William Lane Craig Misrepresents Mormonism!

 

I found the above short clip By William Lane Craig in criticism of the LDS doctrine of God, the transcript of which is as follows:

“Perfect Being theology really needs to be developed by Mormon theologians, because Mormonism has a very defective concept of God. For Mormons, God is a finite, material, humanoid being who lives on a planet in outer space, and controls the universe. It is a form of a grossly materialistic polytheism; and this God was begotten by procreation from gods that existed before him, and they are from gods before them, back and back to eternity. So this is a really crass form of polytheism, once you really understand Mormon theology, and therefore just terribly deficient. The whole Mormon concept of God needs to be re-conceived in light of God’s maximal greatness.”

There are several issues with that statement. Firstly, while it is true that Joseph Smith taught that God the Father was once a man who progressed to become God, he never gave a proper revelatory statement to the Church on the subject, and it is not part of canonized scriptures of the Church, and therefore it is not strictly official Church doctrine. Most Latter-day Saints (including myself) believe it to be true; but until a proper revelatory statement is given about it, and it is canonized as scripture, it cannot be strictly regarded as official Church doctrine.

Secondly, although Joseph Smith taught that God the Father was once a man who progressed to become God, he did not explain how the process started. He did not teach an “infinite regression of the Gods”. That was speculation that was subsequently added to it by others. He did not explain, or claim to know, how the process began.

Thirdly, William’s claim that belief in this doctrine turns God into a “finite, material, humanoid being who lives on a planet in outer space …,” as he has expressed it, is a gross misrepresentation of the truth. Was not Jesus once a man who is also God? Was he not born as a human, grew to manhood, ate, drank, slept, walked, talked, preached, was crucified, died, was resurrected, ascended to heaven, and will return to earth again in the same way that he ascended? Is not that what the Bible teaches (Acts 1:10-12)? Does Jesus still not have his physical resurrected body; and is he not going to return and reign on earth during the Millennium with that same glorified resurrected physical body? Is he not going to judge the living and the dead after the resurrection with that same physical body? Does he not now dwell in heaven with a physical resurrected body, and is he not going to retain that glorified and resurrected physical body for the rest of eternity? Whether he now lives on a “planet” in heaven somewhere or not, I have no idea; but he must be living somewhere, if he still has, and always will have a physical resurrected body. Is he not fully divine—is he not omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent etc., and fully perfect in all his attributes—while still retaining his physical resurrected body in heaven? Does his resurrected physical body prevent him in any way from possessing and maintaining those divine attributes? Did he not appear to his disciples after his resurrection, with his resurrected body, saying, “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth” (Matthew 28:18)? According to William Lane Craig, however, that makes Jesus into a “finite, material, humanoid being,” and is a form of “grossly materialistic polytheism”! In other words he hasn’t a clue what he is talking about.

Fourthly, the LDS doctrine of the deification of man (and by extension, of plurality of gods), is not an anomaly in the history of Christianity. Deification or theosis was a widely held belief in the early Christian church, and was extensively taught and written about by the Early Church Fathers, from the first century to the eighth century and beyond. I have provided plenty of examples here. Now that is not the same as “polytheism”. Polytheism means worshiping more than one God. In LDS theology, deification is an expression of salvation and exaltation in the celestial kingdom of God. To be saved in the celestial kingdom of God is to be deified. It doesn’t mean that those who are so deified become supreme beings independent of God the Father and the Son. They will continue to be subject to and subordinate to them, and will continue to worship them in the eternities to come. In the theology of Latter-day Saints, however, deification entails acquiring all the attributes of divinity, such as infinity, eternity, everlastingness; omnipotence, omniscience etc. See Doctrine and Covenants 76:58-70; 132:20-24—which also finds biblical support in John 17:20-23; 2 Peter 1:4; 1 John 3:2.

And lastly, Latter-day Saints don’t need William Lane Craig to come and teach them the correct theology pertaining to the character, perfections, glory, and attributes of God. The mighty prophet Joseph Smith has already provided them with one by divine revelation and inspiration from heaven, which is infinitely superior to anything that he, or any other uninspired human theologian could ever produce. It is known as the Lecturers on Faith, and has been published by several publishers in the past, including by myself. I consider my edition to be the best, and it is the one that I would recommend him to read. It can be seen in the side-panel in this blog. It is available in paperback and hardcover editions, as well as digitally for the Amazon Kindle. It is a small booklet (90 pages long, including introduction etc.); and it is the greatest treatise on Christian theology that has ever been produced by anyone since Christianity came into existence. I would recommend him to carefully read it, and use and apply it.