Do Latter-day Saints believe in the Trinity?
Short answer
Yes—but not the Trinity as defined by classical creeds. Latter-day Saints believe in the Godhead: God the Eternal Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost (Articles of Faith 1:1). They are three distinct divine Persons: the Father and the Son have glorified bodies of flesh and bones, while the Holy Ghost is a personage of spirit (D&C 130:22).
They are nevertheless one in purpose, doctrine, love, and perfectly united work. Jesus prayed that His disciples might be one as He and the Father are one (John 17:20-23), and the Book of Mormon likewise teaches that the Father and the Son are one (3 Nephi 11:27). Thus, Latter-day Saints affirm the divinity and unity of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, while rejecting the idea that they are one immaterial substance or a single person.
20. Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; 21. That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. 22. And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: 23. I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.
Latter-day Saints view the members of the Godhead in a manner that corresponds in a number of ways with the views of others in the Christian world, but with significant differences. Latter-day Saints pray to God the Father in the name of Jesus Christ. They acknowledge the Father as the ultimate object of their worship, the Son as Lord and Redeemer, and the Holy Spirit as the messenger and revealer of the Father and the Son. But where Latter-day Saints differ from other Christian religions is in their belief that God and Jesus Christ are glorified, physical beings and that each member of the Godhead is a separate being.
It is noticable that opponents of the religion of the Latter-day Saints are very fond of quoting isolated passages, from the discourse delivered by President Young concerning our Father Adam, for the purpose of ridiculing our religion and of representing to the world that we worship a human being for God; and at the same time they say nothing about the hundreds of allusions by the same speaker to that Supreme Being who, by his omnipresent Spirit, gives life and light to all things spiritual and physical, and whom we adore and strive to obey. President Young stated in that discourse that he knew a great deal more about the subject on which he very briefly touched, but that if he were to tell it all, many very pious people would be terribly shocked. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has never formulated or adopted any theory concerning the subject treated upon by President Young as to Adam. The express declaration of the Church is: "We believe in God, the Eternal Father, and in his Son, Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost." We believe that these are separate persons, but that they are one as to the Godhead. The Father is the Creator of all things in heaven and on earth. The Son is the Savior of mankind, the firstborn in the spirit, the only begotten in the flesh. He is our elder brother, the express likeness and image of him who is the Father of our spirits. The Holy Ghost is "a personage of spirit," who bears witness of the Father and the Son. The Spirit of God, by which he is omnipresent, proceeds from Deity and extends throughout the boundless domain of illimitable space, giving life and light to all things animate. There are many persons who are called gods, both in heaven and on earth, as the Apostle Paul declares, but "to us there is one God, even the Father of whom are all things, and one Lord, even Jesus Christ, by whom are all things."
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