Saturday
Mar262011
God Is An Exalted Man
Mormon General Authorities teach that God was not always God, but was once a mortal man.
God himself was once as we are now, and is an exalted man... I am going to tell you how God came to be God. We have imagined and supposed that God was God from all eternity. I will refute that idea... He was once a man like us; yea, that God himself, the Father of us all, dwelt on an earth.
Remember that God, our heavenly Father, was perhaps once a child, and mortal like we ourselves, and rose step by step in the scale of progress, in the school of advancement; has moved forward and overcome, until He has arrived at the point where He now is.
He is our Father-the Father of our spirits, and was once a man in mortal flesh as we are, and is now an exalted Being. How many Gods there are, I do not know. But there never was a time when there were not Gods and worlds, and when men were not passing through the same ordeals that we are now passing through.
God is a natural man... Where did he get his knowledge from? From his Father, just as we get knowledge from our earthly parents.
But if God the Father was not always God, but came to his present exalted position by degrees of progress as indicated in the teachings of the prophet, how has there been a God from all eternity? The answer is that there has been and there now exists an endless line of Gods, stretching back into the eternities.
B. H. Roberts - Mormon Seventy and LDS church historian
New Witness for God 1:476 [Google - 7MB PDF]
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. (p.104)
Yet, if we accept the great law of eternal progression, we must accept the fact that there was a time when Deity was much less powerful than He is today. (p.114)
Thus He grew in experience and continued to grow until He attained the status of Godhood. (p.115)
Milton R. Hunter - Mormon Seventy
The Gospel Throughout The Ages, p.104,114-15
God is an exalted Man... The Prophet taught that our Father had a Father and so on.
Joseph Fielding Smith - Mormon prophet
Doctrines of Salvation 1:10,12
You are the same and Your years will not come to an end...
—Psalm 102:27
For I, the LORD, do not change...
—Malachi 3:6
Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow.
—James 1:17
God is not a man, that He should lie...
—Numbers 23:19
The Glory of Israel will not lie or change His mind, for He is not a man that He should change His mind.
—1 Samuel 15:29
Professing to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man...
—Romans 1:22-23
The Book of Mormon echos the Bible:
For I know that God is not a partial God, neither a changeable being; but he is unchangeable from all eternity to all eternity.
— Moroni 8:18
For do we not read that God is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and in him there is no variableness neither shadow of changing?
— Mormon 9:9
For he is the same yesterday, today, and forever...
— 1 Nephi 10:18
God himself was once as we are now, and is an exalted man... I am going to tell you how God came to be God. We have imagined and supposed that God was God from all eternity. I will refute that idea... He was once a man like us; yea, that God himself, the Father of us all, dwelt on an earth.
Remember that God, our heavenly Father, was perhaps once a child, and mortal like we ourselves, and rose step by step in the scale of progress, in the school of advancement; has moved forward and overcome, until He has arrived at the point where He now is.
He is our Father-the Father of our spirits, and was once a man in mortal flesh as we are, and is now an exalted Being. How many Gods there are, I do not know. But there never was a time when there were not Gods and worlds, and when men were not passing through the same ordeals that we are now passing through.
God is a natural man... Where did he get his knowledge from? From his Father, just as we get knowledge from our earthly parents.
But if God the Father was not always God, but came to his present exalted position by degrees of progress as indicated in the teachings of the prophet, how has there been a God from all eternity? The answer is that there has been and there now exists an endless line of Gods, stretching back into the eternities.
B. H. Roberts - Mormon Seventy and LDS church historian
New Witness for God 1:476 [Google - 7MB PDF]
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. (p.104)
Yet, if we accept the great law of eternal progression, we must accept the fact that there was a time when Deity was much less powerful than He is today. (p.114)
Thus He grew in experience and continued to grow until He attained the status of Godhood. (p.115)
Milton R. Hunter - Mormon Seventy
The Gospel Throughout The Ages, p.104,114-15
God is an exalted Man... The Prophet taught that our Father had a Father and so on.
Joseph Fielding Smith - Mormon prophet
Doctrines of Salvation 1:10,12
Eternal Progress
Mormon prophets offer conflicting teachings if God continues to progress in knowledge and power.| God is progressing | God is not progressing |
God himself is increasing and progressing in knowledge, power, and dominion, and will do so, worlds without end.
... advancing as our Father in heaven advances, for there is progress for our father and for our Lord Jesus. There is no such thing as standing still in the eternal work of our God. It is endless progress, progressing from one degree of knowledge to another degree.
|
It should be realized that God is not progressing in knowledge, truth, virtue, wisdom, or any of the attributes of godliness. He has already gained these things in their fullness.
Joseph Fielding Smith Mormon prophet cited by Bruce R. McConkie Mormon Doctrine, p.221 (1958) |
Christianity
The apostles and prophets of biblical times teach that God has always been God and never a man.
You are the same and Your years will not come to an end...—Psalm 102:27
For I, the LORD, do not change...
—Malachi 3:6
Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow.
—James 1:17
God is not a man, that He should lie...
—Numbers 23:19
The Glory of Israel will not lie or change His mind, for He is not a man that He should change His mind.
—1 Samuel 15:29
Professing to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man...
—Romans 1:22-23
The Book of Mormon echos the Bible:
For I know that God is not a partial God, neither a changeable being; but he is unchangeable from all eternity to all eternity.— Moroni 8:18
For do we not read that God is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and in him there is no variableness neither shadow of changing?
— Mormon 9:9
For he is the same yesterday, today, and forever...
— 1 Nephi 10:18
Recommend 
Reader Comments