God – Page 6 – What Do Mormons Believe?

Next to Godliness

Q. Do Mormons believe that people have the potential to become the kind of God that made the heavens and the earth? Do Mormons believe that before the God who made the heavens and the earth was God, he was a human?

In other parts of this blog, it has been put forward that we are to be like Christ and our Father in Heaven and that is our purpose in this life. What is less clear, is exactly what that entails. What we do know is that our Father has promised us everything He has. John’s revelation shows that here and here. Modern revelation also confirms this.

Elsewhere in scripture, Christ speaks of the many mansions in His Father’s house and that He has prepared them for us (John 14:2). In the parables of the faithful steward (Luke 12:42-44) and the prodigal son (Luke 15:31), the faithful steward of the first and faithful son of the second are promised all that the Lord has and ruling power over it.

Even more important than what we receive is who we will become. Christ commanded us to become perfect, even as our Father in Heaven is perfect. As we endeavor to fulfill this commandment throughout our lives, we can indeed progress nearer to godliness. Christ’s atonement makes this possible. This process is the main purpose of our life and to which the majority of the scriptures are devoted.

We also can receive all that is our Father’s (for isn’t infinite power and glory divided a trillion times still infinite?) once we have proven ourselves worthy of such a great responsibility. What specific duties and activities that will entail are currently unknown but since God’s work and glory are to bring to pass our own immortality and eternal life, we ought to work to that end in an ever increasing scope.

As for our Heavenly Father’s origins, there is less clarity in the subject but it does follow that since we are His children and offspring, then our potential is equal to His and our origins similar. My own opinion is that He was more like Christ than any other man of this earth. “Then answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise.” John 5:19

In the end, God, our Heavenly Father, wishes to foster our growth and happiness. He has given us unlimited potential, opportunities to take advantage of it and agency to decide for ourselves. And it is through Jesus Christ that we can overcome our shortcomings to live and to grow. This is the plan that was created for our benefit and no doubt we will continue to fulfill our potential even after this life.

The Bible: A Testimony of Jesus Christ

Q. Do Mormons believe in the Old Testament?

Yes, we do believe in the Old Testament. The Old Testament is full of symbolism and prophecies that support the New Testament’s testimony of Jesus Christ and point to our days as well. It may be difficult to understand at times, but with careful study, the whole of the Bible has been a wonderful source of inspiration in my life. It has a long history of inspiration and continues to inspire people today. I’d like to address a bit of its history and content as well as what we believe concerning the Bible.

The Bible (from the Greek biblia, meaning “books”) is a collection of writings by many authors collected and compiled over the course of a many centuries. The two parts, the Old and New Testaments, are separate and distinct from one another. The Old Testament is comprised of histories and personal writings of prophets and the New Testament is a collection of some of the writings of early Christian leaders. A prophet of the Old Testament such as Isaiah, for example, would have a vision, write it down and it would be eventually compiled with his other writings. Isaiah had a vision of the throne of God and His glory which became Isaiah chapter 6. Isaiah had many visions, teachings and life experiences, some of which make up the 66 chapters in his book in the Bible. Jeremiah had his visions and teachings as did Ezekiel, Amos, Habakkuk, Nahum, Malachi and other inspired men, including prophets mentioned in the Bible whose books are not available to us. All of those teachings were given to the people living at the time for the purpose of reminding them of the Lord their God. As often as they forgot, the Lord sent prophets to remind them of His will toward them. This was usually to persuade the people to abandon the worship of false gods and return to obedience and service to the only true and living God.

The New Testament picks up chronologically over 400 years after the last prophet of the Old Testament, Malachi. It begins with a book written by a man named Matthew, whom we later learn to be an apostle personally chosen by Jesus. Matthew gives us his testimony concerning the gospel (a word meaning “good news,” which is the good news of Christ’s atonement) and the coming of Jesus Christ, His ministry, teachings and death. Matthew quotes scripture from the Old Testament many times to support his testimony that Jesus was truly the Messiah and Savior of all mankind. The next book, authored by Mark, offers another testimony of the same Jesus Christ. As does Luke and also John, the beloved. Those four books make up everything we know about the life and ministry of the mortal Jesus Christ and they are all testimonies of His divinity, His life and His Atonement. After the book of Acts, which tells a small amount about the early church and the missionary effort put forth by those early Christians, we have a collection of letters sent by church leaders, mostly Paul, to the scattered congregations. The last book, Revelation or Apocalypse, is a vision received and recorded by John. All these testimonies, books and letters, as well as many others that existed then, were circulating among the people. Which of these documents were valid and doctrine were defined to be canon around the fourth century A.D., leading to the particular collection we have today.

Is the Bible itself perfect? Unfortunately, no. There are many variations and translations of the Bible, some of which are vastly different from others. And if it were perfect, wouldn’t we all understand it to mean the same thing? How could there be so many different opinions on what the truth of God really is? This is precisely why God did not cease with revelation. He did not give up on us.

So then, what is the Bible? In a nutshell, it is the testimony of prophets among the Jewish people. It is a record. It is a description of Jesus Christ and a testimony that He is the way to eternal life. It describes a perfect being, His perfect gospel and His perfect way. All the prophets since Adam have given their testimonies concerning Christ and His gospel. To receive anyone’s testimony of Christ is surely a great blessing. The Book of Mormon is also a blessing like that. It is another such description or testimony of Christ written by prophets not among the Jews, but among other peoples across the world. With both the Bible and the Book of Mormon, we can gather a clearer image of what the Lord truly desires of us.

The Restoration

The Lord follows every apostasy with a new dispensation and a restoration of authority. Here is a short film produced by the Church which shows how the current dispensation was opened through the young man, Joseph Smith.

This is the second half of the same film.

“Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you” (Matthew 7:7).

Heavenly Father will answer your prayers, too. Ask Him whether Joseph Smith was a prophet.

Jesus the Christ

Among Christ’s titles is “Alpha and Omega,” signifying the first and last letters in the Greek alphabet. His influence can be felt from one end of eternity to the other, as well as all along the way. Every aspect of Mormonism focuses on Him; we revere Him as our God, our Creator, our Brother, and our King.

“In the Beginning…
…was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.” (John 1:1-3)

Jesus, like all of us, existed before birth. He was an important figure in our premortal family as the birthright, first-begotten Son of the Father, and our eldest and wisest brother. As our leader, He championed the causes of justice, mercy and free will. He was appointed to be our Savior. We had faith in Him. We followed Him willingly and loved Him.

Under the Father’s direction, Jesus created the heavens and the earth. He made them beautiful and fruitful. But it wasn’t just an art project; earth was to be a testing ground for God’s children. Jesus said, “We will prove them herewith to see if they will do all things whatsoever the Lord their God shall command them;” (Abraham 3:25)

And command them, He did. Jesus is identified in the Old Testament as Jehovah, the great I Am. He told Noah to build an ark; He spoke to Moses face to face; it was His presence that rested upon the tabernacle of Israel within a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. Over the centuries, He spoke to Samuel, Elijah, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lehi, Nephi, and many other noble prophets of Israel.

Their messages (which were always His message) were invariably teachings of repentance, obedience, and foretelling of the coming Messiah, who would one day deliver them.

“And the Word was made flesh…
…and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth. He came unto his own, and his own received him not.” (John 1:14, 11)

birthofjesus Mary, a virgin maiden from Nazareth became miraculously pregnant: an angel appeared to her and said, “Behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS.” (Luke 1:31) When He was born in Bethlehem, He became the only begotten Son of God in the flesh. From His mother, he inherited mortality; from His Father, he received power over death.

At the age of thirty, He began His ministry. Jesus was a profound teacher and a miracle worker. Although He was popular among common folks, He upset the status quo of the reigning religious leaders, and they opted to eliminate Him. They submitted Him to the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate to be executed.

christ-gethsemane He knew His execution was imminent, but something weightier was on His mind: the souls of all people. He had been chosen by the Father to be the sacrificial lamb — to atone for the sins of mankind. He prayed long and hard in the garden of Gethsemane that fateful night. At first He hesitated, pleading for some other way, “Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine be done.” (Luke 22:42)

The consequences of sin are death and suffering. Jesus suffered in Gethsemane, then died by crucifixion on Calvary the following day.

But the sins were not His; they were ours.

Why did He do it? Jesus later spoke these words to the prophet Joseph Smith:

“For behold, I, God have suffered these things for all, that they might not suffer if they would repent; which suffering caused myself, even God, the greatest of all, to tremble because of pain, and to bleed at every pore, and to suffer both body and spirit–Nevertheless, glory be to the Father, and I partook and finished my preparations unto the children of men.” (Doctrine & Covenants 19:16,18-19).

“He is not here, but is risen”
(Luke 23:6).

On the third day after His death, before He was even fully interred in his tomb, Jesus arose. He showed His fully-perfected physical body to Mary and to His disciples; they felt the nail prints in his hands and feet and knew it was the Lord. His ministry continued another forty days, long enough to more fully establish His Church with the apostles. Then “he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight.” (Acts 1:9).

Why didn’t He stick around? For one thing, He had another pressing matter. He had earlier told His apostles, “Other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd.” (John 10:16).

jesusteachinginthewesternhemisphere

We have record of at least one group of His “other sheep” in the Book of Mormon. He was met by the Nephites and Lamanites with celebration and enthusiasm (3 Nephi 11). We are certain He visited other groups, but we have not yet received records of these visits.

Jesus has remained alive in an immortal and perfect physical body ever since. He showed himself to Stephen, Saul, John, Mormon, Moroni, and many others, including the pious fourteen-year-old Joseph Smith. He has promised, “Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.” (Matthew 5:8).

As in ancient times, the prophets dispense the Savior’s message to the world, including a witness “that He lives! For we saw him, even on the right hand of God;” (Doctrine & Covenants 76:22-23).

“The Lord himself shall descend…
…from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first” (1 Thessalonians 4:16).

jesus_returns

We still await the Savior’s triumphant second coming. He will reveal himself to everyone altogether then, and the graves of the righteous will open for their turn at resurrection.

We will all recognize Him as King (some with dismay or anxiety), “For it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God. So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God” (Romans 14:11-12). He will reign personally for a thousand years; then, the wicked will finally be resurrected, and each of us who has lived in this world will receive our final judgment from Jesus the Christ.

And what better judge could we ask for? Jesus knows us best, having been among us from the very beginning. He created the world and even walked among us in mortality. He felt our pains and afflictions and temptations and death itself; all so He would know how to relieve us (see Alma 7:11-12). He is our righteous leader and king. We can have faith in Him. We can love Him with all our hearts.

What Do Mormons Believe? – Becoming Gods and Ruling Planets

Our whole goal in life is to become more Christ-like.

Q. Do LDS members believe that they will become gods of their own planets in the afterlife?

What an excellent question. It is my hope to lay the foundation so that you can better understand what we do believe. However, I urge you to focus on the core of our beliefs: the atonement of Jesus Christ, because with that our other doctrines will be more understandable.

First, in Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount he says: “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect” (Matthew 5:48). The Greek word used here means complete, finished, fully developed, rather than simply error-free or sin-free. Therefore, I want to pose a question to you: what does it mean to be perfect as Heavenly Father is perfect? You might respond that perfection means keeping all of the commandments, or in other words, to make no mistakes in life. While God does keep all of the commandments and is perfect in that sense, he is much more than that. God is completely perfect, he is omnipotent, omniscient, perfectly just, perfectly merciful, perfectly honest, perfectly wise, he doesn’t change, and he is perfect in his love for all of us. If we are going to become perfect as Christ commanded us to be, then not only do we need to keep the commandments, but we need to acquire all of the attributes above. This can only be accomplished through the atonement of Jesus Christ.

The meaning of the word atonement is to set at one (at-one-ment). In the case of the atonement of Jesus Christ, with whom is he setting us at one? The Father. As a result of the Fall of Adam, Adam and Eve became imperfect and were removed from the presence of God. Since Adam and Eve acted contrary to the commandment of God, they were unclean and their bodies also became imperfect. Furthermore all of their children were in the same state. Thus, the need for a Redeemer—someone who could make our bodies perfect and also cleanse us from the imperfection of sin (both of these events are accomplished by the resurrection and atonement of Jesus Christ). Therefore, God in his infinite mercy prepared a way that we could be delivered from this combined imperfection. The only way that this ‘setting at one’ could happen was through the sacrifice of one who had not sinned; therefore, God sent his Son to give all men and women the opportunity to be redeemed from the Fall (John 3:16, John 14:6, 1 Corinthians 15:20-22).

The next question arises, what does it mean to be at one with God? In Jesus’ intercessory prayer (John 17:20-23) in the Garden of Gethsemane, he prays to the Father:

20 Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word;

21 That they all may be one; as thou, Father art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou has sent me.

22 And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one:

23 I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou has sent me, and hast loved them, as thou has loved me.

Christ is saying that he and the Father are one, because they are perfect and he is pleading with the Father to give us the opportunity to become like him and his Father—perfect in every way. The atonement of Jesus Christ is the power of God unto salvation to all that believe in him, regardless of who they are (see Romans 1:16). However, the atonement of Jesus Christ extends beyond the concept of forgiveness of sin. It extends into much holier spheres, allowing us to become fully developed, as the Father and Christ are, and allowing us to fulfill Christ’s commandment. This sanctifying power is available to all if they are willing to take upon them the name of Jesus Christ in his prescribed manner and live their lives according to the doctrines and principles that he and his prophets teach.

Christ said that he is preparing a place for us in his Father’s mansion (John 14:2-3), but what will we do when we get there? I highly doubt that we will sit on clouds strumming our harps. Certainly, when we exit this life we won’t know as much as God does, nor will we have all of his other perfection. If we are to become perfect like he is, we have a lot to learn. The continuation of this growth and progression once we graduate from earth leads to the complete, fully developed, and perfect state that Christ was talking about.

We can grow up to be like our Father.

Now that the foundation has been laid, I would like to share a few verses of scripture that highlight this progression to becoming perfect in the way that God and Jesus are perfect:

Psalm 82:6 (italics added)

6 I have said, Ye are gods; and all of you are children of the most High.

John 10:33-34 (italics added)

33 The Jews answered him, saying, For a good work we stone thee not; but for blasphemy and because that thou, being a man, makest thyself God.

34 Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are gods?

Revelation 3:21 (italics added)

21 To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne.

Doctrine and Covenants 76:94-95 (italics added)

94 They who dwell in his presence are the church of the Firstborn; and they see as they are seen, and know as they are known, having received of his fullness and of his grace;

95 And he makes them equal in power, and in might, and in dominion.

I hope that you will take a few things away from these verses. First, we are children of our Heavenly Father; therefore, there is a seed of divinity within us (Romans 8:16-17). Second, if we nourish that seed and live our lives according to the plan Christ and his prophets have outlined we are granted the opportunity to rule with Christ and his Father in their kingdoms. Third, being able to rule with Christ and the Father also entails that we will be made equal in power, might and dominion.

Now to answer your question with the foundation being laid, do we believe that we will become gods, ruling our own planets? We believe that through Christ all men and women can be made perfect as God and his son Jesus Christ are perfect. Nowhere in scripture does it explicitly say we will rule our own planets. Truth is, we don’t know exactly what will happen in heaven, except that we will continue growing and learning. We will just have to wait until after this life is over to find out what it means to become perfect like God and Jesus are perfect.

I hope that you can now see how beautiful our doctrine is and how much hope there is in our beliefs. This Church does not confine itself with only this life, but it’s doctrine stretches across all eternity and affords all of us the opportunity to see ourselves as God sees us—with divine potential. There is a purpose to our existence and it buoys up the soul to learn that God knows us and in his infinite wisdom He has prepared a way that you and I might become perfect. What is the problem with believing that?

The most important part for you and I at this time is to be baptized by one who holds the authority from God, to take upon ourselves the name of Christ and to commit to serve him until the end of our days, striving daily to live our lives according to his plan. We cannot comprehend the glory of God, nor can we comprehend what it means to be perfect, but I do believe in the promises of Christ. I know that Jesus is the Christ and that his Father is God and that through Christ I can become perfect. Therefore, I will worry myself with preparing myself to meet God and let God take care of the rest. I encourage you to do the same. Thank you for your inquiry.