How should we reconcile Biblical claims?
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The RBC pamphlet notes:
- Both Testaments...give us reason to believe that one can be more than one. That this is beyond our ability to fully understand is not reason to reject it, but to try to understand as much as we can of what God has revealed. (p. 5)
The author is correct that the Bible does portray the "one God" as more than one person. The author has decided that Nicene Trinitarianism is the proper solution, and so must fall back on the fact that this view of the Trinity is a "mystery": it cannot be fully understood with human reason.
The Christians at RBC Ministries are entitled to take such an approach. However, the Latter-day Saints take a different approach, while readily admitting that there are ways in which "one can be more than one."
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How did Jesus define the unity between Himself and the Father?
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We have already seen (see here) that appeals to John 10:30 cannot be used to prove a Nicene Trinitarianism. In fact, John 10:30 implies a oneness of purpose in the original Greek, not a oneness of essence or being.
This perspective is reinforced by Jesus' great intercessory prayer:
- Neither pray I for these [his apostles] alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me. (John 17:20-23, emphasis added)
Jesus here provides the solution to the dilemma which has gripped much of Christianity. The oneness of which Jesus speaks between the Father and the Son is the same oneness into which He invites the apostles and all believers. Christian doctrine does not teach that all believers will be absorbed into God as part of the same being or essence. Thus, God and Jesus do not share the same "essence" (a non-Biblical term and claim derived from Greek philosophy), but instead share the same purposes, goals, will, and indwelling love (as demonstrated by John 10:30).
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LDS doctrine on the Godhead/Trinity
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An apostle of the Church of Jesus Christ, Elder Jefffrey R. Holland, recently spoke on the LDS view of the Godhead:
Our first and foremost article of faith in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is “We believe in God, the Eternal Father, and in His Son, Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost.” (A+of+F 1꞉1) We believe these three divine persons constituting a single Godhead are united in purpose, in manner, in testimony, in mission. We believe Them to be filled with the same godly sense of mercy and love, justice and grace, patience, forgiveness, and redemption. I think it is accurate to say we believe They are one in every significant and eternal aspect imaginable except believing Them to be three persons combined in one substance, a Trinitarian notion never set forth in the scriptures because it is not true.[1]
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Claim: The New Testament does not reveal these three Persons to us separately, but in a profound sense of unity.
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Claim: The New Testament relationship between Father, Son and Holy Spirit disproves the conclusion that the Father alone should be thought of as the only True and Most High God.
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Endnotes
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- Jeffrey R. Holland, "The Only True God and Jesus Christ Whom He Hath Sent," Ensign (November 2007): 40.
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Other Protestant attacks on the Church of Jesus Christ:
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