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 of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

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 tofocus 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.

God Himself is an exalted man, perfected, enthroned, and supreme (Doctrines of the Gospel Student Manual - Religion 430-431, chapter 7, page 17).

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).

"The Father is a glorified, perfected resurrected, exalted man who worked out his own salvation by obedience to the same laws he has given to us so that we may do the same" (A New Witness for the Articles of Faith, page 64).

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 (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 too.

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 ofjoy (exaltation, eternal life - 3 Nephi 28:10; Doctrine and Covenants 76:59; 84:38) through their heavenlyvparents; 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 supposed '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:

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 that through which we are now passing (The Gospel Through the Ages, 1945, p 104).

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, t 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).

All these Gods are equal in power, in glory, in dominion, and in the possession of all things ; each possesses a fulness of truth, of knowledge, of wisdom, of light, of intelligence ; each governs himself in all things by his own attributes, and is filled with love, goodness, mercy, and justice towards all. The fulness of all these attributes is what constitutes God. God is Light. God is Love. God is Truth. The Gods are one in the qualities and attributes (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 (Achieving a Celestial Marriage Student Manual).

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).

Joseph Smith taught in the King Follett sermon that God was once a man and lived on an earth. [43] Other than the Prophet's statement in that particular address, this is all we know. When and how and in what manner he became God is unknown (God and Man, Robert L. Millet, BYU).

The teaching that the Mormon Heavenly Father is an exalted man can also be found in other passages:

• April 1971, New Era, People on other Worlds

• April 1971, Ensign, The King Follett Discourse

• May 1976, New Era, How to Gain a Testimony

• July 1979, Ensign, Line Upon Line

• February 1982, Ensign, I Have a Question

• January 1989, Ensign, The Restoration of Major Doctrines Through Joseph Smith

• February 2002, Ensign, The Origin of Man

• January 2005, Liahona, Strengthening the Family: Created in the Image of God, Male and Female

• October 2008, General Conference, God Loves and Helps all His Children

• 2008, Teachings of Presidents of the Church - Joseph Smith, chapter 2: God the Eternal Father

• February 2012, Liahona, Our Father in Heaven.

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.

If we passed our tests, we would receive the fulness of joy that our heavenly parents have received. (See D&C 93:30-34.)

We would have a resurrected body; we would have all power in heaven and on earth; we would become heavenly parents and have spirit children just as he does (see D&C 132:19–20).

Because we are made in his image (see Moses 6:9), we know that God has a body that looks like ours. His eternal spirit is housed in a tangible body of flesh and bones (see D&C 130:22). God's body, however, is perfected and glorified, with a glory beyond all description.

Our Heavenly Father is a real person with a tangible, perfected body of flesh and bones.

We learned that if we placed our faith in him, obeying his word and following his example, we would be exalted and become like our heavenly parents. We would receive a fulness of joy.

We can be exalted as God is and receive a fulness of joy. We can, at some future time, increase our family by having spirit children.

The following is from the July 2015 Ensign, God's Plan for Families.

Although all of us were part of this eternal family of God, the only ones who enjoyed the blessings of eternal marriage were our heavenly parents.

Thus, the crowning event of the Creation was not just when Adam and Eve were created in the image of their heavenly parents but when they were sealed in eternal marriage like their heavenly parents.

Although Adam and Eve enjoyed eternal marriage like our heavenly parents, they could not yet enjoy the full blessings of family life.

Those who marry in the temple and remain faithful to their covenants are promised that they shall become like God because they will enjoy the continuation of the family unit forever, just like our heavenly parents (see D&C 132:19-20).

God - Eternal and Everlasting or not?.

At one point in his life, Joseph Smith wrote, By these things we know that there is a God in heaven, whois infinite and eternal, from everlasting to everlasting the same unchangeable God, the framer of heavenand earth, and all things which are in them (Doctrine and Covenants 20:17). The Book of Mormon teaches something similar: 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).

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!.

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. These two quotes are also found on page 345 of the 1938 version, compiledby Joseph Fielding Smith. This is also in the 1978 amalgamated work done by BYU. You can view the document here. But apart from these two sources, these particular words of Joseph Smith have been removed fromthe 2008 version of Teachings of Presidents of the Church - Joseph Smith. It has also been removed from the 2003 version of Religion 345 - Presidents of the Church - Student Manual (p. 89).

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?

The Mormon Heavenly Father is a resurrected being

I testify that our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ live. They are resurrected and glorified beings who love us and watch over us (Conference Report, April 2010, page 63).

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).

The Mormon Heavenly Father is not omnipresent.

Each occupies space and is and can be in but one place at one time, but each has power and influence that is everywhere present (Religion 430-431 - Doctrines of the Gospel Student Manual, page 8).

The Mormon Heavenly Father is married to at least one Goddess wife in heaven.

All men and women are literally the sons and daughters of Deity. Man, as a spirit, was begotten and born of heavenly parents, and reared to maturity in the eternal mansions of the Father, prior to coming upon the earth in a temporal [physical] body (Gospel Principles, page 11).

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 innumerableas 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.

Heavenly Father and the Patriarchal Blessing

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.