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Mormonism and the nature of God/Early teachings
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Early teachings about God in the Book of Mormon, from Joseph Smith, and among Church members
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- Early Mormon beliefs regarding the nature of God
- Lecture of Faith 5 teaches the Father is "a personage of spirit"
- Brigham Young's Adam-God theory
Early Mormon beliefs regarding the nature of God
Summary: Some evangelical Christians attempt to show that the LDS idea of deification is unbiblical, unchristian and untrue. They seem to think that this doctrine is the main reason why the LDS reject the Psychological Trinity.
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- Question: What is the historic church's concept of the Trinity and why do Mormons reject it?
- Question: Did Joseph begin his prophetic career with a "trinitarian" idea of God?
- Question: Does the Book of Mormon teach that Christ and the Father are a single individual expressing himself in different modes?
Lecture of Faith 5 teaches the Father is "a personage of spirit"
Summary: Lectures on Faith, which used to be part of the Doctrine and Covenants, teach that God is a spirit. Joseph Smith's later teachings contradict this. More generally, critics argue that Joseph Smith taught an essentially "trinitarian" view of the Godhead until the mid 1830s, thus proving the Joseph was "making it up" as he went along.
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- Question: What are the Lectures on Faith?
- Question: What does Lecture 5 of the Lectures on Faith say about the nature of God?
- Question: How would a statement that "God is a spirit" be interpreted in ancient Judasism?
- Question: Did Joseph began his prophetic career with a "trinitarian" idea of God?
- Question: What are modern Church leader's views on the Lectures on Faith?
- Question: Is the Father embodied or a spirit in the first edition of the Doctrine and Covenants?
Brigham Young's Adam-God theory
Summary: Brigham Young taught that Adam, the first man, was God the Father. Since this teaching runs counter to the story told in Genesis and commonly accepted by Christians, critics accuse Brigham of being a false prophet. Also, because modern Latter-day Saints do not believe Brigham's "Adam-God" teachings, critics accuse Mormons of either changing their teachings or rejecting teachings of prophets they find uncomfortable or unsupportable.
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- Question: What is the Adam-God Theory?
- Question: What is the history of Brigham Young's Adam-God Theory and why was it rejected by the Church?
- Stephen E. Robinson: "Yet another way in which anti-Mormon critics often misrepresent LDS doctrine is in the presentation of anomalies as though they were the doctrine of the Church"
- Matthew Brown (2009): "Brigham Young repeated these ideas and expounded upon them during the next 25 years. His viewpoints have been variously classified as doctrine, theory, paradox, heresy, speculation, and some of the mysteries"
- Question: If the Adam-God doctrine isn't true, how come D&C 27:11 calls Adam the Ancient of Days which is clearly a title for God in Daniel 7?
- Question: What attempts have been made to reconcile the Adam-God Theory with the doctrines of the Church?
- Question: Was the "Adam-God" theory ever taught as part of the temple endowment ceremony as something called "the lecture at the veil"?