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Disclaimer: We in NO way endorse the LDS or Watchtower Society (JW's), but want to list "in their own words" their teachings on Jesus and God. We believe they teach a false god and another gospel (2 Cor 11) and thus we encourage everyone to check out the links at the bottom of this article for info on the Biblical Jesus, the only one that can save you.
Mormons:
Jesus is a Spirit child and brother of Satan:
Jesus is the literal firstborn spirit child of Heavenly Father and Mother.
“The church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints proclaims that Jesus Christ is the Son of God in the most literal sense. The body in which he performed His mission in the flesh was sired by that same Holy Being we worship as God, our eternal Father. Jesus was not the son of Joseph, nor was He begotten by the Holy Ghost. He is the Son of the Eternal Father!” Ezra Taft Bensn, Teachings of Extra Taft Benson (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1988), 7
“Long before you were born, a program was developed by your creators...the principle personalities in this great drama were a Father, Elohim....and his two sons, Lucifer and Jehovah.” (Spencer W. Kimball, Teachings of Spencer W. Kimball, comp. Edward L. Kimball (Salt Late City: Bookcraft, 1982), 32-33.
According to Joseph Smith, Jesus allegedly had to progress to Godhood: “And I, John, saw that he [Jesus] received not of the fullness at the first, but received grace for grace. And he received not the fullness at first, but continued from grace to grace until he received a fulness” (Doctrine & Covenants 93:12-13)
View of God & Jesus:
“God himself was once as we are now, and is an exalted man, and sits enthroned in yonder heavens....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 ideas, and take away the veil, so that you may see. These are incomprehensible ideas to some, but they are simple. It is the first principle of the Gospel to know for a certainty the Character of God, and to know that we may converse with him as one may converses with another, and that he was once a man like us; yea, that God himself, the Father of us all, dwelt on an earth, the same as Jesus Christ himself did; and I will show it from the Bible.”
Joseph Smith, King Follet Discourse in Joseph Fielding Smith, Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith (Salt Late City: Deseret Book Co., 1938), 345-346
"I will preach on the plurality of Gods. I have selected this text for that express purpose. I wish to declare I have always and in all congregations when I have preached on the subject of the Deity, it has been the plurality of Gods. It has been preached by the Elders for fifteen years. I have always declared God to be a distinct personage, Jesus Christ a separate and distinct personage from God the Father, and that the Holy Ghost was a distinct personage and a Spirit: and these three constitute distinct personages and three Gods. If this is in accordance with the New Testament, lo and behold! We have three Gods anyhow, and they are plural; and who can contradict it?"
Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1977), pg. 370
"Here, then, is eternal life- to know the only wise and true God; and you have got to learn how to be Gods yourselves, and to be kings and priests to God, the same as all Gods have done before you, namely, by going from one small degree to another, and from a small capacity to a great one; from grace to grace, from exaltation to exaltation, until you attain to the resurrection of the dead, and are able to dwell in everlasting burnings, and to sit in glory, as do those who sit enthroned in everlasting power. And I want you to know that God, in the last days, while certain individuals are proclaiming his name, is not trifling with you or me."
Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1977), pg. 346
“The Father has a body of flesh and bones as tangible as man’s....”
Doctrine and Covenants 130:22
“As man is, God once was; as God is, man may be.”
Lorenzo Snow, 5th president of the LDS Church (Clyde J. Williams, The Teachings of Lorenzo Snow (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1984), 2.
“Like most Christians, Mormons believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and the Creator of the World. However, Mormons hold the unique belief that God the Father and Jesus Christ are two distinct beings. Mormons believe that God and Jesus Christ are wholly united in their perfect love for us, but that each is a distinct personage with His own perfect, glorified body (see D&C 130:22).”
“I have always declared God to be a distinct personage, Jesus Christ a separate and distinct personage from God the Father, and that the Holy Ghost was a distinct personage and a Spirit, and these three constitute three distinct personages and three Gods” History of the Church
The God of Mormonism is an exalted man from another world who became a god.
“Mormon prophets have continuously taught the sublime truth that God the Eternal Father was once a mortal man who passed through a school of earth life similar that through which we are now passing. He became God – an exalted being – through obedience to the same eternal Gospel truths that we are given opportunity today to obey,”
(Milton R. Hunter, The Gospel Through the Ages, pp. 104-105, Underline added).
“Our Father Advanced and Progressed Until He Became God”
Search These Commandments, 1984, p. 152.
To Mormons, being created in God’s image and having two sexes, demonstrates that there is a heavenly father AND mother:
“Eve was given unto him, and the man recognized the necessity of a continued association of the sexes in marriage in marriage....neither of the sexes is complete in itself as a counterpart of Deity. We are expressly told that God is the Father of spirits, and to apprehend the literalness of this solemn truth we must know that a mother of spirits is an existent personality.”
(Kunkle, Brett, “The Ambassador’s Guide to Mormonism,” Stand to Reason. See also, James Talmage, Articles of Faith (Salt Late City: Deseret Book Co., 1990), 401.)
Kolob is referenced in the third chapter of the Book of Abraham, in the Pearl of Great Price.” ( ibid. See also https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/ensign/1997/03/the-book-of-abraham-a-most-remarkable-book?lang=eng)
The mormon tri-theistic trinity are the gods of our world:
The Father, Son and Holy Spirit are just the gods who created and rule this world.
Kunkle, The Ambassador’s guide, 58. “See chapters four and give of the Book of Abraham, 37 references to the role of “the Gods in creation.”)
There are other gods: “Eternal God of all other gods before this world” (D & C 121:32)
God is increasing in knowledge (according to Mormons)
“Some men seem as if they could learn so much and no more. They appear to be bounded in their capacity for acquiring knowledge, as Brother Orson Pratt, has in theory, bounded the capacity of God. According to his theory, God can progress no further in knowledge and power; but the God that I serve is progressing eternally, and so are his children: they will increase to all eternity, if they are faithful” (Brigham Young, January 13, 1867, Journal of Discourses 11:286, Underline added).
“GOD IS INCREASING IN KNOWLEDGE. If there was a point where man in his progression could not proceed any further, the very idea would throw a gloom over every intelligent and reflecting mind. God Himself is increasing and progressing in knowledge, power, and dominion, and will do so, worlds without end” (The Discourses of Wilford Woodruff, p. 3, 4th President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Underline added).
God is not increasing in knowledge.
“It seems very strange to me that members of the Church will hold to the doctrine, ‘God increases in knowledge as time goes on.’… Where has the Lord ever revealed to us that he is lacking in knowledge? That he is still learning new truth; discovering new laws that are unknown to him? I think this kind of doctrine is very dangerous” (Joseph Fielding Smith Jr., Doctrines of Salvation 1:7-8, Underline added).
“Now we wish to be distinctly understood that each of these personal Gods has equal knowledge with all the rest; there are none among them that are in advance of the others in knowledge; though some may have been Gods as many millions of years, as there are particles of dust in the universe, yet there is not one truth that such are in possession of but what every other God knows. They are all equal in knowledge, and in wisdom, and in the possession of all truth. None of these Gods are progressing in knowledge, neither can they progress in the acquirement of any truth” (Orson Pratt, The Seer, p. 117, Underline added).
“There are those who say that God is progressing in knowledge and is learning new truths. This is false-utterly, totally, and completely. There is not one sliver of truth in it. It grows out of a wholly twisted and incorrect view of the King Follett Sermon and of what is meant by eternal progression” (Bruce R. McConkie, “The Seven Deadly Heresies,” an address given at Brigham Young University on June 1, 1980. Transcribed from the actual speech, Underline added).
“Exaltation is eternal life, the kind of life God lives. He lives in great glory. He is perfect. He possesses all knowledge and all wisdom. He is the Father of spirit children. He is a creator. We can become like our Heavenly Father. This is exaltation” (Gospel Principles, 1997, p. 302, Underline added).
“The Father and the Son do not progress in knowledge and wisdom, because they already know all things past, present, and to come” (Orson Pratt, The Seer, p. 117, Underline added).
God is literally our parent.
“President Joseph F. Smith (1838-1918) taught: ‘God the Eternal Father…is the literal parent of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and of the spirits of the human race….We are God’s children’” (Joseph F. Smith, “The Nature of the Godhead,” Ensign, January 2006, p. 51. Ellipses in original).
“The Father, Elohim, is called the Father because he is the literal father of the spirits of mortals (Heb. 12:9). This paternity is not allegorical. All individual human spirits were begotten (not created from nothing or made) by the Father in a premortal state, where they lived and were nurtured by Heavenly Parents” (Encyclopedia of Mormonism, 2:549).
Jehovah’s Witnesses:
“The Bible teaches that Jesus lived in heaven for a long time before he came to earth. Micah said that the Messiah was “from ancient times.” (Micah 5:2) Jesus himself said many times that he had lived in heaven before being born as a human. (Read John 3:13; 6:38, 62; 17:4, 5). Even before coming to earth, Jesus had a special relationship with Jehovah. Jesus is very precious to Jehovah. Why? Because God created him before everything and everyone else. So Jesus is called “the firstborn of all creation.” (Colossians 1:15) Jesus is also precious to Jehovah because he is the only one Jehovah created directly. That is why he is called the “only-begotten Son.” (John 3:16) Jesus is also the only one Jehovah used to create all other things. (Colossians 1:16) And only Jesus is called “The Word,” because Jehovah used him to give messages and instructions to angels and humans.- John 1:14
Some people believe that Jesus and God are the same person. But that’s not what the Bible teaches. The Bible says that Jesus was created, which means that Jesus had a beginning. But Jehovah, who created all things, had no beginning. (Psalm 90:2) As God’s Son, Jesus never thought of trying to be God. The Bible clearly teaches that the Father is greater than the Son. (Read John 14:28; 1 Corinthians 11: 3) Only Jehovah is “God Almighty.” (Genesis 17:1) He is the greatest and most powerful person in the universe.
Jehovah and his Son, Jesus, worked closely together for billions of years before the heavens and the earth were created. They must have loved each other very much! (John 3:35; 14;31) Jesus imitated his father’s qualities so well that the Bible calls him “the image of the invisible God.” -Colossians 1:15.
(The Watchtower Society, What can the Bible Teaches us?, pg. 44-45)
“In the beginning the Word was, and the Word was with God, and the Word was a god.” John 1:1 New World Translation (an abomination of translations)
"Wow, I didn't realize the LDS or Watchtower Society taught this, what should I do next?"
Please check out the resources below:
Click here to learn about why Joseph Smith is a false prophet
Click here to watch a short presentation on the true gospel versus the Mormon (false) gospel.
Click here for a short article on replies to the JW view of Jesus.
Click here for an explanation from the Greek on how John 1:1 demonstrates that Jesus has ALWAYS been God.
Click here to see why ONLY Christianity is the best explanation of reality.
Click here for a one page (front and back) handout on talking with JW's and mormons about Jesus.
Click here for quotes from early church Fathers to see evidence that Jesus' eternal deity was not only taught in the 1st century scriptures, but from the Ante-Nicene Church Fathers.