Let us pay close attention to what Mormons profess to believe. If we learn what they teach, we can effectively evangelize them for the glorious gospel of grace and peace. May we learn what they teach so we can proclaim the good news to them in love. Amen.
The Mormons teach that there are many gods,
"How many Gods there are, I do not know. But there never was a time when there were not Gods" (Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, 7:333).
The Mormons teach that the Trinity is three separate gods,
"Many men say there is one God; the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost are only one God! I say that is a strange God anyhow--three in one and one in three...It would make the biggest God in all the world. He would be a wonderfully big God--he would be a giant or a monster" (Joseph Smith Jr., History of the Church, 6:476).
"I have always declared God to be a distinct personage, Jesus Christ a separate and distinct personage from God the Father, and the Holy Ghost was a distinct personage and a Spirit: and these three constitute three distinct personages and three Gods" (Joseph Smith Jr., History of the Church, 6:474).
The Mormons teach that the Father is an exalted man,
"God himself was once as we are now, and is an exalted man...I say, if you were to him today, you would see him like a man in a form--like yourselves in all the person, image, and very form as a man" (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, 1973 ed., p. 345).
"The Father has a body of flesh and bones as tangible as man's; the Son also" (D & C 130:22).
Mormons teach that no one is omnipresent in the Godhead,
"The Holy Ghost as a personage of Spirit can no more be omnipresent in person than can the Father or the Son" (Mormon Doctrine, 1977 ed., p. 752).
Mormons teach that God the Father also had a father,
"The Prophet also taught...that there is 'a god above the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ'...if Jesus had a Father, can we not believe that he had a Father also?" (Mormon Doctrine, 1977 ed., p. 577).
The Father became God in learning truth, entering the pursuit of Godhead and being faithful to the gospel,
"God undoubtedly took advantage of every opportunity to learn the laws of truth and as He became acquainted with each new verity He righteously obeyed it...As He gained more knowledge through persistent effort and continuous industry, as well as through absolute obedience, His understanding of the universal laws continued to become more complete...until He attained the status of Godhood...He became God by absolute obedience to all the eternal laws of the Gospel" (The Gospel Through the Ages, pp. 114-15).
Mormons teach that God the Father has a wife and has spirit children,
"Implicit in the Christian verity that all men are the spirit children of an Eternal Father is the usually unspoken truth that they are also the offspring of an Eternal Mother. An exalted and glorified Man of Holiness (Moses 6:57) could not be a Father unless a Woman of like glory, perfection and holiness was associated with him as a Mother" (Mormon Doctrine, 1977 ed., p. 516).
Mormon teach God is not an eternal being, the spirit are self-existent and matter became organized. Then the spirit is born to human parents on earth. God took this way and became God.
"...spirit element has always existed: it is co-eternal with God...It is also called intelligence...portions of the self-existent spirit element are born as spirit children, or in others...is organized into intelligences" (Mormon Doctrine, 1977 ed., p. 751).
"Abraham used the name intelligences to apply to the spirit children of the Eternal Father...Use of this name designates both the primal element from which the spirit offspring were created and also their inherited capacity to grow in grace...until such intelligences...become like their Father, the Supreme Intelligence" (Mormon Doctrine, 1977 ed., p. 387; see additionally also D & C 93:29, 33; Abraham 3:18-23).
Mormons teach that if His support stopped He would stop being God,
"...the universe is filled with vast numbers of intelligences...Elohim is God simply because all of these intelligences honor and sustain Him as such...if He [God] should ever do anything to violate the confidence or 'sense of justice' of these intelligences, they would promptly withdraw their support, and the 'power' of God would disintegrate" (Former BYU Prof. W. Cleon Skousen, The First 2000 Years, p. 355).
Now we see what Mormons teach on the doctrine of God. Oh! how essential it is for us to get this doctrine right before God and man. I suggest to you that the doctrine of God issue is of the utmost and eternal importance, for if someone is wrong on this doctrine they are wrong in eternity. Let us pray for the Mormons that they may change this doctrine and embrace the one true God of the Bible.
