The Mortal Jesus Christ of Mormonism

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On December 25 we celebrated the birth of Christ. Both Mormonism and the Bible refer to Jesus as the “Son of God.” But Mormonism defines those words in a very different way than the Bible does. Our last article entitled “The Pre-mortal Christ of Mormonism,” discussed the LDS view of Christ before he came to earth.

In order to understand the LDS view of the earthly Christ it is also necessary to understand the LDS view of God the Father. Joseph Smith, who founded Mormon­ism said, “God himself was once as we are now, and is an exalted man, and sits enthroned in yonder heavens… He was once a man like us; yea, that God himself, the Father of us all dwelt on an earth the same as Jesus Christ himself did” (Teach­ings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, pp. 345-346). LDS scripture also says that God “The Father has a body of flesh and bones as tangible as man’s” (Doctrine and Covenants [D. & C.] 130:22). And the fifth LDS Prophet, Lorenzo Snow wrote, “As man now is, God once was; As God now is man may be” (The Promised Messiah, p. 134).

Mormon Apostle, Bruce R. McConkie wrote,

God the Father is a perfected, glorified, holy Man, an immortal Personage. And Christ was born into the world as the literal Son of this Holy Being; he was born in the same personal, real, and literal sense that any mortal son is born to a mortal father. There is nothing figurative about his paternity; he was begotten, conceived and born in the normal and natural course of events, for he is the Son of God and that designation means what it says. (Mormon Doctrine, p. 742)

McConkie also said the name titles “Only Begotten Son… all signify that our Lord is the only Son of the Father in the flesh. Each of the words is to be understood literally. Only means only; Begotten means begotten; and Son means son. Christ was begotten by an Immortal Father in the same way that mortal men are begot­ten by mortal fathers” (ibid. pp. 546-547).

Apostle McConkie also said,

Our Lord’s mother, Mary, like Christ, was chosen and foreordained in the pre­existence (pre-mortal spirit world) for the part she was destined to play in the great plan of salvation… She was one of the noblest and greatest of all the spirit offspring of the Father. Mary’s name and mission were revealed to holy prophets centuries before her mortal birth. Nephi saw her as, “A virgin, most beautiful and fair above all other virgins”… As such a virgin she gave birth to a son whose Father was the Almighty God. (ibid. p. 471)

Notice the sequence in this quotation. God the Father begat Mary as His spirit daughter in the pre-mortal spirit world and then He became the father of her Son in this mortal world! Remember that LDS teach that God the “Father has a body of flesh and bones as tangible as man’s” and that Christ was conceived and born on earth the same way any other mortal is born.

Brigham Young also said, “The birth of the Savior was as natural as are the births of our children; it was the result of natural action. He partook of flesh and blood— was begotten of his Father as we were begotten of our fathers” (Journal of Dis­courses, vol. 8, p. 115).

Ezra Taft Benson, the 13th LDS Prophet also said, “The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints proclaims that Jesus Christ is the Son of God in the most literal sense. The body in which he performed His mission in the flesh was sired by that same Holy Being we worship as God, our Eternal Father. Jesus was not the son of Joseph, nor was He begotten by the Holy Ghost. He is the Son of the Eternal Father” (The Teachings of Ezra Taft Benson, pp. 6-7).

In spite of such teaching many Mormons say they believe in the virgin birth of Jesus which doesn’t fit with what their leaders have taught. We have quoted some of the highest authorities in the LDS Church because there are Mormons who deny that their Church or their leaders teach this doctrine.

Many Mormons are offended if they are told that Mormonism’s Jesus is not the same as the biblical Jesus. However, their current President and Prophet, Gordon B. Hinckley said of Christ,

He is the Son of the living God, the firstborn of the Father, the Only Begotten in the flesh, who left the royal courts on high to be born as a mortal… As a Church we have critics, many of them. They say we do not believe in the traditional Christ of Christianity. There is some substance to what they say. Our faith, our knowledge is not based on ancient tradition, the creeds which came of a finite understanding and out of the almost infinite discussions of men trying to arrive at a definition of the risen Christ. Our faith, our knowledge comes of a witness of a prophet in this dispensation who saw before him the great God of the universe and His Beloved Son, the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ. They spoke to him. He spoke with Them. He testified openly, unequivocally, and unabashedly of that great vision. It was a vision of the Almighty and of the Redeemer of the world, glorious beyond our understanding but certain and unequivocating in the knowledge which it brought. It is out of that knowledge, rooted deep in the soil of modern revelation, that we, in the words of Nephi, “talk of Christ, we rejoice in Christ, we preach of Christ, we prophecy of Christ, and we write according to our prophecies, that we and our children may know to what source we may look for a remission of our sins.” [II Nephi 25:26] (Ensign, May 2002, pp. 90-91)

Notice that Hinckley admitted that LDS beliefs about Christ are different from traditional Christianity (as taught in the Bible) because LDS beliefs are based on “a witness of a prophet (LDS founder Joseph Smith) in this dispensation. So, while Mormons do believe in a “Jesus Christ,” he is not the Jesus Christ of the Bible. But it is the Jesus Christ of the Bible who said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life; no man cometh unto the Father but by me” (John 14:6).

For those who want to read more on this subject from a Christian perspective we suggest The Second Person, by Lehman Strauss; published by Loizeaux Brothers, New York, in 1951. Our next article will discuss the LDS view of Jesus as Savior.