Mormonism departs from historic Christian »orthodoxy in its teachings about God. The Christian church has always taught and maintained that God exists in himself apart from creation and that he is one. The Hebrew Shema, “Hear, O Israel: the LORD our God, the LORD is one” (Deut. 6:4), is enjoined by the first commandment of the Decalogue (Ex. 20:3–5). God does not share his sovereignty or his divinity with any aspect of the cosmos.
Against Smith’s contention that the triune God is “a strange God,” the church teaches that the »Trinity is indeed a scriptural doctrine. Summarizing such passages as Matthew 28:19; Mark 1:10–11; 2 Corinthians 13:14; and the like, the Athanasian Creed (Appendix 1) states clearly the historic doctrine of the Trinity:
And the catholic faith is this, that we worship one God in three persons and three persons in one God, neither confusing the persons nor dividing the substance. For there is one person of the Father, another of the Son, and another of the Holy Spirit. But the Godhead of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit is all one.11
Nichols, L. A., Mather, G. A., & Schmidt, A. J. (2006). In Encyclopedic Dictionary of Cults, Sects, and World Religions (p. 195). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.