God Is A Man

Soul Harvest Ministries of Minnesota

Soul Harvest : Other religions : Mormons : God Is A Man

"Christ was begotten of God. He was NOT born without the aid of man and that man was God!" (Doctrines of Salvation, Vol. 1:18)

God the Father was once just a man himself who evolved and progressed into a god.
Lorenzo Snow, former President of the Mormon Church, stated this flagrant heresy in memorable form, still quoted by Mormons: "As man is, God once was, as God is, man may become."[10] Joseph Smith, founder of Mormonism, in a sermon given two months before his death, said, "...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 did."[11]

Now consider the implications of this: God Himself must have had a father. Smith asked provocatively: "If Jesus had a Father, can we not believe that He had a father also?"[12] This meant that God must have changed and evolved. Orson Hyde, early Mormon leader, wrote, "Remember that God our Heavenly Father was perhaps once a child and mortal like we are, and rose step by step in the scale of progress, in the school of advancement: has moved forward and overcome until He has arrived at the point where He now is."[13] The Bible[14] and, interestingly enough, even the Book of Mormon,[15] strongly deny this. By no stretch of the imagination is this what true Christianity teaches.

[10] Millennial Star, vol. 54. Mormon writer Milton R. Hunter summarizes this: "Mormon prophets have continuously taught the sublime truth that God the eternal father was once a mortal man who passed through the school of earthlife similar to that through which we are now passing. He became God--an exalted being, through obedience to the same eternal gospel truth that we are given opportunity today to obey." (In The Gospel Through the Ages, chapter 16, pp. 104f)

[11] Joseph Smith, History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (second edition; Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1959) 6:305, April 7, 1844.

[12] Smith continues, "I despise the idea of being scared to death at such a doctrine, for the Bible is full of it." (Joseph Smith, History, 6:473-476, June 16, 1844). Mormon author Duane Crowther explains it so we make no mistake. "Joseph Smith explained that the Eternal Father of this earth passed through a mortal probation on another earth just as Jesus Christ did here" (Duane S. Crowther, Life Everlasting [Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1967], p. 365).

[13] Orson Hyde, Journal of Discourses, 1:123. According to modern teaching, even God the Father's godhood depends upon its recognition by others. Witness the writing of Brigham Young University Professor W. Cleon Skousen: "...The universe is filled with vast numbers of intelligences.... Elohim is God simply because all of these intelligences honor and sustain Him as such.... The Father is actually dependent upon their sustaining influence or honor to accomplish His purposes. God's 'power' is derived from the honor and support of the intelligences over whom He rules.... The present exalted position of our Heavenly Father was gradually built up. His glory and power is something which He slowly acquired." (W. Cleon Skousen, The First 2,000 Years [Bookcraft Publishers, 1976, p. 335]).

[14] "Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows" (James 1:17). "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever" (Hebrews 13:8) "I the Lord do not change ..." (Malachi 3:6) "... From everlasting to everlasting you are God" (Psalm 90:2).

[15] The Book of Mormon teaches: "For do we not read that God is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and in him there is no variableness neither shadow of changing? And now if ye have imagined up unto yourselves a god who doth vary, and in whom there is shadow of changing, then have ye imagined up unto yourselves a god who is not a God of miracles" (Mormon 9:9-10) "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). In this doctrine, the Book of Mormon is much closer to the Bible than is LDS teaching.