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JEFF - Can you explain the verses in Mosiah 15: 1-4 that seem to say that God the Father Himself came to earth and became Jesus Christ. This sounds like modalism to me.

JOEL - Verse 1. And now Abinadi said unto them: I would that ye should understand that God himself shall come down among the children of men, and shall redeem his people.

No problem here for we know that Jesus was the premortal God (Jehovah) of the Old Testament which includes the period of time when Abinidi said this.

2. And because he dwelleth in flesh he shall be called the Son of God, and having subjected the flesh to the will of the Father, being the Father and the Son—

Jesus was the begotton son of the Father in the flesh through his mortal mother Mary. Becuse He subjects his flesh to the will of the Father He represents the Father as if He were the Father by devine investure of authority(John 14: 10-11).

3. The Father, because he was conceived by the power of God; and the Son, because of the flesh; thus becoming the Father and Son—

And because he was conceived by the power of the Father, Jesus has the fulness of the Father within him, inheriting all of the divine endowments, particularly immortality, from his Father.

4. And they are one God, yea, the very Eternal Father of heaven and of earth.

They are one in purpose as they were when they both used their powers and efforts jointly in the creation of the heaven and earth(Eph 3:9, John 1:10) and jontly can therefore both considered the Father of this earth.
They are one in the same way Jesus wanted His disciples to be one as He prayed the words to His Father:
"And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one:" (John 17: 22)

If the modalist view of the Godhead is represented in the Book of Mormon and it was God the Father who actually came to earth and became Jesus, who then was Jesus praying to in the following Book of Mormon scriptures?

"And it came to pass that Jesus departed out of the midst of them, and went a little way off from them and bowed himself to the earth, and he said:
Father, I thank thee that thou hast given the Holy Ghost unto these whom I have chosen; and it is because of their belief in me that I have chosen them out of the world.
Father, I pray thee that thou wilt give the Holy Ghost unto all them that shall believe in their words.
Father, thou hast given them the Holy Ghost because they believe in me; and thou seest that they believe in me because thou hearest them, and they pray unto me; and they pray unto me because I am with them.
And now Father, I pray unto thee for them, and also for all those who shall believe on their words, that they may believe in me, that I may be in them as thou, Father, art in me, that we may be one." (3 Nep 19: 20-24, See also Matt 26: 39)


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