Examining "Gospel Principles" Part 1: Our Premortal Life with God...

This is the first post of what I anticipate will be many, each examining the teachings of the Mormon church explained in their book Gospel Principles, a manual that is used to teach the members of their church their doctrines and beliefs. I was introduced to this book and given a copy a few weeks ago when I attended the Mormon church in town. I guess I'll try and be as systematic as possible - working through unit by unit and chapter by chapter - in an attempt to lay out the differences, hopefully generating some discussion and interaction along the way.

Here goes!

Chapter 1 - "Our Heavenly Father"

This chapter begins with the logical reasoning that as a result of all that can be observed through the physical universe (plants, animals, mountains, rivers, clouds, rain, snow, stars etc.) it provides us with sufficient evidence of a creator, whom the Bible identifies as God. There is no disagreement here (obviously!) but the book only references the book of Mormon when there are significant passages from the Bible that demonstrate this point.

For example, Romans 1:20,

"For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities - his eternal power and divine nature - have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse (New International Version, NIV)." [The NIV is the translation I use the most, but can switch to KJV if preferred!]

Or Psalm 19:1,

"The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands (NIV)."

It seems to me that often the Book of Mormon is quoted significantly more than the Bible, even though Mormons would claim that both are revelation from God. Maybe I'm being a little sensitive or jumping to a conclusion too quickly, yet my experience suggests that although the Bible and Book of Mormon are considered equal, the latter receives most of the attention.

The first major difference in teaching comes on the second page of chapter 1:

"Because we are made in his image [God], we know that God has a body that looks like ours. His eternal spirit is housed in a tangible body of flesh and bones. God's body, however, is perfected and glorified, with a glory beyond all description."

This is not a teaching that is found in the Bible. Jesus specifically stated, in John 4:24 - "God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth."

"But," one might add, "what about all those places in the Bible where it talks about God having eye, ears, a face etc. etc. This teaches that God does have a body." This is a good question to ask, but this line of thinking is clearly used today as it has been in the past and it is fraught with some problems...

First we have a contradiction on our hands, for if what Jesus said is true (which we would of course not dispute!) then we have to reconcile all those instances where the Bible speaks of God in human terms. What we need to understand is that these are metaphorical terms, or anthropomorphic terms, that God has used in His Word to describe himself to us in a way that we can understand. If we were to take literally all of the descriptions that we read of God in the Old and New Testaments, we would have to conclude that God is a lion, a lamb, an eagle, a fire, a rock, a hen, a fountain, the sun, a shield, a shadow, and a temple. While God is described using these different terms to communicate something of his attributes to us, he certainly is not all of these things physically.

Moreover, to apply these principles of Biblical interpretation even further, as one individual points out, we would also have to think of Jesus as a door, a shepherd, a vine, a loaf of bread, and so on.

We must take the utmost care to ensure that our beliefs and teachings line up with the Bible and if they do not, we must disregard them...

A final note for this chapter is an alarming one - a statement that I actually just noticed but missed the first couple of times through.

Quoting once again from Gospel Principles, "All good things come from God. Everything that he does is to help his children become like him - a god."

To be honest, I barely even know where to begin with this...a teaching such as this is diametrically opposed to anything laid out in the Bible. God alone is God and there is no other like him. I don't understand why such language would even be used, language that exalts man in such a way. God created us for His glory, that we might glorify and magnify Him in all that we do (Isaiah 43:5-7), He did not create us so that we would be glorified in the sense that we would be a god like He is.

That's all for this chapter and probably best that I refrain from adding more at this point! Awaiting feeback...

..Sean