Which Jesus?, Part 6 - Aberrant Christian Groups

Jehovah’s Witnesses - Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society:
“[Regarding the Trinity] Such a doctrine is not of God.” “The obvious conclusion is…that Satan is the originator of the trinity doctrine.” “Who ran the universe during the three days that Jesus was dead and in the grave…If Jesus was God, then during Jesus’ death God was dead and in the grave…If Jesus was the immortal God, He could not have died.” “Sincere persons who want to know the true God and serve Him find it a bit difficult to love and worship a complicated, freakish-looking, three-headed God.” 1

“Being God’s first creation, he was with the Father in heaven from the beginning of all creation. Jehovah God used him in the creating of all other things that have been created.” “The Bible shows that there is only one God…‘greater than His Son.’…And the Son, as the First-born, Only-begotten and ‘the creation by God,’ had a beginning. That the Father is greater and older than the Son is reasonable, easy to understand and is what the Bible teaches.” 2

“Jesus was ‘the Son of God.’ Not God himself!” “Certainly the apostle John was not so unreasonable as to say that someone (‘the Word’) was with some other individual (‘God’) and at the same time was that other individual (‘God’).” 3

“Our Redeemer existed as a spirit being before he was made flesh and dwelt amongst men. At that time, as well as subsequently, he was properly known as ‘a god’—a mighty one….As chief of the angels and next to the Father, he was known as the Archangel (highest angel or messenger), whose name, Michael, signifies, ‘Who as God’ or ‘God’s Representative.’” 4

“The true Scriptures speak of God’s Son, the Word, as ‘a god.’ He is a ‘mighty god,’ but not ‘the Almighty God, who is Jehovah’—Isaiah 9:6.” 5

[For more on Jehovah’s Witnesses see here]

Mormonism - The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints:
“The rise of the Church of Christ in these last days, being 1830 years since the coming of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ…Joseph Smith, Jun., who was called of God, and ordained an apostle of Jesus Christ, to be the first elder of this Church: And to Oliver Cowdery who was called also of God, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to be the second elder of this Church…God ministered to him [Joseph Smith, Jun.] by an holy angel…and gave him power from on high, by means which were before prepared to translate the Book of Mormon: Which contains a record of a fallen people, and the fulness of the gospel of Jesus Christ to the Gentile and to the Jews also.” 6

“And because of the fall of man came Jesus Christ, even the Father and the Son; and because of Jesus Christ came the redemption of man.” 7

“And because he dwelleth in flesh he shall be called the Son of God, and having subjected the flesh to the will of the Father, being the Father and the Son—The Father, because he was conceived by the power of God; and the Son, because of the flesh; thus becoming the Father and the Son—And they are one God, yea, the very Eternal Father of heaven and of earth.” 8

“And then the Lord said: Let us go down. And they went down at the beginning, and they, that is the Gods, organized and formed the heavens and the earth.” 9

“Each of these gods, including Jesus Christ and his Father, being in possession of not merely an organized spirit but a glorious body of flesh and bones.” 10

“God himself was once as we are now and is an exalted man.” 11

“As man is, God once was; as God is, Man may become.” 12

“I’m going to tell you how God came to be God. We have imagined and supposed that God was God from all eternity. I will refute that idea, and take away the veil, so that you may see…he was once a man like us, yea, that God Himself, the Father of us all, dwelt on an earth the same as Jesus Christ did…Here then is eternal life—to know the only wise and true God, and you have to learn how to be gods yourselves.” 13

“When the virgin Mary conceived the child Jesus, the father had begotten him in his own likeness. He was not begotten by the Holy Ghost. And who was the father? He was the first of the human family…Jesus our elder brother was begotten in the flesh by the same character that was in the Garden of Eden and who is our father in heaven.” 14

“And I, the Lord God spake unto Moses, saying: That Satan…came before me, saying—Behold, here am I, send me. I will be thy son, and I will redeem all mankind, that one soul shall not be lost, and surely I will do it; wherefore give me thine honor.” 15

“behold, I am Jesus Christ. I am the Father and the Son.” 16

“[Jesus married] both the Marys and Martha, whereby he could see his seed before he was crucified.” 17

“There is not a man or woman who violates covenants made with their God that will not be required to pay their debt. The blood of Christ will never wipe that out. Your own blood must atone for it…I could refer you to plenty of instances where men have been righteously slain in order to atone for their sins…This is loving our neighbor as ourselves; if he needs help, help him; if he wants salvation and it is necessary to spill his blood on earth in order to be saved, spill it.” 18

[For more on Mormonism see this link]

Christian Science - Mary Baker Eddy:
“Jesus, the Galilean prophet, was born of the virgin Mary’s spiritual thoughts of life and its manifestation.” 19

“Jesus was indeed a man who walked among men; but he was one whose consciousness was so perfectly in unity with God that he revealed the Christ, the ideal Truth, which redeems humanity.”

“The [Christian] Scientist does not accept the view that God took the form of a man and walked the earth, because he understands God to be eternal and all-encompassing creator. But he does not accept the incarnation, if by this is meant that the incorporeal Christ, or divine idea of God, was revealed, taught, shown forth, demonstrated in healing and in other mighty works—and thus embodied in the flesh—by the man Jesus.”

“Christian scientist do not subscribe to the view that Jesus endured the crucifixion in order to appease an angry God and thus expiate our sins; they do not view his sacrifice as a vicarious atonement for the sins of those who had gone before and those who would come after him. Rather their understanding is that by his suffering, his resurrection and ascension, he revealed the nature of God as ineffable Love, and showed mortals the way of redemption from sin—through tears, toil, and the joy of divine Truth understood and demonstrated as supreme over all.”

“Here is a brief definition of God, given in Science and Health: ‘God is incorporeal, divine, supreme, infinite Mind, Spirit, Soul, Principle, Life, Truth, Love.’ (S&H 465:9)…Here the student finds a cardinal point where the theology of Christian Science contrasts with that of some other Christian faiths: Christian Science presents God as the triune Principle—Life, Truth, Love—but does not accept the trinitarian Christian view of the Godhead as three Persons in one, it presents Him as one God, who is indivisible.” 20

“Jesus: The highest human corporeal concept of the divine idea, rebuking and destroying error and bringing to light man’s immortality…Christ: The divine manifestation of God, which comes to the flesh to destroy incarnate error.”

“Jesus Christ is not God as Jesus Himself declared but is the son of God.”

“the theory of three persons in one God (that is, a personal trinity or triunity) suggests heathen gods, rather than the one everpresent I Am.” “Life, Truth, Love constitute the triune God.”

“The material blood of Jesus was no more efficacious to cleanse from sin, when it was shed upon ‘the accursed tree,’ than when it was flowing in His veins, as He went daily about His Father’s business.”

“Final deliverance from error—whereby we rejoice in immortality, boundless freedom, and sinless sense—is neither reached through paths of flowers, nor by pinning one’s faith to another’s vicarious effort.”

“Jesus’ students, not sufficiently advanced to understand fully their Master’s triumph, did not perform many wonderful works until they saw Him after His crucifixion, and learned that He had not died.”

“His disciples believed Jesus dead while He was hidden in the sepulcher, whereas He was alive, demonstrating, within the narrow tomb, the power of Spirit to destroy human, material sense.” 21

1. 1. Let God Be True (New York: Published by Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society, Inc.; International Bible Students Association, Brooklyn, Rev. 1952), pp. 100-101, 109, 102
2. 2. From Paradise Lost to Paradise Regained, 1958, pp. 126-127, 164
3. 3. “The Word” Who Is He? According to John, 1962, pp. 20, 53
4. 4. Studies in the Scriptures, Vol. V, p. 84
5. 5. The Truth Shall Make You Free, p. 47
6. 6. Doctrine and Covenants-20:1, 2, 3, 6, 8, 9
7. 7. The Book of Mormon—Mormon-9:12
8. 8. The Book of Mormon—Mosiah-15:2-4
9. 9. The Book of Abraham-4:1
10. 10. Key to the Science of Theology, p. 42
11. 11. Joseph Fielding Smith, The Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 345 cf., Journal of Discourses, Vol. VI, p. 3
12. 12. Lorenzo Snow, former president of the Mormon Church, Millennial Star, Vol. 54, also Milton R. Hunter, The Gospel Through the Ages, pp.105-106
13. 13. Time and Seasons, Aug. 1, 1844
14. 14. Journal of Discourses, Vol. I, p. 50-51
15. 15. Pearl of Great Price—The Book of Moses-4:1
16. 16. The Book of Mormon—Ether-3:14
17. 17. Apostle Orson Hide, see J.W. Gunnison, The Mormons, p. 68 and J.H. Snowden, The Truth About Mormonism, 1926, p. 130
18. 18. Journal of Discourses, Vol. III, p. 247 and Vol. IV, p. 219-220
19. 19. The First Church of Christ, Scientists and Miscellany, p. 261
20. 20. DeWitt John, The Christian Science Way of Life (Englewood Cliffs, NJ.: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1962), pp. 28, 29, 31, 40
21. 21. Mary Baker Eddy, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures (Boston: The First Church of Christ, Scientists, 1971), pp. 583 & 589, 361, 152, 226-227, 330, 327, 350-351, 349