From one God to three: the 1830-1844 shift
The 1830 Book of Mormon and 1835 Lectures on Faith describe the Godhead in ways the later Nauvoo theology contradicts, and the texts were edited or removed accordingly.
What the Church claims
The Book of Mormon contains the fulness of the gospel and the Restoration's doctrine of three separate, embodied divine persons was revealed from the First Vision onward.
Once the evidence is in, this claim: Weak. The primary texts (1830 edition, 1835 D&C, D&C 130) plainly differ, and the Church's own edits and de-canonization acknowledge it. The apologetic answer - development - is reasonable but concedes the critic's main point.
The record
- Mosiah 15:1-5: 'God himself shall come down'; Christ is 'the Father and the Son'; 'they are one God, yea, the very Eternal Father of heaven and of earth'.
- The 1830 Book of Mormon, p. 25, calls Mary 'the mother of God, after the manner of the flesh' and says 'behold the Lamb of God, yea, even the Eternal Father!'. The current text reads 'mother of the Son of God' and 'even the Son of the Eternal Father'.
- FAIR confirms four 1837 insertions of 'the Son of' (1 Ne 11:18, 11:21, 11:32, 13:40), made by Joseph Smith on the printer's manuscript.
- Lecture 5 of the Lectures on Faith - the 'doctrine' half of the 1835 Doctrine and Covenants - says the Father is 'a personage of spirit, glory, and power', the Son 'a personage of tabernacle', and that their shared 'mind is the Holy Spirit'.
- By 1843, D&C 130:22 taught 'The Father has a body of flesh and bones as tangible as man's' and the Holy Ghost is 'a personage of Spirit' - contradicting Lecture 5 on the Father's body and on the Holy Ghost's personhood.
- The Lectures were removed from the Doctrine and Covenants in 1921 on the stated ground that they were never accepted as more than 'theological lectures'; the Encyclopedia of Mormonism notes possible concern about conflict with later revelation.
- In 1916 the First Presidency and the Twelve issued 'The Father and the Son', explaining Christ-as-Father passages by creation, spiritual rebirth and 'divine investiture of authority'.
The moving target
- 1835: Two personages in the Godhead; Father a personage of spirit; Holy Spirit the shared mind.
- 1843-04: Father and Son have bodies of flesh and bones; Holy Ghost a personage of spirit.
- 1916-06-30: Christ is called 'Father' in three figurative senses.
The exchange
FAIR
The 1837 insertions are clarifications: 'God' and 'Eternal Father' can refer to Christ, and Joseph left many similar passages (e.g. Mosiah 15) untouched, so he was not systematically changing doctrine.
The answer: That Joseph left Mosiah 15 and similar passages alone cuts both ways: the unrevised passages still read most naturally as one God who is both Father and Son. The edits show he noticed the problem by 1837. The harmonizing reading (divine investiture) was only formulated in 1916, which is strong evidence that it was not the original meaning. The more important data point is Lecture 5, approved as Church doctrine in 1835, which flatly contradicts D&C 130:22 on whether the Father has a body.
What they get right: Critics often call the Book of Mormon 'modalist' or 'Trinitarian' interchangeably; they are different positions and the text is not consistent enough to be pinned to either. It also contains passages distinguishing Father and Son (e.g. 3 Nephi).
Encyclopedia of Mormonism / common apologetic
The Lectures on Faith were never revelations and were largely drafted by Sidney Rigdon; removing them in 1921 corrected a category mistake.
The answer: They were voted on and bound as the 'doctrine' of the Doctrine and Covenants for 86 years. Whoever drafted them, Joseph Smith published them under his authority in 1835 - fifteen years after the date now given for a vision in which he is said to have seen that the Father has a body.
Both cases at full strength
The skeptics' case
The textual trajectory is one-directional. 1830: a Book of Mormon in which God himself comes down and is both Father and Son. 1835: canonized lectures with a Father of spirit, a Son of flesh, and a Holy Spirit that is their shared mind. 1837: 'the Son of' is inserted at four points. 1843-44: a tangible-bodied Father, a separate personage of the Holy Ghost, and a plurality of Gods. 1916 and 1921: a harmonizing exposition and then removal of the Lectures. This is what doctrinal development looks like; it is not what one expects if Smith had learned in 1820 that the Father and Son are two embodied beings. It also bears on the First Vision chronology handled elsewhere on the site.
The apologetic case
Revelation comes line upon line; Joseph's understanding grew, and the Book of Mormon's high Christology (Christ as Jehovah, the God of Israel, 'Father' by creation and investiture) is compatible with later teaching. Four two-word clarifications in a 500-page book do not amount to doctrinal revision, and the Lectures were instructional, not revelatory.
What would change this
A pre-1835 document in Smith's circle clearly teaching an embodied Father distinct from the Son.
Closely related
Sources
- Doctrine and Covenants 130
- Mosiah 15
- JSP: Doctrine and Covenants, 1835 (historical introduction)
- Lectures on Faith (Encyclopedia of Mormonism)
- Book of Mormon, 1830, p. 25 (JSP)
- 1 Nephi 11 (current edition)
- Discourse, 16 June 1844-A, as Reported by Thomas Bullock (Sermon in the Grove)
- The Father and the Son: A Doctrinal Exposition by the First Presidency and the Twelve (Ensign reprint)
- Book of Mormon textual changes: 'the Son of' (FAIR)
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