I’ve found myself drawn into a conversation elsewhere about the Articles of Faith written by Joseph Smith. In my conversations, I’ve attempted to provide a Christian perspective to the Articles of Faith of the Mormon church. In a series of posts here, I intend to provide “side by side comparisons” of the Morman Articles of Faith and Lutheran teaching from our historical documents (primarily the Augsburg Confession of 1530). Commentary will follow.
(I find it interesting that there is such parallelism between the Mormon Articles of Faith and the Augsburg Confession Articles of Faith. This will become apparent as we move through this exercise.)
Mormon Article of Faith #1
We believe in God, the Eternal Father, and in His Son, Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost.
Augsburg Confession Chief Article of Faith #1 - God
The churches among us teach with complete unanimity that the decree of the Council of Nicea concerning the unity of the divine essence and concerning the three persons is true and is to be believed without any doubt. That is to say, there is one divine essence which is called God and is God: eternal, incorporeal, indivisible, of immeasurable power, wisdom, and goodness, the creator and preserver of all things, visible and invisible. Yet, there are three persons, coeternal and of the same essence and power: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And the term “person” is used for that meaning which the church’s authors used in this case: to signify not a part or a quality in another but that which subsists in itself. They condemn all heresies that have arisen against this article, such as that of the Manichaeans, who posited two principles, one good and the other evil; likewise, those of the Valentinians, Arians, Eunomians, Mohammedans, and all others like them. They also condemn the Samosatenians, old and new, who contend that there is only one person and cleverly and impiously argue that the Word and the Holy Spirit are not distinct persons but that “Word” signifies a spoken word and “Spirit” a created movement in things.
Commentary
At first glance, it appears as though these two positions agree and that Lutherans are a whole lot wordier! The differences between classic Christian teaching (evidenced in the Augsburg Confession) and the Mormon teaching is only revealed as Mormons begin “unpacking” what they mean by their Article of Faith. The Mormon position identifies God the Father as “flesh and bone” where Lutherans confess God as eternal and incorporeal (that is not flesh and bone). There are three “persons” in both articles of faith, but for Mormons, there is no unity … except in unity of purpose. Lutherans confess the classic Holy Trinity, whereas the Mormons teach a variation of the heresies “condemned” by the Augsburg Confession. In fact, Mormon teaching most resembles Arianism, a heresy rejected by the church in the 5th century.
Pondering Pastor
11 responses so far ↓
asimplesinner // May 1, 2008 at 10:52 am
This is a remarkably interesting post to have stumbled into… For reasons I have never fully understood, you simply don’t read much about these sorts of exchanges between certain Reformation era theological schools and non-Christian or semi-Christian groups like this.
I have said for sometime I would love to be a fly on the wall in a debate hall where a Jehovah’s Witness and a Mormon hash it out! LOL
“Creedal Christians” and “Joseph Smith’s Saints” « Heart Issues for LDS // May 1, 2008 at 12:41 pm
[...] I use to be bothered by this on the HI4LDS blog, for you could almost track the history of all this if you have lots of time to waste. (To be fair, I am sure that not all would be disturbed by the term. I just came across The Pondering Pastor today. As a pastor in the ELCA, perhaps he might accept the description of “creedal Christian” from any insistent LDS. It might be fun to ask him, especially as he has just started this series of comparing LDS Articles of Faith with Lutheran doctrine.) [...]
ditchu // May 1, 2008 at 3:26 pm
I’d Post the entire nicceans creed and the Articals of Faith next to eachother then without conjecture we all can see how they compair and decied the differences for ourselves.
ponderingpastor // May 1, 2008 at 5:11 pm
ditchu …
Unfortunately for the LDS, the Nicene Creed is not part of your faith. I’ll take your suggestion under advisement, and consider doing that at the end of my venture here. I think you will find that what LDS teaches is contrary to this essential creed of the Christian Church. Meanwhile, you are welcome to do as you suggest on your blog.
Pondering Pastor
ditchu // May 2, 2008 at 12:19 am
PP,
True the LDS do not fully commit to the Nicene Creed, and as a Luthern I had misgivings of some of it myself.
off topic a little: Do you know if Constintine the Roman who presided over the first consol of nicea was a Pagan or was he just a regular Roman Civic Faith worshiper?
-D
Ety W. // May 2, 2008 at 7:39 am
A very interesting post. It points to the need to not accept another’s beliefs at face value, but to dig deeper, to understand the exact meaning behind the words and concepts being presented. To do so would save a lot of Christians from a lot of false assumptions.
jranonymous // May 2, 2008 at 8:34 am
The Joseph Smith Articles seem to come out of nowhere, at least Lutherans were founded on reforming the Catholic Church and not being so dependent of the hierarchy. If you want to make the point the Lutherans came from nowhere, you will have to attack where the Catholic Church came from also. Personally, I think there is an occult base to religion that the general population is not supposed to know about.
Islam, Judaism and Christianity stem from the same source. They are all monotheistic and have the same God. They are all at war with each other, like pieces on a chest board. When the Bible tells us that the “great deceiver” is Satan, Wouldn’t the best place to hide be right under out noses?
As being raised a Catholic in Chicago, Lutherans and Mormons seem so distant from me, culturally and behaviorally . I suppose these religions bring people together or tare them apart. Either way, Americans have the Protestants to thank for the free thinking that was allowed to happen in the Enlightenment and formation of the U.S. After all, what Catholic country functions properly? None.
jessiecarty // May 2, 2008 at 8:53 am
Look forward to reading more of this commentary. Fascinating.
PaulW // May 2, 2008 at 10:07 am
I could say a lot here about the LDS view of the Godhead/Trinity but there was a sermon given just this last Fall by one of our leading church authorities that gives you a good understanding.
As a Latter-day Saint I quite enjoyed the talk. It would be interesting to hear reaction to it from a Protestant or Catholic perspective.
http://lds.org/conference/talk/display/0,5232,23-1-775-15,00.html
ponderingpastor // May 2, 2008 at 11:20 am
Paul W,
Generally good defense from the LDS perspective. There are some serious and I would call fatal flaws … but I’m not inclined to argue that today. I’m taking most of the day off.
Pondering Pastor
Rusty Lindquist // May 25, 2008 at 3:11 am
Pretty good summary if you ask me! Nicely done I’d say. And all this time we’ve been having our conversation on my blog, I had no idea you’d been doing your own side-by-side comparison. I guess I need to stop slacking and get to the remaining articles of faith.
Meanwhile, I’ll have to keep up the reading over here. I just finished reading all the posts, and really appreciate the further mental exercise, and motivation to learn.
Although, at first I did feel a bit cheated, I liked it better when I thought I got to have your feedback all to myself on my blog. Now it’s like I have to share your contributions!
Thanks for providing a good, fair analysis. God speed friend.
Rusty
http://www.ongofu.com
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