The Nature of God

The Most Fundamental Question

Who is God? This is the most important question any worldview must answer, and the answer shapes everything else. Our understanding of salvation, worship, ethics, and human destiny all flow from our doctrine of God. Get this question wrong, and everything downstream will be distorted.

Biblical Christianity and Mormonism give radically different answers to this question. These differences are not peripheral disagreements about secondary matters. They concern the very nature of the Being we worship. Christians and Mormons do not worship the same God—they hold fundamentally incompatible views of who and what God is.

The God of the Bible

One God, Eternally Existing

The Bible teaches monotheism—there is one and only one God. This is not merely the assertion that we worship one God while others exist; it is the claim that only one God exists at all:

These statements are absolute. No god was formed before Yahweh—so he was not produced by another god. No god shall be formed after him—so humans do not become gods. Besides him, there is no god—so there are no other gods ruling other worlds.

God Is Spirit

The Bible teaches that God, in his essential nature, is spirit, not a physical being with a body of flesh and bones:

When the Bible speaks of God's "hand," "eyes," or "face," these are anthropomorphic expressions—figurative language that describes God in human terms to help us understand his actions and attributes. God reaches out to us (his hand), sees all things (his eyes), shows us favor (his face). But these expressions do not mean God literally has physical body parts.

This is why the Second Commandment forbids making images of God (Exodus 20:4-6). God cannot be depicted physically because he is not a physical being. Any physical representation reduces the infinite to the finite, the spiritual to the material.

The Divine Attributes

Historic Christian theology confesses that God possesses certain incommunicable attributes—qualities that belong to God alone and cannot be shared with creatures:

Self-existence (Aseity): God depends on nothing outside himself for his existence. He is the "I AM" (Exodus 3:14), the one who simply is. Everything else exists because God created it; God exists because he is God.

Eternity: God has always existed and always will exist. He had no beginning and will have no end. "From everlasting to everlasting, you are God" (Psalm 90:2). He did not come into being; he did not achieve divinity.

Immutability: God does not change. "I the LORD do not change" (Malachi 3:6). His nature, his character, his purposes, his promises—all remain constant. He does not grow, progress, or develop.

Omnipresence: God is present everywhere. "Do I not fill heaven and earth?" (Jeremiah 23:24). He is not limited to one location; his presence pervades all of creation.

Omniscience: God knows all things—past, present, and future, actual and possible. Nothing is hidden from him. He does not learn or discover; he has always known everything.

Omnipotence: God is all-powerful. Nothing is too hard for him. He created the universe from nothing by the word of his power. No force in creation can resist his will.

The Trinity

The Bible teaches that this one God exists eternally as three persons—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Each person is fully God; each is distinct from the others; yet there is only one God. This is the doctrine of the Trinity.

The Father is God (1 Corinthians 8:6). The Son is God (John 1:1, 20:28, Hebrews 1:8). The Holy Spirit is God (Acts 5:3-4). Yet there are not three Gods but one God (Deuteronomy 6:4, James 2:19). The three persons are not three separate beings but one Being in three persons, sharing one divine essence.

This doctrine was not invented at the Council of Nicaea; it was articulated there in response to heresy. The biblical data that required this formulation was present from the beginning: one God, three persons each called God, each distinct from the others. The Trinity is the only doctrine that accounts for all the biblical evidence.

The Mormon Doctrine of God

God as an Exalted Man

Mormon theology teaches that God the Father was not always God. He was once a mortal man who lived on another planet, proved himself faithful, died, was resurrected, and eventually achieved godhood. Joseph Smith declared in the King Follett Discourse (1844):

"God himself was once as we are now, and is an exalted man, and sits enthroned in yonder heavens! That is the great secret... 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."

This teaching was affirmed by subsequent prophets. Lorenzo Snow expressed it in his famous couplet: "As man now is, God once was; as God now is, man may become." This remains official LDS doctrine, though modern church leaders tend to emphasize it less in public communications.

A God with a Physical Body

D&C 130:22 states: "The Father has a body of flesh and bones as tangible as man's." Unlike the biblical doctrine of God as spirit, Mormon theology teaches that Heavenly Father has a glorified physical body. He is localized in space, near a star called Kolob (Abraham 3:2-3). He cannot be omnipresent in the classical sense because a physical body can only be in one place at a time.

The First Vision account (Pearl of Great Price, Joseph Smith—History 1:17) describes the Father and Son appearing as two separate physical beings: "I saw two Personages, whose brightness and glory defy all description, standing above me in the air."

Many Gods

Mormon theology is explicitly polytheistic—it affirms the existence of multiple gods. The Book of Abraham speaks of "the Gods" creating the earth (Abraham 4). Joseph Smith taught in the King Follett Discourse:

"I will preach on the plurality of Gods... In the beginning, the head of the Gods called a council of the Gods; and they came together and concocted a plan to create the world and people it."

In Mormon cosmology, Heavenly Father has a Father, who has a Father, and so on infinitely into the past. There is no first God, no ultimate beginning. And in the future, faithful Mormons can become gods themselves, creating and populating their own worlds with their celestial spouses.

Three Separate Gods

Rather than the Trinity—one God in three persons—Mormonism teaches that Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are three separate gods, united in purpose but not in being. They are distinct individuals as separate from each other as any three humans.

The Father and Son have glorified physical bodies; the Holy Ghost is a personage of spirit who has not yet received a body. They work together as the "Godhead" for this earth, but they are three separate beings, not one Being.

Why These Differences Matter

The Meaning of Worship

If God is what Mormonism claims—an exalted man who achieved divinity—then worship is fundamentally about aspiration. We worship Heavenly Father as one who has traveled the road before us, showing us what we can become. Worship is respect for an advanced elder, not awe before the wholly Other.

If God is what the Bible claims—the infinite, eternal Creator of all things—then worship is fundamentally about adoration. We worship One who is categorically different from us, not merely further along on the same path. The gap between Creator and creature is infinite and unbridgeable—which is why the Incarnation is such a staggering act of condescension.

The Meaning of Salvation

In Mormonism, salvation (in the highest sense of exaltation) means becoming what God is—progressing through obedience and ordinances until we achieve godhood ourselves. The gap between us and God is one of degree, not kind. We are gods in embryo; salvation is maturation.

In biblical Christianity, salvation means being reconciled to God—rescued from sin and death, adopted into God's family, destined to enjoy God forever. We will be glorified, but we will never become God or gods. The Creator-creature distinction remains forever. Our joy is not in achieving divinity but in knowing and worshiping the true God.

The Meaning of the Cross

If God is a finite being who achieved his status, then the cross is the act of one god among many dying to make possible our advancement along the same path. It is significant but not cosmically unique.

If God is the infinite Creator, then the cross is the most astonishing event in cosmic history—the eternal God taking on human nature, bearing the sins of his rebellious creatures, dying in their place, and rising victorious over death. The glory of the gospel depends on the infinite worth of the One who died. A finite god dying for us is far less significant than the infinite God dying for us.

Responding to Mormon Arguments

"The Bible Teaches Multiple Gods"

Some LDS apologists point to passages that seem to suggest multiple gods: "God standeth in the congregation of the mighty; he judgeth among the gods" (Psalm 82:1); "Thou shalt have no other gods before me" (Exodus 20:3, implying other gods exist).

Response: These passages use "gods" in a derivative sense—referring to human judges acting in God's name (Psalm 82:6-7, cf. John 10:34-35) or to false gods that have no real existence. Context makes this clear. The same Scriptures that speak of "gods" also insist there is only one true God (Isaiah 43:10, 44:6-8). The biblical authors did not contradict themselves within the same books.

"Humans Can Become Gods"

LDS often cite Psalm 82:6 ("I said, 'You are gods'") and 2 Peter 1:4 (becoming "partakers of the divine nature") as evidence that humans can achieve godhood.

Response: Psalm 82:6 refers to human judges who represented God's authority; verse 7 immediately says "you shall die like men"—hardly a description of beings achieving godhood. The passage is about failed human responsibility, not human deification.

The "divine nature" language in 2 Peter 1:4 refers to moral transformation— becoming holy as God is holy, sharing God's moral attributes (love, goodness, righteousness)—not ontological deification. The same letter emphasizes God's unique nature as Creator (2 Peter 3:5). We become like God in character without becoming gods ourselves.

"God the Father Has a Body"

Mormons point to passages where God seems to have physical form: the "hand" of God, Moses seeing God's "back" (Exodus 33:23), God walking in the garden (Genesis 3:8).

Response: These are anthropomorphisms—figurative language that describes God's actions in human terms. This is clear because the Bible also describes God with wings (Psalm 91:4), as a rock (Psalm 18:2), and as fire (Deuteronomy 4:24). We don't interpret these literally. Meanwhile, explicit didactic passages teach that God is spirit (John 4:24), invisible (Colossians 1:15, 1 Timothy 1:17), and cannot be seen by mortals (1 Timothy 6:16).

"The Trinity Was a Later Invention"

Mormons often claim that the Trinity was invented at the Council of Nicaea (325 AD) under the influence of Greek philosophy, and that early Christians did not hold this doctrine.

Response: The Council of Nicaea did not invent the Trinity; it articulated it against the Arian heresy. The biblical data requiring this doctrine was present from the beginning: monotheism + three persons each called God = Trinity. Pre-Nicene fathers like Ignatius, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, and Tertullian (who coined the term "Trinity" around 200 AD) taught the same essential doctrine. The development was in precision of language, not in substance of belief.

Knowing the True God

The doctrine of God is not abstract philosophy; it determines whom we actually worship. If we have the wrong God, we have the wrong religion—no matter how sincerely we practice it. Jesus himself said, "This is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent" (John 17:3).

The god of Mormonism cannot save because he himself needed saving—he was once a mortal man who had to prove himself worthy. The god of Mormonism is not worthy of ultimate worship because he is not ultimate—he has a father, who has a father, in infinite regression. The god of Mormonism did not create the universe because matter is eternal and he merely organized it.

The God of the Bible is utterly different. He alone is God—there was no god before him, and there will be none after. He is the self-existent I AM, depending on nothing, the source of all else that exists. He is spirit, not localized flesh. He is eternal, not an achiever of divine status. He is infinite in all his perfections—omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent, immutable.

And this infinite God, in love beyond comprehension, stooped down to save rebellious creatures. The eternal Son took on human nature—not an exalted man progressing upward, but the eternal God reaching downward. He died for sinners, rose in triumph, and offers free salvation to all who trust in him.

This is the true God—infinitely high yet intimately near, dwelling in eternity yet caring for the broken, holy beyond imagination yet gracious to sinners. This is the God we commend to our Mormon friends: not a bigger version of themselves, but the transcendent Creator who became one of us to save us. May they come to know him—the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom he has sent.