History of the Church 6:311; “I want to reason more on the spirit of man; for I am dwelling on the body and spirit of man—…I might with boldness proclaim from the house-tops that God never had the power to create the spirit of man at all. God himself could not create himself.” — Joseph Smith, Sunday, April 7, 1884
Ecclesiastes 12:7; “Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.”
Isaiah 42:5; “Thus saith God the LORD, he that created the heavens, and stretched them out; he that spread forth the earth, and that which cometh out of it; he that giveth breath unto the people upon it, and spirit to them that walk therein.”
Genesis 1:27; “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
Genesis 2:2-3; “And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. 3 And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.”
Zechariah 12:1; “The burden of the word of the LORD for Israel, saith the LORD, which stretcheth forth the heavens, and layeth the foundation of the earth, and formeth the spirit of man within him.”
A few weeks ago Melissa and I were talking about the type of faith one must have to be Mormon when it comes to God’s omnipotence. I told her that when I was growing up in Utah Mormonism they never denounced the theory of evolution while teaching God never had the power to create our spirits.
When someone is fed a steady diet of heresy it’s hard to figure out which philosophy you can hang your hat upon. This particular LDS teaching stands out in my mind because of how often leaders and teachers in the Church made sure to tell us God was impotent and not omnipotent.
Their ideology reminds me of Traducianism. It almost sounds reasonable and is actually argued as truth by many in Christianity, but it lacks one key element; glorifying God. What it does do is to put more creative power in the hands of man than they actually possess.
Traducianism is the belief that souls are generated by physical man when they procreate and a new person is conceived in its mother’s womb. In other words the process of multiplying includes all things that are relevant to humanity; body, soul, and spirit. They argue the Bible nowhere records that God breathes life into each human being as He did with Adam, thus His creative work has ceased. They also use Genesis 5:3 which says that Adam created a son in his own likeness.
This theory must be put where it belongs and discounted as sound biblical orthodoxy. There are countless theories of how man came to be, but there’s only ONE truth. Creationism. Traducianism, evolution, and reincarnation are all heretical as they try to debase the omnipotence of God and who He is.
As we can clearly see in the biblical examples above God gave man his very life and spirit. In Ecclesiastes King Solomon pointed out that life goes back to God who gave it. Mormons like to use this verse to argue for pre-existence, but toss any other biblical proofs that discount their theory like that in 1 Corinthian 15:44-47 & John 6:38, 51.
Why would there be so many verses in the Bible telling us how man came into existence if it wasn’t true?
Is it plausible that these verses and countless others are all translated incorrectly? If so, then what kind of god is this?
‘God never had the power to create the spirit of man at all. God himself could not create himself.” ‘ SHUDDER! We know where Smith got his thoughts-from Satan. Where is Smith’s proof of his statements? Who is he to say this?
1.Psalm 111:10 ESV
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; all those who practice it have a good understanding. His praise endures forever!
Shudder is spot on!
Clearly, the thoughts and beliefs of Smith are of his own making. I feel bad for those who’ve fallen victim to these ideologies and here we are in the 21st Century where his lie keeps going….
I shudder at reading this type of thing- Smith’s audacity to say something like this; Smith never knew the power of the Almighty God not only to create but to destroy evil doers. Read through the entire Bible, one can see the power of God, what He did, and the fantastic love he has. He could have destroyed the earth a million times over. God could have made Smith into a pillar of salt or opened the earth and he would have fallen below like the NT believers who lied…Read all the amazing things that God has done and continues to do…just the incredible patience that He has waiting for more to come to Him…then there are these false prophets having the audacity to make statements like these, like Osteen, like Beck…but God holds back and waits, knowing that later He sends them to the pit of hell for leading people astray.
Well you’ve read all the words of the Bible and know what God can do…I’m in awe and humbled by the thought that He should even care for me to send Jesus to pay the price for my sin on the cross…I pray for these people who follow the false prophets to just read through the Bible so that God can really speak to their hearts.