And now behold, I say unto you that the right way is to believe in Christ, and deny him not; and Christ is the Holy One of Israel; wherefore ye must bow down before him, and worship him with all your might, mind, and strength, and your whole soul; and if ye do this ye shall in nowise be cast out.--2 Nephi 25:29But the common Mormon response and interpretation is that "worship" means being "in awe of" and "honor." This can be summed up with former LDS member of the Quorum of the Twelve, "Apostle/Elder" Bruce R McConkie who stated:
1. We worship the Father and him only and no one else.So to be clear, Mormons only worship "Heavenly Father." Not the Son, and certainly not the Holy Ghost--a person Mormons do not even know where He came from (The Father, a brother of the Father, somewhere else?)
We do not worship the Son, and we do not worship the Holy Ghost. I know perfectly well what the scriptures say about worshipping Christ and Jehovah, but they are speaking in an entirely different sense—the sense of standing in awe and being reverentially grateful to him who has redeemed us. Worship in the true and saving sense is reserved for God the first, the Creator.--Bruce R McConkie, Our Relationship with the Lord, March 2, 1982
The problem with the usual Mormon interpretation of this verse is that it does fine to explain away one word--worship, but does nothing to explain the rest of the verse that says, "worship him with all your might, mind, and strength." This is obviously something the Bible says about God the Father, a point some LDS know so they construe the verse as being about worship the Father in "Jesus' Name" though the verse is strictly about Jesus. If you are told to worship Jesus with all that you have--your might, mind, and strength, what else is left? That is everything, which means that is the same worship that the Father is to be given! Even, the Doctrine and Covenants, another one of the many Mormon additions to Scripture refers to the same verse in the Torah Deuteronomy 6 when it says:
Therefore, O ye that embark in the service of God, see that ye serve him with all your heart, might, mind and strength, that ye may stand blameless before God at the last day.--Doctrine and Covenants 4:2And again in,
“Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy might, mind, and strength; and in the name of Jesus Christ thou shalt serve him”--Doctrine and Covenants 59:5To a Mormon when the D&C says "God" that means "heavenly Father." So why is Jesus being given worship that Mormons say should only be given to Heavenly Father? To make things even more confusing--to the LDS Jehovah is the Old Testament name of Jesus, which the D&C often just uses "Lord" for. D&C 59:5 also seems to contradict 2 Nephi 25:29 which says to worship Jesus with all your might, mind and strength, but here in D&C 59:5 it makes a distinction between "Lord the God" and "Jesus Christ" that it says you worship God in the name of. But if we were to look at Deuteronomy 6:4 in Hebrew it uses the word transliterated as Jehovah.
And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.
וְאָהַבְתָּ, אֵת יְהוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ, בְּכָל-לְבָבְךָ וּבְכָל-נַפְשְׁךָ, וּבְכָל-מְאֹדֶךָיְהוָה is the Hebrew spelling for LORD/Jehovah/YHWH. So, the verse is saying to worship Jesus, is we accept the LDS interpretation Jehovah=Jesus. LDS.org on who Jehovah is, in the
Jesus Christ and the Everlasting Gospel Teacher Manual, 2015 states:
"In testifying of the Savior Jesus Christ, modern prophets have declared: “He was the Great Jehovah of the Old Testament” (“The Living Christ: The Testimony of the Apostles,” Ensign or Liahona, Apr. 2000, 2). Jesus Christ, as Jehovah, established Heavenly Father’s everlasting gospel on the earth in every dispensation of time in order to gather in every one of God’s children who were lost."--Lesson 5: Jesus Christ Was Jehovah of the Old Testament. Jesus Christ and the Everlasting Gospel Teacher Manual, 2015But, even if we were to pretend Jehovah is not meant in the verse in 2 Nephi 25:29, it still renders to Jesus something Latter Day Saint theology says is reserved for Heavenly Father alone.
What a great post, I'm always entertained and edified by your finds. I would add that many Protestants don't think we should pray to Jesus or the Holy Spirit, especially since the Bible doesn't tell us to. So that's a strike against Sola Scriptura and it makes them sound close to Mormon in this regard.
ReplyDeleteYou are right that they see Jesus as "Jehovah" in the OT while they see the Father as "Elohim" in the OT, which obviously supports your claim in that the Shema has Jehovah being worshiped. I would also add that Mormons don't really consider the Holy Spirit as God in any sense, because for them to be God you need a body, and you need to be able to "progress to godhood". So the Holy Spirit in their "theology" is a mystery (in the bad sense).
My theory about your 2 Nephi quote is akin to my new blog post on Jesus in the Quran. Namely, that the original Mormonism and Islam were closer to Christianity and were later taken over by those with another agenda. In the case of Mormonism, I recall you had a post a while back showing that Joseph Smith's son was JS's true successor, and that there was a schism with Brigham Young taking over the larger share of Mormons and taking them to Utah and inventing a new Mormonism.
Just an FYI for presentability on your blog: You should use click on the paragrph option that "distributes" the sentences across the page, and the title of your quote from McConkie "1. We worship the Father and him only and no one else." is in White so it doesn't show up properly on the blog.
you: "I would add that many Protestants don't think we should pray to Jesus or the Holy Spirit, especially since the Bible doesn't tell us to."
Deleteme: I have met a few Protestants that believe this too, most I think do pray to Jesus and maybe the Spirit but do not even think about it. The only verse that seems to instruct prayer to Jesus is John 14:14 which has a variant, JWs wiggle out of based on it. There is one clear example of Jesus being prayed to, but JWs and Mormons get out of it saying that St Stephen in Acts 7:59 SAW Jesus so its ok to ask Him something. There is little explicit reference in the Bible for praying to the Son, I have yet to come across ANY for the Holy Spirit. There's not place in the NT giving explicit command to worship Christ with Divine Service latreu, the closest is Revelation 22 but it has awkward grammar and is unclear, then theres an LXX variant in Daniel 7. The Holy Spirit however, has even less mentioned.
you:"You are right that they see Jesus as "Jehovah" in the OT while they see the Father as "Elohim" in the OT, which obviously supports your claim in that the Shema has Jehovah being worshiped."
me: Their idea is probably based on 1 Corinthians 8:6 where the Father is called "God" and the Son "Lord," but the LDS go to far and make it illogical. I saw a comment that the LDS cannot make a systematic theology since theres nothing logical about it.
As far as the "Holy Ghost" since to the LDS the Holy Ghost is a person, but the Holy Spirit is not a person, but the "light of Christ." The issue if the Holy Ghost is a god is unclear to Mormons. They will have no problem saying he is part of the Godhead, or saying Father, Son and Holy Ghost is one God, some will call the Holy Ghost "a god," others don't know what to say, as I mention some suspect He is Elohim's brother! But yes, logically the Ghost did not follow the procedures mentioned in D&C 132 and the King Follet Discourse, and neither did Jesus, they both follow the rules in reverse. A teacher of the Institute told me they believe that Jesus was exempt since he was the "pure Son of God" which is strange since no one in LDS theology has original sin, and not everyone was evil in the "pre-existence"
you: My theory about your 2 Nephi quote is akin to my new blog post on Jesus in the Quran. Namely, that the original Mormonism and Islam were closer to Christianity and were later taken over by those with another agenda. In the case of Mormonism, I recall you had a post a while back showing that Joseph Smith's son was JS's true successor, and that there was a schism with Brigham Young taking over the larger share of Mormons and taking them to Utah and inventing a new Mormonism.
Deleteme: Actually when Joseph Smith died there were SEVERAL competing successors, one named James Strange claimed to have found MORE golden plates with another sacred lost book and claimed to be a prophet. Then the hilarious/sad thing is Joseph did seem to appoint successors, like his brother Hyrum--but he was killed by the same mob Joseph was! Joseph seemed to say his first son would be involved in translation--but that son died shortly after birth, then he had other kids like Joseph III who claimed to succeed his dad when he came old enough. Sidney Ridgon was Joseph's right hand man in the D&C and ran for President of the USA (not the church) along side Joseph Smith! But he was excommunicated like many early Mormon leaders. There's articles on who should succeed Joseph https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sidney_Rigdon
Mormon stories has a great youtube on this http://www.mormonstories.org/a-visual-history-of-the-community-of-christ-rlds/
Thought Brigham did start a sort of new Mormonism, the fact is Joseph was responsible for much of it, in his early career he taught both modalism in his Joseph Smith Translation "The Father is the Son," and the BoM seems in places to also "The Father, Son, and Holy Ghost which IS one God." Later on in the Pearl of Great Price he refers in one account of creation as "the Gods organizing" which was about he time of the King Follet Discourse where he taught the Mormon theosis and eternal progression. Joseph contradicts his own "revelations" a lot, so much so that Mormons studying their theology/history break the doctrine down to what town the Mormons were in at the time! "The Nauvoo period" "Kirtland period" etc. Each Mormon movement after Joseph picked and choose which of Joseph teachings they wanted to keep. THe RLDS/community of Christ rejected several of Joseph's translations of the Pearl of Great Price for example, but use the BoM in some form along with some form of the D&C and Joseph Smith translation. Brigham Young while president of the church also rejected a number of Joseph's translations, but once he died the church accepted them. Young was less politically driven than Smith--though Young was governor of the Utah territory. Joseph on the other hand had himself crowned King of the Earth by a secret council of fifty. Some LDS groups also thing of Joseph as a "fallen prophet" --I think I made a post about this before, because the D&C originally had a passage saying the translation of the Book of Mormon was Joseph's ONLY GIFT and he should NOT pretend to have another--yet subsequent version heavily edited this to make it so it was only his FIRST gift.
Thanks for the editing tip! I did not notice it!