Mormonism is replete in its scriptures with the idea that the God of Mormonism is the supreme being, as seen in three of their sacred texts below, which is not an exhaustive list:
Book of Mormon, Alma 11:22 “And Amulek said unto him: Yea, if it be according to the Spirit of the Lord, which is in me; for I shall say nothing which is contrary to the Spirit of the Lord. And Zeezrom said unto him: Behold, here are six onties of silver, and all these will I give thee if thou wilt deny the existence of a Supreme Being.”
Book of Mormon, Alma 30:44 “But Alma said unto him: Thou hast had signs enough; will ye tempt your God? Will ye say, Show unto me a sign, when ye have the testimony of all these thy brethren, and also all the holy prophets? The scriptures are laid before thee, yea, and all things denote there is a God; yea, even the earth, and all things that are upon the face of it, yea, and its motion, yea, and also all the planets which move in their regular form do witness that there is a Supreme Creator.”
Doctrine and Covenants 107:4 “But out of respect or reverence to the name of the Supreme Being, to avoid the too frequent repetition of his name, they, the church, in ancient days, called that priesthood after Melchizedek, or the Melchizedek Priesthood.”
Pearl of Great Price, Moses 2:1 “And it came to pass that the Lord spake unto Moses, saying: Behold, I reveal unto you concerning this heaven, and this earth; write the words which I speak. I am the Beginning and the End, the Almighty God; by mine Only Begotten I created these things; yea, in the beginning I created the heaven, and the earth upon which thou standest.”
Now consider with me, that in the gospel of John, we find Jesus telling His Disciples something very interesting regarding how it is better for His Disciples that He goes away:
John 16:4–11. I have told you this, so that when their time comes you will remember that I warned you about them. I did not tell you this from the beginning because I was with you, 5 but now I am going to him who sent me. None of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’ 6 Rather, you are filled with grief because I have said these things. 7 But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. 8 When he comes, he will prove the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment: 9 about sin, because people do not believe in me; 10 about righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer; 11 and about judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned.
The question is, Why in the world would it be for their good for Jesus to be “going away” from them?
One reason is because the number of followers of Jesus will amass to a number that cannot be counted, and physical space and time will not account for every single person to be with Jesus. Imagine that Jesus came to Phoenix, Arizona. How many busses would be going there? How many planes, cars, boats, 4 wheelers, bulldozers, motorcycles, whatever, would be going to Arizona to see Jesus? When the whole world was there, how do you know that you would be able to see with Him? It seems that every Instagram influencer, pastor, priest, TikTok influencer, podcaster, religious leader, and every national leader would be pressing for His attention (Let alone you and me).
In Genesis 3, we can read about the fall of mankind for disobeying God in the Garden of Eden. We can see that childbearing will be brought about in pain. We can also see that in pain, food will be produced. Physical birth and physical sustenance both have elements of suffering. The question arises, is Genesis 3 describing all that the curse brought about to mankind?
Romans 1:18-23 tells us,
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So, they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.”
First, if what can be known about God is plain, why do some not see? Because sin distorts even the way we think. Consider again what can be known about God being plain: People suppress the truth by their unrighteousness. How do they suppress the truth? Romans 1:22 clues us in: “Claiming to be wise, they became fools…” I believe this echoes Isaiah 5:20 which reads, “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!” “Their foolish hearts were darkened.” Perhaps this phrase is referring directly to the Fall of Mankind.
This brings us to something called the noetic effects of sin. This comes from the word, noetikos, which is an adjective describing something that deals with the mind. This is the idea that when the curse came upon humankind, that it also had some effect on the way we can understand things. In other words, the curse has limited us, and we have spiritual ignorance because of this. What can be known about God is plain, but we suppress what can be known about God by our unrighteousness. What I mean is that the natural man is ignorant of spiritual matters. This is a huge problem, because if we do not even know about spiritual matters, how are we to know what is true about such?
The good thing is that some of the work of the Holy Spirit is to remove spiritual ignorance. In a sense, reversing the effects of the curse. Perhaps removing the effects, but you get the idea… Jesus says in the John passage above, “And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: concerning sin, because they do not believe in me; concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no longer; concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.” Finally, in verse 12 Jesus says, “When the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all truth.”
Everyone is ignorant, spiritually speaking, until the Holy Spirit guides them to truth. The Spirit of Truth reveals what sin and righteousness really are, so that we do not call good things evil and evil things good. The Holy Spirit has access to the door of your heart. He comes to a person to show a person what sin truly is, that it is moral failure and rebellion against God, and that this is what separates man from God. Because people have a physical nature, they find it hard to know anything about the spiritual nature because they cannot experience it through the five senses. This is why the Holy Spirit’s work is so important, simply because a human being is more than just a physical object, the problem is, when the Holy Spirit reveals spiritual truths to a person, that person has the power to suppress the work of the Holy Spirit.
Jesus says, “When He comes, He will guide you into all truth.” He won’t force a person into knowing the truth. We have free will. Genesis 1:26 teaches that God made man in His image, and created them to have dominion over. This entails having free will. One thing required to rule over the other beasts of the world is judgment. Judgment requires free will. I say this to show you that the Bible assumes our free will. For one thing, the Ten Commandments alone assume our free will… whether to obey them or not. This brings us to the idea found again in Romans 1:18. “Suppress the truth by their unrighteousness.” Just because the Holy Spirit will guide a person into knowing the truth about spiritual matters, such as sin, righteousness and judgment, does not mean that this same person will not suppress the truth. If you have a loved one who is not a Christian, this is ultimately why not. They suppress the truth by their unrighteousness. They suppress the work of the Holy Spirit. They don’t want to know the truth, because it goes against their wishes.
After all this explanation about the Helper, the Spirit of Truth, Jesus says He still has many things to say to them, but they cannot bear it now, it will have to wait as seen in verses 12-15. When the Spirit of truth comes, He will tell you these things. Jesus is saying, “Listen for these things that I speak to you through the Holy Spirit.”
Since sin distorts even the way we think, the Holy Spirit works to reverse the effects of the curse, namely the noetic effects of sin, because God loves us. All through the Old Testament, we can see where people failed God, broke covenant with Him, and He, time and time again, came to their rescue. Even though we sin against God, He wants to save us from eternal death. He is still our rescuer even today. The Spirit of truth speaks to you.
This is why it is better that Jesus goes away. The Holy Spirit is not physically bound. And the Holy Spirit has not yet come in such capacity until Jesus went “away.”
Now, therein lies the problem of Mormonism, specifically the “supreme being” that Mormonism teaches.
Doctrine and Covenants 130:22 reads, “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.”
The following is from Scriptural Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith:
God Himself was once as we are now, and is an exalted man, and sits enthroned in yonder heavens! That is the great secret. If the veil were rent today, and the great God who holds this world in its orbit, and who upholds all worlds and all things by His power, was to make Himself visible,—I say, if you were to see Him today, you would see Him like a man in form—like yourselves in all the person, image, and very form as a man; for Adam was created in the very fashion, image and likeness of God, and received instruction from, and walked, talked and conversed with Him, as one man talks and communes with another.[1]
Mormons refer to God as “Heavenly Father” as a term of endearment for their god. From this teaching that Heavenly Father has a body of flesh and bone, we can deduce the following:
1. If Heavenly Father has a body of flesh and bone, then Heavenly Father is not omnipresent.
2. Heavenly Father has a body of flesh and bone. — D&C 130:22
3. Therefore, Heavenly Father is not omnipresent. — (1, 2)
4. If Heavenly Father is not omnipresent, then Heavenly Father is not maximally great.
5. Therefore, Heavenly Father is not maximally great. — (3, 4)
If maximal greatness is argued against because the “Holy Ghost” dwells in us according to Doctrine and Covenants 130:22, this dwelling is different because in Mormonism, the Holy Ghost in Mormonism is a different “god” than Heavenly Father. Mormonism teaches tri-theism,[2] as opposed to Trinitarianism.[3] Therefore, Heavenly Father does not have omnipresence, even if their Holy Ghost does. In Christianity, on the contrary, the “Spirit of Christ” (See Romans 8:9) is in all believers, and since as Jesus teaches, “I and my Father are one” (John 10:30), God lives in us and is omnipresent. God in Christianity is maximally great, but Heavenly Father falls short of maximal greatness in Mormonism.
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