"Is the Mormon My Brother: Chapter 4-Doctrine of God: First Level Statements?"

The First Vision
The first vision that Joseph Smith received in 1820 is of vital importance to Mormon theology. Mormon Apostle Bruce McConkie says of the first vision, "This transcendent vision was the beginning of latter-day revelation; it marked the opening of the heavens after the long night of apostate darkness....Through it the creeds of Christendom were shattered to smithereens...This vision was the most important event that had taken place in all world history from the day of Christ's ministry to the glorious hour when it occurred." Mormon Prophet Ezra Taft Benson says of it, "Joseph's first vision clearly revealed that the Father and Son are separate personages, having bodies as tangible as man's." Clearly, this vision is important to the Mormon doctrine of God, specifically the plurality of gods. 

This vision as it appears in Smith's official (read: canonical) writing is from 1938 (18 years after it supposedly happened).   In the vision Smith claims to be seeking direct knowledge from God as to which "Christian sect" was the right one to join. God the Father and God the Son (2 separate people) appear to Smith and tell him that they are all wrong. All of the creeds of Christendom are an abomination in their sight.
Jame White goes on to point out that earlier accounts of Smith's vision do not include the Father and the Son as distinct gods. In fact, Smith's doctrine of God changed over time (between 1829 and 1844) from monotheism to polytheism. Examples of Smith's early monotheism can be found in Book of Mormon (1 Nephi 13:41; 2 Nephi 31:21; Mormon 7:7) and Doctrine and Covenants (20:17, 20:28).

A glaring contradiction because of this can be found using Doctrine and Covenants 84:21-22. This passage given via revelation in 1832 states that without the authority of the priesthood no man can see God the Father and live. According to Mormon theology, Smith did not receive the authority of the priesthood until 1829. Yet Smith claims to have seen the Father in 1820. White concludes that in 1832 Smith was not claiming to have seen the Father in his "first vision."  Smith's later polytheistic writings are used to interpret his earlier monotheistic writings so that the earlier monotheistic writings are re-interpreted to mean a "unity of purpose" rather than a "unity of being." The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are united in their purpose but are each separate gods.

The Book of Abraham
Simply put, the final 2 chapters of this writing (found in The Pearl of Great Price) is a re-writing of Genesis 1-2, except whereas all the Christian translations have "God", the Book of Abraham has "Gods" so that "And they [the Gods] said: Let there be light; and there was light", etc. In these 2 chapters, "the Gods" appears 46 times. Smith claims that the Hebrew translated "God" in Genesis is mistranslated and should be plural.



My Thoughts
If Joseph Smith believed God told him that all the Christian denominations were wrong and an abomination to Him, then why does the modern day Mormon church try to convince people that they are a Christian denomination and not a cult? Why seek unity with what the founder saw as an abomination and totally wrong? It makes no sense to me.

Again, we have people seeking experience rather than God's Word. Rather than seeking to understand God's Word and theology, Smith seeks after a divine experience from God to tell him what to do and believe. Again, this is placing experience and mystic experience above the Bible as an ordinary means of grace. How can anyone refute this? It was experienced by one person who goes on to make this claim of what God told him. Unless there is some objective standard by which to evaluate a claim like this, it can't be refuted. (begin sarcasm) I think I'll go out and try to have an experience with God and write down His words to me and start a new Christian sect based on what God has directly revealed to me. (end sarcasm)  You can't prove or disprove any claims I would make as to what God said to me. You can't even prove or disprove my claim to have had the experience in the first place.  No. God's Word has been given to us as the objective revelation of Himself to us and all that we need to know for faith and practice is contained in it (sufficiency/necessity).

In one sweeping moment, Smith does away with 1800 years of church history. Everything that had gone on before was wrong, corrupted, and an abomination. This reveals a low view of church history and the belief that God has guided His church through the Holy Spirit over the years and kept His Word pure. This reveals the belief that those who knew the apostles, lived during their time, and sat at their feet changed or re-interpreted what they meant to as to twist and corrupt the apostolic teaching. Yet they were willing to suffer persecution and die for this. I hardly think so. Who willingly dies for a known lie? Could it perhaps be the other way around and that Smith has corrupted the apostolic teaching to fit his own line of reasoning?

Regarding the teaching in the Book of Abraham, Elohim is in the plural. That's not debatable. However, Smith obviously knew only enough Hebrew to be dangerous. Every verb which has Elohim as its subject is in the singular. Singular verbs have singular subjects. If the correct translation was "gods" then the Hebrew verbs would need to be in the plural. This is so basic, it would be funny if it wasn't so pitiable that such an argument has deceived millions of people.

Finally, the doctrine of the Trinity as expressed in historic, orthodox Christianity is a stumbling block to those who do not believe. Because they do not have a heart of faith, they have a hard time accepting mystery. Therefore they have to use human reasoning to explain the Trinity away so that it "makes sense" or is "logically consistent" with human reasoning (human reasoning that is fallen, unaided by God's Word, and suppresses the knowledge of God).