The Godhead in Latter-day Saint Teaching
As taught in the Latter-day Saint tradition
How Latter-day Saints teach three distinct divine persons united as one God.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints uses the term Godhead where most other Christians say Trinity, and the difference in vocabulary signals a genuine difference in doctrine. Latter-day Saints affirm three divine persons — the Father, the Son Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost — but they understand the unity among them to be a unity of mind, purpose, love, and will rather than a sharing of one indivisible divine substance. In Latter-day Saint teaching the Father and the Son are two distinct, exalted, glorified persons, each possessing a body of flesh and bones as tangible as a human body, while the Holy Ghost is a personage of spirit who can dwell within believers and bear witness. To say that the three are "one God" is, on this reading, to describe their perfect oneness of intent and their shared work of bringing about human salvation, not their being numerically one being.
By the end of this lesson
- Distinguish the Latter-day Saint term 'Godhead' from the historic 'Trinity' and explain why the difference in vocabulary marks a real difference in doctrine.
- Summarize the Latter-day Saint claim that the Father and the resurrected Son are distinct, embodied persons while the Holy Ghost is a personage of spirit.
- Explain how Latter-day Saints read John 17:3, John 17:20-23, Acts 7:55-56, and Genesis 1:26-27 as evidence for distinction of persons rather than one shared essence.
- Trace the embodied, anthropomorphic understanding of God to Book of Mormon passages such as Ether 3:16 and the 3 Nephi 11 appearance of the resurrected Christ.
- Identify the interpretive tension between the Book of Mormon's unitive 'one God' language (Mosiah 15; 2 Nephi 31) and the church's developed doctrine of three separate persons.
- State precisely where Latter-day Saint theology proper diverges from the Nicene, Athanasian, and Westminster confessions on substance, simplicity, immateriality, and creation.
Scripture
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