Jesus Christ

Mormons worship God as their Heavenly Father. They know Him to be a kind and loving God who knows them well and wants only the best for them. He has given them every opportunity to return home to Him without intruding on their agency.

Our relationship with God began before we were born. He created our spirits, making Him very literally our Father. Then we lived with Him for a time, and He got to know us and we got to know Him. When he created this home on earth and sent us here, He wasn’t sending away strangers. He sent away children He knew and loved, and so He misses them and wants them home again, as does any parent who sends a child out into the world.

Mormons view God as a parent, and a perfect one at that. Therefore, He deals with us as would any good parent. He leaves us to make our own choices in life after giving us guidelines to follow. He expects us to take care of ourselves as far as we are able, in order to help us become all we can be, and He gives consequences for behavior.

Mormons also teach that God has a body of flesh and bone, like our own, but perfected and glorified. The Bible teaches us that we were created in God’s image, and of course, children always do resemble their parents physically. A puppy looks like a dog, and a human baby looks like a human-like its own father and mother. Jesus received a body when He came to earth, and when He was resurrected, it was restored to Him in its newly perfected form. His resurrection, and the saving power of grace, allows each of us the same privilege in time.

Because Mormons love their Father in Heaven, they want to become like Him. They work hard to learn what He is like, and what He wants of them, and then they work to emulate Him. Because Jesus Christ taught that if we had seen Him, we had also seen the Father, we can learn much about God by studying how the Savior lived His life. This gives us a model of how we ourselves can live.

Mormons do not believe in the Nicene Council doctrine that God, Jesus, and the Holy Ghost are one being physically. Instead, they follow the Biblical teaching that Jesus is literally the only begotten Son of the Father, and that They are one in purpose and doctrine. They are entirely unified. The Bible frequently talks about people being one, and it is always meant for them to be unified, not for them to combine their beings.

11 But all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will.

12 For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ.

13 For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.

14 For the body is not one member, but many. (Corinthians 12)

From this chapter in the Bible, we can see what is meant. Clearly, we’re not really one body. We’re simply unified in our purposes, doctrines, and faith.

For Mormons, God is very real, very loving, and very personal.