A YouTube visitor wrote:
"LDS and Protestants have a different view of Christ. LDS he’s just one son of God of many generations of gods who is the spirit brother of Satan. Protestants believe in the trinity that Christ is Creator who is the triune God who is the first and last and only God."
I responded:
Thanks for replying.
Your argument is one of many that seem to promote the holiness of God, but actually do the opposite by persuading people not to follow him. Jesus was crucified for the charge of blasphemy (to make God seem less holy than he is) because he claimed that man could become like him.
27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me:
28 And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.
29 My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand.
30 I and my Father are one.
31 Then the Jews took up stones again to stone him.
32 Jesus answered them, Many good works have I shewed you from my Father; for which of those works do ye stone me?
33 The Jews answered him, saying, For a good work we stone thee not; but for blasphemy; and because that thou, being a man, makest thyself God.
34 Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are gods?
35 If he called them gods, unto whom the word of God came, and the scripture cannot be broken;
36 Say ye of him, whom the Father hath sanctified, and sent into the world, Thou blasphemest; because I said, I am the Son of God?
37 If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not.
38 But if I do, though ye believe not me, believe the works: that ye may know, and believe, that the Father is in me, and I in him. (John 10)
We are meant to be one with Jesus just as Jesus is one with the Father. If their oneness means that they are literally the same being, none of us can ever be one with them.
No one will actually follow Jesus (always doing what they sincerely believe he would in their place) if they do not believe it is possible. Anyone who does not believe a man can be like Jesus will not follow him. I would highly recommend you reread John 17.
21 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.
22 And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one:
23 I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.
24 Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world. (John 17)
Did Jesus love himself before the world was? Did he send himself? At his baptism, did he descend upon himself and proclaim himself his own only begotten?
Furthermore:
1) There is nothing in the LDS doctrine that says Christ is "just" anything. If you would bother to read even the slightest bit of the Book of Mormon, you will see that nearly every page describes him in at least as glorious terms as the Bible.
2) Your idea of the trinity was not invented until all the firsthand witnesses to Jesus were no longer around, at least 100 years after his death, and which took some 200 years to win over a sufficient cohort to be canonized as Catholic doctrine at the First Council of Nicea in 325. Many Protestants today do not believe in the trinity as you do. It is certainly not what was believed by the apostles, nor taught be Jesus, and is easily refuted by using the Bible. For example, when Jesus was baptized, the Spirit descended upon him like a dove, and the voice of the Father spoke from heaven. The oneness of God cannot therefore refer to a oneness of personages.
4) The Bible is full of references to more than one God. The first comes in the very first chapter, and there are hundreds subsequently. Genesis 1:24 says "And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness..." Our is plural. But that doesn't tell the full story, because the English translations incorrectly translate "Elohim" as "God." Look up the word. It's plural. It is "Gods," not God. When the Hebrew Old Testament refers to the Father or the Son specifically, it uses different references, and they matter a lot. You'll find references to plural gods in the New Testament. For example "Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are gods?" (John 10:34)
5) Whether Satan is the spirit brother of Jesus or not, he was at least a very high ranking angel who stood in the presence of God according to the Bible. Do you have a problem with that? If not, what is the problem with him having been a brother to Jesus before? Didn't Judas rebel, even though he was chosen by Jesus? Didn't Cain rebel even though he was Adam's son and previously righteous enough to have a speaking relationship with God? Does the choice to rebel from God make God less holy? I don't understand what the problem is here.
Rather than place so much trust in what your parents and pastors tell you, seek out and consider what is said by those who have actually met God. We exist in this world, and those who have not yet encountered us will find everything they need to plainly refute the ideas of those who have not yet met God, which prevent them from meeting him [1], in the writings of those who have met and know him [2].
[1] That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life; (1 John 1:1)
[2] Woe unto you, lawyers! for ye have taken away the key of knowledge: ye entered not in yourselves, and them that were entering in ye hindered. (Luke 11:52) Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves. (Matthew 23:15)