Heavenly Father Has God always been God? There is not a clear teaching about the nature of God when it comes to the official web site of The
Church Some believe that Heavenly Father has always been God, while others believe that He once existed as a mortal man who progressed into a God. This may be an attempt of the LDS Church in modern times to focus on similarities rather than differences with other Christian groups. You may even receive different answers from Mormon missionaries you meet. Let's examine some teachings:
The truth of the matter is that the LDS Church does teach this, despite the statement of Mr. Hinckley that he does not know the first principle of the gospel of Joseph Smith. "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, basing its belief on divine revelation, ancient and modern, proclaims man to be the direct and lineal offspring of Deity. God Himself is an exalted man, perfected, enthroned, and supreme" (The Origin of Man, February 2002, Ensign). "Through a continual course of progression, our Heavenly Father has received exaltation and glory; and He points us out the same path ... we shall eventually come in possession ... of everything that heart can desire" (Lorenzo Snow, The Teachings of Lorenzo Snow, 3-4). See also "Religion 430-431 - Doctrines of the Gospel Student Manual", page 92. “When you climb up a ladder, you must begin at the bottom, and ascend step by step, until you arrive at the top; and so it is with the principles of the Gospel—you must begin with the first, and go on until you learn all the principles of exaltation. But it will be a great while after you have passed through the veil [died] before you will have learned them. It is not all to be comprehended in this world; it will be a great work to learn our salvation and exaltation even beyond the grave. This is the way our Heavenly Father became God. It is the first principle of the Gospel to know for a certainty the character of God. … He was once a man like us; … God himself, the Father of us all, dwelt on an earth, the same as Jesus Christ himself did” (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, pp. 345–346, 348; Gospel Principles, chapter 47, 1998, p. 305). The statement "This is the way our Heavenly Father became God" was removed from the 2009 version of Gospel Principles. The 2009 version even omits the copyright reference to the 1998 version. But if you can manage to get the 1978 version, this statement is present there. "If we passed our tests, we would receive the fulness of joy that our heavenly parents have received" (Gospel Principles, page 14. The LDS version of Heavenly Father and Mother received their fulness of joy (exaltation, eternal life - 3 Nephi 28:10; Doctrine and Covenants 76:59; 84:38) through their heavenly parents; Jesus' grandfather and grandmother for lack of better terms. "We believe in a God who has attained his exalted state by a path which now his children are permitted to follow. 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" (Doctrines of Salvation, page 430).This 'truth' has become watered down in recent decades. It is now referred to as a 'couplet'. Subsequent Mormon teachings have been just as clear
on Heavenly Father becoming a God: "God himself was once as we are now, and is an exalted man ... God himself, the Father of us all, dwelt on an earth, the same as Jesus Christ himself did ... He is the one who was once as we are now" (Religion 430-431 Doctrines of the Gospel Student Manual, chapter 3, page 8). "The progression of our Father in heaven to godhood, or exaltation, was strictly in accordance with eternal principles" (Achieving a Celestial Marriage Student Manual, p. 129). "In order to understand the subject of the dead, for consolation of those who mourn for the loss of their friends, it is necessary we should understand the character and being of God and how He came to be so; for 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, and take away the veil, so that you may see" (History of the Church). "The means was provided, and the means was rejected, and then when our Father has done this, though he be God, is yet limited to law, by obedience to which he became God, and he must honor the same, he cannot step beyond those limitations and set aside the law" (Conference Report, October 1923, page 31). "Man is a soul, that is, a dual being, a spirit person clothed in a tangible body of flesh and bones. God is a perfected, saved soul enjoying eternal life. He is both immortal and exalted to the highest glory. He is enjoying that blessed condition which men may attain to by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the gospel" (How Men Are Saved, President Marion G. Romney, Second Counselor in the First Presidency, October 1974 General Conference). "The Gods who dwell in the Heaven from which
our spirits came, are beings who have been redeemed from the grave in a
world which existed before the foundations of this earth were laid. They
and the Heavenly body which they now inhabit were once in a fallen
state. Their terrestrial world was redeemed, and glorified, and made a
Heaven : their terrestrial bodies, after suffering death, were redeemed,
and glorified, and made Gods. And thus, as their world was exalted from
a temporal to an eternal state, they were exalted also, from fallen men
to Celestial Gods to inhabit their Heaven forever and ever" (Orson
Pratt, The Seer). "Long before our God began his creations, he dwelt on a mortal world like ours, one of the creations that his Father had created for him and his brethren. He, with many of his brethren, was obedient to the principles of the eternal gospel. One among these, it is presumed, was a savior for them, and through him they obtained a resurrection and an exaltation on an eternal, celestial world. Then they gained the power and godhood of their Father and were made heirs of all that he had, continuing his works and creating worlds of their own for their own posterity—the same as their Father had done before, and his Father, and his Father, and on and on" (1971 New Era, "People on Other Worlds"). "From revelations given to Joseph Smith (see D&C 131–32) and from his own comments about them, plus subsequent statements from later prophets, we know that spirit bodies are procreated by resurrected, exalted couples who have a fulness and a continuation of the seeds forever and ever" (The Restoration of Major Doctrines through Joseph Smith, January 1989, Ensign). "Indeed, the formal pronouncement of the Church, issued by the First Presidency and the Council of the Twelve, states: So far as the stages of eternal progression and attainment have been made known through divine revelation, we are to understand that only resurrected and glorified beings can become parents of spirit offspring" (Preparing for an Eternal Marriage, Religion 234). "Less well understood, however, is the fact
that God is an exalted man who once lived on an earth and underwent
experiences of mortality . The Prophet Joseph Smith refers to this as
"the great secret." (Times and Seasons 5:613, August 15 1844). See also
Joseph Smith, Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 345.) The
progression of our Father in heaven to godhood, or exaltation, was
strictly in accordance with eternal principles" "His work and His glory, He told us, is “to
bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.” He has already
achieved godhood. Now His only objective is to help us—to enable us to
return to Him and be like Him and live His kind of life eternally"
("But If Not ...", By Elder Dennis E. Simmons Of the Seventy, April 2004
General Conference).
The files are zipped here. Other teachings from the 1997 Gospel Principles
reveal both Heavenly Father and Mother were exalted and received a
fulness of joy. They are resurrected, perfected, and glorified beings.
At another point in his life, he taught that Heavenly Father changed from some type of being into a God: "I will go back to the beginning before the world was, to show what kind of being God is. What sort of a being
was God in the beginning? Open you ears and hear, all ye ends of the earth, for I am going to prove it to you by the Bible, and to tell you the designs of God in relation to the human race, and why He interferes with the affairs of man. God himself was once as we are now, and is an exalted man, and sits enthroned in yonder
heavens!". It seems like the LDS Church does not want people to know what her prophet taught before. What is your definition of "Eternal" or "Everlasting" God?
"Father in Heaven: A perfect being who looks like a mortal man but has a resurrected body of flesh and bones. He is the Father of our spirits, to whom we pray" (Gospel Fundamentals, 2002, Words to Know, p. 280).
"These spirit beings, the offspring of exalted parents, were men and women, appearing in all respects as mortal persons do, excepting only that their spirit bodies were made of a more pure and refined substance" (Doctrines of the Gospel Student Manual, chapter 6, page 14). Heavenly Father, like Heavenly Mother, was a person who needed to get exalted. It is unclear from Mormon theology whether some other 'Jesus' atoned for the sins of Heavenly Father on his earth or whether Heavenly Father atoned for the sins of Heavenly Mother when she was a mortal. The following writing by Joseph Smith reveals that Heavenly Father is a polygamous husband: "Verily, thus saith the Lord unto you my servant Joseph, that inasmuch as you have inquired of my hand to know and understand wherein I, the Lord, justified my servants Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, as also Moses, David and Solomon, my servants, as touching the principle and doctrine of their having many wives and concubines - Behold, and lo, I am the Lord thy God, and will answer thee as touching this matter." "Abraham received all things, whatsoever he received, by revelation and commandment, by my word, saith the Lord, and hath entered into his exaltation and sitteth upon his throne. Abraham received promises concerning his seed, and of the fruit of his loins—from whose loins ye are, namely, my servant Joseph - which were to continue so long as they were in the world; and as touching Abraham and his seed, out of the world they should continue; both in the world and out of the world should they continue as innumerable as the stars; or, if ye were to count the sand upon the seashore ye could not number them. This promise is yours also, because ye are of Abraham, and the promise was made unto Abraham; and by this law is the continuation of the works of my Father, wherein he glorifieth himself" (Doctrine and Covenants 132:1-2,29-31). The Mormon Heavenly Father glorified himself in the same law. A polygamous marriage is a requirement for exaltation as pertaining to the law of the LDS priesthood: “They [the virgins] are given unto him to multiply and replenish the earth, according to my commandment, and to fulfill the promise which was given by my Father before the foundation of the world, and for their exaltation in the eternal worlds, that they may bear the souls of men; for herein is the work of my Father continued, that he may be glorified” (vv. 61, 63). Polygamy was suspended by the Mormon Church back in 1890. It is believed by some that polygamy will be resumed again in the future.
"The priesthood was originally exercised in the patriarchal order ; those who held it exercised their powers firstly by right of their fatherhood. It is so with the great Eloheim. This first and strongest claim on our love, reverence and obedience is based on the fact that he is the Father, the Creator, of all mankind. Without him we are not, and consequently we owe to him existence and all that flows there from all we have and all that we are" (Gospel Doctrine, page 183). Eloheim is the name Latter-day Saints use for Heavenly Father. Either he was the "Adam" of his planet or he received the patriarchal blessing from Jesus' Grandfather. |
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