Trinitarian View

EARLY GODHEAD

BOOK OF MORMON

INTRODUCTION

The CES Letter tries to make the claim that Joseph Smith believed in the Trinity when he translated the Book of Mormon. Let's explore this further.

CES LETTER CLAIM

The Book of Mormon taught and still teaches a Trinitarian view of the Godhead. Joseph Smith’s early theology also held this view. As part of the over 100,000 changes to the Book of Mormon, there were major changes made to reflect Joseph’s evolved view of the Godhead.


CES Letter, Page __

DEBUNKING REPLY

Incorrect... One just needs to look a the totality of the Book of Mormon and Joseph's teachings to see that he didn't hold a trinitarian view.

The Book of Mormon clearly differentiates Jesus Christ as the Son of an Eternal Father. He is called the Son (see 2 Nephi 31:18), the Beloved Son (see 2 Nephi 31:11), the Son of God (see 1 Nephi 10:17), the Holy Child (see Moroni 8:3), the Son of the most high God (see 1 Nephi 11:6), the Son of the living God (see Mormon 5:14), Son of our great God (see Alma 24:13), Son of the everlasting God (see 1 Nephi 11:32), Son of the Eternal Father (see 1 Nephi 11:21; 13:40), the Only Begotten of the Father (see Alma 5:48), the Only Begotten Son (see Jacob 4:5, 11; Alma 12:33), Christ the Son (see Alma 11:44), and the Son of Righteousness (see 3 Nephi 25:2).

The CES Letter's author's confusion may come because God the Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost are a social Trinity. The word Trinity merely means three, three Beings who are one in purpose is still a Trinity, but not as the Christian creeds describe.

John 16:22 recounts how Jesus prays that the apostles may be “one even as we are one.” That is, the “oneness” that Jesus asks the apostles to have is modeled by the oneness that Jesus has with his father. This makes for a social Trinity, not a metaphysical Trinity.

To the Nephites the Savior declared:  “Behold, I am Jesus Christ the Son of God. I created the heavens and the earth, and all things that in them are. I was with the Father from the beginning. I am in the Father, and the Father in me; and in me hath the Father glorified his name” (3 Nephi 9:15). Yet, later he told the gathered Nephites:  “But now I go unto the Father” (3 Nephi 17:4). This is a plain declaration of their separateness.

Martin Harris remembered rejecting the ideas of creedal Trinitarianism in the 1820s prior to meeting Joseph. If the Prophet taught creedal trinitarianism, it seems unlikely that Harris would have believed in him and his teachings. In 1870 he recalled his feelings regarding the Trinity: “I cannot find it in my Bible. Find it for me and I am ready to receive it. Three persons in one God. One personage I cannot concede for this is Antichrist for where is the Father and Son?” 

There is no unambiguous statement from Joseph Smith stating that he believed in the Trinity as described in Christian dogma in 1829 or at any time thereafter.


Several scholars including David L. Paulsen and Brant Gardner have looked carefully at the Book of Mormon's depiction of the Godhead and have concluded that the text's theology is not Trinitarian. Paulsen has written:

As we have seen, the claim that the 1830 Book of Mormon, read in its entirety, is a modalist document is difficult to support. While the Book of Mormon in a few passages calls Christ the Father and the Son, this does not necessitate that God the Son is identical to God the Father, because, as shown above, Christ can be considered "the Father" in numerous ways. Additionally, passages of scripture that seemingly advocate modalism can easily be interpreted within a social trinitarian model. Furthermore, the accounts of the Godhead in 3 Nephi provide numerous passages that are far more challenging for proponents of functional modalism to explain. Similarly, revisions in the 1837 Book of Mormon do not seem to suggest any motivation to remove modalism from the scriptures. And we have no evidence that Joseph or the Church of Jesus Christ interpreted such passages as modalist in 1830.

We encourage scholars who believe the 1830 Book of Mormon is an early modalist document to attend to the accounts of the Godhead in the Book of Mormon as a whole. Including the two passages that were changed in the 1837 edition, only nine apparently modalist verses can be found throughout the Book of Mormon—as opposed to numerous distinctly nonmodalist verses. When the latter are combined with the even more clearly nonmodalist passages of the Book of Commandments, the 1835 Doctrine and Covenants, and the Book of Moses, we find a larger picture that is definitely nonmodalist. Those who claim that the Book of Mormon is a modalist document seem to have focused on a few passages while ignoring the rest of the book, especially the climactic witness of Christ found in 3 Nephi.

Brant Gardner has likewise argued that the Book of Mormon's depiction of the relationship between God the Father and God the Son is consistent with an ancient Israelite conception of God. Gardner explains:

When we approach the Book of Mormon text from the viewpoint of the historical context that it declares to be its origin, we find an absolutely consistent theology of God. The Nephites knew of and believed in a Most High God, known as El in Biblical and Ugaritic literature, but unnamed in the Book of Mormon. That Most High God is father to Yahweh, and the relationship between Yahweh and the Most High God is indicated by the title Son of God.

Yahweh is the God of Israel, and therefore the God of the Nephites. In Yahweh’s relationship to humans, he is our Father, and we are sons of Yahweh. When Yahweh descends to live on earth, he is in that part of the vertical relationship that is appropriate for mortals. He is–Son. Yet he can never cease to be who he is. He is “the Father because of me,” as he declares in 3 Nephi 1:14. He is, therefore, Father and Son. For the Nephites, any possible confusion in the similarity of terms used for deity was clarified by the horizontal or vertical contexts in which they were used.

Incidentally, the non-Mormon scholar Margaret Barker concurs that the Book of Mormon is consistent with ancient Israelite depictions of deity. "It should not go unnoticed," Barker writes, "that these memories [of pre-exilic Israelite temple theology] are also linked to coming of the Messiah in the texts of the Book of Mormon."


Additional Resources:

The Doctrine of God the Father in the Book of Mormon by Andrew C. Skinner

The Mormon Concept of God: A Philosophical Analysis –  by Blake T. Ostler

The Development of the Mormon Understanding of God: Early Mormon Modalism and Other Myths –  by Ari D. Bruening, David L. Paulsen

The “Jevhoah” Doctrine (Part 1) by Elden J. Watson

FairMormon: Did Joseph began his prophetic career with a “trinitarian” idea of God?

CES LETTER CLAIM

ORIGINAL 1830 EDITION TEXT

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CURRENT, ALTERED TEXT

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1 NEPHI 3 (P.25)

And he said unto me, Behold, the virgin whom thou seest, is the mother of God, after the manner of the flesh.

1 NEPHI 11:18

And he said unto me: Behold, the virgin whom thou seest is the mother of the Son of God, after the manner of the flesh.

1 NEPHI 3 (P.25)

And the angel said unto me, behold the Lamb of God, yea, even the Eternal Father!

1 NEPHI 11:21

And the angel said unto me: Behold the Lamb of God, yea, even the Son of the Eternal Father

1 NEPHI 3 (P.26)

And I looked and beheld the Lamb of God, that he was taken by the people; yea, the Everlasting God, was judged of the world;

1 NEPHI 11:32

And I looked and beheld the Lamb of God, that he was taken by the people; yea, the Son of the everlasting God was judged of the world;

1 NEPHI 3 (P.32)

These last records...shall make known to all kindreds, tongues, and people, that the Lamb of God is the Eternal Father and the Savior of the world;

1 NEPHI 13:40

These last records...shall make known to all kindreds, tongues, and people, that the Lamb of God is the Son of the Eternal Father, and the Savior of the world;

CES Letter, Page __

DEBUNKING REPLY

One in purpose... Joseph Smith’s teachings have consistently reflected a Godhead that is one in purpose, not one in body. They may each be referred to as “God” and their united purpose allows them to be collectively referred to as “one God” without meaning one entity or personage. 

Christ is “God,” but He is also the “Son of God.” These additions were made by Joseph Smith in the 1837 publication of the Book of Mormon to add clarity, not to change meaning.

18 adding -the Son of-

The addition of "the Son of" to four passages in 1 Nephi does not change the Book of Mormon's teaching that Jesus Christ is the God of Old Testament Israel. This concept is taught in more than a dozen other passages whose readings remain unchanged from the original manuscripts. See 1 Nephi 19:10, Mosiah 7:27, Mosiah 16:15, Alma 11:38-392 Nephi 25:12Mosiah 3:8Mosiah 13:28,33-34Mosiah 15:1Helaman 8:22-23Helaman 14:12Helaman 16:183 Nephi 11:10,14Mormon 9:12;Ether 3:14Ether 4:7Ether 4:12.

It is possible that "the Son of" was introduced into 1 Nephi 11:18 as a response to Alexander Campbell’s criticism regarding the Catholic-sounding phrase "the mother of God" in that verse. 

The terms "God," "Everlasting God," and "Eternal Father" are ambiguous since they could properly refer to either the Father or the Son. For example, "Eternal Father" refers to God the Father in Moroni 4:3Moroni 5:2, and Moroni 10:4, but to God the Son in Mosiah 16:15 and Alma 11:38-39.

There is no unambiguous statement from Joseph Smith stating that he believed in the Trinity as described in Christian dogma in 1829 or at any time thereafter.


Additional resources:

The Doctrine of God the Father in the Book of Mormon by Andrew C. Skinner

The Mormon Concept of God: A Philosophical Analysis –  by Blake T. Ostler

The Development of the Mormon Understanding of God: Early Mormon Modalism and Other Myths –  by Ari D. Bruening, David L. Paulsen

The “Jevhoah” Doctrine (Part 1) by Elden J. Watson

FairMormon: Did Joseph began his prophetic career with a "trinitarian" idea of God?

CES LETTER CLAIM

In addition to these revised passages, the following verses are among many verses still in the Book of Mormon that can be read with a Trinitarian view of the Godhead:

ALMA 11:38-39

38: Now Zeezrom saith again unto him: Is the Son of God the very Eternal Father?

39: And Amulek said unto him: Yea, he is the very Eternal Father of heaven and of earth, and all things which in them are; he is the beginning and the end, the first and the last;

MOSIAH 15:1-4

1: And now Abinadi said unto them: I would that ye should understand that God himself shall come down among the children of men, and shall redeem his people.

2: And because he dwelleth in flesh he shall be called the Son of God, and having subjected the flesh to the will of the Father, being the Father and the Son –

3: The Father, because he was conceived by the power of God; and the Son, because of the flesh; thus becoming the Father and Son –

4: And they are one God, yea, the very Eternal Father of heaven and of earth.

ETHER 3:14-15

14: Behold, I am he who was prepared from the foundation of the world to redeem my people. Behold, I am Jesus Christ. I am the Father and the Son. In me shall all mankind have life, and that eternally, even they who shall believe on my name; and they shall become my sons and my daughters.

15: And never have I showed myself unto man whom I have created, for never has man believed in me as thou hast. Seest thou that ye are created after mine own image? Yea, even all men were created in the beginning after mine own image.

MOSIAH 16:15

15: “Teach them that redemption cometh through Christ the Lord, who is the very Eternal Father. Amen.”

CES Letter, Page __

DEBUNKING REPLY

One in purpose... Christ is both Father and Son in different contexts. Paul taught of the mystery of godliness. Knowing the details now is not God's promise, but believing in "God, the Eternal Father, and in His Son, Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost" is absolutely necessary to receive eternal blessings.

The Book of Mormon clearly differentiates Jesus Christ as the Son of an Eternal Father. He is called the Son (see 2 Nephi 31:18), the Beloved Son (see 2 Nephi 31:11), the Son of God (see 1 Nephi 10:17), the Holy Child (see Moroni 8:3), the Son of the most high God (see 1 Nephi 11:6), the Son of the living God (see Mormon 5:14), Son of our great God (see Alma 24:13), Son of the everlasting God (see 1 Nephi 11:32), Son of the Eternal Father (see 1 Nephi 11:21; 13:40), the Only Begotten of the Father (see Alma 5:48), the Only Begotten Son (see Jacob 4:5, 11; Alma 12:33), Christ the Son (see Alma 11:44), and the Son of Righteousness (see 3 Nephi 25:2).

Having been endowed by Elohim with infinite power, glory, and authority, Jehovah is also “Father.” He is God who spoke and still speaks to the prophets, who designed and reveals laws for the blessing of his people, and who directs the affairs of mortals on earth. We know also that Jehovah is the same being who later came into the world as Jesus Christ. He became a being of dual nature. The Father [that is, Elohim] has never dealt with man directly and personally since the Fall, and he has never appeared except to introduce and bear record of the Son.

Joseph Fielding Smith explained: "The Father has honored Christ by placing his name upon him, so that he can minister in and through that name as though he were the Father; and thus, so far as power and authority were concerned, his words and acts become and are those of the Father."

The phrase “Son of God” alone is used fifty-one times throughout the Book of Mormon text, with variations of this phrase occurring several more times. The phrase “Only Begotten Son” is used five times, “Only Begotten of the Father” four times, and “Son of the living God” four times. 

The Savior told the Nephites several times that He and the Father are one—not in personage or physical form, but in purpose. But even more than that, says the Savior, “I am in the Father, and the Father in me, and the Father and I are one” (3 Nephi 11:27; emphasis added; see also 3 Nephi 9:15; 19:23; and 28:10). In other words, the Father and the Son, whether the Son is acting as Jehovah or Christ, are so unified in mind and will that what one thinks, says, and does, the other one thinks, says, and does exactly.

The promise is extended to obedient Latter-day Saints: “The Father and I are one. I am in the Father and the Father in me; and inasmuch as ye have received me, ye are in me and I in you” (D&C 50:43; see also D&C 35:2).

 

CES LETTER CLAIM

Boyd Kirkland made the following observation:

The Book of Mormon and early revelations of Joseph Smith do indeed vividly portray a picture of the Father and Son as the same God...why is it that the Book of Mormon not only doesn’t clear up questions about the Godhead which have raged in Christianity for centuries, but on the contrary just adds to the confusion? This seems particularly ironic, since a major avowed purpose of the book was to restore lost truths and end doctrinal controversies caused by the “great and abominable Church’s” corruption of the Bible...In later years he [Joseph] reversed his earlier efforts to completely ‘monotheise’ the godhead and instead ‘tritheised’ it.
UPDATE: Additional information and analysis can be found at cesletter.org/trinitarian

Assuming that the official 1838 first vision account is truthful and accurate, why would Joseph Smith hold a Trinitarian view of the Godhead if he personally saw God the Father and Jesus Christ as separate and embodied beings a few years earlier in the Sacred Grove?


CES Letter, Page __

DEBUNKING REPLY

Boyd Kirkland is entitled to his opinion... many scholars disagree with his take.

No unambiguous statement from Joseph Smith has been found stating that he believed in the Trinity as described in Christian dogma in 1829 or at any time thereafter. Claims that Joseph Smith’s concept of God evolved between 1829 and 1838 ignore plain evidences showing it did not.

Consider these examples:

1829

In the Book of Mormon speaks of one [Christ] followed by twelve others descends from God to speak with Lehi--thus, Jesus and the Father are here both separate (1 Nephi 1:8-10).

After descending to the Nephites, the Savior taught them many lessons (3 Nephi 11-16) then he told them:  “Now I go unto the Father” (3 Nephi 17:4). This is a plain declaration of the physical separateness of Christ and the Father. They importuned him to stay, which he did.

Jesus prayed in front of the Nephites saying "Father, I am troubled because of the wickedness of the people of the house of Israel." The text continues:  "Behold he prayed unto the Father, and the things which he prayed cannot be written and the multitude did bear reacord who heard him" (3 Nephi 17:14-15). None of the Nephites would have believed that Christ and the Father were the same being or essence as described in the Trinity dogma. Neither does the Book of Mormon teach that doctrine.

1830

Book of Moses: "And I have a work for thee, Moses, my son; and thou art in the similitude of mine Only Begotten" (Moses 1:2-6).

Book of Moses:

"And he called upon our father Adam by his own voice, saying: I am God; I made the world, and men before they were in the flesh. And he also said unto him: If thou wilt turn unto me, and hearken unto my voice, and believe, and repent of all thy transgressions, and be baptized, even in water, in the name of mine Only Begotten Son, who is full of grace and truth, which is Jesus Christ, the only name which shall be given under heaven, whereby salvation shall come unto the children of men, ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, asking all things in his name, and whatsoever ye shall ask, it shall be given you" (Moses 6:51-52).

On September 26, 1830 Joseph dictated D&C 29:27: 

"And the righteous shall be gathered on my right hand unto eternal life; and the wicked on my left hand will I be ashamed to own before the Father."

1831

John Whitmer recorded that Joseph "saw the heavens opened, and the Son of Man sitting on the right hand of the Father" during the June 3, 1831 general conference. Of this same experience, Levi Hancock wrote: “Joseph Smith then stepped out onto the floor and said, 'I now see God, and Jesus Christ at his right hand, let them kill me, I should not feel death as I am now.'”

D&C 45:3 dictated March 7, 1831 depicts a complete separateness of Christ and the Father: 

"Listen to him who is the advocate with the Father, who is pleading your cause before him-- Saying: Father, behold the sufferings and death of him who did no sin, in whom thou wast well pleased; behold the blood of thy Son which was shed, the blood of him whom thou gavest that thyself might be glorified;Wherefore, Father, spare these my brethren that believe on my name, that they may come unto me and have everlasting life" (D&C 45:3-5).

1832

On February 16, 1832, Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon received a revelation of the three degrees of glory and declared:

“And now, after the many testimonies which have been given of him, this is the testimony, last of all which we give of him: That he lives! For we saw him, even on the right hand of God; and we heard the voice bearing record that he is the Only Begotten of the Father” (D&C 76:22-23; bold added).

The preface of the 1832 account of the First Vision states:

“History of the life of Joseph Smith Jr. an account of his marvilous experience1 and of all the mighty acts  which he doeth in the name of Jesus Ch[r]ist the son  of the living God.” The vision account ends with: “behold and lo I come quickly as it [is] wr itten of me in the cloud <clothed> in the glory of my Father.” The clear implication is that Christ and the Father are two separate Beings.

1832–1833

—Two of Joseph's close associates reported their own visions of deity with clearly separate divine beings, the Father and the Son.

Zebedee Coltrin (Member of the School of the Prophets)

At one of these meetings after the organization of the school, (the school being organized on the 23rd of January, 1833) when we were all together, Joseph having given instructions, and while engaged in silent prayer, kneeling, with our hands uplifted each one praying in silence, no one whispered above his breath, a personage walked through the room from east to west, and Joseph asked if we saw him. I saw him and suppose the others did and Joseph answered "that is Jesus, the Son of God, our elder brother." Afterward Joseph told us to resume our former position in prayer, which we did. Another person came through; he was surrounded as with a flame of fire. [I] experienced a sensation that it might destroy the tabernacle as it was of consuming fire of great brightness. The Prophet Joseph said this was the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. I saw Him.

[When asked about the kind of clothing the Father had on, Brother Coltrin said:] I did not discover his clothing for he was surrounded as with a flame of fire, which was so brilliant that I could not discover anything else but his person. I saw his hands, his legs, his feet, his eyes, nose, mouth, head and body in the shape and form of a perfect man. He sat in a chair as a man would sit in a chair, but this appearance was so grand and overwhelming that it seemed I should melt down in his presence, and the sensation was so powerful that it thrilled through my whole system and I felt it in the marrow of my bones. The Prophet Joseph said: "Brethren, now you are prepared to be the apostles of Jesus Christ, for you have seen both the Father and the Son and know that they exist and that they are two separate personages."...

The school room was in the upper room of [Newel K.] Whitney's store. ("Statement of Zebedee Coltrin,"

Minutes, 3 October 1883, Salt Lake School of Prophets, LDS Church Archives, Salt Lake City, Utah, 56-58; see also Lyndon W. Cook, The Revelations of the Prophet Joseph Smith (Salt Lake City, Utah: Deseret Book, 1981), 187-88)

John Murdock:

During the winter that I boarded with[Bro[ther] Joseph... we had a number of prayer meetings, in the Prophet’s chamber.... In one of those meetings the Prophet told us if we could humble ourselves before God, and exersise [sic] strong faith, we should see the face of the Lord. And about midday the visions of my mind were opened, and the eyes of my understanding were enlightened, and I saw the form of a man, most lovely, the visage of his face was sound and fair as the sun. His hair a bright silver grey, curled in a most majestic form, His eyes a keen penetrating blue, and the skin of his neck a most beautiful white and he was covered from the neck to the feet with a loose garment, pure white, whiter than any garment I had ever before seen. His countenance was the most penetrating, and yet most lovely. And while I was endeavoring to comprehend the whole personage from head to feet it slipped from me, and the vision was closed up. But it left on my mind the impression of love, for months, that I never felt before to that degree.(John Murdock, autobiography and diary, 13, L. Tom Perry Special Collections, Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah).

Also later references to "one God" can be found that apparently caused no stir. On March 15, 1844, the Times and Seasons  published a reference: "There is one God who presides over the destinies of all nations and individuals, both religiously and politically, and numbers of the hairs of all our heads." The editors apparently saw no problem.