His seventh criticism is presented under the following subheading:
“7. Jesus is God, Not the Spirit-Brother of Lucifer”
“Mormons teach that*
“Jesus was begotten as the first Spirit-child of the Father (Elohim) and one of his unnamed wives (‘Heavenly Mother’). Jesus was allegedly the first and highest of all the spirit children. … Because the heavenly Father and Mother had many spirit children, Jesus is often referred to by Mormons as ‘our elder brother’. (Lucifer, too, is the spirit-brother of Jesus.) Jesus progressed by obedience and devotion to the truth in the spirit world until he became God. This allegedly took eons of time. … [Mormons] do not worship or pray to Jesus. What this means in terms ot Mormon theology is that Jesus is not really unique. … When it came time for his mortal birth on carth, Jesus was begotten through sexual relations between a flesh-and-bone heavenly Father and Mary. … Jesus ‘atoned for Adam’s sin, leaving us responsible only for our own sins.’”
That is Mormon folklore, rather than accurately formulated doctrine and theology of the Church, based on canonized scripture—and most of it is false, and not doctrines of the Church at all. It is utterly false, and not Church doctrine at all that God the Father had sexual relations with Mary to beget Jesus. Mary was a virgin, and remained a virgin until she gave birth; and Jesus was miraculously conceived in her womb by the power of the Holy Ghost. That is what the Book of Mormon teaches:
Alma 7:
10 And behold, he shall be born of Mary, at Jerusalem which is the land of our forefathers [i.e. Palestine], she being a virgin, a precious and chosen vessel, who shall be overshadowed and conceive by the power of the Holy Ghost, and bring forth a son, yea, even the Son of God.
That is the correct theology of the Incarnation that Latter-day Saints believe in, as taught in the Book of Mormon. It is equally false that we do not “worship Jesus”. We worship Jesus:
2 Nephi 25:
29 And now behold, I say unto you that the right way is to believe in Christ, and deny him not; and Christ is the Holy One of Israel; wherefore ye must bow down before him, and worship him with all your might, mind, and strength, and your whole soul; and if ye do this ye shall in nowise be cast out.
But we address our prayers to the Father in the name of Jesus, as he has taught in the Bible (Matt. 6:9; Luke 11:2). And likewise it is utterly false, and not a teaching of the Church, that Jesus only atoned for Adam’s sins, and not for man’s own individual sins. No such doctrine is taught or believed among the Latter-day Saints whatsoever. Jesus died for and atoned for all men’s sins, and not just for the sin of Adam. And his Atonement was infinite and universal for all mankind:
2 Nephi 9:
7 Wherefore, it must needs be an infinite atonement—save it should be an infinite atonement, this corruption could not put on incorruption. …
• • •
21 And he cometh into the world that he may save all men if they will hearken unto his voice; for behold, he suffereth the pains of all men, yea, the pains of every living creature, both men, women, and children, who belong to the family of Adam.
2 Nephi 25:
16 And after they have been scattered, … shall be persuaded to believe in Christ, the Son of God, and the atonement which is infinite for all mankind …
Alma 7:
12 And he will take upon him death, that he may loose the bands of death which bind his people; and he will take upon him their infirmities, that his bowels may be filled with mercy according to the flesh, that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities.
Alma 34:
10 For it is expedient that there should be a great and last sacrifice; yea, not a sacrifice of man, neither of beast, neither of any manner of fowl; for it shall not be a human sacrifice; but it must be an infinite and eternal sacrifice.
• • •
12 … therefore there can be nothing which is short of an infinite atonement which will suffice for the sins of the world.
• • •
14 And behold, this is the whole meaning of the law, every whit pointing to that great and last sacrifice; and that great and last sacrifice will be the Son of God, yea, infinite and eternal.
That is what the Book of Mormon teaches. That is where the theology of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ is obtained from, not from Ron Rhodes. The restored gospel of Jesus Christ doesn’t teach a “Limited Atonement,” as the abominable heresy of his “Reformed” theology does. The restored gospel teaches a universal atonement, which is “infinite” for all mankind—but not a universal salvation. Jesus atoned for the sins of all men without exception, which is made applicable to them on condition of faith and repentance. Faith and repentance is man’s choice and decision, not God’s. The theology of the restored gospel is 100% biblical and true. It is his “Reformed” theology that is not biblical, and is heretical and false. The same goes for most of the other things he has said there about what Latter-day Saints believe. It is the Bible that teaches that Jesus had a preexistent beginning:
Revelation 3:
14 And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness [Jesus], the beginning of the creation of God;
Colossians 1:
14 In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins:
15 Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature:
Romans 8:
29 For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.
Matthew 28:
10 Then said Jesus unto them, Be not afraid: go tell my brethren that they go into Galilee, and there shall they see me.
John 20:
17 Jesus saith unto her, … go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God.
As far as Jesus being the “brother of Satan,” that is an anti-Mormon slogan and a soundbite. The Bible identifies Satan as a son of God:
Job 1:
6 Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan came also among them.
Job 2:
1 Again there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan came also among them to present himself before the Lord.
If two people are sons of the same father, that makes them “brothers,” no? However, since Satan has now rebelled against God and been cast out, he is not now the “brother” of anybody except the evil spirits that followed him. The Bible teaches that we become the “children” of whoever we choose to obey. If we choose to obey God, we become the children of God; if we choose to obey the devil, we become the children of the devil:
John 8:
37 I know that ye are Abraham’s seed; but ye seek to kill me, because my word hath no place in you.
38 I speak that which I have seen with my Father: and ye do that which ye have seen with your father.
39 They answered and said unto him, Abraham is our father. Jesus saith unto them, If ye were Abraham's children, ye would do the works of Abraham.
40 But now ye seek to kill me, a man that hath told you the truth, which I have heard of God: this did not Abraham.
41 Ye do the deeds of your father. Then said they to him, We be not born of fornication; we have one Father, even God.
42 Jesus said unto them, If God were your Father, ye would love me: for I proceeded forth and came from God; neither came I of myself, but he sent me.
43 Why do ye not understand my speech? even because ye cannot hear my word.
44 Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.
Satan was once an angel of light, before he rebelled against God and fell from heaven (Isaiah 14:12; Luke 10:18). He may have been a “brother of Jesus” before he rebelled, and was cast out; but since now he has been cast out, he is not now the “brother” of anybody except the evil spirits that followed him:
Revelation 12:
7 And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels,
8 And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven.
9 And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.
He then continues his criticism of the restored gospel as follows:
“In these beliefs about Jesus Christ, Mormonism once again shows itself to be a completely different religion from Christianity. The teaching of the Bible is that Jesus is the Son of God who eternally existed with the Father and Holy Spirit, who was born of the Virgin Mary and lived on this earth as both God and man in one person. Because Christ is fully God, he is worthy of our worship, and he hears our prayers. He paid the penalty for the sins of all who believe in him (see especially chapters 26 and 27). ‘In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made’ John 1:1–3).”
That is just spreading falsehood about the Church in order to discredit it. In the process he has only succeeded in discrediting himself, and destroyed his own reputation as a respected Christian scholar and theologian. By the way, it looks like he (or his friends and associates) have become aware of my recent blog posts responding to his criticisms of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and have persuaded him to put out a new video in defense of his criticisms:
This video came out just yesterday. Well, that won’t work. I have provided reasoned arguments refuting his criticisms. Merely repeating the same refuted arguments in a video is not going to solve his problem any. If he wants to rescue his reputation, his only option is to tell his publisher to remove the book from circulation, amend it and republish it again, and publicly apologize to Latter-day Saints and to the Church for spreading falsehoods and lies about them, otherwise his reputation will remain tarnished forever. His remaining objections will be discussed in another blog post.
____________________
*Quoting Ron Rhodes.
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