Does the LDS view of God Contradict the Bible?LDS Prophet Joseph Smith taught that God was once a mortal man:
“God himself was once as we are now, and is an exalted man, and sits enthroned in yonder heavens! That is the great secret. . . . I am going to tell you how God came to be God. We have imagined and supposed that God was God from all eternity. I will refute that idea, and take away the veil, . . .“It is the first principle of the gospel to know for a certainty the character of God, . . . and that He was once a man like us; yea, that God himself, the Father of us all, dwelt on an earth, the same as Jesus Christ Himself did; . . . you have got to learn how to be gods yourselves, and to be kings and priests to God, the same as all gods have done before you, namely, by going from one small degree to another, . . . from exaltation to exaltation, until you attain to the resurrection of the dead, and are able to dwell in everlasting burnings and to sit in glory, as do those who sit enthroned in everlasting power” (History of the Church, vol. 6, ch. 14, pp. 305-6). LDS President Brigham Young declared that God was once a finite being: “It appears ridiculous to the world, under their darkened and erroneous traditions, that God has once been a finite being” (Deseret News, Nov. 16, 1859, p. 290). LDS President Joseph Fielding Smith said that God had a father, a grandfather, etc.: “Our father in heaven, according to the Prophet, had a father, and since there has been a condition of this kind through all eternity, each Father had a Father” (Doctrines of Salvation, 2:47). LDS President Joseph F. Smith taught that God was born as a mortal on some other earth: “I know that God is a being with body, parts and passions. . . Man was born of woman; Christ, the Savior, was born of woman; and God, the Father was born of woman” (Deseret News, Church News, Sept. 19, 1936, p. 2). LDS Apostle Bruce R. McConkie taught: “The Father is a glorified, perfected, resurrected, exalted man who worked out his salvation by obedience to the same laws he has given to us so that we may do the same” (A New Witness for the Articles of Faith, p. 64). LDS Apostle Melvin Ballard explained that God has a wife: “For as we have a Father in heaven, so also we have a Mother there, a glorified, exalted, ennobled Mother” (As quoted in Achieving a Celestial Marriage, LDS Church manual, 1976, p. 129). |
Jesus and Joseph Smith - HistoryThe importance of Joseph Smith in Mormon theology cannot be over-emphasized. Brigham Young, who became the second president of the church, frequently praised Joseph Smith:
Well, now, examine the character of the Savior, and examine the character of those who have written the Old and New Testaments; and then compare them with the character of Joseph Smith, the founder of this work . . . and you will find that his character stands as fair as that of any man’s mentioned in the Bible. We can find no person who presents a better character to the world when the facts are known than Joseph Smith, Jun., the prophet and his brother Hyrum Smith, who was murdered with him (Journal of Discourses, vol. 14, p. 203) . . . . no man or woman in this dispensation will ever enter into the celestial kingdom of God without the consent of Joseph Smith. . . . Every man and woman must have the certificate of Joseph Smith, junior, as a passport to their entrance . . . I cannot go there without his consent. . . . He reigns there as supreme a being in his sphere, capacity, and calling, as God does in heaven. (Journal of Discourses, vol. 7, p. 289) While present-day Mormons do not worship Joseph Smith, there seems to be evidence that Smith wanted to elevate himself almost to the same level as Jesus Christ. Josiah Quincy related that when he visited Joseph Smith in 1844, the prophet put this inquiry: “Is not here one greater than Solomon, who built a Temple with the treasures of his father David and with the assistance of Huram [sic], King of Tyre? Joseph Smith has built his Temple with no one to aid him in the work.” (Figures of the Past, as cited in Among the Mormons, p. 138) The History of the Church contains some statements which seem to show that Joseph Smith felt he was almost equal with God: God made Aaron to be the mouth piece for the children of Israel, and He will make me be god to you in His stead, and the Elders to be mouth for me; and if you don’t like it, you must lump it. (History of the Church, vol. 6, pp. 319-20) If they want a beardless boy to whip all the world, I will get on the top of the mountain and crow like a rooster. I shall always beat them. . . . I have more to boast of than ever any man had. I am the only man that has ever been able to keep a whole church together since the days of Adam. A large majority of the whole have stood by me. Neither Paul, John, Peter, nor Jesus ever did it. I boast that no man ever did such a work as I. The followers of Jesus ran away from Him, but the Latter- day Saints never ran away from me yet (History of the Church, vol. 6, pp. 408-9). One of the most important factors leading to Joseph Smith’s death was his order to destroy a newspaper. Mormon scholar Kenneth W. Godfrey wrote: The Prophet’s mayoral order, with the consent of the city council, to destroy the Nauvoo Expositor became the immediate excuse to stamp out his life. . . . Perhaps in retrospect both Mormons and Gentiles were partly to blame for conflict which developed between them. (Brigham Young University Studies, Winter 1968, pp. 213-14) The Nauvoo Expositor was to be printed in Nauvoo by prominent Mormon defectors who opposed Joseph Smith’s political ambitions and the practice of polygamy. While LDS writers often refer to the Nauvoo Expositor as a scandalous and vile publication, an examination of the paper reveals that it advocated high morals and obedience to the law. The thing that really disturbed the Mormon leaders, however, was that the Nauvoo Expositor exposed Joseph Smith’s secret teaching of polygamy. In an affidavit published in the Expositor, June 7, 1844, Austin Cowles charged that he had seen “a revelation given through the Prophet” which taught “the doctrine of a plurality of wives.” The Mormon leaders responded that Austin Cowles had lied, but eight years after Joseph Smith’s death they published the revelation on polygamy. A careful reading of the revelation (now printed in the Doctrine and Covenants as Section 132) proves beyond all doubt that the statements in the Expositor were true. Thus it is clear that the Expositor was condemned on the basis of false testimony given by Joseph Smith and his brother, Hyrum. In the synopsis of the proceedings of the Nauvoo City Council we found the following: Mayor [Joseph Smith] said, if he had a City Council who felt as he did, the establishment (referring to the Nauvoo Expositor) would be declared a nuisance before night. . . . Hyrum Smith believed the best way was to smash the press and pi the type. (History of the Church, vol. 6, pp. 441, 445) The Nauvoo City Council “passed an ordinance declaring the Nauvoo Expositor a nuisance” and ordered the press to be destroyed. Under the date of June 10, 1844, we find the following in Joseph Smith’s History: The Council . . . issued an order to me to abate the said nuisance. I immediately ordered the Marshal to destroy it without delay. . . . About 8 p.m., the Marshal returned and reported that he had removed the press, type, printed paper, and fixtures into the street and destroyed them. (History of the Church, vol. 6, p. 432) |