Monday, December 23, 2019

2 Nephi 25:16 and "Father" being applied to the persons of the Father and the Son


In some texts, the title "Father" is used of Jesus in the Book of Mormon, and some errant critics of the Church assume the Book of Mormon identifies Jesus with the person of God the Father as a result. Such texts include the following:

And he shall be called Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Father of heaven and earth, the Creator of all things from the beginning; and his mother shall be called Mary. (Mosiah 3:8)

Behold, I am he who was prepared from the foundation of the world to redeem my people. Behold, I am Jesus Christ. I am the Father and the Son. In me shall all mankind have life, and that eternally, even they who shall believe on my name; and they shall become my sons and my daughters. (Ether 3:14)

However,  as with Isa 9:6, the term "Father" is a title, not simply a reference to God the Father, and denotes, as it does in Mosiah 3:8, how Jesus is the "Father" in the sense that he was the creator of heaven and earth. Indeed, in the Book of Mormon, we see this multivalency for "Father":

And after they have been scattered, and the Lord God hath scourged them by other nations for the space of many generations, yea, even down from generation to generation until they shall be persuaded to believe in Christ, the Son of God, and the atonement, which is infinite for all mankind-- and when that day shall come that they shall believe in Christ, and worship the Father in his name, with pure hearts and clean hands, and look not forward any more for another Messiah, then, at that time, the day will come that it must needs be expedient that they should believe these things. (2 Nephi 25:16)

In this text, there is a distinction between God (the Father) and Jesus, notwithstanding "Father" being used for both persons--obviously, the term can and is used in different senses for different persons and in different contexts. In 2 Nephi 25:19, we see a further numerical distinction between the persons of the Father and the Son:

For according to the words of the prophets, the Messiah cometh in six hundred years from the time that my father left Jerusalem; and according to the words of the prophets, and also the word of the angel of God, his name shall be Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

For more on the (naïve and, frankly, bogus and eisegetical) claim early Latter-day Saint theology was that of Modalism, see: