In my last article, I looked at Mormonism’s founder, Joseph Smith, detailing his marginal background and inconsistencies within his Book of Mormon and other allegedly divinely inspired writings. But it is the weightier doctrinal teachings of Mormonism that reveal a darker side to what many see as simply a clean-cut, family-friendly Protestant denomination.
While there are many areas we could address here – the reversal of earlier teachings on the necessity of polygamy for salvation, the allowance of abortion in many situations, the claim to have prophets in direct contact with God (but that have historically and repeatedly contradicted each other in major doctrinal reversals), the Masonic parallels in the secret Mormon temple ceremonies, the belief in the eternal nature of matter (matter is uncreated, always having existed), and numerous other strange teachings – I will focus on one particularly troubling doctrine.
Mormonism teaches that God the Father was once a man just like us, but with time became an exalted man with a glorified – but flesh-and-bones – body and now rules the earth from his own planet, Kolob.
Joseph Smith wrote that “God himself was once as we are now, and is an exalted man, and sits enthroned in yonder heavens.”
Mormons’ Doctrines and Covenants 130:22 continues, “The Father has a body of flesh and bones as tangible as man’s.”
Mormon teaching also declares that Jesus and the Holy Spirit are actually separate gods, distinct from God the Father – essentially a doctrine of multiple gods.
But the strangeness does not end there, as Mormon doctrine goes on to proclaim that each person can potentially become a god, ruling over their own world just as God the Father does now. “You have got to learn how to be gods yourselves … the same as all gods have done before you,” Joseph Smith would write.
Mormonism’s second “prophet,” Brigham Young, who succeeded immediately after Smith, taught that the number of gods and worlds can’t be known, and that the process of men becoming gods goes on eternally. Similarly, the Mormon prophet Lorenzo Snow summarized this teaching, known as “eternal progression,” saying: “As man now is, God once was: As God now is, man may be.” Sobering.
At its heart, Mormonism plummets believers right back to the original deception of the devil in the garden: you can be like God (Gn 3:1-14). But not just “like” God – you can actually become a god. This is profoundly serious stuff, and many simply fail to grasp the gravity of this teaching.
A brief scriptural response to these heretical teachings could include “The Lord our God, the Lord is one” (Mk 12:29, Dt 6:4), and that “God is spirit” (Jn 4:24) – and in Jesus’ own words, “a spirit does not have flesh and bones” (Lk 24:39). The first letter of St. Paul to Timothy (1:17) also confirms that God is “immortal, invisible, the only God.”
The prophet Isaiah summarizes things well for us: “Before me no god was formed, nor shall there be any after me … I am the First and I am the Last; besides me there is no god … For I am God, and there is no other” (Is 43:10; 44:6; 45:24). John 1:1 then gives us additional orthodox insight into this doctrine, relating that “In the beginning was the Word [Jesus], and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
The point is, Mormonism has a deeply confused view of God that spirals into radical polytheism. It clearly denies the fundamental Christian doctrine of the Trinity – three divine persons in one God – and instead preaches a potentially unlimited number of separate gods.
Because of this, and many other total departures from orthodox Christian beliefs, Mormonism is not considered a Christian denomination, and Mormon baptism is not recognized by the Catholic Church.
Christians baptize “in the name [singular] of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Mt 28:19), acknowledging one God in three divine persons. Mormons invoke three “gods” in their baptismal formula. While they may use the words “Father,” “Son,” and “Holy Spirit,” what they mean by these words is completely opposed to the Christian understanding of them.
Other Mormon teachings include Jesus and Lucifer being “spirit brothers” and that God the Father had physical sexual relations with Mary to generate their “spirit child,” Jesus. Mormons still maintain that Mary remained a virgin, though, defining a virgin as someone who has had no relations with a man. God the Father is a god now, so this activity, technically, did not lead to a loss of Mary’s virginity.
Reflecting on all these troubling teachings, Mormonism essentially represents a “new gospel.” There is zero evidence for Smith’s strange doctrines in either the New or Old Testament – or in the writings of the Early Church.
Mormons also insist that all Christian churches today, including the Catholic Church, have totally apostatized. This is a very serious charge against the one true Church that Jesus founded.
And here lies the problem. While some might argue that Mormons promote good family values and good charitable works throughout the world, Mormonism and Christianity stand directly opposed to each other. they can’t both be true. Mormonism leads people away from true Christianity with false teachings that strike at the heart of who God is, and then it blasphemously insists that we can become gods ourselves – and be worshipped.
Considering Smith’s claims of receiving revelations from an angel directing him to restore the true Christian Church and “the fullness of the gospel” to earth, and given that many of Smith’s key teachings are radically different from the original teachings of Jesus and the Apostles, one can’t help recall St. Paul’s warning in Galatians 1:18: “if … an angel from heaven … should preach to you a gospel contrary to that which we preached to you, let him be accursed.”
St. Paul also reminds us that “even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.”
No one should underestimate the profoundly dangerous teachings that Mormons – wittingly or not – so enthusiastically try to spread. These teachings are spiritually deadly to the soul of a Christian.
At stake here is not simply doctrinal disagreement or confusion (serious in itself), but a radical departure from the truths Jesus and the Apostles taught.
Interestingly, over time, Smith would give various, disparate versions of his visions, casting further doubt on their veracity. And Scripture does not take false prophets lightly …
