Mormonism: Its Origin and Doctrines 123 ism, magnetism) . . . is that substance called the Holy Spirit”. (Key, p. 39.) How refreshing to turn to the Divine Word and read its convincing and authoritative teachings about God. We read in Gen. 1:1: “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth” ; in Deut. 6:4: “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord” ; in Psa. 104:1: “O Lord my God, Thou art very great; Thou art clothed with honor and majesty” ; in Isa. 45:5: “I am the Lord, and there is none else” ; in John 4 :24 : “God is a Spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth” ; in John 14 : 26 : “But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in My name, He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you”. The Holy Spirit, then, is a Divine Person, and not an “ethereal substance”. “ ARTICLE 2. WE BELIEVE THAT MEN WILL BE PUNISHED FOR THEIR OWN SINS, AND NOT FOR ADAMES TRANSGRESSIONS.” But that is very different from holding that Adam did not transgress the law of God. Here is the teaching of the Mor- mon Catechism: “Was it necessary that Adam should partake of the forbidden fruit? Yes, unless he had done so, he would not have known good and evil here, neither could he have had mortal posterity”. “Is it proper for us to consider the transgression of Adam and Eve as a grievous calamity, and that all mankind would have been infinitely more happy if the Fall had not occurred? No, but we ought to consider the Fall of our first parents as one of the great steps to eternal exaltation and happiness”. (Catechism, Chapter 8.) What saith the Scriptures: “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us” (1 John 1:8). “Wherefore as by one man [Adam] sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned” (Rom. 5:12). “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord”.
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