Joseph Smith, Mormonism’s founder said,
"I have always declared God to be a distinct personage,
Jesus Christ a separate and distinct personage from God
the Father, and that the Holy Ghost was a distinct
personage and a Spirit: and these three
constitute three distinct personages and three Gods."
LDS scripture also says, "The Father has a body of flesh
and bones as tangible as man’s; the Son also; but the
Holy Ghost has not a body of flesh and bones, but is a
personage of Spirit. Were it not so, the Holy
Ghost could not dwell in us" (Doctrine & Covenants
130:22). Joseph Smith also taught that "The Holy Ghost
is yet a spiritual body and waiting to take to
himself a body as the Saviour did or as God did or
the gods before them took bodies" (From the Diary
of George Laub, p. 29; as published in Discourses on
the Holy Ghost, p. 73, compiled by N. B. Lundwall).
Notice that Mormonism says that the Holy Ghost is a
God just like God the Father and Son are Gods, but
the Holy Ghost is a personage of Spirit still
waiting to get a body while God the Father and Son have
bodies of "flesh and bones as tangible as man’s."
However, Mormonism also teaches that in
order to become a God, one must advance through
the steps of eternal progression as Milton R. Hunter
shows in The Gospel Through The Ages, pages
127-129. Those steps include: existence first as an
eternal intelligence; then he must be born of Heavenly
Parents as a baby spirit in a pre-mortal world; still
later he must be born of mortal parents with a body of
flesh and bones on an earth where in time he will die;
later he will be resurrected and judged to determine if
he has obeyed all of the laws and ordinances of the LDS
gospel, including being married in an LDS Temple for all
eternity while here on earth. If everything is in order,
he can become a God.
Joseph Fielding Smith, the tenth LDS
Prophet said, "Celestial (or temple) Marriage
makes Gods in eternity." And then he said,
"Marriage, like baptism, is an ordinance which has to be
performed in this (mortal) life" (Doctrines of
Salvation, vol. II, pp. 62, 72). Smith also
declared, "In that former (pre-mortal) state the great
plan of salvation was presented, and we longingly waited
for the time to come when we could pass on to
mortality, knowing that in no other way could
perfection come" (The Way to Perfection, p.
28). The perfection he referred to is the LDS concept of
exaltation to Godhood.
W. Cleon Skousen, a former BYU professor
said, "Mortality made it possible for us to be
endowed with the powers of procreation for the first
time…The divine power of procreation is described by
the Lord as being a fundamental quality of Godhood. In
fact, eternal parenthood is Godhood" (The
First 2000 Years, pp. 39-40). Skousen used
Doctrine & Covenants Sec. 132: 19-20 to teach
eternal parenthood, but that section also teaches
polygamy.
The above teachings raise some important
questions about Mormonism’s view of the Holy Ghost. If
there is "no other way" to perfection and Godhood
except through mortality (having a body of flesh and
bone) as Joseph Fielding Smith said, how did the Holy
Ghost become a God if He is still waiting to get a
body? Smith also said, "Marriage makes Gods
in eternity" and marriage can only be performed by
mortals here on earth, so how did the Holy Ghost get
to be a God without first becoming a mortal and being
married for all eternity?
Skousen said it is mortality that made
procreation possible, but the Holy Ghost is still
waiting to get a mortal body, so how can He be a
parent or a God? Since Skousen said "eternal
parenthood is Godhood," does the Holy Ghost have a wife
and children?
A manual for Mormons published by the LDS
Church and copyrighted by the LDS President says that
Satan rebelled against God in the pre-mortal spirit
world and
There was war in heaven… Satan and all
the spirits that followed him were sent away from the
presence of God. One third of the spirits in heaven
followed Satan. They were cast down from heaven. Satan
and those who followed him were punished. They were
denied the right to receive mortal bodies. We are
here on the earth and have mortal bodies of flesh
and bone. Because we are here on earth and
have mortal bodies we know that we chose to
follow Jesus Christ and our Heavenly Father. Satan and
his followers are also on the earth, but as spirits
(Gospel Principles, pp. 16-17).
If the Holy Ghost is a personage of
Spirit and doesn’t have a body, did He follow Satan
during the war in heaven? Since the Holy Ghost is still
waiting to get a body, have we mortals with
bodies of flesh and bone on earth advanced beyond Him?
These and other questions about the Holy Ghost need to
be answered by Mormons.
Mormonism also makes a distinction
between the Holy Ghost and the Holy Spirit. LDS Apostle
John Widtsoe said, "The Holy Ghost, sometimes called the
Comforter, is the third member of the Godhead, and is a
personage, distinct from the Holy Spirit. As a
personage, the Holy Ghost cannot any more than the
Father and Son be everywhere present in person." He also
said, "The chief agent or agency by which the Holy Ghost
accomplishes his work, is usually spoken of as the Holy
Spirit or the Spirit of God. It is a universe-filling
medium, or influence" (Evidences and Reconciliations,
pp. 76, 62). Joseph Fielding Smith further explains, "We
should speak of the Holy Ghost as a personage as ‘he’
and this other Spirit as ‘it’" (Doctrines of
Salvation vol. I, p. 50).
The problem with such teaching is that in
the original Greek language "Ghost" and "Spirit" is the
same word, so it cannot apply to two different entities!
"Ghost" was an old English translation that meant what
spirit means today. That is why modern Bible versions
only mention the Holy Spirit. None of the things
Mormonism teaches about the Holy Ghost come from the
Bible. And if it didn’t come from the Bible it is not
Christian doctrine. And if the LDS doctrine is not
Christian doctrine, can Mormonism be Christian?
Those who want to read more about the LDS
concept of the Holy Ghost may do so in Discourses on
the Holy Ghost, compiled by N. B. Lundwall,
published by Bookcraft in Salt Lake City, UT in 1960.
Next time we will discuss more LDS teachings about the
Son of God.