God in Mormonism

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In orthodox Mormonism, the term God generally refers to the biblical God the Father, whom Latter Day Saints also refer to as Elohim or Heavenly Father,^[1][2][3] while the term Godhead refers to a council of three distinct divine persons consisting of God the Father, Jesus Christ (his firstborn Son, whom Latter Day Saints refer to as Jehovah), and the Holy Ghost.^[1][3] However, in Latter Day Saint theology the term God may also refer to, in some contexts, the Godhead as a whole or to each member individually.^[3]

Latter Day Saints believe that the Father, Son and Holy Ghost are three distinct beings, and that the Father and Jesus have perfected, glorified, physical bodies, while the Holy Ghost is a spirit without a physical body.^[1][4][5] Latter Day Saints also believe that there are other gods and goddesses outside the Godhead, such as a Heavenly Mother—who is married to God the Father—and that faithful Latter-day Saints may attain godhood in the afterlife.^[6] The term Heavenly Parents is used to refer collectively to the divine partnership of Heavenly Father and a Heavenly Mother.^[7][8] Joseph Smith taught that God was once a man on another planet before being exalted to Godhood.^[9][10][11]

This conception differs from the traditional Christian Trinity in several ways, one of which is that Mormonism has not adopted or continued to hold the doctrine of the Nicene Creed, that the Father, Son and Holy Ghost are of the same substance or being.^[1] Also, Mormonism teaches that the intelligence dwelling in each human is coeternal with God.^[12] Mormons use the term omnipotent to describe God, and regard him as the creator: they understand him as being almighty and eternal but subject to eternal natural law which governs intelligence, justice and the eternal nature of matter (i.e. God organized the world but did not create it from nothing).^[13] The Mormon conception of God also differs substantially from the Jewish tradition of ethical monotheism in which Elohim (אֱלֹהִים) is a completely different conception.^{[citation needed]}

This description of God represents the Mormon orthodoxy, formalized in 1915 based on earlier teachings. Other currently existing and historical branches of Mormonism have adopted different views of God, such as the Adam–God doctrine and Trinitarianism.^[14]