“We believe in God, the Eternal Father, and in His Son, Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost.”

And this is the Wikipedia definition of the Trinity:

“The Christian doctrine of the Trinity defines God as three divine persons the Father, the Son (Jesus Christ), and the Holy Spirit. The three persons are distinct yet coexist in unity, and are co-equal, co-eternal and consubstantial. Put another way, the three persons of the Trinity are of one being. The Trinity is considered to be a mystery of Christian faith.”

And last quote, this is the account from Matthew 3 of Jesus being baptized:

“16 And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him:

17 And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”

In the Mormon church, God the Father, Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost are referred to as the Godhead. The main difference between the Godhead and the Trinity is in physical form. The Trinity belief is that God can manifest himself as any of three beings: Father, Son or Holy Spirit. Kind of like how H2O can be water, steam or ice; three different forms. However, where this idea fails is in the account of the baptism. Jesus comes up out of the water. He sees the Spirit of God light upon him. A voice from heaven is heard declaring Jesus is His beloved Son. H2O can be water, steam or ice, but it cannot be all three simultaneously.

The Godhead concept is that these three personages are all separate, distinct Beings. God is the Father of us all. Jesus Christ is His Son. The Holy Ghost is a personage of spirit, not flesh and bone. The confusion comes when Jesus says things like “The Father and I are one.” When he says things like “I am in the Father and the Father is in me. If you have seen me you have seen the Father,” it can get really confusing. Makes it sounds like Jesus Christ and God the Father are one in the same.

This is what happens when two individuals become so close as to be considered one. For example, in marriage we are to be as one. That isn’t suggesting husbands and wives morph into each other. They are separate, distinct people who are as one. Not literally of course. But perfectly united. So much so that you will often hear a prospective father announce “we are pregnant!” Well, no, your wife is. But couples say this all the time. Are they both pregnant? Nope. But because in their marriage they are as one, they can declare such a statement without people giving them an odd look.

For more evidence of the Godhead, think about John 17. Jesus gives the intercessory prayer. Who is he praying to, himself? And when Jesus ascends to heaven, he proclaims he is ascending to “my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.” Or when Stephen is stoned in Acts, who does he see? “Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God.” Wouldn’t there have to be two personages Stephen is seeing for one to be on the right hand of the other?

For Mormons, the most conclusive evidence comes from Joseph Smith. As a boy of 14 he was confused as to which church to join. He read James 1:5 and determined he lacked wisdom and would ask of God. He went and prayed in a grove of trees near his home. In answer to his prayer, he saw two Personages, whose glory defied all description. They came to him and one spoke, pointing to the other, and said “Joseph, this is my Beloved Son. Hear him!”

There are several other scriptures used as evidence that the “oneness” Jesus describes between himself and the Father is not literal but is in fact figurative. In sports you often hear how a team plays “as one.” They are all on the same page. They are all thinking the same thing. They all have the same game plan. They each know their roles. So it is with the Godhead. It is not a mysterious Trinity that cannot be understood. Father, Son and Holy Ghost are perfectly united in all things. They are perfect in all things. But they are each separate and distinct personages. Thus Mormons reject the notion of the Trinity and believe in the doctrine of the Godhead.

• There are 318,947 members of the church in Africa
• There are 18 missions in Africa, meaning there are about 2,000 missionaries on the continent
• The Mormon church provided aid and relief to over 46 million people in Africa from 2003 – 2010

Needless to say, Mormons don’t have anything against black people and the Mormon church does not have an anti-black policy.

However, this was not always the case. When Joseph Smith founded the Mormon church, part of the restoration of the full gospel was restoring the Priesthood, God’s power and authority to act in His name. Black members of the church were not allowed to hold the Priesthood until 1978. Why you ask? No one knows. In fact, there is no statement from Joseph Smith regarding the matter. In reality, we know of two black people that did receive the Priesthood while Joseph Smith was still alive, Elijah Abel and Walker Lewis.

The policy of prohibiting black people from holding the Priesthood appears to have begun under Brigham Young. From there, leaders of the church speculated as to why God would tell Brigham Young through revelation to withhold the Priesthood from black people. Some said black people must not have been faithful in the premortal life. Some said black people were cursed from Cain through every generation since. None of these theories was ever recognized by the church or declared authoritative. These were the opinions of church leaders at the time. They were based on previously received revelations and the scriptures, but that doesn’t mean they were true. Many of their statements appear to demonstrate some level of racism as well.

This stems back to the same reason early church leaders enacted polygamy. The prophet received a revelation and church leaders and members followed. People then speculated as to why God would give such a commandment, and rumors have abounded since. God commands and God revokes. That is the important thing to remember about Mormon theology. He told some to have plural wives. He revoked that commandment. He told the prophet to withhold the Priesthood from black men. He revoked that commandment.

There is no sense in speculating as to why God does such things. Many church leaders, members and critics have speculated as to why black men could not received the Priesthood for 130 years. No one knows why. But Mormons are not racist and do not believe black people are cursed. At least Mormon theology does not believe that. Some members may think that, but that’s not what the Mormon church teaches.

For this reason, many people think Mormons and other Christians don’t “believe” in dinosaurs. This is false. Mormons recognize that dinosaur fossils are real, and they are really old. Mormons also have additional scripture beyond the Bible, so they see the creation in a slightly different light.

Mormons have three accounts of the creation in all of their scriptures. The Genesis version is one and there are two in the Pearl of Great Price. In these extra versions the Creation is spoken of in terms of periods of time, not days. Because Genesis says days, everyone assumes each creative period was 24 hours. This is not true.

For example, how long is a day to us? 24 hours, right? Because that’s how long the Earth takes to do a revolution in regards to the sun. On what “day” did God create the sun? Not day one, so how long was day one? This is why Mormons understand these days to be creative periods- undisclosed amounts of time.

Also, Mormons recognize that Adam and Even did not partake of the forbidden fruit immediately after entering the Garden of Eden. No one knows for how long they were there before they partook of the fruit. This could have been thousands of years. How did a human live that long? Because they were literally God’s creations, and God made them that way. We don’t understand the science of it.

At any rate, Mormons don’t believe the Earth itself is 7,000 years old. Perhaps it has been about 7,000 years since the fall, but Earth has been around a whole lot longer than that. Thus, dinosaurs and anything else could have roamed around at any time before Adam and Eve or anytime during their sojourn in the Garden of Eden. Mormon theology does not teach what happened to the dinosaurs or anything, but it does not deny their existence nor their age.

• Mormons believes Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world
• Mormons believe the Bible to be the word of God, as far as it is translated correctly.
• Mormons believe in faith, prayer, virtue and all other principles taught in the Bible.

However, Mormons believe a few things that are different from traditional Christianity:

• Mormons believe God, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit are three distinct personages. God the Father and Jesus Christ have perfect, immortal bodies, while the Holy Ghost is still a personage of Spirit.
• Mormons believe the church established by Jesus and operated by his Apostles after his death was lost from the earth following the death of the Apostles. It was subsequently restored by a modern prophet, Joseph Smith, beginning with his first vision in 1820.
• Mormons believe the Book of Mormon is also the word of God, not just the Bible.
• Mormons abstain from harmful substances, such as coffee, tea, tobacco, alcohol and drugs.
• Mormons believe that to be saved, one must have faith in Jesus Christ, repent of his/her sins, be baptized by immersion by someone with the Priesthood authority and receive the Holy Ghost by the laying on of hands.
• Mormons believe we are saved by grace, after all we can do.
• Mormons believe that marriage is eternal, and couples are sealed in Mormon temples for all time, not until death do they part.

These are the basic beliefs of Mormons that differ from traditional Christianity. So the next time you are wondering, what are the beliefs of the Mormon Church? Just remember this handy little list.