We can become gods?

[Traveler]

Originally Posted by Hemidakota

To answer that question for others on what Stephen witnessed being stoned:

¶ When they heard these things, they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed on him with [their] teeth.

But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up stedfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God,

And said, Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God. – Acts 7:54-56

Interesting - According to the ancient covenants and symbols there is a symbolic name given to someone who's rightful place is at the right hand or right side of G-d. The name of that symbol - I will leave as a exercise for the reader (a comment that comes from my math background).

The Traveler

[Interested]

G-d cannot be omnipresent and omniscient and omnipotent and be the only one of his "kind". The flaw of the Traditional Trinitarian (monotheistic) G-d is that he can only deal with that which is inferior and flawed and G-d therefore, lacks the power, intelligence, grace and everything else needed to deal with another being like himself - yet he demands that all his creation do this very thing that he cannot.

There can be only one Omnipotent in the universe.

Edit - What if the god's will contradict's eachother?

[Hemidakota]

I guess GOD is alone and by himself. Let us forget about the woman!

[AnthonyB]

Hemi,

I'm not aware of anywhere the Bible uses "being" to describe God but it and the BoM does use "one God" but never "three Gods" to describe the Godhead.

What do you think it means to call Jesus "the eternal God"? (Obviously you know the "the" is a definite article and the straight forward reading would be that He alone is the eternal God, which is not a problem for a trinitarian but I see as problematic for LDS)

I have no problems with Stephen seeing a Jesus standing at the right hand of God. However "right hand of God" could be an idiom meaning that Jesus was in a position of authority. If a leader calls someone their "right hand man", we don't think that that person is literally the right hand of the leader.

[Hemidakota]

Anthony, I highly doubt that was a idiom here but a simple observation of what was seen. Even within Genesis when the creation the missing plurality on the usage GOD versus GODS created man. Even Jospeh Smith noticed this when he was correcting the Bible mistakes.

I shall comment on the very first Hebrew word in the Bible; I will make a comment on the very first sentence of the history of creation in the Bible -- Berosheit. I want to analyze the word. Baith -- in, by, through, and everything else. Rosh -- the head. Sheit -- grammatical termination. When the inspired man wrote it, he did not put the baith there. An old Jew without any authority added the word; he thought it too bad to begin to talk about the head! It read first, "The head one of the Gods brought forth the Gods." That is the true meaning of the words. Baurau signifies to bring forth. ... Thus the head God brought forth the Gods in the grand council.

I will transpose and simplify it in the English language. ... The head God called together the Gods and sat in grand council to bring forth the world. The grand councilors sat at the head in yonder heavens and contemplated the creation of the world, which were created at the time. (TPJS, pp. 348-49.)

The plural pronouns in this indicate very clearly that God was talking to someone else:

"Let us make man in our image." The question has been asked, "To whom was God speaking on this occasion?" The answer has been provided by God to Moses in another scroll:

"And I, God, said unto mine Only Begotten, which was with me from the beginning: Let us make man in our image, after our likeness." (Moses 2:26.)

The "Only Begotten" of God was the pre-earthly Jehovah, who came to earth as Jesus Christ. Thus, God the Father was speaking to Jesus Christ on that occasion.

Genesis 1:26-27

The terms "in our image" and "after our likeness" indicate that God had bodily parts just as man does. This truth has been taught by many other righteous Christians (meaning the followers of Christ).

The Church believes that “God himself was once as we are now, and is an exalted man, and sits enthroned in yonder heavens! That is the great secret. ... If you were to see him today, you would see him like a man in form -- like yourselves in all the person, image, and very form as a man; for Adam was created in the very fashion, image and likeness of God, and received instruction from, and walked, talked and conversed with him, as one man talks and communes with another.” (TPJS, p. 345.)

[Interested]

Adam was created in the image of God. We were not.

[AnthonyB]

Hemi,

I'd probably agree that Stephen quite likely saw Jesus in a position of power at the right hand side of God. (It is even possible that Stephen perceived God in human form as well). But the point of seeing him on the right hand side IMHO was to ascribe His position in the universe not to describe the seating arrangements in heaven.

As I have said a number of times I don't have a problem with the persons of God talking to each other. I actually view that they would have had a discussion about the creation. In that respects there was a council in heaven before creation occurred. At which the plan of redemption was shared amongst the persons of God.

In whose image was man created in? My personal answer is Jesus Christ but that takes an understanding of eternity and time. When the ressurected Jesus entered eternity he became outside/beyond our time dimension. At that moment in eternity (if one can use a time oriented word like moment about eternity) He existed throughout our time continuum as the ressurected Jesus.

[Hemidakota]

Hmm....interesting personal observation.

[Traveler]

Originally Posted by Interested

G-d cannot be omnipresent and omniscient and omnipotent and be the only one of his "kind". The flaw of the Traditional Trinitarian (monotheistic) G-d is that he can only deal with that which is inferior and flawed and G-d therefore, lacks the power, intelligence, grace and everything else needed to deal with another being like himself - yet he demands that all his creation do this very thing that he cannot.

There can be only one Omnipotent in the universe.

Edit - What if the god's will contradict's eachother?

Interesting use of the word "one" - then nothing can be "one" with the "only one Omnipotent in the universe". Again this contradicts scripture and the notion that Jesus is "one" with the Father.

The Traveler

[Interested]

Not necessarily. Jesus has always existed eternally with the Father. Jesus and the Father are I AM. Not "One".