Nature of God ...According to LDS
By Eric Hoffman
Mormonism gives an account of a God who has many attributes and characteristics that are foreign to traditional Christianity. If a Christian who is not familiar with the LDS faith is presented with ideas like; God has many wives(let alone even one wife), or God has a physical body made of flesh and bone, or God once lived on a planet like ours and had to progress through trials like ourselves, many Christians would be taken back and possibly even offended by these suggestions. Offensive or not, these examples used here are things that encompass the Mormon theology. People of the LDS faith may not be upfront with these details concerning their idea of God's nature and divine character. This is one reason why we feel that it is our duty to discuss and teach the very nature of the Mormon concept of God.Lets start by looking at a sermon preached by LDS founder and prophet Joseph Smith. This sermon was preached at the attendance of a funeral for man named King Follet. Elder Follet was killed in a well by the falling of a tub of rocks.[1]
In this Sermon, Smith preached on a topic that would change the dynamics of Mormonism forever.
"I am going to inquire after God; for I want you all to know him and to be familiar with him; and if I can bring you to a knowledge of him, all persecutions against me ought to cease. You will then know that I am his servant; for I speak as one having authority.
God himself was once as we are now, and is an exalted Man, and sits enthroned in yonder heavens! That is the great secret. If the vail was rent today, and the great God who holds this world in its orbit; and who upholds all worlds and all things by his power, was to make himself visible-I say, if you were to see him today, you would see him like a man in form-like yourselves, in all the person, image, and very form as a man; for Adam was created in the very fashion, image, and likeness of God, and received instructions from, and walked, talked, and conversed with him, as one man talks and communes with another.
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 will take away the vail, so that you may see. It is the first principle of the gospel to know for a certainty the character of God, and to know that we may converse with him as one man converses with another, and that he was once a man like us; yea, that God himself, the Father of us all, dwelt on an earth, the same as Jesus Christ himself did.
The scriptures inform us that Jesus said; "As the Father hath power in himself, even so hath the Son power"-to do what? Why, what the Father did. The answer is obvious-in a manner to lay down his body and take it up again. Jesus, what are you going to do? To lay down my life, as my Father did, and take it up again. Do you believe it? If you do not believe it, you do not believe the Bible.
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-namely, by going from one small degree to another, and from a small capacity to a great one; from grace to grace, from exaltation to exaltation, until you attain to the resurrection of the dead, and are able to dwell in everlasting burnings, and to sit in glory, as do those who sit enthroned in everlasting power.." -Joseph Smith Jr.[2]
As we take a closer look at this sermon preached by Smith, certain things must be examined in order to emphasize the understanding of the LDS concept of God. First off we notice that Smith emphasized the importance of his authority to speak on such a subject. Keep in mind that a prophet of God is not perfect in his actions, but is perfect in his God given gift to speak in a prophetic nature.
Another thing to understand is biblical prophets always new who God was. These men were far from perfect, but did have a solid concept on the nature of God. It seems that if God were to choose you as an instrument of prophecy, you would indeed know who was you were speaking for.
Let’s take a quick look at the prophet Jonah of the Old Testament. This man was called by the Lord God to deliver a message to the people of Nineveh.
"The word of the Lord came to Jonah, son of Amittai: "Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because it’s wickedness has come up before me." -Jonah 1:1-2
Here we can notice that the word of the Lord came to Jonah. Jonah, in his sinful nature responded to the Lord by fleeing and headed for Tarshish where he then headed to Joppa and boarded a ship in hopes of hiding from the ultimate and everlasting God.
When Jonah boarded this vessel he brought great calamity and distress to the ship and the rest of the passengers. When the other men of the ship confronted Jonah as to the danger they were subject to, Jonah’s reply included a very accurate view of the God he worshipped.
“He answered, I am Hebrew and I worship the Lord , the God of Heaven, who made the sea and the land.” -Jonah 1:9
So, two things need to be taken in account for here:
1. Jonah was a sinner just like all of us.
2. Jonah had a clear understanding of who God is.
This comparison to Jonah is important because most LDS do not consider a lot of fundamental teachings from Joseph Smith to be doctrine. This view that LDS hold tends to excuse Smith and many leaders from their radical and obscure belief in relation to God.
Whether doctrine or not, Smith believed in these things and taught them. So it is important to notice that Smith claimed to talk with God with prophetic power, yet holds a dynamically different view from traditional Christianity in relations to God's divine nature.
Secondly, Mormons may lend the fact that Smith is a prophet, but not perfect in his thoughts and actions. To be fair to LDS, I would say I agree with them. But I depart in my agreement where LDS excuse Smith's imperfection when it relates to his view on the nature of God. Joseph Smith was not perfect and had many flaws that any of us sinful humans possess. But the two things that Smith needs to be 100% accurate and consistent in, are his prophecies and view on who God is.
Now let’s examine another aspect of the King Follet discourse. Smith stated that God did indeed have a beginning. This would immediately conclude that if something had a beginning, logically it started somewhere. So where did God start?
According to modern day LDS apologists and leaders, the issue of God having a beginning is encouraged to be speculation and a topic that has no real understanding. But looking into the teachings of Smith as well as many other early LDS church leaders, this was not the case. These men boldly asserted that God did indeed come from something. Again, we must keep in mind that if Smith is to be considered a prophet his view on God’s very nature must also be accurate. This is the same for all other prophets who came to lead the Mormon church after Smith.
Looking back again to the King Follet discourse we can see that Joseph Smith did indeed say that God had a beginning. The idea that Smith held to was that God was once a man like us and had to progress his way through a mortal probation in where he had to prove himself worthy unto Celestial exaltation. His worthiness and obedience to his father rewarded him to become a god himself and rule a planet. This is the Heavenly father that Mormons pray to now. This concept was taught by Smith and carried into the teachings of 2nd LDS president, Brigham Young as well. President Brigham Young taught ... that God the Father was once a man on another planet who 'passed the ordeals we are now passing through...[3]
Brigham Young also stated this:
"He [God] 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." -Journal of Discourses 7:333
"The Lord created you and me for the purpose of becoming Gods like himself." -Journal of Discourses 3:93
So we see clearly here that Smith was not the only Mormon prophet who believed in this concept of God. It also shows that there is a clear cycle or endless regression of gods. It also raises the question of the amount of gods that preceded our God.
In June 1840, 5th Mormon president, Lorenzo Snow coined a couplet that has made some current LDS church leaders cringe at the idea of having to explain this to it’s critics/investigators.
The couplet is as follows:
"As man is, God once was. As God is, man may become." -The Gospel Through the Ages, 1945, p 105-106
God Is A Man Like Us?
In the King Follet discourse Smith was very clear that God is not a spirit as described in John 4:24, but rather describes God as a glorified man with flesh and bone who has the appearance of a man like us. Unlike other teachings of Smith, this one seemed to stick and made its way into the Doctrine and Covenants[4] which all Mormons would consider doctrine.
Is This An Important Theological Aspect Of Mormonism?
It seems that the nature of God should be important no matter what your faith is. Another part of the King Follet discourse that we would like to highlight is the fact that Joseph Smith taught that a clear understanding of the nature of God is the first principle of the gospel.[5] An interview was conducted by Time Magazine with current LDS prophet, Gordon B Hinckley. In this interview Hinckley was asked the following:
"Is this the teaching of the church today, that God the Father was once a man like we are?"
Hinckley answered:
"I don't know that we teach it. I don't know that we emphasize it. I haven't heard it discussed for a long time in public discourse. I don't know. I don't know all the circumstances under which that statement was made. I understand the philosophical background behind it. But I don't know a lot about it and I don't know that others know a lot about it."[6]
Hinckley was again interviewed by the San Francisco Chronicle where he was asked the following:
"Is it the teaching of the church today that God was once a man?"
Hinckley answered:
"I wouldn't say that. There was a little couplet coined, "As man is, God once was. As God is, man may become." Now that's more of a couplet than anything else."[7]
So, here we have Hinckley disagreeing with two former Mormon presidents. Smith said it was the first principle of the gospel to know the nature of God. Yet, Hinckley does not know a lot about it which would be clear that he does not agree that God's divine nature is important in the slightest bit. He also disagrees with Lorenzo Snow’s idea that God was once a man.
So, is it an important issue? I guess that would depend on which prophet you are talking to.
Notes
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[1]Journal of Discourses, Vol. 6, pp. 1-11
[2]Journal of Discourses, Vol. 6, pp. 1-11
[3]Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Brigham Young... 1997, p. 29
[4]Doctrine and Covenants, 130:22
[5]Journal of Discourses, Vol. 6, pp. 1-11
[6]Interviewing Gordon B. Hinckley, Time Magazine, Aug 4, 1997
[7]Interviewing Gordon B. Hinckley, San Francisco Chronicle, April 13, 1997, p 3/Z1
