How do you square the clear teachings of who God is according to the Bible
And how do you square the clear teachings of who God is according to the Bible; that God has a body of flesh and bones (Gen. 1:26, 3:8, Ex. 33:11 ), God is one god among many (Gen. 1:26, 3:22, Ps. 82:1, Ps. 89:5-8, Ps. 86:8), Jesus taught there are multiple gods (John 10:34)?
(If you are going to cherry-pick Bible verses to support your preferred conclusions, then two can play that game.)
God does not have a body of flesh and bones but is spirit (John 4:24; Luke 24:39)
Question: Are you a Trinitarian? Because if you think John 4:24 and Luke 24:39 taken together rule out the possibility of God having a physical body, then such an interpretation would disprove the Trinity. If God can’t have a physical body then Jesus couldn’t have been God since Jesus had a physical body.
As a Mormon, I have no problem with John 4:24. I believe God is Spirit. He is a Spirit who has a perfected physical body. God is a composition of spirit and body just like human beings are a composition of spirit and body. The scripture doesn’t claim God is only a spirit and nothing else.
Luke 24:39 taken in context
there were no gods formed before God, and no gods will exist after Him (Deuteronomy 6:4; Isaiah 43:10, 44:6, 45:5, 45:22; 1 Corinthians 8: 1-6)
Careful here. The Isaiah scriptures don’t say “there were no gods formed before God, and no gods will exist after Him”. They say “there were no Gods formed before God, and no Gods will exist after him.” The distinction between ‘Gods’ and ‘gods’ is important because if you read about eternal progression in the Doctrines and Covenants it always mentions the possibility of human beings becoming “gods”; not “Gods”. Consider D&C 76:58,
“Wherefore, as it is written, they are gods, even the sons of God” – D&C 76:58
Or consider D&C 132:20,
“20 Then shall they be gods, because they have no end; therefore shall they be from everlasting to everlasting, because they continue; then shall they be above all, because all things are subject unto them. Then shall they be gods, because they have all power, and the angels are subject unto them.” – D&C 132:20
So there appears to be no contradiction between there being one God and many gods.
God said that He doesn’t know of any other gods (Isaiah 44:8)
In Isaiah 44:8, God said He doesn’t know of any other Gods; not gods. By the way, if God doesn’t know of any other gods then what is the plurality in Gen. 1:26 or Gen. 3:22 referring to?
Jesus taught that there is only one God (Mark 12:28-34; Revelation 22:7-13)
with who Joseph Smith claimed God was (in direct refutation of those characteristics in the King Follett sermon)
The King Follet Discourse is not part of the standard works of the church and you don’t need to accept it to be an active member of the church. You don’t need to believe in it to get baptized or receive a temple recommend. But even if we do accept the conclusions of the King Follet Discourse, I still don’t think it contradicts anything in the Bible. “God was once a man” is not the heresy some people make it out to be since Mormonism has a very unique conception of “man”. According to D&C 93, “man” is an uncreated being. Man is eternal. Man was in the beginning with God. So it doesn’t diminish God in any way to say he was once a “man.”
Who am I to believe, God, or Joseph Smith?
What makes you think the Biblical writers are speaking for God? The prophetic resume of Joseph Smith is more impressive to me than any Biblical writers. I’ll take the BOM, D&C, POGP, and JST over any of the prophet’s writings in the Bible. Shoot, I might even take D&C 88 alone over the Bible.
How do you reconcile John 1:1-3 with the Mormon idea of who and what Jesus is?
First you’re going to have to tell me what you think the ‘Mormon idea of who and what Jesus is’ before I answer your question.
John 1:1-3 is simply describing the process of the antemortal Jesus taking on a physical body. Jesus began as a spirit in the pre-mortal life and ‘made flesh’ by receiving a mortal physical body. Every human being on earth goes through the exact same process. We start in the pre-mortal life as spirits and then ‘take on’ flesh when our earthly mothers give birth to our physical bodies.
The JST of John 1 does a great job of resolving the confusion that arises from interpreting this scripture: “1 In the beginning was the gospel preached through the Son. And the gospel was the word, and the word was with the Son, and the Son was with God, and the Son was of God.”
Or, simpler, how do you square the claim that Jesus is the spirit brother of Lucifer and, in fact, us, with Colossians 1:16-20: "For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him"?
all I had to do was read the Bible and then learn enough about how we received those texts to utterly dismiss the LDS idea that the Bible is only reliable "so far as it has been translated correctly."
And all I had to do was read the Book of Exodus to utterly dismiss the idea that the Bible is translated correctly. In Exodus, it is reported that God hardened Pharoah’s heart ten times (Ex. 4:21, 7:3, 7:13, 9:12, 10:1, 10:20, 11:10, 14:4, 14:7, 14:8). If that's not bad enough, these errors in Exodus also spilled over into Romans where Paul claims God will ‘harden whom He will harden’ (Rom. 9:18). What kind of a God would harden the heart of one of his children and then send them to hell for not believing in them? Sorry but that’s not a God I’m interested in following. Thankfully the JST fixed this error all 10 times. Thank God for the restoration!