Everything within quotation marks below is quoted directly from the official website (www.lds.org) of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS). For a longer explanation of my methods, and for links to other posts in this series, go: here.

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On the surface, what Mormons teach about God sounds very much like what Christians believe. The Mormons believe in “God the Father” and in “Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” However, as one digs deeper, one finds that Mormons use many of the same words that Christians use, but with radically different meanings.

Particularly and surprisingly, Mormons do not believe in a God at all, as that word is commonly used. In other words, the Mormon church does not believe in the existence of an infinitely perfect incorporeal Diety who has existed forever, who is omnipresent, who is the Creator and the source of everything else that exists.

• A MORTAL MAN: To Mormons, God is a mortal man, not an immaterial spirit. “God has a body that looks like yours.” “The Father and the Son each have a ‘body of flesh and bones as tangible as man’s.’”

• A HUMAN BEING: God’s body does not merely resemble the human body, it is a human body, because God is a human being. “There is nothing more fundamental in God’s revelations than the basic premise that we are of the race of Gods. We are of his species. God looks like us. We look like him. He has two arms, two legs, a head.”

• FROM ANOTHER PLANET: “God the Father was once a man on another planet who ‘passed the ordeals we are now passing through.’” In other words, God once lived a mortal life, just as we are living now. “As man now is, God once was.” “He was once a man like us.” “God himself was once as we are now, and is an exalted man.” “God himself, the Father of us all, dwelt on an earth.” As an exalted being, “He is a Holy Man.”

• A MORTAL WHO WAS SAVED: As a mortal man, God experienced all of the things we have experienced. He was born. He lived in a physical world. He believed in a savior and received the gift of eternal life. “Long before our God began his creations, he dwelt on a mortal world like ours, one of the creations that his Father had created for him and his brethren. He, with many of his brethren, was obedient to the principles of the eternal gospel. One among these, it is presumed, was a savior for them, and through him they obtained a resurrection and an exaltation on an eternal, celestial world.”

• NOT OMNIPRESENT: As a material being, God is not omnipresent. “Some would have us believe that God is present everywhere. It is not so.” The Mormons sometimes use the word “omnipresent,” but not with the usual meaning. “He is present with all his creations through his influence, through his government, spirit and power, but he himself is a personage of tabernacle.” “God himself is a soul, composed of a body of flesh and bones as tangible as man’s … he is a resurrected, glorified, exalted, omniscient, omnipotent, and — in spirit, and power, and influence — an omnipresent person …”

• MANY GODS: Our God is the god of this planet. However, there is an infinite number of other gods, also called “exalted beings.” The other gods are the gods of other populated planets. Our God conferred with other gods regarding his plan to create this world. “We know that there was a council of the Gods in which the plan of our Eternal Father was sustained. This plan included the Creation of the earth.”

• HE WAS BORN: God was born; he is the son of his own Father God. His Father God in turn was born of a Father God, and so on. “There never was a time when there were not Gods and worlds, and men were not passing through the same ordeals that we are now passing through. That course has been from all eternity, and it is and will be to all eternity.” “They [our God, and all of his brothers and sisters from his planet] gained the power and godhood of their Father and were made heirs of all that he had, continuing his works and creating worlds of their own for their own posterity — the same as their Father had done before, and his Father, and his Father, and on and on.”

• NOT ETERNAL: Thus, God has not existed eternally as He is now. Rather, he was born, lived a mortal life, and achieved “exaltation.” Having achieved exaltation, God has “eternal life,” just as we can one day be exalted and obtain eternal life. Only in that sense is He eternal. “I am going to tell you how God came to be God. We have imagined and supposed that God was God from all eternity. I will refute that idea, and take away the veil, so that you may see.” “Many have tried to penetrate to the First Cause of all things; but … it is not for man, with his limited intelligence, to grasp eternity in his comprehension. … Instead of inquiring after the origin of Gods — instead of trying to explore the depths of eternities … let them seek to know the object of their present existence…”

• NOT THE CREATOR: God “fashioned” the earth from elements which have existed eternally; He did not create the world “ex nihilio” (out of nothing). “God created the earth as an organized sphere; but He certainly did not create, in the sense of bringing into primal existence, the ultimate elements of the materials of which the earth consists, for ‘the elements are eternal.’” Nor did God create life, because “life” (“spirit matter”) also has existed eternally. “So also life is eternal, and not created; but life, or the vital force, may be infused into organized matter, though the details of the process have not been revealed unto man.”

• GAVE BIRTH TO OUR SPIRITS: God is the spirit Father of every human being on earth. We came into existence spiritually in “the spirit world” long before we were born in the physical world. Our spiritual birth occurred as the result of the union of our “heavenly parents.” “Each human being is a beloved son or daughter of heavenly parents.”

• THE HEAVENLY MOTHER: Thus, in addition to God the Father, there is also a heavenly Mother. Mormons say very little about the heavenly Mother, but there are references to her on the LDS website. “All men and women are in the similitude of the universal Father and Mother and are literally the sons and daughters of Deity.” “Along with these concepts is the concept of divine parents, including an exalted Mother who stands beside God the Father.” “But at some distant point in our premortal past, spirit bodies were created for us, and we became, literally, spirit sons and daughters of heavenly parents.”
One Mormon hymn teaches: “In the heavens are parents single? / No, the thought makes reason stare. / Truth is reason: truth eternal / tells me I’ve a mother there.” And in another stanza: “When I leave this frail existence, / When I lay this mortal by, / Father, Mother, may I meet you / In your royal courts on high?”

• NO TRINITY: A Mormon sermon by Marion G. Romney (“first counselor” to the president, the second highest office of the LDS church; a cousin of former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney) quotes the Athanasian Creed from the 500s AD: “We worship one God in Trinity … The Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Ghost is God; and yet there are not three Gods, but one God.” Sounds like orthodox Christianity? It is. Romney refers to that creed as a “mystifying confusion,” and lauds “the clear and simple truth concerning God” taught by Joseph Smith as “a great contrast” to our belief in the Trinity.

“Though most people who believe the Bible accept the idea of a Godhead composed of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, Joseph Smith revealed an understanding of the Godhead that differed from the views found in the creeds of his day. … Joseph Smith uniquely taught that the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost are three distinct personages…” “Some who write anti-Mormon pamphlets insist that the LDS concept of Deity is contrary to what is recognized as traditional Christian doctrine. In this they are quite correct. The traditional view about the Trinity is well over a thousand years old, and time has a way of hallowing ideas, whether or not they are true.”

This is an explanatory note for a series of posts under the heading, “What Mormons Believe About …” Links to each post of this series appear at the bottom of this post.

In these posts, I have attempted to present Mormon teachings accurately and fairly. Much of the material is quoted directly from the official website (www.lds.org) of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS). Everything that appears within quote marks can be found on the LDS website by using that site’s search tool.

Unlike many anti-Mormon websites, I have not quoted any material from the Journal of Discourses (JD). The JD is a 26-volume set of sermons from the 1800s by Brigham Young and other Mormon pioneers. Brigham Young succeeded Joseph Smith as LDS President and as such is considered a “prophet of God.” The JD contains some of the teachings that are most objectionable to Christians, and many anti-Mormon teachers refer to it frequently. The LDS has distanced itself from the JD, describing it as “not an official publication” and stating that it contains some “speculative teachings.” Still, even the LDS cites the JD frequently on its own website. However, in these posts I have not relied on JD material, but only on material found on the LDS official website.

Here are links to installments of this series:

• “What Mormons Believe About … God”

• On a personal level, I have written a post explaining how I recently became involved in studying Mormonism, in: “Accidental Detour into the Strange World of Mormonism”

Celestial beings in galaxies far, far away. Heavenly parents in the spirit world, who have traveled from planet Kolob to planet Earth. From Jesus Christ to the Aztec god Quetzalcoatl. From Missouri to Mesopotamia and back again. From Nephi to Moroni to Joseph Smith. Urim and Thummim and Liahona. Hidden Scriptures written in Egyptian hieroglyphics on metal sheets. Scriptures which tell of gods who are actually men, and men who will become gods.

I have spent the last few days reading about these things and so much more, and have found it all more alluring than an epic science fiction novel. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) seems to have no end of tantalizing tall tales.

Presidential candidate Mitt Romney — a Republican, the former governor of Massachusetts, and a Mormon — gave a speech on Thursday in which he addressed some people’s concerns about the possibility of a Mormon in the White House.

Many evangelical Christians categorize the LDS as a heretical cult group, and are skittish about casting a ballot for one of its members. Other evangelical Christians are drawn to Romney, arguing that because of his faith, he shares important values with conservative evangelicals, including opposing abortion and same-sex marriages.

“I believe in my Mormon faith and endeavor to live by it,” Romney said in his speech. Attempting to connect with evangelicals, Romney also said, “Jesus Christ is the Son of God and the Savior of mankind.” But he refused to elaborate on details of his religion, saying he is not a spokesman for his church.

So I decided to do my own research into Mormon doctrine. Like many Christians, I already have some knowledge of LDS teachings. Thirty years ago, when I was in my 20s and a campus minister at Oklahoma State University, a Mormon missionary came to my door. I agreed to meet with him, and after a couple of meetings, he passed me off to one of the leaders of the Mormon church in Stillwater. That Mormon leader and I had weekly one-on-one meetings for several months, at which he attempted to open my eyes to the LDS light, and I attempted to show him the error of his ways. I bought a Book of Mormon and read quite a bit of it. After six months, we both agreed that neither of us had budged an inch, so we shook hands and parted company.

One amusing memory I have from that time was the startled response I got from my board of directors when I — in my first full-time ministry and too naive to know better — turned in for reimbursement my receipt for the Book of Mormon I had bought. I have not given Mormonism much time or attention since.

But Romney’s presidential candidacy has moved Mormonism into the national spotlight. I have not yet formed an opinion of what I think about a Mormon in the White House. But I am concerned that Romney’s public profile may give new credibility to the Mormon heresy. So I decided this week to brush up on my knowledge of Mormonism and post a summary on this blog of some key LDS doctrines.

I did not intend to spend too much time or delve too deeply into Mormon teaching. I just wanted to post an overview of some doctrines that differ from evangelical Christianity. But the more I keep reading, the more my mind boggles at the bizarre hodge-podge of fictions and fantasies and falsehoods that the Mormon church has concocted. I have always enjoyed science fiction, and in its own wierd way, Mormon teachings read like great science fiction. I have had difficulty putting it down.

I’m not the only one to make the connection between Mormonism and science fiction. Glen A. Larson, who is a Mormon, is the creator-producer of the 1978 TV show Battlestar Galactica, and a consulting producer of the modern version of the series. Larson based much of the Battlestar mythology on Mormon doctrine. In 1979, the Associated Latter-day Media Artists (ALMA) honored Larson for his work, according to the LDS website.

I don’t know how many of these Mormon doctrines I once knew and have long since forgotten, and how much of it I am learning for the first time. Thirty years ago, there was no Internet. I struggled then to plow through the Book of Mormon. Now I have access to the LDS church’s own official website, with thousands of pages of information, complete with an A-Z index and a search engine. Every term and phrase I plug in sends me down another bizarre but fascinating trail.

I have copied scores of statements that reveal, in their own words, what Mormons believe about God, Man, Christ, Creation, Salvation, the Church, the Bible, America — and yes, life on other planets. Believe me, despite Romney’s attempt to present himself as a kissing cousin of evangelical Christians, what the Mormons believe about all of these topics is fundamentally and radically different than what evangelical Christianity believes and teaches.

If you want to know what Mitt Romney and his fellow Mormons believe, but you don’t feel like watching an episode of Battlestar Galactica, keep visiting this blog. I am organizing excerpts according to the topics listed above, and I will be posting them during the next several days. Stay tuned.