"All of our doctrine, all of our religious practice stems from that one basic doctrinal position: 'We believe in God, the Eternal Father, and in His Son, Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost.' This is the first article of our faith, and all else flows therefrom."But, what Father, Son, and Holt Ghost do they believe in? This is an important question because, as our Lord Jesus Christ said the night before His crucifixion, "This is life eternal, that they may know You, the only true GOD, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent." (John 17:3).
That said, in order to gain eternal life (and, by inference, to be called a Christian) you must know the TRUE GOD, and the TRUE CHRIST. Let's begin by taking a look at the Mormon "God". According to LDS theology, GOD hasn't always been GOD. He was born, just like you and I, and had to "learn" how to be GOD. From The Encyclopedia of Mormonism (EOM):
Latter-day Saints believe that God achieved his exalted rank by progressing much as man must progress and that God is a perfected and exalted man...(The Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 345).In fact, in his famous "King Follett Discourse" (KFD), the "prophet" Joseph Smith said:
First, God himself, who sits enthroned in yonder heaven, is a man like one of you. That is the great secret. If the veil were rent today and you were to see the great God who holds this world in its orbit and upholds all things by his power, you would see him in the image and very form of a man; for Adam was created in the very fashion and image of God. He received instruction from and walked, talked, and conversed with him as one man talks and communes with another.Was Adam created in the image of GOD? Of course he was (Genesis 1:26). However, what was that image? It was not the image of GOD the Father, but of GOD the Son. Colossians 1:15--"He [Christ] is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation."
Not only was God the Father born as a man, but we ourselves can become a "god". Again, from the EOM:
...while the faithful worship only one God in spirit and in truth, there exist other beings who have attained the necessary intelligence and righteousness to qualify for the title "god."However, the prophet Isaiah wrote in Isaiah 44:6-8--"Thus says the LORD, the King of Israel, and his Redeemer, the LORD of hosts: 'I am the First and I am the Last; besides Me there is no God. And who can proclaim as I do? Then let him declare it and set it in order for Me, since I appointed the ancient people. And the things that are coming and shall come, let them show these to them. Do not fear, nor be afraid; have I not told you from that time, and declared it? You are My witnesses. Is there a God besides Me? Indeed there is no other Rock; I know not one.'" In fact, verse 6 is quoted word-for-word in Joseph Smith's "Inspired" version.
Now, this is where the LDS church faces a dilemma. Either GOD is speaking the truth here, and GOD is the ONLY GOD, or GOD is not omniscient, and there are things that GOD does not know. Well, the EOM says:
No event occurs that he has not anticipated or has not taken into account in his planning.Of course, the most definitive quote on the subject of man becoming a "god" comes from Lorenzo Snow:
As man now is, God once was: As God now is, man may be.And he was merely paraphrasing what Smith said in the KFD:
Here, then, is eternal life--to know the only wise and true God. And you have got to learn how to be Gods yourselves--to be kings and priests to God, the same as all Gods have done--by going from a small degree to another, from grace to grace, from exaltation to exaltation, until you are able to sit in glory as do those who sit enthroned in everlasting power.Does this sound like the GOD of the Bible? Of course it doesn't. That's because the God that those in the LDS church worship is not the GOD of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. He is a "God" that was invented by Joseph Smith, a false prophet. GOD did not have to learn how to become GOD. Psalm 90:2 tells us that "...from everlasting to everlasting THOU ART GOD." In Malachi 3:6, GOD says, "I AM the LORD, I do not change."
So, who are you going to believe? GOD, or Joseph Smith?
