Basic Beliefs
The basic beliefs of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the official name of the Church, known popularly as the LDS Church or the Mormon Church)[1] can be summed up in its 13 Articles of Faith, the first of which states that members believe in God the Father, his son Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost. Mormons or Latter-day Saints are Christians. The body of their beliefs and practices are referred to as Mormonism. Mormonism shares with other Christian religions the notion that the greatest virtues are love of God and of one’s fellow human beings, but it differs from most expressions of Christianity in that Mormons believe in a subsequent revelation, considered to be another testament of Christ, called the Book of Mormon. This was revealed by God and translated by their founder, Joseph Smith (1805-1844). Many of their beliefs are based on the personal revelation to Smith, which is continued in each of the lives of members of the Church. God has communicated with humans and continues to communicate with them. Mormons base their faith on a combination of study, reason, and spiritual prompting, which includes asking God to direct them to truth, as it says in a key passage of the Book of Mormon, “by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things” (Moroni 10:5). Mormons view the Bible and the Book of Mormon as direct evidence of what God wants humans to do. Their beliefs are based on an acceptance of their scriptures as the word of God, though they do not see the transmitters of these scriptures as infallible in word or deed.
Faith in God and Jesus Christ is central to Latter-day Saints; however, they have a non-Trinitarian conception of the godhead, which is different from mainstream Christianity. Mormons see God, Jesus, and the Holy Ghost as three separate beings rather than three aspects of one being. God the Father is a supreme being and the singular object of worship, but he has a material body. According to the Church official website, “God is often referred to in the Church as Heavenly Father, because He is the Father of all human spirits and they are created in His image (Genesis 1:27). It is an appropriate term for a God who is kind and just, all wise and all powerful. Mormons believe He has a human-like body but is immortal and perfected”.[2] Jesus is the divine Son of God, who atoned for the sins of the human race, died and was resurrected from death. Salvation is impossible without Jesus Christ’s sacrifice, which was freely given on behalf of humanity. Christ’s atonement erases the effect of Adam’s sin. Humans are only punished for their own sins and not Adam’s. Having faith in Jesus means following his example, trying to live and behave as he did, though, according to Mormon scripture, ultimately accepting that it is by his grace that we are saved “after all we can do” on our own.[3] While on earth, Christ was both divine and mortal, though now participates fully with God in the governance of the universe as a divine being:
Jesus is the Son of God, the Only Begotten Son in the flesh (John 3:16). Latter-day Saints accept the prophetic declarations in the Old Testament that refer directly and powerfully to the coming of the Messiah, the Saviour of all mankind. Church members also accept the New Testament accounts of the birth, life and ministry, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.… Christ, like His Father, has a physical body — the same body that walked out of the tomb after His resurrection, and which He invited His apostles to “handle … and see” (Luke 24:39).[4]
Adam, the first man, was also taught the Gospel; he was baptised and given the gift of the Holy Ghost. The gift of the Holy Ghost is given through the laying on of hands. The Holy Ghost, or Holy Spirit, is the third member of the godhead, called a ‘personage of Spirit’, meaning a non-corporeal being, which gives him the power to infiltrate and inspire and speak to the human mind and heart. Taken together God, Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost are fully united in purpose, intent, and action.
Individual exaltation, the Mormon term for salvation, requires repentance of one’s own sins, baptism through immersion by one having the authority of Christ, confirmation in the LDS Church, and receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost. Baptism is a preparation for the gift of the Spirit. By abiding by the covenants made in baptism and through God’s grace, human theosis is ultimately possible, providing humanity a literal potential to become like God; as infants become adults, humans can become like God. The LDS Church also believes in the Second Coming of Jesus, that Zion or the New Jerusalem will be built on what is now the American continent and Jesus will reign there, in a ‘literal gathering of Israel’.
Humanity has an eternal, premortal existence, their spirits live before birth with God and then continue on after death. Human beings, in marriage, partner with God to provide a mortal experience for God’s children. The seriousness with which Mormons take the pre-existent life of humans as a central tenet accounts for why Mormons tend to have larger families than average, valuing children and family life and disfavouring abortion. Mortality is an intermediate stage of trial and improvement in the face of temptation in which the spirit inhabits a physical body. There is not a conception of original sin; rather, humans are inherently innocent; they are not coming from corruption or originating from fallen parentage. Humans inherit neither guilt nor sin but may acquire these throughout life if they give in to temptation. Infant baptism is redundant as it denies this original innocence. However, Mormons do baptise for the dead, citing the practice as consistent with early Christianity (“Else what shall they do which are baptised for the dead, if the dead rise not at all? Why are they then baptized for the dead?” I Cor 15:29, New Testament), a process aimed at providing an opportunity for the deceased to accept the Gospel. Mormons are known for their genealogical research to identify their ancestors who did not have the opportunity to hear the restored Gospel. Through this practice God reveals his fatherhood, love and impartiality for all human beings, not just those fortunate to have found true Christianity during their mortal lives. The dead have the same requirement for exaltation as the living, however: to accept Christ and the ordinances, beginning with baptism. Marriage performed in Mormon Temples is also binding beyond death.
Although Mormons believe that God has a plan for humanity, they also strongly believe that humans have agency, in the sense of moral freedom, that is given by God and inalienable. In the Pearl of Great Price, one of the books Joseph Smith produced containing his revelations, it states that “in the Garden of Eden, gave I unto man his agency” (Moses 7:32). This means humans can choose whether to follow God’s plan for them or not. They have free will. God is merciful, however, so nearly everyone will be saved in one of three kingdoms of Glory, although a few will remain as ‘sons of perdition’ by choice.
It is believed that all people dwelt with God before this life and that every individual has the opportunity to dwell with God after this life in a state of eternal joy; one’s existence is analogous to a three-part play that consists of a premortal existence, a mortal life on earth of learning, testing and growth, and a post-mortal existence as resurrected beings. Where one goes after this life depends primarily upon the degree to which one accepts and follow Jesus Christ, as well as on participating in the essential rites (such as baptism).[5]
Mormon scripture describes the three states of post-mortal existence as the telestial, the terrestrial and the celestial kingdoms. These are in some sense ‘kingdoms of glory’. According to Doctrine and Covenants (76: 89-92), “The glory of the telestial surpasses all understanding, and no man knows it except him to whom God has revealed it. And … the glory of the terrestrial … excels in all things the glory of the telestial; … [and]the glory of the celestial … excels in all things—where God, even the Father, reigns upon his throne forever and ever.”
The LDS Church is a restorationist church emerging from the Second Great Awakening in the United States in the 19th century. Christianity was seen as corrupt and in need of full reestablishment rather than reformation; all Christian groups having departed from the true Gospel order, called by Joseph Smith a ‘Great Apostasy’. The founding of the LDS Church marks the start of a new dispensation, and a renewed covenant with God, revealed in the Book of Mormon, in which communication between God and humans was open again. It is one of the first and most enduring Christian churches created in the US. The first Mormon missionaries reached England in 1837. The first British converts moved to Utah to help ‘build Zion’ in anticipation of Christ’s return to the earth. During this period the ‘gathering’ of the faithful took the form of mass migration to the western US. Most British churches and Temples have been founded since 1945, however, at one point in the late 19th century, there were considerably more Mormons living in Britain than in the United States. According to the LDS Church there are now 185,848 baptised Mormons in the UK.
1. The full and official name of the Church is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, preferred by members because of its emphasis on Jesus Christ. However, the cumbersome full name has led it often to be called the LDS or Mormon Church. Members are most often referred to as Latter-day Saints or Mormons. The Church ruled in August 2018 that it is to be known as The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
2. https://www.mormonnewsroom.org/topics-and-background/
3. Book of Mormon, 2 Nephi 25:23