What is a professing believer to do when scripture points to and defines Jesus in many different terms? When scripture cannot settle on an unchanging definition of Jesus, is a person justified in selecting the “most comfortable” version of God? This is the conflict before us.

The Mormon Jesus

Jesus of the Book of Mormon

…And also to the convincing of the Jew and Gentile that Jesus is the Christ, the Eternal God.

–Title Page of the Book of Mormon, emphasis added.

The eternal nature of Jesus seems to be an excellent place to begin. Most agree that Jesus is Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last. This definition of Jesus fits comfortably into the belief system of most biblical Christians.

First Godhead of the Doctrine and Covenants

The 1835 edition of the Doctrine and Covenants included seven Lectures on Faith. These remained a part of the official cannon until the 1921 edition. One of these lectures was entitled The Godhead. The following is an excerpt from that lecture.

There are two personages who constitute the great, matchless, governing and supreme power over all things—by whom all things were created and made, that are created and made, whether visible or invisible: whether in heaven, on earth, or in the earth, under the earth, or throughout the immensity of space—They are the Father and the Son: The Father being a personage of spirit, glory and power: possessing all perfection and fulness: The Son, who was in the bosom of the Father, a personage of tabernacle, made, or fashioned like unto man, or being in the form and likeness of man, or, rather, man was formed after his likeness, and in his image;—he is also the express image and likeness of the personage of the Father: possessing all the fulness of the Father, or, the same fulness with the Father; being begotten of him, and was ordained from before the foundation of the world to be a propitiation for the sins of all those who should believe on his name, and is called the Son because of the flesh—and descended in suffering below that which man can suffer, or, in other words, suffered greater sufferings, and was exposed to more powerful contradictions than any man can be. But notwithstanding all this, he kept the law of God, and remained without sin: Showing thereby that it is in the power of man to keep the law and remain also without sin. And also, that by him a righteous judgment might come upon all flesh, and that all who walk not in the law of God, may justly be condemned by the law, and have no excuse for their sins. And he being the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth, and having overcome, received a fulness of the glory of the Father—possessing the same mind with the Father, which mind is the Holy Spirit…

Doctrine and Covenants, 1835 to 1921, Fifth Lecture on Faith, emphasis added.

Questions for Mormon Bishops

• From 1835 to 1921, your church taught that the godhead consisted of two personages. Why don’t you teach that now?
• Is it true that Jesus has a physical body and that the Father is spirit?
• Why is the Holy Spirit not listed as the third member of the Godhead?

Second Godhead of the Doctrine and Covenants

The Father has a body of flesh and bones as tangible as man’s; the Son also; but the Holy Ghost has not a body of flesh and bones, but is a personage of Spirit…

Doctrine and Covenants 130:22a, emphasis added.

Questions for Mormon Bishops

• Why is it taught that the Father has a physical body when the Lectures on Faith teach the opposite?
• Why is the Holy Ghost represented as a personage when the Lectures on Faith teach the opposite?

The Last God of Joseph Smith

Just a few weeks before his death, Joseph Smith dropped a bombshell on the church that forever redefined God.

God himself was once as we are now, and is an exalted man, and sits enthroned in
yonder heavens! … 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, so that you may see. … It is the first principle of the Gospel to know for a certainty the character of God and to know that he was once a man like us. … Here, then, is eternal life — to know the only wise and true God; and you have got to learn how to be Gods yourselves …

–King Follett Discourse,” Journal of Discourses 6:3-4, also in Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, 345-346, and History of the Church, vol. 6, 305-307

Questions for Mormon Bishops

• Does your church teach that God is not eternal?
• Was God once a man as we are now?
• Can a man become a god?

The Jesus of Brigham Young

It is true that the blood of the Son of God was shed for sins through the fall and those committed by men, yet men can commit sins which it [the blood of Christ] can never remit.

–Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, v. 4, p. 54

I could refer you to plenty of instances where men have been righteously slain, in order to atone for their sins. I have seen scores and hundreds of people for whom there would have been a chance (in the last resurrection there will be) if their lives had been taken and their blood spilled on the ground as a smoking incense to the Almighty, but who are now angels of the devil, until our elder brother Jesus Christ raises them up—conquers death, hell, and the grave. I have known a great many men who have left this Church for whom there is no chance whatever for exaltation, but if their blood had been spilled, it would have been better for them. The wickedness and ignorance of the nations forbid this principle’s being in full force, but the time will come when the law of God will be in full force. This is loving your neighbour as ourselves; if he needs help, help him; and if he wants salvation and it is necessary to spill his blood on the earth in order that he may be saved, spill it. Any of you who understand the principles of eternity, if you have sinned a sin requiring the shedding of blood, except the sin unto death, would not be satisfied nor rest until your blood should be spilled, that you might gain that salvation you desire. This is the way to love mankind.

Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses Volume 4 Page 220 (1857), emphasis added

Questions for Mormon Bishops

• Is it true that the blood of Jesus is too anemic to atone for many of the sins of the world?
• Brigham Young, among others, indicated that those who leave the Mormon church can only have that apostasy forgiven if their blood is shed. I have apostatized from Mormonism. Young prophesied that the day will come when blood atonement will be in full force. On that day, will you cut my throat in order to save me?

The Christ of Jeffery R. Holland

Jeffery R. Holland was a living Mormon apostle at the time of this writing. He spoke of Jesus’ power to forgive sin.

I do not know who in this vast audience today may need to hear the message of forgiveness inherent in this parable, but however late you think you are, however many chances you think you have missed, however many mistakes you feel you have made or talents you think you don’t have, or however far from home and family and God you feel you have traveled, I testify that you have not traveled beyond the reach of divine love. It is not possible for you to sink lower than the infinite light of Christ’s Atonement shines.

–Jeffrey R. Holland, The Laborers in the Vineyard, April 2014 General Conference, emphasis added.

Brigham Young stripped Jesus of the power to forgive many sins. Jeffery R. Holland, a Mormon apostle, gave that power back and added forgiveness for the one thing Jesus said was unforgivable.

Wherefore I say unto you, All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men: but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men.

–Matthew 12:31 KJV, emphasis added.

Question for Mormon Bishops

• Who is correct about Jesus’ power to forgive sins, Young or Holland?

Joseph Smith is God

Joseph Smith holds the keys of this last dispensation, and is now engaged behind the vail in the great work of the last days. I can tell our beloved brother Christians who have slain the Prophets and butchered and otherwise caused the death of thousands of Latter-day Saints, the priests who have thanked God in their prayers and thanksgiving from the pulpit that we have been plundered, driven, and slain, and the deacons under the pulpit, and their brethren and sisters in their closets, who have thanked God, thinking that the Latter-day Saints were wasted away, something that no doubt will mortify them—something that, to say the least, is a matter of deep regret to them—namely, that no man or woman in this dispensation will ever enter into the celestial kingdom of God without the consent of Joseph Smith. From the day that the Priesthood was taken from the earth to the winding-up scene of all things, every man and woman must have the certificate of Joseph Smith, junior, as a passport to their entrance into the mansion where God and Christ are—I with you and you with me. I cannot go there without his consent. He holds the keys of that kingdom for the last dispensation—the keys to rule in the spirit-world; and he rules there triumphantly, for he gained full power and a glorious victory over the power of Satan while he was yet in the flesh, and was a martyr to his religion and to the name of Christ, which gives him a most perfect victory in the spirit-world. He reigns there as supreme a being in his sphere, capacity, and calling, as God does in heaven. Many will exclaim—”Oh, that is very disagreeable! It is preposterous! We cannot bear the thought!” But it is true.

Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, Vol. 7, p.289 and Robert L. Millet, Ensign June 1994, emphasis added

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.

Joseph Smith, History of the Church, vol 6, pages 319-320 & Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith p .363, emphasis added

Question for Mormon Bishops

• If Jesus, who is our advocate, says a man should be saved and Joseph Smith withholds his certificate, will that man be saved?

Summation

…for if ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins.

John 8:24b, KJV

It truly is that simple. To know God and believe in His Son is the door to forgiveness and eternal life. Of all the definitions of Jesus described above, which is He, and which are counterfeits? God spoke clearly about those who define and redefine God to fit their preferences.

If there arise among you a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, and giveth thee a sign or a wonder, ² And the sign or the wonder come to pass, whereof he spake unto thee, saying, Let us go after other gods, which thou hast not known, and let us serve them; ³ Thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams: for the Lord your God proveth you, to know whether ye love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. ⁴ Ye shall walk after the Lord your God, and fear him, and keep his commandments, and obey his voice, and ye shall serve him, and cleave unto him. ⁵ And that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams, shall be put to death;

Deuteronomy 13:1-5, KJV, emphasis added

³But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. ⁴For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him.

2 Corinthians 11:4

In this discussion, we have seen clear examples of other gods, gospels, and spirits. To follow a church that authors such things is as dangerous as when Eve stopped trusting God and believed the serpent. For her, it meant an immediate separation from God. Thankfully, she was given an opportunity to turn back to God and be reconciled to Him. But what if she had died in her rebellion?

What if we rebel as Eve did? What if we set God aside for something pleasing to our eyes and delicious to our senses? What if we die while chasing after such things? Jesus has provided the answer.

²¹Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. ²²Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? ²³And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.

Matthew 7:21-23, KJV, emphasis added

I wonder, did God say, “I never knew you” because those people chose a false god and never knew Him?

For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints.

1 Corinthians 14:33

If these many Mormon definitions of Jesus have left you in a state of confusion, you are not alone. You are, however, in luck. If confusion and contradiction exist, you can know that God is not in it.

For sixty years, I worked myself to exhaustion in the service of the Mormon Jesus. There was, for me, a constant state of confusion. For every belief the Mormon church taught me, credible Mormon sources revealed a contradiction that spawned confusion.

As I came to know Jesus, I found peace. This peace came through the Word of God! The Old Testament prophesies of the coming Messiah. The New Testament testifies to the fulfillment of those prophesies. Through it all, the picture and story of Jesus continue unchanged.

 Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.

Hebrews 13:8, KJV

Questions for Mormon Bishops

• Of the many Mormon definitions of God, which one is faithful, and how can you know for sure?
• When scripture is unable to settle on an unchanging definition of Jesus, is a person justified in selecting the “most comfortable” version of God?