What Do Latter-day Saints Believe?
Number of Followers: 16,188,169
Place of Origin: Palmyra, New York
Date of Origin: 1830 A.D.
Sacred Text(s): The Bible, The Book of Mormon, Doctrines & Covenants, and The Pearl of Great Price
Founder: Joseph Smith
Key Leaders: Mormons are led by the President of the Church, who is the lead member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. This group is believed to carry on the apostolic authority of Jesus’ twelve apostles.
Core Tenets:
- Heavenly Father
Latter-day Saints believe that God, or Heavenly Father, is an exalted man with a physical body of flesh and bone.
Latter Day Saints founder Joseph Smith said, "If the veil were rent today, and the great God who holds this world in its orbit, and who upholds all worlds and all things by his power, was to make himself visible-I say, if you were to see him today, you would see him like a man in form" (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 345).
- Eternal Progression & Exaltation
Latter-day Saints believe that there are many "Heavenly Fathers", each one an exalted man who has reached the point of being divine.
“How many Gods there are, I do not know. But there never was a time when there were not Gods and worlds, and when men were not passing through the same ordeals that we are now passing through. That course has been from all eternity, and it is and will be to all eternity. You cannot comprehend this, but when you can, it will be to you a matter of great consolation.” (Journal of Discourses, 7:333)
The belief that each LDS saint might one day be able to become a "Heavenly Father" or "Heavenly Mother" through living lives as faithful saints is an important aspect of LDS life.
- Jesus & The Holy Spirit
Latter-day Saints do not believe in the historic Christian doctrine of the Trinity and they maintain that Jesus and the Holy Spirit are two entities separate from the Heavenly Father. They believe Jesus to be the first-born son of Heavenly Father and Mother, and therefor consider him the "older brother" of humanity.
- Humanity
Latter-day Saints believe that all humans are the offspring of the Heavenly Father and Mother.
"All men and women are . . . literally the sons and daughters of Deity . . . Man, as a spirit, was begotten and born of heavenly parents, and reared to maturity in the eternal mansions of the Father, prior to coming upon the earth in a temporal (physical) body" (Joseph F. Smith, "The Origin of Man,").
- Salvation & Afterlife
Jesus’ death and resurrection provided immortality for all people, not atonement. Due to Christ's work on the cross and in the resurrection, all humans will be judged according to their works and will find themselves in one of three locations in the afterlife
- Exaltation in the Celestial Kingdom for faithful Mormons where people may become gods; "Then shall they be gods" (D&C 132:20).
- Terrestrial Kingdom for righteous non-Mormons; "These are they who are honorable men of the earth, who were blinded by the craftiness of men. These are they who receive of his glory, but not of his fullness" (D&C 76:75-76).
- Telestial Kingdom for wicked and ungodly; "These are they who are liars, and sorcerers, and adulterers . . . who suffer the wrath of God on earth"(D&C 76:103-104). (See also D&C 76:57-119; 131:1-4.)
