Biblical Reasons Ministry
The Mormon
Demigod
by Brian Horner, participant at CARM.org LDS discussion board.
I would
like to offer a couple of comparisons between the Mormon “God” and the God
who represents himself in the Bible
The Biblical God as God
The God of the Bible can say of himself: “I AM that I AM” (Heb: “hayah hayah”;
“hayah” is the verb “to be”). The God of the Bible is the ONLY one who even
could say such a thing. God IS that he IS. That is who he is. Some
translations mix the tenses and render it: “I am what I will be” or “I will
be what I am”. No matter how you translate it, the God of the Bible makes it
clear that he IS what he IS and therefore is dependent upon
nothing and no one for his existence and his being. He is entirely
self-defined and self-sufficient.
God is also depicted throughout the Bible as “supernatural” in the strictest
sense of the term: “above nature”. He transcends nature altogether and is
the source of the natural world – its “creator”, who is, by definition, NOT
confined, defined or preceded by that which he created.
There are a couple of things we need to note about reality here. One of the
most universal, most common and most easily observed facts about reality is
that every effect has a cause. In the entire universe, not one thing exists
which was not itself caused to exist by something other than itself. Not one
event has ever occurred that could not be traced to a precipitating cause or
causes. Since there is not a single exception to this fact observed in the
universe, we are safe to conclude it as a “LAW” of nature. Secondly, cause
ALWAYS, without a single exception, precedes effect. Because of this, cause
is always greater than effect in the sense that without the cause(s), the
effect –no matter how great- could not even exist without the cause(s)
occurring FIRST.
The Bible represents God as the first cause and nowhere attests to
that which caused him or preceded him in any way. At
John 1:1-3 the inspired apostle goes to some effort to tell us that it
was God who created all things and that, in fact, no created thing came into
being that he did not create.
The biblical God is not a “thing” let alone a caused thing. In the Bible,
God
is presented as THE cause of the universe or what we can call the "first
cause".
The Bible goes to great length to repeatedly identity God by his office of Creator of the universe.
The Biblical God as Creator
The God of the Bible is the source of all creation without exception. He is
the originator of time and space and all that they contain which we can call
“the universe”. The God of the Bible spoke the universe in all of its
unimaginable scope and complexity into existence. Modern cosmology fully
confirms this representation in scripture when it presents us with the Big
Bang as the point at which all time, matter, energy and space entered
existence. The Bible tells us that the heavens declare the glory of this
God, the one who created them. He is the creator of all things, visible and
invisible including the realms of power and authority inhabited by angels. (Col
1:16). The Bible thus repeatedly uses this fact of God as creator to
identify God. Furthermore, it identifies God's authority with his creation
of the universe which represents that authority. Paul
said:
For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse – Rom 1:20
The God
of the Bible is therefore supernatural, transcendent over the universe he
created. He is omnipotent, omnipresent and omniscient. He is The One. The
Source of being itself, who calls things into existence that previously did
not exist -
Rom
4:17
The Mormon “God” as God
The “God” of the Mormons is really, strictly speaking, nothing but a
demigod. He is not fundamentally different in terms of his ontological
nature from the pagan deities like Zeus,
or Hermes
or Ba’al.
Demigod:
1.) A male being, often the offspring of a god and a mortal, who has some
but not all of the powers of a god.
2.) An inferior deity; a minor god.
3.) A deified man.
– American Heritage Dictionary
Like the
Mormons of today, the ancient pagans assumed an eternal universe in a state
of static equilibrium. Living in time and space with them (such as on Mt.
Olympus) were their “gods”, who were really, according to their own
conception, just exalted creatures. Exalted, powerful and even endowed with
immense magical capabilities, yes; but they were not unbounded by time or
space. They were, in fact, entirely subject to time and space and
strictly limited in where and when they could exist and in what they could
and could not do. They were, as the pagans imagined, corporeal beings with a
kind of telepathic ability and certain responsibilities and powers over
selected domains. But even in their assigned domain, they were absolutely
NOT omnipotent. Thus they are “inferior deities” whose existence is entirely
dependent upon precipitating causes.
The Mormon “God” is VERY close, though not identical to the pagan deities.
Mormons have adopted the view of the static, eternal universe and somewhere
in this universe Mormons place their “God”. Where the Greeks had “Mt.
Olympus”, the Mormons have “Planet X” (my term since Mormon lore does not
name this planet – though they say it is near a star they call “Kolob”). The
Mormon “God” is a created being, just like the pagan deities whose existence
is entirely dependent upon the pre-existence of something else including the
matter which comprises his physical body.
The main difference between the ancient deities of pagan cults and the
Mormon "God' is that Mormons imagine their “God” to be far more powerful
than any of the pagan deities in that each of their limited powers are
subsumed in his dominion. But this is a question of "power" not ontological
nature. By nature the pagan deities and the Mormon God are virtually
identical. But the Mormon "God" is not omnipotent either. Like his pagan
brethren, his own being is dependent upon the world of nature (the
time and space that contain him, and the matter that makes up his body and
the energy that causes that matter to retain its physical form). Thus, like
the pagan deities, the Mormon God is dependent upon something for his
existence and limited in his power by the constraints of time and space that
contain and localize him.
The Mormon God as Creator
The pagan deities could each, to some extent, manipulate matter and energy
just as we humans can today - though admittedly we do so to a lesser extent
than the pagans assigned to their “Gods.” But no conception of the pagan
deities attributes to them the causation of the existence of matter
and energy and time and space. In other words, they are inferior to the
universe of matter and energy, space and time, though capable of
manipulating it, each to a different and limited extent.
Similarly, the Mormon “God” is not the cause of the existence of the
universe. He is simply a highly evolved part of the universe. Like
the pagan deities, the Mormon “God” only exists because something preceded
him and caused him to exist. Mormons will dodge this by claiming that God
simply always existed and was uncaused, yet their own theology contradicts
this possibility. Mormon theology holds that God was himself something less
than God at one time (a man just “as we are now”) who had to earn his way up
the ladder to godhood in service to his “God” (whoever that was). Thus the
God of “God” was presumably at least the cause of God’s being able to become
God. This means, by the way, that the Mormon “God” cannot, by definition, be
what the Bible calls God: “THE” (singular) “MOST HIGH”
(meaning there is no one higher) “GOD”. If God had a God then
obviously God’s God is higher than God.
The bottom line, no matter how you draw it is: the Mormon God does not
exist in and of himself as the Biblical God most certainly says he does. The
Mormon “God’s” existence is dependent upon the physical universe that
sustained him when he was just a man like us and was not God, and to some
degree continues to sustain him today. Therefore, the Mormon "God is
not the
creator, the cause of the the universe. Ultimately, if anything, the
universe helped to produce this “God” instead of him creating it.
I Agree With Mormonism
I can certainly agree with Mormons that their “God” is indeed not the
creator of the universe - the cause of the existence of the universe. Rather
he is a product of the universe. As such they imagine him to retain
great power over pre-existing matter, but since he could not cause matter to
exist or cease to exist; his power over nature, though greater than each of
the pagan gods. is still clearly limited. In fact, given our current
technological abilities to manipulate matter, the Mormon God is really just
something that is indeed somewhat “more than us.” He apparently just has
better technology than we do. So I agree with Mormons about their so-called, “God”.
But ...this is not the God of the Bible. The Mormon “God” is a different
God, an inferior “God”, a mere demigod and even a purely imaginary “God”
since the God of the Bible has made it perfectly clear that he alone is the
only true, actual God and all other gods are false gods. The
Mormon “God” is not the creator God described throughout the Bible; he is a
creation. The word of God has a term that it uses to describe the act of
creating one's own “God”. Such an act is called “idolatry” and God
names this sin as an abomination unto himself.
Mormonism is an abomination to God.
Thank you,
Brian Horner
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"Jesus' blood on the altar was the ultimate payment. He made us worthy permanently. When Jesus died on the cross the veil covering the Holy of Holies tore in half. The mercy seat lay exposed to mankind. There is no veil, anymore, between God and man. Jesus ripped it down. But Mormonism has hung up a new one." -Kathleen Baldwin
"When I was LDS (not that long
ago) I saw a lot of things that made me question my membership in the LDS
church, but I sure wouldn't admit it for a long time (not even to myself). I
just knew there had to be good explanations for all of those silly criticisms,
if I just looked in the right place...or prayed about it long enough. I was
wrong." - Former Mormon, Marsha Bette
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Editor's note:
If the quote above describes you, please know that God loves you and has a
wonderful plan for your life. Visit Testimonies Turned to Christ at
the top of this section to understand that you're not alone in your feelings.