THE JESUS CHRIST OF THE MORMON CHURCH
Is He The Jesus Of The Bible?
Introduction
In answering the question,
"Is He The Jesus Of The Bible?" I will primarily let the top leaders of
the Mormon church and its teaching manuals answer this question.
Mormon Prophet's Jesus Christ
The president and prophet
(the top man) of the Mormon church, Gordon B. Hinckley, made a very telling
comment about Jesus Christ in a talk in Paris France on June 4, 1998.
Pres. Hinckley said;
In bearing testimony of Jesus Christ, President Hinckley
spoke of those outside the Church who say Latter-day Saints ‘do not believe
in the traditional Christ. No, I don't. The traditional Christ of whom
they speak is not the Christ of whom I speak. For the Christ of whom
I speak has been revealed in this the Dispensation of the Fulness of Times.
He together with His Father, appeared to the boy Joseph smith in the year
1820, and when Joseph left the grove that day, he knew more of the nature
of God than all the learned ministers of the gospel of the ages. (Church
News, week ending June 20, 1998, page 7)
Note Pres. Hinckley's words, " The traditional Christ of
whom they speak is not the Christ of whom I speak." Many anti-Mormons have
been saying this for decades. The Christ of Mormonism is not the Christ
of the Bible. What follows are more specific reasons why the Jesus Christ
of the Mormon church is not the one I believe in and cannot be found in
the Bible.
According to the Mormon Church The Spirit Of Jesus
Christ Did Not Always Exist, He Had A Beginning
The first thing to understand
is that the "God the Father" of Mormonism has not always been God. He also
had a beginning, just as his son.
President Joseph Fielding Smith said: "Our Father
in heaven according to the Prophet, had a Father, and since there has
been a condition of this kind through all eternity, each Father had a Father"
(Doctrines of Salvation 2:47)...President Joseph F. Smith taught:
"I know that God is a being with body, parts and passions...Man was
born of woman; Christ, the Savior, was born of woman; and God, the Father
was born of woman" (Church News, 19 Sept, 1936, p.2).
(Search These Commandments, Melchizedek Priesthood Personal Study
Guide, Copyright 1984 by Corporation of the President of The Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, page 152)
As shown in this chapter, our Father in heaven was
once a man as we are now, capable of physical death...he and our mother
in heaven were empowered to give birth to spirit children... (Achieving
a Celestial Marriage, Copyright 1976, 1992 by Corporation of the President
of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, page 132)
All men and women are...literally the sons and daughters
of Deity...Man, as a spirit, was begotten and born of heavenly parents,
and reared to maturity in the eternal mansions of the Father, prior
to coming upon the earth in a temporal [physical] body'....very person
who was ever born on earth was our spirit brother or sister in heaven.
The first spirit born to our heavenly parents was Jesus Christ...Our
spirits resemble our heavenly parents although they have resurrected
bodies. (Gospel Principles, page 9, 1981 edition, page 11, 1997
edition)
What this means is that while "God the Father" was progressing
to become a God, the spirit of his son, "Jesus Christ," did not exist.
Only after the "Father" became a god was he able to procreate the spirit
of his son. Now let us look at how the body of the Mormon Jesus came
about.
How Was The Body Of Jesus Christ Conceived In Mary?
How Did Mary Conceive
Jesus Christ According to the Mormon church and its top Leaders? Let us
see how "God the Father," according to the Mormon Church and its top leaders,
used his parts and passions to procreate the body of the Mormon "Jesus
Christ."
When the Virgin Mary conceived the child Jesus, the Father
had begotten him in his own likeness. He was not begotten by the Holy Ghost.
And who is the Father?...Now remember from this time forth, and forever,
that Jesus Christ was not begotten by the Holy Ghost. I will repeat
a little anecdote. I was in conversation with a certain learned professor
upon this subject, when I replied, to this idea--"if the Son was begotten
by the Holy Ghost, it would be very dangerous to baptize and confirm females,
and give the Holy Ghost to them, lest he should beget children, to be palmed
upon the Elders by the people, bringing the Elders into great difficulties."
(Journal of iscourses, Brigham Young, 1:51-52, April 9, 1852)
On other occasions Brigham Young said:
We first begin to read that Jesus came in the flesh...But
suppose I examine that, a moment. The New Testament tells me that the Father
gave His only-begotten Son a ransom for the sins of the world. Do you believe
that, brother B.? Do you believe that Jesus Christ is the only-begotten
Son of the Father? "Yes." Do you believe the Son was begotten by the Father,
as the Apostles said he was? Here I shall have to disagree with you, to
begin with; for I believe the Father came down from heaven, as the Apostles
said he did, and begot the Saviour of the world; for he is the ONLY-begotten
of the Father, which could not be if the Father did not actually beget
him in person. (Journal of Discourses, Brigham Young, 1:237-238,
July 24, 1853)
...The man Joseph, the husband of Mary, did not,
that we know of, have more than one wife, but Mary the wife of Joseph
had another husband... The very babe that was cradled in the manger,
was begotten, not by Joseph, the husband of Mary, but by another Being.
Do you inquire by whom? He was begotten by God our heavenly Father.
(Journal of Discourses, Brigham Young, 11:268, August 19, 1866)
These are interesting statements, because if we accept them
we would also have to believe that the Father committed incest. The Father
according to Brigham Young took one of his spirit daughters as his wife
and procreated the body of Jesus Christ with her. I find this offensive.
Are these isolated teachings only by Brigham Young? No, they are not. Now
let us learn what another president and prophet of the Mormon Church said
while speaking to children at an official meeting:
A MODERN PROPHET'S ANSWER...I want the little folks [children]
to hear what I am going to tell you. I am going to tell you a simple
truth, yet it is one of the greatest truths and one of the most
simple facts ever revealed to the children of men.
You all know that your fathers are
indeed your fathers and that your mothers are indeed your mothers - you
all know that don't you? You cannot deny it. Now, we are told in scriptures
that Jesus Christ is the only begotten Son of God in the flesh. Well, now
for the benefit of the older ones, how are children begotten? I answer
just as Jesus Christ was begotten of his father...Now my little friends,
I will repeat again in words as simple as I can, and you ask your parents
about it, that God, the Eternal Father, is literally the father of Jesus
Christ. (Joseph F. Smith, Box Elder Stake Conference Dec 20, 1914 as
quoted in Brigham City Box Elder News, 28 Jan, 1915, pp.1-2.) (Family
Home Evening [Manual], Personal Commitment, copyright 1972 by Corporation
of the President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, pages
125-126).
Note in the first paragraph of this reference the phrases
"I am going to tell you a simple truth," "one of the greatest truths" and
"simple facts ever revealed to the children of men." In other words what
is said is truth and revelation. Note that the person speaking was the
president of the Mormon Church and he was speaking at an official meeting.
This was not just his personal opinion. On page 126 of this last reference,
a teaching manual published by the Mormon Church, is a graphic picture
of an algebraic equation:
Daddy + Mommy = You
Our Heavenly Father + Mary = Jesus
(Ibid, page 126).
Another LDS teaching manual has:
...he was able to make payment because he lived
a sinless life and because he was actually, literally, biologically
the Son of God in the flesh. (Messages for Exaltation, For the
Sunday Schools of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Gospel
Doctrine Class, published by the Deseret Sunday School Union, printed by
Deseret News Press, 1967, pages 378-379)
Apostle Orson Pratt, in his publication, The Seer,
expressed a similar idea.
God, the Father of our spirits, became the Father of
our Lord Jesus Christ according to the flesh....it was the personage
of the Father who begat the body of Jesus...both the spirit and body of
Jesus were begotten by the Father... The fleshly body of Jesus required
a Mother as well as a Father. Therefore, the Father and Mother of Jesus,
according to the flesh, must have been associated together in the capacity
of Husband and Wife, hence the virgin Mary must have been, for the
time being, the Lawful wife of God the Father. (The Seer, by Apostle
Orson Pratt, October 1853, Vol. 1, No. 10, p. 158)
Another said:
President Ezra Taft Benson stated, "The Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-day Saints proclaims that Jesus Christ is the Son of
God in the most literal sense. The body in which He performed His mission
in the flesh was fathered by that same Holy Being we worship as God, our
Eternal Father. Jesus was not the son of Joseph, nor was He begotten by
the Holy Ghost. He is the Son of the Eternal Father!" (Benson, p. 4).
(Encyclopedia of Mormonism, Vol. 2, p. 725, 1992; The Teachings
of Ezra Taft Benson, p. 7)
Ancient and modern scriptures use the title Only Begotten
to emphasize the divine nature of Jesus Christ. Latter-day Saints recognize
Jesus as literally the Only Begotten Son of God the Father in the flesh
(John 3:16; D&C 93:11; Moses 6:52). This title signifies that Jesus'
physical body was the offspring of a mortal mother and of the eternal Father
(Luke 1:35, 1 Ne. 11:18). It is LDS doctrine that Jesus Christ is the child
of Mary and God the Father, "not in violation of natural law but in accordance
with a higher manifestation thereof" (Jesus The Christ, James E. Talmage,
p. 81; Encyclopedia of Mormonism, Vol.2, page 729)
These name-titles all signify that our Lord is the only
Son of the Father in the flesh. Each of the words is to be understood literally.
Only means only; Begotten means begotten; and Son means son. Christ
was begotten by an Immortal Father in the same way that mortal men are
begotten by mortal fathers. (Mormon Doctrine, Bruce
R. McConkie, p. 546-547)
God the Father is a perfected, glorified, holy Man, an
immortal Personage. And Christ was born into the world as the literal Son
of this Holy Being; he was born in the same personal, real, and literal
sense that any mortal son is born to a mortal father. There is nothing
figurative about his paternity; he was begotten, conceived and born
in the normal and natural course of events, for he is the Son of God, and
that designation means what it says. (ibid, p. 742)
I have provided a broad number of sources over a long time
period to show that the teachings about the conception of Jesus Christ
are not isolated to one time period or to one small group of authors/sources.
Jesus Christ Was Married, Had Children
We say it was Jesus Christ who was married, to
be brought into the relation whereby he could see his seed, before
he was crucified (President Orson Hyde, Oct. 6, 1854, Journal
of Discourses, 2:82 [Vol 2, page 82]).
President Brigham Young, the president and prophet, speaking
afterwards at the same General Conference , October 6, l854, began
his sermon with the remark, "I do not wish to eradicate any items from
the lecture Elder Hyde has given us this evening.....but I will say he
has not dipped into it yet; he has only run round the edge of the field.
He has done so beautifully, and it will have its desired effect."
(Journal of Discourses, 2:88-90)
I discover that some of the Eastern papers represent
me as a great blasphemer, because I said, in my lecture on Marriage,
at our last [General] Conference [cf. JD 2:79-87, October 6, l854], that
Jesus Christ was married at Cana of Galilee, that Mary, Martha, and others
were his wives, and that he began children. All that I have to
say in reply to that charge is this--they worship a Savior that is too
pure and holy to fulfil the commands of his Father. I worship one
that is just pure and holy enough to "fulfil all righteousness;'
no only the righteous law of baptism, but the still more righteous and
important law "to multiply and replenish the earth." Startle not
at this! for even the Father himself honored that law by coming down
to Mary, without a natural body, and begetting a son; and if Jesus begat
children, he only "did that which he had seen his Father do." (President
Orson Hyde, March l8, l855; Journal of Discourses, 2:2l0)
It will be borne in mind that once on a time, there was
a marriage in Cana of Galilee; and on a careful reading of that transaction,
it will be discovered that no less a person than Jesus Christ was married
on that occasion. If he was never married, his intimacy with
Mary and Martha, and the other Mary also whom Jesus loved, must have been
highly unbecoming and improper to say the best of it. (Orson Hyde, Journal
of Discourses, 4:259)
The teaching that Jesus Christ is married is no longer taught
by the Mormon church. But the concept is still consistent with the teaching
of the Mormon church that a man now living must be married to progress
and become a god.
Conclusions
The only reasonable conclusion
a Christian could arrive at is that President Hinckley was correct. The
"Jesus Christ" of the Mormon church is not the same as found in the Bible.
Gal. 1:6-9 warns us about those that bring another gospel. It also says
that those that do are accursed. 2 Cor. 11:4 warms us of those that
bring another Jesus.
John Farkas
Berean Christian Ministries
P.O. Box 1091
Webster, NY 14580
E-mail: bcmmin@frontiernet.net
Web pages:
Mormonism: http://www.frontiernet.net/~bcmmin
Jehovah's Witnesses: http://www.frontiernet.net/~bcmmin/jwstd.htm
art/jesusmor
2-26-99