5 Major Differences Between Christianity and Mormonism (Part 1: God)

Check out the podcast we did on this topic titled Intro to Mormonism Pt. 1 & Pt. 2

Summary

Christian definition There is one God who is Spirit who is the personal, eternal (Psalm 90:2), infinite (1 Kings 8:27), all knowing (Psalm 147:5) Creator of everything that exists (Genesis 1). He is the only God (Isaiah 44:6) and necessary for all other things to exist. He exists eternally as a Trinity: Father, Son (Colossians 1, John 1; 8), and Holy Spirit (Acts 5:3-4). Three distinct persons yet one Being. He created the heavens and the earth ex nihilo (out of nothing). While Jesus Himself added a body to Himself once he descended to humanity (Phil 2:6, Col 1), he still reigns and remains as the Second person of the one divine being who is God. Christians believe that it is clearly taught in the Bible that there is only one God, and yet the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, all get attributed to this one divine being. This is the reason the Christians believe He is in one way, one, but also three persons. This is capable due to His non-limiting spirit (John 4:24), as opposed to the Mormon idea of the Father.

Mormon definition God (Heavenly Father) is an exalted man with a physical body of flesh and bone (D&C 130:22). He is not eternally god and is only the god of this world. He procreated with his goddess wife(s) to produce spirit children in the pre-existence. He is one of three gods in the godhead, including Jesus and the Holy Ghost. He did not create out of nothing but reorganized pre-existing matter. There are innumerable other gods who came before Heavenly Father and will come after him as well.

G-O-D, What's it Mean to Me?

Asking someone to define God is no easy task for anyone a part of any religion. How do you contain a supernatural-higher-than-human-being's definition into just a few small sentences of a created language? Many have attempted to come to a correct definition. Some people meditate, some people pray, some travel the world looking for something or someone hidden deep in the jungle, some people read books they believe are divine.

For Evangelical Christians and Latter-day Saints, the last method I listed is the most common. Both parties believe that God "breathed" their religious writings and that in them, God revealed to us truths about who He is and who we are. But, does that even matter? Do we need to know who God is? As someone who does college ministry and engages with all kinds of students on campus, most students claim it doesn't matter who and what God really is. I believe those who say it doesn't matter who God is don't understand the claims most religions are making.

Virtually all religions are claiming "This is how the world is. God is like how we say and this is what the afterlife is like." As an example, Christians claim, because of Jesus' statement, "I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me," (John 14:6) this means only by way of Jesus can someone be made right with God. If this is true, then every religious system that goes against this claim, would be wrong. If they are wrong, and again, if Christianity is true, then any adherent to a different system would be found outside of fellowship with God and experience eternity separated from Him. This would be a big deal.

Wait, Don't We Both Follow God?

Now when it comes to Evangelical Christians and Mormons (members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints), both parties believe what has been revealed to them about God is true. But the major question we should (and everyone for that matter) should be asking is: Who's right?

For Christianity, the final authority for all things is God Himself. It is pretty plain to accept, if its not from God, we probably shouldn't use it to define Him. Christians believe the biblical evidence is an accurate reflection of who God is. Jesus clearly states for us in John 4:24, that God is spirit and that with our own spirit is how we ought to worship, along with truth. Throughout the Psalms, the authors repeatedly declare the glory of God. They declare his unchanging deity (Ps 90), something LDS leaders of the past seem to contradict. In other places, we read of how among all in the heavenly realm, not one single being is on par, let alone close, to the status of YHWH (Ps 86). We never once read of "heavenly parents" in the Old or New Testament, therefore Christians do not accept the concept.

1 Timothy 6 suggests God alone is immortal, and therefore would not have others, whether they be other exalted beings or anything else, with the same attribute. This chapter also claims that no one to that point had seen Him (the Father) nor can (v. 16). This is another evidence why Christians reject the idea God has flesh and bone-which is taught by the LDS Church- and reject the First Vision as described by Joseph Smith. With Christians believing Jesus is the Second Person of this trinitarian God, we read of Him creating all things, even to the point of detail where John says "without him was not any thing made that was made," (John 1:3). This seems to be opposed to the idea that all is matter in Mormonism and Heavenly Father "created" in the sense of rearranging pre-existing matter. Christians would say this is being read into the biblical text rather than being read from it.

These are only a handful of instances where Christians get their idea of God from. But for now, let's look at where the Latter-day Saint is coming from.

As for the Latter-day Saint Church, their idea of God is also claimed to be based on their scriptures. In the LDS Doctrinal Study topic on "God the Father", the majority of the concepts cited come from the Book of Mormon, Doctrine & Covenants, and The Pearl of Great Price. The very first point made with a scripture quotation is that Heavenly Father does have a body of flesh and bone. The study then proclaims the chief of all doctrines lost during "The Great Apostasy"- an event Mormon history holds as when plain and precious truths of the Bible along with the authority of the priesthood was lost- is that the idea of the Godhead was distorted.

While this page doesn't go too deep in content, a Latter-day Saint can draw from this study that Heavenly Father loves us, cares about us, and wants us to work to get to where he wants us to be. In the Scripture references section, D&C 130, also states the Holy Ghost does not have a body. When searching the Godhead, in Latter-day Saint's Doctrinal Study, we are told up front that the Godhead for Mormons is comprised of three separate beings. These three beings all work together in one purpose to bring about the salvation and exaltation of men.

It doesn't take too much research on the Latter-day Saint official website to learn that this Heavenly Father is an exalted man, who went through the same process that we ourselves are going through now. The ultimate goal that Heavenly Father cheers us on and helps us achieve comes from the eternal law of Eternal Progression. Heavenly Father wants us to ultimately progress to the status he has now. Our goal is to reach god's status, or in other words: god status.

I understand the LDS Point of View

As for me, before I explain a few reasons why I do not believe the LDS view of god is an accurate representation about who He is, I want any Latter-day Saint reading to know I will be approaching this from a stance of honor and respect. I want to do the best research I can to both: know the truth of who God is, and not misrepresent the Latter-day Saint faith in doing so. As you can see, I will always do my best to cite primary sources for my LDS findings.

I first off want to say I understand where the Latter-day Saints are coming from. "What?! How could you say that! Obviously the LDS 'god' isn't true!" Now calm down, even though I agree with you, hear me out. I can see why the Mormon believes what they believe, based on what their church teaches. In the LDS scripture, Articles of Faith, specifically article 8, it claims that the LDS Church believes the Bible, "as far as it is translated correctly." We can read in the article embedded in the link I just pasted that this doesn't just have to do with translation. It also has to do with interpretation and transmission. In this same article, the LDS Church explains this is why there are so many different interpretations of the Bible, because things have been lost.

So, putting on the other person's shoes, or maybe white shirt and tie in this case, I can 100% understand why a Latter-day Saint would believe what they believe. But what hinges on this is the claim about if plain and precious truths were lost in the Bible's transmission til today. It all depends on one phrase: If.

Is it really true we've lost plain and precious truths from the Bible today? For a Latter-day Saint it may clearly be seen as "Yes!" It was even predicted in 1 Nephi 13, according to their own scriptures. Hold on, first off, we can't already go assuming the Book of Mormon is true and reliable. It may seem unfair that I just said that. "What about the Bible? You can't assume that it is reliable and true if you're going to do the same to the Book of Mormon!" I totally agree. You and me both cannot just assume these books are true just because we may want them to be. So what do we do then? We examine the evidence.

This article would be too long if I got into all the ways we know the Bible can be trusted more than any other ancient work (No, I am not exaggerating), but for the sake of length, I will plug a video from some good friends I have met, Shane and Dixie Wise. You can find their quick video giving 10 reasons we can trust the Bible here. I would also encourage any reader to just search "Is the Bible reliable?" and read all the internet has to offer.

So, if it is true the Bible is reliable, then it may not be true that we lost some plain and precious truths in the past. Some LDS members might try to incorporate the Bible into their belief system to prove that there are no distinctions between Bible adherents and faithful LDS teachings. The LDS Church would say when both are interpreted correctly, they would not contradict. I agree. The only question is: have they interpreted it correctly?

Why I Choose the Christian God

I believe the LDS Church has taught its members to read their Bibles with LDS glasses. What I mean by that is, when the Church puts seeds of doubt on the Bible being trustworthy, it only is natural to read it in light of what they do know, their other scriptures. While I will have a separate article on the differences between scripture in this series, I will say I don't believe this is warranted.

If we are starting with the Bible already being corrupted in some fashion, even a little, of course then those who follow the system will prefer uncorrupted material. If we first look at the objective evidence for the Bible's reliability, it fits perfectly with what Jesus said in Matthew 24:35, that His word would never pass away. With the Great Apostasy, it seems it is claiming at least some words have passed.

I respect Latter-day Saints for trying to take a literal interpretation of certain biblical passages in order to keep a consistent theology. Things like citing Stephen the Martyr looking up to the sky and seeing Jesus at the right hand of the Father claiming this proves the Father has a right side and therefore, a body, is admirable. But it seems this application is not universal. This Latter-day Saint hermeneutic trying to humanize the Father, seems to not be so hard applied when read of God also having wings (Psalm 91:4). As far as I am concerned, the LDS Church has not claimed that Heavenly Father has wings.

For me as a philosopher, the idea of an eternal regression of gods doesn't work either. For the LDS Church, there is this concept named "Infinite Regression"- the idea that there have been gods progressing from all eternity. First this seems to contradict Bible passages claiming that God is the first and the last god there is or ever will be (Isaiah 44:6). If gods have been progressing since infinity ago, from the -∞th there would be an infinite number of gods until Heavenly Father was eventually created and exalted. In short, Heavenly Father would never be exalted because there are still an infinite of number of gods that need to get exalted before he is. Nerdy, yes. But I believe this is a big deal.

Lastly, I think the LDS Church has made a big misstep in teaching who God is by making the Godhead three beings that all have the same purpose. God states Himself He is one (Deuteronomy 6:4) and yet Jesus and His Spirit also are addressed as this God. Jesus is worshipped by His disciples (Matthew 2:11). This is a big deal since God beforehand, way back in Exodus 34:14, says the Israelites must only worship Him. Also, Luke telling us in Acts that Ananias lied to the Spirit, which in turn means he lied to God Himself (Acts 5:3-4)! If God is the first god and the last god, Jesus' exaltation to godhood (Whether this exaltation was during the preexistence or after the resurrection, we still know Jesus was begotten then exalted); as well as the Spirit's exaltation (if He was exalted), and every one of our exaltations (if we make it), would contradict that! The ultimate goal in Mormonism is to become just like God is, but God says there is no one like Him (Jeremiah 10:6).

These are just a few reasons why I am not sold on the idea of the Latter-day Saint conception of God.

Conclusion

To wrap this up, I want to remind the reader that the point of this article was to only showcase that the god that Evangelical Christians believe in is not synonymous with the LDS Church's god. The only thing the two have in common is that they use masculine pronouns. Feel free to click and examine every link I attached to this article. The goal of this series, as well as this ministry, is to call people of both faiths to see the differences between the two religions, and then examine the evidence. I believe one can easily find the truth of the one God YHWH and His Son Jesus, King of Israel. Not the LDS humanoid perception.