Gerald R. McDermott, Christianity Today, 12 Sept. 2012
The current US election campaign pitting Mormon Mitt Romney against incumbent President Obama has created the “Mormon Moment,” when the “Church of the Latter Day Saints (LDS)” enjoys its highest public profile ever. If Romney wins November’s Presidential election he’ll be the 1st Mormon to fill the Oval Office and become the most powerful person on planet earth. In that case the “Mormon Moment” will be extended. Should Romney lose the election we’ll look back on the current 4-weeks of primetime debates as the “Mormon Month,” as Romney’s beliefs follow him into obscurity along with earlier defeated presidential candidates. Due to the prominence being given to the Mormon faith it’s unsurprising that their beliefs are being evaluated against the orthodox Christian faith affirmed by genuine Bible- believing Christians. The following piece is extracted from Gerald R. McDermott’s article in Christianity Today. McDermott also asks, do the US President’s beliefs “really matter in the presidency”? That question is less relevant to us as residents of Canada & members of the Church in Toronto. Hence the extracts below focus on the Mormon’s beliefs & teachings.—Nigel Tomes
Mormon beliefs differ from Christianity
Evangelicals have legitimate reasons to believe that Mormon beliefs are different from those of historic Christianity. For [although] Mormons believe Jesus is now fully God, they do not believe he was always God. [Mormon founder] Joseph Smith wrote that just as God "was once as we are now," Jesus over time grew into being God (Abraham 3:24 [in Mormon Scripture]).
The contrast with Christian orthodoxy is considerable: the Jesus of the historic church was always the 2nd person of the Trinity, fully divine and fully equal to the Father, who in turn was always God. There never was a time when the Trinity was not fully God, each of the 3 Persons co-equal and co-divine. Jesus never moved from non-divine to divine, and did not gain divine attributes after not having them. There were times in his incarnation when [God the Son] voluntarily "emptied himself" of some of his divine prerogatives, such as knowing the day and the hour of the end of all things (Phil. 2.7; Matt. 24.36). But these were powers which he had possessed until the Incarnation, and chose not to use while on earth in bodily form.
So, for the orthodox Christian tradition, the movement of divine attributes in Jesus is the reverse of that for the [Mormon] LDS view: Instead of gradually accumulating the divine nature [the Mormon view], he [Jesus] always was divine. Only at a point long after the creation did he appear to have relinquished his divinity [i.e. at incarnation]. But this was merely an appearance, camouflaging the "fullness" of deity (Col. 1:19) by a divine humility willing to forego certain privileges.
Mormons: Father, Son & Holy Spirit 3 Different Gods
Another point of important theological difference is that Mormons do not believe Jesus is the same God as his Father. Christian orthodoxy says instead that Jesus and his Father are two persons in one God—they share the same divine substance. For Joseph Smith and the resulting Mormon tradition, on the other hand, the Father and Son and Holy Ghost are 3 divine "personages" or Gods amidst a "plurality of Gods," according to a sermon [Mormon founder] Joseph Smith gave just before he died. In other words, they are three different Gods. (As Mormon theologian Robert L. Millet put it, they are "beings," not persons in one being.)
“The Father of Jesus has his own Father”-- Joseph Smith
In that last discourse, Smith declared that the Father of Jesus has his own Father. The existence of other gods beyond the three is not in official LDS doctrine or its canon, but it is taught by LDS authorities that Jesus is one of three Gods.
Mormons also believe that Jesus is not different in nature from us mortals, but is one of our species. Like us, he [Jesus] started with divine potential and by his choices ended up as omniscient and omnipotent, just as we can. Christian orthodoxy in contrast teaches that the human Jesus is also divine by nature, but that we are not.
Mormons reject the Trinity and the traditional Christian doctrine that God created the world from nothing. Latter-Day Saints believe that God reordered pre-existing matter, which was eternal, into the world we now inhabit.
So Mormon doctrine is quite different from historic Christian orthodoxy on the Incarnation, the origins of Jesus' divinity, his relationship to the Father, the Trinity, monotheism, human nature, and the creation of this cosmos.
“Mormon Jesus & the Mormon godhead” differ from the Christian Faith
These differences must not be ignored or minimized. The Mormon views of Jesus and God are different from those of the classic Christianity. Therefore it can be said with accuracy that the Mormon Jesus and the Mormon godhead are not the ones which the mainstream Christian churches have been pointing to for 2000 years.
But if we should not ignore the differences, we must also not ignore the overlap between Mormon views and mainstream Christian views. For one thing, Mormons insist they believe in Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord. [But we ask: what does the Mormons’ statement “Jesus Christ is our Savior” mean when they also say that “Jesus started with divine potential & by his choices ended up as omniscient & omnipotent, just as we can”? If we also have (as Mormon’s claim) “divine potential” and by our choices we can ended up as omniscient & omnipotent (like Jesus), then why do we need a Savior? Doesn’t it sound like Mormon’s believe we can save ourselves? There are some serious issues here.—Nigel Tomes]
Can Unorthodox Theology Produce Proper Ethics?
[Mormons] also affirm solidly—more so than many mainstream Christians today—the moral theology which historic orthodoxy has taught for 2,000 years. They believe in what Luther called the 3rd use of the law—that God's moral teachings in both Testaments help guide Christians in making moral decisions and knowing what a faithful life looks like. They believe, with the historic church, that the Ten Commandments are not simply ten suggestions. [Hence affirms that Mormons’ ethical teaching (derived from the Bible) match orthodox Christianity. However, for the Apostle Paul proper Christian ethics and behavior are the issue of a proper theology about the Trinity & Jesus Christ and proper experiences of God & Christ based on that theology. We ask: won’t the Mormon’s improper (heretical) theology inevitably produce improper (deviant) experiences of God & Christ and improper ethical applications?—Nigel Tomes]
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