KnoWhy #773 | January 16, 2025
Why Did Christ Call the Creeds an Abomination?
Post contributed by
Scripture Central
“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; that those professors were all corrupt; that: ‘they draw near to me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me, they teach for doctrines the commandments of men, having a form of godliness, but they deny the power thereof.’” Joseph Smith—History 1:19
The Know
When Joseph Smith prayed in the spring of 1820, one of his principal desires “was to know which of all the sects was right, that I might know which to join” (Joseph Smith—History 1:18). In response to his prayer, Joseph saw a glorious vision of God the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ, who had come to answer the questions of Joseph’s soul.1
Of this experience, Joseph later recorded, “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; that those professors were all corrupt; that: ‘they draw near to me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me, they teach for doctrines the commandments of men, having a form of godliness, but they deny the power thereof’” (Joseph Smith—History 1:19). While this may seem like harsh language, John W. Welch has observed that a careful study the multiple accounts of Joseph’s First Vision and the historical context of the Christian creeds may explain why the Lord found the traditional creeds so harmful to faith.
First, while the 1838 account of the First Vision found in Joseph Smith—History is the only account that specifically mentions Christian creeds, “most of the Prophet’s other surviving accounts of this vision contain equally unambiguous words to the effect that the people and churches of his day had departed from the gospel.”2 In Joseph’s earliest account of the First Vision, recorded in 1832, Joseph recalled that the Lord gave him five reasons: “[1] The world lieth in sin at this time, and [2] none doeth good, no not one; [3] they have turned aside from the gospel and [4] keep not my commandments; [5] they draw near to me with their lips while their hearts are far from me.”3 Ten years later, in 1842, Joseph recalled two more consequential points: “They told me that [6] all religious denominations were believing in incorrect doctrines, and that [7] none of them was acknowledged of God as his church and kingdom.”4
Other accounts of the First Vision recorded by close friends of Joseph Smith also include similar details. In 1843, Levi Richards reported that Joseph said he “received for answer that none of them were right, that they were all wrong, & that the Everlasting covenant was broken.”5 Similarly, Alexander Neibaur recorded in 1844 that the Lord told Joseph, “They are not my People, all have gone astray there is none that doeth good, no not one.”6 Welch has rightly observed that all these accounts of the First Vision mainly and “consistently make it clear that the gospel had been preached originally in truth and purity but that the world had strayed from it” and that “errors of doctrine had been introduced into the beliefs of the people.”7
Furthermore, the accounts of the First Vision emphasize that, as a result, “confusion, contention, and corruption had ensued in the lives of many who professed to be followers of Christ.”8 This condition was especially prominent in Joseph Smith’s youth during the Second Great Awakening.9 Joseph himself described the events leading up to his vision as a “war of words and tumult of opinions” because each denomination fought so strongly for converts (Joseph Smith—History 1:10). Even at the age of twelve, Joseph was concerned with “the contentions and divisions the wickedness and abominations and the darkness which pervaded the minds of mankind.”10 Many of these contentions were over differing points of doctrine in each denomination.
In many ways, the adoption of the Christian creeds over the years had led to the dire condition of Joseph’s day that rightfully warranted such strong condemnation from the Lord. Indeed, Welch has identified a three-stage overview of creedalism that aligns with the state of Christianity that the Lord spoke of: (1) Initially, the gospel was taught by Jesus in plainness, (2) over time, incorrect ideas and doctrines came to be taught, and (3) eventually, many new creeds were made and adopted that purposefully set certain congregations apart from others.11
In that first stage, it is worth noting that the word creed comes from the Latin credo, which means “I believe.”12 As such, credal statements were understood as personal statements of belief, and indeed in the New Testament, no credal statement can be found that is fundamentally analogous to the creeds that arose in the following centuries. Rather, “pre-creedal statements of belief in the New Testament are short, varied, unrehearsed, and intensely personal” and are perhaps best understood as testimonies about Jesus Christ that focus on aspects of His life and ministry.13 As Welch observed, “These biblical expressions of testimony may well have formed the root from which the later creeds would grow, but only after many wild branches had been grafted into this faithful stalk of believing declaration.”14
Second, formal creeds began to be composed and distributed after the deaths of the Apostles. In these early centuries, these creeds served real, practical purposes to establish core doctrines, and the contents of these initial creeds (such as the Apostles’ Creed) “remained largely unobjectionable from a Latter-day Saint point of view.”15 However, as time passed, new language was incorporated into the creeds as they shifted focus, eventually “prescribing and imposing extensive definitions and boundaries on the faithful” that went far beyond what the apostles and prophets had taught.16 The creeds were “slowly adding points of deviating doctrine until eventually a considerable number of odd and incorrect doctrines had been intermingled with the originally valid and truthful elements.”17
Finally, with the advent of the Protestant Reformation, “creeds reached the third, even more problematic stage . . . formulated for the purpose of distinguishing and differentiating one religious group from another.”18 The number of creeds skyrocketed as new denominations were organized, and many took polemical stances that divisively targeted other denominations and religious groups for teaching perceived heresy.19 Thus, Welch noted, “the problems [with creeds] were as much involved with content as with conflict. The concern was with not just what the creeds said but how they were used.”20
The Why
Based on how the creeds had developed and how they were used in Joseph Smith’s early life, it is no surprise that the Lord was displeased with them. This is not to say, of course, that all the Christian creeds, and particularly the earliest creeds, are equally problematic. As John W. Welch observed, “Latter-day Saints should not condemn all creeds equally, for all creeds were not created equal.”21 However, as time progresses and the creeds become longer, more binding, and more contentious, “one may see in the creeds that the Apostasy was indeed in full array, harboring doctrinal problems and errors, sometimes as much by what they did not say as by what they did say.”22
Joseph Smith would take the Lord’s words to heart throughout his life, and this is why he never set forth any creeds for the Latter-day Saints to follow. Rather, when asked, he would offer an abridged summary of some key Latter-day Saint beliefs (known as the Articles of Faith) that were open-ended and inviting for its readers. As such, “the major problems caused by the traditional creeds are decisively nowhere visible in the Articles of Faith.”23
In 1843, the Prophet Joseph Smith explained why the creeds were fundamentally wrong: “I cannot believe in any of the creeds of the different denominations, because they all have some things in them I cannot subscribe to, though all of them have some truth. I want to come up into the presence of God, and learn all things, but the creeds set up stakes, and say hitherto shalt thou come, and no further; which I cannot subscribe to.”24 Though many of the creeds were undoubtedly written by well-meaning Christians, they ultimately set bounds on the revelations that those adherents were willing to receive or allow. God, however, wants to bless His children with new revelation. And thus, as Welch has concluded, “Only the restoration of the keys of continuing revelation could open the heavens and make the church a ‘living church’ with which the Lord can be ‘well pleased’ (D&C 1:30).”25
John W. Welch, “‘All Their Creeds Were an Abomination’: A Brief Look at Creeds as Part of the Apostasy,” in Prelude to the Restoration: From Apostasy to the Restored Church (Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University; Deseret Book, 2004), 228–49.
Lincoln H. Blumell, “Rereading the Council of Nicaea and Its Creed,” in Standing Apart: Mormon Historical Consciousness and the Concept of Apostasy, ed. Miranda Wilcox and John D. Young (Oxford University Press, 2014), 196–217.
- 1. For a variety of historical studies of this important vision, see Samuel Alonzo Dodge and Steven C. Harper, eds., Exploring the First Vision (Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University; Deseret Book, 2012). Note, especially, the useful contribution from James B. Allen and John W. Welch, “The Appearance of the Father and the Son to Joseph Smith in 1820,” in Dodge and Harper, Exploring the First Vision, 41–89; also published as “Analysis of Joseph Smith’s Accounts of His First Vision,” in Opening the Heavens: Accounts of Divine Manifestations, 1820–1844, 2nd ed., ed. John W. Welch (BYU Press; Deseret Book, 2017), 37–77.
- 2. John W. Welch, “‘All Their Creeds Were an Abomination’: A Brief Look at Creeds as Part of the Apostasy,” in Prelude to the Restoration: From Apostasy to the Restored Church (Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University; Deseret Book, 2004), 230.
- 3. “History, circa Summer 1832,” p. 3, The Joseph Smith Papers; spelling and punctuation silently modernized throughout Joseph Smith Papers sources.
- 4. “‘Church History,’ 1 March 1842,” p. 707, The Joseph Smith Papers. Accounts by Orson Pratt and Orson Hyde in 1840 and 1842 would utilize this same language. Orson Pratt, for instance wrote, “All the religious denominations were believing in incorrect doctrines; and, consequently, that none of them was acknowledged of God, as his church and kingdom.” “Appendix: Orson Pratt, ‘A[n] Interesting Account of Several Remarkable Visions,’ 1840,” p. 5, The Joseph Smith Papers. See also “Orson Hyde, ‘Ein Ruf aus der Wüste’ (A Cry out of the Wilderness), 1842, extract, English translation,” The Joseph Smith Papers: “All of them erred in doctrine and none was recognized by God as his church and kingdom.”
- 5. “Levi Richards, Journal, 11 June 1843, extract,” p. 16, The Joseph Smith Papers.
- 6. “Alexander Neibaur, Journal, 24 May 1844, extract,” p. 23, The Joseph Smith Papers. The reasons recorded by Levi Richards and Alexander Neibaur reflect reasons 2, 3, 6, and 7 identified in Joseph’s earlier accounts. For an insightful study of the historical background of this last known account from Joseph Smith, see Quinten Zehn Barney, “A Contextual Background for Joseph Smith’s Last Known Recounting of the First Vision,” in Joseph Smith and His First Vision: Context, Place, and Meaning, ed. Alexander L. Baugh, Steven C. Harper, Brent M. Rogers, and Benjamin Pykles (Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University; Deseret Book), 129‒46.
- 7. Welch, “‘All Their Creeds Were an Abomination,’” 230.
- 8. Welch, “‘All Their Creeds Were an Abomination,’” 231.
- 9. For discussion of the religious excitement young Joseph Smith experienced within the context of the Second Great Awakening, see Milton V. Backman Jr., “Awakenings in the Burned-Over District: New Light on the Historical Setting of the First Vision,” in Exploring the First Vision, 171–97; Mark L. Staker and Donald L. Enders, “Excitement on the Subject of Religion: Controversy Within Palmyra’s 1819 and 1820 Preaching District,” in Joseph Smith and His First Vision, 109–28.
- 10. “History, circa Summer 1832,” p. 2, The Joseph Smith Papers. For historical inquiry into the events Joseph could have observed as early as twelve years of age to trigger these thoughts, see Richard Lloyd Anderson, “Joseph Smith’s Accuracy on the First Vision Setting: The Pivotal 1818 Palmyra Camp Meeting,” in Dodge and Harper, Exploring the First Vision, 91–169.
- 11. See Welch, “‘All Their Creeds Were an Abomination,’” 230–31.
- 12. The plural form of credo is credidimus, “we believe.”
- 13. Welch, “‘All Their Creeds Were an Abomination,’” 232.
- 14. Welch, “‘All Their Creeds Were an Abomination,’” 232.
- 15. Welch, “‘All Their Creeds Were an Abomination,’” 246. This also held true for portions of other creeds that were developed later. For example, Lincoln H. Blumell, “Rereading the Council of Nicaea and Its Creed,” in Standing Apart: Mormon Historical Consciousness and the Concept of Apostasy, ed. Miranda Wilcox and John D. Young (Oxford University Press, 2014), 203, has observed, “Though the [Nicene] creed is much maligned in LDS scholarship, some Latter-day Saints may perhaps be surprised upon reading the actual creed to find that in various places it is seemingly more innocuous than they may initially have expected . . . [and] the Nicene Creed contains elements that parallel doctrines taught in LDS scripture.” That said, certain nonbiblical phrases were introduced that led to very problematic false doctrines being adopted by the early Church.
- 16. Welch, “‘All Their Creeds Were an Abomination,’” 235. One famous example of insertion of new language into a creed is the use of the Greek word homoousios, “consubstantial,” in the Nicene Creed. While this could be (and for a time was) understood to mean that God the Father and Jesus Christ had separate bodies, later Christian theologians believed this word should be taken to mean that God and Jesus were materially the same. For a discussion on this, see Blumell, “Rereading the Council of Nicaea and Its Creed,” 205–7.
- 17. Welch, “‘All Their Creeds Were an Abomination,’” 234.
- 18. Welch, “‘All Their Creeds Were an Abomination,’” 240.
- 19. Welch, “‘All Their Creeds Were an Abomination,’” 243–244. Many of these creeds, Welch notes, were composed in tumultuous times of schism, spiritual fervor, or even war, which may have affected the combative language and tone many of these creeds took. In the late nineteenth century, over a hundred of these creeds were listed and discussed in a three-volume work. See Phillip Schaff, The Creeds of Christendom, 3 vols. (Harper and Brothers, 1877).
- 20. Welch, “‘All Their Creeds Were an Abomination,’” 246.
- 21. Welch, “‘All Their Creeds Were an Abomination,’” 239.
- 22. Welch, “‘All Their Creeds Were an Abomination,’” 240.
- 23. Welch, “‘All Their Creeds Were an Abomination,’” 245. David J. Whitaker, “Articles of Faith,” in Encyclopedia of Mormonism, ed. Daniel L. Ludlow, 4 vols. (Macmillan, 1992), 1:67, similarly notes, “The Articles of Faith do not constitute a summation of all LDS beliefs, and they are not a creed in the traditional Christian sense, but they do provide a useful authoritative summary of fundamental LDS scriptures and beliefs.”
- 24. “History, 1838–1856, volume E-1 [1 July 1843–30 April 1844],” pp. 1754–55, The Joseph Smith Papers.
- 25. Welch, “‘All Their Creeds Were an Abomination,’” 247. See also Scripture Central, “Why Did God Call His Church ‘the Only True and Living Church’? (Doctrine and Covenants 1:30),” KnoWhy 771 (January 7, 2025).