The relationship between the divine persons in Mormon thought may be defined as follows:
(1) Distinct persons. The Father, the Son, and the
Holy Ghost are three distinct divine persons who are one Godhead by virtue of
oneness of indwelling unity of presence, glory, and oneness of mind, purpose,
power and intent. Each of the three divine persons is a distinct person in the
fullest modern sense of the word, having distinct cognitive and conative
personality. Because each of these capacities requires a distinct consciousness,
each divine person is a distinct center of self-consciousness.
(2) Loving dependence and ontological independence.
The Son and the Holy Ghost are subordinate to the Father and dependent on their
relationship of indwelling unity and love with the Father for their
divinity—that is, the Father is the source or fount of divinity of the Son and
the Holy Ghost. If the oneness of the Son and/or Holy Ghost with the Father
should cease, then so would their divinity. However, the Son and Holy Ghost do not
depend upon the Father for their existence as individuals, and thus each of the
divine persons has de re ontologically necessary existence. Further,
although the Father does not depend for his divine status on the Son or Holy
Ghost, nevertheless, it is inconceivable that the Father should be God in
isolation form them because God is literally the love of the divine persons for
each other.
(3) Divinity. Godhood or the divine nature is the
immutable set of essential properties necessary to be divine. There is only one
Godhood or divine essence in this sense. Each of the distinct divine persons
shares this set of great-making properties which are severally necessary and
jointly sufficient for their possessor to be divine. Each of the divine persons
has this essence though none is simply identical with it.
(4) Indwelling unity. The unity of the divine persons
falls short of identity but is much more intimate than merely belonging to the
same class of individuals. There are distinct divine persons, but hardly
separated or independent divine persons. In the divine life there is no
alienation, isolation, insulation, secretiveness or aloneness. The divine
persons exist in a unity that includes loving, interpenetrating awareness of
another who is also “in” one’s self. The divine persons somehow spiritually
extend their personal presence to dwell in each other and thus become “one”
“in” each other. Thus, the divine persons as one Godhead logically
cannot experience the alienation and separation that characterize human
existence.
(5) Monotheism. These scriptures present a form of
monotheism in the sense that it is appropriate to use the designator “God” to
refer to the Godhead as one emergent unity on a new level of existence and a
different level of logical categories. The unity is so complete that each of
the distinct divine persons has the same mind in the sense that what one divine
person knows, all know as one; what one divine persons wills, all will as one.
The unity is so profound that there is only one power governing the universe
instead of three, for what one divine person does, all do as one. There is a
single state of affairs brought about by the divine persons acting as one
almighty agency. Because the properties of all-encompassing power, knowledge
and presence arise from and in dependence on the relationship of divine unity,
it logically follows necessarily that the distinct divine persons cannot
exercise power in isolation from one another. Therefore, it follows that there
is necessarily only one sovereign of the universe.
(6) Apotheosis. Humans may share the same divinity as
the divine persons through grace by becoming one with the divine persons in the
same sense that they are one with each other. However, humans are eternally
subordinate to and dependent upon their relationship of loving unity with the
divine persons for their status as “gods.” By acting as one with the Godhead,
deified humans will share fully in the “godly attributes” of knowledge, power
and glory of God.
Blake T. Ostler, Exploring Mormon Thought: The Attributes
of God (Salt Lake City: Greg Kofford Books, 2001), 462-64
