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The missionaries teach/taught me that the Godhead is 3 separate and distinct ‘people’: God
- Jesus Christ
- Holy Ghost
But in various scriptures it seems to me like God is Jesus Christ (and Jesus Christ as the Father). Can anybody shed light on this?
:crazy: Most of the Bible portrays the Mormon view of the Godhead much more clearly than the one God view of much of the rest of Christianity. thatbis true, especially, of the Gospels – IF Jesus is seen as a God. Ironically, the Book of Mormon portrays more of a one God ideology – while Joseph’s later teachings are absolutely focused on a Godhead.
There is room in our scriptures for a number of views. I figure, if we really domlive on after death with self-awareness and a recognition of God, we will understand more clearly then – so I don’t sweat the details now. I accept the current Mormon view and understand that it might or might not be correct. That’s fine for me.
This is one of those topics that has been debated for almost 2000 years, it’s going to be tough to resolve the debate in just one post but I’ll give it a shot. 
The LDS church has accepted the Doctrine and Covenants (D&C) as modern day revelation, and the D&C states the following:
D&C 130:22 wrote: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.
From that scripture and the canonized first vision account the position of the church is that god and Jesus are two distinct beings.
Here’s a link from BYU’s encyclopedia of Mormonism that touches on the subject.
http://eom.byu.edu/index.php/Jesus_Christ,_Fatherhood_and_Sonship_of ” class=”bbcode_url”> http://eom.byu.edu/index.php/Jesus_Christ,_Fatherhood_and_Sonship_of The scriptures have inspired some people to believe that god, Jesus, and the holy ghost are one and the same. The scriptures have inspired some people to believe that god, Jesus, and the holy ghost are three distinct beings. We’re free to determine how the scriptures inspire us. Who knows, maybe we’ll be inspired to come up with some alternate interpretation that no one has ever conceived.
You should look up “Divine Investiture of Authority”. That theory was put forth by church leaders like McConkie to try to explain some scriptures. In my opinion, it muddies the waters and creates more questions than it answers, and I take it with a grain of salt. Which scriptures give you pause about the Godhead and our teachings?
Which beliefs of yours are most impacted by needing to define the difference between separate beings or one purpose of a Godhead?
nibbler wrote:The scriptures have inspired some people to believe that god, Jesus, and the holy ghost are one and the same. The scriptures have inspired some people to believe that god, Jesus, and the holy ghost are three distinct beings. We’re free to determine how the scriptures inspire us. Who knows, maybe we’ll be inspired to come up with some alternate interpretation that no one has ever conceived.
I also believe that the individual writers of the various scriptures may have had significant differences in how they envisioned and understood God and these differences show through in their teachings.
If God is ok with the writers of scripture holding different conceptions of Him – I imagine he would be similarly merciful to us.
I particularly find the role and status of the Holy Ghost/Holy Spirit confusing. I am not convinced that it was always pictured as a personage at all. I believe that some scripture writers saw and described him as more of in intangible force – similar the “Spirit of Christmas”.
I like the sentiment conveyed by Rob4Hope. Paraphrased that “I will believe in God as I need Him to be – for if He is not then I am truly lost.”
The godhead confuses me, too. While I don’t fully understand the Holy Ghost, I do think our theology has it right. To me, it’s pretty clear at the baptism of Jesus. I do think I understand where our Christian friends get their ideas from, though. If indeed the Holy Ghost is as we are taught, almost all of our interactions with God are with the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost is very much like the God they teach about.
I have decided that I am primarily a Christian and as such he is the God that I look to. I may still technically pray to “god”/”heavenly father”, I have stopped worrying about it. I don’t think my salvation rides on understanding that. It just gets me in mental knots. If God didn’t give me the brain to comprehend him/them correctly after decades of trying, he won’t be upset if I don’t have it figured out.
LookingHard wrote:I have decided that I am primarily a Christian and as such he is the God that I look to.
I may still technically pray to “god”/”heavenly father”, I have stopped worrying about it. I don’t think my salvation rides on understanding that. It just gets me in mental knots. If God didn’t give me the brain to comprehend him/them correctly after decades of trying,
he won’t be upset if I don’t have it figured out.I have actually wondered if that’s really part of the plan. Maybe because we are so diverse we’re not really expected to figure out God. Maybe it’s not really all that important. In reality there are billions of people who will not have figured it out by the end of their lives (and billions who won’t even have tried) – if it was important it seems God would make Himself more known.
I thought I was supposed to figure it out in order to know how to have faith in something. I dunno. Maybe faith is to keep trying to figure it out, instead of actually figuring out something.
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