What does the Book of Mormon teach about God? When it was published in 1830, the Book of Mormon described God in terms that sound a lot like the Bible: eternal, unchanging, and all-powerful. But by 1844, Joseph Smith was teaching that God was once a man who progressed to godhood, and that people can become gods too. That shift creates a deep contradiction within Mormonism itself. The Bible is clear that God has always been God, and that question shapes everything else we believe.
Note: We don’t affirm the Book of Mormon as inspired by God or as part of Scripture. This series shows how Mormonism departs from its own founding text, and how even the Book of Mormon can point people to the Jesus of the Bible.
The Unchanging God of the Book of Mormon
Again and again, the Book of Mormon describes God as eternal and unchangeable:
For I know that God is not a partial God, neither a changeable being; but he is unchangeable from all eternity to all eternity. (Moroni 8:18)
Other passages say God is “the same yesterday, today, and forever” (2 Nephi 27:23; Mormon 9:9) and describe the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost as “one God, without end” (2 Nephi 31:21). On this point, the Book of Mormon is much closer to the Bible than to later LDS teaching.
The Bible’s Eternal God
The Bible teaches that God has no beginning and never changes.
Psalm 90:2 Before the mountains were born or you brought forth the whole world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.
Malachi 3:6 “I the Lord do not change. So you, the descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed.
God also says there are no other gods, before or after him: “Before me no god was formed, nor will there be one after me” (Isaiah 43:10). He is the Creator, not a creature who became divine.
Joseph Smith’s Changing Theology
Over the next 14 years, Joseph Smith’s teaching about God changed dramatically. In April 1844, just months before his death, he preached the King Follett Discourse at a funeral in Nauvoo, Illinois:
God himself was once as we are now, and is an exalted man, and sits enthroned in yonder heavens! (Joseph Smith, King Follett Discourse)
In the same sermon, he told his listeners they had to “learn how to be Gods yourselves.” Later LDS scripture also teaches that “the Father has a body of flesh and bones as tangible as man’s” (Doctrine and Covenants 130:22). Many Latter-day Saints find these ideas hopeful. But they can’t be reconciled with an eternal, unchanging God, whether in the Bible or in the Book of Mormon.
Continuing Revelation or Contradiction?
LDS leaders explain these changes through “continuing revelation,” the idea that God reveals truth in stages and newer teaching can replace older teaching. But if God himself doesn’t change, his nature can’t change from one revelation to the next. God may reveal more over time, but he never contradicts himself.
That’s why the Bible tells us to “test them all; hold on to what is good” (1 Thessalonians 5:21). Every teaching, including one from a prophet, should be measured by God’s Word.
Why It Matters
Your view of God shapes your worship, your faith, and your hope. If God is eternal and completely unique, he alone deserves worship, and our hope rests on his perfect character. If God is an exalted man, then faith becomes a path of progression, and the line between Creator and creature disappears.
The good news is that the unchanging God has made himself known in Jesus, and he keeps every promise. “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows” (James 1:17).
For more, see What Do Mormons Believe About God?
The Takeaway
The Book of Mormon describes an eternal, unchanging God, much like the Bible. But Joseph Smith later taught that God was once a man and that people can become gods. Those teachings contradict both books. The Bible calls us to test every teaching and to worship the one true God, who has always been God and never changes.
