~~ Who Really Is Elohim? ~~
In the Bible the word for God in the Hebrew that is most often used is Elohim. It is a plural noun. Today it is popular to say it means plural of majesty. However the form of the word, Eloh-im, is plural. The word for God in the singular sense is El which is used most often in describing God's characteristics or attributes. El Eyon, El Shaddai, In the Hebrew when Elohim is used of the true God it is used singular, as a composite unity, when it is used of false gods it is used in the plural. (ex. you shall have no other Gods Elohim before me.") Is God calling the false Gods majesties. God is not this nice to impostors who cause people to rebel and forsake him.
For centuries Christians have professed their belief in a God who is God alone (Is. 44:8), self-existent (Is. 43:10; 48:12), transcendent (Num. 23:19; Ps. 50:21), immutable (Ps. 102:27; Is. 46:10; Mal. 3:6), eternal (Ps. 90:2; 93:2), omnipresent (1 Kings 8:27; Prov. 15:3; Is. 66:1; Jer. 23: 23, 24), and incorporeal (John 4:24; Col. 1:15; 1 Tim. 1:17). He is also a God who dwells in the believer (Eph. 3:17; 4:6; Rom. 8:9) and is omnipotent (Job 42:2; Ps. 115:3; Matt. 19:26). Mormons insist that their God, the one they call Elohim, is the Christian God. Why then are his attributes so different from the God who is declared in the Bible?
THE GOD OF MORMONISM IS ONE OF MANY GODS
Joseph Smith, the founder of Mormonism, stated, "I wish to declare I have always and in all congregations when I have preached on the subject of the Deity, it has been the plurality of Gods" (History of the Church 6:474).
Brigham Young, the second prophet and president of the LDS Church, said, "How many Gods there are, I do not know. But there never was a time when there were not Gods..." (Journal of Discourses 7:333).
THE GOD OF MORMONISM IS NOT SELF-EXISTENT
Mormon Apostle Orson Pratt taught, "We were begotten by our Father in Heaven; the person of our Father in Heaven was begotten on a previous heavenly world by His Father; and again, He was begotten by a still more ancient Father, and so one, from one generation to generation" (The Seer, pg. 132).
THE GOD OF MORMONISM IS NOT TRANSCENDENT
While the God of the Bible makes it clear that He is not like man, Mormon leaders have insisted that their God is an exalted human being.
Joseph Smith declared, "God himself was once as we are now, and is an exalted man, and sits enthroned in yonder heavens!" (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, pg. 345).
Mormon Apostle John Widtsoe stated, "God and man are of the same race, differing only in their degrees of advancement" (Gospel Through the Ages, pg. 107).
This concurs with Mormon Apostle Parley P. Pratt's comment which states, "God, angels, and men are all of the same species, one race, one great family..." (Key to the Science of Theology, 1978 ed., pg. 21).
THE GOD OF MORMONISM IS NOT IMMUTABLE
Whereas God's perfection makes it never necessary for Him to change, the God of Mormonism changes both in his physical person and moral attributes. This is demonstrated by the fact that he evolved from a man into a God and that he has changed decrees which are theoretically "unalterable." Examples of this would include the abandonment of polygamy in 1890, the reversal of the ban which withheld the LDS Priesthood from Blacks in 1978, and the changes in the LDS temple ceremony in 1980.
THE GOD OF MORMONISM IS NOT ETERNALLY GOD
Joseph Smith taught that God was not always God when he stated, "We have imagined and supposed that God was God from all eternity. I will refute that idea, and take away the veil, so that you may see" (Teachings, pg. 345).
THE GOD OF MORMONISM IS NOT INCORPOREAL
Unlike the God of the Bible who is a God of Spirit (John 4:24), Joseph Smith taught, "The Father has a body of flesh and bones as tangible as man's" (D&C 130:22).
THE GOD OF MORMONISM IS NOT OMNIPRESENT
Because the LDS God is limited to a physical body, he is not omnipresent. Brigham Young said, "Some would have us believe that God is present everywhere. It is not so" (Journal of Discourses 6:345).
LDS Apostle James Talmage stated that neither God the Father, nor "any actual person of any one member of the Godhead can be physically present in more than one place at one time" (The Articles of Faith, pg. 39). The Mormon God's "omnipresence" is fulfilled through the Holy Spirit which, according to Mormon Apostle John Widtsoe, is not to be confused with the Holy Ghost (Evidences and Reconciliations, pp. 76-77).
THE GOD OF MORMONISM CANNOT DWELL IN THE BELIEVER
According to Joseph Smith, "The idea that the Father and the Son dwell in a man's heart is an old sectarian notion, and is false" (D&C 130:3. Oddly enough, the Book of Mormon teaches the Lord does dwell in the hearts of the righteous. See Alma 34:36).
THE GOD OF MORMONISM IS NOT OMNIPOTENT
As Mormons believe they will always be subservient to their God, so too it would make sense that their God is subservient to his God as well. It would also makes sense that if the LDS God is the offspring of another God, then his God must be more advanced in his eternal progression than the God whom Mormons claim to serve.
Mormon author W. Cleon Skousen stated that God is God only because another force sustains him as such. He wrote, "Through modern revelation we learn that the universe is filled with vast numbers of intelligences, and we further learn that Elohim is God simply because all of these intelligences honor and sustain Him as such...since God 'acquired' the honor and sustaining influence of 'all things' it follows as a corollary that if He should ever do anything to violate the confidence or 'sense of justice' of these intelligences, they would promptly withdraw their support, and the 'power' of God would disintegrate...'He would cease to be God'" (The First 2,000 Years, pp. 355-356).
That the LDS God would have to answer to anyone clearly shows he is not omnipotent. Some Mormons insist his omnipotence lies in the fact that he has unlimited power, not all power. This too is inconsistent with Mormon thought since the God of Mormonism has no ability to create ex-nihilo, or out of nothing. The God of Mormonism is limited to only being able to reorganize matter.
THE GOD OF MORMONISM DOES NOT FORGIVE COMPLETELY
Another major difference between the God of the LDS Church and that of historical Christianity lies in the fact that the God of the Bible forgives completely. In Isaiah 43:25 we read, "I, even I, am He that blotteth out thy transgressions for Mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins." In Jeremiah 31:34 it says God "will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more." Hebrews 8:12 states, "For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more." How comforting to know that the God of the Bible wills not to remember the believer's past sins!
The God of Mormonism, however, must keep in remembrance past transgressions for D&C 82:7 warns, "And now, verily I say unto you, I, the Lord, will not lay any sin to your charge; go your ways and sin no more; but unto the soul who sinneth shall the former sins return, saith the Lord your God." There is no possible way that these two beings can be the same.
UNDERSTANDING THE DESCRIPTIVE NAME
When looking at the usage of Elohim it always refers to persons in the plural, there is no passage I've come across that it is used in the sense they claim.
The preface im (masculine in gender) at the end of a word makes the word into a plural form. For example the angels called seraph or cherub are in the singular but when they are Seraphim or Cherubim they mean more than one.
The word for heavens is shamayim Gen.1:2 Again in the plural. Could we ever interpret this as a plural of majesty.
We find from the scriptures all the attributes of God belong to Elohim, they also belong to the three persons who are the Elohim. The word Elohim can also be used for one person of the godhead or all three since they all share in the commonality of that eternal essence of deity. Each person the Father, Son and Spirit are 100% deity so when they appear singularly there is no division of that deity since God is indivisible. The same rule would be for the word God theos, in the N.T. . Such as in Jn.1:1 the word was with God and was God as sharing in the same essence.
Even the ancient Rabbis recognized this word as related to more than one. In the Midrash Rabbah on Genesis Rabbi Samuel bar Nahman in the name of Rabbi Jonathan said, that at the time when Moses wrote the Torah, writing a portion of it daily, when he came to this verse which says "And Elohim said, let us make man in our image after our likeness," Moses said, Master of the Universe why do you herewith an excuse to the sectarians (Who believe in the Triunity of God), God answered Moses, You write and whoever wants to err let him err. "In other words God had Moses write down what is correct, and we are to study to understand it. Selah
Elohim can be used as a general term for God in the O.T.. For example Samuel was called a Elohim when he came up from the dead (1 Sam.28:13-14) In Ex. 7:1 Moses was made an Elohim to Pharaoh. Jesus call the rulers in Israel Elohim, "Gods" ? (Jn. 10:34) After the Jews accuse Jesus of blasphemy because he being a man claimed to be God he answers "Is it not written in your law I said 'You are Gods" citing Ps.82:6 " This was addressed to the judges of Israel they were called Gods not because they were divine but because they represented God when they judged the people and were misrepresenting God. Jesus’ point," is intended to show that the idea of a communication of the divine majesty to human nature was by no means foreign to the revelations of the O.T." ( New Commentary on the whole Bible, Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown) So this title can be bestowed on those who are not by nature God. However they were never called Yahweh or I Am.
1 Cor. 8:5-6 states "For even if there are so-called Gods, whether in heaven or on earth (as there are many gods and many lords) yet for us there is one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we for Him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and through whom we live." The Mormons use this scripture to promote their view of polytheism. Paul is speaking to the Corinthians who had a background of worshipping the Greek pagan gods and idols. He was writing in context before this about the idols they once worshipped. These were not God by nature even though they called them God. Look at how Paul clarifies this "but to us there is one God and includes both the Father and the Son."
Elohim refers to the Creator God of many aspects, not to be confused with those He created, the Sons of Elohim. The plural B'nai Elohim were "gods", they were the Sons of God, stewards of God's creation before their rebellion. These "gods", the B'nai Elohim, are mistakenly thought of as one and the same as Elohim, but they are merely created beings, seeking to usurp the glory that only God Himself deserves.
Satan and the B'nai Elohim encourage the mixup, and distort the very name of God, Elohim -- in Hebrew elo=God, and im=the Hebrew masculine plural. Satan has already convinced many (like Mormons, New Agers, Sitchin, Hoagland etc.) that Elohim describes the angels, the "many gods".
ELOHIM is the name God revealed to Israel which describes His nature, His multiple aspects.
Significantly, the account of Elijah testing the prophets of Baal delineates the separation between the false gods, the many manifestations of the fallen angels on Earth, and the True God ELOHIM.
Elijah gathered the priests of the "baals" with the people of Israel, and proposed a challenge, a contest between God and gods:
"THIS DAY SHALL THE TRUE ELOHIM BE REVEALED."
1 Kings 18:24
And you shall call on the name of your god; and
I will call on the name of Jehovah; and it shall be,
the god who answers by fire, he is the God.
1 Kings 18:38
And fire fell from Jehovah and burned up the burnt offering, and the
wood, and the stones, and the dust, and the water that was in the trench
was licked up by it. And all the people saw, and fell on their faces,
and said
"Yehovah, He is THE
ELOHIM!
Yehovah, He is THE ELOHIM!"
Deut. 6:4 Literally translated,
Duet 6:4 declares,
Hear O Israel, the Lord your God, the Lord
is one.
"Shema Israel, Yehovah Elohim, Yehovah echad!"
I AM Gods, I AM unified.
John 8:17
The testimony of two witnesses is true.
I AM that bear witness of myself, and the Father
who sent me bears witness of me.
The Bible declares "At the mouth of two witnesses, or three witnesses, shall a matter be established".( Num. 35: 30; Deut. 17: 6, Matt. 27: 16). It is also interesting to note, that it is the second person of the Trinity that is especially called "the faithful witness" (Rev. 1:5)
CONCLUSION
There is probably no greater sin than to place your trust in a God whose attributes do not match those of the God of the Bible. The biblical term for such a sin is idolatry. The fact that Joseph Smith failed to represent the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob proves that he was not a true prophet. God warned the children of Israel that if any arose and attempted to entice Israel to "go after other gods" he was to be put to death (Deuteronomy 13:1-3, 5). Do you think He takes this any less serious today? To insist on following the God of the Mormon Church will result in spiritual death, a painful separation from the Creator for all eternity. The stakes are too high to trust in any other. Our prayer for all Latter-day Saints is that they see how they have been deceived by Joseph Smith and the "prophets and apostles" who followed him and ultimately place their trust in the God who has been changing lives for centuries, the God of the Bible.
Some interesting links to other web pages discussing Elohim
Are Jehovah and Elohim Different Gods?