Criticism of Mormonism/Books/One Nation Under Gods/Use of sources/Natural before spiritual

The FAIR Wiki Defending Mormonism by providing well-researched answers to challenging questions within a faithful context

Special relationship with Christ

A FAIR Analysis of: One Nation Under Gods A work by author: Richard Abanes Use of sources, Natural before spiritual

Orson Pratt condemns the Bible

Note: This is a review of claims and/or responses to misrepresentations of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints found in this work. The inclusion of an author's work here does not imply that he or she is "anti-Mormon," or that none of his or her works have value. Those who do not wish to examine the claims contained in what some would consider an "anti-Mormon" work are advised to proceed no further.

Copyright © 2005–2013 Foundation for Apologetic Information and Research. This is not an official Web site of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The content of this page may not be copied, published, or redistributed without the prior written consent of FAIR.

Natural before spiritual

The Quotes

One Nation under Gods, page 380 (hardback and paperback)

• Paul said that "the natural (or physical) comes first, then comes the spiritual, yet Brigham Young said that "people are 'made first spiritual, and afterwards temporal [i.e. fleshly].'"

The References

Endnote 25, page 603 (hardback); page 601 (paperback)

• Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses 1:50..
• Zechariah 12:1

The Problem

The author is here presumably referring to 1 Corinthians 15:46. This scripture reads (using the NIV, which the author seems to be quoting):

"The spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and after that the spiritual."

That this is about the resurrection is clear from the context:

[v. 42] So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory, it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.

Many versions of the NIV also add "The Resurrection Body" as a title for this section.^[1]

Thus, the "spiritual body" here discussed is the resurrected body. Its label 'spiritual' cannot mean that it is just spirit (i.e., non-physical) since Jesus' body could be felt and handled, and He explicitly noted that "a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have" (Luke 24:39).

This has nothing to do with Brigham's discussion of a pre-mortal 'spirit body', which precedes mortal life and the resurrection discussed by Paul. Brigham said:

Our Father in Heaven begat all the spirits that ever were, or ever will be, upon this earth; and they were born spirits in the eternal world. Then the Lord by His power and wisdom organized the mortal tabernacle of man. We were made first spiritual, and afterwards temporal.

ONUG's unfamiliarity with LDS doctrine is manifest. Both aspects of the doctrine are taught early in the Doctrine and Covenants:

31 For by the power of my Spirit created I them [mankind]; yea, all things both spiritual and temporal—

32 First spiritual, secondly temporal, which is the beginning of my work; and again, first temporal, and secondly spiritual, which is the last of my work....(DC 29:32).

President Young was discussing the first half from pre-mortal to mortal life (first spiritual, secondly temporal); while Paul was discussing the second half from mortal life to redeemed resurrection (first temporal, secondly spiritual).

Endnotes

1. [note]  Kenneth L. Barker (general editor) NIV Study Bible (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan, 2002), 1798; NIV text is (C) copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.

Further reading

A FAIR Analysis of Critical Works

• American Massacre: The Tragedy at Mountain Meadows— (Index of claims)
• An Insider's View of Mormon Origins — (Index of claims—Use of sources)
• Archaeology and the Book of Mormon
• Ashamed of Joseph: Mormon Foundations Crumble
• Becoming Gods: A Closer Look at 21st-Century Mormonism/Inside Today's Mormonism — (Index of claims—Use of sources)
• Behind the Mask of Mormonism
• Specific works/Blood of the Prophets: Brigham Young and the Massacre at Mountain Meadows
• Specific works/By His Own Hand Upon Papyrus
• Counterfeit Gospel of Mormonism
• Covering Up the Black Hole in the Book of Mormon
  • Answering Mormon Scholars, Vol. 1
  • Answering Mormon Scholars, Vol. 2
• Decker's Complete Handbook on Mormonism
• Early Mormonism and the Magic World View — (Index of claims—Use of sources)
• Specific works/Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about Mormonism
• Faithful History: Essays on Writing Mormon History
• From Captain Kidd's Treasure Ghost to the Angel Moroni: Changing Dramatis Personae in Early Mormonism
• In Sacred Loneliness: The Plural Wives of Joseph Smith — (Index of Claims)
• Indian Origins and the Book of Mormon
• Inventing Mormonism: Tradition and the Historical Record
• Is the Mormon My Brother?
• Joseph Smith: The Making of a Prophet
• Joseph Smith and the Origins of The Book of Mormon (2nd edition)—(Index of claims)
• Joseph Smith's New York Reputation Reexamined
• The Kingdom of the Cults (Revised) — (Index of claims)
• Leaving the Saints
• Letters to a Mormon Elder
• Losing a Lost Tribe: Native Americans, DNA, and the Mormon Church — (Index of claims)
• Mormon America: The Power and the Promise — (Index of claims)
• The Mormon Hierarchy: Extensions of Power — (Index of claims)
• The Mormon Mirage: Seeing Through the Illusion of Mainstream Mormonism
• Mormonism 101—Index of claims
• Mormonism (Kurt Van Gorden)
• Mormonism: Shadow or Reality? — (Index of claims)
• The Mysteries of Godliness—A History of Mormon Temple Worship
• Nauvoo Polygamy — (Index of claims—Use of sources—Prejudicial language—Presentism—Mind reading—Censorship—Romance—Assumptions—Magick)
• New Approaches to the Book of Mormon
• New Mormon Challenge
• No Man Knows My History: The Life of Joseph Smith — (Index of claims)
• One Nation Under Gods — (Index of claims—Use of Sources—Prejudicial language—Absurd claims—Presentism—Mind reading—Rewording—Omissions—Sarcasm)
• The Refiner's Fire: The Making of Mormon Cosmology, 1644–1844
• Same-Sex Dynamics Among Nineteenth-Century Americans: A Mormon Example — (Index of claims)
• Sidney Rigdon: A Portrait of Religious Excess
• The Changing World of Mormonism — (Index of claims)
• Trouble Enough: Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon
• Under the Banner of Heaven — (Index of claims)
• Word of God: Essays on Mormon Scripture

380, 601n25

|| ||

• The verse in Paul is speaking of the resurrection, not pre-mortal life. See: Use of sources:Natural before spiritual body?
• Premortal existence

||

|- |