The Polytheism of Mormonism

No, the Israelites were NOT henotheists/monalatrists

When confronted with the accusation of being polytheists, modern Mormons often cite ‘Biblical scholarship’ to argue that the Israelites were not monotheists but henotheists (affirming the existence of multiple deities yet only worshipping the supreme one) or monolatrists (only one God amongst multiple deities is worthy of worship). The idea that the Jews were not strict monotheists is a very common mythology in unbelieving, liberal Biblical scholarship.

This argument can be historically traced back to an apostate ex-minister of the German Lutherans in the 19th century named Julius Wellhausen. He denied the deity of Christ as well as the inspiration and divine authorship of Scripture. This is made evident in his best known work (Prolegomena, 1883), the foundation for what is called the ‘documentary hypothesis’, or the Graf-Wellhausen theory. The documentary hypothesis argues that the Torah had its origins in a redaction of four originally-independent texts dating from several centuries after the time of Moses, their traditional author. This theory contradicts the words of Christ who repeatedly affirmed Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch. One of the documentary hypothesis’ most important arguments - that Moses lived before writing had been invented - has been disproven by archaeology.

Wellhausen could only argue this view because he rejected the Bible’s claims about itself as a self-consistent revelation breathed out by God. His fundamental presupposition regarding the nature of the Bible (not the express testimony of the text itself) is what shaped his views on the beliefs of the Israelites. When you atomize the text of the Old Testament and say “Well, there’s some texts here that seem to be monotheistic but there are others here that seem to be polytheistic”, that’s the only way you end up with this view that the Israelites were initially henotheists or monalatrists. 

Further, this mythology is based upon a fundamental rejection of what Mormons even believe. Most Mormons who embrace our forms of liberalism don’t recognize that it’s absolute poison to their beliefs regarding the Book of Mormon, Doctrine & Covenants, and Pearl of Great Price. Joseph Smith and the early leaders of the Mormon church did not embrace this documentary hypothesis that allows you to atomize the text of the Old Testament and not take it as a whole. It destroys the reason, for example, why 17 chapters of Isaiah end up quoted almost verbatim from KJV of the Bible in the Book of Mormon. It remains astounding to Christians that BYU is embracing our German liberals for a position the early Mormon leaders never took.

We have a record of what the ancient Israelites believed regarding God, in the Old Testament scriptures. The Biblical text outranks any other document of antiquity in terms of its nature as God-breathed, the preserved transmission of the text over time, archaeological support, fulfilled prophecy, etc etc. See Deut. 6:4, Isa 43:10, 44:6-8 - the testimony of express monotheism is replete.

Yes, Mormonism IS egregiously polytheistic

On June 16th, 1844 (11 days before his murder at Carthage) Joseph Smith gave the following sermon on the plurality of Gods. Experienced Mormon scribe Thomas Bullock (who also recorded Joseph’s sermon at the funeral of King Follet) recorded Smith’s words. Bullock’s account would go on to be published by Church Historian George A. Smith and his [then] assistant Wilford Woodruff in “History of Joseph Smith” (1856). The entirety of the manuscript was read before the First Presidency, and Smith & Woodruff testified: “The History of Joseph Smith is now before the world, and we are satisfied that a history more correct in its details than this was never published...Moreover, the history has been carefully revised under the strict inspection of President Brigham Young, and approved by him.” Eventually, “The History of Joseph Smith” would be republished as part of Mormon historian B.H. Roberts “History of the Church” seven-volume series beginning in 1902. Relevant portions concerning Joseph Smith’s teaching on the plurality of Gods are presented here - fairly, and in context:

“I will preach on the plurality of Gods. I have selected this text [Rev. 1:6] for that express purpose. I wish to declare I have always and in all congregations when I have preached on the subject of the Deity, it has been the plurality of Gods. It has been preached by the Elders for fifteen years. I have always declared God to be a distinct personage, Jesus Christ a separate and distinct personage from God the Father, and that the Holy Ghost was a distinct personage and a Spirit: and these three constitute three distinct personages and three Gods. If this is in accordance with the New Testament, lo and behold! we have three Gods anyhow, and they are plural: and who can contradict it!...Many men say there is one God; the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost are only one God! I say that is a strange God anyhow—three in one, and one in three! It is a curious organization...All are to be crammed into one God, according to sectarianism. It would make the biggest God in all the world. He would be a wonderfully big God—he would be a giant or a monster...If Jesus Christ was the Son of God, and John discovered that God the Father of Jesus Christ had a Father, you may suppose that He had a Father also. Where was there ever a son without a father? And where was there ever a father without first being a son?”

• Joseph Smith, as recorded in History of the Church, Vol. 6, P.473-479, 1912)

Joseph Smith plainly taught that there are three gods of this earth - Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Most modern Mormons will argue that they only worship the Father, through the Son and by the Holy Ghost. To say nothing of the replete New Testament evidence that the Son & Holy Spirit are worthy of worship given their full and equal participation in the one divine Being, that statement is in contradiction with authoritative Mormon scriptures. Consider the express command given by Nephi in the Book of Mormon to worship Jesus:

“And now behold, I say unto you that the right way is to believe in Christ, and deny him not; and Christ is the Holy One of Israel; wherefore ye must bow down before him, and worship him with all your might, mind, and strength, and your whole soul; and if ye do this ye shall in nowise be cast out.”

• 2 Nephi 25:29 (Context: Nephi speaking to the Nephites regarding OT prophecy & salvation)

In the account of Jesus’ visit to the Americas in 3 Nephi 11, the people worship him (and he clearly receives their worship by bestowing Priesthood authority right after):

Hosanna! Blessed be the name of the Most High God! And they did fall down at the feet of Jesus, and did worship him.

• 3 Nephi 11:17 (Context: Account of Jesus appearing in the Americas and instructing the Nephites regarding salvation)

No Mormon disputes that they worship the Father, and the above passages show within their own system they are to also worship the Son. This precludes Mormonism from fitting into the categories of henotheism or monolatrism as they are to worship at least two Gods. Mormonism remains, to date, the most polytheistic religion ever conceived by men. Consider some of the statements from early Mormon Apostle Orson Pratt:

“This explains the mystery. If we should take a million worlds like this and number their particles, we should find that there are more Gods than there are particles of matter in those worlds.” 

• Orson Pratt, Journal of Discourses, Vol. 2, P.345

“We were begotten by our Father in Heaven; the person of our Father in Heaven was begotten by a still more ancient Father and so on, from generation to generation, from one heavenly world to another still more ancient, until our minds are wearied and lost in the multiplicity of generations and successive worlds, and as a last resort, we wonder in our minds, how far back the genealogy extends, and how the first world was formed, and the first father was begotten.” 

• Orson Pratt, The Seer, P. 132

“The Gods who dwell in the Heaven from which our spirits came, are beings who have been redeemed from the grave in a world which existed before the foundations of this earth were laid. They and the Heavenly body which they now inhabit were once in a fallen state. Their terrestrial world was redeemed, and glorified, and made a Heaven: their terrestrial bodies, after suffering death, were redeemed, and glorified, and made Gods. And thus, as their world was exalted from a temporal to an eternal state, they were exalted also, from fallen man to Celestial Gods to inhabit their Heaven forever and ever.”

• Orson Pratt, The Seer, P.23