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MORMON THEOLOGY |
CHRISTIAN RESPONSE |
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The Church has 4 Standard Works that
are authoritative: The Bible (in so far as it is
translated correctly), the Book of Mormon, Doctrine &
Covenants, and Pearl of Great Price. Speeches and
writings of the current president of the church are also
authoritative. The Bible is far below the other
standard Works because it is full of errors (wherever it
disagrees with Mormon doctrine). |
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The
only authoritative scriptures given by God are the 39
books of the Old Testament and the New Testament of the
Bible. God promised to preserve his word and to
suggest that the Bible was mistranslated and corrupted
would be to call God a liar. If God were to give
additional revelations they would be consistent with any
prior revelations thus eliminating Mormon writings,
since they stand in direct opposition to the divine
revelation that has already been given in the Bible. |
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One God |
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There are many Gods. Brigham
Young-Journal of Discourses 7:333 "How many Gods there are,
I do not know. But there never was a time when there
were not Gods. |
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There is only one God. (Dt 6:4; 33:26-27; Isa
43:10; 45:5; 46:9; 1Ti 2:5) |
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The Nature of God |
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God the Father is an exalted man (a
man who has progressed to godhood) with a body of flesh and
bones.
Teachings of the Prophet Joseph
Smith, 1973 ed., p. 346 - "God himself was once as we are
now, and is an exalted man...I say, if you were to see him
today, you would see him like a man in a form-like
yourselves in all the person, image, and very form as a man."
D & C 130:22 "The Father
has a body of flesh and bones as tangible as man's; the Son
also." |
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The
Bible is most explicit in stating that God is not a man
(Nu 23:19; 1Sa 15:29; Hos 11:9). God the Father,
the eternal God is Spirit (Isa 55:8-9; 6:1-5; 57:15; Pss
90:2; 113:5-6; 123:1; Jn 4:24: 8:23) Jesus said
that a spirit does not have flesh and bones (Lk 24:39) |
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God the Father became a God after
learning truth, aggressively pursuing godhood, and being
obedient to the laws of the gospel. |
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God
the Father has always existed as such (Dt 33:27; Isa
43:10; 44:6; 45:5, 21; 46:9; Mal 3:6; 1Co 8:4; 1Ti 2:5;
Rev 1:8; 21:6; 22:13). |
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As
Psalms 90:2 and 93:2 state, God has been God "from
eternity to eternity." |
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God the Father has a wife, through
whom he procreates spirit children.
"Implicit in the Christian verity that
all men are the spirit children of an Eternal Father is the
usually unspoken truth that they are also the offspring of
an Eternal Mother. An exalted and glorified Man of
Holiness (Moses 6:57) could not be a Father unless a Woman
of like glory, perfection, and holiness was associated with
him as a Mother" (Mormon Doctrine, 1977 ed., p. 516) |
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The
Godhead determined to make man in their image, not to
procreate spirit children (Ge 1:26). Nowhere does
Scripture even hint at the existence of an Eternal
Mother. |
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God is not a uniquely eternal being.
All spirit is self-existent matter and is eternal (without
beginning or end). Such "matter (called intelligences)
sometimes becomes organized into a spirit being through
birth to celestial parents. Then that spirit is born
through human parents on earth. Like all people, God
took this course and eventually reached Godhood.
God would stop being God if
intelligences stopped supporting him as God.
(D&C 93:29, 33; Abraham 3:18-23;
Mormon Doctrine, 1977 ed. p. 751) |
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God
is not God unless He is all-powerful, all knowing,
absolutely in charge. If God exists only as God
because of support given from other intelligent forms,
He is not God at all (Isa 44:6; Ro 3:4; Rev 1:8; 21:6;
22:13) |
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God
is unchangingly omnipotent, and no purpose of His can be
thwarted. He is not overruled by anyone (Ge 17:1;
Job 36:22-23; 42:2; Isa 14:26-27; 40:13-14; Jer 32:27;
Mt 19:26; Lk 1:37; Ac 17:24-25; Rev 19:6) |
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Man and Sin |
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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 93:29)
Life, intelligence, mind, the 'light
of truth' , or whatever name one gives to the center of the
personality of man, is an uncreated, eternally existent,
indestructible entity...In the first stage, man was an
eternally existent being termed an intelligence...The next
realm where man dwelt was the spirit
world....eternally-existing intelligences were clothed with
spirit bodies...numerous sons and daughters were begotten
and born of heavenly parents into that eternal family in the
spirit world" (The Gospel Through the ages, pp.126-127) |
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Man
is a finite being, not an eternal one. The first
man Adam was created at a specific point in time (Ge
1:26-27; 2:7; 1Co 15:45-49). Man did not exist in
the beginning when God was creating the universe, for if
he had, God's question to Job would have made no sense
(Job 38:4). Man was created lower than the angels,
so that David wondered why God is even mindful of him
(Ps 8:3-5; 144:3). Not a single verse in the
Bible suggests that God has a wife, but Isaiah 44:24
explicitly says that the Lord made all things by
Himself. Moreover, several passages in Isaiah
indicate that there is only one God and there is none
beside Him (44:8; 45:6) or like Him (46:9). |
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"...these spirit children were
organized, possessing divine, eternal, and godlike
attributes, inherited from their Heavenly Father and Mother.
There in the spirit world they were reared to maturity,
becoming grown spirit men and women prior to coming upon
this earth" (The Gospel Through the Ages, p. 127).
"Jesus is man's spiritual brother.
We dwelt with Him in the spirit world as members of that
large society of eternal intelligences, which included our
Heavenly Parents and all the personages who have become
mortal beings upon this earth or who ever shall come here to
dwell...Jesus was the 'firstborn,' and so He is our eldest
brother" (Ibid., p.21) |
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Jesus was and is Almighty God from everlasting to
everlasting. He is the creator of all that exists
and is "firstborn" over all creation in the sense that
He is the preeminent originator of life and the universe
(Mic 5:2; Ps 90:2; Jn 1:1-3; Ac 3:14-15; Col 1:16-17;
Heb 1:2). This meaning for the word "firstborn"
can be understood by comparing Genesis 41:51-52, which
states that Manasseh was Joseph's "firstborn" son while
Ephraim was the second, with Jeremiah 31:9, where God
calls Ephraim the "firstborn." Obviously,
"firstborn" does not always mean the one literally born
first. |
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Death and sin came through the fall of
Adam and Eve. But their deed was not actually a "sin."
It was really a blessing because it enabled man to continue
progressing on toward eternal life. "They (the
Christian world) have been long taught that Adam and Eve
were great transgressors...We, the children of
Adam....should rejoice with them, that through their fall
and the atonement of Jesus Christ, the way of eternal life
has been opened up to us" (Articles of Faith, p. 476) |
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Rejoicing is hardly the proper response to Adam's sin.
Because of that sin, both Adam and Eve died spiritually
and their physical bodies began to deteriorate.
Eve was given pain and sorrow in child-bearing, Adam was
required to work and sweat in order to eat, the entire
creation was cursed, they were thrown out of the Garden
forever, and the entire human race was destined to be
born dead in sins and children of god's wrath by nature.
To rejoice in the fall of man is to embrace Satan's lie.
It was Satan who deceived Eve by convincing her that sin
was good and would bring her knowledge and reward.
(Ge 3:16-24; Ro 3:23; 5:12-15, 17-19; 8:19-22 Eph 2:1-5;
1Jn 3:4) |
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The Doctrine of Salvation |
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Christ's death on the cross (the
atonement) canceled the penalty of death imposed on ALL men
through Adam's sin, thereby ensuring that all men would be
redeemed - resurrected and given immortality (the reuniting
of spirit with body)-as a gift.
"If there had been no atonement,
temporal death would have remained forever, and there never
would have remained forever, and there never would have been
a resurrection. The body would have remained forever
in the grave" (Mormon Doctrine, 1977 ed., p.63)
"Redemption from death, through the
sufferings of Christ, is for all men, both the righteous and
the wicked" (Ibid., p. 65)
"Immortality is a free gift which
comes by grace alone without works on man's part" (Ibid., p.
377) |
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Not
everyone is blessed through Christ's crucifixion.
Only those who accept His sacrifice and surrender
themselves to Him (Ro 10:9) will receive the benefit of
Jesus' death and resurrection, which is forgiveness of
sins (Ac 10:43) and salvation (Ro 3:24). Eternal
life "in Christ," and not just simply eternal existence
through resurrection, is the gift offered by God to
humanity (Ro 6:23). This gift is obtainable only
by grace through faith (Eph 2:8-10). |
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Jesus' death serves to reconcile all believers to God
(Ro 5:10). In dying, Jesus broke down the wall of
separation between us and God that was present through
man's disobedience to the Law (Eph 2:11-22) |
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