THE LDS HOLY SPIRIT, AND HOLY GHOST
THE CHANGING DOCTRINES OF MORMONISM
Mormonism of today has little in common with Mormonism of the
earlier days. Over the years their doctrines have changed radically.
(Their most recent major change was to the doctrine concerning
negroes, or folk of colour, now being permitted to hold the LDS
priesthood).
For at least the first twelve years of their existence the LDS
church had similar doctrines regarding the Holy Spirit/Holy Ghost
as does the Christian church of today. In the 1835 Doctrine and
Covenants (which you can view in the LDS archives), Joseph Smith
taught that God the Father was a trinitarian spirit being,
without a physical body:
"...We shall, in this lecture speak of the Godhead: we mean the
Father, Son and Holy Spirit. There are two personages ..... they are
the Father and the Son: the Father being a personage of spirit,
glory and power: possessing all perfection and fullness: the Son,
who was in the bosom of the Father, a personage of tabernacle
[body] ..... And he being The only begotten of The Father ...
possessing the same mind with the Father, which mind is the Holy
Spirit." (1835 Doctrines and Covenants, Fifth Lecture of Faith,
5:1-2, pages 52-53, 55, First edition)
However, in 1843 Joseph Smith turned his back on the biblical deity
and began to worship another (exclusively Mormon) God, who has
different attributes and has not eternally been God. Because he only
came into existence as a spirit being after the creation of the
universe, he is not vital or even necessary to it, but is subject to
it in the same way that we are. In contrast, the biblical deity
created the universe and all that is in it, and upholds and sustains
it by His mighty power. So it is subject to Him. And He reigns
supreme over all.
Although many left the LDS church at that stage, Smith managed to
persuade the majority of the members to follow him in his worship of
this new deity. And it was after this that LDS teaching on deity
embraced a Father, a Son, a Holy Spirit and a Holy Ghost.
Changing one's doctrines on deity is not a light matter. If
our ideas about God are wrong, then we'll be wrong about all our
other doctrines too, because ultimately all our beliefs stem from
our view of God.
Furthermore, if Joseph Smith had been a true prophet of God, how is
it that God let him teach His supposedly true church to worship the
supposedly wrong deity for twelve long years before putting him
right? Don't forget that he claimed that God was giving him
ongoing revelations during this entire period. And what could be
more important in our beliefs than the deity we worship and follow?
THE HOLY SPIRIT/HOLY GHOST
The translators of the King James Version, which is favoured by
the LDS, used both the archaic rendering of Holy Ghost and the more
modern rendering of Holy Spirit. But they were merely alternative
renderings that had exactly the same meaning, as they had both been
translated from the same Greek word, "pneuma." The
Book of Mormon, which Smith had written before he'd changed his
mind about his doctrine on God, doesn't differentiate at all between
the Holy Spirit and the Holy Ghost, as do the LDS's present
teachings, but uses these two terms interchangeably (c/f Alma
11:28-29, 35, 44, 18:26-29, 3 Nephi 11:27, Mormon 7:7).
..... Christ the Son, and God the Father, and the Holy Spirit,
which is one Eternal God..... (Alma 11:44)
..... the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost are one .....
(3 Nephi 11:27)
However, after Joseph Smith had changed his doctrines on deity, the
LDS began to treat these two renderings of the same Greek word as
though they represented two different entities. And they have
drawn a definite distinction between them.
LDS President Joseph Fielding Smith clarified the difference the
LDS places on these two different renderings of "pneuma"
in Bruce McConkie's "Mormon Doctrine":
"The Holy Spirit is not a person but rather an impersonal
force. The Holy Ghost as a personage of Spirit can no more be
omnipresent in person than can the Father or the Son. It is not the
Holy Ghost who in person lighteth every man who is born into the
world, but it is the light of Christ, the Spirit of truth, which
proceeds from the source of intelligence, which permeates all
nature, which lighteth every man and fills the immensity of space.
You may call it the Spirit of God, you may call it the influence of
God's intelligence, you may call it the substance of his power; no
matter what it is called, it is the spirit of intelligence that
permeates the universe and gives to the spirits of men
understanding. The Spirit of God which emanates from Deity may be
likened to electricity, which fills the earth and the air, and is
everywhere present" McConkie, Bruce."Mormon
Doctrine," (pages 752-753).
THE LDS HOLY GHOST
The LDS Holy Ghost is a son of God and a deity. He is a personage
of spirit but is not omnipresent and is, therefore, incapable of
being in more than one place at a time.
However, according to the law of eternal progression one cannot
progress to the level of deity unless one first obtains a physical
body.
"The Holy Ghost is the third member of the Godhead. He is a
Personage of Spirit, a Spirit Person, a Spirit Man, a Spirit Entity.
He can be in only one place at one time, and he does not and cannot
transform himself into any other form or image than that of the Man
whom he is" (LDS Apostle McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, page 359).
"The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints teaches that
the Holy Ghost is a spirit man, a spirit son of God the
Father." (Encyclopedia of Mormonism, Volume 2)
And Mormon Apostle James E. Talmage has the following to add:
"The Holy Ghost may be regarded as the minister of the Godhead,
carrying into effect the decisions of the Supreme Council [of Gods].
The power of the Holy Ghost is the spirit of prophecy and revelation.
God grants the gift of the Holy Ghost unto the obedient, the
authority to so bestow the Holy Ghost belongs only to the higher or
Melchizedek Priesthood" (The Articles of Faith, 1982, page
160).
THE LDS HOLY SPIRIT
The LDS Holy Spirit is an inanimate force, similar to electricity.
In other words, it is a type of power used by the Holy Ghost to
accomplish his purposes. This power or force is present everywhere,
enabling the Holy Ghost (who can only be in one place at any
given moment) to exert His influence throughout the universe.
BIBLICAL TEACHING ON THE HOLY SPIRIT
The Holy Spirit is not a thing or a force. Over and over again the
Bible reveals that He has all the attributes a person would have,
and which could never be displayed by a thing or a force. For
instance, He acts according to His will, distributes to each of us
individually just as He wills, loves us, helps us, prays for us
and grieves:
Now I beseech you, brethren, for the Lord Jesus Christ's sake, and
for the love of the Spirit, that ye strive together with me in your
prayers to God for me; (Romans 15:30, KJV)
But all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to
every man severally as he will. (1 Corinthians 12:11, KJV)
Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not
what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh
intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. And he
that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit,
because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will
of God. (Romans 8:26, 27 KJV)
And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto
the day of redemption. (Ephesians 4:30, KJV)
REGENERATION BY THE HOLY SPIRIT
The present LDS teaching is that when a person undergoes Mormon
baptism, he is born again (born of the spirit):
"The second birth begins when men are baptized in water by a
legal administrator" (Mormon Doctrine page 101).
"Little children are spiritually alive until they arrive at the
age of accountability (Moroni 8:8-26). Then they die spiritually
unless they are born again... by baptism they are born of water and
of the Spirit" (Mormon Doctrine page 761).
At this stage we need to remember that in biblical times the use of
the word "baptism" was not confined to water baptism. It
also described being completely engulfed by or immersed in an
experience. For instance, John the baptist referred to Christ's
giving of the Holy Spirit to those who came to Him as a spiritual
baptism, and Christ referred to His coming death on the cross as a
baptism in suffering that He would have to undergo:
(John the baptist said) I indeed baptize you with water unto
repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose
shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy
Ghost, and with fire: (Matthew 3:11, KJV)
(Jesus said, referring to His coming crucifixion) But I have a
baptism to be baptized with; and how am I straitened till it be
accomplished! (Luke 12:50, KJV)
Contrary to Mormon teaching that the Holy Ghost can only be received
through the laying on of hands by priesthood holding members of the
LDS church, and that the Holy Spirit is received through water
baptism, the Bible reveals that folk receive or are baptized in the
Holy Spirit/Holy Ghost when the Spirit anoints the Word of God as
they hear it, believe it, and consequently put their faith in Christ.
This is what is described in John 3 as spiritual regeneration, or
the new birth.
The Bible also indicates that there is no connection between water
baptism and baptism of the Holy Spirit/Holy Ghost. For instance, in
Acts 10, we read about how God sent Peter to preach to the gentiles.
As he preached the Word of God to them, the Holy Spirit/Holy Ghost
fell upon them, and they were regenerated or born again,
because the new birth comes about through the application of the
Word of God combined with the anointing or the power of the Holy
Spirit/Holy Ghost, not through water baptism. So it can happen
at any time and in any place. The Lord Jesus put it like this:
The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound
thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth:
so is every one that is born of the Spirit. (John 3:8, KJV)
After the gentiles to whom
Peter had been preaching in Acts 10 had experienced the new birth,
Peter said:
Can any man forbid water, that these should not be baptized, which
have received the Holy Ghost as well as we? And he commanded them to
be baptized in the name of the Lord. ..... (Acts 10:47-48, KJV)
The Bible also teaches that God will give us the Holy Spirit/Holy
Ghost (same Greek word) in answer to our prayers:
If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your
children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy
Spirit to them that ask him? (Luke 11:13, KJV.)
Furthermore, the Lord Jesus gives the Holy Ghost/Holy
Spirit to those who come to Him for salvation, without their having
been baptized or having hands laid on them.
In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried,
saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. He that
believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall
flow rivers of living water. (But this spake he of the Spirit, which
they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not
yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified.) (John 7:37-39,
KJV) Note that the terms Holy Ghost and Holy Spirit are used
interchangeably in this verse.
Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water
shall thirst again: But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall
give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him
shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.
(John 4:13-14, KJV)
[John the Baptist said] I indeed baptize you with water unto
repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose
shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy
Ghost, and with fire: (Matthew 3:11, KJV)
THE "INFALIBILITY" OF THE LDS LEADERSHIP
Mormons are taught never to question the fallibility of their
leadership, but to trust them implicitly, as God would never permit
them to teach error. But Joseph Smith must have been in error
regarding at least one of his doctrines on the two radically
different Gods he taught the LDS to follow during his leadership of
their church. So that invalidates their claim.
The existence of contradictions and/or changed doctrines in
every area of LDS theology should alert Mormons to the fact
that something is radically wrong, because truth
is consistent — it never changes. That is why
Christianity of today teaches exactly the same doctrines that the
primitive church proclaimed in the New Testament. Truth always
stands the test of time.
Copyright 2007 by Mormonism and Biblical Truth. All rights reserved.