Acts 7:55-56 and Mormonism
By John Finton
“But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up steadfastly into heaven,
and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God.
And said, Behold, I see the heavens opened,
and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God.”
I. Introduction. Mormons believe that God has a body like ours: “The Father
has a body of flesh and bones as tangible as man’s; the Son also . . .” (D&C
130:22). It is not uncommon for the typical Mormon to try to support this
teaching from the Bible. I suppose they do this because they would like to
think their doctrines are Biblically based. In order for them to use the Bible as
a means of support, they have to treat certain passages as either a
mistranslation, or reinterpret them, (e.g., John 4:24 with Luke 24:39; cf. the
JST--this is dealt with at http://faithandreasonforum.com “Mormonism and John
4:24”). Another tactic of the Mormon is to relegate key passages to a place of
obscurity (e.g., Exodus 33:20; John 1:18; 6:46; Col 1:15; 1 Tim 1:17; 6:16;
1 John 4:12). The Bible does not support the teaching that God has a body.
The following is a demonstration of how the typical Mormon approaches
Scripture as opposed to the historical Christian approach as it relates to this
issue.
II. The Mormon View. These two verses are often used by Mormons as a
proof text to demonstrate that God has a body and that God the father and
Jesus are two separate beings. Thus, in their view, God (in a body like ours)
is seated on a thrown and Jesus is standing next to Him. They understand the
passage to be completely literal. The Mormon website
(http://allaboutmormons.com) demonstrates their approach to Scripture:
Some mistakenly read scripture like Exodus 33:20, John 1:18, and
John 6:46 and suppose that human beings cannot see God. While
Mormons certainly respect those whose ideas differ from our own, we feel
that it is important to consider the Bible as a whole and not to cherry-pick
isolated scriptures to support a pre-conceived notion.
In reality, there are many Bible passages that support the idea that
human beings can see God. In the Old Testament times, Moses and
others saw God (Exodus 24:9-11, 33:23), in fact, Moses even spoke
to God face to face (Exodus 33:11). The New Testament also teaches
that human beings can see God. Clearly many saw Jesus Christ, who is
God the Son, both before and after His resurrection. Acts 7:55-56
describes Stephen’s vision of God the Father as well.
Mormon View of Visions. It is important to point out that Mormons hold to
a different meaning of the term “vision” than that of the historic Christian
church. According to the Encyclopedia of Mormonism
(http://eom.byu.edu/index/Visions):
In LDS doctrine visions are perceptions, aided by the Spirit, of something
invisible to human beings. The things disclosed are viewed as part of
general reality. This process is according to natural law and is not
“supernatural,” in the usual sense of that term. It is analogous to the
fact that some physical real phenomena, such as X rays and atomic
particles, are not discerned by the ordinary sense but may be detected
by scientific instruments. In the case of visions, the instrument is the
person, and the mechanism of observation is faith aided by the Spirit of
God.
III. The Historic Christian View. There are two ways Act 7:55-56 have been
understood by the historic Christian church. Many under-standing that since
God cannot be seen that what is taking place is a vision (the normal sense).
Others say that Stephen is permitted to see God’s glory, not in a vision, but in
reality. “Although Scripture asserts that no one is able to see God and live,
God’s glory has often been revealed to man (compare Ps. 63:2; Isa. 6:1; John
12:41)” (Kistemaker, “Acts,” NTC, 278).
Christian View of Visions. Conservative evangelicals define “vision” as
“experiences similar to dreams through which supernatural insight or awareness
is given by revelation. The difference between a dream and a vision is that
dreams occur only during sleep, while visions can happen while a person is
awake (Dan. 10:7)” (Nelson’s Illustrated Bible Dictionary, 1088). A dream is
defined as “a state of mind in which images, thoughts, and impressions pass
through the mind of a person who is sleeping” (Ibid, 310). The definition of
“vision” from Webster’s Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary of the English
Language (1597) is: “an experience, generally regarded as beneficent or
meaningful, in which a personage, thing, or event appears vividly or credibly to
the mind, although not actually present, under the influence of a divine or
other spiritual agency or condition: a vision of the Apocalypse” (emphasis
mine). The same definition is found in The Random House Dictionary of the
English Language. Thus Mormonism presents a different definition than that of
mainstream Christianity as well as normal English usage. Their definition is
unique to Mormonism alone. This practice is not uncommon with Mormonism.
Thei