Theological Drift

Perhaps the biggest issue that puzzled me while I was in the Church was related to what I would term theological drift.

I don't believe in these scriptures or this set of Theology any more, but let me give an overview of what it was, and what the Scriptures actually say.  Finding contradictions allows us to illumine or minds with light, dispelling shadows of error, and is an important tool to hone our grasp on the truth of things.  I don't think it is a waste of time to study these things, even today, in order to exercise critical thinking skills and learn to identify errors.

The Drifting Ideas of Mormon Theology

Period I: Trinity & Modalism

Joseph Smith started out teaching a Trinitarian version of God which was expressed with Modalist tendencies - in other words, holding very common views for people in his place and time. This is the Theology of the first edition of the Book of Mormon.  At this point in Mormon Theology, the LORD God (Jehovah Elohim) of the Old Testament is understood to be God the Father, and Jesus Christ is understood to be "God" incarnate, or "God the Son."  Mary can be referred to as the "Mother of God."  Verses in the Book of Mormon from this period contained wording such as, "And the angel said unto me, behold the Lamb of God, yea, even the Eternal Father!"

Period II: Dualist & Spirit as the Mind of God, Kirtland Period

Eventually, and forever codified in the "Lectures on Faith," which was part of the original Doctrine & Covenants (Lectures on Faith + Book of Commandments = Doctrine & Covenants) Joseph began to promote an idea where the Father and the Son are separate, but they share a common Mind, which is what he considered the Holy Spirit to be.  Many verses in the Book of Mormon had been revised upon re-printing to eliminate the Trinitarian/Modalist ideas, by adding phrases such as, "And the angel said unto me, behold the Lamb of God, yea, even the Son of the Eternal Father!" 

Period III: Divine Progression, Late Nauvoo Period

Influenced by ideas from Freemasonry and by Egypt-mania, Joseph advanced a new theology, well recorded in the King Follett Discourse, where God was once a man who lived on another planet, he had lived an ordinary life, and through progression, had gone from degree to degree, eventually becoming Exalted.  "How God came to be God."  Joseph became comfortable preaching about a council of Gods.  Mormonism was now Polytheistic on a grand scale, but there was only one God whom we on this planet are to worship.  At this point, Elohim starts to be used to refer to the Council of the Gods, and Jehovah becomes a name-Title for "one of the Elohim", who happens to be the specific God of our planet.  Jesus Christ is understood to be the Son of Jehovah.  Most of these ideas stayed around until at least 1914 if not later as evidenced by these quotes:

“We believe in God the Father, who is the great Jehovah and head of all things, and that Christ is the Son of God, co-eternal with the Father; yet he is our Savior, Redeemer, King, and Great Prototype;… and is now seated at the right hand of the Father.” – Times and Seasons 3 (1 November 1841): 578.

“Jehovah God, Thou Eloheim - Thy Son Jesus Christ” (BYA, 4 Aug 1867) - Brigham Young

“Jehovah, God the Father is one / Another His Eternal Son” (Sacred Hymns #262) - John Taylor

“Jehovah and his Son, Jesus” - (1 July 1961, Church News) - David O. McKay.

Period IV: Your Own Planet & Adam-God

Brigham Young took Joseph's ideas and built upon them.  His distinctive teachings, perhaps best recorded by his Scribe, L. John Nuttall, in a journal entry dated February 7, 1877, of what became the Lecture at the Veil in the Temple Endowment, and also published as part of sermons in official Church publications at the time, expressed the idea that Adam and Eve had been celestial beings, from a previous world who had gained their exaltation, and that they condescended to become mortal again willingly and live on this earth in order to begin the process of peopling it.  This is where the idea that "Mormons get their own planet" really takes hold.

Brigham wasn't entirely clear on all of these teachings.  But, it would seem that Elohim (meaning one of the past generations of Gods, a chief member of the Council of the Gods), along with Jehovah, and Michael formed our earth.  Michael then became Adam, who after living on this earth, returned thousands of years later in his immortal body to Mary and impregnated her, causing Jesus to be conceived (a half-Celestial being, or demigod, if you will.)

Brigham taught that Adam is our God and the only God with whom we have to do.  It seems like he was basically saying that the Elohim and Jehovah characters in the Endowment were Adam and Eve's own God-figures from their previous world, and that once Adam was done on this life, his grandchildren began to worship him as Jehovah.  (Genesis 4:26  "And to Seth, to him also there was born a son; and he called his name Enos: then began men to call upon the name of the JEHOVAH.")  In other words, that the "Jehovah" ancient humans of earth prayed to anciently was actually Adam, and that the Jehovah mentioned in the Endowment is a way for us to understand that Adam had a God of his own, who is not the same as our own God.

Yeah, this is a little messy.  Importantly, though, Jesus Christ is seen in this theology as the child of Adam, ("Son of Man") perhaps the title he most frequently used for himself (but he probably didn't intend that meaning.)

Up until this point, Mormon theology still kind of makes sense.  It is a progression down a certain road of understanding ideas.  But, the Adam-God doctrine became a point of contention with some, and so when Brigham Young passed away, the subject was kept quiet for a number of years.

Period V: James E. Talmage's Confusion

James E. Talmage published a book called Jesus The Christ and began to promulgate the theory that Jehovah is the "premortal name of Jesus Christ" and that "God the Father" is some other being aside from Jehovah.

This idea began to be embraced as it creates a cognitive dissonance with Adam-God, a teaching which the Church had been trying to sweep back under the rug (or put the cat back in the bag, to use another metaphor.)

If Jehovah is believed to be Adam's father, and if you teach that Jehovah is Jesus, then how can Jehovah be both Adam's Father and his Son? (Is Adam his own Grandpa?)

Period VI: Jehovah Believed to be Premortal Name of Jesus

The idea that Jesus was Jehovah was passed around unofficially in the Church until April 2000, when a statement called "The Living Christ" was published, and the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve put their official signatures on this contradictory doctrine.  This is the smoking gun, and the worst theological contradiction in Mormonism.  How can I say this with such certainty?  Let's look into it...

Why the Jehovah-Jesus Doctrine is Impossible

Reason 1:  A Man Cannot take the Melchizedek Priesthood Upon Himself.

Hebrews 5:5-6:

In the same way, Christ did not take on himself the glory of becoming a high priest. But God said to him,

“You are my Son;

    today I have become your Father.”

And he says in another place,

“You are a priest forever,

    in the order of Melchizedek.”

Let's look at those verses.  They are Psalm 2:7-8, and Psalm 110:4.

Psalm 2:7-8 

I will proclaim JEHOVAH's decree:

He said to me, “You are my son;

    today I have become your father.

Psalm 110:4

JEHOVAH has sworn

    and will not change his mind:

“You are a priest forever,

    in the order of Melchizedek.” 

Make no mistake.  I put the actual Hebrew word JEHOVAH where it is in the Hebrew text.  The KJV Bible uses the word LORD (in all capitals) as a placeholder for it, but even the current LDS website admits this in the very middle of the lesson where they are trying to explain that Jehovah is Jesus. (See https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/jesus-christ-and-the-everlasting-gospel-teacher-manual/lesson-5-jesus-christ-was-jehovah-of-the-old-testament) where it says "the translators of the King James Version of the Bible rendered the word Jehovah as LORD (in all capital letters)."

Also check out:  https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/ensign/2002/06/lord-equals-jehovah

Another LDS source for this information is the Bible footnote on Isaiah 12:2, which says "This is one of the four times only that the name Jehovah is written out in full in the King James English Bible. See Ex. 6:3; Ps. 83:18; Isa. 26:4. In all other places LORD is used instead."

Psalm 83:18 also says, "That men may know that thou, whose name alone is JEHOVAH, art the most high over all the earth."

Reason 2:  The Messiah is literally Jehovah's Anointed Servant.

"Christ" in Greek and "Messiah" in Hebrew both mean Anointed.  They are referring to the successor to King David.  The one who is Jehovah's Anointed servant.

1 Samuel 24:6

And he said unto his men, JEHOVAH forbid that I should do this thing unto my master, JEHOVAH's anointed, to stretch forth mine hand against him, seeing he is the anointed of JEHOVAH.

JEHOVAH is the one whose suffering servant is bruised for the inquities of the people:

10 ¶ Yet it pleased JEHOVAH to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of JEHOVAH shall prosper in his hand.

If Jesus is Jehovah, then he cannot be the Messiah, because the Messiah is Jehovah's Anointed Servant.

Reason 3:  The Messiah sits at the right hand of God, ranking higher than King David but below Jehovah

Jesus sits at the right hand of the Father.  If we look back to Psalm 110, this time, verse 1:

JEHOVAH said unto my Master, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool.

According to Christianity, this was David explaining that God asked Jesus to sit as his right hand. Don't believe me?  Jesus explains it himself in Matthew 22:41-45:

While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, “What do you think about the Messiah? Whose son is he?”

“The son of David,” they replied.

He said to them, “How is it then that David, speaking by the Spirit, calls him ‘Master’? For he says,

“‘JEHOVAH said to my Master:

    “Sit at my right hand

until I put your enemies

    under your feet.”’

If then David calls him ‘Master,’ how can he be his son?”

Reason 4:  Joseph Smith Prayed to Jehovah and Holy Father interchangeably, but Mormons know you don't pray "to" Jesus.

During the Kirtland Temple Dedication Prayer, Joseph Smith prayed in ways that clearly indicated that he understood Jesus to be "the Son" of the "Lord God of Israel" and that he was praying to Jehovah (whom he also called Holy Father, interchangeably throughout the prayer.)

D&C 109:1-4:

Thanks be to thy name, O Lord God of Israel, who keepest covenant and showest mercy unto thy servants who walk uprightly before thee, with all their hearts—

Thou who hast commanded thy servants to build a house to thy name in this place [Kirtland].

And now thou beholdest, O Lord, that thy servants have done according to thy commandment.

And now we ask thee, Holy Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, the Son of thy bosom, in whose name alone salvation can be administered to the children of men, we ask thee, O Lord, to accept of this house, the workmanship of the hands of us, thy servants, which thou didst command us to build.

D&C 109:31-35:

For thou knowest, O Lord, that thy servants have been innocent before thee in bearing record of thy name, for which they have suffered these things. 

Therefore we plead before thee for a full and complete deliverance from under this yoke; 

Break it off, O Lord; break it off from the necks of thy servants, by thy power, that we may rise up in the midst of this generation and do thy work. 

O JEHOVAH, have mercy upon this people, and as all men sin, forgive the transgressions of thy people, and let them be blotted out forever. 

Let the anointing of thy ministers be sealed upon them with power from on high.

Reason 5: The Father (not the Son) is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob

Acts 3:13:

The God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob, the God of our fathers, hath glorified his Son Jesus; whom ye delivered up, and denied him in the presence of Pilate, when he was determined to let him go.

Reason 6: Even Latter-day Scriptures Identifies the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Moses, as the Father, not the Son:

Moses 1:15-17

Blessed be the name of my God, for his Spirit hath not altogether withdrawn from me, or else where is thy glory, for it is darkness unto me? And I can judge between thee and God; for God said unto me: Worship God, for him only shalt thou serve.

Get thee hence, Satan; deceive me not; for God said unto me: Thou art after the similitude of mine Only Begotten.

And he also gave me commandments when he called unto me out of the burning bush, saying: Call upon God in the name of mine Only Begotten, and worship me. 

The book of Abahram identifies JEHOVAH as the one who reveals things to Abraham and asks "Whom shall I send?" and decides to send down the Son of Man (Jesus) to be the Messiah rather than sending another (i.e., Satan.)

Abraham 1:16

And his voice was unto me: Abraham, Abraham, behold, my name is JEHOVAH, and I have heard thee, and have come down to deliver thee, and to take thee away from thy father’s house, and from all thy kinsfolk, into a strange land which thou knowest not of; 

Abraham 2:7-8

For I am the Lord thy God; I dwell in heaven; the earth is my footstool; I stretch my hand over the sea, and it obeys my voice; I cause the wind and the fire to be my chariot; I say to the mountains—Depart hence—and behold, they are taken away by a whirlwind, in an instant, suddenly. 

My name is JEHOVAH, and I know the end from the beginning; therefore my hand shall be over thee.

Abraham 3:19,27

And the Lord said unto me: These two facts do exist, that there are two spirits, one being more intelligent than the other; there shall be another more intelligent than they; I am the Lord thy God, I am more intelligent than they all.

...

And the Lord said: Whom shall I send? And one answered like unto the Son of Man: Here am I, send me. And another answered and said: Here am I, send me. And the Lord said: I will send the first.   

Don't Let Imperfect Scriptures Confuse You 

Yes, there are some passages in the Book of Mormon that make God the Father and Jesus sound like the same being, for example:

Ether 3:14:

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.

Don't let this be a stumbling block.  The only reason these verses are like this is because Joseph Smith was still in a Trinitarian/Modalist mindset when he first dictated the Book of Mormon, and he never managed to weed out all of the Trinitarian theology (even though he did change many, many passages to eliminate it, in the next several revisions that were published during his life.)

But let us Learn from the Book of Mormon:

2 Nephi 24:13-14:

For thou hast said in thy heart: I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north;

I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the Most High.

Which character is it in Mormon theology who claims to be the Only Begotten, the Christ, and at the same time attempts to exalt his throne to be like the Most High?

What does "claiming to be like the Most High" mean?

Psalm 83:18:

That men may know that thou, whose name alone is JEHOVAH, art the most high over all the earth.

Claiming to be the Most High means claiming to be JEHOVAH.  If someone claims to be the Christ but is trying to exalt his throne above the one who Anointed him, I'm sorry to say, but that isn't Christ.

It isn't Satan, because he doesn't really exist anyway.  But, if Mormon theology were true...

The Christ who claims to be Jehovah is Satan.