“When I hear Mitt Romney say that he believes that Jesus is the Son of God–that he’s the Christ, raised from the dead, that he’s his Savior–that’s good enough for me. [...] Mormonism is a little different, but I still see them as brothers in Christ.” Joel Osteen to Wolf Blitzer on CNN.
In Light of these recent comments by Joel Osteen, I thought I would share a paper I wrote for a class I just completed this semester. I do not wish to be seen as taking any political position with this paper. My purpose is to point out that Osteen is wrong. Mormonism is not "a little different" from Christianity. Mormonism is VERY different.
A CHRISTIAN CRITIQUE OF THE MORMON DOCTRINE OF CHRIST
The Mormon Doctrine of Christ denies the
eternality of the Son and His coexistence with the Father, both of which have
been proclaimed and preserved through orthodox Christian teaching and are
clearly defined in Scripture. This paper will reveal the Mormon teaching that
Jesus is the offspring of a sexual relationship between Elohim and another
spirit being. Next, evidence will be presented to show that the Mormon doctrine
of Christ is in opposition to orthodox Christianity that teaches the eternality
of Christ and His coexistence with the Father. Finally, select passages from
Scripture will be offered to show that the Mormon teaching of the doctrine of
Jesus Christ as a created being is in opposition to the Scripture.
Mormon Teachings About Christ’s Eternality
The Church of Jesus Christ of Later Day Saints
is a deceptive cult that embraces the name of Jesus Christ but teaches a
different doctrine of Christ than that of orthodox Christianity. From the cults
inception, Mormon leaders have taught that Jesus Christ was a created being. In
The Doctrine and Covenants of The Church
of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Joseph Smith, the founder of the
Mormon faith, supposedly is given a reinterpretation of Genesis under
inspiration. In Section 93:21 he writes, “And now, verily I say unto you, I was
in the beginning with the Father, and am the Firstborn.”[i]
Mormons believe that this was a new revelation given to Joseph Smith concerning
the person of Jesus Christ. This passage from Doctrine and Covenants is critical to understanding the Mormon view
of Christ.
Insight into their interpretation of this
passage is offered by a commentary authored by Hyrum Smith who was the brother
of Joseph Smith and the first Assistant President of The Church of Jesus Christ
of Later Day Saints. Concerning The
Doctrine and Covenants 93:21 he writes, “Among the spirit-children of
Elohim the firstborn was and is Jehovah or Jesus Christ, to whom all others are
juniors.”[ii] The plurality of children in
this statement is revealing. What is being espoused is the view that Jehovah,
or Jesus, is the firstborn among the many spirit-children of the Mormon God,
Elohim. In Gospel Principles,
a book written so that new converts “can learn the basic principles of the
gospel and become better prepared to live them,” Mormons sights D&C 93:21to
explain that all persons ever born on earth were spirit brothers or sisters in
heaven, and Jesus is the firstborn to their “heavenly parents” making him an
“elder brother.”[iii] According to Mormonism, Jesus is
not only the firstborn among many children of Elohim, but he is also the eldest
brother of all who have ever lived or will ever live on the earth.
James E. Talmage was part of the Quorum of the
Twelve Apostles, a high governing body within the Mormon church, and he wrote
much about the Mormon view of the person of Jesus. He affirms, “Elohim is
literally the Father of the spirit of Jesus Christ.”[iv] Prior to the existence of
this world God procreated with another spiritual being to bring forth a
plethora of sprit-children. Jesus just happened to be the firstborn of all
Elohim’s children. It is
clear from this that the Mormon doctrine of Christ teaches that Jesus is not
the only Son of God, but rather he is one of many spirit-children fathered by
Elohim. However, Elohim is not only the father of the spirit of Jesus, he is
also the literal father “of the body in which Jesus Christ performed His
mission in the flesh.”[v]
Elohim fathered the spirit of Jesus before this world was created, but he also
came to this world and through a sexual relationship with Mary fathered the
bodily Jesus who walked the earth.
In the Mormon publication, God’s Greatest Gift, this teaching is
explained further. Theodore Burton writes, “Jesus was not fathered by Joseph
nor by the Holy Ghost, but was the actual begotten child of God the Eternal
Father. He was the Only Begotten of God in the flesh.”[vi]
The reality of this teaching is that if Jesus was the literal offspring of a
sexual relationship between Elohim and another being, both in the spiritual and
physical sense, then there had to be a time when Jesus did not exist. Thus,
Jesus is not an eternal being and cannot have coexisted with the Father for all
eternity.
At this point questions begin to arise
concerning the Mormon understanding of the Trinity. How can they possibly conceive of a Triune God, one essence yet three persons? The rational response is that they cannot since Jesus is a created being in their faith. However, this does not prevent Mormon theologians from attempting to
reconcile the issue. Joseph Smith wrote in The
Doctrine and Covenants 93:21 that Jesus said, “I was in the beginning with
the Father.”[vii]
This statement appears to support some concept of eternality with God but that
is not the case. First, it must be noted that even Elohim is not an eternal God.
The Doctrine and Covenants 130:22
says, “The Father has a body of flesh and bones as tangible as man’s.”[viii]
To have a body of flesh and bones the same as man can only mean that Elohim is
also a created being and thus is not the same eternal, infinite, spiritual
Being that Christians believe is the Creator of all things and the God of the
Bible. Essentially, Mormonism has created an infinite regress of gods.
Second, the phrase “in the beginning” does not
carry any sense of eternity in this passage. The Mormons simply interpret this
to mean that Jesus “existed with the Father prior to birth in the flesh.”[ix] As the firstborn spirit-child
Jesus was present with the Father before being born in a human body on this
earth. There was no eternal relationship between the Father and the Son because
there was a time when Jesus and the Father did not exist. This is a total denial of the
Christian doctrine of the Trinity. However, Mormons are not without an
explanation for a Trinity.
Talmage attempts to reconcile the Christian Trinitarian God with the
Mormon concepts of Elohim and the firstborn spirit-child Jesus by arguing that “the
Godhead is a type of unity in the attributes, powers, and purposes of its
members.”[x] Talmage suggests that the
oneness of the Godhead “implies no mystical union of substance” but
rather the members of the Godhead share the same mind and “seeing as each of
them does with the eye of perfection, they see and understand alike.”[xi]
There is no proclamation that the Son and the Father are eternal and coexistent
in a triune relationship with the Holy Spirit.
Mormon theologians offer a somewhat dismissive
explanation for the passages in the Bible that support Jesus’ eternality and
coexistence with the Father. Theodore Burton says, “Most of the confusion in
people’s minds concerning the Father comes through misunderstanding the
scriputres.”[xii]
He further states that when Jesus Christ spoke either in the Old Testament or
in the New Testament “he represented Elohim and spoke in the first person as
though he were Elohim,” and “he did this by divine right of investiture, having
his authority from God the Father.”[xiii]
Jesus had no divine authority in his being but rather gained this right from
Elohim. The Mormons believe that “over the ages in that premortal world Christ
grew in light and truth and knowledge and power until he had become ‘like unto
God’ (Abraham 3:24).”[xiv]
While Mormons teach that Jesus somehow
attained deity in the premortal world, they offer no explanation as to how he
did this.[xv]
What is clear in the Mormon faith is that Jesus did not have authority because
He is part of the eternal Godhead but rather he changed and earned the
authority and position he was granted by Elohim. The Mormon faith reduces Jesus
“from his deserved status as the infinite and eternal Son of God, meaning the
Second Person of the Trinity, to that of just another preexistent, finite, and
procreated child of the heavenly Father (himself a finite being).”[xvi]
Orthodox Christianity
Orthodox Christianity has traditionally taught
that Jesus Christ is the Son of God who has always coexisted in the eternal
triune relationship with the Father and the Holy Spirit. The eternality and
coexistence of Jesus Christ with the Father was also articulated by the early
Church Fathers. Augustine, in his work De
Trinitate, expresses the necessity of the eternality and coexistence of
Christ. He does so by noting 1Timothy 6:16 that says Jesus Christ “alone has
immortality.”[xvii]
Augustine writes, “For life everlasting can scarcely be mortal and subject to
change, and thus the Son of God, being life everlasting, must also be meant
with the Father by the words who alone has immortality.”[xviii]
Augustine argues for the eternality and
coexistence of Christ with the Father in 1 Timothy 6:16. First, since the Son
of God is immortal he cannot be temporal or changeable. This is in direct
contrast to the Mormon teaching that Jesus was “flesh and bone,” which has nothing to do with the divine incarnation of the Son but is understood to mean that Jesus was "created," implying mortality and not immortality.[xix]
The Mormon doctrine that Jesus progressed over time to be “like unto God” is
also in opposition to Augustine’s stance that Christ is unchangeable.[xx]
Mormons believe that Jesus “above all of his spirit brothers and sisters,
exercised exceeding faith and good works in [the] First Estate and thereby was
called with a holy calling.”[xxi]
According to this position Jesus is not the eternal Savior but rather rose to a
position of prominence. The orthodox Christian view that the Son is unchangeable
does not permit the idea that Jesus could have attained a higher status in
order to be the Savior of man. If Christ is not the eternal, unchangeable,
immortal Son of God Christians cannot become “partakers in his life everlasting”
and share in his immortality.[xxii]
Furthermore, Augustine proclaimed that Jesus
was not a created being, stating, “If he is not made he is not a creature, and
if he is not a creature he is of the same substance as the Father.”[xxiii]
As mentioned above, Mormons teach the exact opposite position from orthodox
Christianity, declaring that there is no “mystical union of substance” in the
Godhead, but only a unity in mind and completeness of thought.[xxiv]
Augustine correctly notes that if Christ is not of the same substance as the
Father, he cannot be God, but since he is of the same substance as the Father
he is “true God.”[xxv]
In other words, Jesus is God and not the offspring of a god.
The Reformers also contended for the
eternality of Jesus Christ. John Calvin took up this argument in his Institutes of the Christian Religion. Calvin
introduces arguments for Christ from both the Old and New Testaments in order
“to prove his eternal Godhead.”[xxvi]
Sighting John 17:5 where Jesus prays that the Father will glorify him with the
glory He had before the world existed, Calvin explains, “The Word was eternally
begotten by God, and dwelled with him from everlasting. In this way, his true
essence, his eternity, and divinity are established.”[xxvii]
Here, in the Reformation, is a continuation of the orthodox Christian doctrine
of the eternality of Christ and His coexistence with the Father that Mormonism
denies.
The orthodox position of the eternal Son
coexistent with the Father can be seen throughout all of church history in
multiple statements of faith. In 325 B.C. the Council of Nicea put forth the
Nicene Creed that cemented the orthodox Christian understanding that Jesus was
of the same essence as the Father. The Nicene Creed “to this day is the
standard of orthodoxy in the Roman, Eastern, Anglican, and some other
churches.”[xxviii]
The gap between Christian orthodoxy and the Mormon doctrine of Christ is widened
by the Mormon stern disagreement with the Nicene Creed. Concerning the Nicene
Creed, Mormon theologian James Talmage wrote, “It would be difficult to
conceive of a greater number of inconsistencies and contradictions expressed in
words as few.”[xxix]
Such a blatant denial clearly excludes Mormonism from an orthodox Christian
understanding of the eternality of Christ.
In addition to the Nicene Creed, the orthodox
position of the eternality of the Son is expressed in other creeds and
confessions. The Chalcedonian Creed in 451 A.D. declared Jesus “begotten before
all ages of the Father according to the Godhead.”[xxx]
The Athanasian Creed from the fourth and fifth centuries asserted that Jesus
was eternal and one with the Father.[xxxi]
Over a thousand years later The Westminster Confession of Faith maintained the
orthodox belief that Jesus is “very and eternal God, of one substance and equal
with the Father.”[xxxii]
Finally, the current Baptist Faith and Message of the Southern Baptist
Convention under Article II attests to the same orthodox Christian doctrine
that Jesus is “the eternal Son of God.”[xxxiii]
Without question, Mormonism rejects the orthodox Christian view of Jesus as eternal
and coexistent with the Father.
Scripture
There are passages in the Bible that Mormons
will sight in support of their doctrine that Jesus is the firstborn among many
spirit-children of Elohim and not the eternal Son of God. Doctrine and Covenants 93:21 footnotes the word “firstborn” with
Colossians 1:15-18.[xxxiv]
Also, The Doctrine and Covenants
Commentary by Hyrum Smith sights this same Colossians passage in an
explanation of Doctrine and Covenants
93:21 and says, “From this scripture we learn that Jesus Christ was ‘the
firstborn of every creature,’ and it is evident that the seniority here
expressed must be with respect to antemortal existence.”[xxxv]
In other words, Mormons believe that in Colossians 1 Paul is making a statement
about Jesus’ birth order among the spirit-children of Elohim.
The Greek word for “firstborn” used in
Colossians 1:15 is prototokos, and
this word “has both a literal and metaphorical meaning.”[xxxvi]
However, prototokos in Colossians
1:15 “refers not to his temporal beginnings but to his supremacy and honor.”[xxxvii]
In fact, “Paul says nothing about the generation of the pre-existent Son” in
this verse.[xxxviii]
Paul does state in verse 17 that Jesus is before all things and thereby
“clearly infers that Christ Himself is uncreated and therefore eternal.”[xxxix]
Finally, considering Paul’s teaching in verse 16 that Christ created all things
it “logically and necessarily leads to the conclusion that he himself is not
created,” and thus Jesus must be an eternal being.[xl]
Colossians 1:15-18 does not support the Mormon understanding of Jesus’ birth
order among numerous offspring of Elohim, but rather it proves the very thing
Mormons deny, that Jesus is eternal and coexistent with the Father.
Furthermore, “if He was not eternal He could not hold all things together
through His sustaining power” as Paul stated in Colossians 1:17.[xli]
The reality is that Scripture consistently
teaches that Jesus Christ is eternal and coexistent with the Father. John 1:1
is a foundational verse for the eternal Son’s coexistence with the Father. As Logos, Jesus is “affirmed as being
coequal, coeternal, coexistent, and consubstantial with the Father.”[xlii]
John’s claim about Jesus must not be missed. He is saying that Jesus “existed
in the beginning” with God and is “nothing less than God himself.”[xliii]
Try as they might, Mormons simply cannot present evidence from the inerrant and
infallible Word of God to substantiate their claim that Jesus is the literal
offspring of Elohim. Scripture clearly teaches that Christ is the eternal Son
of God.
Conclusion
Mormonism’s denial of the eternality of the
Son and His coexistence with the Father is in opposition to orthodox
Christianity and the truth found in Scripture. For over two thousand years
orthodox Christianity has proclaimed and preserved the reality that Jesus
Christ is the eternal Son of God, coexistent with the Father and the Holy
Spirit in the Trinity. Since its inception nearly two hundred years ago by
Joseph Smith, Mormonism has denied this orthodox Christian teaching and
propagated a false gospel. In addition, Mormon leaders have twisted Scripture
to support their heretical teachings. Under the teachings of Mormonism man is
left to trust in a created being and not an all-powerful eternal God. The
significance of the eternality of Christ cannot be understated. If Christ is a
created being he cannot be eternal, which means he is not God and, therefore,
there is no eternal triune God. Ultimately, if Jesus is not God there is no
hope for sinful man because there is no perfect sacrifice for sin and there is
no Mediator between God and man. May the light of the world, Jesus Christ, and
His Word expose the fallacy of the Mormon doctrine of Christ and rescue the
lost for the glory of the eternal God.
[i]Joseph
Smith and the Prophets, The Doctrine and
Covenants (Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints,
1939), 159.
[ii]Hyrum
M. Smith and Janne M. Sjodahl, Doctrine
and Covenants Commentary (Salt Lake City: Desert Book Company, 1965), 593.
[iii]The
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Gospel Principles (Salt Lake City: LDS, 1978), 9.
[iv]James
E. Talmage, The Articles of Faith (Salt
Lake City: Latter Day Saints, 1977), 466.
[v]Talmage,
466.
[vi]Theodore
M. Burton, God’s Greatest Gift (Salt
Lake City: Desert Book Company, 1976), 148. Concerning Jesus he believes, “His
Father was an immortal personage and his mother a mortal woman.”
[vii]Smith,
159.
[viii]
Smith, 238.
[ix]
James E. Talmage, Jesus the Christ: A
Study of the Messiah and His Mission according to Holy Scripture both Ancient
and Modern (Salt Lake City: Desert Book Company, 1961), 6.
[x]
Talmage, The Articles of Faith, 466.
[xi]
Talmage, The Articles of Faith, 466.
[xii]
Burton, 151.
[xiii]
Burton, 151.
[xiv]
Robert A. Millet, Different Jesus?: The Christ of the
Latter-day Saint (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2005),
20.
[xv]
R. Philip Roberts, Mormonism Unmasked:
Confronting the Contradictions Between Mormon Beliefs and True Christianity
(Nashville: B & H Publishing Group, 1998), 66. He writes, “What is unclear,
however, is exactly how Mormons explain the way Jesus, or the Holy Ghost,
achieved deity in the preexistence. Apparently they did so without first having
received bodies of flesh and bone, as did the heavenly Father and all other
gods before them. This makes Jesus and the Holy Ghost exceptions to what the
LDS church teaches is the universal norm: no one can become a god without first
becoming an embodied, physical being. No flesh-and-blood body, no achievement
of godhood possible. Just how Jesus and the Spirit managed to bypass this
requirement has never been explained in LDS literature.”
[xvi]
R. Philip Roberts, Mormonism Unmasked:
Confronting the Contradictions Between Mormon Beliefs and True Christianity
(Nashville: B & H Publishing Group, 1998), 66.
[xvii]
All Scripture references are taken from the English Standard Version (ESV).
[xviii]
Augustine, De Trinitate (New York:
New City Press, 1991), 37.
[xix]
Talmage, The Articles of Faith, 466.
[xx]
Joseph Smith, The Book of Mormon
(Salt Lake City: Latter Day Saints, 1986), 241. This quote is from Abraham
3:24.
[xxi]
Millet, 20.
[xxii]
Augustine, 37.
[xxiii]
Augustine, 35.
[xxiv]
Talmage, The Articles of Faith, 41.
[xxv]
Augustine, 35.
[xxvi]
John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian
Religion, trans. by Henry Beveridge (Peabody: Hendrickson Publishers, Inc.,
2008), 73.
[xxvii]
John Calvin, 73.
[xxviii]
Bruce L. Shelley, Church History in Plain
Language (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1995), 102.
[xxix]
Talmage, The Articles of Faith, 41.
[xxx] Wayne
Grudem, Systematic Theology: An
Introduction to Biblical Doctrine (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1994),
1170.
[xxxii]
Grudem, 1183.
[xxxiii]
Grudem, 1199.
[xxxiv]
Smith, The Doctrine and Covenants,
159.
[xxxv]
Smith and Sjodahl, 593.
[xxxvi]
William Mounce, Mounce’s Complete
Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words (Grand Rapids:
Zondervan, 2006), 255.
[xxxvii]
Mounce, Mounce’s, 255.
[xxxviii]
George Eldon Ladd, A Theology of the New
Testament (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1993), 459.
[xxxix]
Paul P. Enns, “The Deity, Attributes, and Eternality of God the Son,” in The Fundamentals for the Twenty-First
Century, ed. Mal Couch (Grand Rapids: Kregel Publication, 2000), 220. Enns
says, “In stating ‘He is before all things’ (Col. 1:17a) Paul once more
stresses the eternality and pre-existence of Christ.”
[xl] Daniel
L. Akin, ed. A Theology for the Church (Nashville:
B & H Publishing Group, 2007), 495.
[xli] Couch,
221.
[xlii]
Akin, 494.
[xliii]
D. A. Carson, The Gospel According to
John, The Pillar New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids: William B.
Eerdmans, 1991), 116.
