Stoning of Saint Stephen, altarpiece of San Giorgio Maggiore, Venice, by Jacopo & Domenico

Mormons vs. Creedal Christianity

by Robert Rosskopf

Without a prophet or apostles to guide them, early Christians quickly adopted a variety of beliefs, which caused turmoil in the church. It was determined that the conflict would be resolved through discussion and popular vote. The Council of Nicea was convened in 325 AD to adopt an official stance on controversial subjects through popular vote. It was the first of many councils that would further define Catholic belief. The Eastern church would not agree to the creed established at one of these councils, and broke off from the main body in disagreement, becoming the Eastern Orthodox Church.
One of the things in question was the nature of God. The Christian Jews and many of the Christian Romans believed that God had a physical body.

"The Jews indeed, but also some of our people, supposed that God should be understood as a man, that is, adorned with human members and human appearance. But the philosophers despise these stories as fabulous and formed in the likeness of poetic fictions." (Origen, Homilies on Genesis 3:1, translated by Ronald E. Heine (Washington D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 1982), 89.)

Origen, one of the early church fathers, quoted a conversation between Peter and another disciple, in support of the idea.

"And Simon said: 'I should like to know, Peter, if you really believe that the shape of man has been moulded after the shape of God.' And Peter said: 'I am really quite certain, Simon, that this is the case…. It is the shape of the just God.'" (Clementine Homilies 16:19, in ANF 8:316.)

This belief was at odds with the teachings of the Greek philosophers, whose teachings were accepted by many Romans.

Socrates and Plato held that (God is) the One, the single self-existent nature, the monadic, the real Being, the good: and all this variety of names points immediately to mind. God therefore is mind, a separate species, that is to say what is purely immaterial and unconnected with anything passible. (Plutarch, quoted in Eusebius, Preparation for the Gospel 14:16, translated by E.H. Gifford (Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1903), 812.)

The early Roman church at the council of Nicea elected to establish the belief that God was an everywhere present spirit, and suppress as heresy the idea that God had a physical body.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints does not support this decision, nor does it agree that truth can be established through a popularity contest. Paul taught that the gospel was given by revelation, and not established by vote or compromise.

"11 But I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man.
12 For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ. "
(Galatians 1)

This is the revelation given to Joseph Smith:

"The Father has a body of flesh and bones as tangible as man’s; the Son also; but the Holy Ghost has not a body of flesh and bones, but is a personage of Spirit. Were it not so, the Holy Ghost could not dwell in us. " (D&C 130:22)