Why John 1:1-3 can’t support the LDS view of Jesus

Do Mormons REALLY know Jesus? The Church of JESUS CHRIST of Latter-day Saints claims it is a Christian church on the basis of their devotion to Christ. Yet, is the Jesus of the LDS Church the Jesus that Bible reveals? I don’t think so, and I think that the prologue to John’s Gospel proves this.

John 1:1-3 has been a cornerstone text for understanding the nature of Christ since the Gospel of John was written. Christians have long viewed this text as a foundational text that supports the doctrine of the Trinity. Latter-day Saints have various ways to understand this text, but most the offered interpretations heartily neglect the plain meaning of the text. I think that the Latter-day Saint interpretations are a textbook case of eisegesis—reading meaning INTO a text, instead of extracting meaning OUT of a text.

For this video, I’m doing a verse by verse Bible Study through John 1:1-3, and noting my observations about the text. There’s noting super flashy here—just a desire to demonstrate how exegesis works, and show how we arrive at our conclusions based off the text of John 1. Rightly understanding the teaching of John 1 provides a helpful foundation for understanding Trinitarianism, and thus a correct interpretation of this text is critically important.

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made” [John 1:1–3].