In an exasperated tone he moans...."Ye gods and little fishes"!
Quoting Moksha quote from another forum....
"Christianity has struggled to reaffirm the basic monotheism of Judaism while deifying a human being: Jesus of Nazareth. For most Christians, the culmination of this effort has been the doctrine of the Trinity, whereby God becomes one god, but in three forms. When he's in Heaven, he's God; when on earth, he's Jesus; when he dwells in your heart, he's the Holy Ghost.
Mormons have upset the applecart by insisting that Jesus was not God, the Father, that his conversations with God were not cunning acts of ventriloquism, that when (at Jesus' baptism), God said, "This is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased," Jesus wasn't resorting to blue smoke and mirrors. Jesus was not a flesh puppet, nor was he throwing his voice. Nor was Jesus an illusion, as some once contended, in their effort to work out the math."
Firstly a man wasn't deified, TC's see it the other way round. A person of God became flesh and dwelt amongst us, a man did not become God.
Secondly TC's do not see Jesus as being a ventriloquist, pretending to talk to the Father, they are seperate persons. Capable of communicating and expressing emotions to each other. It is not "three forms" but three persons.
"When he's in Heaven, he's God; when on earth, he's Jesus; when he dwells in your heart, he's the Holy Ghost."
The above line is what we would "modalism". TC's believe Jesus was a person of God before his incarnation, remains to this day our high priest in the true temple in heaven and will return in his ressurected form to earth. The Holy Ghosts role in the trinity is to be God that can be within all believers, but he still remains a person within the trinity, even if there were no believers for him to indwell He would still be a person of God.
Still think the BoM gives a better defence of trinitarianism then the Bible.
BoM 3 testimonies
"And the honor be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost, which is one God."
BoM Title Page
"And also to the convincing of the Jew and Gentile that Jesus is the Christ, the Eternal God"
Simple IMHO the BoM declares there is "One God" and "Jesus is the Eternal God." The LDS scriptures clearly declares one God and that it there are other Gods, then they cannot be eternal ones.
BoM -Introduction
"Concerning this record the Prophet Joseph Smith said: “I told the brethren that the Book of Mormon was the most correct of any book on earth, and the keystone of our religion, and a man would get nearer to God by abiding by its precepts, than by any other book.” "
Can any of the LDS posters from the BoM (and not from any other work) show me a text that clearly states that there is 3 Gods (or more) and that are only one in purpose? (I understand you see that doctrine as coming mostly from latter revelations but I'm just curious as to if and where you would see support for that belief in the BoM.)