Sound Doctrine

Sound Doctrine

Although the foundational doctrines of Mormonism are very different from what mainstream Christians believe. There are two compelling evidences that doctrines of Mormonism are nevertheless true:

#1

Many of the teachings of the early Christian father’s that have been uncovered in just the last 100 years are found to be closer to the teachings of Joseph Smith than they are to those of mainstream Christianity. (As shown by Barry Bickmore in Restoring the Ancient Church: Joseph Smith and Early Christianity)

#2

Another impressive evidence that the foundational teachings of Mormonism are true is that many prominent mainstream Christian scholars of recent decades are starting to espouse ideas that are closer and closer to the doctrines taught by Joseph Smith.

David Paulsen, the former chair of the philosophy department of BYU wrote a great paper, Are Christians Mormon? In it he outlines 7 Mormon doctrines that Joseph taught almost 200 years ago, and shows how in the last few decades an increasing amount of respected Christian scholars are starting to hold beliefs that are closer and closer to what Joseph taught.

Truman G Madsen noticed this recent pattern as well, and said:

“In our time there are renowned and influential spokesmen and writers in all the major wings of Christendom—and they are not on the periphery but at the center—who are defending and teaching what, a century ago, Joseph Smith almost alone taught.”

David Paulsen

“There is considerable contemporary convergence in some Christian quarters toward Joseph’s once radical theological ideas. (And) while the reactions to Joseph’s doctrines remain clearly mixed, one thing is certain: the doctrines he proclaimed are not as “unique” as they used to be.”

Here are 4 examples of Joseph’s teachings that have since been discovered to be consistent with early Christianity, and are increasingly being espoused by more and more prominent mainstream Christian scholars:

The Nature of God

Joseph taught a social trinity, in other words, that the members of the godhead, although unified in almost every conceivable way, are nevertheless separate beings. This has not however been mainstream Christian belief since the Council of Nicaea in 325 A.D.

But before 325 A.D. not only the Jewish Christians but almost everyone else believed the Father, Son and Holy Ghost were united in will, but separate in rank and glory.

For example, Justin Martyr wrote in the second century A.D.

“We reasonably worship Jesus,” , “having learned that He is the Son of the true God Himself, and holding Him in second place, and the prophetic spirit in the third.”

An increasing number of respected orthodox Christian scholars are now holding and defending what was, for a long time in the West, a uniquely Mormon doctrine.

In fact, John Hicks, a non-Mormon scholar, describes the “revival” of social trinitarianism as “one of the most significant developments in contemporary theology.”

A non-member, Steven Webb, A Catholic, recently wrote: Mormon Christianity: What Other Christians Can Learn From the Latter-day Saints

He has realized that the original Jewish-Christian concept of the divine is not the same as what was formulated in the Council of Nicea in 325 A.D., and what is still believed by most Christians today. He said,
“Take Plato away from Christianity, and you will get … well, you will end up with something very much like the Mormon conception of the divine” (p. 85; ellipsis in original).

Faith and Works

David Bercot, Will The Real Heretics Please Stand Up: A New Look at Today's Evangelical Church in the Light of Early Christianity

David Embarked on a quest to discover what Christians believed and practiced before the Nicene Creed

He notes that some interpret the Bible as saying we are saved by works, and others interpret it as saying we’re saved by grace, through faith and not of works.

The problem is that Augustine, Luther, and other Western theologians have convinced us that there's an irreconcilable conflict between salvation based on grace and salvation conditioned on works or obedience. They have used a false form of argumentation known as the "false dilemma," by asserting that there are only two possibilities regarding salvation: it's either (1) a gift from God or (2) it's something we earn by our works.

Joseph’s revelations, and the teachings of the earliest Christians taught concept of salvation that stresses the importance of both faith and obedience. As Bercot puts it: “The early Christians believed that salvation is a gift from God but that God gives His gift to whomever he chooses. And He chooses to give it to those who love and obey him.”

Polycarp, the personal companion of the apostle John, taught, "He who raised Him up from the dead will also raise us up-if we do His will and walk in His commandments

According to Bercot, the mainstream Evangelical interpretation of “saved by grace alone” originated with St. Augustine after the Nicene Creed.

Also he found that the early Christians taught, as did Joseph Smith

Salvation for the Dead

The Bible (hasn’t given us a clear-cut interpretation)

1 Peter 3 and 4, 1 Corinthians 15, God is no respecter of person

As David Paulsen points out in his paper, Are Christians Mormon?, Almost all of the early church fathers believed that Christ descended into hell after his death, and that the dead still have an opportunity to be saved.

For example, Clement of Alexandria said, “Christ went down to Hades (the spirit world/spirit prison) for no other purpose than to preach the gospel”

“The twentieth century,” says John Sanders, “has witnessed a tremendous proliferation of belief in salvation for the dead among theologians and biblical commentators from diverse traditions.”

Many like the “theological fit” that this doctrine provides, because it preserves Christ as sole guarantor of salvation, and promotes a fair God, by not damning those who were unfortunate to grow up outside the orbit of Christianity.

Human Deification

The Bible

“joint-heirs (of God) with Christ”

St. Irenaeus

“Through the immense love he bore, he became what we are, thereby affording us the opportunity of becoming what he is.”

St. Clement of Alexandria

“the Word of God became a man so that you might learn from a man how to become a god”

In the past fifty years there has been a steadily increasing amount of interest among Catholics and Protestants regarding the issue of the early church doctrine of deification.

Norman Russell points out: It is becoming less necessary in the English-speaking world to apologize for the doctrine of deification. At one time it was regarded as highly esoteric, if it was admitted to be Christian at all. . . . In recent years a succession of works on deification in individual Fathers from Irenaeus to Maximus the Confessor has confirmed (that the doctrine has a basis in the early church)

A Dominican Catholic priest Jordan Vajda at the end of his 1998 thesis at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley: “The historic Christian doctrine of salvation -theosis, i.e., human divinization -- for too long has been forgotten by too many Christians, despite the fact that this teaching is a part of that common inheritance -- first millennium Christianity – Vajda later investigated and was converted to the church!

C.S. Lewis: “"The command Be ye perfect [Matt. 5:48] is not idealistic gas. Nor is it a command to do the impossible. He is going to make us into creatures that can obey that command. He said (in the Bible) that we were "gods" and he is going to make good His words. -Mere Christianity

The fact that Joseph taught not just one, but many doctrines that seemed radical at the time, but with time have been found to very consistent with the recent discoveries of early Christian teachings is very impressive. And the fact that many prominent mainstream Christian scholars are starting to shift some of their beliefs in the direction of what Joseph taught centuries ago is impressive as well.