In Mormonism, we go to great lengths to defends our beliefs. We will often twist the scriptures or the words of leaders to support whatever the current in vogue belief is. This of course is not how God’s people should be. We should be led by the words of God instead of the opinions of men.
Mormonism
In Mormonism, one belief that has become fully entrenched is that the Father and the Son are fully separate beings which work together towards the same purpose. With the Son being a literal spiritual then physical offspring of the Father. This does kind of make sense when you hide everything that disagrees with the concept. It also helps to be told this, a million different ways, throughout the church. However, it really makes no sense at all when you finally look at the scriptures.
To get this concept to work in Mormonism though, then we have to conditionally define the words ‘Father’ and ‘God’. The Father is always the Father, except when he’s not and Christ is the Father. God is always God, except when he’s not and Christ is God. After years and years of this thinking then it becomes second nature.
However, this is ultimately the core problem members of the church today have to deal with. We essentially have to deprogram ourselves from the traditions of men, even well-intentioned men. This dual thinking is very apparent in a Doctrinal Exposition that was published by the First Presidency and Twelve Apostles in 1916. It has also been republished various times throughout church publications and has established the doctrinal understanding for multiple generations of members. In the exposition it conditionally defines terms and creates entirely new unscriptural concepts to help explain the unexplainable.
This concept is also less clear because at various times Joseph referred to God and Jesus as being separate beings. In fact, the first account of the First Vision has Joseph referring to a single being, however other accounts have Joseph stating multiple beings. Joseph also changed the Book of Mormon, in 1837, to make this very issue more confusing. We should of course take the words of Joseph into consideration. However, we shouldn’t automatically assume they are correct. Especially when they seem to change over time.
I think this is the fatal flaw in modern Mormonism. We assume everything Joseph did or said was God’s will. However, this is not how reality works. This will be hard for some to hear, however Joseph was wrong about some things with the King Follett discourse being the best example. In fact, it seems that as time progressed, Joseph increasingly separated himself from the scriptures, and truth, which has directly led us to the confusing mess we have today in modern Mormonism. I don’t want to disparage Joseph in the slightest. However, I truly believe that he was used by God to turn the church over to Satan for their disobedience.
Scriptures
In looking at the scriptures, I really just want to present a very simple and basic list of all the scriptures, from the Book of Mormon, that say that Christ is God made flesh. Of course, you can interpret these in different ways if you just change the definitions, which is what most do today. However, the more I understand God, the more I realize that God is rather simple in his plan, in his approach, and in his work with men.
Men though are the ones that want to complicate everything. We want to redefine, reestablish, and reinvent everything that God does into a different form so we can control it. If we just go back to the basics, then we will obtain so much more clarity than the complicated rules that organized religion provides. The following scriptures are in no particular order. There are also about 10 or 20 times more scriptures than these, however these were chosen only for their simplicity.
I would that ye should understand that God himself shall come down among the children of men, and shall redeem his people.
Mosiah 15:1
Were it not for the atonement, which God himself shall make for the sins and iniquities of his people, that they must unavoidably perish
Mosiah 13:28
Have they not said that God himself should come down among the children of men, and take upon him the form of man
Mosiah 13:34
Therefore God himself atoneth for the sins of the world, to bring about the plan of mercy
Alma 42:15
Yea, he is the very Eternal Father of heaven and of earth, and all things which in them are; he is the beginning and the end, the first and the last; and he shall come into the world to redeem his people;
Alma 11:39
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 11:7
Thus saith the Lord God: When the day cometh that they shall believe in me, that I am Christ, then have I covenanted with their fathers that they shall be restored in the flesh
2 Nephi 10:7
And as I spake concerning the convincing of the Jews, that Jesus is the very Christ, it must needs be that the Gentiles be convinced also that Jesus is the Christ, the Eternal God
2 Nephi 26:12
And shall make known to all kindreds, tongues, and people, that the Lamb of God is the Eternal Father
1 Nephi 13:40 – Original
Behold, the virgin whom thou seest is the mother of God, after the manner of the flesh.
1 Nephi 11:18 – Original
Behold the Lamb of God, yea, even the Eternal Father!
1 Nephi 11:21 – Original
And I looked and beheld the Lamb of God, that he was taken by the people; yea, the everlasting God was judged of the world;
1 Nephi 11:32
The Jews, the covenant people of the Lord, shall have other witness besides him whom they saw and heard, that Jesus, whom they slew, was the very Christ and the very God.
Mormon 3:21
And also to the convincing of the Jew and Gentile that Jesus is the Christ, the Eternal God, manifesting himself unto all nations
Title page of Book of Mormon
He said unto them that Christ was the God, the Father of all things, and said that he should take upon him the image of man … and that God should come down among the children of men, and take upon him flesh and blood, and go forth upon the face of the earth
Mosiah 7:27
I would that ye should be steadfast and immovable, always abounding in good works, that Christ, the Lord God Omnipotent, may seal you his
Mosiah 5:15
Listen to the words of Christ, your Redeemer, your Lord and your God.
Moroni 8:8
Conclusion
I think it’s pretty clear from the Book of Mormon that Jesus is our Lord and our God. God himself came down to personally reclaim his lost and fallen people. He didn’t come down to get a body for his eternal progression. He came down to open the way for our deliverance from death and hell. All glory goes to God for his unending love and devotion. We just have to make the decision to believe and follow him. There is not a better way to say this than what Nephi wrote:
I glory in plainness; I glory in truth; I glory in my Jesus, for he hath redeemed my soul from hell.
2 Nephi 33:6
