Today, we're going to talk about how to discuss God with Mormons.

It's common to hear confusion about the differences in Mormonism and Christianity. Some of this confusion even comes from Christians and Mormons. What you already may have noticed is that I'm making a distinction between Christianity and Mormonism, which is often part of the confusion. Is there actually a difference? Yes, there is,o and here's why.

When Mormons claim to be Christians, or even when Christians claim that Mormons are Christians, they're mistaking a fundamental fact, which is the very reason Joseph Smith started Mormonism. He was trying to find which religion was the true one, which denomination was the right one. What God the Father and Jesus Christ (Note: This is a correction. Originally, I had incorrectly said that “an angel from God” had appeared to Smith.) appeared and told him they were all an abomination. There are Christian denominations today with the same beliefs that also existed in the 1800s, when Joseph Smith started Mormonism. The same beliefs and the same Gospel and the same scriptures. It's disingenuous for someone to claim that Mormons and Christians are the same, because supposedly, we're an abomination. We hold beliefs that are corrupted fundamentally, such that Joseph Smith needed to start a new church. You can't have it both ways. It can’t be fundamentally corrupted and an abomination and also be the same thing. So I just wanted to address that at the beginning.

One of the major points of confusion when we talk about Christianity and Mormonism is that the two religions use the same terms. We'll use the term God and Trinity and God-head and Jesus, but all of these terms actually find rather different definitions in their two respective religions in how they're used. The one I want to talk about today is simply God.

Mormonism believes that there is more than one God. There is not just one being that is God and that's it. There are actually multiple Gods. In fact, there's this phrase that's kind of common as a summary of Mormon belief, from Mormons, in fact. It goes like this,

”As man now is,

That's kind of catchy, but let's run through it.

“As man now is, God once was,” so man is man now. He's human. That means, on their belief, that God used to be human. In fact, they think God the Father has a body of flesh and bones, not that he's just pure spirit like Christians do. So that's the first part. “As man now is, God once was,” so God used to be like us, which is very different from what we see in scripture, as we'll look at in a minute. Then, “as God now is, man may be.” So God is divine and exalted and glorified and deified and all of those things, and they're saying we may be able to be like that. Now, they would say that happens, in part, through the atonement of Jesus, who they actually believe is a separate being, not one being with God the Father. We'll get to that in a minute also. Nevertheless, do you see a difference here? That God, on their view, used to be a man, and man could become God, which implies that there's the possibility of multiple Gods.

But what does scripture say about that? Well, let's look at Isaiah 43:10, where Yahweh, the Lord, says to his people,

”Before Me, no god was formed, nor shall there be any after Me."

I think that's pretty straightforward. No god before Yahweh, no god after Yahweh. It's a done deal. But practically, in conversation, it's not going to end here, and there are a few ways this conversation might go. If you're talking with a Mormon and you say, "Hey, do you believe, like the Mormon church, that there are multiple Gods, that, in fact, you might become a God one day?" They'll most likely say yes, if they're b…