The Abominations of the Creeds
In New England in 1820 Joseph Smith was caught up in a fervent religious revival. Calvinism Christianity had heavily shaped the Christian understanding of God in his time. America was beginning to shifted away from orthodox Calvinist teaching in Joseph Smith’s time, which was a doctrine that about 30% of Christian believers adhered to in 1820. This shift has continued, today Christians who affirm the TULIP points of Calvinism make up less than 5% of Christians.
Joseph Smith received answers to his sincere seeking and prayers over what church to join, in the form of a vision of Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. He prayed fervently in a grove of trees near palmyra New York in the Spring of 1820 to seek an answer directly to God because of the great tumult of opinions and confusion and strife among the different denominations, and their contest over the creeds and interpretation of the Bible. In this state of things, Joseph records his vision:
“I saw two Personages, whose brightness and glory defy all description, standing above me in the air. One of them spake unto me, calling me by name and said, pointing to the other—This is My Beloved Son. Hear Him!
“My object in going to inquire of the Lord was to know which of all the sects was right, that I might know which to join. No sooner, therefore, did I get possession of myself, so as to be able to speak, than I asked the Personages who stood above me in the light, which of all the sects was right (for at this time it had never entered into my heart that all were wrong)—and which I should join.
“I was answered that I must join none of them, for they were all wrong; and the Personage who addressed me said that all their creeds were an abomination in his sight; that those professors were all corrupt; that: “they draw near to me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me, they teach for doctrines the commandments of men, having a form of godliness, but they deny the power thereof.”
There might be many reasons Christ would call the creeds an abomination in His sight, not the least may be the way the creeds have been weaponized — believer against believer — over the centuries, but understanding the negative implications of Calvinism teaching on the nature of God and free will, and its prevalence in the new Protestant nation at the time Joseph receives his first vision, is another important clue into why Christ referred to the corrupt professors of religion and their abominable creeds.
There were contemporary reformers at Joseph’s time who began to see the terrible implications of some of the creedal conceptions of the nature of God and salvation.
John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist sect said this about Calvinism:
“The sense of all is plainly this—by virtue of an eternal, unchangeable, irresistible decree of God, one part of mankind are infallibly saved, and the rest infallibly damned. The doctrine of predestination, as maintained by the rigid Calvinists, is very shocking, and ought to be abhorred, because it directly charges the most high God with being the author of sin.”
If you look into this contest of Christian doctrine you will discover that many of these professors of creedal Christianity made powerful statements of opposition to competing creeds and doctrinal interpretations; in fact you will find its prevalence from the earliest counsels to the present.
Latter-Day Saints believe Jesus Christ did indeed appear to Joseph Smith, and that he did indeed say that the creeds were an abomination in his sight, and that their professors were all corrupt; but had it been Joseph’s own conclusion, and his own words, it wouldn’t have been far different from language being used by the pastors of competing denominations who zealously endeavored to establish their own tenets and disprove all others.
Joseph won’t go on to start just one more creedal church on some nuances of the same false conception of God that came out of the Hellenization of God in the Holy Roman age.
Joseph Smith received answers to his sincere seeking and prayers over what church to join, in the form of a vision of Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. He prayed fervently in a grove of trees near palmyra New York in the Spring of 1820 to seek an answer directly to God because of the great tumult of opinions and confusion and strife among the different denominations, and their contest over the creeds and interpretation of the Bible. In this state of things, Joseph records his vision:
“I saw two Personages, whose brightness and glory defy all description, standing above me in the air. One of them spake unto me, calling me by name and said, pointing to the other—This is My Beloved Son. Hear Him!
“My object in going to inquire of the Lord was to know which of all the sects was right, that I might know which to join. No sooner, therefore, did I get possession of myself, so as to be able to speak, than I asked the Personages who stood above me in the light, which of all the sects was right (for at this time it had never entered into my heart that all were wrong)—and which I should join.
“I was answered that I must join none of them, for they were all wrong; and the Personage who addressed me said that all their creeds were an abomination in his sight; that those professors were all corrupt; that: “they draw near to me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me, they teach for doctrines the commandments of men, having a form of godliness, but they deny the power thereof.”
There might be many reasons Christ would call the creeds an abomination in His sight, not the least may be the way the creeds have been weaponized — believer against believer — over the centuries, but understanding the negative implications of Calvinism teaching on the nature of God and free will, and its prevalence in the new Protestant nation at the time Joseph receives his first vision, is another important clue into why Christ referred to the corrupt professors of religion and their abominable creeds.
There were contemporary reformers at Joseph’s time who began to see the terrible implications of some of the creedal conceptions of the nature of God and salvation.
John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist sect said this about Calvinism:
“The sense of all is plainly this—by virtue of an eternal, unchangeable, irresistible decree of God, one part of mankind are infallibly saved, and the rest infallibly damned. The doctrine of predestination, as maintained by the rigid Calvinists, is very shocking, and ought to be abhorred, because it directly charges the most high God with being the author of sin.”
If you look into this contest of Christian doctrine you will discover that many of these professors of creedal Christianity made powerful statements of opposition to competing creeds and doctrinal interpretations; in fact you will find its prevalence from the earliest counsels to the present.
Latter-Day Saints believe Jesus Christ did indeed appear to Joseph Smith, and that he did indeed say that the creeds were an abomination in his sight, and that their professors were all corrupt; but had it been Joseph’s own conclusion, and his own words, it wouldn’t have been far different from language being used by the pastors of competing denominations who zealously endeavored to establish their own tenets and disprove all others.
Joseph won’t go on to start just one more creedal church on some nuances of the same false conception of God that came out of the Hellenization of God in the Holy Roman age.
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