Question
Dear Gramps,
The Holy Ghost comes from God, He’s God in the Father, God in the Son, God in the Holy Ghost, God all three in one! So how is that not true? I was also told that I was going to hell because I did not believe the Mormon religion, but that I was going to a stage in hell and wouldn’t have to stay there for long, My bible tells me that hell is a bottomless pit and that it’s forever once you’re cast there. So? I believe a lot of what I was told from the Guys because that is what I know, I know the word of God, but as for Joseph Smith that is something that I do not believe, I do not believe God told him to write another version of the Bible, the original Bible was written long before the Mormon Bible was and the original does not have the word Mormon in it or the name Joseph Smith, and if that was the way God wanted everyone to live then would he not of made it known in the original? Yes I believe so. The Gold Plates that the Mormon book was written on has never been found, although some of the scrolls from the original Bible have been found along with various other things. There is proof that it was written, where is the proof of the Gold Plats or anything else backing it up beyond words? I am not at all here to judge or belittle the religion. It is very interesting and I just have questions that are yet to be answered!
Ashley
Answer
Dear Ashley,
Different religions have different beliefs about God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost. As a matter of fact, this was one of the earliest controversies that developed after the Savior was crucified and all the original Apostles were killed. It is one of the prominent evidences that an apostasy from the truths that Jesus taught had early taken place. Can you imagine that within two or three hundred years after the death of the Savior a great controversy arose over the very nature God the Father and his Son, Jesus Christ, and their relationship to one another?
The Christian church was so divided over this point in the time of the Emperor Constantine, that he called the bishops of the various churches together, and, although he was not a Christian at the time, he adjudicated the matter. One point of view, championed by Arius, one of the presbyters of Bishop Alexander, bishop of the City of Alexandria in Egypt, was that Jesus Christ, as the son of God, was somehow less than God.
The opposite camp was championed by Bishop Athanasius, who held that Jesus was not less than the Father, and therefore that they were of one substance. A council was held at Nicea in 325 AD in which Constantine, who presided at the council, ruled in favor of Athanasius. Those who opposed the edict of Constantine were banished from Rome. Arius was sent to Constantinople, and became the progenitor of the Greek Orthodox Church. Their philosophy has been reflected through the ages in their architecture. Their churches and cathedrals, as those of the Roman Catholic Church, are commonly adorned with three towers. In the Greek Orthodox Churches the tower on the left is always of a lower height than the tower on the right, indicating that the Son is less than the Father. There are two towers on each side of the bridge that runs across the Charles River in Prague, Czechoslovakia. As one approached the bridge from either side, the tower on the left is lower than the tower on the right, with, of course, the same significance.
Athanasius became the bishop of Rome– his successors to be known as the “Papa Bishop” or the Pope. The doctrine of the Athanasian view of Deity was formalized in the Nicean Creed, as follows, which is followed by the Catholic Church today:
“The catholic faith is this, that we worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity; Neither confounding the Persons, nor dividing the Substance. For there is one Person of the Father, another of the Son, and another of the Holy Ghost. But the Godhead of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost is all one: the glory equal, the majesty coeternal. Such as the Father is, such is the Son, and such is the Holy Ghost. The Father uncreate, the Son uncreate, and the Holy Ghost uncreate. The Father incomprehensible, the Son incomprehensible, and the Holy Ghost incomprehensible. The Father eternal, the Son eternal, and the Holy Ghost eternal. And yet they are not three Eternals, but one Eternal. As there are not three Uncreated nor three Incomprehensibles, but one Uncreated and one Incomprehensible. So likewise the Father is almighty, the Son almighty, and the Holy Ghost almighty. And yet they are not three Almighties, but one Almighty. So the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Ghost is God. And yet they are not three Gods, but one God. So likewise the Father is Lord, the Son Lord, and the Holy Ghost Lord. And yet not three Lords, but one Lord. For like as we are compelled by the Christian verity to acknowledge every Person by Himself to be God and Lord, So are we forbidden by the catholic religion to say, There be three Gods, or three Lords. The Father is made of none: neither created nor begotten. The Son is of the Father alone; not made, nor created, but begotten. The Holy Ghost is of the Father and of the Son: neither made, nor created, nor begotten, but proceeding. So there is one Father, not three Fathers; one Son, not three Sons; one Holy Ghost, not three Holy Ghosts. And in this Trinity none is before or after other; none is greater or less than another; But the whole three Persons are coeternal together, and coequal: so that in all things, as is aforesaid, the Unity in Trinity and the Trinity in Unity is to be worshiped. He, therefore, that will be saved must thus think of the Trinity.”
A full treatment of the Athanasian creed is beyond the scope of this letter, but from the Bible itself, we learn the following concerning the Son of God:
Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered;
And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him (Heb 5:8-9).
It is also written in your law, that the testimony of two men is true.
I am one that bear witness of myself, and the Father that sent me beareth witness of me (John 8:17-18).
The truth is that the Father and the Son are indeed separate and distinct beings. They are as one in power, authority and might, but there is no mystery as to who they are. In fact, in his great intercessory prayer, the Savior declared that a knowledge of God and Jesus Christ, and who they are, is essential to eternal life–
And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent (John 17:3).
The crowning testimony of the nature of God and his Beloved Son, Jesus Christ was given by the Prophet Joseph Smith, when just a boy of 14 years. Desiring to know which church he should join, he repaired one spring morning in 1820 to a grove of trees near his home and poured out his heart to God that He would lead him to the true church. In this action he was bolstered by a passage he read in James 1:5,
If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.
In answer to his fervent prayer the heavens opened and God the Father and his Son, Jesus Christ stood before the boy, and he heard the Father say, This is My Beloved Son. Hear Him! A full account of that marvelous vision, which initiated the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ in accordance with biblical prophecy, may be found in the scripture, The Pearl of Great Price, Joseph Smith–History.
I would strongly urge you to ask those two missionaries who have been visiting you to show you this marvelous scripture and discuss it with you.
I will talk with you about the Gold Plates of the Book of Mormon in another letter.
Gramps
