Modern Worldviews and the Deity of Christ

Part 3: The Polytheism of Mormonism and the Monotheistic Deity of Christ

By Robert M. Bowman Jr.

[The first two installments of this series are available at Part 1 and Part 2.]

The term Mormonism is a common nickname for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, whose members prefer to be called Latter-day Saints rather than Mormons. The term derives from the Book of Mormon, which Joseph Smith published in 1830 weeks before formally establishing the religion.

Latter-day Saints accept the facts reported about Jesus in the Gospels, such as his miracles, death, resurrection, and ascension. However, they view Jesus in the context of a polytheistic worldview—the belief in many gods. Ironically, this worldview is not presented in the Book of Mormon, which teaches that the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost (the LDS preferred title for the Holy Spirit) are one God (2 Nephi 31:21; Mormon 7:7; see also Mosiah 15:4–5). Instead, LDS polytheism derives from Joseph’s later teachings, with the fully developed worldview coming toward the end of his life.[1]

In 1842 Joseph Smith published the Book of Abraham, a scriptural text he claimed to have translated from ancient Egyptian papyrus containing the writings of Abraham. The book’s main doctrinal claim is that a group of great spirits (apparently including Abraham) were sent down by God somewhere with “space” to take some existing “materials” and “make an earth” (Abraham 3:22–24). The concluding chapters that follow this revelation are a revision of Genesis 1–2 based on the King James Version. Instead of referring to “God” as the one who “created the heavens and the earth” (Gen. 1:1), the Book of Abraham says that “they went down at the beginning, and they, that is, the Gods, organized and formed the heavens and the earth” (Abraham 4:1). In all, Abraham 4–5 refers to “the Gods” 48 times.

The following year, in what was later published as a section of the LDS scripture Doctrine and Covenants, Joseph taught that God the Father lives “on a globe like a sea of glass and fire” and “has a body of flesh and bones as tangible as man’s” (D&C 130:7, 22). In a notorious section in this collection, Joseph taught that those who faithfully entered into marriage for eternity through the LDS religious system would be exalted and become all-powerful gods (D&C 132:19–20).

Two sermons Joseph preached in 1844 shortly before his death, though not included in the LDS scriptures, played an outsized role in the formation of LDS theology. According to Joseph’s “King Follett Discourse,” God has not always been God but rather was a man like us who went through a process of exaltation to become a God—a process open to us as well. In “the Sermon at the Grove,” Joseph spelled out some of the implications. The Father, Son, and Holy Ghost are three Gods, not one God (flatly contradicting the Book of Mormon). The Father had a Father who was his God before him—implying, at least, an infinite regress of Gods (though not all Mormons accept this idea).[2]

Later LDS prophets worked out further implications of Joseph’s polytheism. Heavenly Father has a wife, known as heavenly Mother, and all human beings were their sons and daughters with “spirit bodies” before coming to the earth in physical bodies so as to begin making progress toward potentially becoming Gods themselves. Within this polytheistic worldview, Mormons believe that Jesus was the firstborn spirit child of our heavenly parents. Somehow and at some unspecified point he became a God in heaven (named Jehovah, in their theology a deity second to Elohim the Father) before receiving a physical body—which, as explained above, is not the usual process in LDS theology. Christ then came to earth as the “only begotten Son of God in the flesh,” by which Mormons mean that God the Father and Mary somehow were the literal parents of Jesus in his mortal body. Although he is a God, it is not proper to address prayer to Jesus (Mormonism is unclear about worshiping him).[3]

I have gone into considerable detail in describing LDS Church teaching on these subjects in order to clear up a common misunderstanding often perpetuated by Mormons themselves. The difference between LDS theology and traditional Christian theology is not merely that Mormons view the three divine persons as three beings whereas the doctrine of the Trinity views them as one being. LDS theology is situated within an entirely different worldview in which God is not the absolute being to whom everything owes its very existence. Rather, “God” is a status that the three members of the Godhead attained (at different times and in different ways), that others (may have) attained before them, that at least one other being (heavenly Mother) and perhaps others have also attained, and that others—including us!—may attain after them. It is the world of space, time, and matter that is uncreated and truly eternal in its intrinsic nature; the Gods are simply the ultimate advanced beings in the world.

Let’s clear something else up. The Hebrew noun elohim used in Genesis 1:1 and throughout the Old Testament is plural in form but used in a singular sense (“God,” not “gods”) in reference to the Creator. The Hebrew text uses a singular verb for “created” in Genesis 1:1, making it clear that elohim functions there as a singular noun. This is the customary practice throughout the Hebrew Old Testament. The New Testament, when it quotes Old Testament texts using elohim, translates it with the singular Greek noun theos, “God” (e.g., Matt. 22:34, quoting Exod. 3:6).

The biblical worldview is dramatically different from the LDS worldview. As both orthodox Judaism and Christianity agree, one God, the Lord (Hebrew YHWH, i.e., Jehovah in English Christianity, translated kyrios, “Lord,” in the New Testament), is the sole Creator of heaven, earth, and everything in it (Gen. 1:1–2:4; Neh. 9:6; Isa. 44:24; Jer. 10:16). God is not by nature a literally embodied, physical being (although he can manifest himself physically if and how he chooses) but transcends the space-time world because he made it (1 Kings 8:27; Isa. 66:1–2). He did not become God but is God from everlasting to everlasting (Ps. 90:2; 93:2). As the sole Creator, the Lord is God in heaven and on earth, and there is no other God (Deut. 4:35, 39; 32:39; 2 Kings 19:15 = Isa. 37:16; 40:28; 44:6–8). He says, “Before me no god was formed, nor shall there be any after me” (Isa. 43:10). The “gods” of the nations are no more than worthless idols (Pss. 96:4–5; 97:7–9) if not demons (Deut. 32:17), and any spiritual beings behind those so-called gods will die under the judgment of the true God (Ps. 82:6–8).

The New Testament maintains this doctrine of one Creator (e.g., Acts 17:24; Rom. 1:20–25; Rev. 4:11) while including the Son within the identity of the uncreated Maker of all things (John 1:1–3, 10; 1 Cor. 8:4–6; Col. 1:16–17; Heb. 1:2–3, 8–12). Only Christ preexisted in heaven and came down to become human (e.g., John 3:13, 31; 6:38–42; 13:3; 16:28; Gal. 4:4–6). He is frequently called “Lord” (kyrios) in ways that name him as the Lord YHWH of the Old Testament (e.g., Rom. 10:9–13, cf. Joel 2:32; Phil. 2:9–11, cf. Isa. 45:23). He is less frequently called “God,” but in such a way as to avoid either identifying him as God the Father or presenting him as a second god (see especially John 1:1; 20:28, 31; Heb. 1:8–9; 2 Peter 1:1–2; 1 John 5:20). Like the Father, he was already God in the beginning (John 1:1) and did not become God. It is quite proper to address prayers to the Lord Jesus, on whom we are to call (in prayer) for salvation (Rom. 10:9–13 again; 1 Cor. 1:2).

Mormonism amply illustrates the importance of worldviews in religious belief. Authentic faith in Christ can flourish only in a biblical, orthodox Christian worldview.

Notes

[1] For a frank study of the history of LDS doctrine by a Mormon, see Charles R. Harrell, “This Is My Doctrine”: The Development of Mormon Theology (Salt Lake City: Greg Kofford Books, 2011).

[2] Joseph Smith, History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints: Period I, History of Joseph Smith, by Himself, ed. B. H. Roberts (Salt Lake City: Deseret, 1902), 6:305–6, 473–78.

[3] This doctrinal system is presented in the official LDS curriculum manual Gospel Principles (Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 2011). For a chapter-by-chapter response, see Robert M. Bowman Jr., Gospel Principles and the Bible (Institute for Religious Research, 2011–12).

— Robert M. Bowman Jr. is the president of the Institute for Religious Research (IRR.org). He holds M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in biblical studies from Fuller Theological Seminary and South Africa Theological Seminary. Dr. Bowman has lectured extensively at Biola University and New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary on apologetics, biblical studies, religion, and theology. Rob is the author or co-author of 18 books, including (with J. Ed Komoszewski) The Incarnate Christ and His Critics: A Biblical Defense (Kregel, 2024), which discusses the subject of this series in comprehensive detail.

image: Image by Steve Oberhansly from Pixabay

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