I have a lot of thoughts about the arguments about the whether Latter-day Saints are Christians, and more particularly the trinitarian question, so I want to get them all out in an even-handed, fairly neutral manner. I know it’s long, but please bear with me.
Under a sola scriptura analysis, there is a lot of room for confusion. There are many scriptures that emphasize the unity of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. There are also key verses that emphasize separateness, such as Matt. 27:46 (“My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”) and John 17:11 (Jesus asking the Father that His followers can experience the same sort of oneness that the Father and Son do, when His followers are very much separate beings).
How to reconcile the trend of verses on unity with the trend of verses on separateness is a complicated question on which reasonable minds can disagree—a fact borne out by the ongoing debates and also the several centuries of debate on the question prior and post the Nicaean Councils. This is hardly the only question on which ambiguities in the Scriptures produce conflicting answers, depending on how the reader decides to reconcile differing traditions and interpretations.
Now, from a pragmatic perspective, namely, the perspective of God’s judgment, this question is highly unlikely to matter for several reasons.
First, if it were a matter of judgment, God could’ve been much clearer if He wanted to. All He had to do was tell any one of Moses, Isaiah, Paul, John, etc. while they were writing to lay out the issue, address the confusion, and give a precise answer resolving the different positions in an authoritative fashion.
Second, all such matters of interpretation are generally less important, since they have only minor impacts on obedience to God’s commandments or the sincerity with which one seeks God. It’s not that they don’t matter, it’s that every one of us has way bigger problems in terms of our obedience and faith in God than those here.
Third, when it comes to the nature of God, the reality is that we’re all probably making errors. The notion that any of us has a precise, infallible sense of the nature of God is ridiculous. Is there any mortal who precisely understands you? Do you precisely understand the people around you? Half of us are wandering through this life with a deep despair at not being understood by anyone. God’s more complex and we don’t even see Him or talk with Him in the direct fashion we interact with each other. Even if you or I think that we’re not making any major errors, we don’t *know* that, we just assume so.
Fourth, we’re all gonna figure out the truth of this one in the end, and it’s not gonna be a big deal for most of us to update our views. We can just work this out in like 5 minutes on Judgment Day. If there’s a single being who says “I am the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit,” so be it. If there are three, then so be it. If it’s something more complicated, He or They or whatever can explain it then, and it will probably be a lot easier to explain at that point than it would be now.
It’s like talking with someone over the phone or internet. You always have misunderstandings about who they are until you meet them. If I’ve been talking with someone for a few years and when I meet them, turns out it was a set of twins who shared the account, I’m not gonna be upset, I’ll just be confused for a bit, reorganize my conception of them, and move on. If I’ve been talking with someone who uses multiple usernames, and I thought they were different people the whole time, it won’t be a big deal to realize they were the same person all along. It’s just a consequence of the fact that none of us are talking with God face to face. It’s normal to be confused about certain things when it comes to people you haven’t met in person.
And, as a final note on Judgment Day, I fear it is much more likely to be judged for mistreating someone who sincerely seeks Christ but makes a good faith ontological mistake than for making a good faith a good faith ontological mistake. Remember Jesus’ words in Matt. 5:22:
But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire.
There is a great danger of hellfire that comes with treating the children of God poorly, and moreso the danger when we attack, harangue, or harass those who seek Christ, just because they do it “wrong.”
The whole situation stinks of the Wars of Religion. We all have the ability to call everyone else heretics. Even the person sitting next to you at church, if you plumb the depths of your neighbors’ soul, you are probably going to find at least one belief that you consider offensive, shocking, or dangerous. Even if it’s your spouse of 30 years. We can go back to killing each other over having the “right” Christ. But we can’t expect to go on to Heaven after launching such a crusade. Disagreement is normal within the faith. God is dealing with it every day, and He’s not striking people down for it. Review Mark 9:38-41, Mark 10:37-45, and Luke 9:54-56.
And to ask for a moment of sympathy, have you ever been told you’re not a Christian? Consider now for a moment what it would be like if, persistently, throughout your whole life, again and again, you did your best to follow Christ, as you understand Him, and people insisted you were not Christian at all. Imagine being a Protestant when such was criminal, or a Catholic in the inverse case. Now, imagine being the person who imposed those conditions on people who objectively and clearly sought Christ, even when it cost them their life or freedom. Is that the spirit you want to meet God with—the spirit of a religious despot? Can God see His own spirit in such a one?
God needs disciples, not sectarians. Again, disagreement is normal, and it is on us to handle it maturely.