If you’re coming from an LDS background (like I did), you’ve probably heard that the Trinity is confusing, unbiblical, or even a man-made invention from some ancient church council. You’ve probably been taught that the Godhead consists of three separate beings—Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost—who are “one in purpose” but definitely not one being. That view is so deeply embedded in Latter-day Saint theology, it’s almost untouchable.

But here’s the deal: if we care about truth—and I believe most people in the LDS Church do—then we need to be willing to test our beliefs against Scripture. Not tradition. Not man’s words. Not feelings. The Word of God.

So from here on out until we finish this series on Why I Left the LDS Church, I’m going to be addressing LDS doctrine head-on. No tiptoeing. No sugar-coating. We’re going to compare what the LDS Church teaches to what Bible actually says. And spoiler alert: it’s not going to be pretty. In most cases, it’s not even close.

We’re going to let the Bible speak for itself, and we’ll use official LDS sources to make sure we’re not misrepresenting anything. It’s time to be honest about how bad LDS doctrine and theology really is. And it starts with a fatal misunderstanding of who God even is.

What the Bible Actually Says About God

Let’s start with a basic question: What does the Bible say about who God is? Not what church leaders say, not what a seminary manual says—just the Bible.

There Is Only One God

The foundation of biblical theology is monotheism. That means one God. Period.

“Hear, O Israel: The LORD is our God, the LORD alone.”
—Deuteronomy 6:4 (NRSV)

“Before me no god was formed, nor shall there be any after me.”—Isaiah 43:10

“I am the first and I am the last; besides me there is no god.”—Isaiah 44:6

You can’t get around it: God makes it crystal clear in His holy Word that He alone is God. No other gods came before Him, and none are coming after. He isn’t one god among many. He’s it.

That already puts us on a collision course with the LDS view—but we’ll get to that in a moment.

God Is a Unity

Here’s where it gets interesting. The Bible doesn’t just say God is one—it also shows three distinct Persons who are called God, act as God, and are worshiped as God:

1. The Father is clearly God (John 6:27, 1 Corinthians 8:6).
2. Jesus the Son is also called God (John 1:1; John 20:28; Colossians 2:9; Hebrews 1:8).
3. The Holy Spirit isn’t just some force—He speaks, teaches, guides, and is even lied to in Acts 5:3–4, where Peter says, “You have not lied to men, but to God.”

You’ll notice something: these three are distinct, but all divine. They’re not just roles or modes or masks. They show up together—working in unity—again and again.

For example, at Jesus’ baptism:

“When Jesus had been baptized, just as he came up from the water, suddenly the heavens were opened to him and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, ‘This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.’”—Matthew 3:16–17

There’s Jesus in the water, the Spirit descending, and the Father speaking from heaven. Three persons, one divine mission.

Same thing in the Great Commission:

“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name [not names] of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit…”—Matthew 28:19

Notice it’s one name, not three names. That’s not accidental.

God Is Spirit, Eternal, and Unchanging

The Bible also tells us about God’s nature—what He is.

• God is spirit, not flesh and bone (John 4:24).
• God is eternal—He didn’t “become” God. He has always been God (Psalm 90:2).
• God is unchanging (Malachi 3:6; James 1:17).

“Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.”—Psalm 90:2

You can’t become “from everlasting to everlasting.” You either are or you aren’t.

So to sum it up:

✅ There is one and only one God

✅ He is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—distinct yet united

✅ He is spirit, eternal, and unchanging

So… How Can God Be Three and One?

Let’s pause for a second. Because this is the part that trips a lot of people up—especially if you’re coming from an LDS background. You might be thinking: “Wait, are you saying God is three gods in one?”

Nope. Not at all.

The Bible never says there are three gods. That would be tritheism, and Scripture is firmly against that (remember Isaiah 44:6? “Besides me there is no god.”). What the Bible shows us is something deeper and more mysterious—something we might call a Tri-Union.

Here’s what that means, as simply as possible:

• One “What” (Being): God is one divine being. One essence. One nature. He’s not divided up into parts or competing forces. He is ONE.
• Three “Whos” (Persons): Within that one divine being, there are three distinct persons—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Each is fully and truly God. They relate to each other. They speak to each other. They love, glorify, and send one another. They’re not the same person wearing different hats.

Think of it like this: we’re not saying 3 = 1 in a mathematical sense. We’re saying that God is one in essence and three in person. Not three separate gods working as a team. Not one God morphing into different forms. But a perfect, eternal union—a Tri-Union.

We can’t fully grasp this because nothing in creation works exactly like it. And that’s actually a good thing. If God were simple enough for us to fully understand, He probably wouldn’t be God.

What we do know is what the Bible shows us:

• One God.
• Three persons.
• Perfect unity.
• One divine essence.
• Distinction without division.

And that is totally different from what the LDS Church teaches.

The LDS View of the Godhead

Now that we’ve laid out what the Bible actually teaches about the one true God, it’s time to look at what the LDS Church teaches—not based on hearsay or what someone thinks the Church teaches, but straight from the source.

And spoiler: this is not the same God.

(Side note: I will have footnotes directly to LDS doctrine in the next two sections. I am not making this up. This is straight from the horse’s mouth.)

Three Separate Gods

In LDS theology, the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost are three separate beings, each with their own body (except the Holy Ghost, who is a spirit), and each considered a god.

“The Father has a body of flesh and bones as tangible as man’s; the Son also; but the Holy Ghost has not a body of flesh and bones, but is a personage of Spirit.”¹

That’s a direct quote from Doctrine and Covenants 130:22. This isn’t some fringe idea—it’s foundational. In fact, LDS apostle Jeffrey R. Holland puts it plainly:

They are separate beings, but they are united in purpose and love and glory.”²

So when Latter-day Saints say they believe in the “Godhead,” they don’t mean one God in three persons. They mean three distinct gods working together in harmony.

And yes, three gods. Joseph Smith taught that explicitly:

“I will preach on the plurality of Gods… the heads of the Gods appointed one God for us.”³

This is not monotheism. It’s tritheism—a belief in three gods.

The Father Was Once a Man

This one shocked me when I first really dug into it, but it’s straight from LDS teachings. Joseph Smith said:

“God himself was once as we are now, and is an exalted man… If you were to see him today, you would see him like a man in form.”⁴

That’s from the (in)famous King Follett Discourse, which is regularly cited in official LDS manuals. The idea is that God the Father went through a mortal experience, was exalted, and became a god. That’s how Jesus became a god too.

And this teaching is tied to another key doctrine: that God the Father has a Heavenly Wife, and that all humans are their literal spirit children.

“All human beings—male and female—are beloved spirit children of heavenly parents, a Heavenly Father and a Heavenly Mother.”⁵

So the LDS God is not eternal in the biblical sense. He had a beginning. He changed. He progressed. He’s not from everlasting to everlasting—he became God.

The LDS doctrine doesn’t just add a few new ideas about God—it replaces Him entirely.

What About Becoming Gods?

That’s a huge part of LDS teaching, and yes, it connects to their view of who God is—but we’re going to deal with that topic more directly in a future post. For now, we’re keeping the spotlight right where it belongs: on God Himself.

Side-by-Side: Biblical Trinity vs. LDS Godhead

Sometimes the best way to see just how far apart two teachings are is to put them side-by-side.

Doctrine	Biblical View	LDS View
How many Gods?	One (Deut 6:4; Isa 44:6)	Three gods working together.6
God’s Nature	Eternal Spirit (John 4:24; Ps 90:2)	Exalted Man with a body of flesh and bones.7
The Son	Eternal, uncreated, fully God (John 1:1-3; Col 2:9)	Literal spirit child of Heavenly Father and Heavenly Mother.8
The Holy Spirit	Full God, personal and active (Acts 5:3-4)	A separate being, without a body, not of the same essence.9
Unity	One Being, Three Persons (Matt 28:19; John 10:30)	Three separate beings “united in purpose” only.10
Origin	Uncreated, everlasting to everlasting (Ps 90:2; Isa 43:10)	Once a mortal man who became God.11

Clearly this isn’t just a difference in interpretation. This is a completely different God.

The God of the Bible is eternal, uncreated, unchanging, and utterly holy—He’s not like us, and He never was.

The LDS “God” is a glorified human, a man who had to become God after living a mortal life.

The Bible teaches one God in three persons—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—perfectly united in essence.

The LDS Church teaches three separate gods, united only in purpose, like a really well-functioning committee.

Both cannot be true. One is the eternal Creator. The other is a created being who climbed his way to godhood.

Why It Matters

This is one of the main reasons why Bible-believing Christians say that Latter-day Saints are not Christians.

It’s not because we don’t like Mormons. It’s not because we’re being judgmental or unkind. It’s because we don’t worship the same God. You cannot say you’re a Christian while rejecting the very identity of the God Christians worship.

The biblical God is eternal, infinite, holy, and completely “other.” The LDS god is a former man, one of many gods, who has a body, a wife, and a backstory.

This isn’t a side issue. It’s not a “friendly disagreement.” It’s a first commandment issue.

“You shall have no other gods before me.” —Exodus 20:3

If the LDS Church preaches a different God, then it is preaching a different gospel—and that’s exactly what Scripture warns us about:

“But even if we or an angel from heaven should proclaim to you a gospel contrary to what we proclaimed to you, let that one be accursed!”—Galatians 1:8

You can’t swap out the biblical God for a man-made version and still claim the name of Christ. You can’t preach a glorified human and call Him the Creator. You can’t break the foundation and expect the house to stand.

This matters—because eternal life depends on knowing the true God:

“And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.”—John 17:3

When it comes to the nature of God, getting it wrong isn’t just bad theology—it’s spiritual disaster.

Final Verdict

It’s not about winning an argument. It’s not about being mean. It’s about truth. And truth matters—especially when it comes to the very being of God.

Jesus said:

“The hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” —John 4:23–24

You cannot worship the true God if you don’t know the true God.

So here’s the invitation:

Leave behind the man-made ideas. Lay down the false gods. Come to the God of Scripture.

• The God who has no beginning and no end.
• The God who never had to become God—because He always was.
• The God who reveals Himself as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
• The God who alone can save.

This post is just the beginning. In future posts, we’ll tackle the other major issues: exaltation, the “Heavenly Mother,” Jesus and Satan as spirit brothers, continuing revelation, baptism for the dead, and more.

But it all starts with the question of Who is God? If you get that wrong, everything else crumbles.

Don’t worship a glorified man.

Worship the eternal King.