The Strange Gods of Christendom

The Worship of False Gods

The great sin of the ages has been the worship of false gods, hence the first of the ten commandments written by God himself upon the tablets of stone amid the thunder and lightning of Sinai: "Thou shalt have no other Gods before me." (Exodus 20:3.)

When Moses led the children of Israel to the promised land, he told them that they should be, in coming generations, scattered among the heathen nations: "And there ye shall serve gods, the work of men's hands, wood and stone, which neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell." (Deuteronomy 4:28. Italics added.) Then Moses promised them that "in the latter days" when they were in tribulation, if they would seek after the Lord their God with all their hearts and with all their souls, they would find him. (See Deuteronomy 4:29-30.)

Could the gods made by the hands of man, taught and worshiped by the Christian churches of the world at the time Joseph Smith received his glorious vision, see or hear or eat or smell?

The Strange Gods of Christendom

A few quotations will indicate the general beliefs in Christendom during the early history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

The God of the Catholic Church was described as follows:

Q. What is God?

A. God is a Spirit, eternal, independent, infinite and immutable, who is present everywhere, who seeth all things and governs the universe.

Q. Why do you say that he is a Spirit?

A. Because he is a supreme intelligence, who has neither body, nor figure, nor color, and who cannot fall under the senses. (Rev. P. Collot, Doctrine and Scriptural Catechism of the Catholic Church, published in Montreal and quoted in Liahona: The Elder's Journal, December 29, 1925, p. 268.)

The Methodist Church worships this kind of God:

There is but one living and true God, everlasting, without body or parts, of infinite power, wisdom and goodness, the maker and preserver of all things, visible and invisible; and in unity of this Godhead there are three persons, of one substance, power and eternity, the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. (Methodist Discipline, published in Toronto, 1886; quoted in Liahona, op. cit., p. 269.)

Let us examine the description of the God of the Presbyterian Church:

There is but one living and true God, who is infinite in being and perfection, a most pure spirit, invisible, without body, parts or passions, immutable, immense, eternal, incomprehensible, almighty, most wise, most holy, most free, most absolute, working all things according to the counsel of his immutable and righteous will, for his own glory; most loving, gracious, merciful, long-suffering, abundant in goodness and truth, forgiving iniquity, transgression and sin; the rewarder of them that diligently seek him; and with all most just and terrible in his judgments; hating all sin, and who will by no means clear the guilty. (Presbyterian Church Confession of Faith, chap. 2, art. 1, quoted from Liahona, op. cit., p. 269.)

These are but typical examples of the gods worshiped by Christian churches during the nineteenth century. Here are the gods that Moses told Israel they would encounter as they were scattered among the nations—gods "which neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell." How could a God without body, parts, or passions be expected either to see, hear, eat, or smell? How could any child of God be expected to understand, much less to love and be loved by, such an incomprehensible God as the above tenets would lead him to worship?


(Legrand Richards, A Marvelous Work and a Wonder [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1950], 11.)