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By Julia Ditto | FāVS News Columnist
The views expressed in this opinion column are those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect the views of FāVS News.
Why doesn’t the LDS church accept the trinity of Christ?
Thank you for your question!
Like other Christians, members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints believe in the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit (or Holy Ghost). We refer to these three divine beings as the Godhead; other traditional Christian churches refer to them as the Trinity. However, while the concept of the Trinity holds that these three divine Persons are of one substance, we believe that they are three physically separate beings, completely united in love, purpose and will.
We believe the concept of the Trinity came much later than the New Testament church that Jesus Christ established. According to Harper’s Bible Dictionary, “the formal doctrine of the Trinity as it was defined by the great church councils of the fourth and fifth centuries is not to be found in the [New Testament].”
The late Jeffrey R. Holland, an apostle in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, once spoke about the creeds formulated by these councils centuries after the coming of Christ:
“These various evolutions and iterations of creeds—and others to come over the centuries—declared the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost to be abstract, absolute, transcendent, immanent, consubstantial, coeternal, and unknowable, without body, parts, or passions and dwelling outside space and time. In such creeds all three members are separate persons, but they are a single being, the oft-noted ‘mystery of the trinity.’ They are three distinct persons, yet not three Gods but one. All three persons are incomprehensible, yet it is one God who is incomprehensible. We agree with our critics on at least that point—that such a formulation for divinity is truly incomprehensible.”
The Father in Heaven, Jesus Christ and Holy Ghost whom I worship are not unknowable. They each fill specific roles in their united effort to bring not only me, but all the children of the Father, back to him.
You can learn more about our beliefs regarding the Godhead on the official church website, churchofjesuschrist.org.
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