FAQ's

Fun questions, others have answered.  Here is my brief answers to 5  of them:

1.  If Gods are individuals who have passed through mortality and have progressed to Godhood, how has one person of the Trinity (the Holy Spirit) attained Godhood without getting a body? (See Acts 5:3,4) 

Answer:  Christ and the Holy Spirit are not gods because of a ‘process’.  They are gods by virtue of their spiritual greatness.  LDS thought does not require a body to be part of the Godhead, but it does for eternal increase.  See Abraham 3:24-28; D&C 130:22; D&C 93:33-34.

2.  If Gods are individuals who have passed through an earth life to attain Godhood, how is it that one person of the Trinity (Jesus Christ) was God before He received a body or passed through earth life? (Matt. 1:23 and Hebrews 10:5) 

Same as #1.  See Abraham 3:24-28.

3.  If the Book of Mormon really contains the fullness of the Gospel, why does it not teach the doctrine of “eternal progression”?  (See D&C 20:8,9) 

It does.  Maybe you should read it some day for yourself.  See, for example, 3 Nephi 28:10.  You can find more, but let’s not spoil your surprise when you read it for the first time.  But the fullness of the Gospel is that Christ died for our sins, and forgiveness is made available to the children of men, based on the conditions of obedience Christ requires.  The Book of Mormon definitely contains this message more clearly than any other book, and so it truly does contain the Fullness of the Gospel.  If you were trying to be fair, you would have to ask yourself why do you think the Bible contains the fullness of the Gospel, when it does not contain an explicit doctrine of the Trinity.  There is definitely more explicit evidence of the doctrine of exaltation in the Book of Mormon than the deducted doctrine of the Trinity out of the abused proof texts from the Bible.  But then again, you don’t say anywhere you are trying to be fair in presenting your ideas and LDS doctrine, right?

4.  God said, “Is there a God beside me?  Yea, there is no God; I know not any”.  How can there be Gods who are Elohim’s ancestors?  Surely an all-knowing God would know this and wouldn’t speak falsehoods.  (See Isa. 44:8 and Journal of Discourses Vol. 1, pg. 123) 

It is hard to deal with some of the arguments presented out of the Bible about God.  This happens to not be one of them.  In Isaiah 37-48, primarily, Isaiah takes on the problem of IDOL worship.  Idols made of wood and metal, to be specific.  What does Isaiah 44:9-10 say, for example (since they are the verses right after the passage you cite): 

They that make a graven image [are] all of them vanity; and their delectable things shall not profit; and they [are] their own witnesses; they see not, nor know; that they may be ashamed.  10 Who hath formed a god, or molten a graven image [that] is profitable for nothing?

I could cite, without exaggeration, at least 15 such passages out of this section of Isaiah.  But don’t trust me.  Check some of the well known Bible commentaries.  I have.  None of them support your twisting of the text.  God is not saying there are no other real divine beings, or there is no exaltation for man.  He is specifically mocking false gods made by mankind.  The Hebrews absolutely believed there were other real gods.  Thus the 1st commandment.  Thus Ps 82; Gen 3:5, 22; Gen 1:26; Deut. 32:8-9.  Let’s look at Dt. 32:8-9 from the NRSV:

When the Most High apportioned the nations, when he divided humankind, he fixed the boundaries of the peoples according to the number of the gods; 9the Lord's own portion was his people, Jacob his allotted share.

The original text was confirmed by the Dead Sea Scrolls, the oldest Hebrew Bible texts, and shows this passage was changed by the Jewish scribes after Christ’s death.  Why?  Because Christ was a second God, and the apostate Jews asserted this kind of falsely defined monotheism as a defense against Christ, even in the face of Is. 53, where the suffering servant is clearly separate from God.  The question is not whether there were other real gods, it is why do you not believe the Biblical teaching that there were?  In the new testament there are at least two dozen clear statements that Christ is separate and distinct from God, not just the Father.  Versus no statements supporting the trinity.

5.  Why do Mormons insist that Ezekiel 37:15-22 is about two books instead of about two kingdoms as god Himself explained in verse 22? 

It is easier if I just quote the verses from a NON-LDS Bible translated for the Catholic and Protestant communities:

This word of the LORD came to me 16.’O man, take one leaf of a wooden tablet and write on it, “Judah and the Israelites associated with him”.  Then take another leaf and write on it, “Joseph, the leaf of Ephraim and all the Israelite tribes”.  17 Now bring the two together to form one tablet; then they will be a folding tablet in your hand.  18 When your fellow-countrymen ask you to tell them what you mean by this, 19 say to them:  The Lord GOD has said:  I am taking the leaf of Joseph, which belongs to Ephraim and the other tribes of Israel, and joining to it the leaf of Judah.  Thus I shall make them one tablet, and they will be one in my hand.  20 When the leaves on which you write are there in your hand for all to see, 21 say to them:  The Lord GOD has said: I am going to take the Israelites from their places of exile among the nations; I shall assemble them from every quarter and restore them to their own soil.  22 I shall make them a single nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel, and one king will be over them all.  No longer will they be two nations, no longer divided into two kingdoms.

The Biblical text was clarified by an amazing archaeological discovery in the 1960’s.  Truth is really springing out of the ground, don’t you think?  Isn’t it amazing that Joseph Smith’s explanation that the stick was a book was RIGHT ON, and you are right, the two kingdoms or peoples do become one, just like the LDS Church has always taught.  Again, you must come up with an explanation now about how it was possible that Joseph got it right over 130 years before the rest of the world even realized the passage was wrong.  Hmm.