Eugene Seaich The Latter-day Saint Acceptance of the "Johannine Meaning" of "Monotheism"

[W]e should point out that the word "monotheism" can have two different meanings in such a discussion: a Jewish "Old Testament" meaning (one God, no "Father-Son" distinction, no lesser gods), and a Johannine meaning (one God, who dwells in separate other gods, and whose presence constitutes their divinity; John 14:10; Mt. 19:17). Mormonism agrees with this Johannine meaning (cf. 1 Nephi 13:24-5; 14:25-7), which must be assumed whenever we speak of the Mormon doctrine of deification. Even Israelite "polytheism" believed in the existence of a High God (Elohim), who was the "universal power behind the national gods," the "One Power" who "includes all gods," and the one in whom "the fulness of deity is comprehended" (Ringgren and Anderson; see p. 37, in Ancient Texts and Mormonism Introduction and Proem [Proem]). Thus, when we discuss the "polytheism" of the patriarchs it is to be assumed that a single Divine Power stands behind the lesser gods, though lesser gods there were, as modern archeology affirms (cf. 1 Cor. 8:5 -6). Mormonism, too, believes in a single "God of all other gods" (D&C 121:32), whose indwelling presence makes the rest divine, i.e. the "One God" whose "fulness" deifies "the many." This should not, however, be confused with "henotheism," which posits "One God" who appears in many forms, or under different names; this is the idea which occurs in Trinitarian "modalism," or the belief that the "persons" of the Trinity are but different "aspects" of the same being. (Eugene Seaich, Ancient Texts and Mormonism, Volume 2--The Mormon Concept of Deity: Discovering the Roots of the Eternal Gospel in Ancient Israel and the Primitive Church [3d ed.; Salt Lake City: 2014], p. 9 of PDF file, italics in original)