Five False Doctrines That The First Five Articles Of Faith Correct.

When we talk about the 13 Articles of Faith, we think they are key the 13 doctrines of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. But a closer look into the history of the Articles of Faith might reveal another interpretation. A study of Joseph Smith’s famed Wentworth letter, which is where we get the Articles of Faith from, reveals that instead of being just a declaration of our key doctrines, they might be also understood as corrections to popular false doctrines within Christianity. I invite you to study the Articles of Faith and to look for the truths that they restore. To get you started here are five of the false doctrines that the first five Articles of Faith correct.

1st. The Trinity

“We believe in God, the Eternal Father, and in His Son, Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost.”
Article of Faith 1:1

During his life, Jesus Christ clearly taught that God was His Father. During the era of the Apostles, they clearly understood that the Godhead consisted of three distinctive individuals.  If you gave anyone a bible and asked them to read it and then asked: “Is God the Father and Jesus Christ the same person?” They would soundly reply, “No!” Yet the non-biblical post-apostolic idea of the Trinity, inspired by the devil himself, was adopted by Christianity and then they enforced it by the sword for over a thousand years. Joseph Smith did not mince words when he described the creeds as “the very handcuffs, and chains, and shackles, and fetters of hell.” (D&C 123:8 (5-7).

What makes the creeds so awful? The creeds stripped God of His body and of His exalted Fatherhood. Being denied a physical body, and the ability to be a father is the very punishment Satan was given for his rebellion during the war in Heaven. Now the creeds have taken God and reduced Him to the same damned status of Satan.

The appearance of Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ in the First Vision proved the creeds were false doctrines. Jesus Christ, Himself further declared “all their creeds were an abomination in his sight” (Joseph Smith History 1:19). The appearance of God the Father and Jesus Christ to the boy Joseph Smith restored the knowledge that God the Father and Jesus Christ truly have exalted bodies of flesh and bones. It dispelled and exposed the creeds of Christianity as the epitome of the apostasy.

Of this President Gordon B. Hinckley taught, “This first article of faith epitomizes our doctrine. We do not accept the Athanasian Creed. We do not accept the Nicene Creed, nor any other creed based on tradition and the conclusions of men.”

2nd. We Inherit Original Sin.

“We believe that men will be punished for their own sins, and not for Adam’s transgression.”
Article of Faith 1:2

Most Christian sects believe that humans are born from an act of sin and born with sin. They loathe the fall and despise Adam and Eve. Some sects actually think it was the act of sex that caused the fall.  In Latter-day Saint theology, we flatly reject this entire notion. We believe that the fall was not the result of Adam having relations with his wife, but we take the bible at face value that it was partaking of the prohibited fruit of the tree of knowledge. We view sexual relations within the bonds of marriage as sacred, holy, and ordained of God.

Furthermore, we view the fall as a fall forward, not backward, for it enabled Adam and Eve to progress and have kids. Lehi taught in 2 Nephi 2:23, were it not for the fall Adam and Eve,  “they would have had no children.” We honor and revere Adam and Eve as the parents of the human race.

In Moses 6:53 God told Adam “I have forgiven thee thy transgression in the Garden of Eden.” And in Moses 6:54 we learn “that the Son of God hath atoned for original guilt, wherein the sins of the parents cannot be answered upon the heads of the children, for they are whole from the foundation of the world.”

The second Article of Faith declares that the act of creating life is not a sin, It also clearly reaffirms the account in Moses that Christ has atoned for original guilt. Children will never be punished for their parent’s sins. As Elder Jeffrey R. Holland “The Savior’s spiritual suffering and the shedding of his innocent blood, so lovingly and freely given, paid the debt for what the scriptures call the “original guilt” of Adam’s transgression.”

3rd. Predestination.

“We believe that through the Atonement of Christ, all mankind may be saved, by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel.”
Article of Faith 1:3

Predestination is the linchpin doctrine of many Calvinist Christian churches. In a nutshell, it is the idea that God has already chosen who will be saved and who will not be saved. Those who are not chosen to be saved by a ‘loving God’ are forsaken.

Predestination was the doctrine that sharply divided Joseph Smith’s family. His mother and half the family agreeing with predestination, and his dad and the other half totally rejecting predestination; father Smith just could not reconcile how a loving God would only want to save some of His children.

The third Article of Faith clearly denounces predestination and states that “all mankind may be saved” no one is excluded from God’s love and the hope of Christ’s grace. In October of 2015,  Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf reaffirmed this when taught: “His grace is the enabling power that allows access into God’s kingdoms of salvation. Because of His grace, we will all be resurrected and saved in a kingdom of glory.”

4th. Sprinkling Baptism.

“We believe that the first principles and ordinances of the Gospel are: first, Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; second, Repentance; third, Baptism by immersion for the remission of sins; fourth, Laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost.”
Article of Faith 1:4

At the time of Joseph Smith Christianity was divided sharply about baptism. The Catholics believed baptism was an ordinance of salvation. The Protestants believed it was just a sign of faith. And nobody except the Baptists believed it was by immersion. Jesus Christ taught: “Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God” (John 3:5). Joseph Smith simple reaffirmed the need for baptism by immersion (born of water) and receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost (born of the Spirit).

Joseph was not declaring a new doctrine, but a return to the truths of Christ. He taught, “Baptism is a sign to God, to angels, and to heaven that we do the will of God, and there is no other way beneath the heavens whereby God hath ordained for man to come to Him to be saved, and enter into the kingdom of God, except faith in Jesus Christ, repentance, and baptism for the remission of sins …then you have the promise of the gift of the Holy Ghost.”
Joseph Smith (History of the Church, 4:555.)

5th. The Priesthood of all Believers.

“We believe that a man must be called of God, by prophecy, and by the laying on of hands by those who are in authority, to preach the Gospel and administer in the ordinances thereof.”
Article of Faith 1:5

After the death of Jesus Christ and His Apostles, the church lost Apostolic Priesthood authority. The Catholics claim that the bishop of Rome, who had been ordained a bishop by Peter, was now the leader of the Church on earth. He received the title pope. For over a thousand years the Catholics ruled the land sometimes benevolently, with good popes, and sometimes ruthlessly, with wicked popes. In 1517 with Martin Luther, the Protestant Reformation began. The Protestant Reformation rejected the authority of the pope. This protest of papal authority led to the false doctrine known as ‘the priesthood of believers.’ This belief is that a man only needs to ‘feel’ that God has called him to receive authority. They became a clergy devoid of the priesthood, a church without ordination and ordinances.

Joseph Smith declared the truth. A man must be called of God by the laying on of hands by someone already in authority before they can administer any ordinance in the church. Even Joseph Smith, who was called by Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father, had to receive priesthood authority by the laying on of hands. Jesus Christ sent Peter, James, and John to restore the Apostolic Priesthood authority in 1829.

This idea that we need priesthood authority was not actually new, Roger Williams who was born more than 200 years before Joseph Smith, taught about the need for Apostolic lines of authority. Roger Williams was the founder of the Baptist Church in America and has been called the Father of Religious freedom. He taught: “There is no regularly constituted church of Christ on earth, nor any person qualified to administer any church ordinances; nor can there be until new apostles are sent by the Great Head of the Church for whose coming I am seeking.” Roger Williams

By illustrating these five examples I hope you have realized that the articles of faith are not just a declaration of our core tenets, but more accurately they are declaring the key aspects of Christianity that have been restored. These five examples are just in the first five verses, think of the next few verses; verse six addresses the notion of apostles being on earth today; verse seven that gifts of the spirit are still on earth; eight about how we believe in the Bible is not the sole source of the word of God, nor is it infallible; and nine that we believe in continuing revelation.

Truly the articles of faith are the basis of the restoration. They are not comprehensive by any means, but they are designed to declare that the Church of  Jesus Christ has been restored in these Latter-days. I echo the words of Elder L. Tom Perry, “I encourage you to use your bright minds to study and learn the Articles of Faith and the doctrines they teach.”