MD dot net - Comparing Christianity to Mormonism
Examining the Mormon concept:
How did God become God?
by Russ Bales
The following are pertinent Mormon quotations demonstrating the Mormon belief that God progressed to godhood. Such a belief runs contrary to the Bible which states: God is God "from everlasting to everlasting."
Psalm 90:2 Before the mountains were born or you brought forth the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.
Mormon leaders have taught that men become Gods in the same manner as previous Mormon Gods have. Joseph Smith stated the following:
"Here, then, is eternal life -- to know the only wise and true God; and you have got to learn how to be Gods yourselves, and to be kings and priests to God, the same as all Gods have done before you,... To inherit the same power, the same glory and the same exaltation, until you arrive at the station of a God.... " (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, pp. 346, 347)
Christian scholar and apologist Francis Beckwith writes:
The modern Mormon concept of God can best be grasped by understanding the overall Mormon world view and how the deity fits into it. Mormonism teaches that God the Father is a resurrected, "exalted" human being named Elohim who was at one time not God. Rather, he was once a mortal man on another planet who, through obedience to the precepts of his God, eventually attained exaltation, or godhood, himself through "eternal progression." Beckwith
Beckwith's perception is understandable in light of LDS leaders' statements. For example:
Milton R. Hunter, a member of Mormonism's First Council of the Seventy, wrote in The Gospel Through the Ages, p 104:
"Mormon prophets have continuously taught the sublime truth that God the Eternal Father was once a mortal man who passed through a school of earth life similar to that through which we are now passing. He became God - an exalted being - through obedience to the same eternal Gospel truths that we are given opportunity today to obey."
Hunter, also writes:
"We accept the fact that God is the Supreme Intelligent Being in the universe. He has the greatest knowledge, the most perfect will, and the most infinite power of any person within the realm of our understanding." "Then how did He become glorified and exalted and attain His present status of Godhood? In the first place, aeons ago God undoubtedly took advantage of every opportunity to learn the laws of truth and as He became acquainted with each new verity He righteously obeyed it. From day to day He exerted His will vigorously, and as a result became thoroughly acquainted with the forces lying about Him. As he gained more knowledge through persistent effort and continuous industry, as well as through absolute obedience, His understanding of the universal laws continued to become more complete. Thus He grew in experience and continued to grow until He attained the status of Godhood. In other words, He became God by absolute obedience to all the eternal laws of the Gospel by conforming His actions to all truth, and thereby became the author of eternal truth. Therefore, the road that the Eternal Father followed to Godhood was one of living at all times a dynamic, industrious, and completely righteous life. There is no other way to exaltation."
Hunter further wrote in the chapter, How Men May Become Gods:
"Thus all men who ascend to the glorious status of Godhood can do so only by one method - by obedience to all the principles and ordinances of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. If to obtain eternal life means to enjoy the same type of life that God lives and to experience similar experiences, then those people who receive it to the fullest degree shall actually be Gods." (The Gospel Through The Ages, pp. 114-117)
An official publication of the LDS Church states:
As shown in this chapter, our Father in heaven was once a man as we are now, capable of physical death. By obedience to eternal gospel principles, he progressed from one stage of life to another until he attained the state that we call exaltation or godhood. In such a condition, he and our mother in heaven were empowered to give birth to spirit children whose potential was equal to that of their heavenly parents. We are those spirit children. (Achieving a Celestial Marriage p 132)
A former President of the LDS Church stated:
Some people are troubled over the statements of the prophet Joseph Smith…the matter that seems such a mystery is the statement that our Father in heaven at one time passed through a life and a death and is an exalted man. This is one of the mysteries….the Prophet taught that our father had a father and so on. Is not this a reasonable thought, especially when we remember that the promises are made to us that we may become like him? -Joseph Fielding Smith, Doctrines of Salvation, 1: 10,12 as quoted at http://www.isca-apologetics.org/groza-atheists.pdf
How did the other Mormon Gods become Gods? In part by celestial marriage -- a mandatory Mormon ordinance. Some Mormon authorities have insisted God and Jesus were both married:
"This doctrine that there is a Mother in Heaven was affirmed in plainness by the First Presidency of the Church (Joseph F. Smith, John R. Winder, and Anthon H. Lund) when, in speaking of pre-existence and the origin of man, they said that 'man, as a spirit, was begotten and born of heavenly parents, and reared to maturity in the eternal mansions of the Father,' that man is the 'offspring of celestial parentage,' and that 'all men and women are in the similitude of the universal Father and Mother, and are literally the sons and daughters of Deity.'" (emphasis added) Mormon Doctrine, p. 516 by LDS Elder, and later LDS Apostle, Bruce R. McConkie.
"I discover that some of the Eastern papers represent me as a great blasphemer, because I said, in my lecture on Marriage, at our last Conference, that Jesus Christ was married at Cana of Galilee, that Mary, Martha, and others were his wives, and that he begat children." Journal of Discourses 2:210, Orson Hyde, March 18, 1855
Families are forever in Mormonism and occur naturally through mandatory Mormon marriage:
"The birth of the Savior was as natural as are the births of our children; it was the result of natural action. He partook of flesh and blood -- was begotten of his Father as we were of our fathers." (Journal of Discourses, vol. 8, p. 115)
"Christ was begotten by an Immortal Father in the same way that mortal men are begotten by mortal fathers." (Mormon Doctrine, 1979, p. 547)
"Therefore, the Father and Mother of Jesus, according to the flesh, must have been associated together in the capacity of Husband and Wife; hence the Virgin Mary must have been, for the time being, the lawful wife of God the Father;... Inasmuch as God was the first husband to her, it may be that He only gave her to be the wife of Joseph while in this mortal state, and that He intended after the resurrection to again take her as one of his own wives to raise up immortal spirits in eternity." (LDS Apostle Orson Pratt's The Seer, 1853, p. 158)
"...the great Messiah who was the founder of the Christian religion, was a polygamist,... the Messiah chose to take upon himself his seed; and by marrying many honorable wives himself, show to all future generations that he approbated the plurality of Wives...God the Father had a plurality of wives .... the Son followed the example of his Father, and became the great Bridegroom to whom kings' daughters and many honorable Wives were to be married. We have also proved that both God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ inherit their wives in eternity as well in time;..." (ibid, p. 172)
Are we to assume that Jesus was a polygamist with children? There's no biblical support for such belief. But do such LDS doctrines hold true today? Even the LDS president hedges and equivocates on matters of important theological issues. Regarding the well-known LDS couplet "As man is, God once was; as God is, man may be," LDS President, Gordon B. Hinckley said:
"I don't know that we teach it. I don't know that we emphasize it... I understand the philosophical background behind it, but I don't know a lot about it, and I don't think others know a lot about it." (Time, Aug. 4, 1997)
But as we've seen, many other LDS authorities do know a great deal about how God became God.
LDS Apostle James Talmage wrote, "We believe in a God who is Himself progressive, whose majesty is intelligence; whose perfection consists in eternal advancement - a Being who has attained His exalted state by a path which now His children are permitted to follow, whose glory it is their heritage to share. In spite of the opposition of the sects, in the face of direct charges of blasphemy, the church proclaims the eternal truth: 'As man is, God once was; as God is, man may be.'" (emphasis added) (Articles of Faith James Talmadge, p. 430)
It's difficult to believe that a president of the LDS Church past or present knows little of how "God became God" when his predecessors assure us that they know much about the path they must follow if they desire to achieve Mormon exaltation.
Edited 2/07. Added quote from
Achieving a Celestial Marriage
Last edited 7/07. Added quote from Joseph Fielding Smith,
Doctrines of Salvation
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