El Mormonismo y la naturaleza de Dios/Dios es un Espíritu

Tabla de Contenidos

El mormonismo y las afirmaciones bíblicas de que "Dios es un Espíritu"

Saltar a subtema:

• Pregunta: ¿La doctrina mormona que Dios tiene un cuerpo físico contradice la declaración de la Biblia en Juan 4:24 que "Dios es un Espíritu"?
• Pregunta: ¿El Libro de Mormón enseña que Dios es un espíritu?
• Pregunta: ¿Es la doctrina que Dios el Padre y Jesucristo tienen cada uno un cuerpo físico no apoyado por la Santa Biblia?
• Pregunta: ¿Cómo se interpretaría una declaración de que "Dios es un espíritu" en el antiguo judaísmo?
• Source:Webb:BYUS:2011:6:Mormons retrieved early Christian beliefs rejected by creeds
• Source:Webb:BYUS:2011:5:Mormons, Nicea, and Plato‎
• Pregunta: ¿Qué son las "Discursos sobre la fe"?
• Pregunta: ¿Qué dice la Lección 5 de los Discursos sobre la Fe acerca de la naturaleza de Dios?
• Pregunta: ¿José Smith comenzó su carrera profética con un concepto "trinitaria" de Dios?
• Pregunta: ¿Cuáles son las opiniones de los líderes de la Iglesia moderna sobre los Discursos sobre la Fe?

Pregunta: ¿La doctrina mormona que Dios tiene un cuerpo físico contradice la declaración de la Biblia en Juan 4:24 que "Dios es un Espíritu"?

  NEEDS TRANSLATION  

Deuteronomy 4:28 says that our God can see, eat and smell

Some Christians object to the LDS position that God has a physical body by quoting John 4:24:

God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. (Italics in KJV original).

Adopting a critical reading of this verse leads to some strange conclusions if we are consistent. Deuteronomy 4:28 says that our God can see, eat and smell. Can an unembodied spirit do that? Deuteronomy 4:24 and Hebrews 12:29 say that God is a consuming fire, 1 Jn 1:5 says God is light, and 1 Jn 4:4,16 says that God is love. Is He just those things? Clearly not, and the LDS conclude that neither is He just a spirit.

Note that in the KJV cited above, the word “is” is italicized. This is because the King James translators have inserted it on their own—it is not present in the Greek text from which the translation was made.

Secondly, the reader should be aware that the indefinite article (“a”, as in "a dog" or "a spirit") does not exist in Greek. Thus, the addition of the word "a" in English occurs at the discretion of the translators.

This leaves two Greek words: theos pneuma [θεος πνεμα]—“God spirit”. The JST resolves this translational issue by saying “for unto such hath God promised his spirit”. The word pneuma, which is translated spirit, also means ‘life’ or ‘breath’. The King James Version of Revelation 13:15 renders ‘pneuma’ as life. Thus "God is life," or "God is the breath of life" are potential alternative translations of this verse.

Also, if God is a spirit and we have to worship him in spirit, do mortals have to leave our bodies to worship him?

Latter-day Saints believe that man is also spirit and is, like God, housed in a physical body

Thus, the Latter-day Saints believe that man is also spirit (DC 93:33-34; Numbers 16:22; Romans 8:16) and is, like God, housed in a physical body. We were, after all, created in the "image" of God (Genesis 1:26-27).

It is interesting that in 1 Corinthians 2:11, Paul wrote about "the spirit of man and the Spirit of God." Elsewhere he spoke of the resurrection of the body and then noted that it is a "spiritual" body (1 Corinthians 15:44-46), though, rising from the grave, it is obviously composed of flesh and bones, as Jesus made clear when he appeared to the apostles after his resurrection (Luke 24:37-39).

Paul also told the saints in Rome, "But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you" (Romans 8:9).

One Commentary insists:

That God is spirit is not meant as a definition of God's being—though this is how the Stoics [a branch of Greek philosophy] would have understood it. It is a metaphor of his mode of operation, as life-giving power, and it is no more to be taken literally than 1 Jn 1:5, "God is light," or Deuteronomy 4:24, "Your God is a devouring fire." It is only those who have received this power through Christ who can offer God a real worship.

Pregunta: ¿El Libro de Mormón enseña que Dios es un espíritu?

  NEEDS TRANSLATION  

The Book of Mormon is not discussing Nicene trinitarianism, and does not contradict the doctrine that God or Jesus possess a physical body

Critics who object to the LDS position that God has a physical body claim that the Latter-day Saints are being inconsistent, since the Book of Mormon teaches that God is a spirit. However, the Book of Mormon is not discussing Nicene trinitarianism, and does not contradict the doctrine that God or Jesus possess a physical body.

Critics typically drawn on such Book of Mormon scriptures as Alma 18:26-28 or Alma 22:8-11, and then contrast them with DC 130:22.

The critics ignore several key points:

• The Book of Mormon scriptures describe missionary efforts to teach the pagan Lamanites about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Missionaries begin their efforts by explaining that what the Lamanites called "The Great Spirit" was God. This is not an attempt to give a theological description of God's nature, but a starting point to build on common beliefs.
• To the Lamanites, being "The Great Spirit" did not preclude being corporeal—Alma was mistaken for the great spirit, and yet he clearly had a body, could perform physical actions, etc. So, the concept of "spirit" used by the Lamanites is not (as the critics assume) the same as the non-physical and metaphysical "spirit" of Nicene trinitarianism.
• The God to which the Book of Mormon scriptures refer is Jesus Christ, or Jehovah. In LDS doctrine, Jesus Christ was a premortal spirit that did not yet have a physical body when the scriptures in Alma were given. Thus, the description of Christ as a Spirit was accurate before His birth even in LDS terms.

Pregunta: ¿Es la doctrina que Dios el Padre y Jesucristo tienen cada uno un cuerpo físico no apoyado por la Santa Biblia?

  NEEDS TRANSLATION  

The absence of God's body is thus only present in John 4:24 if one approaches it with that preconception

In John 4:24 Jesus says:

24 God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

It is sometimes claimed that this verse proves that God is non-corporeal: i.e., a spirit, and nothing but a spirit.

However, there is no indefinite article in Greek (the indefinite article in English is "a," as in "a spirit." The New International Version (NIV) translation of the same verse reads:

God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and truth.

One non-LDS work noted of this verse:

That God is spirit is not meant as a definition of God's being—though this is how the Stoics would have understood it. It is a metaphor of his mode of operation, as life-giving power, and it is no more to be taken literally than I John i. 5, "God is light", or Deut. iv. 24, "Your God is a devouring fire". It is only those who have received this power through Christ who can offer God a real worship.

The absence of God's body is thus only present in this scripture if one approaches it with that preconception. There is nothing which requires such a reading, and much that does not.

Even the presumption that spirit means being immaterial is not scriptural, and is the product of later thinking: "in Scripture...there is no indication that by spirit and soul were meant any such principles as form or immateriality."

Pregunta: ¿Cómo se interpretaría una declaración de que "Dios es un espíritu" en el antiguo judaísmo?

  NEEDS TRANSLATION  

The statement that "God is a spirit" does not mean that he has no body - it means that he is the source of life-giving power and energy

Christopher Stead of the Cambridge Divinity School (another non-Mormon scholar) explains how a statement that God is spirit would have been interpreted within ancient Judaism:

By saying that God is spiritual, we do not mean that he has no body … but rather that he is the source of a mysterious life-giving power and energy that animates the human body, and himself possesses this energy in the fullest measure.

It may be that Joseph Smith, by revelation, had something like this in mind when he wrote that the Father is "a personage of spirit."

  NEEDS TRANSLATION  

Mormons have "picked up" discarded beliefs of early Christians

Non-LDS Christian Stephen H. Webb wrote:

Perhaps the most complicating factor for creedal dialogue with Latterday Saints is that Mormons, unlike other restorationists, were not content to flunder in suspicion of the way the early Church absorbed Greek metaphysics. Instead, Mormons put the Platonization of Christianity at the heart of their critique of the ossifiation and corruption of Christianity. Something went terribly wrong after the age of the Apostles, they argue, and that something has to do with the theological turn toward a metaphysics of immaterialism. Far from ignoring early church history, then, Mormons are committed to an interrogation of the relationship of theology to philosophy that objects to nearly every development that led to the ecumenical creeds. They do not just raise objections, however. It is as if, as they follow the road orthodox theologians took to the creeds, Mormons pause to pick up the detritus that was jettisoned along the way. Thy recycle these discarded beliefs into a shining, novel creation of their own.

  NEEDS TRANSLATION  

Mormonism does not use the Nicene Creed, and invokes earlier Christian ideas that were overshadowed by Plato

Non-LDS Christian Stephen H. Webb wrote:

Bluntly put, Mormons do not play by the rules of the Nicene Creed. Their theological arguments can look like a form of cheating when, in reality, they are trying to change the way the game is played. Mormonism is like an alternative reality come to life—a counterfactual history of post-Nicene developments of pre-Nicene theology, the ultimate “what if ” theological parlor game.

What if Tertullian had been more successful in his explication of the materiality of the soul? What if the monks of Egypt had won their battle in defense of anthropomorphism? What if Augustine had not read the books of the Platonists? Mormonism invites creedal Christians into a world where everything is slightly but significantly skewed from what they are used to

Pregunta: ¿Qué son los "Discursos sobre la fe"?

  NEEDS TRANSLATION  

The Lectures were published in 1835 as the Doctrine portion of The Doctrine and Covenants of the Church of the Latter Day Saints

The Lectures on Faith are seven lessons on theology delivered by the presiding officers of the Church to the School of the Elders at Kirtland, Ohio, in late 1834. The lectures are organized in the form of a catechism, with each lecture starting with instructions on doctrine, and the first five lectures concluding with a question-and-answer section to check class participants for understanding. Scholarship seems to indicate that the lectures were mostly written by Sidney Rigdon with some oversight of Joseph Smith.

The Lectures were the "doctrine" portion of the Doctrine and Covenants

The Lectures were included as the "doctrine" portion of the 1835 Doctrine and Covenants (the revelations comprised the "covenants" portion). The Lectures were suggested to be added to this version of the D&C by a committee appointed on September 24, 1834 by a general assembly of the church to arrange the doctrines and revelations of the church into a single volume. That committee consisted of Joseph Smith, Oliver Cowdery, Sidney Rigdon, and Frederick G. Williams. The general body of the church accepted the committee's compilation on August 17, 1835 as "the doctrine and covenants of their faith, by a unanimous vote."

While the Lectures on Faith were at one time included in the Doctrine and Covenants, they were subsequently removed from the 1921 edition (along with other items; for more information see D&C Textual Changes) that were not considered official revelation and binding doctrine by the church.

Pregunta: ¿Qué dice la Lección 5 de los Discursos sobre la Fe acerca de la naturaleza de Dios?

  NEEDS TRANSLATION  

The Lectures did not have a trinitarian view of God—the Father and the Son were clearly distinct personages, united in mind by the Holy Spirit

Lecture 5 deals with the nature of God the Father, His Son Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost. Lecture 5.2 teaches:

There are two personages who constitute the great, matchless, governing, and supreme power over all things—by whom all things were created and made that are created and made, whether visible or invisible; whether in heaven, on earth, or in the earth, under the earth, or throughout the immensity of space. They are the Father and the Son: The Father being a personage of spirit, glory, and power, possessing all perfection and fullness. The Son, who was in the bosom of the Father, a personage of tabernacle, made or fashioned like unto man, or being in the form and likeness of man—or rather, man was formed after his likeness and in his image. He is also the express image and likeness of the personage of the Father, possessing all the fullness of the Father, or the same fullness with the Father, being begotten of him;(emphasis added.)

Efforts to see this as evidence for an essentially 'trinitarian' view, are flawed

Efforts to see this as evidence for an essentially 'trinitarian' view, are flawed, though at least one LDS missionary used this lecture to argue against the idea that God the Father and Christ "were two distinct personages, with similar bodies and minds." Despite this claim, however, the question-and-answer section of the 5th Lecture on Faith include the following:

How many personages are there in the Godhead[?]

Two: the Father and Son.

Clearly then, as we will see below, this missionary's statement does not reflect the entirety of LDS thought on the Godhead up to that point. Ironically, his interlocutor's response harmonizes better with the Lecture's catechism and present-day LDS thought. It is perhaps not surprising that the missionary let his critic have the last word, despite promising to address further issues! (This exchange provides an excellent lesson for apologists—when one makes a mistake or misstatement, one should admit it, and not try to salvage a bad argument.)

The role of the Holy Ghost was less clear at this point in time

The Lecture describes the "Only Begotten of the Father possessing the same mind with the Father, which mind is the Holy Spirit" (emphasis added).

The exact nature of the relationship between the Spirit and the Father and the Son was not explicitly stated until 1843:

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.DC 130:22

Thus, the Lectures did not have a trinitarian view of God—the Father and the Son were clearly distinct personages, united in mind by the Holy Spirit.

The Lectures on Faith clearly taught that the Father and Son were "embodied," with visible forms having precise dimensions and position in space

After exploring the early evidence for Joseph's belief in an embodied Father, Son, and Holy Ghost (whether in flesh or spirit bodies), one author concluded:

What, then, shall be made of the lecture’s referring contrastingly to the Father as "a personage of spirit" and to the Son as "a personage of tabernacle"? Again, Webster’s 1828 dictionary is helpful. It lists "our natural body" as one use of the term tabernacle. Our natural body, I take it, is a body of flesh and bones. If so, the lectures affirm that God the Son has a flesh-and-bones body, humanlike in form, while God the Father has a spirit body, also humanlike in form. As mentioned, Joseph later knew that the Father, as well as the Son, has a glorious, incorruptible body of flesh and bone. No doubt, his understanding of the mode of the Father’s embodiment was enlarged and refined as he continued to receive and reflect on revelation.

The Lectures on Faith clearly taught a separation of the Father and Son. They also clearly taught that the Father and Son were "embodied," with visible forms having precise dimensions and position in space. Evidence from the Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, Church members, and the Church's antagonists all demonstrate that these doctrines go back to the earliest days of the Restoration. (This is not surprising, given that Joseph's First Vision would have made the separate nature of the Godhead crystal clear.)

Whether Joseph Smith understood at this point that the Father had a physical body (as distinct from a spirit body upon which man's body was patterned) is not entirely clear, although some, such as Bruce R. McConkie, believe there is a basis for such in the Lectures on Faith. One thing is for certain, Joseph clearly did not believe in the non-embodied God of classical trinitarianism. Nor did Joseph teach of a Father and Son "of one substance" as the trinitarian creeds of his day defined them.

Pregunta: ¿José Smith comenzó su carrera profética con un concepto "trinitaria" de Dios?

José y los primeros santos no eran trinitaria, y comprendidos encarnación de Dios y la identidad del Padre y del Hijo como seres separados muy temprano

Esta doctrina es evidente en el Libro de Mormón y en las cuentas de amistad y no de amistad primeros de estos asuntos de los Santos.

Estos textos demuestran que la supuesta "evidencia" de Joseph alterar su historia posterior es sólo en los ojos de los espectadores críticos. Por ejemplo, 1832 cuenta Primera Visión de José se centra en la remisión de sus pecados. Sin embargo, los críticos que desean afirmar que en 1832 José sólo tenía una idea vaga "trinitaria" de Dios (y por lo que iban a ver al Padre y al Hijo como un solo ser) han perdido pruebas vitales que debe ser considerado.

Martin Harris recordó rechazando las ideas de Trinitarismo credo antes de la reunión José

Martín dictó un relato de su temprana búsqueda espiritual:

Hace 52 años me inspiré del Señor y enseñé del espíritu que no debía unirse a ninguna iglesia a pesar de que se solicitó el ansia por muchos de los sectarios. A mí me enseñaron que no podía caminar juntos salvo pacto. ¿Qué se puede no ser acordadas en está en la trinidad porque yo no lo encuentro en mi Biblia. Encontrar para mí y estoy dispuesto a recibirlo. Tres personas en un solo Dios. un personaje que no puedo reconocer de esto es anticristo porque donde está el Padre y hijo? Tengo más pruebas para demostrar nueve personas en la trinidad, entonces usted tiene tres .... otras sectas los episcopales también me cansado. Dicen que tres personas en un Dios sin partes del cuerpo o pasiones. Les dije que tal dios no tendría miedo de: que no podía agradar o ofenderlo. No me tengas miedo de batirse en duelo con un dios tal.

Sería muy extraño para Martin sentir con tanta fuerza en este punto, sólo para abrazar las enseñanzas de José si José enseñó trinitarismo credo.

1829 - En el Libro de Mormón uno [Cristo], seguido por otros doce desciende de Dios para hablar con Lehi - por lo tanto, Jesús y el Padre están aquí, tanto por separado

El Libro de Mormón también comienza (1 Nefi 1:8-10) con la visión de Lehi de Dios en su trono. Un [Cristo], seguido de doce otros desciende de Dios para hablar con Lehi - por lo tanto, Jesús y el Padre están aquí, tanto por separado, y el papel de Cristo en dar instrucciones a la profeta, mientras que el padre mira y aprueba se sigue, como lo fue en el de José Primera Visión. Aquí también, Lehi se describe como rezando a "el Señor", y sin embargo tiene una visión de ambos, Dios Padre y de Cristo.

1830 - Libro de Moisés: "Y tengo una obra para ti, Moisés, hijo mío; y tú eres a semejanza de mi Unigénito"

Entre junio y octubre de 1830, Joseph había dictado su revisión (la "Traducción de José Smith") a Génesis. The first chapter of Moses was dictated in June 1830 (about a month after the Church's reorganization), and began:

2 y [Moisés] vio a Dios cara a cara, y habló con él, y la gloria de Dios cubrió a Moisés; por lo tanto, Moisés pudo soportar su presencia.

3 Y Dios habló a Moisés, diciendo: He aquí, soy el Señor Dios Omnipotente, y Sin Fin es mi nombre; porque soy sin principio de días ni fin de años; ¿y no es esto sin fin?

4 He aquí, tú eres mi hijo; mira, pues, y te mostraré las obras de mis manos; pero no todas, porque mis obras son sin fin, y también mis palabras, porque jamás cesan.

5 Por consiguiente, ningún hombre puede contemplar todas mis obras sin ver toda mi gloria; y ningún hombre puede ver toda mi gloria y después permanecer en la carne sobre la tierra.

6 Y tengo una obra para ti, Moisés, hijo mío; y tú eres a semejanza de mi Unigénito; y mi Unigénito es y será el Salvador, porque es lleno de gracia y de verdad; pero aparte de mí no hay Dios, y para mí todas las cosas están presentes, porque todas las conozco. (Moisés 1:2-6)

Aquí ya, Dios se distingue del Unigénito, Moisés ve y habla con Dios cara a cara, y dice que Moisés fue creado "a semejanza de mi Unigénito".

De José rendido Génesis 1:26 como:

Y yo, Dios, dije a mi Unigénito, el cual fue conmigo desde el principio: Hagamos al hombre a nuestra imagen, conforme a nuestra semejanza; y fue hecho....Y yo, Dios, creé al hombre a mi propia imagen, a imagen de mi Unigénito lo creé; varón y hembra los creé. (Moisés 2:26-27.)

No puede haber ninguna duda de que José entendió "a mi propia imagen" para referirse a una semejanza física, en lugar de limitarse a una cuestión moral o intelectual. La Traducción de José Smith de Génesis 5:1-2 lee

El día en que Dios creó al hombre, a semejanza de Dios lo hizo; a imagen de su propio cuerpo, varón y hembra los creó (Moisés 6:8-9, énfasis añadido)

Así, en 1830 José enseñaba claramente una separación del Padre y del Hijo, e insistiendo en que ambos tenían algún tipo de forma física que podría ser copiado en la creación de la humanidad.

La madre de José, Lucy Mack Smith, también señaló que otras denominaciones cristianas tuvieron problema con la nueva Iglesia debido a sus enseñanzas acerca de Dios, y señaló que en el año 1830:

las diferentes denominaciones están muy opuestos a nosotros .... La metodistas también vino, y no rabia, porque ellos adoran a un Dios sin cuerpo ni partes, y ellos saben que nuestra fe entra en contacto con este principio.

1831 - José "vio los cielos abiertos, y al Hijo del Hombre sentado a la diestra del Padre"

Escritores anti-mormones en 1831 señalaron que José dijo haber recibido "una comisión de Dios"; y los mormones afirmó que José "había visto a Dios con frecuencia y personalmente." Que los enemigos de José sabían que afirmó haber "visto a Dios", indica que la doctrina de un Dios encarnado que se podía ver era conocida desde el principio.

John Whitmer también escribiría en 1831 de una visión disfrutado por Joseph en el que José vio a Cristo como separado del Padre, porque él "vio los cielos abiertos, y al Hijo del Hombre sentado a la diestra del Padre toma intercede por sus hermanos, los Santos ". (énfasis añadido) De esta misma experiencia, Levi Hancock escribió:

José Smith luego salió al suelo y dijo: "Ahora veo a Dios, ya Jesucristo a su mano derecha , dejes que me maten, no me siento la muerte como lo estoy ahora." (énfasis añadido)

1832 - En la cuenta 1832 de la Primera Visión, Jesús anuncia a José que él vendrá "vestidos de la gloria de mi Padre"

Uno debe primero observar que en la cuenta 1832 de la Primera Visión, Jesús anuncia a José que él vendrá "vestidos de la gloria de mi Padre." El Libro de Mormón (traducido tres años antes en 1829) también contiene numerosos pasajes que enseñan una separación física y la realización (aunque sólo sea en espíritu cuerpos, que claramente no son inmateriales, pero que tienen la forma, posición y forma) de los miembros de la Trinidad. (Vea:. 3 Nefi 11:, 1 Nefi 11:1-11, Éter 3:14-18)

Por otra parte, José Smith y Sidney Rigdon iban a recibir una revelación de los tres grados de gloria en el mismo año de 1832 la cuenta de José fue escrito; enseña claramente una separación física del Padre y del Hijo, dando testimonio de ver ambos. (Ver D&C 76:14,20–24.)

1832–1833 - "José respondió que se trataba de Jesús, el Hijo de Dios, nuestro hermano mayor"

Dos de estrechos colaboradores de José reportaron sus propias visiones de Dios en el invierno de 1832–1833. Tanto decididamente no son trinitaria.

Zebedee Coltrin:

Joseph haber dado instrucciones, y en el ejercicio de la oración silenciosa, de rodillas ... un personaje caminaba por la habitación de este a oeste, y José le preguntó si le vimos. Lo vi y supongo que los otros lo hicieron, y José respondí que era Jesús, el Hijo de Dios, nuestro hermano mayor. Después José nos dijo que reanudar nuestra antigua posición en la oración, cosa que hicimos. Otra persona vino a través de; Estaba rodeado como con una llama de fuego. [I] experimenté una sensación de que podría destruir el tabernáculo, ya que era de fuego consumidor de gran brillo. El profeta José dijo que este era el Padre de nuestro Señor Jesucristo. Lo ví ....

Estaba rodeado al igual que con una llama de fuego, que era tan brillante que no pude descubrir nada más que su persona. Vi sus manos, sus piernas, sus pies, sus ojos, la nariz, la boca, la cabeza y el cuerpo en la forma y la forma de un hombre perfecto. Se sentó en una silla como un hombre se sentaba en una silla, pero este aspecto era tan grande y abrumadora que le parecía que debía fundir en su presencia, y la sensación era tan poderosa que emocionó a través de todo mi sistema y me sentí en la médula de mis huesos. El profeta José Smith dijo: "Hermanos, ahora están dispuestos a ser los apóstoles de Jesucristo, para que haya visto al Padre y al Hijo, y saben que existen y que son dos personajes diferentes.

John Murdock:

Durante el invierno que abordé con [Bro [del ther] Joseph ... tuvimos una serie de reuniones de oración, en la cámara del Profeta .... En una de esas reuniones, el Profeta nos dijo si podíamos humillarnos delante de Dios, y exersise [sic] fe fuerte, deberíamos ver el rostro del Señor. Y eso del mediodía se abrieron las visiones de mi mente, y los ojos de mi entendimiento fueron iluminados, y vi la forma de un hombre, más precioso, el semblante de su rostro era sana, cabal y como el sol. Tenía el pelo de un color gris plateado brillante, acurrucada en una forma más majestuosa, sus ojos de un azul penetrante agudo, y la piel de su cuello una más hermoso blanco y estaba cubierto desde el cuello hasta los pies con un vestido suelto, de color blanco puro, más blanca que cualquier prenda que había visto nunca antes. Su aspecto era el más penetrante, y sin embargo, más hermosa. Y mientras yo estaba tratando de comprender todo el personaje de la cabeza a los pies se le escapó de mí, y la visión se cerró. Pero dejó en mi mente la impresión del amor, desde hace meses, que nunca me había pasado en ese grado.

1834–1835 - Discursos sobre la Fe: "Hay , dos personajes que constituyen la gran inigualable, de gobierno, y el poder, supremo sobre todas las cosas"

En la Escuela de los Profetas, los hermanos se les enseñaba que

"Hay , dos personajes que constituyen la gran inigualable, de gobierno, y el poder, supremo sobre todas las cosas, por quien todo fue hecho en la creación, que se crean y hacen.... Son el Padre y el Hijo --el padre de ser un personaje de espíritu, la gloria y el poder, que posee toda perfección y plenitud, el Hijo, que estaba en el seno del Padre, un personaje del tabernáculo. (Clase 5:1–2)

En este caso, la separación del Padre y el Hijo sigue quedar claro.

1836 - "Ellos creen que el verdadero Dios es un ser material, compuesto de cuerpo y partes"

Un reportaje escéptico señaló:

Ellos creen que el verdadero Dios es un ser material, compuesto de cuerpo y partes; y que cuando el Creador formó a Adán a su imagen, lo hizo sobre el tamaño y la forma del mismo Dios ....

Evidencia de que está ausente

Además de todas las pruebas no-trinitaria anteriormente, como Milton Backman ha señalado, hay una gran cantidad de evidencia que debemos encontrar, pero no lo hacen. Por ejemplo, nadie ha "localizado una publicación (por ejemplo, un artículo publicado en un periódico de la iglesia o la declaración de un folleto misionero) escrito por un Santo de los Últimos Días activa antes del martirio del Profeta que defiende el concepto de credo tradicional o popular de la Trinidad... ". Por otra parte, no hay referencias en los escritos críticos de la década de 1830 (incluyendo las declaraciones de los apóstatas) que José Smith introdujo a mediados de los años treinta la doctrina de la separación del Padre y del Hijo.

Pregunta: ¿Cuáles son las opiniones de los líderes de la Iglesia moderna sobre los Discursos sobre la Fe?

  NEEDS TRANSLATION  

Bruce R. McConkie offers his perspective

Bruce R. McConkie left some interesting, although non-authoritative, commentary on these passages in question. He interprets the term "personage" to mean a being who possess a physical body. The statement that "there are two personages who constitute the great, matchless, governing, and supreme power over all things" is interpreted by him to mean that the Father and Son are "personages" (i.e., they possess physical bodies) while the Holy Ghost is not. Indeed, the statement is clear that there are three beings who make up the Godhead (see below). In McConkie's view, the statement that the Father is a "personage of spirit" actually means He is a "spiritual" man, that is, a resurrected and glorified man. His exegesis is added here in length:

Using the holy scriptures as the recorded source of the knowledge of God, knowing what the Lord has revealed to them of old in visions and by the power of the Spirit, and writing as guided by that same Spirit, Joseph Smith and the early brethren of this dispensation prepared a creedal statement on the Godhead. It is without question the most excellent summary of revealed and eternal truth relative to the Godhead that is now extant in mortal language. In it is set forth the mystery of Godliness; that is, it sets forth the personalities, missions, and ministries of those holy beings who comprise the supreme presidency of the universe. To spiritually illiterate persons, it may seem hard and confusing; to those whose souls are aflame with heavenly light, it is a nearly perfect summary of those things which must be believed to gain salvation.

"There are two personages [of tabernacle] who constitute the great, matchless, governing, and supreme power over all things, by whom all things were created and made, that are created and made, whether visible or invisible; whether in heaven, on earth, or in the earth; under the earth, or throughout the immensity of space." (Lectures on Faith 5:2.)

These two, standing alone, are not the Godhead. But they are God the first and God the second. They are personages, individuals, persons, holy men. They created and they have power over all things. Their power is supreme and their wisdom infinite; there is no power they do not possess, no truth they do not know. From eternity to eternity they are the same; they are omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent.

"They are the Father and the Son—the Father being a personage of spirit, glory, and power, possessing all perfection and fullness, the Son, who was in the bosom of the Father, a personage of tabernacle." (Lectures on Faith 5:2.)

They are the two personages who came to Joseph Smith in the spring of 1820 in a grove of trees in western New York. They are exalted men. Each is a personage of spirit; each is a personage of tabernacle. Both of them have bodies, tangible bodies of flesh and bones. They are resurrected beings. Words, with their finite connotations, cannot fully describe them. A personage of tabernacle, as here used, is one whose body and spirit are inseparably connected and for whom there can be no death. A personage of spirit, as here used and as distinguished from the spirit children of the Father, is a resurrected personage. Resurrected bodies, as contrasted with mortal bodies, are in fact spiritual bodies. With reference to the change of our bodies from mortality to immortality, Paul says: "It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body." (1 Corinthians 15:44.) "For notwithstanding they [the saints] die, they also shall rise again, a spiritual body." (DC 88:27.)

"The Son, who was in the bosom of the Father, a personage of tabernacle, made or fashioned like unto man, or being in the form and likeness of man, or rather man was formed after his likeness and in his image; he is also the express image and likeness of the personage of the Father, possessing all the fullness of the Father, or the same fullness with the Father." (Lectures on Faith 5:2.)

Christ as the Firstborn, the firstborn spirit child of the Father, was in the bosom of the Father before the world was. Though he was then "in the form of God" and was "equal with God," as Paul expresses it—equal in knowledge and truth and all of the attributes of godliness—yet he "made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men." Thus he was "found in fashion as a man." (Philippians 2:6-8.) After the days of his flesh and when he had been raised from mortality to immortality by the power of the Father, he was able to say: "All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth." (Matthew 28:18.) Thus, the Son, as Paul tells us, now possesses "the brightness of his [Father's] glory, and the express image of his person." (Hebrews 1:3.) From all of this it follows that the Son possesses the same fulness with the Father, that is, the same glory, the same power, the same perfection, the same holiness, the same eternal life.

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"And he being the Only Begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth, and having overcome, received a fullness of the glory of the Father, possessing the same mind with the Father, which mind is the Holy Spirit, that bears record of the Father and the Son." (Lectures on Faith 5:2.)

The mortal Jesus, as a man among men, had both a father and a mother. God was his Father, and Mary was his mother. He was begotten by a Holy Man, by that God whose name is Man of Holiness; and he was conceived in the womb of a mortal woman. Mary, a virgin of Nazareth in Galilee, was "the mother of the Son of God, after the manner of the flesh." (1 Nephi 11:18.) She was overshadowed by the Holy Ghost; "she was carried away in the Spirit" (1 Nephi 11:19); she conceived "by the power of the Holy Ghost," and she brought forth a son, "even the Son of God" (Alma 7:10). That Son, who is called Christ, is the Only Begotten, the only offspring of the Father born into mortality. As a man, as God's only Son, his only mortal Son, he overcame the world. He overcame the world of evil and carnality and devilishness, and then, having died, he rose again in glorious immortality to receive all power both on earth and in heaven, which power is the fulness of the glory of the Father. He thus possesses the same mind with the Father, knowing and believing and speaking and doing as though he were the Father. This mind is theirs by the power of the Holy Ghost. That is, the Holy Ghost, who is a personage of spirit (a spirit man!), using the light of Christ, can give the same mind to all men, whether mortal or immortal. The saints who are true and faithful in all things have, as Paul said, "the mind of Christ" ({b|1|Corinthians|2|16}}), which means also that they have the mind of the Father. It is to the faithful saints that the Holy Spirit bears witness of the Father and the Son, and it is to them that he reveals all things.

"And these three are one, or, in other words, these three constitute the great, matchless, governing and supreme power over all things; by whom all things were created and made that were created and made." (Lectures on Faith 5:2.)

In what way are the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost one God? Though three persons are involved, they are one supreme presidency, one in creating all things, one in governing the universe with almighty power.

"And these three constitute the Godhead, and are one; the Father and the Son possessing the same mind, the same wisdom, glory, power and fullness—filling all in all, the Son being filled with the fullness of the mind, glory, and power; or, in other words, the spirit, glory, and power, of the Father, possessing all knowledge and glory, and the same kingdom, sitting at the right hand of power, in the express image and likeness of the Father, mediator for man, being filled with the fullness of the mind of the Father; or, in other words, the Spirit of the Father, which Spirit is shed forth upon all who believe on his name and keep his commandments." (Lectures on Faith 5:2.)

One Godhead! Three persons possessing the same mind, power, and glory! Three individuals actuated by the same spirit, knowing all things, and working together in perfect unity! God the Creator united in all things with God the Redeemer, who mediates between the Great Creator and his fallen creatures! And—wonder of wonders—the same spirit which unites the Gods of heaven is shed forth on the righteous, that they may be one as the Gods themselves are one.

"And all those who keep his commandments shall grow up from grace to grace, and become heirs of the heavenly kingdom, and joint heirs with Jesus Christ,—possessing the same mind, being transformed into the same image or likeness, even the express image of him who fills all in all; being filled with the fullness of his glory, and become one in him, even as the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are one." (Lectures on Faith 5:2.)

Thus is set forth in the creedal document the doctrine—later to be endorsed and expounded in even plainer language—that as God now is, man may become.

"From the foregoing account of the Godhead, which is given in his revelations, the saints have a sure foundation laid for the exercise of faith unto life and salvation, through the atonement and mediation of Jesus Christ; by whose blood they have a forgiveness of sins, and also a sure reward laid up for them in heaven, even that of partaking of the fullness of the Father and the Son through the spirit. As the Son partakes of the fullness of the Father through the Spirit, so the saints are, by the same Spirit, to be partakers of the same fullness, to enjoy the same glory; for as the Father and the Son are one, so, in like manner, the saints are to be one in them. Through the love of the Father, the mediation of Jesus Christ, and the gift of the Holy Spirit, they are to be heirs of God, and joint heirs with Jesus Christ." (Lectures on Faith 5:3.)

Such is the course whereby the saints gain eternal life, the greatest of all the gifts of God. And how could Deity give anything greater to any man than the glory, power, and dominion that he himself possesses? The name of the kind of life he lives is eternal life, and all those who know him in the full and complete sense shall have eternal life."Behold, the mystery of godliness, how great is it!" (DC 19:10.)