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John 1:1, 14
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. . . . And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.”
We have seen that the central teachings of Mormonism include continuing revelation beyond Scripture, a humanized deity, the preexistence of human souls, and salvation linked to Mormon ordinances. Today we set the biblical doctrine of God and of Christ alongside that system to see how thoroughly Scripture refutes it.
The opening words of John’s gospel cut directly across Mormon teaching: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1). The eternal Son was already with the Father before creation began. He was not a created spirit being. He was God, of one being with the Father from everlasting. When time itself began, the Word already was. There was never a time when He was not.
Verse 14 then tells us that this eternal Word became flesh. The same person who was God from eternity took to Himself a true human nature, joining it to His deity in one person forever. He did so without ceasing to be God and without diminishing His divine glory. This is the doctrine of the incarnation, and it is the heart of the Christian faith. The God-man Jesus Christ is one person with two natures, truly divine and truly human, the only Mediator between God and men.
Mormonism’s portrait of Jesus differs from this in fundamental ways. In Mormon teaching, Jesus is the eldest spirit child of heavenly parents, a being who himself ascended to a level of divinity but who is not the supreme God of the universe. The Father in Mormon doctrine was once a man and now lives on a planet near a star called Kolob with his heavenly wife.
Scripture, however, is unyielding on the unity and uniqueness of God. “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one” (Deut. 6:4). “I am the Lord, and there is no other; besides me there is no God” (Isa. 45:5). The God who reveals Himself in the Old and New Testaments is one God in three persons—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—not one god among many or one stage in the ascent of human beings to divinity. To know this God truly is to renounce every counterfeit, however earnestly it may invoke familiar Christian language. It is no kindness to those held captive by such teaching to minimize the differences. We must lovingly but clearly set forth the Bible’s teaching on the eternal deity of Christ, the unique authority of Scripture, and salvation by grace alone through faith alone in the finished work of the cross.
Coram Deo Living before the face of God
The God of Scripture is one, eternal, and unchanging. The Son of God is no created being but took on flesh for our salvation. May we honor Him as He truly is, refuse every diminished portrait of Him, and pray earnestly for those who are held captive by doctrines that deny who He is.
For further study
- Isaiah 46:9–10
- Hebrews 1:8–12
The bible in a year
- Ecclesiastes 7–9
- 2 Corinthians 12
- Eccl. 10–Song 3
- 2 Cor. 13–Gal. 1