Oh for The Love of God How Many Gods do Mormons Have?

THE MORMON GODS, PAST AND PRESENT

If our ideas about God are wrong then we'll be wrong about our other doctrines too, because ultimately all our beliefs stem from our view of God.


THE FIRST, ORIGINAL LDS GOD

Most Mormons are unaware that the LDS church has worshipped three different Gods at various times since their inception. Should they wish to do so, they can check up on this fact for themselves in the LDS archives.

For the first twelve years of their existence, the LDS church believed in, prayed to and worshipped the trinitarian spirit deity. This fact is borne out by their teachings in the 1835 printing of Doctrine and Covenants:
"..... We shall, in this lecture speak of the Godhead: we mean the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. There are two personages..... They are the Father and the Son: The Father being a personage of spirit, glory and power: possessing all perfection and fullness: the Son, who was in the bosom of the Father, a personage of tabernacle..... And he being the only begotten of the Father ..... possessing the same mind with the Father, which mind is the Holy Spirit.." (1835 Doctrine and Covenants, Lecture Fifth of Faith, 5:1-2, pages 52-53, First edition.) (Writer's italics)
The Book of Mormon (written by Joseph Smith at the start of the same time period), also teaches the trinitarian deity; that there always had been only one God in existence, that He was God over all, that He was a spirit being, that He was the first God and would be the last, and that there were no other Gods:
And then Ammon said: Believest thou that there is a Great Spirit? And he said, Yes. And Ammon said: This is God. And Ammon said unto him again: Believest thou that this Great Spirit, who is God, created all things which are in heaven and on the earth? And he said Yes ........ (Alma 18:26-29)

..... Christ the Son, and God the Father, and the Holy Spirit, which is one Eternal God..... (Alma 11:44)

..... the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost are one ..... (3 Nephi 11:27)

..... to dwell in the presence of God in his kingdom, to sing ceaseless praises with the choirs above, unto the Father, and unto the Son, and unto the Holy Ghost, which are one God..... (Mormon 7:7)

Now Zeezrom said: Is there more than one God? And he answered, No. (Alma 11:28-29)

..... there is but one God (Alma 11:35)
It will be noted that Alma 11:44 and 3 Nephi 11:27 quoted above, use the terms Holy Spirit and Holy Ghost interchangeably, and do not differentiate between the two. However, Joseph Smith changed his mind radically concerning his doctrinal stance some time after he had written the Book of Mormon, and in line with his changed doctrines the LDS now teaches that the Holy Ghost and the Holy Spirit are two separate entities. (There is a link provided at the bottom of this page, to a relevant article entitled, "The LDS Holy Spirit, and Holy Ghost.").

Mormon doctrinal books teach that the Holy Ghost is a spirit personage who, like their God the Heavenly Father, can only be in one place at any one time (LDS Apostle McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, page 359); whereas the Holy Spirit "fills the immensity of space", and permeates all nature (Gospel Doctrine, Volume 1, page 94).



THE SECOND MORMON GOD

There were no contradictions in LDS literature on the doctrine of God for the first twelve years. In those days Mormonism was similar to protestant Christianity. Then round about 1842 Joseph Smith decided to change his whole theological set-up. This effectively transformed Mormonism into a completely new religion with unbiblical doctrines, teachings and practices that were exclusive to the LDS alone. It also put them fairly and squarely into the category of a non-Christian religion. Not only that, their new teachings contradicted their own Book of Mormon, which they maintained was the most correct book on earth.

Joseph Smith broke the news that he had turned his back both on the God they had been worshipping as well as on his own former teachings, in this way:
"We have imagined and supposed that God was God from all eternity. I will refute that idea, and take away the veil, so that you may see ..... God himself was once as we are now, and is an exalted man, and sits enthroned in yonder heavens!" (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, page 345, compiled by Joseph Fielding Smith).
In the LDS publication, "Times and Seasons," volume 5, pages 613-614, he reiterated that God was only an exalted man (with a body of flesh and bone), and that ordinary, mortal men could also become Gods. His teachings on this revolutionary, new God are also well documented elsewhere in LDS literature. Here are a few examples:
God is a perfected, saved soul enjoying eternal life. (Second Counselor in the First Presidency, Marion G. Romney, as per Salt Lake Tribune, April 3, 1977.)

The Father is a glorified, perfected resurrected, exalted man who worked out his own salvation by obedience to the same laws he has given to us so that we may do the same (LDS Apostle Bruce McConkie, in "A New Witness for the Articles of Faith," page 64)

God and man are of the same race, differing only in their degree of advancement (Mormon Apostle, Dr. John Widtsoe (1872-1952), in "Gospel Through the Ages," page 107).

God, angels, and men are all of the same species, one race, one great family (Mormon Apostle Parley P. Pratt, in Key to the Science of Theology, 1978 Edition, page 21).

..... in all congregations when I have preached on the subject of the Deity, it has been the plurality of Gods (Joseph Smith, History of the Church 6:474).

How many Gods there are, I do not know. But there never was a time when there were not Gods .... (Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses 7:333).
This radical change in Smith's theology, which was based on his doctrine of eternal progression, is one of the main reasons why Doctrine and Covenants contradicts the book of Mormon in so many places, and also why the Pearl of Great Price contradicts the Book of Mormon. But you will never stumble across the truth as to why these discrepancies exist by listening to the imaginative excuses that are put forward by the LDS church. They are merely smoke screens designed to prevent their membership from realizing that the contradictions are there simply because their doctrines, and the teachings of their prophets, have consistently and radically changed over the years.

This is also the reason why their teachings don't fit in with those of the Bible. The LDS excuse in this case is that evil people removed all the Mormon teachings from the Bible. However, every bit of so-called "proof" that they have put forward to back up this false claim has been decimated by evidence to the contrary. Furthermore, no evidence has ever been found anywhere, in any form, that so much as suggests that there was any knowledge of Mormon doctrine prior to the existence of the LDS church. And the truth of the matter is that the teachings on the deity that the LDS church followed for the first twelve years of their existence are still in the Bible.



THE THIRD MORMON GOD

Brigham Young, the second president and prophet of the LDS church, introduced the teaching that not only was the LDS God an ordinary, exalted man of flesh and bone, but that he was one man in particular, i.e. Adam (see Journal of Discourses, Volume 1, pages 50-51 and Deseret News June 18, 1873). The LDS tries to cover this up by insisting that his sermon was wrongly reported. But that wasn't the only time that he proclaimed that Adam was the LDS God. According to the LDS's own records, he taught this doctrine extensively and consistently over a period of about twenty five years.
Speaking in the Tabernacle on the morning of October 8, 1861, Young remarked: "I will give you a few words of doctrine, upon which there has been much inquiry, and with regard to which considerable ignorance exists. Br. Watt will write it, but it is not my intention to have it published therefore pay good attention, and store it up in your memories. Some years ago, I advanced a doctrine with regard to Adam being our father and God, that will be a curse to many of the Elders of Israel because of their folly. With regard to it they yet grovel in darkness and will. It is one of the most glorious revealments of the economy of heaven, yet the world holds it [in] derision. Had I revealed the doctrine of baptism from the dead instead [of] Joseph Smith there are men around me who would have ridiculed the idea until doomsday. But they are ignorant and stupid like the dumb ass." (Manuscript Sermon, "A Few Words of Doctrine," Brigham Young Collection, Church Historian's Office, Salt Lake City.)
In all fairness one must admit that this was a very unpopular teaching. And apparently Mormon Apostle Orson Pratt opposed the Adam God doctrine right from the start. But the LDS has a strict rule, and that is that nobody criticizes their prophet, as he is divinely led by God. They also extend this same rule to their other leadership. Whenever their members have questioned this, they have been assured that God will never permit the prophet or the leadership to teach false doctrine or to lead the LDS church into error, or words to that effect. Apostle Pratt was duly warned that he was on the brink of apostasy. When that didn't bring an end to his opposition, he was sent on a mission to the eastern United States, effectively removing him from the Salt Lake area.

But that didn't stem the opposition to this doctrine. In the November and December issues of their "True Latter-Day Saint Herald," the RLDS Church printed a refutation of Brigham's Adam-God doctrine, using the same arguments and scriptures that Pratt had. And they went as far as to urge the LDS church to return to the true God. In his diary under the date of February 3, 1861, John D. Lee, adopted son of Brigham Young, recorded the following:
"Eving attendd Prayer meeting & instructed the Saints on the points of Doctrine refereed to by the true Latterday Saints Herald & their Bombarding Pres. B. Young for Saying that Adam is all the god that we have to do with & to those that know no better, it is quite a stumbling Block... " (A Mormon Chronicle: The Diaries of John D. Lee, The Huntington Library, 1955, Volume 1, page 293.)
As soon as Brigham Young passed away so did his divinely revealed doctrine on the LDS God being Adam. It was soundly refuted by the church leadership and is still a source of great embarrassment to them. So much so that they have done their utmost to cover it up, to the extent of denying outright that there ever had been any such doctrine in the LDS church.

After Young's death, they reverted to worshipping their second God, i.e. an ordinary, exalted man of flesh and bone.

These three contradictory teachings on the Gods the LDS worshipped, each of them taught by their own prophets for many years, cannot all be correct. At least two of the three teachings, involving two of their prophets, must be wrong. Why then does the LDS church persistently maintain the facade that God would never permit their leadership to teach them error?

The LDS prophet Brigham Young had declared that God Himself had revealed this doctrine on Adam being their God, to him. And as the LDS has taken a very firm stance on this revelation on God being wrong, it is akin to their having declared him to have been a false prophet. To cover this up, they insist that Brigham Young was wrongly quoted. However, their own records invalidate this excuse.

In Joseph Smith's case, he claimed from the start that he was leading the LDS church under God's guidance, and that as God's prophet, when he spoke it was the same as if God had spoken. For twelve years he taught them to follow the biblical trinitarian deity, and maintained that God was a spirit being. But then, supposedly also under God's guidance, he persuaded them to turn their backs on their first God and instead worship a different deity — a fallen, redeemed man of flesh and bone. This means that he was radically wrong in one of these cases, and in turn proves him to have been a false prophet.

If you will examine the Bible carefully, you will note that God's true prophets never ever gave false revelations. It was only false prophets who did so. In fact, the Bible teaches that this is the way to discern whether or not a prophet has been sent by God (Deuteronomy 13:1, 18:22).

The fact that the first two LDS prophets were in serious error concerning the deity they worshipped, invalidates their claims about the LDS being the "true church," divinely led, and the sole possessor of God's truth. And if their first two presidents were false prophets, how do they know that the same isn't true of all their other prophets? How can they be sure that their first prophet, Joseph Smith, wasn't sent by the devil to start up a false church and lead them astray? None of the doctrines he introduced lined up with what had already been revealed to us by God Himself, and Smith's Mormon gospel of salvation bears no resemblance to the gospel preached by Christ's own apostles in the New Testament.



THE LDS STORY ABOUT THE PRESENT MORMON GOD

The Mormon God, whose name is Elohim, had exactly the same origins as did ordinary mankind, and was also once a sinner who'd needed salvation. In line with the LDS doctrine of eternal progression, at first he'd existed in the form of mere intelligent matter, along with the rest of the inhabitants of the universe. Then when his turn came, he progressed to the level of a spirit being. He did this by being born to an already existing God through one of his plural wives, all of whom had bodies of flesh and bone.

This poses several serious problems, one of which is that our offspring are always genetically exactly like us, in that like always begets like. This idea of the LDS's Heavenly Mother and Father with bodies of flesh and bone producing offspring who were of a different species or class, i.e. only spirit beings, is really weird. It makes us suspect that the doctrine of eternal progression was nothing more than a very imaginative invention of Joseph Smith.

After living in this prior spiritual existence with his Heavenly Father and Mother, Elohim reached the stage where he needed to progress. So he went through the birth process all over again, this time to human parents, both of whom already had bodies of flesh and bone, and who were living on a fallen planet just as we are now. This time he was born with a body of flesh and bone, and his previously biological father in heaven then became his God. (His new human parents were previously his brother and sister, as they had also been spirit children of the same Heavenly Father.)

Because Elohim was an ordinary, sinful, human being he also needed a Redeemer, but in line with LDS doctrine, this was only to ensure that his body would be resurrected after death. In exactly the same way as Mormons do today, he too had to earn his right to personal salvation from sin by living in obedience to LDS laws and ordinances. And one of the requirements for godhood was that he had to be married polygamously for time and eternity in an earthly temple. (He was permitted to marry as many women as he desired, the aim being to reproduce as prolifically as possible, and thereby strengthen his future kingdom.) Then after he had gained the requisite amount of knowledge required for the task, he was exalted to godhood.

Although he is now in the heavenlies, Elohim is not a spirit being, but an exalted man with a body of flesh and bone. He lives on a planet called Kolob with his harem of plural wives. They have bred a myriad of spirit children, consisting of the whole of mankind plus all the angelic beings, including Satan and the demons. And they will continue breeding for eternity. The Lord Jesus was their firstborn. Some time after that the earth we live on now was formed, so that Elohim's spiritual offspring could also be born to human parents and take on bodies of flesh and bone, to enable them to progress eternally, hopefully to godhood, in the same way as he himself had done.

As well as being our actual biological father from a previous heavenly existence, i.e. our "Heavenly Father," Elohim is now also our God. And although he's only one amongst an innumerable number of other gods that exist in the universe, all of whom achieved their godhood the same way as he did, he is the only God with whom we have to do. However, they teach that there is an exception to this. The God of the Israelites was not Elohim, but Jehovah, who was none other than the Lord Jesus Christ. Although the LDS law of eternal progression decrees that it is necessary to obtain a body of flesh and bone and also to have been married polygamously in a Mormon temple for time and eternity in order to progress to godhood, the LDS Jesus Christ managed to skip these steps and gained godhood anyway because of his intelligence (See the article on the LDS Christ, listed on the home page.)

Before we carry on, we need to understand that according to Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (and all the other dictionaries too) the word "eternal" means without beginning or end of existence, ceaseless and unchangeable. But in order to try to make their unbiblical deity, who was not always a God, fit in with biblical terminology, the LDS teaches their followers that the word "eternal" is only God's title, and not His description. So just as you would call someone "Mr." Jones, they call their God who was not eternally a God but was once an ordinary man, by the designation "Eternal" God. Along the same vein, when they talk about eternal life they are referring to the type of life lived by a God whose title is "eternal."



THE MORMON GOD IS NOT OMNIPRESENT

According to LDS Apostle John Widtsoe, the Mormon God's omnipresence is fulfilled through the Holy Spirit, which is not to be confused with the Holy Ghost (Evidences and Reconciliation's, pages 76-77). And Brigham Young said:
"Some would have us believe that God is present everywhere. It is not so" (Journal of Discourses 6:345).
Then too, LDS Apostle James Talmage stated that neither God the Father, nor any other member of the Godhead, can be physically present in more than one place at one time. (The Articles of Faith, page 39). Joseph Smith taught:
"The idea that the Father and the Son dwell in a man's heart is an old sectarian notion, and is false" (Doctrines and Covenants 130:3).
Yet again the Book of Mormon contradicts Joseph Smith's teachings on the second LDS God and also the teachings of Doctrine and Covenants, maintaining that the Lord does dwell in the hearts of the righteous. But bear in mind that it was published by Joseph Smith at the time that he too had accepted the biblical teaching that God was Spirit. Here is what he wrote in the Book of Mormon before he'd turned to the worship of an exalted man of flesh and bone:
"And this I know, because the Lord hath said he dwelleth not in unholy temples, but in the hearts of the righteous doth he dwell" (BOM Alma 34:36).
Contrary to present LDS teachings, the Bible teaches that because God is Spirit (John 4:24) He is omnipresent; meaning that His presence is everywhere simultaneously. The following verses from the Bible disprove the present LDS teaching:
But will God indeed dwell on the earth? behold, the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain thee; how much less this house that I have builded? (1 Kings 8:27, KJV)

Am I a God at hand, saith the Lord, and not a God afar off? Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him? saith the Lord. Do not I fill heaven and earth? saith the Lord. (Jeremiah 23:23-24, KJV)


THE LDS GOD IS NOT A UNIQUE, INFINITE BEING

Mormons maintain that we are of the same species as God. Therefore, any sinful, fallen man is able to progress to godhood through obedience to the laws and ordinances of the LDS church, in the same way as God did. Brigham Young delivered a message in the Salt Lake Tabernacle on August 8,1852, in which he said:
"The Lord created you and me for the purpose of becoming Gods like Himself" (Journal of Discourses 3:93).
Both the Journal of Discourses and the Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith record that, on April 6, 1844, the LDS prophet Joseph Smith preached to a congregation of 20,000 saying:
"Here then is eternal life; to know the only wise and true God; and 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" (Journal of Discourses 6:4; Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, page 346, compiled by Joseph Fielding Smith).
However, both the Bible and the Book of Mormon very clearly teach that there is, and always has been, only one God, that there were no Gods before Him and that there will be none after Him:
I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me (Isaiah 46:9, KJV).
..... before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me. (Isaiah 43:10, KJV).
I am the first, and I am the last; and beside me there is no God. (Isaiah 44:6, KJV).
"Now Zeezrom said: Is there more than one God? And he answered, No." (BOM, Alma 11:28-29)
"..... there is but one God" (BOM, Alma 11:35)