First Article of Faith

[pam]

There have been many investigators using this website to get some basic doctrinal information about the Church. Each week I will post the next Article of Faith so that the discussion of each can be done. Keep in mind..this is based on LDS doctrine and debating of that will not be tolerated.

!. We believe in God the Eternal Father and in His Son Jesus Christ and in the Holy Ghost.

Edited June 24, 2008 by pam

[PapilioMemnon]

"Our first and foremost article of faith in The Church of Jesus Christ

of Latter-day Saints is 'We believe in God, the Eternal Father,

and in His Son, Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost' (Articles of Faith

1:1).

We believe these three divine persons constituting a single Godhead

are united in purpose, in manner, in testimony, in mission. We believe Them

to be filled with the same godly sense of mercy and love, justice and

grace, patience, forgiveness, and redemption. I think it is accurate to say

we believe They are one in every significant and eternal aspect imaginable

except believing Them to be three persons combined in one substance, a

Trinitarian notion never set forth in the scriptures because it is not

true."

(Jeffrey R. Holland, "The Only True God and Jesus Christ Whom He Hath Sent," Ensign, Nov. 2007, 40)

[rameumptom]

Unlike the creeds of many other churches, the Articles of Faith are not a creed. They are a basic expression of what LDS believe in. They do not go into depth on any issue, as such issues are found in LDS scripture and the writings of modern prophets, and to be interpreted via the Holy Spirit by each member.

The AoF does not begin as some creeds, demanding strict obedience to them if a person wishes to be saved by God. They are a basic and foundational set of teachings that help us begin our journey of discovery of the things God wishes to reveal to us.

As Terryl Givens explained in his discussion at the 2005 Joseph Smith Symposium at the Library of Congress, Joseph Smith's teachings were very different than the rest of Christianity, in that he did not believe in creeds to box us in. Rather, continuing revelation was a given that could take us in new directions as we gained better understanding of God and His realm.

For instance, the Bible warns of "eternal damnation and hellfire." This suggests that those who go to hell will dwell there forever, without end. Yet, D&C 19 teaches that there is another higher way to understand the term, "eternal." It is a name for God. So, Eternal Punishment is God's Punishment. This opens up new ways to understand the scriptures and how they apply to us.

Another instant is the belief in heaven and hell. Many scriptures simplify the concept by discussing one heaven and one hell. Modern revelation unveils the ancient belief of multiple levels of heaven (D&C 76, 2 Cor 12:1-4), which has been lost for centuries. Now, LDS can teach that all Christians and other good people will gain a level of heaven through the grace of Christ, but only upon repenting now or suffering Eternal/God's punishment in Spirit Prison hell and repenting later.

To know that God the Father lives, and has provided for us a Savior and a Comforter Guide, is a great source of hope and peace to me. The AoF do not demand a belief in the Godhead or Trinity in order to believe in God, Jesus and the Holy Ghost. It simply states: We believe....

So, do we believe in a different Jesus than others? In some ways, yes. But in the key ways, no. We embrace the Father as our God. We embrace Jesus as our Savior and Redeemer. We seek guidance through the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

BTW, Papilio Memnon, love the pseudonym. And it is a gorgeous butterfly.

Edited June 24, 2008 by rameumptom

[Misshalfway]

Well said, Ram.

[HiJolly]

I want you to know that this post has impacted my family for the better. Last night for FHE (Family Home Evening) we discussed the AoF (Articles of Faith). Attending were my 15 y.o., 12 y.o., 10 y.o., 8 y.o., and myself.

It took 45 minutes for us to get from #1 to #7, after which I said we'd have to finish #8-13 next week. We had a good time, and the kids had lots of good questions.

So, thanks for the thread.

HiJolly

[PapilioMemnon]

LDS.org - Ensign Article - Apostasy and Restoration

"The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has many beliefs in common with other Christian churches. But we have differences, and those differences explain why we send missionaries to other Christians, why we build temples in addition to churches, and why our beliefs bring us such happiness and strength to deal with the challenges of life and death. I wish to speak about some of the important additions our doctrines make to the Christian faith. ...

We would be wiser if we could restore the knowledge of some important things that have been distorted, ignored, or forgotten. This also applies to religious knowledge. It explains the need for the gospel restoration we proclaim.

When Joseph Smith was asked to explain the major tenets of our faith, he wrote what we now call the Articles of Faith. The first article states, “We believe in God, the Eternal Father, and in His Son, Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost.” The Prophet later declared that “the simple and first principles of the gospel” include knowing “for a certainty the character of God” (“Conference Minutes,” Times and Seasons, 15 Aug. 1844, p. 614). We must begin with the truth about God and our relationship to him. Everything else follows from that.

In common with the rest of Christianity, we believe in a Godhead of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. However, we testify that these three members of the Godhead are three separate and distinct beings. We also testify that God the Father is not just a spirit but is a glorified person with a tangible body, as is his resurrected Son, Jesus Christ.

Then came the First Vision. An unschooled boy, seeking knowledge from the ultimate source, saw two personages of indescribable brightness and glory and heard one of them say, while pointing to the other, “This is My Beloved Son. Hear Him!” (JS—H 1:17.) The divine teaching in that vision began the restoration of the fulness of the gospel of Jesus Christ. God the Son told the boy prophet that all the “creeds” of the churches of that day “were an abomination in his sight” (JS—H 1:19). We affirm that this divine declaration was a condemnation of the creeds, not of the faithful seekers who believed in them. Joseph Smith’s first vision showed that the prevailing concepts of the nature of God and the Godhead were untrue and could not lead their adherents to the destiny God desired for them.

After a subsequent outpouring of modern scripture and revelation, this modern prophet declared, “The Father has a body of flesh and bones as tangible as man’s; the Son also; but the Holy Ghost has not a body of flesh and bones, but is a personage of Spirit” (D&C 130:22).

This belief [I]does not mean that we claim sufficient spiritual maturity to comprehend God. Nor do we equate our imperfect mortal bodies to his immortal, glorified being. But we can comprehend the fundamentals he has revealed about himself and the other members of the Godhead. And that knowledge is essential to our understanding of the purpose of mortal life and of our eternal destiny as resurrected beings after mortal life.

Dallin H. Oaks, “Apostasy and Restoration,” Ensign, May 1995, 84

Edited June 24, 2008 by PapilioMemnon

[Traveler]

Behavior cannot conterdict belief. Sometimes I have the impression that many like to say they believe something they cannot live just to look good to others but if they do not demonstrate belief as well as to say it then they are both speaking and living a lie.

The Traveler

[PapilioMemnon]

D&C 6: 16

Yea, I tell thee, that thou mayest know that there is none else save God that knowest thy thoughts and the intents of thy heart.

[Hemidakota]

President Herbert J. Grant, a prophet who strive to do his best just about anything in life, quoted [The Articles of Faith]:

When preaching to those not of our faith, in different parts of the world, I read, whenever I have the opportunity, the articles promulgated by Joseph Smith known as "The Articles of Faith of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints." I rejoice in reading them and in testifying to those who know not the truth that in very deed those articles have been vindicated; that we believe in God the Eternal Father, and in His Son Jesus Christ. And I testify to the world that we know that They live, because They appeared to Joseph; that we believe men must be called of God, and we know that they have been called of God in our day, because the apostles of the Lord Jesus Christ ordained Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery. We believe that men should receive the Holy Ghost, and we testify to all the world that they have received it in this Church. I rejoice that all the gifts and graces that were enjoyed in ancient days—the speaking in tongues, the interpretation of tongues, the healing of the sick, and kindred gifts as enumerated in the Articles of Faith, are enjoyed by the Latter-day Saints all over the world, wherever this gospel has gone.

I rejoice in the wonderful faith and knowledge of the Latter-day Saints regarding the divinity of this work. I am thankful beyond expression that wherever this gospel has gone, in answer to humble faithful prayers, God has given to individuals all over the world a knowledge for themselves concerning the divinity of this work.

What kind of men and women should we be, as Latter-day Saints, in view of this wonderful knowledge that we possess, that God lives, that Jesus is the Christ, that Joseph Smith is a prophet of God? We should be the most honest, the most virtuous, the most charitable-minded, the best people upon the face of the earth.—CR, October, 1925: 9-10.

...We believe God to be a person. We believe absolutely that we are made in the image of God. We believe that Jesus Christ was actually the Son of God, His Father, as I am the son of my father, and as you are of your father, and we believe They are Personages. Why? Because the boy Joseph Smith saw God, and God introduced Jesus Christ to him as His "beloved Son," and told this boy to listen to the Savior and the Savior gave him instructions.—CS, September 3, 1938.

We believe absolutely in God, that He is a personal Being. We believe absolutely that the scripture is true which says: "God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them."—Era, 41:519.

Some background of the Wentworth letter into the first article:

New England, in particular, and all of the eastern portion of America, in general, was at this time disturbed by the so-called "Trinitarian-Unitarian Controversy." Early in the nineteenth century a long-smoldering fire of theological disunity had burst into open flame. Even before the American Revolution there had been New England divines who had denied the divinity of Jesus and the godship of the Holy Ghost. Near the turn of the century they became more vocal and public interest was aroused to fever-heat concerning the issue. Harvard and other colleges and theological seminaries found themselves in the midst of the controversy, with professors and theologians arranging themselves on both sides of the issue. Soon it spread to the local congregations, particularly in the Presbyterian and Congregational churches. The ministers were forced to declare whether they believed that God was one eternal power without a division of substance or person. To this latter group Jesus of Nazareth was nothing more than a normal mortal being, born as any other mortal had been. Jesus had, they thought, through some power of insight, come to perceive of God and his character more clearly and more ethically than any mortal had ever done before or since.

So violent did this theological war become that ministers were mobbed and police called to restore order within church meetings. One faction of a congregation sought a court order to enjoin the other portion of the congregation from employing a minister with Unitarian views while the other faction attempted to prevent one of Trinitarian principles from occupying the pulpit. Few Calvinistic churches in New England were not thrown into conflict over this doctrine and most of them did not get the matter settled until lawsuits had decreed which faction of the congregation owned the meeting house and had the right to employ the minister.

Joseph Smith's first "Article of Faith" made a positive assertion concerning where this newly Restored Church stood on this controversial issue. He might have elaborated upon the peculiar theology of his Church, concerning the distinct separation of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, but chose not to inject such different doctrines into the brief statement he was preparing. Anyone in New England who read his assertion concerning his belief in God would know that the "Mormons" rejected the "Modernist" or Unitarian point of view, and were defenders of the biblical position that Jesus Christ was the true Son of God, the Eternal Father. Rumors had circulated to the effect that the Latter-day Saints were not even Christians. Because of the nickname of "Mormon" that had arisen, someone confused it and thought the Latter-day Saints were Mohammedans. Inasmuch as Joseph Smith was referred to as "The Prophet," this gave further support to the popular idea that he thought he was "A second Mohammed." This positive assertion of the first "Article of Faith" was calculated to end all such false notions. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints must be classed as a true Christian body, whose theology was purely biblical and not the product of philosophical speculation. [Joseph Smith: The Wentworth Letter and Religious America of 1842]