By Jerald and Sandra Tanner

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It has recently been brought to our attention that President Ezra Taft Benson, the current prophet of the Mormon Church, has strongly defended a doctrine which has been denied by some Mormons who are either not well informed on church doctrine or are so ashamed of the teaching that they refuse to admit its existence. This is the doctrine that Jesus Christ was conceived through a sexual act between Mary and God the Father. This doctrine, of course, is very shocking to orthodox Christians and even many Mormons find it embarrassing and difficult to accept. Consequently, although many Mormon leaders have boldly taught it from the pulpit for almost 140 years, some Mormons would like to cover it up.

This peculiar doctrine stems from Joseph Smith’s teaching that God the Father is an exalted, resurrected man. Smith boldly asserted: “First, God himself, who sits enthroned in yonder heavens, is a man like unto one of yourselves, that is the great secret” (Times and Seasons, vol. 5, p. 613). The Mormon leaders believe that since God is an exalted man, he continues to have sex with his wife or wives to procreate the spirits who are to be born on the worlds which he creates. Mormon writer Carlfred B. Broderick frankly stated:

There are two basic elements in the Gospel view of sexuality as I interpret it from the scriptures. The first is that sex is good—sexuality, far from being the antithesis of spirituality, is actually an attribute of God . . . In the light of their understanding that God is a procreating personage of flesh and bone, latter-day prophets have made it clear that despite what it says in Matthew 1:20, the Holy Ghost was not the father of Jesus. . . . The Savior was fathered by a personage of flesh and bone, and was literally what Nephi said he was, “Son of the Eternal Father.” (Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, Autumn, 1967, pp. 100-101)

[Bold in quotations is added for emphasis and does not appear in originals.]

In contrast to Brigham Young’s claim of Jesus not being begotten by the Holy Ghost (Journal of Discourses, vol. 1, page 51), the Bible clearly states in Matthew 1:18 and 20:

Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise: When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost . . . for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost.

It is interesting to note that even the Book of Mormon agrees with the Bible on this matter, stating that Mary was to be “overshadowed and conceive by the power of the Holy Ghost . . . ” (Alma 7:10)

In spite of these plain statements, Joseph Fielding Smith, the tenth prophet of the church, declared:

They tell us the Book of Mormon and the Bible teach that Christ was begotten by the Holy Ghost. I challenge that statement. The Book of Mormon teaches no such thing! Neither does the Bible. (Doctrines of Salvation, vol. 1, p. 19)

In any case, since Christians believe that “God is a Spirit” (John 4:24), they view the conception of Christ as a miraculous event having nothing to do with sex or any physical act. Mormon leaders, on the other hand, consider Christ’s conception as a natural occurrence. Joseph Fielding Smith, Jr., the son of the 10th prophet of the church, made this plain in his book, Religious Truths Defined, page 44:

The birth of the Savior was a natural occurrence unattended with any degree of mysticism, and the Father God was the literal parent of Jesus in the flesh as well as in the spirit.

Apostle Bruce R. McConkie further explained:

These name titles all signify that our Lord is the only Son of the Father in the flesh. Each of the words is to be understood literally. Only means only, Begotten means begotten; and Son means son. Christ was begotten by an Immortal Father in the same way that mortal men are begotten by mortal fathers. (Mormon Doctrine, 1979, pp. 546-547)

And Christ was born into the world as the literal Son of this Holy Being; he was born in the same personal, real, and literal sense that any mortal son is born to a mortal father. There is nothing figurative about his paternity; he was begotten, conceived and born in the normal and natural course of events, . . . Christ is the Son of Man, meaning that his Father (the Eternal God!) is a Holy Man. (Ibid., page 742)

President Brigham Young had this to say concerning the birth of Christ:

The man Joseph, the husband of Mary, did not, that we know of, have more than one wife, but Mary the wife of Joseph had another husband. (Deseret News, October 10, 1866)

Apostle Orson Pratt also taught that Mary was God’s wife:

The fleshly body of Jesus required a Mother as well as a Father. Therefore, the Father and Mother of Jesus, according to the flesh, must have been associated together in the capacity of Husband and Wife, hence the Virgin Mary must have been, for the time being, the lawful wife of God the Father: we use the term lawful Wife, because it would be blasphemous in the highest degree to say that He overshadowed her or begat the Saviour unlawfully. It would have been unlawful for any man to have interfered with Mary, who was already espoused to Joseph; for such a heinous crime would have subjected both the guilty parties to death, according to the law of Moses. But God having created all men and women, had the most perfect right to do with his own creation, according to His holy will and pleasure: He had a lawful right to overshadow the Virgin Mary in the capacity of a husband, and beget a Son, although she was espoused to another; for the law which He gave to govern men and women was not intended to govern Himself, or to prescribe rules for his own conduct. It was also lawful in Him, after having dealt with Mary, to give her to Joseph her espoused husband. Whether God the Father gave Mary to Joseph for time only, or for time and eternity, we are not informed. Inasmuch as God was the first husband to her, it may be that He only gave her to be the wife of Joseph while in this mortal state, and that he intended after the resurrection to again take her as one of his own wives to raise up immortal spirits in eternity. (The Seer, Oct. 1953, page 158)

President Brigham Young maintained that

The birth of the Saviour was as natural as are the births of our children; it was the result of natural action. He partook of flesh and blood—was begotten of his Father, as we were of our fathers. (Journal of Discourses, vol. 8, p. 115)

In a sermon delivered in the Tabernacle on April 9, 1852, President Young climaxed his teaching with the following explanation:

. . . remember from this time forth, and for ever, that Jesus Christ was not begotten by the Holy Ghost. I will repeat a little anecdote. I was in conversation with a certain learned professor upon the subject, when I replied, to this idea—“if the Son was begotten by the Holy Ghost, it would be very dangerous to baptize and confirm females, and give the Holy Ghost to them, lest he should beget children, to be palmed upon the Elders by the people, bringing the Elders into great difficulties.” (Journal of Discourses, vol. 1, p. 51)

As we indicated earlier, some Mormons are so embarrassed by the teachings of the church concerning the birth of Christ that they would like to see them abolished. Unfortunately for these apologists, President Ezra Taft Benson, the current prophet of the LDS Church, has come down firmly on the side of Brigham Young and the other prophets and apostles. In The Teachings of Ezra Taft Benson, a book published in 1988, President Benson steadfastly maintains that God was the father of Christ “in the most literal sense”:

A fundamental doctrine of true Christianity is the divine birth of the child Jesus. This doctrine is not generally comprehended by the world. The paternity of Jesus Christ is one of the “mysteries of godliness” comprehended only by the spiritually minded. . . .

Thus the testimonies of appointed witnesses leave no question as to the paternity of Jesus Christ. God was the Father of Jesus’ mortal tabernacle, and Mary, a mortal woman, was His mother. He is therefore the only person born who rightfully deserved the title “the Only Begotten Son of God.”. . .

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints proclaims that Jesus Christ is the Son of God in the most literal sense. The body in which he performed His mission in the flesh was sired by that same Holy Being we worship as God, our Eternal Father. Jesus was not the son of Joseph, nor was He Begotten by the Holy Ghost. He is the Son of the Eternal Father. (The Teachings of Ezra Taft Benson, pages 6-7)

The LDS doctrine concerning the birth of Christ certainly raises more questions than it answers. For instance, in Mormon theology we learn that prior to coming to earth both Jesus and Mary were born to God the Father and His wife in a pre-existent state. From this it is clear that Jesus was the spirit brother of Mary. It has been suggested that since Mary was the spirit daughter of the Father, it would be an act of incest for God the Father to have had a sexual relationship with her. While Apostle Orson Pratt probably would have argued that God’s laws were “not intended to govern Himself,” the idea of God having relations with his spirit daughter who was at that very time betrothed to Joseph seems to be out of step with the teachings of the Bible. We feel that an examination of the Mormon teaching concerning the conception of Christ reveals that it is far closer to paganism that it is to Christianity!

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