The Mormon Doctrine of Deity: The Roberts-Van Der Donckt Discussion / To which is added a discourse, Jesus Christ, the revelation of God; also a collection of authoritative Mormon utterances on the being and nature of God

by B. H. Roberts

The preceding argument is reinforced by John 14, 8-11: "Philip saith to him: Lord, show us the Father, * * * Jesus saith: So long a time have I been with you and thou hast not known me. Philip, he that seeth me seeth the Father also. How sayest thou: Show us the Father. Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father in me? The words that I speak I speak not of myself. But the Father who abideth in me, he doth the works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me. What things soever the Father doth, these the Son also doth likewise" (John 5:19).

These words are a clear assertion of the physical unity of the Son and the Father. It is plain from the context that Christ means more than a physical resemblance, no matter how complete, between him and his Father. Of mere resemblance and moral union could never be said that one is the other, and that the words uttered by one are actually spoken by the other.

To see the Son and the Father at the same time in the Son, the Son and the Father must be numerically one Being. Now Christ says: "He that seeth me seeth the Father." Therefore, he and the Father are numerically one Being.

Again, if the speech and the acts of the Son are physically the words and the works of the Father, the Son and the Father are physically one; indivisible, inseparably one principle of action, therefore, one Being. Now Christ tells us that his words and works are physically the words and works of his Father. Therefore, the Son and the Father are one indivisible, inseparable principle, and therefore identical Being: Let no one object: Is not the word and the deed of the agent, the word and the deed of his master or employer? Christ is more than his Father's agent. An agent could indeed say that his utterances and his actions are dictated or prompted by his master, but he could never say what Christ said: The words I utter are actually, physically spoken by my Father while I speak them; and the works I perform are actually, physically, performed by my Father. Is the Son, then, like the phonograph or the machine, the instrument of the Father? Nay, he is more than that. Being together with his Father, the one equally intelligent and equally efficient principle of action, the words and works are simultaneously both the Son's and the Father's.

There remains to prove that the Holy Ghost is inseparably one with the Father and the Son. There are three who give testimony in heaven, and these three are one (1 John 5:8).

As Christ proved his identity and unity with the Father by texts quoted: "The words that I speak I speak not of myself. But the Father who abideth in me he doth the works," so he now shows his unity with the Holy Ghost by almost the selfsame sentences: "When the Spirit of Truth will have come, he will teach you all truth; for he will not speak or himself, but he will speak whatever he will hear, and will announce to you the things to come. He will glorify me, because he will receive of mine and announce to you: whatever the Father hath are mine.^[A] Therefore I said: because he will receive of mine and announce it to you" (John 16:13-15).

[Footnote A: In the Old Testament, the foreknowledge of future events was ever spoken of as an incommunicable attribute of Jehovah (Isaiah 41:22, 23; 44:7; 45:11; Daniel 2:22, 47; 13; 42, etc.) As whatever the Father hath is the Son's, therefore, also, the knowledge of the future.]

That the Holy Ghost is one with the Son, or Jesus, is proved also by the fact that the Christian baptism is indiscriminately called the Baptism of the Holy Ghost, the Baptism in or with the Holy Ghost and the Baptism of or in Jesus: "He [Christ] shall baptize in the Holy Ghost and fire" (that is the Holy Ghost acting as purifying fire) (Matthew 3:11); "have you received the Holy Ghost? We have not so much as heard whether there be a Holy Ghost." He said: "In what then [in whose name then] were you baptized?" Who said: "In John's baptism * * * Having heard these things they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus" (Acts 9:2, 5). "All we who are baptized in Christ Jesus" (Romans 6:3).

B. Although the systematic doctrine of the Blessed Trinity, that is, of three Divine Persons (not three Gods) in one God, is a gradual development in the Church, nevertheless the distinction of the human and divine natures in Christ is found in the writings of St. Ignatius, disciple of the Apostle St. John, and Bishop of Antioch, who, because of his faith, was devoured by lions by order of Trajan, A. D. 107. Fifty and sixty years later, different Fathers, among whom Tertullian ("Adv. Marc" IV. 25, and "Adv. Wax." 2), Athenagoras ("Leg" 10: 24, 44), and Clement of Alexandria ("Strom" III: 12) are the most famous, taught there are three Divine Persons in one God; that these three, the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost, are equal to each other and are one in substance.^[A]

[Footnote A: The manifestation of the three Divine Persons at our Lord's baptism could be interpreted as if there were three distinct beings in God, or three Gods, if such interpretation were not precluded by God's emphatic revelation of his Divine Unity. There was, on that memorable occasion, a twofold divine witnessing to Christ as Son of God come in the flesh to redeem mankind. In order to find in that event anything in support of the "Mormon" tenets, there should have appeared above the Son two glorious exalted men both pointing to him; whereas, only a voice was heard, and a dove was seen. Nor can we argue from the voice that the Father must have a mouth, and therefore a body; with greater reason might we maintain that the Holy Ghost is a pigeon, as a dove was visible; whereas, the organ of the voice was not.]