The Trinity of Gods

[dougtheavenger]

What our non-LDS friends believe, assuming they are Christians like us, is not that different from LDS doctrine. The difference is not the Trinity. It is Homouesis.

They believe in a trinity of three divine, distinct persons that are alike in substance.

We believe in a trinity of three divine, distinct persons that are one in purpose.

The Shield of the Trinity, which is a Roman Catholic learning tool attached to this post, has no inconsistencies with Mormon Doctrine. Despite all the blather, Protestants and Catholics have the same problem with apparent inconsistencies between the Old and New Testiment. No Moslem and few Jews will accept any Christian denomination as monotheistic.

Trinity.bmp

[dougtheavenger]

One more thing...None of us will ever become GOD because GOD is God the Father and none of us will ever become God because God suggests membership in the Godhead or Trinity. We may become gods ... and this too is a belief of our Protestant friends. They call it 'sanctification'.

[Rob Bowman]

Doug,

What our non-LDS friends believe, assuming they are Christians like us, is not that different from LDS doctrine. The difference is not the Trinity. It is Homouesis.

They believe in a trinity of three divine, distinct persons that are alike in substance.

We believe in a trinity of three divine, distinct persons that are one in purpose.

The Shield of the Trinity, which is a Roman Catholic learning tool attached to this post, has no inconsistencies with Mormon Doctrine. Despite all the blather, Protestants and Catholics have the same problem with apparent inconsistencies between the Old and New Testiment. No Moslem and few Jews will accept any Christian denomination as monotheistic.

Are you disagreeing with your own leaders, who have repeatedly claimed that the non-LDS Christian conception of God and of the Trinity is apostate, corrupt, false doctrine that is part of the darkness that shrouded all of Christendom until the light of the Restoration?

[dougtheavenger]

Doug,

Are you disagreeing with your own leaders, who have repeatedly claimed that the non-LDS Christian conception of God and of the Trinity is apostate, corrupt, false doctrine that is part of the darkness that shrouded all of Christendom until the light of the Restoration?

Please cite any stsatement by any LDS leader that is in conflict with the Shield of the Trinity.

[RubyHunter]

Didn't elder holland give a talk on this about a year ago in general conference? Something to the effect of "The trinity is the most confusing and blasphemous doctrine out there."?

I could be wrong.

[3DOP]

What our non-LDS friends believe, assuming they are Christians like us, is not that different from LDS doctrine. The difference is not the Trinity. It is Homouesis.

They believe in a trinity of three divine, distinct persons that are alike in substance.

We believe in a trinity of three divine, distinct persons that are one in purpose.

The Shield of the Trinity, which is a Roman Catholic learning tool attached to this post, has no inconsistencies with Mormon Doctrine. Despite all the blather, Protestants and Catholics have the same problem with apparent inconsistencies between the Old and New Testiment. No Moslem and few Jews will accept any Christian denomination as monotheistic.

Hi doughtheavenger.

I pretty much agree. But there are LDS who will go wild denying there is this close affinity, and likewise on my side, Protestants and Catholics who will go wild reminding me that the Catholic Church rejects LDS baptism because of a defective view of the Trinity. But can you blame the Catholic Church for this perception. Look at the way LDS criticize our definition of the Trinity. Many are convinced it is just the most ridiculous teaching. So how is the Catholic Church supposed to know that our teaching on the Trinity is compatible with Mormonism? The worst part of this for me personally is that I get into trouble for saying that Mormons are Christian. How can a Catholic define the unbaptized as Christian? They have an argument. If LDS could tone down the anti-Trinitarian rhetoric, the Catholic Church could reevaluate whether LDS baptisms are valid. I believe that at least some are. The ruling is only for the purpose of policy toward LDS converts. It cannot change the objective reality of an efficacious baptism should a Mormon baptize with an adequate Trinitarian belief.

Do LDS think that what makes God God is different for each of the Persons? I have seen no evidence that they do. Clearly, corporeality has nothing to do with it, because all agree the Holy Ghost is incorporeal. This means that we agree also that the substance we are speaking about cannot be material stuff, as we tend to think of with regard to compounmds of matter that make a substance.

I tend to think that I have seen LDS in good standing make much more shocking claims of belief than I would if I came to the place where I might convert. Knowing what the Catholic Church means when she teaches that the Son is consubstantial with us as Man and with the Father as God, I could not deny these doctrine as a Mormon. Many Mormons deny it because they are thinking of their chemistry classes, but when does any Father have a child made out of different substance than himself? Does a spaniel give birth to a sturgeon? No. "After their kind", as we are taught in Genesis. In biology we have a faint analogy of the generation of the consubstantial Son of God the Father in the Trinity.

3DOP