Doesn’t the Bible say God is one? Deuteronomy 6:4, John 10:30 — ‘I and my Father are one.’ Aren’t Latter-day Saints polytheists?
They quote this
King James Version
Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD.
NRSVUE
Hear, O Israel: The LORD is our God, the LORD alone.
Our explanation
The Shema. We say it too. The fight is what ‘one’ means.
How we read it
The Shema is Israel’s creed: the LORD is one. Jesus prays that His disciples may be one as He and the Father are one (John 17). That is the oneness we preach — unity of will and glory, not a later one-essence formula that has to ignore “us” in Genesis 1.
King James Version
I and my Father are one.
NRSVUE
The Father and I are one.
Our explanation
They stop at ‘are one.’ Jesus keeps talking in John 17.
How we read it
Jesus says He and the Father are one — then prays that the disciples may be one as they are (John 17). That is unity of will, not a later one-essence formula. If John 10:30 fused them into one being, the Twelve got promoted into the Trinity.
The Bible answers
King James Version
That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one.
NRSVUE
As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one.
Our explanation
He prays that the disciples be one as He and the Father are one. If that is essence-fusion, the Twelve became the Trinity.
King James Version
But to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him.
NRSVUE
Yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist.
Our explanation
One God, the Father, and one Lord, Jesus Christ. Paul can count.
The Book of Mormon answers
2 Nephi 31:21
And now, behold, this is the doctrine of Christ, and the only and true doctrine of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, which is one God, without end. Amen.
Our explanation
The Book of Mormon says the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost are one God. We are not polytheists.
3 Nephi 11:27
And after this manner shall ye baptize in my name; for behold, verily I say unto you, that the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost are one; and I am in the Father, and the Father in me, and the Father and I are one.
Our explanation
Jesus: the Father, I, and the Holy Ghost are one. Then He shows them the wounds in a body.
Doctrine and Covenants 20:28
Which Father, Son, and Holy Ghost are one God, infinite and eternal, without end. Amen.
Dead Sea Scrolls and related extra-biblical texts that illuminate the same pattern the Restoration restores.
The Shema and ’echad (Deuteronomy 6:4 in the Dead Sea Scrolls)
4QDeut preserves the Shema as Israel’s confession: YHWH is our God, YHWH is one. The same scrolls still have a divine council, sons of God, and a Melchizedek who is called elohim.
Biblical oneness is not ‘there is only one occupant of heaven.’ It is ‘YHWH alone is Israel’s God.’ The host of heaven is real. The Most High is unique. That is the grammar of Deuteronomy, of Qumran, and of the Restoration.
John 17 as the Bible’s own definition of ‘one’
Jesus does not stop at John 10:30. In the same Gospel He prays that many disciples ‘may be one, even as we are one.’
If John 10:30 means one undivided essence, then John 17 baptizes the Twelve into that essence. Nobody reads it that way — except when the target is Latter-day Saints. ‘One’ here is the oneness of a family, a mission, and a glory.
FAIR
FAIR Latter-day Saints
Latter-day Saints are not polytheists in the pagan sense. We worship the Father in the name of the Son by the Holy Ghost. We say with the Book of Mormon and D&C 20 that they are one God. We deny only that ‘one’ means a fourth-century simple essence. John 17 is the Restoration’s commentary on John 10:30, written by the same Evangelist.
The New Testament never teaches that the Father and the Son are a single metaphysical person or an undivided substance. It shows the Son praying to the Father, standing at His right hand, and asking that disciples share the same oneness.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Official teaching: three distinct divine beings, perfectly one in purpose. We pray to the Father. We worship the Son as Jehovah, Creator, and Redeemer. We seek the Holy Ghost. That is biblical oneness as the Restoration restored it — not three competing gods, and not one person wearing three masks.
The Godhead consists of three distinct beings: God the Eternal Father; His Son, Jesus Christ; and the Holy Ghost. They are one in purpose, in testimony, and in glory.
Faithful voices only. Most of these are independent — not official Church productions unless marked as such.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
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