A editorial review on Understanding Mormonism

This book was written with the hope that it might be of use in explaining Mormonism and the restored Gospel of Christ to the members of other persuasions, and in a way that will be both understandable and technically correct. At the same time, it should help Mormons to better comprehend their own doctrines, and to refute the arguments of would-be detractors that their beliefs are "unbiblical" and "non-Christian."Indeed, it has now become possible--thanks to a flood of new information from the time of the Primitive Church--to show that those Latter-day Saint doctrines which recent "orthodoxy" rejects as "non-Christian" were widely known and essential to early Christians, and were in no way "unbiblical." These included such doctrines as the preexistence of the soul, the Three Degrees of Glory, a non-Trinitarian Godhead, the deification of man, eternal marriage, baptism for the dead, and the basic pattern of the Temple experience, doctrines whose former existence was not even suspected prior to their restoration by Joseph Smith, though they have since been documented by countless independent researchers. Latter-day Saints are privileged to possess these ancient doctrines once again, and should resist the temptation to hide them from the world so as to appear less controversial to "main-line" believers.We shall begin by examining a doctrine which is common to all Christian, namely salvation. Unfortunately, a great deal of confusion arises when different sects attempt to define this important concept, and how it is related to grace, works, judgment and reward To some, salvation means simply 'to be resurrected and enter heaven;' whereas in Scripture it often has the more technical and specific meaning of "redemption from sin" i.e. from man's fallen condition (the "First Death"). In the former case, salvation is thought of as a reward for goodness, while in the latter it is thought of as a healing process, one which '"cures" the sinner and brings about his "rebirth" thereby enabling him to begin living by the Spirit and to qualify for a reward. Indeed when we compare statements in Scripture that salvation comes through "faith without works" and warnings that men will be judged and rewarded "according to works" we begin to suspect that salvation is one thing, and reward another.Thus we need to find unambiguous scriptural definitions of these basic concepts that will enable the members of various Bible-based factions to agree in their terminology, Then we might mutually begin to understand why Jesus required that those he had just saved should "keep the commandments" if they would enter into life, for God's laws are his norms, and must be complied with by all who seek a suitable reward.At the same time, we need to convince those who worry that they are not "good enough" to be saved that they are not lost, for God has promised to make them good if they will "endure to the end" in maintaining all that is implied by faith, repentance, baptism, and the gift of the Spirit, none of which is a personal good work, but a way of accessing the free grace that sanctifies men, and which enables them to perform the good works for which they were designed. In short, it will be seen that one does not have to be righteous in order to be saved, but saved in order to be truly righteous.We shall further show that the actual mechanism of salva¬tion is best explained by the 13th century English word "Atone¬ment." This felicitous invention (which literally means "At-One-Ment") not only describes man's reconciliation with God, but also his becoming one with the Divine. Oneness with the Divine was central to the writings of Paul, who explained that as the believer "cleaves" to the Lord, they become one Spirit, and the believer gains access to his supernatural righteousness. It was also taught by John, who explained that when God's Spirit dwells in men they become spiritually one, and begin to share God's transcendent attributes. In both cases, they receive God's personal righteous¬ness, a righteousness that replaces their human attempts at morality, thus transcending their fallen condition, and enabling them to perform the desired good works.We shall also examine what Scripture and the early Church Fathers had to say about the nature of God, so that we can understand how men can participate in his deity and receive his fulness, a process which we have suggested calling, a "shared" or "participatory monotheism," rather than a "polytheism." Deifica¬tion thus understood has been part of LDS belief from its inception, and was not a "reconstruction" of Joseph Smith's earlier theology, as some have incorrectly argued. In the process we shall resolve the apparent contradiction between the scriptural declara¬tion that "God never changes" and the saying, "As man now is, God once was," for while there is but one "God of all other gods"--who is "the same from eternity to eternity"--there are others who have become gods by receiving his fulness, and who can therefore say that they were "once as man now is."Knowledgeable Latter-day Saints should of course be able to explain both statements. Yet as a writer for Time recently maintained, there is "a vacuum of theological talent" amongst present day Mormons, a fact which he finds particularly regrettable because Mormonism has "a lot of unusual theology to explain" (Aug. 4, 1997). We shall show, however, that LDS theology is in no way "unusual," nor should it be difficult to "explain," for it is based entirely on the theology of the New Testament, and requires no special premises or assumptions to support it.To assist us in demonstrating this fact we shall from time to time incorporate the conclusions of objective non-LDS scholars to verify Mormonism's claim to have restored what was formerly had in the Primitive Church. We shall further show that many of its beliefs go back to the time of the patriarchs, prior to the advent of theoretical monotheism and the "Lone God" of Judaism. Unfortunately, Judaism's "Lone God" became the Procrustean Bed into which Christianity's Father and Son were eventually re-fitted, leading to the homoousian concept of the Trinitarian "one God."Though it is seldom noted, Trinitarianism was also responsible for the sectarian belief that man must forever remain "totally other" than God, for it came to view the divine oneness as a privileged oneness that excludes all others. Man's true destiny, however, since the dawn of time, has centered around the promise of spiritual union with the Divine Nature, and it was no doubt taught to the first men, from whence it survived with minor variations amongst the major sects of antiquity. Around the "Meridian of Time" it was symbolized as the Mystical Marriage of Jehovah and Israel in the Jerusalem Temple; and it reached its ultimate expression in the New Testament writings of John and Paul, especially in the latter's "Great Mystery" of "marriage" to Christ. It is still the official belief of Eastern Orthodoxy, though its modern adherents have mostly forgotten it.It continues, however, to be the heart and soul of Mormon soteriology, just as it was in the allegories of the early Church Fathers, who recalled how the soul was destined to enter the heavenly Holy of Holies in union with the High Priest, Jesus, becoming co-heirs of God's glory, and sharers of his attributes. In this way there would emerge an unbroken line of deity reaching from "the God of all other gods" to his exalted offspring, maintaining a beginningless priesthood throughout eternity, and celestializing the very elements as parts of his cosmic temple. It is this Divine Continuity that best characterizes the theology of the Restored Gospel and the destiny of man's Eternal Race, whose changeless Source has forever given rise to Sons of God, and who will continue to people new worlds in an endlessly expanding universe