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| - Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) believe, as do other Christians, in one Supreme Being who governs the universe, and who is all-powerful, all-knowing, and all-loving. However, Mormons don't believe that He works alone but as the presiding member of what they call the godhead.
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| abstract
| - Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) believe, as do other Christians, in one Supreme Being who governs the universe, and who is all-powerful, all-knowing, and all-loving. However, Mormons don't believe that He works alone but as the presiding member of what they call the godhead. The Bible dictionary says that God is “The Supreme Governor of the universe and the Father of mankind. We learn from the revelations that have been given that there are three separate persons in the Godhead: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. From latter-day revelation we learn that the Father and the Son have tangible bodies of flesh and bone, and that the Holy Ghost is a personage of spirit without flesh and bone (Doctrine and Covenants 130:22-23).” Mormons believe that these three gods—”separate in personality {but}. . . united as one in purpose, in plan, and in all the attributes of perfection” (Mormon Doctrine, p. 317)—are the partnership which rules the universe, with God the Eternal Father the controlling and governing power. LDS Apostle James E. Talmage states it this way: “These constitute the Holy Trinity, comprising three physically separate and distinct individuals, who together constitute the presiding council of the heavens” (Jesus the Christ, p. 32). This belief is distinct from the traditional Christian doctrine of the Trinity, which generally maintains that they are three persons but one in essence. All three members of the Godhead are eternal and equally divine, but play somewhat different roles. Mormonism posits most of the same attributes to the members of the Godhead that Trinitarian Christianity posits to the Trinity: omnipotence, omniscience, omni-benevolence, endlessness, immutability, immortality, and immanence in the universe but not transcendence of it. However, the meaning held for some of these attributes differ significantly. For example, Mormons believe that God, as creator, is actually the organizer of the universe because they believe that all matter has always existed and will always exist. In other words, God did not create the world "ex nihilo," from nothing. God's omnipotence does not transcend logic or the basic laws of physics, though mankind may not necessarily understand those laws fully. God is “the framer of the heaven and earth, and all things which are in them” (Doctrine and Covenants 20:17). Mormons believe that Heavenly Father directed Jesus Christ to form the earth on which we live. In that sense, both the Eternal Father and Christ created this world, though Christ is believed to have done the actual act. Joseph Smith pointed to the New Testament as one proof of the physical separateness of the members of the Godhood. “Peter and Stephen testify that they saw the Son of Man standing on the right hand of God. Any person that had seen the heavens opened knows that there are three personages in the heavens who hold the keys of power, and one presides over all” (Documentary History of the Church 5:426). Joseph F. Smith explained how these three work as one. He says, “This oneness in the sayings and writings of prophets and apostles [were] in order to guard against the erroneous idea that these three may be distinct and independent deities and rivals for our worship. The stress is laid upon this unity in the Bible has led to the error. . .that there is only one personage, manifesting himself in three different ways” (''Improvement Era'', 4:228).
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