A Mother in Heaven?

In an answer given to a question about whether there is a Mother in Heaven, Joseph Fielding Smith, who later would become the tenth President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, said:

"The fact that there is no reference to a mother in heaven either in the Bible, Book of Mormon or Doctrine and Covenants, is not sufficient proof that no such thing as a mother did exist there. If we had a Father, which we did, for all of these records speak of him, then does not good common sense tell us that we must have had a mother there also?"

"If we are his offspring, then how did we become such, if we had no mother to give us spirit birth?"

"It is my turn to ask a question. How can we be the offspring of God, how can he be the Father of our spirits, unless we had a mother and were born?” (Answers to Gospel Questions vol.3 chapter 35 Titled: A Mother in Heaven)

In 1 Thessalonians 5:21 it states that we are to prove, or test, all things and to hold onto what is good. So let’s put Joseph F. Smith’s answer to the test.

First I would like to point out that Joseph Fielding Smith’s answers assume the truthfulness of what he is trying to prove but nonetheless let’s take a look at what President Smith is asserting.


Premise 1: Heavenly Father exists.
Premise 2: Humans pre-existed as spirit children.
Premise 3: Spirit children are spirit birthed.*
Premise 4: A Father and a Mother is required to procreate children, even spirit children, and only females are capable of giving birth.
Conclusion: Therefore there is a Mother in heaven.

*JFS affirms that we are spirit born to a heavenly mother in his answer.


I would like to take a look at the first premise. What does the term Heavenly Father mean? Does it mean that God is our father in the sense that he created us or procreated us? Isn’t it true that in most of the minds of the members of the LDS church that it means the latter, that he procreated us? In fact the very context of the answer given by Joseph F. Smith to the question affirms the LDS understanding of what the meaning of the term Heavenly Father is, namely that Heavenly Father is our father in the sense that we were all spiritually procreated by him. Now this presents some real problems in the context of the teaching that Heavenly Father was once a mere mortal man like us who progressed through a process of obedience to eternal laws and ordinances and who eventually became God. The implication is that the Heavenly Father of this world would have at some point in his past have been a spirit child who was birthed by a heavenly mother who had procreated with a Heavenly Father, perhaps our Heavenly Grandfather, and that Heavenly Grandfather would have had a point in his past where he would have been a spirit child who was birthed by a Heavenly Mother who had procreated with a Heavenly Father and so on and so on and so on infinitely regressing without ever having a beginning. Is this even possible? How could this be possible? Let’s look at the question of whether an infinite, eternally regressing series of past events is even a possibility?

Premise 1: An actual infinite number of past events can’t exist.
Premise 2: An infinite regression of events without a beginning would require that an actual infinite number of past events have actually occurred.
Examples that would require an actual infinite number of past events would be:
a. Heavenly Father had a spirit father who had a spirit father and so on and so on.
b. There is no Father who did not become a Father.
c. There is no Father who was not also a son.
d. There is no God who did not become a God.
e. There is no Mother who did not become a Mother.
f. There is no Mother who was not also a daughter.
g. There is no Goddess who did not become a Goddess.

Joseph Smith Jr. taught this as well: "If Abraham reasoned thus—If Jesus Christ was the Son of God, and John discovered that God the Father of Jesus Christ had a Father, you may suppose that He had a Father also. Where was there ever a son without a father? And where was there ever a father without first being a son? Whenever did a tree or anything spring into existence without a progenitor?" (Joseph Smith, "Sermon in the Grove")

Therefore the conclusion follows that the LDS teaching that Heavenly Father has a father who had a father and so on and so on and so on or that Heavenly Mother has a mother who has a mother and so on and so on or any of the other examples that I gave must be false.

Now Joseph F. Smith also asked the question, “How can we be the offspring of God, how can he be the Father of our spirits, unless we had a mother and were born?"
The answer to his question is very simple. We aren’t spirit offspring of God in the sense that we are procreated by him but we are His offspring in the sense that we are created by him. He is the Father of our spirits because he created our spirits when He created us in the womb.
Now don’t lose all hope because according to the word of God we can become Sons and Daughters of God i.e. children of God through adoption.

John 1:12-13 “But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: Which were born, not of blood, or of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.”

Galatians 4:4-7 “But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.”

Ephesians 1:5 “Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,”

Is there a difference between a natural son and an adopted son? We come into the family of God by adoption not by a spirit conception and spirit birth.

Ironically a verse often cited as a proof text that we are born children of God,

Romans 8:16 “The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:”,

when understood in context actually refutes the claim that we are born literal spirit children of God and supports the claim that we can be adopted into the family of God as his children.

Romans 8:14-17 “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.”

Should we change the way that we think to conform to the truth or should we change the truth to conform to the way that we think?


Isaiah 40:8 “The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever.”

I welcome your comments and ideas.
Truth Matters Most,
Ken

The Trinity is the Plumb Line of Christianity.

The Doctrine of the Trinity is The Plumb line of True Christianity.

To answer the request to show how the doctrine of the Trinity is supported by the Bible I have taken the time to put together what I believe is a cohesive explanation of the doctrine of the Trinity, It is based on the Scripture of the Bible and the teachings of William Lane Craig, John MacArthur, Wayne Grudem and James White. My purpose is to organize this in a logical way, using some of the available scriptural data.

The doctrine of the Trinity is not some incomprehensible, illogical, “can’t be understood except by faith” teaching. It is the systematic summary of the scriptural data about the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit, that is progressively revealed in Scripture.

The word “Trinity” is not found in the Bible but the word itself is relatively unimportant. It could have been another word that expressed the concept such as “Tri-personal” or “tri-unity” or “uni-triad” or “three-in-oneness”. The word “Trinity” or (“tri-unity”) is simply a word used to summarize the teaching that the one being God, is three persons.

The doctrine of the Trinity is not the logical contradiction that somehow three gods are one God. Or those three persons are somehow one person. Expressed in the simplest way the doctrine of the Trinity states that; The one being that is God exists as three coequal and co-eternal persons, namely the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit.

There are a few issues that often come up that need to be discussed before we get started. And there are certain terms that need to be defined and understood in order to facilitate a meaningful conversation about the doctrine of the Trinit.

One of the major issues that must be discussed before any meaningful discussion on the Trinity can take place is what the word “person” means and what it does not mean.

During the time that the First ecumenical council at Nicaea took place (A.D. 325), the word “person” did not have the same meaning that it has today. At that time the Latin word “persona” and the Greek word “prosopon”, which we get our word “person” from, referred to the masks that an actor would wear on stage. The significance here is not specifically what the word person meant during the time of the council of Nicaea but what it did NOT mean, it did not refer to a human being. Today the word person is typically understood to refer to a human being, that definition is a later development that actually came about as result of the Trinitarian debates.

Once the meaning of the word person, in regard to the Trinity, is clearly understood then another important fact that should be introduced into the discussion at this time is that the early Christian church Father and author Tertullian, from Carthage in the Roman province of Africa (160-225 A.D.), was the first to use the Latin words “Trinitas” and “persona” in developing Trinitarian theology, more than 100 years before the council of Nicaea. Why does this matter? Because very often one of the first objections that someone who denies the doctrine of the Trinity brings up is that the doctrine of the Trinity was an invention at the council of Nicaea. This is simply untrue. The fact is that the gathering of the council at Nicaea was a result of the early church responding to the false teachings of Arius who, even though being excommunicated from the church, continued to gather followers who embraced his false teaching that Jesus was a created being.

So then what does the word “person” mean as we use it in our discussion about the Trinity? A person is a “who”. A person is not a “what”. The Trinity is (the “what”), which is God. The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are the three persons (the “who's”) which are the One (“what”) God.

Another issue that often comes up is that in most people’s minds when the word “God” is used they usually associate it with the Father alone. Simply using words like; “The Father” or “The Trinity” or “Deity” when proper to do so, and not “God” will help considerably in maintaining clarity.

It would be technically incorrect to say that God is a person. God is personal but God is not a person. Why?  Because the Trinity is God. The Father is a person, the Son is a person, and the Holy Spirit is a person. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are the three persons of the Trinity and the Trinity is God.

God is “Tri-personal”. How do we make this more understandable? I think the best way is to relate it to ourselves. A human being is an embodied “soul” or “mind”. Humans are more than just the physical matter of flesh and bone etc. We think of ourselves as an “I”, I have an awareness of self or a self-consciousness. I, as a human being, have one center of self-consciousness or self-awareness.

What if the “Being”, God, prior to the incarnation was a un-embodied soul or mind with three centers of self-consciousness?

So how do we put this all together to support our conclusion that the Trinity is God?

Now this summary presupposes the truth of certain premises. And is not necessarily meant as a defense of those premises. My summary is meant to show that when you take all of the scripture into account you are forced to come to the conclusion that has been called the Doctrine of the Trinity. A discussion supporting the assumed premises is put aside at this point in the discussion. Those premises include but are not limited too;
1. God exists
2. Only One True God exists, i.e. Monotheism.
3. The 66 books of the Bible is the only authoritative written word of God to us.

Here is the order in which I will present scriptural data that supports the doctrine named the “Trinity”. 

•  There is only one True God.
•  The person of the Father is fully God or divine.
•  The person of the Father is distinguished apart from the person of the Son and the person of the Holy Spirit.
• The person of the Son is fully God and that the person of the Son is distinguished apart from the person of the Father and from the person of the Holy Spirit.
• The person of the Holy Spirit is fully God and that the person of the Holy Spirit is distinguished from the person of the Father and from the person of the Son.
• Therefore God is 3 distinct persons, i.e. One Being that is 3 persons.

The foundation for the doctrine of the Trinity is the teaching, affirmed by Scripture, that there is only one true God.

A few of the Old and New Testament Scripture verses that affirm that there is only one True God:

Deuteronomy 6:4 (" Hear O Israel the LORD our God is One..."), (The “Shema”, recited every morning and every evening by every “good” Jew.)

1 Kings 8:60(“...the LORD is God, and that there is none else...”)

Isaiah 43:10-11(“...before Me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me.,”...I even I am the LORD and beside me there is no savior.”)

Isaiah 44:6-8 (“...I am the first, and I am the last; and beside me there is not God.”,”...is there a God
beside me? yea, there is no God; I know not any.”)
 

Isaiah 45:5-6 (“...I am the LORD and there is none else...”)

Isaiah 45: 18 (“...I am the LORD and there is none else...”)

Isaiah 45: 21-22 (“...there is none beside me...”)

Psalm 96:5 (“...all the gods of the nations are idols...”)

Mark 12:29 (“... the LORD our God is one...”), (Here Jesus quotes Deuteronomy. 6:4, and by doing so Jesus also affirms the authority and reliability of the Old Testament Scripture, as He does many times.)

Romans 3:29-30 (One God of the Jews and the Gentiles.)
 

1 Corinthians 8:4-6 (“...none other God but one...”)

1 Timothy 2:5 (“...for there is one God...”)

James 2:19 (Apparently even the demons believe that there is only one God, and shudder!)

The person of the Father is fully God and even in the Old Testament is recognized as the Father. The person of the Father is distinct and is distinguished apart from the person of the Son and the person of the Holy Spirit.

 The person of the Father is fully God. This is clear from the first verse of the Bible. Indeed it seems that it is clearly evident throughout the Old and the New Testaments that the Father is God. There are thousands of verses in the Bible that affirm that the Father is God. We can also find that the concept of God as a Heavenly Father is in the Old Testament as well.

The Old Testament concept of God as Heavenly Father:

Psalm 89:26

Isaiah 63:16

A few verses found in the New Testament that affirm that the person of the Father is distinct from the person of the Son and the person of the Holy Spirit:

Matthew 5:48 (Be ye therefore perfect as your Father in Heaven is perfect.)

Matthew 6:14 (Forgive others and your Heavenly Father will forgive you.)

Matthew 11:27 (Here Jesus makes a distinction between himself and the Father.)

Matthew 26:39 (Jesus prays to the Father in the Garden at Gethsemane.)

John 17:24 (Here Jesus distinguishes himself apart from the Father.)

Ephesians 1:3 (The Apostle Paul distinguishes between the Father and Jesus.)

Hebrews 7:25 (The writer of Hebrews distinguishes between Jesus and the Father.)

-THE PERSON OF THE SON IS FULLY GOD-

Before we take a look at the scriptural data about the deity of the person of the Son we need to discuss a major problem that confronted the writers of the New Testament. So what was the problem; how do you say that Jesus is God without saying that Jesus is the Father? In the New Testament the Greek word which is transliterated as “theos” almost always refers to the Father. So the problem that the writers faced was how they could say that Jesus was God without referring to him as “theos”? So what did they do? They "borrowed" a word from the Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament, the Septuagint, the word that they borrowed is transliterated as “kyrios”. “Kyrios” is the Greek translation of a Hebrew word , YHWH, which is found thousands of times in the Hebrew Old Testament. The Hebrew word, YHWH is the personal name of God that was given by God to Moses at Mount Sinai. Moses asked God what he should tell the children of Israel when they asked him what God’s name is? Exodus 3:13-15,(“And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.”) (On a side note, today no record of exactly how to pronounce the name of God remains, it has been lost over time as the word was considered to be too sacred to write or say aloud.) In the Hebrew alphabet, only consonants are written, the Hebrew word that is written in the Old Testament Hebrew manuscripts is translated into English as the letters “YHWH”. The common pronunciation today of the word is Yahweh (Ya’-way). YHWH is known as the Tetragrammaton which is recognized in our Bible today as the word “LORD”, in all caps with the “ORD” slightly smaller. YHWH is the word that has been transliterated as “Jehovah”.

How did the New Testament authors say that Jesus was God without referring to him as "theos"?  They took the Greek word, “kyrios” (Lord), which is the Greek translation of the word YHWH, (LORD) and then applied it to passages about Jesus.

A few verses where the Greek word “kyrios” (Lord) is applied to Jesus:

Romans 10:9 (That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord (kyrios) Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God (theos) hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.”), (Here the distinction between the Father and the Son is made too.)

Romans 10:13 (“For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord (kyrios) shall be saved.”) This is a remarkable example because here the Apostle Paul is quoting the Old Testament (Joel 2:32) “whoever shall call on the name of the LORD (YHWH) shall be saved”, and applying it to Jesus!

1 Corinthians 8:6 (“But to us [there is but] one God, the Father, of whom [are] all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom [are] all things, and we by him.”)

Jesus also has ascribed to him the role of God as creator in the following verses:

These three verses written by three different authors ascribe to Jesus the role of God as the creator.

John 1:1-3 (“All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.”)

Hebrews 1:1-3 (“... by whom also he made the worlds;...”)

Colossians 1:15-17 (“...For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether [they be] thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him :And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.”)

In some cases the New Testament authors lose all self-control and literally call Jesus “theos”. (God)

John 1:1 (“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God (theos), and the Word was God (theos).”),(Here the word, revealed as Jesus in verses 9-18, is distinguished from God and equated as God!),(There is no basis for translating John 1:1 as “a god” it cannot be translated as “God was the word” it can only be translated as “The word was God”)

John 1:18 (The oldest best manuscripts read; “only begotten God”)

John 20:28 (This is the Christological Climax of John’s gospel where Thomas proclaims; “My Lord and my God”. In the Greek it is literally; “mou (my) kyrios (Lord) kai (and) mou (my) theos (God) or “The Lord of me and the God of me”

Titus 2:13 (“... the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;”)
 

Philippians 2:5-7 (“Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:”)

Hebrews 1:8-12 (“But unto the Son [he saith], Thy throne, O God...”),(The context here is about Jesus.)

1 John 5:20 (Here John states that we are in His Son Jesus Christ who is the true God (theos) and eternal life.)

In other verses Jesus is ascribed roles that can only be applied to God, i.e., the authority to forgive sin and accepting worship and claiming the authorship of the Hebrew scripture.

Mark 2:5-12 (“...thy sins be forgiven thee....”)

John 9:38 (“And he said, Lord, I believe. And he worshipped him.”)

John 10:34 (“Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, I said,...”)

-THE PERSON OF THE SON IS DISTINCT-

A few verses found in the Old and New Testaments that affirm that the person of the Son is distinguished apart from the person of the  Father and the person of the Holy Spirit:

Psalm 45:6-7 (“Thy throne, O God, [is] for ever and ever:..”,”...Thou lovest righteousness, and hatest wickedness: therefore God, thy God, hath anointed thee...”),(In Hebrews 1:8 the author quotes this passage and applies it to Christ.)

Psalm 110:1 (In Matthew 22:41-46 Jesus states that this passage is referring to two separate persons as Lord. Unless you are willing to admit a plurality of persons in one God you have no more of a satisfactory explanation than those did in Jesus’ day.)

Isaiah 48:16 (“... the Lord GOD, and his Spirit, hath sent me.”)

Isaiah 63:10 (“... and vexed his holy Spirit:...”),(Here the Spirit of the Lord God is distinguished from the LORD.)

Mark 1:1(“The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God;...”)
 

John 1:1-2,14 ( The word was with God...”,”...the word was made flesh...”)(Here the “word” is revealed to us as Jesus Christ in verses 9-18.)

John 3:16 (“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”)

John 7:39 (But this spake he (Jesus) of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet [given]; because that Jesus was not yet glorified.)

John 14:6 (Here Jesus states: “...no man cometh unto the Father...”)

John 14:26 (“But the Comforter, [which is] the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name…”)

John 16:7 (“...for if I go not away, the Comforter (Holy Spirit) will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you.”)

Galatians 4:4 (“... God sent forth his Son...”)

Ephesians 1:1-3 (“...Grace to you, and peace, from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ…”)

-THE PERSON OF THE HOLY SPIRIT IS FULLY GOD-

John 16:13-14 (“Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, [that] shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come.”) (Note the Holy Spirit is referred to as a “he” not an “it”)

Acts 5:3-4 (Here Peter states that the Holy Spirit is God)

Psalm 139:7 (The Holy Spirit is omnipresent)

1 Corinthians 2:10-11 (The Holy Spirit is omniscient)

1 Corinthians 6:11(“... the Spirit of our God.”)

Romans 1:4 (The Holy Spirit’s holiness)

-THE PERSON OF THE HOLY SPIRIT IS DISTINCT-

Matthew 12:28 (“But if I cast out devils by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God is come unto you.”)

Matthew 28:19 (“Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:”)

Luke 11:13(“...how much more shall [your] heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?”)

John 14:15-17 (Here Jesus says that he will pray to the Father who will send the Holy Spirit.)

John 14:26 (But the Comforter, [which is] the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name...”)

John 15:26 (“But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, [even] the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me:”)

Acts 13:2 (“...the Holy Ghost said,...”)

Romans 8:9-10 (“... the Spirit of God...”) (Notice how interchangeably God, Christ and Spirit are used and the progression)
 

Romans 8:26-27 (The Holy Spirit intercedes for us with God.)

2 Corinthians 13:14 (The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, [be] with you all. Amen.)

1 Peter 1:1-2 (“Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied.”)

Scripture clearly teaches that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are truly God. Scripture clearly teaches that there is a distinction between the person of the Father and the person of the Son and the person of the Holy Spirit. The Father is not the Son or the Holy Spirit. The Son is not the Father or the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is not the Father or the Son.

This is summarized by the three statements:

·                     There is one God.

·                     God is three persons.

·                     Each person is fully or truly God.

All errors or misunderstandings about the doctrine of the Trinity are usually caused by denying any of those three statements. Some of the errors that have developed by denying any of those statements are:

Modalism: Essentially that there is one person who appears to us in three different forms or modes.

Arianism: Essentially denies the full deity of the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Subordinationism: Essentially that the Son is eternal and divine but not equal to the Father but is inferior to the Father.

Adoptionism: Essentially that Jesus was an ordinary man and that God adopted him at his baptism and gave him supernatural powers.

It is true that we have been given the more complete revelation of the Trinity in the New Testament. What about the Old Testament? It would seem that if God has eternally existed as three persons then it would be surprising to find no sign of that in the Old Testament. There are some Old Testament passages that may suggest that God exists as a plurality of persons.

-GOD IS THREE DISTINCT PERSONS-

A few Old Testament passages that may suggest that God exists as more than one person:

Genesis 1:26 (And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness...”)

Genesis 3:22 (“...the man is become as one of us...”)

Genesis 11:7 (“...let us go down...”)

Isaiah 6:8 (“...who will go for us?...)”

There is a more complete revelation in the New Testament of the Trinity.

Some of the New Testament verses that affirm the distinction of the person of the Father, the person of the Son and the person of the Holy Spirit:

Matthew 3:16-17 (Here at the Baptism of Jesus you have the Spirit of God in the form of a dove and the voice from Heaven proclaiming the pleasure of the Father in the Son.

Matthew 28:19 (The great commission where we are told to make disciples of all nations, baptizing in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.)

John 14:16-17 (Here Jesus says that he will ask the Father to send the Spirit of Truth.)
 

1 Corinthians 12:4-6 (Spirit, Lord, God)

2 Corinthians 13:14 (“The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.”)

Ephesians 4:4-6 (One Spirit, one Lord and one God and Father of us all.)

1 Peter 1:2 (Father, Spirit, Jesus)

Jude 20-21 (Praying in the Holy Spirit, Love of God, Mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life.)So although the Bible teaches that there is only one God it also clearly teaches that the person of the Father is fully God, the person of the Son is fully God and the person of the Holy Spirit is fully God.

How do we deal with this? How do we make sense out of it? Well, we affirm exactly what the word of God affirms, namely: That there is only One True God that eternally exists as three persons; Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and each person is truly or fully God.

We might even want to come up with a word that summarizes this Biblical teaching and write it down so that in the future when false teachers arise there is no mistake about what we affirm.

The “Trinity” is God!

Ken Rice

Is your god an exalted man? Come and see How Great Is Our God (Chris Tomlin)

God created all things through His Son, who is Jehovah, or Jesus, Who humbled Himself and took upon Himself another nature, the nature of a human being with a body. But in 1844 Joseph Smith taught that God the Eternal Father was an exalted man. Joseph Smith taught,

"First, God himself, who sits enthroned in yonder heaven, is a man like one of you. That is the great secret."

 In Genesis 1:26-27 it states in the King James Translation, "And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness:...So God created man in his [own] image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them."

Now these verses are commonly used as support for the teaching that "image and likeness" means that God the Father has a body of flesh and bone. The thinking goes like this, if we are made in the image and likeness of God and we have a body of flesh and bone, then God must also have a body of flesh and bone. But is that what created in the image and likeness really means? Not according to the word of God.

 Verse 26 says "our" image. So here is my question, did Jehovah/Jesus, have a body at that time, when those words were spoken by Him? Your answer must be no, Jesus didn't get a body until He was born. So, is it possible that "image and likeness" can have a different meaning, something other than it being a reference to a physical body? Do you see my point?
Now a member of the LDS church, could perhaps try to argue that the reference to "image and likeness" was a reference to the body of the Father, but it says, "OUR"... which is plural, so it can't be a reference to a body that the Father had. Remember, the whole point of this verse is to support the LDS teaching, first taught by Joseph Smith 24 years after the first vision in which Smith was to have been visited in person by two personages who he claimed were the Father and the Son, who both had bodies of flesh and bone.

Now the Apostle Paul wrote in Colossians 1:15 about Jesus; "Who is the image of the invisible God..." Does something invisible have a body of flesh and bone? Jesus said in John 14:9 when asked by Philip to show them the Father, "...he that hath seen Me hath seen the Father..." Think about that, Jesus is the representation of the Father on Earth! When we look to the Father we look to Jesus, Jesus is our advocate with the Father.

When we submit to Jesus as our Lord and Savior, when we choose to forsake everything else and place all of our hope and trust in His finished work on the Cross, we, according to scripture, are completely forgiven of our sin, past, present and future, and have eternal life!. All because of our faith in Jesus! The Father applies the perfect righteousness of Jesus to us, we look at the Father through His Son and the Father looks at us through His Son, He sees His Sons perfect righteousness instead of our sinfulness.

Jesus is between us and the Father, Jesus said that there is no other way to the Father but through Him.(John 14:6).

The Hebrew word "tselem", which is translated as the word "image", is used many ways in the scripture. Its use in Genesis 1, being made in the "image" of God, has even more implication in our lives than we perhaps realize. Consider how "tselem" is used in other verses, it is used when talking about images that represent something. It is used in scripture referring to false gods, idols, tumors, even mice. It is used to refer to something that is representing something else. Now think about that. Especially in the context of the rest of verse 26 and the verses after 26. What does it say after image and likeness? "...and let them have dominion...over all the earth...over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

Do you see that? God separates created man from everything else He created! Then blesses man and woman and commands them to be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth AND subdue it, have dominion over ALL of it! "Subdue it", this world isn't supposed to be wild and unruly! It is supposed to be ordered, productive, everything here is to be productive in accomplishing the purposes of God. How is that going to happen? It will happen with Gods representatives here on earth, those who are created in His image. Those who were created and separated from all of the other creations. The human beings that are created to represent God in accomplishing His purposes. We are the mouths, the hands, the feet, the bodies, that God uses everyday for His glory and purposes. We are created to represent Him, to be His image on earth.

"Image and likeness" doesn't mean that God has a body. No, it means that we are the "images" the representatives that represent Him here on earth.

In verse 27 it reads, "So God created man in his [own] image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. "We were created in His image, (not plural), but singular, HIS, we are created in the image of the invisible God! In HIS own (singular) image,in the image of God, (not gods)...

God is, Father, Son , Holy Ghost. One Being, God, who is 3 persons. The Father is not the Son, the Son is not the Father, The Holy Spirit is neither the Father nor the Son.

Now you might ask me then, "who is the "our" referring to in verse 26? Well perhaps it is, a veiled reference to the Tri-unity of the One True God, Yahweh! Perhaps the "our" is a reference to all of the other angelic beings that were created by God, such as the Angels who were witnesses to the entire creation event. We can find support for both ideas in the scripture.

The point is, that regardless of exactly who the "our" is in Genesis 1:26 and 27, those verses that state that human beings are created in the "image" and "likeness" of  God, do not support the Un-Biblical teaching of Joseph Smith, that the Father is an exalted man with a body of flesh and bone. Especially considering the further revelation given to us in the New Testament. Remember, Joseph Smith didn't begin to teach that the Father was an exalted man until 1844, 24 years after the first vision, in which he claims to have seen the Father as having a body of flesh and bone!

What it does mean, to be created in the image and likeness of God, is that humans, as the pinnacle of Gods creations, are unique in many ways. We are immortal, we are not, as God is, eternal. When those words were spoken by God, which was before the fall of Adam, we were perfect as God is,  we were not subject to death yet, just as God is not subject to death. We were created to have a unique mental ability that the other creations on earth don't have. We were created to have a morality that animals don't have.We were created to communicate with our Creator and each other in a way that the other creations don't enjoy. We were created with a social ability that is unique to humans. We were created with the ability to choose. We were created with the ability to rationalize. We were created to be a reflection of the One True God Who has intellect and ability to reason and to choose.God chose to create everything, He has a purpose and a reason for doing so.

Being made in the "Image" and " likeness" of God is a very good thing. Having a physical body is very much a limitation. The Eternal Son, Jesus, lowered Himself, when He became a human, to redeem mankind from sin. Philipians 2:6-8 reads, in regard to Jesus,

"Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross."

Doctrine Matters,
Ken Rice