This article discusses the various conceptions of the Godhead in Christianity in the Latter Day Saint movement (Mormonism). The most popular doctrine of the Godhead in Mormonism is that God the Father, his Son Jesus, and the Holy Spirit are three distinct personages, both the Father and the Son having physical bodies. However, this is not the only Latter Day Saint conception of the Godhead. Among individual Latter Day Saints and their various denominations, the Godhead is conceived of everything from orthodox Christian Trinitarianism to polytheism.
The Godhead in Early Latter Day Saint History
Most early Latter Day Saints came from a Protestant background, believing in the Trinity. The early public teachings of Joseph Smith, Jr. contained little to contradict this view; however, Smith's public teachings regarding the nature of the Godhead slowly evolved during his lifetime, and became fully elaborated only late in his life. Beginning as a vague depiction of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit being "one", Smith's teachings later depicted a Father and Son with physical bodies, being one together with the Holy Spirit not through "substance" but through purpose. Some Latter Day Saint sects such as the Community of Christ (which now officially endorses the doctrine of Trinity) have chosen to adopt what they believe to be Smith's earlier understandings of the Godhead, while most, including The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, teach the doctrines taught publicly by Smith later in his life.
Teachings in the 1820s and early 1830s
The Book of Mormon, published in 1830, describes God the Father, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit as being "one", with Jesus appearing as a spirit before his birth, and as a physical being after his resurrection. The book is vague, however, as to whether Jesus was a separate being from the Father, and whether Jesus and the Father share the same "substance".
Prior to Jesus' birth, the book depicts Jesus as a spirit "without flesh and blood", although with a spirit "body" that looked the same as Jesus would appear during his physical life. See Ether 3. Moreover, Jesus described himself as follows: "Behold, I am he who was prepared from the foundation of the world to redeem my people. Behold, I am Jesus Christ. I am the Father and the Son. In me shall all mankind have life, and that eternally, even they who shall believe on my name; and they shall become my sons and my daughters." Ether 3:14. In another passage of The Book of Mormon, the prophet Abinadi stated,
- "I would that ye should understand that God himself shall come down among the children of men, and shall redeem his people. And because he dwelleth in flesh he shall be called the Son of God, and having subjected the flesh to the will of the Father, being the Father and the Son—the Father, because he was conceived by the power of God; and the Son, because of the flesh; thus becoming the Father and Son—and they are one God, yea, the very Eternal Father of heaven and of earth. (Mosiah 15:1-4).
After Christ's resurrection and ascension into heaven, The Book of Mormon states that he visited a small group of people in the Americas, who saw that he had a physical body. During his visit, he was announced by the voice of God the Father, and those present felt the Holy Spirit, but only the Son was seen. This depiction of Jesus is similar to that described in the New Testament during Jesus' baptism by John.
The Book of Mormon's vagueness on the issue of whether Jesus was a separate being from the Father, and whether Jesus and the Father share the same "substance" has led some Protestant-oriented Latter Day Saint sects, such as the Community of Christ, to believe the description of Jesus in The Book of Mormon is consistent with the orthodox Christian dogma of the Trinity. Other sects, however, such as The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, believe it is consistent with Smith's later public teachings concerning the Godhead. In addition, some scholars have suggested that the view of Jesus in The Book of Mormon (especially in the first edition) is also consistent, or perhaps most consistent, with monotheistic Modalism.
Teachings in the mid- to late-1830s
In 1835, Joseph Smith, Jr. (with the involvement of Sidney Rigdon), publicly taught the idea that Jesus Christ and God the Father were two separate beings. In the Lectures on Faith, which had been taught in 1834 to the School of the Prophets, the following doctrines were presented:
- That the Godhead consists of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit (5:1c);
- That there are two "personages", the Father and the Son, that constitute the "supreme power over all things" (5:2a, Q&A section);
- That the Father is a "personage of spirit, glory, and power" (5:2c);
- That the Son is a "personage of tabernacle" (5:2d) who "possess[es] the same mind with the Father; which Mind is the Holy Spirit" (5:2j,k);
- That the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit constitute the "supreme power over all things" (5:2l);
- That "[T]hese three constitute the Godhead and are one: the Father and the Son possessing the same mind, the same wisdom, glory, power, and fullness;" (5:2m);
- That the Son is "filled with the fullness of the Mind of the Father, or in other words, the Spirit of the Father." (5:2o).
Though originally the "doctrine" part of the 1835 Doctrine and Covenants, the Lectures on Faith were eventually decanonized by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the Community of Christ, the largest Latter Day Saint denominations, and most modern Latter Day Saints do not accept the idea of a tripartate Christian Godhead consisting of two "personages" (Father and Son) and a shared "mind" (Holy Spirit). Moreover, some Latter Day Saint apologists have proposed a reading of Lectures on Faith that is consistent with Smith's later doctrines.
In 1838, Smith published a narrative of his First Vision, in which he described seeing both God the Father and a separate Jesus Christ in a vision, both of them appearing identical.
Teachings in the 1840s
Later in Smith's life, he elaborated on the doctrine of Jesus being a separate personage from the Father. In 1843, Smith provided his final public description of the Godhead before his death, in which he described God the Father as having a physical body, and the Holy Spirit, also, is a distinct personage: "The Father has a body of flesh and bones as tangible as man's; the Son also; but the Holy Ghost has not a body of flesh and bones, but is a personage of Spirit. Were it not so, the Holy Ghost could not dwell in us." D&C 130:22.
Conceptions of the Godhead after the Death of Joseph Smith
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
- Brigham Young's Adam-God theory
- Theory of God as a polygamist
- Theory of the Holy Spirit as Heavenly Mother
- Theory of a married Jesus Christ
The Community of Christ and Protestant-Oriented Denominations
Alternative Latter Day Saint Conceptions of the Godhead
See also
Last updated: 08-02-2005 02:46:12
