How Many Gods Are There?

Both Mormons and Christians claim to worship only ONE God. But what we believe about the nature of the God we worship is one of the most fundamental differences between Mormons and Christians.

The LDS Church teaches that Heavenly Father, Christ and the Holy Ghost are three distinct gods, that Heavenly Father has many goddess wives, that the god of this world has a god who has a god who has a god and so on, and that all men from universes past, present and future have the potential to become gods themselves.

Because of this nearly infinite, ever-increasing number of gods, it could be rightly said that Mormonism is the most polytheistic religion in the world while Christianity is decidedly Monotheistic. What we think about God is important, but what matters most is what God declares to be true of Himself. So here is the real question:

How many gods does God say there are? 

God reveals Himself to us in His Word. Through the prophet Isaiah, God says,

“Before me no God was formed, nor shall there be any after me” (Isaiah 43:10).

“I am the first and I am the last; besides me there is no god” (Isaiah 44:6).

“Is there a God besides me? There is no Rock; I know not any” (Isaiah 44:8).

“I am the LORD and there is no other” (Isaiah 45:22).

Here God clearly and definitively states that He is the one and only God.

And yet, some might say that: “These verses are only claiming that there are no other gods for us.”

But this explanation fails to take into account everything these verses teach us. God declares that He does not know of any other gods. But the Bible also teaches us that God is omniscient (all-knowing). This means that there is nothing God does not know. Therefore, if God says that He knows of no other gods, they do not exist.

Still others might say, “These verses are only talking about false gods, or idols.”

If God meant to say, “before me no [idol] was formed, nor shall there be any [idol] after me” (Isaiah 43:10), that would be untrue. Certainly God knows that people have been forming idols long before Isaiah’s day, and they still form and worship idols today. So God’s statements in these verses are not restricted to “handcrafted idols” but to legitimate deities.

Throughout all of the Bible we read that…

“There is none holy like the LORD: for there is none besides you” (1 Samuel 2:2), 

That…

“There is none like you, O LORD” (Jeremiah 10:6),

And that in the end…

“the LORD alone will be exalted” (Isaiah 2:17).

Polytheism is decidedly condemned by God. The Bible clearly teaches us that there only ever has been, and only ever will be one, limitless and unchangeable God.