Eternally Begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, True God from True God, Begotten not Made, One in Being with the Father?
Mormon doctrine proclaims that Jesus is a God now but that he became a God and was not a God in his own right in the pre-existence! Mormonism does not teach nor profess that Jesus is Eternally Begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, True God from True God, Begotten not Made, One in Being with the Father!
Taken from the concluding portions of:
THE FATHER AND THE SON
A Doctrinal Exposition by The First Presidency and The Twelve
June 30, 1916
James R. Clark, Messages of the First Presidency, Vol.5, p.32 - p.34
"Jesus Christ is not the Father of the spirits who have taken or yet shall take bodies upon this earth, for He is one of them. He is The Son, as they are sons or daughters of Elohim. So far as the stages of eternal progression and attainment have been made known through divine revelation, we are to understand that only resurrected and glorified beings can become parents of spirit offspring. Only such exalted souls have reached maturity in the appointed course of eternal life; and the spirits born to them in the eternal worlds will pass in due sequence through the several stages or estates by which the glorified parents have attained exaltation."
[Jesus is our sprit brother and was not like God the Father in the pre-existence because he could NOT have become a parent of spirit offspring. He has now received all honor and glory and has now progressed to being like the Father but he needed a physical body first just like we do, according to Mormonism.]
“None of these considerations, however, can change in the least degree the solemn fact of the literal relationship of Father and Son between Elohim and Jesus Christ. Among the spirit children of Elohim the firstborn was and is Jehovah or Jesus Christ to whom all others are juniors. Following are affirmative scriptures bearing upon this great truth... In the course of a revelation given through Joseph Smith in May, 1833, the Lord Jesus Christ said as before cited: "And now, verily I say unto you, I was in the beginning with the Father, and am the firstborn" (Doc. & Cov. 93:21). A later verse makes plain the fact that human beings generally were similarly existent in spirit state prior to their embodiment in the flesh: "Ye were also in the beginning with the Father; that which is Spirit, even the Spirit of truth" (verse 23).”
[Sure Jesus was with the Father in the beginning but so we were we as “intelligences”. “Ye were also in the beginning with the Father; that which is Spirit, even the Spirit of truth" (verse 23).” Jesus was not a God in the Beginning, he was an intelligence, a god in embryo, then he bacame the first born spirit child of God the Father and one of His many wives, but Jesus was still not a God.]
"There is no impropriety, therefore, in speaking of Jesus Christ as the Elder Brother of the rest of human kind. That He is by spiritual birth Brother to the rest of us is indicated in Hebrews: "Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people" (Hebrews 2:17). Let it not be forgotten, however, that He is essentially greater than any and all others, by reason (1) of His seniority as the oldest or firstborn; (2) of His unique status in the flesh as the offspring of a mortal mother and of an immortal, or resurrected and glorified, Father; (3) of His selection and foreordination as the one and only Redeemer and Savior of the race; and (4) of His transcendent sinlessness. THE FIRST PRESIDENCY AND THE COUNCIL OF THE TWELVE APOSTLES OF THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER-DAY SAINTS.”
Jesus acted as the Father in the pre-existence through the "divine investiture of authority" but this did not make him a God because "we are to understand that only resurrected and glorified beings can become parents of spirit offspring. Only such exalted souls have reached maturity in the appointed course of eternal life; and the spirits born to them in the eternal worlds will pass in due sequence through the several stages or estates by which the glorified parents have attained exaltation."
Jesus according to Mormonism was not God in the beginning but was only an "intelligence" like the rest of us. A spirit body was created for Jesus by God the Father and one of his wives in the spiritual creation. Jesus received a physical body as part of the physical creation in which we now live. Jesus is therefore a created creature of spirit and then of flesh and bone of God the Father. According to Mormonism, Jesus is not Eternally Begotten of the Father, God from God, but is the Only Begotten Son in the Flesh. Again, not the Eternally Begotten God but the Only Begotten Son in the Flesh. Jesus "achieved" Godhood and now sits at the right hand of the Father in exalted glory and power.
Although I find that Mormon doctrine appears to be internally consistent it is not externally consistent with John 1:1-14. From the people who have responded to my site over the last 16 years I have found it very rare and difficult to find a Mormon who actually understands Mormon doctrine. Most of the Mormon internet apologists who have taken the time to write me have no clue as to the depth and complexity of Mormon thought and how different it can be from main stream Christian doctrine.
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