Teach Mormons about Catholicism (Home)
Table of Contents:
1. Prophets of God 7. Man
13. The Restoration
19. Baptism
2. One God 8. The Image of God
14. Tradition
20. Confirmation
3. Jesus Christ
9. The Fall of Adam
15. Catholic
21. Marriage
4. The Holy Spirit 10. Original Sin
16. The Church
22. Purgatory
5. The Holy Trinity 11. Faith and Grace
17. Apostle
23. Heaven and Hell
6. The Creation 12. Authority
18. The Priesthood
24. Eternal Life
2. One God
Mormonism: God was once a man like us
(GP
Chapter 47)
Catholicism: - God is Neither Man Nor Woman
- We Do Not Confess Three Gods, But One God in Three Persons
- God Is One But Not Solitary. The Father Is The Source Of The Divinity
- God is Unique; There Are No Other Gods Besides Him
- God Transcends All Creatures, Angels Are Creatures
- Our God Spoke To Moses, God's Name Is YHWH
- Jesus Christ is Himself God, The Word made Flesh
- God Was In Christ Reconciling The World To Himself
- Jesus Is "I Am", The Son Of God And God Himself
In no way is God in man's image. He is neither man nor woman. God is pure spirit in which there is no place for the difference between the sexes (CCC370). By calling God "Father", the language of faith indicates two main things: that God is the first origin of everything and transcendent authority; and that he is at the same time goodness and loving care for all his children. We ought therefore to recall that God transcends the human distinction between the sexes. He is neither man nor woman: he is God (CCC239). Many religions invoke God as "Father." The deity is often considered the "father of gods and of men." In Israel, God is called "Father" inasmuch as he is Creator of the world [Dt 32:6; Mal 2:10]. Even more, God is Father because of the covenant and the gift of the law to Israel, "his first-born son" [Ex 4:22] (CCC238).
God revealed himself to his people Israel by making his name known to them. God has a name; he is not an anonymous force (CCC203). The revelation of the ineffable name "I AM WHO AM" contains then the truth that God alone IS. The Greek Septuagint translation of the Hebrew Scriptures, and following it the Church's Tradition, understood the divine name in this sense: God is the fullness of Being and of every perfection, without origin and without end. All creatures receive all that they are and have from him; but he alone is his very being, and he is of himself everything that he is (CCC213). God, "HE WHO IS", revealed himself to Israel as the one "abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness" [Ex 34:6]. These two terms express summarily the riches of the divine name. In all his works God displays, not only his kindness, goodness, grace and steadfast love, but also his trustworthiness, constancy, faithfulness and truth. "I give thanks to your name for your steadfast love and your faithfulness" [Ps 138:2; Ps 85:11]. He is the Truth, for "God is light and in him there is no darkness"; "God is love", as the apostle John teaches [1 Jn 1:5; 4:8] (CCC214). God is the First and the Last, [Is 44:6.] the beginning and the end of everything (CCC198).
We do not confess three Gods, but one God in three persons. The divine persons do not share the one divinity among themselves but each of them is God whole and entire. "Each of the persons is that supreme reality, viz., the divine substance, essence or nature" (CCC253). Inseparable in what they are, the divine persons are also inseparable in what they do. But within the single divine operation each shows forth what is proper to him in the Trinity, especially in the divine missions of the Son's Incarnation and the gift of the Holy Spirit (CCC267). The Church uses (I) the term "substance" (rendered also at times by "essence" or "nature") to designate the divine being in its unity, (II) the term "person" or "hypostasis" to designate the Father, Son and Holy Spirit in the real distinction among them, and (III) the term "relation" to designate the fact that their distinction lies in the relationship of each to the others (CCC252).
The Incarnation of God's Son reveals that God is the eternal Father and that the Son is consubstantial with the Father, which means that, in the Father and with the Father the Son is one and the same God (CCC262). The Son is "consubstantial" with the Father, that is, one only God with him. [The English phrases "of one being" and "one in being" translate the Greek word homoousios, which was rendered in Latin by consubstantialis]. The only- begotten Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, light from light, true God from true God, begotten not made, consubstantial with the Father (CCC242).
God is one but not solitary. "Father", "Son", "Holy Spirit" are not simply names designating modalities of the divine being, for they are really distinct from one another. They are distinct from one another in their relations of origin (CCC254). The Church recognizes the Father as the source and origin of the whole divinity (CCC245). We do not divide the Godhead, since the Father is its source and origin, but rather confess that the Son is eternally begotten by him and the Holy Spirit proceeds from him (CCC2789). The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are not three principles of creation but one principle. However, each divine person performs the common work according to his unique personal property. Thus the Church confesses, following the New Testament, "one God and Father from whom all things are, and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom all things are, and one Holy Spirit in whom all things are". It is above all the divine missions of the Son's Incarnation and the gift of the Holy Spirit that show forth the properties of the divine persons (CCC258).
The confession of God's oneness, which has its roots in the divine revelation of the Old Covenant, is inseparable from the profession of God's existence and is equally fundamental. God is unique; there is only one God: The Christian faith confesses that God is one in nature, substance and essence (CCC200). To Israel, his chosen, God revealed himself as the only One: "Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD; and you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might" [Dt 6:45]. Through the prophets, God calls Israel and all nations to turn to him, the one and only God: "Turn to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other.. . To me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear. 'Only in the LORD, it shall be said of me, are righteousness and strength'" [Is 45:22-24; Phil 2:10-11]. (CCC201). "Hear, O Israel, the LORD our God is one LORD..." (Dt 6:4; Mk 12:29). The supreme being must be unique, without equal... If God is not one, he is not God (CCC228).
God is unique; there are no other gods besides him [Is 44:6]. He transcends the world and history. He made heaven and earth: "They will perish, but you endure; they will all wear out like a garment....but you are the same, and your years have no end" [Ps 102:26-27]. In God "there is no variation or shadow due to change" [Jas 1:17]. God is "HE WHO IS", from everlasting to everlasting, and as such remains ever faithful to himself and to his promises (CCC212). No creature could ever be counted along with the Incarnate Word and Redeemer; but just as the priesthood of Christ is shared in various ways both by his ministers and the faithful, and as the one goodness of God is radiated in different ways among his creatures, so also the unique mediation of the Redeemer does not exclude but rather gives rise to a manifold cooperation which is but a sharing in this one source (CCC970). Adoration is the first act of the virtue of religion. To adore God is to acknowledge him as God, as the Creator and Savior, the Lord and Master of everything that exists, as infinite and merciful Love. "You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve," says Jesus, citing Deuteronomy [Lk 4:8; Deut 6:13] (CCC2096). The Epiphany is the manifestation of Jesus as Messiah of Israel, Son of God and Saviour of the world. The great feast of Epiphany celebrates the adoration of Jesus by the wise men (magi) from the East, together with his baptism in the Jordan and the wedding feast at Cana in Galilee [Mt 2:1]. In the magi, representatives of the neighbouring pagan religions, the Gospel sees the first-fruits of the nations, who welcome the good news of salvation through the Incarnation. The magi's coming to Jerusalem in order to pay homage to the king of the Jews shows that they seek in Israel, in the messianic light of the star of David, the one who will be king of the nations [Mt 2:2; Num 24:17-19; Rev 22:16]. Their coming means that pagans can discover Jesus and worship him as Son of God and Saviour of the world only by turning towards the Jews and receiving from them the messianic promise as contained in the Old Testament [Jn 4 22; Mt 2:4-6] (CCC528).
God transcends all creatures. We must therefore continually purify our language of everything in it that is limited, imagebound or imperfect, if we are not to confuse our image of God--the inexpressible, the incomprehensible, the invisible, the ungraspable--with our human representations. Our human words always fall short of the mystery of God (CCC42). Admittedly, in speaking about God like this, our language is using human modes of expression; nevertheless it really does attain to God himself, though unable to express him in his infinite simplicity. Likewise, we must recall that between Creator and creature no similitude can be expressed without implying an even greater dissimilitude; and that concerning God, we cannot grasp what he is, but only what he is not, and how other beings stand in relation to him (CCC43).
Since our knowledge of God is limited, our language about him is equally so. We can name God only by taking creatures as our starting point, and in accordance with our limited human ways of knowing and thinking (CCC40). All creatures bear a certain resemblance to God, most especially man, created in the image and likeness of God. The manifold perfections of creatures - their truth, their goodness, their beauty all reflect the infinite perfection of God. Consequently we can name God by taking his creatures" perfections as our starting point, "for from the greatness and beauty of created things comes a corresponding perception of their Creator" [Wis 13:5] (CCC41).
Angels are spiritual creatures who glorify God without ceasing and who serve his saving plans for other creatures: The angels work together for the benefit of us all (CCC350). God from the beginning of time made at once (simul) out of nothing both orders of creatures, the spiritual and the corporeal, that is, the angelic and the earthly, and then (deinde) the human creature, who as it were shares in both orders, being composed of spirit and body (CCC327). In the Old Testament, "son of God" is a title given to the angels, the Chosen People, the children of Israel, and their kings [Dt 14:1; (LXX) 32:8; Job 1:6; Ex 4:22; Hos 2:1; 11:1; Jer 3:19; Sir 36:11; Wis 18:13; 2 Sam 7:14; Ps 82:6]. It signifies an adoptive sonship that establishes a relationship of particular intimacy between God and his creature (CCC441).
God calls Moses from the midst of a bush that burns without being consumed: "I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob" [Ex 3:6.]. God is the God of the fathers, the One who had called and guided the patriarchs in their wanderings. Moses said to God, "If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, 'The God of your fathers has sent me to you', and they ask me, 'What is his name?' what shall I say to them?" God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM." And he said, "Say this to the people of Israel, 'I AM has sent me to you'. . . this is my name for ever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations (CCC205). In revealing his mysterious name, YHWH ("I AM HE WHO IS", "I AM WHO AM" or "I AM WHO I AM"), God says who he is and by what name he is to be called. This divine name is mysterious just as God is mystery. It is at once a name revealed and something like the refusal of a name, and hence it better expresses God as what he is - infinitely above everything that we can understand or say: he is the "hidden God", his name is ineffable, and he is the God who makes himself close to men [Is 45:15; Judg 13:18] (CCC206).
By revealing his name God at the same time reveals his faithfulness which is from everlasting to everlasting, valid for the past ("I am the God of your father"), as for the future ("I will be with you") [Ex 3:6, 12]. God, who reveals his name as "I AM", reveals himself as the God who is always there, present to his people in order to save them (CCC207). Faced with God's fascinating and mysterious presence, man discovers his own insignificance. Before the burning bush, Moses takes off his sandals and veils his face in the presence of God's holiness [Ex 3:5-6]. Before the glory of the thrice-holy God, Isaiah cries out: "Woe is me! I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips" [Is 6:5]. Before the divine signs wrought by Jesus, Peter exclaims: "Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord" [Lk 5:8]. But because God is holy, he can forgive the man who realizes that he is a sinner before him: "I will not execute my fierce anger... for I am God and not man, the Holy One in your midst" [Hos 11:9]. The apostle John says likewise: "We shall... reassure our hearts before him whenever our hearts condemn us; for God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything" [1 Jn 3:19-20] (CCC208).
After the patriarchs, God formed Israel as his people by freeing them from slavery in Egypt. He established with them the covenant of Mount Sinai and, through Moses, gave them his law so that they would recognize him and serve him as the one living and true God, the provident Father and just judge, and so that they would look for the promised Saviour (CCC62). Israel is the priestly people of God, "called by the name of the LORD", and "the first to hear the word of God" [Dt 28: 10; Ex. 19:6], the people of "elder brethren" in the faith of Abraham (CCC63). God chose Abraham and made a covenant with him and his descendants. By the covenant God formed his people and revealed his law to them through Moses. Through the prophets, he prepared them to accept the salvation destined for all humanity (CCC72).
At the time appointed by God, the only Son of the Father, the eternal Word, that is, the Word and substantial Image of the Father, became incarnate; without losing his divine nature he has assumed human nature (CCC479). The Word became flesh to make us "partakers of the divine nature" [2 Pt 1:4]: For this is why the Word became man, and the Son of God became the Son of man: so that man, by entering into communion with the Word and thus receiving divine sonship, might become a son of God. For the Son of God became man so that we might become God. The only-begotten Son of God, wanting to make us sharers in his divinity, assumed our nature, so that he, made man, might make men gods (CCC460).
Christ, the Son of God made man, is the Father's one, perfect and unsurpassable Word (CCC65). The Lord himself said to his disciples: "Believe in God, believe also in me" [Jn 14:1]. We can believe in Jesus Christ because he is himself God, the Word made flesh: "No one has ever seen God; the only Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has made him known" [Jn 1:18]. Because he "has seen the Father", Jesus Christ is the only one who knows him and can reveal him [Jn 6:46; Mt 11:27] (CCC151). The apostles confess Jesus to be the Word: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God"; as "the image of the invisible God"; as the "radiance of the glory of God and the very stamp of his nature" [Jn 1:1; Col 1:15; Heb 1:3] (CCC2241).
Man's Creator has become man, born of the Virgin. We have been made sharers in the divinity of Christ who humbled himself to share our humanity (CCC526). We believe and confess that Jesus of Nazareth, born a Jew of a daughter of Israel at Bethlehem at the time of King Herod the Great and the emperor Caesar Augustus, a carpenter by trade, who died crucified in Jerusalem under the procurator Pontius Pilate during the reign of the emperor Tiberius, is the eternal Son of God made man. He 'came from God' [Jn 13:3], 'descended from heaven' [Jn 3:13; 6:33], and 'came in the flesh' [1 Jn 4:2]. For 'the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth; we have beheld his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father... And from his fullness have we all received, grace upon grace' [Jn 1:14,16] (CCC423).
In Christ's humanity "God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself" [Rom 3:25; 2 Cor 5:19] (CCC433). Belief in the true Incarnation of the Son of God is the distinctive sign of Christian faith: "By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit which confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God" [1 Jn 4:2]. Such is the joyous conviction of the Church from her beginning whenever she sings "the mystery of our religion": "He was manifested in the flesh" [1 Tim 3:16] (CCC463). His deeds, miracles and words all revealed that "in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily" [Col 2:9] (CCC515). God alone can forgive sins, it is God who, in Jesus his eternal Son made man, "will save his people from their sins" (CCC430).
Following the holy Fathers, we unanimously teach and confess one and the same Son, our Lord Jesus Christ: the same perfect in divinity and perfect in humanity, the same truly God and truly man, composed of rational soul and body; consubstantial with the Father as to his divinity and consubstantial with us as to his humanity; "like us in all things but sin". He was begotten from the Father before all ages as to his divinity and in these last days, for us and for our salvation, was born as to his humanity of the virgin Mary, the Mother of God [ Heb 4:15]. We confess that one and the same Christ, Lord, and only-begotten Son, is to be acknowledged in two natures without confusion, change, division or separation. The distinction between the natures was never abolished by their union, but rather the character proper to each of the two natures was preserved as they came together in one person (prosopon) and one hypostasis (CCC467).
The Resurrection of the crucified one shows that he was truly "I AM", the Son of God and God himself (CCC653). The divine identity of Jesus' person ... his affirmations, "Before Abraham was, I AM", and even "I and the Father are one" [Jn 8:58; 10:30] (CCC590). In the Greek translation of the Old Testament, the ineffable Hebrew name YHWH, by which God revealed himself to Moses, [Ex 3:14] is rendered as Kyrios, "Lord". From then on, "Lord" becomes the more usual name by which to indicate the divinity of Israel's God. The New Testament uses this full sense of the title "Lord" both for the Father and - what is new - for Jesus, who is thereby recognized as God Himself [1 Cor 2:8] (CCC446).
In revealing his mysterious name, YHWH ("I AM HE WHO IS", "I AM WHO AM" or "I AM WHO I AM"), God says who he is and by what name he is to be called (CCC206). Out of respect for the holiness of God, the people of Israel do not pronounce his name. In the reading of Sacred Scripture, the revealed name (YHWH) is replaced by the divine title "LORD" (in Hebrew Adonai, in Greek Kyrios). It is under his title that the divinity of Jesus will be acclaimed: "Jesus is LORD" (CCC209). The divine name, "I Am" or "He Is", expresses God's faithfulness: despite the faithlessness of men's sin and the punishment it deserves, he keeps "steadfast love for thousands" [Ex 34:7]. By going so far as to give up his own Son for us, God reveals that he is "rich in mercy" [Eph 2:4]. By giving his life to free us from sin, Jesus reveals that he himself bears the divine name: "When you have lifted up the Son of man, then you will realize that "I AM"" [Jn 8:28] (CCC211).