The Origins of God

Q. The origins of God

Wow that’s a big topic; perhaps too big for us mortals to deal with. The creation stories of many cultures begin with the gods already in place. The Jewish/Christian story is one such example Geneses 1:1 “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” The Greeks with their highly developed mythology explored the question of where their gods originated; Edith Hamilton in her book Mythology begins by stating: “The Greeks did not believe that the gods created the universe. It was the other way about: the universe created the gods. Before there were gods heaven and earth had been formed. They were the first parents. The Titans were their children, and the gods were their grandchildren. Yet that still leaves the mystery of how the heaven and earth were formed and who might have had a hand in that process.

Every good story needs a beginning. A puzzle I used to present to my high school history students was: “What should the starting date of United State’s History be?” I would get dates  as recent as 1776 and as old as 30,000 BC. Another thing to consider is that for a story to make sense we have to be able to understand it. So the story in the scriptures begins with God in place and creating the world, and there isn’t much detail about the physics of the whole exercise.

Mormons believe in prophets and continuing revelation. From my study it appears that every age or so one of the main prophets gets the “Big Revelation”. They get to take a glimpse of the whole story and sometimes it can help us gain a better understanding of the eternal perspective. One of these revelations was given to Moses and is recorded in the Book of Moses found in the Pearl of Great Price. Allow me to capture the essence of the conversation as it was later revealed to Joseph Smith which is in Chapter 1.

God introduces himself to Moses and tells him that he is eternal and that his works and his words are endless and that no man can behold all his works or his glory and remain in the flesh. The Lord did however show Moses this world and all the children of men which were created. After a brief interlude the vision is again opened up to Moses and Moses begins to question how all these things could be. God then gives him the short answer to the question saying that all these things were created “by the word of my power, which is his Only Begotten Son.” He then says that, “worlds without number have I created; and I also created them for mine own purpose”. Essentially telling Moses that the vision of the earth on which we dwell is all he’s going to go into and that the bigger picture is just too much for Moses to comprehend.

So for our purposes all we need to consider is that God the Father exists and is eternal, that he has created the earth and the people of the earth through the power of the Son. We also know why He did it: “For behold, this is my work and my glory—to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man” (Moses 1:39). Of course our curious minds want to know more details and some hints are available both in the scriptures and through modern revelation, but it isn’t terribly important to our salvation, which we probably should be more focused on. We are asked to live by faith, which means trusting God before we have all the details.

So that is what Mormons believe…

…as for what they speculate: that belongs on a different website.

Who should take the sacrament?

Q: What actions or thoughts would prevent one from taking the sacrament? Obviously killing a person, stealing, coveting someone who is not your married other, are all things that would prevent it, especially if one does not have any remorse for their actions but, is there any thing else and what severity are they at? Could just the desire alone without the action cause impurity unworthy of the sacrament?

 

A:  For those who are not members of the church, see this post.  For people who are Mormons already, I would answer that taking the sacrament is a very personal experience.  I hesitate to give any members of the church opinions on whether they should or should not take it.  The only person, besides yourself, who can tell you not take the sacrament would be the bishop.  He would recommend that as part of a disciplinary measure for something fairly serious.  If you have any sort of question about a specific thing that you have done that you think is serious enough to fall in that category, you need to just ask the bishop about it.

But after reading your question, it seems like you understand about the serious things, and you want to know some opinions about things that are less serious, like desiring to do something bad, or being not right with the Lord in your heart somehow.  Luckily, the sacrament prayers themselves come with a pretty good answer.  The person giving the prayer describes to God what you will be doing when you take the bread or water.  For the bread, it says that those who partake witness before God:

“…that they are willing to take upon them the name of thy Son, and always remember him and keep his commandments which he has given them.”

And for the water:

“that they may witness unto thee, O God, the Eternal Father, that they do always remember him.”  (Doctrine and Covenants 20: 77,79)

As always, this is just the opinion of one Mormon, but I believe that if during the sacrament you consider that you are willing to (in other words, if you want to) take upon yourself the name of Christ and always remember him and keep his commandments, you should witness that to God by taking the sacrament.  It has little to do with specific things you have done, and very much to do with what you want to do now and in the future.

The Joseph Smith Translation of the Bible (JST)

Q. Why does the LDS use the KJV of the Bible and not the Inspired Version that Joseph Smith translated himself? I am a member of a Baptist church now but  I grew up and was in the RLDS. I still have my three-in-one and and I find that the inspired version speaks to me more and I get more out of it than any other translation there is.  I eagerly await your reply. Oh and although I am a Baptist now, I do not agree with people claiming Mormons and other LDS-based churches are not Christians and I respect what your church as done over the years. Keep up the good work; I know you are winning souls for Jesus. -Ivan

A. Thank you for your kind words, Ivan. I’m glad you are reading from the Inspired Version. I agree that it’s a tremendous resource for Bible study and worship and I pray you will continue to study it.

For the rest of our readers, let me explain a few things about your question before I get to the answer:

RLDS is an acronym for the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, now known as the Community of Christ, an off-shoot religion based on the one Joseph Smith founded in 1830. When the prophet Joseph Smith, Jr. was martyred in 1844, there was some confusion among the latter-day saints who should rise to lead them as the next prophet and president of the Church. A majority recognized the prophetic mantle had fallen upon Brigham Young and followed him west to the Utah desert. Some believed that eleven-year-old Joseph Smith III was supposed to succeed his father; this group remained in Illinois and eventually coalesced into the RLDS Church in 1860.

The Inspired Version of the Bible is also known as the Joseph Smith Translation (JST). It is an English-language translation of the Holy Bible based upon the King James Version (KJV). More details to follow.

A Three-in-One is a printing of the RLDS scriptures, including the Inspired Version of the Bible (JST), the Book of Mormon, and the Book of Doctrine and Covenants. It is similar to an LDS Quad, except we have four books (including the Pearl of Great Price), our Doctrine & Covenants is a bit different, and our Bible is KJV instead of JST. This is what prompted Ivan’s question (why don’t Mormons use JST?)

The Joseph Smith Translation

When Joseph Smith translated the Book of Mormon, he learned that the Bible was incomplete. An angel taught the Book of Mormon prophet-king Nephi that, “when [the Bible] proceeded forth from the mouth of a Jew it contained the fulness of the gospel of the Lord, [but corrupt groups] have taken away from the gospel of the Lamb many parts which are plain and most precious; and also many covenants of the Lord have they taken away” (1 Nephi 13:24,26). In other words, the Bible lost some of its original teachings over the centuries and it needed to be corrected.

Fortunately, God’s work cannot be thwarted. Jesus taught, “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away” (Matthew 24:35). After Joseph had completed his translation of the Book of Mormon by the gift and power of God, the Lord instructed him to do a similar work on the Holy Bible, but instead of being a translation from one language to another, it would be a translation from corruption to purity by the gift and power of God. In many instances, the original writings of the ancients were restored. Some of the changes Joseph implemented were meant to give verses a “plainer” meaning (clarifying archaic phrases or harmonizing doctrines), and a majority were simply grammatical improvements.

One of the most significant changes was made to Genesis. Instead of starting with “In the beginning…”, the JST opens with an encounter Moses had with God on Mount Sinai. Moses asks the Lord about the earth and why it was created. The Lord shows Moses a vision of the seven days of creation, and of Adam and Eve, etc. At this point, it jumps into the familiar KJV story, and it also includes more details on various other things, including the mysterious character named Enoch, who “walked with God” (Genesis 5:24). This section of the JST is included in the Pearl of Great Price and is known as the Book of Moses. You can (and should!) read the Book of Moses. It gives wonderful insights into the fall of Adam and Eve, knowledge of the plan of redemption in ancient times, the purpose of life and much more.

There are many other JST changes throughout the length of the Bible. Most of the doctrinally-relevant ones can be found in the LDS edition of the Bible (in the footnotes, or in an appendix for lengthier passages). The full text is also available online at this link.

How Do Mormons Use the JST?

The Joseph Smith translation is not the official Bible of the LDS Church; the King James Version is. Among the reasons for this are the following:

  • It was never formally published by Joseph Smith. Although he clearly worked his way through the entire Bible by 1833, he was still making minor edits at the time he was killed in 1844, and it is unclear in some cases whether the notes he left in his margins and on his manuscripts were private thoughts or revealed truths.
  • At Joseph’s death, the manuscripts for the JST were in the possession of his widow, Emma. As Brigham Young was preparing to move the latter-day saints west, he requested that she provide them to him but he was denied (Emma had some animosity toward Brigham that led her to stay in Illinois; she became part of the RLDS Church when it was formed).
  • When the RLDS Church began publishing the Inspired Version, LDS Church leaders in Utah were suspicious that the RLDS publishers may have made some illegitimate changes. Decades later, they finally allowed the Utah Mormons to examine the original manuscripts and their fears were allayed.
  • For many years the RLDS Church maintained the copyright.

Even though the KJV is the LDS official Bible, the Book of Moses and the JST of Matthew 24 are officially canonized in the Pearl of Great Price. And, like I mentioned above, we have footnotes (I highlighted all of mine with green colored pencil) and an appendix full of JST notes as valuable resources to study. So, Ivan, we do believe in and study the Inspired Version.

The JST is a tremendous blessing for anyone seeking a better understanding of Bible teachings; I encourage you to use it often in your Bible study.

How does the baptism process work?

Q: I have not met with any missionaries yet, but after researching the LDS faith then praying about it, I learned it was the truth.  It was such a moving spiritual experience, and I wept with joy when it was confirmed to be to be the truth.  I was overcome with peace and joy.  I purchased a copy of the BOM and have started to read it and listen to it (on my iPod).  I know I wish to be baptized.  I understand that I need to meet with the missionaries and attend church.  I just wondered, that as I already know the truth, and wish to be baptized, how quickly this would happen.  And thank you for your very helpful website.

A: This is absolutely wonderful!  I am so happy to hear that you have experienced that unexplainable joy that a person feels when Heavenly Father answers the sincere prayer to know if The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is the truth.  And how wonderful to hear that you wish to be baptized, because you know the truth.

You are correct, you do need to meet with the missionaries and attend church.  Also they will teach you a handful of lessons about the fundamental teachings of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  They will also ask you to do a few things: commit to live the Word of Wisdom, commit to pay tithing, commit to only having sexual relations with your spouse to whom you are lawfully married (live the law of chastity), and also attend church.

To answer your question specifically, as you already have received an answer to your prayers and desire to be baptized, together you will schedule a day for your baptism as soon as you are ready and meet the requirements in the previous paragraph.  It could be in four or five days (enough time to teach you the lessons), or it could be in a few weeks.  The missionaries will help you to make this decision.

Prior to your baptism you will have an interview with one of the missionaries who will ask you some specific questions about your decision to be baptized and your acceptance of Jesus Christ as your savior and your desire to be one of his disciples. In addition, you will be asked if you are living the commandments you have been asked to live.  You may also be asked to meet with the bishop or branch president of your local congregation before your baptism.

After this interview process, your baptism will occur.  Oftentimes, baptisms are held at a local church where there is a small pool (font) specifically for baptisms.  If you are in an area where there isn’t a font available, the baptism might be held at a local pool, in the ocean, or in a river.  The specific location isn’t terribly important, just as long as there is water deep enough for you to be completely immersed in the water. You and the man who will be baptizing you will be dressed in white.  It is important to note that the man baptizing you will have God’s approval to perform this important ordinance for you and since he has God’s approval to do this, God recognizes your baptism as being legitimate. After being welcomed, there will be a song, prayer, and then a talk given on baptism.  Your baptism will then occur.  After which, there is a talk about the gift of the Holy Ghost.

Then one of two things will happen, either everyone will go home and you will be confirmed a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints the next Sunday, or this will occur directly after you are baptized.  This proceeds as follows: a handful of men who have God’s approval to do so, will put their hands on your head and confirm you a member of The Christ of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and bestow upon you the gift of the Holy Ghost.  They will stand around you as you sit on a chair.  One of the men will act as voice for the rest of the group.  I won’t repeat here the first part of this ordinance, as it should be held sacred, but the second part is a blessing that is specifically tailored for your needs and comes by revelation from God to the man acting as voice.

After receiving these two ordinances, baptism and being confirmed a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, your feet are planted solidly in the strait and narrow way that Christ spoke of that leads to eternal life.  There will be many people along your way to help you, but most importantly, you will have the gift of the Holy Ghost, who will be your constant companion as long as you are keeping Christ’s commandments the best that you can and relying upon Him in all that you do.   The Holy Ghost has many roles, but he will provide you with comfort, he will teach you, he testifies of Christ and truth, he warns you of danger, and much more.

I am so excited for you, please let us know when you are baptized.  Please let us know if you have any other questions.  May the Lord bless you!

Here are some links to other articles about baptism:

Repentance before baptism

What does baptism entail?

Baptism

What is a baptismal service like?