Man
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Man may become God |
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Mormons
teach that man may become God. Here is what Joseph Smith said: ‘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’ (Sermon ‘How God came to be
God’, preached on March 9, 1844; in Robert L. Millet, Joseph Smith: Selected Sermons and Writings, N.J. 1989, page
132). Lorenzo Snow (1814-1901), fifth president of the Mormon Church,
expressed this doctrine epigrammatically: ‘As man is, God once was; as God is, man may be’ (James E.
Talmage, A Study of the Articles of
Faith, Salt Lake City, Utah, U.S.A., 42nd edition, 1968, page 430). The Encyclopedia of Mormonism, referring
to the above mentioned words, states: ‘This principle is clearly demonstrated
in the person of Jesus Christ, a God who became mortal, and yet a God like
whom mortals may become’ (Encyclopedia
of Mormonism, New York-Toronto 1992, vol. 2, page 549). According to
Mormons, therefore, ‘man is a god in embryo’ (A Rational Theology, 6th ed. Salt Lake City, 1952,
page 26). Spencer W. Kimball said that ‘in each of us is the potentiality to
become a God’ (Salt Lake Tribune, October 7, 1974; quoted in Jerald and
Sandra Tanner, The Changing World of
Mormonism, Chicago 1980, page 188) |
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Confutation |
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Whoever
believes that a man may become or will become God has believed a lie (and as
you know, the father of lies is the devil). For according to the Holy
Scripture, the children of God can by no means become gods. The children of
God are creatures of God, and even after they are raised from the dead or
transformed they will continue to be creatures of God. Of course, they will
have an immortal, incorruptible and powerful body, that is, their resurrected
body will be like the glorious body of Jesus Christ (cf. Philippians |