By Sandra Tanner

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LDS leaders have consistently taught Joseph Smith’s doctrine of God being a mortal, finite man, who later achieved his exalted status after death and resurrection. This stands in stark contrast to the biblical view of God as the eternally existent, great ‘I AM,’ who alone is perfectly righteous . . . by nature, not by achievement.

God himself was once as we are now, and is an exalted man, and sits enthroned in yonder heavens! That is the great secret. . . . 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 take away the veil, . . .

It is the first principle of the gospel to know for a certainty the character of God, . . . 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; . . .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, . . . 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.
(History of the Church, vol. 6, ch. 14, pp. 305-306)

[Bold in quotations is added for emphasis and does not appear in originals.]

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It appears ridiculous to the world, under their darkened and erroneous traditions, that God has once been a finite being.
(Deseret News, Nov. 16, 1859, p. 2, column 2.) (PDF here)

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Our father in heaven, according to the Prophet, had a father, and since there has been a condition of this kind through all eternity, each Father had a Father.
(Doctrines of Salvation, 2:47)

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I know that God is a being with body, parts and passions . . . Man was born of woman; Christ, the Savior, was born of woman; and God, the Father was born of woman.
(“Man A Child Of God,” Deseret News, Sept. 19, 1936, Church News, pp. 2, 8)¹

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The Father is a glorified, perfected, resurrected, exalted man who worked out his salvation by obedience to the same laws he has given to us so that we may do the same. (A New Witness for the Articles of Faith, p. 64)

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For as we have a Father in heaven, so also we have a Mother there, a glorified, exalted, ennobled Mother.
(As quoted in Achieving a Celestial Marriage, LDS Church manual, 1976, p. 129)

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. . . if a man marry a wife, and make a covenant with her for time and for all eternity, . . . they shall [have] . . . a continuation of the seeds [children] forever and ever. Then shall they be gods, because they have no end; therefore shall they be from everlasting to everlasting, . . . Then shall they be gods, because they have all power, . . . and continuation of the lives, . . . [endless procreation of spirit children]. (Doctrine and Covenants, Section 132:18-22)

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Intelligent beings are organized to become Gods, even the Sons of God, to dwell in the presence of the Gods, and become associated with the highest intelligences that dwell in eternity. We are now in the school, and must practice upon what we receive.
(Discourses of Brigham Young, p. 245)

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We are precisely in the same condition and under the same circumstances that God our heavenly Father was when he was passing through this, or a similar ordeal.
(Gospel Doctrine, p. 54)

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We believe in a God who is Himself progressive, whose majesty is intelligence; whose perfection consists in eternal advancement — a Being who has attained His exalted state by a path which now His children are permitted to follow, whose glory it is their heritage to share. In spite of the opposition of the sects, in the face of direct charges of blasphemy, the Church proclaims the eternal truth: “As man is, God once was; as God is, man may be.”
(Articles of Faith, ch. 24, pp. 442-443).

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What the Bible Says About God

1. ALWAYS GOD
— In the past as well as in the future. —

Art thou not from ever-lasting, O Lord my God, mine Holy One?
(Habakkuk 1:12)

For I am the Lord, I change not.
(Malachi 3:6)

. . . from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.
(Psalm 90:2)

God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent.
(Numbers 23:19)

Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, . . . who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever.
(Romans 1:22-25)

• The LDS god started as a finite man and progressed to godhood.

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2. ALWAYS HOLY
— Both in the past and future. —

. . . a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he.
(Deuteronomy 32:4)

I am God, and not man; the Holy One in the midst of thee.
(Hosea 11:9)

The Lord is righteous in all his ways and holy in all his works.
(Psalm 145:17)

God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.
(1 John 1:5)

Thy righteousness is an everlasting righteousness.
(Psalm 119:142)

• The LDS god achieved holiness.

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3. ALL KNOWING
— Both in the past and in the future. —

Who has directed the Spirit of the LORD, or as His counselor has taught Him?
With whom did He take counsel, and who instructed Him, and taught Him the path of justice? Who taught Him knowledge, and showed Him the way of understanding? . . .
. . . His understanding is unsearchable.
(Isaiah 40:13, 14, 28, NKJV)

Great is our Lord, and of great power: his understanding is infinite.
(Psalm 147:5)

• The LDS god had to learn everything.

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4. ALL POWERFUL

. . . the Lord God omnipotent reigns!
(Revelation 19:6, NKJV)

. . . his eternal power and Godhead.
(Romans 1:20)

• The LDS god attained his power.

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5. OMNIPRESENT

Heaven is My throne, and earth is My footstool. Where is the house that you will build Me? And where is the place of My rest?
(Isaiah 66:1, NKJV)

Am I a God at hand, saith the Lord, and not a God afar off? Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him? saith the Lord. Do not I fill heaven and earth? saith the Lord.
(Jeremiah 23:23-24)

• The LDS god can be in only one place at a time.

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6. ACTED ALONE IN CREATION

I am the Lord that maketh all things; that stretcheth forth the heavens alone, that spreadeth abroad the earth by myself.
(Isaiah 44:24)

By the word of the Lord were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth.
(Psalm 33:6)

You alone are the LORD; You have made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth and everything on it, the seas and all that is in them, and You preserve them all.
(Nehemiah 9:6, NKJV)

• The LDS god cooperated with the Council of Gods to create.

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7. NO OTHER GODS

I am he; before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me. I, even I, am the Lord; and beside me there is no saviour.
(Isaiah 43:10-11)

I am the first, and I am the last; and beside me there is no God. . . . is there a God beside me; yea, there is no God; I know not any.
(Isaiah 44:6, 8)

To whom will ye liken me, and make me equal, and compare me, that we may be like? . . . for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me.
(Isaiah 46:5, 9)

I am the Lord; that is my name; and my glory will I not give to another.
(Isaiah 42:8)

• The LDS God has a father and mother, grandparents, brothers and sisters, etc.

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Footnotes:

1. View online: “Man A Child Of God,” Deseret News, Sept. 19, 1936, Church News, pp. 2, 8. ↩︎
2. This of course implies, by definition, that Heavenly Father could not be perfectly good, if he too has experienced all of our struggles (including the most pernicious, which is sin). For an interesting response to this question by LDS members, see the video, “God Never Sinned — Do Mormons Agree?” . ↩︎

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