No. 25. >> I was intrigued with Nick's question about the Fourth Century heresy to air Gus. And the relationship with that error of the teaching of Jehovah's Witnesses. It leaves me to want to ask a similar question: Have the Mormons preserved the heresy of Arias? And do Mormons believe in the one true God? >>DR. THOMAS E. MANTEUFEL: This body began in 1830 with the publication of the Book of Mormon. And with the organization of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which began at that time with just six members. But it has grown since that time to over 10 million people throughout the world. And in fact, it is the largest of all of the cults with which we have to contend. I call it a cult because as we shall see, it definitely is not a Christian body in its teaching. The founder of this body was Joseph Smith, who claimed all his life to be a prophet who was receiving revelations from God and visions and appearances from God. The church which he founded now has its headquarters in Salt Lake City, Utah. But he lived in New York in the beginning part of his life. And he claimed that God the Father and God the Son appeared to him in the grove near his boyhood home in pal Myra New York. And that they told him that none of the existing churches on earth was the true church that had been founded by God the Son. That it had disappeared from the face of the earth. And they commissioned him to restore the true church. And this he did in 1830. He also claimed that a heavenly being by the name of Moroni appeared to him and showed where certain golden plates were buried near his home. And these plates he said were engraved with the words of an ancient language. He said that he was given divine help in translating these words and the result was the Book of Mormon. He published his translation of the Book of Mormon in 1830. And that he called a new holy book, which was to be added to the Bible as the Word of God. Of course this gives the Mormons their nickname, Mormon. That is to say they are the Mormon people. But their more official name is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Which, of course, they claim to be the one true church. It is the church of Jesus Christ. Joseph Smith has restored the true church. Now, the fact of the matter is that Mormons do not recognize the true God that is described in Scripture. They recognize the existence of deity. And they refer to God the Father, and God the Son and God the Holy Ghost in their alleged revelations and teachings. But it's not biblical. They teach that there are many gods. And they say that the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost are three gods who form a special group of gods called the Godhead. And they say that these three can be called one not in the sense of being one in essence, which they share, but rather, one simply in the sense of being united in their purposes and action. This, of course, is contrary to what the Bible says in many places like in Isaiah 45:5, which says: I, the Lord -- I am the Lord. There is none beside me. There is no God beside me. Now, the Mormons hold that every one of the gods that they speak of is a glorified man Joseph Smith said: God himself was once as we are now. And is an exalted man. You've got to learn how to be gods yourselves. The same as all gods have done before you. This idea is at the very heart of Latter-day Saints theology. And it lays the foundation of their ultimate hope. They often quote the saying which they said was given by revelation to them: As man is, God once was. As God is, man may become. And when they use the name "God," they usually mean God the Father, who is one of the gods. But they recognize that the Son is also a god. And that there are many other gods. They say in one of their books of revelation: The Father has a body of flesh and bone as tangible as man. So had a what they are saying is that God was once a man on one of the inhabited planets of the universe. And he was born to another god and goddess. And he by a life of holiness earned Godhood for himself. This, of course, is completely contrary to what the Bible says. For example, in Hosea 11:9: I am God and not man. They regularly say that God the Father, is the eternal father. But by that they do not mean that he didn't have a beginning. Because, as I just said, they do teach that God the Father, was born at a certain point long, long ago. And that before that he didn't have a beginning. But what they mean by the phrase "eternal father" is that he doesn't have an end. And they also mean that God the Father at one point died and has been resurrected. And therefore, he is now a glorified resurrected being who will never die again. And therefore, he is eternal. Of course, this also is contrary to what the Bible says about God. Because he is from everlasting to everlasting. Psalm 90. God the Father has at least one wife, probably many wives, by whom he has many children. These children are really our own souls. Our souls are the spirit children of God. And when they, the Mormons, speak about spirit children, they are talking about beings that actually have bodies which are made of a very refined type of matter, which is what spirit is. And these spirit bodies they say have forms and limbs that look like our physical bodies. The two most important sons that were born to God the Father are Christ the Son of God and God the Holy Ghost. They, too, earned the right to become gods. And they -- and so they are really exalted men. The Mormons teach a number of things about the Son of God, that is about Christ, which are contrary to what the Bible actually teaches. They say, for example, that he received a body upon earth by the sexual with relations of God the Father with Mary. And they say that she is a virgin only in the sense that she did not have sex with any mortal man. But she did have sex with an immortal man. Namely, God the Father. And in this way the body of Jesus was brought into being. They also say that Jesus was married. And that the wedding at Cana in John 2 was actually his own wedding. They say he was married to Mary and Martha and perhaps to others. All of this is completely contrary to what the Bible actually says about Jesus. The Bible says definitely that Jesus did not come into being at one point as a person and as a conscious identity. But that he has always existed. He himself said in John 8:58: Before Abraham was, I am. He is the one that just has always been. Now, you asked about Arias, whether the Mormons also follow the heresy of Arias. And we can answer that question yes. The Mormons also honor Arias as a defender of true doctrine. They say that he recognized that the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are three distinct beings, even though the last two are of lower rank than the first one, the Father. And also he recognized that these three persons do not share a divine essence with each other. Milton Backman, who is a well known Mormon historian, has written a book called "American Religions and the Rise of Mormonism." And there he gives a very favorable treatment to Arias in church history. And he says that Arias was fighting against the Council of Nicaea and it's false doctrine that the three beings, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, have one essence. And Backman also notes that Arias taught that the Son was exalted to Godhood. But still remained inferior to the Father. That's also what Mormons teach about God the Son. They say that Arias called the Father eternal. And on this point the Mormons would criticize Arias. They do criticize him. Because while the Mormons also call God the Father, the eternal Father, they mean something different from what Arias did. Arias actually believed that the Father is eternal without beginning. But when the Mormons refer to God as the eternal Father as we saw before, they mean that he was born as a man and worked his way up to Godhood. And is eternal because he will now never die. So to sum up we can say that there are certain agreements which the Mormons have with the teaching of Arias, which I've just mentioned. And also there are certain disagreements which the Mormons have with what Arias taught. First, they think the Son of God was not created by the Father as Arias said. But that rather, he was born as a child of the Father and his wife. And then second, they do call the Father eternal as Arias did. But they mean something different from what Arias did with that. We should also point out that there are certain agreements between Arias and the Jehovah's Witnesses and the Latter-day Saints. Things which they all teach. For one thing, they all teach that the Father and the Son are distinct persons. But do not share a common divine essence. And then secondly, all three say that the Son of God is a god in the sense of being an exalted finite being. Now, the Latter-day Saints expand on this beyond Arias to teach that this is what all gods are. That is to say exalted finite beings. And that even the Father is simply an exalted finite being. Here we should say that the Latter-day Saints do not have a proper concept of the biblical God as an eternal and infinite being. But that rather, they certainly teach a false god.