So, You Want to Be a God

8/11/2019 So, You Want to Be a God

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So, You Want To Be A God?

BECOMING GODS (according to LDS teaching and doctrine)

Mormonism teaches that God the Father (whom they refer to as Elohim) was once aman

Lorenzo Snow1, during his mission to England in the spring of 1840, reported that hewas sitting on day, listening to Elder H. G. Sherwoods explanation of Matthew 20: 1-16(The parable of the laborers in the vineyard), when the Spirit of the Lord opened hiseyes.

the Spirit of the Lord rested mightily upon methe eyes of my understanding were

opened, and I saw as clear as the sun at noonday, with wonder andastonishment, the pathway of God and man. I formed the following coupletwhich expresses the revelation, as it was shown me, and explains Father Smithsdark saying to me at a blessing meeting in the Kirtland Temple, prior to mybaptism, as previously mentioned in my interview with the Patriarch.As man now is, God once was: As God now is, man may be.2

Snow did not immediately share this revelation with Joseph Smith, Jr., but did share itwith his sister Eliza and Brigham Young (both of whom servedwith Lorenzo Snow inEngland). He finally shared the couplet with the Prophet Joseph Smith in January of1843. The Prophet responded, Brother Snow, that is true gospel doctrine, and it is a

revelation from God to you.3

About 15 months later, on April 7, 1844, Joseph Smith delivered his famous King FollettDiscourse, in which he affirmed Lorenzo Snows couplet:

God himself was once as we are now, and is an exalted man, and sits enthroned inyonder heavens! . . . 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 refutethat idea. . . . Itis the first principle of the Gospel to know for a certainty theCharacter of God, and to know that we may converse with him as one man converseswith 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 . . .

1Lorenzo Snow (1814-1901) was the fifth president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

(Mormons).

2Eliza R. Snow Smith, Biography and Family Record of Lorenzo Snow (Salt Lake City, UT: DeseretNews, 1884) 10.

3LeRoi C. Snow, Devotion to Divine Inspiration, Improvement Era (June 1919) 656.


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you have got to learn how to be Gods yourselves, and to be kings and priests toGod, the same as all Gods have done before you, namely, by going from onesmall degree to another, and from a small capacity to a great one; from graceto grace,from exaltation to exaltation, until you attain to the resurrection ofthe dead, and are able to dwell in everlasting burnings, and to sit in glory, as

do those who sit enthroned in everlasting power.4

Further, on June 16, 1844, in his last public sermon, Joseph Smith inaccuratelyconcluded that a God above the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ5is shown to be truefrom Revelation 1:6:

And hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father (KJV)

A correct translation of this verse, from the original language (Koine Greek) is:

and did make us kings and priests to his God and Father (Youngs Literal

Translation)

The point I am attempting to make here is not that the KJV is confusing here, but ratherthat Joseph Smith believed and taught that God was once a man and progressed toGodhood. That teaching continues in the LDS Church today.

As man now is, God once was: As God now is, man may be.

The ultimate goal of a Mormon is to progress to godhood himself. They desire to begods.

BECOMING GODS (according to the Bible)

There are two instances of attempting to attain godhood in the bible. The first is foundin Genesis 3:

Genesis 3:

Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God hadmade. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every treeof the garden?

And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of thegarden:

4Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith (comp. Joseph Fielding Smith; Salt Lake City, UT: Deseret,1976) 345-47.

5Millennial Star 24:108


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But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shallnot eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.

And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:

For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and

ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.6

In this passage of Scripture, Eve is in the garden of Eden being tempted by Satan. Shehas not yet sinned and Satan wants her to. He seeks her rebellion against God. Hetempts her by the same thing (as we will see in the second instance in the bible) whattempted him: ye shall be as gods.

Evidently God did not look too favorably at His creations desire to become gods. Hekicked them out of the garden and cursed them heavily. Now they would toil, suffer,and finally, die.

The second instance is found in Isaiah:

How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut downto the ground, which didst weaken the nations!

For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne abovethe stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of thenorth:

I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.

Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit.

Here we find Lucifer (Satan) himself committing the same sin he pushes Eve to commit.He tries to be a god. The result of His attempt is that he is brought down to hell, tothe sides of the pit.

It should be clear from these two passages that seeking to attain godhood is a serioussin against God. It is Satans sin, and the sin Satan himself wants man to commit.

The God of the bible, the only true God, did not progress. He is did not become God.He was not born. He had no beginning and will have no end, and He is a jealous God.He will not stand for our self-idolatry, and you, my beloved Mormon friends, will not

become gods any more than Satan did.

Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.7

6Genesis 3:1-5 King James Bible (KJV)

7Proverbs 3:5-6

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So, You Want to Be a God