Was God Once A Man?

We believe, as was taught by Joseph Smith, that "God himself was once as we are now, and is an exalted man, and sites enthroned in yonder heavens! That is the great secret. If the viel were rent today, and the great God who hold this world in its orbit, and who upholds all the worlds and all things by his power, was to make himself visible, I say, if you were to see him today, you would see him like a man in form -- like yourselves in all the person, image and very form as a man; for Adam was created in the very fashion, image, and likeness of God, and recieved the instructions from and conversed with Him, as one man talks and ommunes with another. [Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith p. 345]

D&C 130:1 states: "When the Savior shall appear we shall see him as he is. We shall see that he is a man like ourselves.

It is for this reason that Jesus Christ is called both "Son of God" [Mark 1:1; 3:11] and Son of Man [Mark 2:10, 28]. John makes it clear that both titles are synonymous when he calls Jesus Christ "Son of man which is in heaven" [John 3:13]. "Man of Holiness" was an ancient title given to God the Father; thus Christ was literally the "Son of Man of Hiliness" [Moses 6:57; see also Joseph Fielding Smith, Answers to Gospel Questions 1:10-11; Jesus the Christ, pp 142-144]

In John 5:19-20 Jesus declares: "The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever [the Father] doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise. For the Father loveth the Son and sheweth him all things that himself doeth" What did Jesus do? He was born of a woman, lived a sinless life, and afte atoning for our sins was glorified with a resurrected doby of "flesh and bones" [Luke 24:36-39]. If Christ followed the example of his Father, then it is clear that God the Father was once man just as Christ and both of them are now glorified and exalted beings.

As the prophet Joseph Smith taught:

It is the first principal of hte Gospel to know for a certainty the Character of God, and to know that we may converse with him as one man converses with another, and that he was once a man ike us; yea that God himself, the Father of us all, dwelt on an earth, the same as Jesus Christ himself did. [Teachings pp 345-46]

Are Mormon's Polytheists

Those outside the LDS Church contend that the LDS belief that there are three Gods in the Godhead makes us polythiests. Though dictionaries "basing defintions on term defintions devised by many years ago in theological seminaries", generally define polytheism as a belief in the extistence of more than one god. As a LDS Member I refuse to accept this description of our religious beliefs based on the term meaning we worship. The reason is that the commonly accepted meaning that most people give this term differers radically from its technical defintion. The commonly accepted meaning of polytheism is typically associated with multiplicity of deities as worshiped by primitive pagan religions. This system of gods is totally foreign to the LDS beliefs and is considered by the LDS Church members to be an apostate perversion of the original truths revealed to Old Testament prophets beginning with Adam.

To worship is to give profound reverence, respect and love to a Devine Being; to give praise and honor; to recognize the omnipotence and the divine qualities of deity; to be cognizant of divine grace, love and concern; and to be desireous of maintaining a closeness, a pesonal relationship and an ongoing communication. Latter-day Saints worship God the Father; Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God the Father and the Holy Ghost. They regard each of the three as possessing the divine attributes of Godhood. They believe each of the three plays a significant role in directing the affairs of mankind here on earth and that their influence upon mankind will be eternal in nature, continuein in the exalted realms of heaven.

The major reponsibilty for the central role in creation of the earth delegated by the Father to Jesus Christ. [Heb. 1:2; Col 1:16] Jesus also governs the affairs of mankind as the Old Testament Jehovah, then came to earth in the meridian of time in the role of Savior and Redeemer. He will return in a glorious Second Coming and rule as King of Kings and Lord of Lords [Rev 19:12] He will judge all mankind. [John 5:22-29] When he has completed and perfected his work, he will present it to the Father, then be crowned with glory and given power to reign forever [D & C 76:106-108] as the Father's appointed "heir of all things" [Heb 1:2]

Yet Christ has directed us to acknowledge God the Father's overall authority over man, since he is the literal Father of our spirits [Heb 12:9; Matt 5:48; Acts 17:29] Though we recognize Jesus' role as assigned administrator of the earths's affaris, our savior himself instructed us to address our prayers to the Father [Matt 6:9] and to always pray to the Father in the name of Jesus Christ. [3 Nephi 18:19-24] . Thus, our worship of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost is primarily channeled to the Father.

Bible Scripture speaks of a "God of gods and Lord of lords" [Deut 10:17 , (see also) Ex. 15:11; 18:11; Ps 97:9; 135:5; 136:2 138:1; Dan 11:36] and Paul taught that while there were many gods, mortals of this earth should worship only God the Father [1 Cor 8:5-6; Col 3:17] The LDS do in fact worship God the Father in the name of Christ as is taught in both ancient and modern scripture [Matt 6:9; John 15:16; 2 Nephi 32:9; Jacob 4:5; 3 Nephi 18:19; Moroni 10:4; D&C 18:40; 20:19, 29, Moses 1:17]

The LDS also literally accept the many scriptural passages which tell us that man, as spirit offspring of God the Fatehr, may eventually be granted the powers of Godhood [Rom 8:16-17; Gal 4:6-7; Titu 3:7; Heb 1:14; 11:7; James 2:5; Matt 5:48; D&C 76:50-60; 132:19-20]. However while recognizing that man has the God-given potiential to attain personal exaltation and godhood, we worship only God since we recognize that their attaining of this exalted station by men and women is a future event.

The LDS recognize that there is a oneness of unity and purpose of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost [John 17:20-23]. Evangelicals, Non Denominationalists and some other Protestant Trinity beliving sects believe that the Father Son and the Holy Ghost in some manner which they are unable to "comprehend" or satifactorily define one God, and hence they call themselves monothiestic. Yet they attempt to play word games, asserting that the LDS are polythiestic in their worship of those same three beings. It is hypocritical to call Protestants monothiests, and LDS polythiests since we worship the "Godhead" in the same manner they worship the trinity.

Trinity Doctrine Exposed! (A Brief Overview)

The first vision of Joseph Smith represents to Latter-daySaints the beginning of the revelation of God to man in the final dispensation. Knowledge pertaining to the nature of God - his character, personality, divine attributes, powers, and purposes - have been known to latter-day prophets, and some of the knowledge obviously stands in contrast to what many in the Christian world would believe about God and about man's relationship to Deity.

1: The Trinity - An LDS Belief? (Godhead):

The answer to this question depends entirely on the inquirer's definition of "trinity". Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary defines the word trinity as "the unity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as three persons in one Godhead. The Random House College Dictionary adds a second alternative to this definition which allows also "the threefold personality of one Divine Being". Although Webster's definition would be considered a valid LDS description of the Godhead, the second Random House alternative would be considered by Latter-day Saints to be an apostate view.

Today, some people assert that a belief in a mysterious unknowable Trinitarian god is essential to a claim of Christianity even though this requirement is not biblical. At times they use Colossians 2:9 as a proof text to support their Trinitarian concept: "in him[Christ] dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily." Though this scripture could appear to vindicate the belief in the trinity, the Greek text does not justify this interpretation. The Greek word translated as Godhead in this verse is "theotes." This word actually means "divinity" and is translated as such in many modern Bible translations. Accurately translated, this verse should read "in Christ the fullness of divinity dwells in bodily form" {See New International Version}. Therefore, the qualities of Godhead are manifest to us in Christ but Christ is not God the Father.

It is important to note the word "trinity" does not appear anywhere in the King James Version nor any other reputable translation of the Bible. The present Trinitarian concept cannot be derived from an impartial reading of the Bible. Justification of this doctrine using citations of biblical verses is weak and inconclusive at best. The term Godhead, on the other hand, is an accepted biblical term {Acts 17:29; Rom1:20; Col. 2:9} and the preferred title in the LDS Church.{1} References to the Godhead as the trinity are found in LDS Church literature {2} but such usage clearly denotes a three-person Godhead and not a one-being concept.The latter concept of the trinity, now held by much of "mainstream Christianity", seems to have originated under the influence of the Greek and other oriental philosophies during the period of apostasy following the death of the apostles. {3} A study of Christianity prior to 325AD reveals that the LDS interpretation of the Godhead was then the prevailing belief. Church fathers such as Ignatius, Justin Martyr, Origen, Athanasius, and others argued that the Godhead consisted of separate Beings. {4} The first person to use the term trinity appears to have been Tertullian in about 200AD. He used the term to refer to ideas which mentioned three and one.

Over a century later, in 325AD, the Roman Emperor Constantine convened a delegation composed of about one-sixth of the bishops from throughout the Roman Empire. The stated purpose of the Council of Nicea as it was called, was to achieve unity among the factions that existed then. Three major groups with differing views regarding God's nature at length became two factions. The eastern (Arian) Christian view favored a three-God concept while the western (Roman) view favored one supreme God to whom all others were subordinated. Under extreme intimidation by the emperor, the Arian group was compelled to yield to the Roman view. Araus and the bishops and priests who opposed the Nicean Creed and the "one substance" terminology adopted by the council were exiled. Constantine, in order to ensure future unity, also commanded that the writings of these men be burned. {5}

The Nicean Creed stated that there was "one God and one Lord Jesus Christ the Son of God" who was "one substance with the Father." The Athanasian creed, which was an outgrowth of the Nicean Creed, typifies the modern "orthodox" concept of the trinity. It speaks of an "incomprehensible" God which is completely foreign to Christ's teachings. Jesus taught that "this life eternal that 'we' might . . . know the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom God had sent"{John 17:3; see also Jeremiah 31:34; John 8:19; 14:7-9, Hebrews 8:10-11, 1 John 2:3-4, and 1 John 3:1-2, 6; 5:20}

Thus, the accepted Trinitarian concept of deity is the result of a compromise achieved without the benefit of apostles, prophets, or revelation and arrived at only when extreme pressure was exerted by a then pagan emperor. The true concept of God is not that of an "unknown" or unknowable God {Acts 17:23} but one whose offspring we are {Acts 17:28-29} and in whose image we were created {Gen 1:26-27}. Our Heavenly Father loves us and wants us to know him and become like him {Matt 5:48; John 3:1-2}

Conclusion - The trinity that "mainstream Christianity" follows today of the three in one concept is not of God and never was. It doesn't follow scriptural references in the Bible and was not brought forth through apostles or prophets and therefore is doctrines of men. The LDS get hammered with accusations of following the doctrines of men but in reality those that judge do not look in their own scriptures to find out if the doctrine preached is actually truth.

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Footnotes:
{1} History of the Church, 6:473; Lectures on Faith, Lecture 5; pp 58-59
{2} Articles of Faith, pp. 39-41; Journal of Discourses, 6:95; History of the Church, vol1, Intro., pp 80-81
{3} History of the Churh, vol 1, Intro. pp 82-87
{4} see J.D.N Kelly, Early Christian Doctrines, pp. 93, 96, 129, 233
{5} James K. and Rose Seastrand, Journey to Eternal Life and istratios Along the Way, p 132; History of the Church vol 1, Intro., pp 79-90

Are Mormons Christians

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Does the New Testament define Christianity? Several leading anti Mormons cite as their mandate against the LDS Church Jude 3-4 which states:

3 Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.

4 For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.

But how does this apply to the LDS Church? Do Latter Day Saints deny the Father and the Son? Not according to the Articles of Faith which affirms the belief in both. Are Latter Day Saints prone to lasciviousness? Where is the evidence for such a claim? It seems quite clear according to these verses that the admonition of Jude 3-4 for the followers of Christ to “contend for the faith” against “ungodly men” cannot refer specifically to Mormons or Mormonism.

Another set of verses used to state that Mormons are not Christians is 1 John 4:1-3,6

1 BELOVED, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.

2 Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ
is come in the flesh is of God:

3 And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.

6 We are of God: he that knoweth God heareth us; he that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby know we the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error.

What the passages in question do not say is the word Christian. So Christian is not defined nor is it mentioned. Only one doctrinal standard is laid down. The spirit of thuth will not teach gnosticism or docetism, early Christian heresies which denied or downplayed the reality of Jesus’ physical body but will affirm the actual incarnation of Christ. It will not teach that Christ was only spiritually the Son of God, or that he did not have an actual body of flesh and blood. “Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him and he in God. Do Latter Day Saints deny that Jesus is the Son of God? No, the first Article of Faith and literally hundreds of passages teach his divine Sonship.

In Acts 11:26 we are told that “the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch” How did this term come to pass? It falls in the same classification as Herodian o Caesarian already in circulation. Christian being defined under the same type terms would be followers of Christ. In the United States, we have frequently called people “Jacksonian democrats or Marxists". Other examples in Christianity can include Augustinians, Pelatians, Lutherans, Calvinists and Mennonites as well as other examples. So who were these people who were first called Christians? What was the composition of the Church at Antioch. For one thing it included prophets! This flies in the face of the fact that the claim has been made that Jesus fulfilled the High Priesthood and Prophets an office of the High Priesthood were no longer necessary. Also this flies in the face of those who say that no additional revelation is necessary (i.e. The Book of Mormon) since Jesus Christ is the final revelation from God. Yet here, the first congregation of Jesus’ followers to receive the title of “Christian” is characterized, precisely by Christian Prophets. Imagine that.

Paul was not the only influence at Antioch. In fact he was not even the dominant one. Why is this fact important? Mormonism is often expelled from Christendom because they do not accept the supposedly Pauline doctrine of salvation by grace alone. But neither did it seem that members of the congregation at Antioch who were the first in the Old World to receive the title of Christian.

So what makes a Christian today? Simple, a commitment to follow Jesus Christ! This is not disqualified in the LDS Church and in fact the LDS Church follows closer to the Early Church in its followings of Christ and his Church then most protestant Churches today.

The Eleven Witnesses Seeing Things - Your Kidding Right?

Detractors of the LDS faith in their quest to attempt to prove Mormonism false have sought creative ways to attack the Church and its doctrine. One such area that these detractors attempt to attack is the eleven witnesses of the Gold plates. They question the testimony of the witnesses because the record was shown unto us by the power of God and angle came down from Heaven and laid before our eyes the plates. These detractors stated the following: It is clear that the witnesses were not bearing witness to an actual physical seeing and handling of the gold plates, but to a mythical event of the same kind as visions of angelic beings and visits from god-men. [1]

The first problem I see is that the person who is making the claim either does not understand or does not want to understand that there are two kinds of experiences that the witnesses had. 1st the three special witnesses had what was described as a mythical experience, Mythical being described by the dictionary as fictitious. The problem comes in that if the experience is false because of angelic beings it doesn't cover the entire eleven witnesses that they are claiming to invalidate.

For those that bother to read the Book of Mormon know that in the front of every Book of Mormon is the testimony of the 3 Witnesses and the testimony of the 8 witnesses. It is clear to even the most discriminating mind that the eight witnesses did not see any angels or god-men.

THE TESTIMONY OF EIGHT WITNESSES
Be it known unto all nations, kindreds, tongues, and people, unto whom this work shall come: That Joseph Smith, Jun., the translator of this work, has shown unto us the plates of which hath been spoken, which have the appearance of gold; and as many of the leaves as the said Smith has translated we did handle with our hands; and we also saw the engravings thereon, all of which has the appearance of ancient work, and of curious workmanship. And this we bear record with words of soberness, that the said Smith has shown unto us, for we have seen and hefted, and know of a surety that the said Smith has got the plates of which we have spoken. And we give our names unto the world, to witness unto the world that which we have seen. And we lie not, God bearing witness of it.

Christian Whitmer; Jacob Whitmer; Peter Whitmer, Jun; John Whitmer; Hiram Page; Joseph Smith, Sen; Hyrum Smith; Samuel H. Smith

These witnesses simply saw the plates. One has to ask how the statement above about visions of angelic beings invalidates these witnesses statement. It is clear that in their account that they physically saw the plates. In fact to quote it; Joseph Smith, Jun the translator of this work has shown us the plates of which he has spoken. This clearly shows a physical action by people and has to contain a solid artifact to show. These witnesses even handled the plates by their testimony.

The detractors however by their statement attempt to invalidate the three witnesses instead of all eleven. That stated one has to ask if these same detractors are willing to invalidate all Biblical scripture based on the same type of claim the this is a "mythical" experiance. One has to ask do these detractors have "first hand knowledge" of the events? If not then they can only go by thier feelings in this matter. We as LDS do understand the difference in the witnesses statements, meaning the difference in the three special witnesses and the eight other witnesses. I believe the Lord did this by design so that detractors that bring up these types of arguments against his church have to deal with both.

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Did Joseph Believe the Moon was Inhabited?

No original sources verifying this have been found of which I am aware. There however is an 1881 jounal entry, published in 1892 by Oliver B Huntington who claimed Joseph Smith said there were moonmen. Oliver Huntington would have been about 10 or 11 years old at that time if he had heard it from Joseph Smith directly. Indications are that Oliver Huntington heard this claim secondhand at best.


Reverend J.R. Dummelow described the authors of the Bible and I believe it to be the same with Joseph Smith:

Tough purified and ennobled by the influence of His Holy Spirit, these men each had his own peculiarities of manner and dispostion - each with his own education or want of education - each with his won way of looking at things - each influenced differently from one another by the different experiences and disciplines of his life. Their inspiration did not involve a suspension of natural faculties; it did not even make them free from eathly passion; it did not make them into machines - it left them men.

Therefore we find their knowledge sometimes no higher than that of their contemporaries. [1]

Dummelow's description of the authors of Genesis is equally applicable:

His scientific knowledge may be bounded by the horizon of the age in which he lived, but the religious truths he teaches are irrefutable and eternal. [2]

Dummelow, who is not LDS is considered one of the foremost commentators on the Bible. Biblical prophets sometimes made errors but that does not mean they were not men of God.

Van Hale answered the detractors criticism in his pamphlet "How Could a Prophet Believe in Moonmen? One excerpt:

Did Joseph Smith believe in an inhabited moon? From the historical evidence now available the answer must be: Not Proven. But, all things considered, the possibility or probability, that he did cannot reasonably be denied For all others of that era the question seems quite insignificant, especially given contemporary beliefs. But in the case of Joseph Smith, he claimed to be a prophet. Some extremists contend that his claim demands that his knowledge in every area be superior to that of others in his era. If he believed any false notion of his day, so these critics say his credibility must be doubted. Others, not so demanding of infallible insight in a prophet, would be more comfortable with a description of God's revelation which allowed for the human and the divine.

The conclusion is that there is no direct proof that Joseph Smith said or believed that Moonmen inhabited the Moon but if he did so what. A prophet is only a prophet when acting as such. This is supported by Dummelow a highly respected traditional Christian commentator concerning the Bible.

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Footnotes:
[1] J.R. Dummerlow, One Volume Bible Commentary, pg. cxxxv
[2] J.R. Dummerlow, One Volume Bible Commentary, pg. xxx