QUESTIONS FOR MORMONS ON THE GODHEAD —Presenting the Biblical God and the Trinity
1. Do you believe God was once a “man” like you? If so, wouldn’t that make him once a sinner like you?
“God himself was once as we are now, and is an exalted man, and sits enthroned in yonder heavens! …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… 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 …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… Here, then, is eternal life—to know the only wise and true God; and you have got to learn how to be Gods yourselves, …the same as all Gods have done before you…”—Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, pp. 345-347
2. Since Jesus was “without sin,” do you believe Jesus did something His Father couldn’t do? How could He do that?
- Hebrews 4:15: “…but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.” (All Biblical Scriptures quotes are from the King James Version)
3. Since God has always been God (Psalm 90:2), is a Spirit (John 4:24) who fills heaven and earth (Jeremiah 23:24; 1 Kings 8:27), is not a man (Numbers 23:19; Hosea 11:9; Romans 1:22-23) and cannot sin (Titus 1:2), how can you expect to become a God like Him since you are a sinful human?
- Psalm 90:2: “…from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.”
- John 4:24: “God is a Spirit…”
- Jeremiah 23:24: “Do not I fill heaven and earth? saith the LORD.”
- 1 Kings 8:27: “But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain thee…”
- Numbers 23:19: “God is not a man, that he should lie…”
- Hosea 11:9: “…I am God, and not man…”
- Titus 1:2: “…God, that cannot lie…”
- Romans 1:22-23: “Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man.”
- NOTE: Mormons often argue that God made man in his own image, so God’s image must be human. Yet, this “image” can’t be human because God said: “Let us make man in our image…” (Genesis 1:26) In Mormon theology, only the Father had a physical human body at that time, so the “image” of the “us” of the Godhead (which includes the Son and Holy Spirit), must have been a spiritual image, not a physical one.
4. How can Mormonism offer you complete forgiveness when your God holds you accountable for every sin you repeatedly commit?
- D&C 82:7: “…go your ways and sin no more; but unto that soul who sinneth shall the former sins return, saith the Lord your God.”
- “Those who receive forgiveness and then repeat the sin are held accountable for their former sins.” —Gospel Principles, p. 253
5. Instead of trusting Mormonism, why not trust the Biblical God?
- Psalm 103:12: “As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.”
6. Do you worship one God or many Gods? Is the Father a separate God from Jesus, the Son?
“I will preach on the plurality of Gods.…I have always declared God to be a distinct personage, Jesus Christ a separate and distinct personage from God the Father, and that the Holy Ghost was a distinct personage and a Spirit: and these three constitute three distinct personages and three Gods.” —Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, compiled by Joseph Fielding Smith, 1976, p. 370
7. Do you worship the Father or the Son? Who did the Disciples worship in the Bible? Who did the Nephites worship in the Book of Mormon? Since they worshipped Christ, why don’t you worship Him? If you do worship Christ along with the Father, are you worshipping TWO Gods instead of One?
- Matthew 28:17: “…And when they saw him, they worshipped him.”
- NOTE: Unlike angels (Revelation 22:8-9) and men (Acts 10:25-26) who refused worship, Jesus never rejected it (Revelation 5:11-14; Hebrews 1:6).
- 1 Nephi 11:24: “…I beheld the Son of God …and I saw many fall down at his feet and worship him.” (Book of Mormon)
- 3 Nephi 11:17: “…And they did fall down at the feet of Jesus, and did worship him.” (Book of Mormon)
8. In Alma 11, when Zeezrom, an evil lawyer, was contending with Amulek, a prophet of God in the Book of Mormon, he challenged him as to whether a “true and living God” exists (verses 26-27). When he asked, “Is there more than one God?” (verse 28), what do you think his answer was to this?
- Alma 11:28-29: “Now Zeezrom said: Is there more than one God? And he answered, No.”
See also the following Book of Mormon Scriptures:
- Alma 11:44: “…shall be brought and be arraigned before the bar of Christ the Son, and God the Father, and the Holy Spirit, which is one Eternal God. …”
- 2 Nephi 11:7: “For if there be no Christ there be no God; and if there be no God we are not, for there could have been no creation. But there is a God, and he is Christ, and he cometh in the fulness of his own time.”
- 2 Nephi 31:21:“…this is the doctrine of Christ, and the only and true doctrine of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, which is one God, without end. Amen.”
- 3 Nephi 11:27, 36: “…the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost are one; and I am in the Father, and the Father in me, and the Father and I are one. …for the Father, and I, and the Holy Ghost are one.”
- Mosiah 15:1-4: “…God himself shall come down among the children of men, and shall redeem his people. …being the Father and the Son — The Father, because he was conceived by the power of God; and the Son, because of the flesh; thus becoming the Father and Son— And they are one God, yea, the very Eternal Father of heaven and of earth.”
9. Why is Jesus called the “Son of God”—rather than the “Son of the Holy Ghost”? Doesn’t this prove that the Holy Ghost is the same God as God the Father?
- Matthew 1:18, 20: “…she was found with child of the Holy Ghost… for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost.”
10. Do you believe that Jesus is the “LORD” (Jehovah) and that “God” (Elohim) is the Father?
“When one speaks of God, it is generally the Father who is referred to; that is, Elohim… The personage known as Jehovah in Old Testament times, and who is usually identified in the Old Testament as LORD (in capital letters), is the Son, known as Jesus Christ, and who is also a God.”—LDS KJV Bible Dictionary, p. 681
- Isaiah 43:10-11: “Ye are my witnesses, saith the LORD, and my servant whom I have chosen: that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I am he: before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me.”
11. Since “no God” was formed before Jesus, how could the Father have come into existence before Him? Doesn’t this prove Jesus and the Father are the same God? Since no God will be formed “after” Jesus, how can you become a God? (See also Psalm 2:7 and Deuteronomy 6:4)
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