I thought the following a unique and helpful post. It is excerpted from "Grace" at This Side of Glory blog. She introduces the Nicene Creed and then red-pencils it in a way the LDS (Mormon) church would change it.
The Nicene Creed is the most widely accepted and used brief statements of the Christian Faith. In liturgical churches, it is said every Sunday as part of the Liturgy. It is Common Ground to East Orthodox, Roman Catholics, Anglicans, Lutherans, Calvinists, and many other Christian groups. Many groups that do not have a tradition of using it in their services nevertheless are committed to the doctrines it teaches.
Grace continues:
"I’ve marked up the Creed as a Mormon would have to in order to fit their beliefs (as near as I can figure out — see my remarks at the end), and I’ve got footnotes in case you think I’m making this up. I tried to use Mormon sources whenever possible.
There are some other notes of interest that follow the footnotes . . .
*****We believe in
one God,the main God of a number of Gods(1), who acquired His place as Supreme Being over a long period of time by living a righteous life(2), the FatherMakerone of the Makers (3) of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible (and Who is married, by the way) (4); Almighty,And in one Lord Jesus Christ,
the Son of God,one of the spirit children of God (Lucifer being another), (5) the Only-begotten, Begotten of the Father before all worlds, Light of Light, Very God of Very God, Begotten, not made;of one essence with the Father(6) by whom all things were made: Who won God’s favor by agreeing with God’s plan of salvation when Lucifer disagreed,(7) and who was called Jehovah in the Old Testament(8).Who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven, and was incarnate
of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary,of a physical relationship between God the Father and Mary,and was made man, and was married at the wedding in Cana (10);
(9)And was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate, and suffered and was buried;
And the third day He rose again, according to the Scriptures;
And ascended into heaven, and sitteth at the right hand of the Father in the celestial kingdom, the highest of the three kingdoms of heaven;(11) And He and Joseph Smith (12) shall come again with glory to judge the quick and the dead, Whose kingdom shall have no end.
And we believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, and Giver of Life, Who proceedeth from the Father, Who with the Father and the Son together is worshiped and glorified, Who spake by the Prophets;
And we believe
in one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church.in the Mormon Church, which restores Christianity to the form it had in the time of the apostles.(13)We acknowledge one Baptism – for both living and dead – (14) for the remission of sins as long as that baptism is conducted by the Mormon Church (15)
We look for the Resurrection of the dead which will be presided over by Joseph Smith,(16)
And the Life of the world to come. And Joseph Smith. (17) Amen.
****
Footnotes:
1 - “In the beginning, the head of the Gods called a council of the Gods; and they came together and concocted
a plan to create the world and people in it.” Joseph Smith, History of the Church, vol. 6, pg 308.
2 - “God himself was one as we are now, and is an exalted man … He was once a man like us; yea, that God himself, the Father of us all, dwelt on an earth.” Joseph Smith, History of the Church, vol 6, pg. 305.
3 - “The head God called together the Gods and sat in grand council to bring forth the world.” Joseph Smith, Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, pg. 348.
4 - “In the heaven where our spirits were born, there are many Gods, each of whom has his own wife or wives, which were given to him … while yet in his mortal state.” Orson Pratt, The Seer, page 37.
5 - “The appointment of Jesus to be the Savior of the world was contested by one of the other sons of God. he was called Lucifer — this spirit brother of Jesus desperately tried to become the Savior of mankind.” Milton R. Hunter, The Gospel Through the Ages, pg. 15.
6 - “Unlike Trinitarians, who believe that the Father and Son are of one essence, Latter-day Saints believe that the members of the Godhead are separate personages united in purpose, power, and glory. This is a key theological difference between us and the Trinitarians.” R. Bruce Walsh, Link HERE
7 - “God put forth His plan of salvation for the world, and Satan proposed his own plan. Jesus accepted the Father’s plan and offered to implement it as the Savior. The Father chose Jesus.” What Do Mormons Believe? Link HERE
8 - “Mormon doctrine teaches that Christ is the Jehovah of the Old Testament. … modern revelation through prophets of the Mormon Church and through other scripture such as the Book of Mormon and Pearl of Great Price make it clear that Jesus Christ is the God referred to in the Old Testament.” LDS Patriot, Link HERE
9 - “Christ was begotten by an Immortal Father in the same way that mortal men are begotten by mortal fathers … Christ was born into the world as the literal Son of this Holy Being; he was born in the same personal, real and literal sense that any mortal son is born to a mortal father.” Bruce R. McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, pp. 547, 742.
10 - “Jesus was the bridegroom at the marriage of Cana– we say it was Jesus Christ who was married, to be brought into relation whereby he could see his seed.” Orson Hyde, Journal of Discourses, vol 2, pg. 82.
11 - “The Celestial Kingdom is the highest and most glorious of the degrees of glory and is symbolically represented by the sun. It is this kingdom where God Himself reigns.” Mormon Wiki. Link HERE.
12 - “No man or woman in this dispensation will ever enter into the celestial kingdom of God without the consent of Joseph Smith.” Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, vol. 7, pg. 289
Also, “If we get our salvation, we shall have to pass by [Joseph Smith]; if we enter our glory, it will be through the authority he has received. We cnnot get around him.” President George Q. Cannon, 1988 Melchizedek Priesthood Study Guide, pg. 142.
13 - (When Joseph Smith asked God in a vision which church he should join:) “I was answered that I must join none of them, for they were all wrong; and the personage who addressed me said that all their creeds were an abomination in his sight and those professors were all corrupt.” Joseph Smith, Pearl of Great Price 2:19.
Also, until 1988 or so, the Endowment Ceremony — a two-hour ritualistic drama that initiated Mormons into the temple and which they were encouraged to revisit frequently — included the following passage where Lucifer attempts to corrupt Adam after the fall by introducing him to his servant, Preacher:
Lucifer:Have you been to college and received training for the ministry?
Preacher: Certainly! A man cannot preach unless he has been trained for the ministry!
Lucifer: Do you preach the orthodox religion?
Preacher: Yes, that is what I preach.
Lucifer: If you will preach your orthodox religion to these people and convert them, I will pay you well!
Preacher: I will do my best.
In 1989 when the texts of these rituals could no longer be kept secret, the ceremony was radically altered without any explanation. The portion above was removed, as was a charming ritual where the initiate drew his thumb across his throat to indicate what would happen to him if he revealed the temple secrets.
14 - “Because all on the earth do not have the opportunity to accept the gospel during mortality, the Lord has authorized baptisms performed by proxy for the dead …. Baptisms for the dead can only be performed in temples.” Mormon Wiki. Link HERE.
15 - “All other churches are entirely destitute of all authority from God; and any person who receives baptism or the Lord’s Supper from their hands will highly offend God.” Orson Pratt, The Seer, pg. 255.
16 - “If we ask who will stand at the head of the resurrection in this last dispensation, the answer is — Joseph Smith, Junior, the Prophet of God. He is the man who will be resurrected and receive the keys of the resurrection.” Brigham Young, Discourses of Brigham Young, Pg. 116
17 - “Come on! ye prosecutors! ye false swearers! All hell, boil over! Ye burning mountains, roll down your lava! for I will come out on the top at last. I have more to boast of than ever any man had. I am the only man that has ever been able to keep a whole church together since the days of Adam. A large majority of the whole have stood by me. Neither Paul, John, Peter, nor Jesus ever did it. I boast that no man ever did such a work as I. The followers of Jesus ran away from Him; but the Latter-day Saints never ran away from me yet.… When they can get rid of me, the devil will also go.” Joseph Smith, Address of the Prophet at Nauvoo, History of the Church Vol. 6, p. 408-412.
*****
Other notes of interest:
Trying to pin down Mormon theology has been difficult work until recently, because it tends to have a fluidity that allows teachings to be stressed at one point and destressed or denied completely if they become inconvenient. That has changed in the age of easy information and increased transparency.
Mormons recognize four sacred texts:
The Bible, as long as it is “correctly translated.” And who “correctly translates” it? Three guesses. Sample HERE.
The Book of Mormon, a ripping yarn of ancient peoples fighting it out in America. A brief synopsis:The Book of Mormon contains the purported stories of three different groups who sailed to the Americas. The Jaredites (Book of Ether) came to the New World at the time of the tower of Babel. The Mulekites came to America from Jerusalem in 586 BC. The major group was the family of Lehi. Two of his sons, Nephi and Laman, became the leaders of the Nephites and Lamanites.
The last battle between the two groups, in 421 AD, wiped out almost all of the Nephites. Moroni, the last surviving Nephite, buried the records of his civilization in the Hill Cumorah. Hundreds of years later, Joseph Smith was directed to the spot by Moroni (some records say Nephi), now a resurrected being who had become an angel. Smith then “translated” the record and published it in 1830 under the title “The Book of Mormon.”
Journal and Discourses - Which contains 138 sections and two declarations. The first 135 sections contain Joseph Smith’s revelations from 1823 to 1844. The first declaration reversed Mormon teachings on polygamy (1890) and the second ended the disbarment of blacks from the temple (1978).
The Pearl of Great Price - A collection of sacred writings meant to expand and explain the teachings, and featuring the Articles of Faith at the end, which has undergone numerous revisions.The problem is that not only do the works change depending on what version you use, but the books contradict each other. A list of contradictions is HERE. So under duress, a Mormon can plausibly deny many teachings. Add to that the fact that you know and they know that you’re not about to go thumbing through the hundreds of pages of these volumes fact-checking, and you start to see why it is so very difficult to pin down a missionary on what his church actually believes.