When people start asking questions about the LDS Church, they are often surprised to discover we believe that God, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost are three separate individual beings. This puts us in the category of a nontrinitarian religion, meaning that we do not believe that the three are one in body.
When Joseph Smith had his first vision of the Father and the Son, he too was amazed to discover that they were separate. He had attended many churches in his search for religion and each of those churches taught that the Godhead was contained in one entity. When he looked upon them and saw that indeed, God and Christ were separate and that they had the form of human men, rather than the vaporous cloud that another church had taught, it was truly a revelation to him.
This was one of the main issues that the preachers in the town had against him, when he told them of his vision. They had believed in a Godhead of one entity for so long, they couldn’t believe what he was saying. He took a lot of criticism for the things he related, but never once recounted his testimony.
Theologians have asked such questions as, “If the Godhead was truly only one entity, how could Christ spend thirty-three years here on earth, and yet still administrate in the heavens, in His role of Heavenly Father?” and “At the time of Christ’s baptism, when the Father spoke from Heaven, and the Holy Ghost descended as a dove, if they were all three the same being, why manifest themselves as three?” The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints offers the solution that it is because they are truly three.
The Book of John, chapter seventeen and verse twenty-one reads: That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.
As a person of the LDS religion reads this verse, we take this “oneness” spoken of to mean unity of purpose, unity of thought, mind and heart. In this scripture, Christ is praying unto the Father for the believers, and praying that they too will be united in purpose with the Father and with Christ. We do not take “one” to mean that they are two (or three) persons in one tabernacle.
As I mentioned a moment ago, we also believe that God and Jesus Christ have the form of men. In the book of Genesis, 1:27 we read: So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
We take this scripture literally and believe that God is a man, but a perfected, resurrected man. We also believe that Christ is a man, and we believe that the Holy Ghost is in the form of a spirit, so that He might have the ability to touch the hearts of man on a spiritual level.
Thank you for joining me for this Gospel Question. Please join me again as I continue to address questions those of other religions have about the LDS faith.
Related Blogs:
Introduction to the Gospel Questions Series
Raising Our Children in the World