old: Inside the Lost World of the Bible (Free Press, 2003), xi–xii, 5–6, 104–106, 134–135.
- David L. Paulsen, "Early Christian Belief in a Corporeal Deity: Origen and Augustine as Reluctant Witnesses," Harvard Theological Review 83/2 (1990): 105–116.
- Daniel C. Peterson, "On the Motif of the Weeping God in Moses 7," in Revelation, Reason, and Faith: Essays in Honor of Truman G. Madsen, ed. Donald W. Parry, Daniel C. Peterson, and Stephen D. Ricks (Provo, UT: FARMS, 2002), 285–317. ISBN 0934893713.
- Clark Pinnock, Most Moved Mover: A Theology of God’s Openness (Baker Academic, 2001), 33–34.
- Roland J. Teske, "Divine Immutability in Saint Augustine," Modern Schoolman 63 (May 1986): 233.
- LDS doctrine and primary sources
- Blake T. Ostler, Exploring Mormon Thought Vol. 1: The Attributes of God (Salt Lake City, Utah: Greg Kofford Books, 2001). ISBN 1589580036. ISBN 978-1589580039.
- Blake T. Ostler, Exploring Mormon Thought Vol. 2: The Problems With Theism And the Love of God (Salt Lake City, Utah: Greg Kofford Books, 2006). ISBN 1589580958. ISBN 978-1589580954.
- Reviews of Beckwith and Parrish
- James E. Faulconer, "review of The Mormon Concept of God, by Francis J. Beckwith and Stephen E. Parrish," Brigham Young University Studies 32 no. 1–2 (1992).
- Blake T. Ostler, "Review of The Mormon Concept of God: A Philosophical Analysis by Francis J. Beckwith and Stephen E. Parrish," FARMS Review of Books 8/2 (1996): 99–146. off-site
- David Paulsen and Blake Ostler, “F. J. Beckwith and S. E. Parrish, The Mormon Concept of God: A Philosophical Analysis,” International Journal for Philosophy of Religion 35/2 (1994): 118–20.
- L. Shane Hopkins, “Assessing the Arguments in The Mormon Concept of God: A Philosophical Analysis” (honors thesis, Brigham Young University, 1999).
- Trinitarian issues
- Timothy W. Bartel, "The Plight of the Relative Trinitarian," Religious Studies 24/2 (June 1988).
- Jean Daniélou, The Theology of Jewish Christianity, trans. John A. Baker (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1964).
- Jean Daniélou, Gospel Message and Hellenistic Culture, trans. John A. Baker (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1973).
- E. Feser, "Has Trinitarianism Been Shown to Be Coherent?," Faith and Philosophy 14/1 (January 1997).
- Adolf von Harnack, History of Dogma, trans. Neil Buchanan, 7 vols. (New York: Dover, 1961).
- Edwin Hatch, The Influence of Greek Ideas and Usages upon the Christian Church (1914; reprint, Gloucester, Mass.: Smith, 1970).
- James L. Kugel, The God of Old: Inside the Lost World of the Bible (Free Press, 2003), xi–xii, 5–6, 104–106, 134–135.
- Clark Pinnock, Most Moved Mover: A Theology of God’s Openness (Baker Academic, 2001), 33–34.
- James Shiel, Greek Thought and the Rise of Christianity (New York: Barnes and Noble, 1968).
- Christopher Stead, Philosophy in Christian Antiquity (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994).
- Harry A. Wolfson, The Philosophy of the Church Fathers, vol. 1, rev. 3rd ed. (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1970).