God has a wife in heaven???

[WillowTheWhisp]

As there seems to be some doubt even amongst LDS whether this is indeed Church doctrine or not I decided to look up what Bruce R. McConkie says on the subject in his book 'Mormon Doctrine'

Implicit in the Christian verity that all men are spirit children of an Eternal Father is the usually unspoken truth that they are also the offspring of an Eternal Mother. An exalted and glorified Man of Holiness (Moses 6:57) could not be a Father unless a Woman of like glory, perfection and holiness was associated with him as a Mother. The begetting of children makes a man a father and a woman a mother whether we are dealing with man in his mortal or immortal state.
This doctrine that there is a Mother in Heaven was affirmed in plainness by the First Presidency of the Church (Joseph F. Smith, John R. Winder and Anthon H. Lund) when, in speaking of pre-existence and the origin of man, they said that, "man, as a spirit was begotten and born of heavenly parents, and reared to maturity in the eternal mansions of the Father," that man is the "offspring of celestial parentage" and that "all men and omen are in the similitude of the universal Father and Mother, and are literally the sons and daughters of deity." (Man: His Origins and Destiny, pp348-355)
This glorious truth of celestial parentage, including specifically both a father and a mother, is heralded forth by song in one of the greatest of Latter-day saint hymns, O My Father by Eliza R. Snow, written in 1843, during the lifetime of the prophet, includes this teaching:

In the heavens are parents single?
No; the thought makes reason stare!
Truth is reason, truth eternal,
Tells me I've a Mother there.

When I leave this frail existence,
When I lay this mortal by,
Father, Mother, may I meet you
In your royal courts on high?

Then at length when I've completed
All you sent me forth to do,
With your mutual Approbation,
Let me come and dwell with you.

Mortal person who overcome all things and gain an ultimate exaltation will live eternally in the family unit and have spirit children, thus becoming Eternal Fathers and Eternal Mothers. (D&C 132:19-32) Indeed the formal pronouncement of the Church, issued by the First Presidency and the Council of the Twelve states: "So far as the stages of eternal progression and attainment have been made known through divine revelation, we are to understand that only resurrected and glorified beings can become parents of spirit offspring." (Man: His Origins and Destiny, p 129)

Now that seems perfectly clear to me that it is indeed doctrine.

[Iggy]

[WillowTheWhisp]

But he quoted the First Presidency and I am certainly not going to argue that Joseph F. Smith didn't know what he was talking about. That would definitely leave me on shaky ground.

If an Apostle quotes a Prophet, and gives reference for that quote, then I think I'm pretty safe in accepting it as doctrine.

[rameumptom]

That there is a Heavenly Mother IS doctrine. However, what that exactly means, we do not know. There just has not been anything of substance revealed or explained on the topic, beyond the idea that God the Father has a wife, who is our Heavenly Mother.

Remember that most of the quotes on this topic are from decades ago, prior to the concepts of cloning or invitro-fertilization ever coming into play. For Brigham Young, the only way to fertilize a womb was by sex, and so he envisioned God and Mary having sex in order to bring the mortal Jesus to this world. However, with today's understanding of it all, it is just as easy for us to envision God performing invitro-fertilization on Mary, and achieving the same process, and keeping her a virgin maiden.

On this same thought, do we really know how spirit children are formed? Are they formed in the exact same way we bring about mortal children today? If so, then how long does it take to incubate and bring about billions of spirit children? Does Heavenly Mother have one at a time, or a litter of thousands? Or are spirit children created in another matter, where Father and Mother use their special gifts and skills to form them from lower forms of intelligence, as in a science lab? Until we receive a specific revelation on it, we do not know who she is, or just what her specific tasks and purposes in conjunction with us may be.

[newvid]

Amazing that such an important matter of "doctrine" was completely left out of the body of this doctrine! It is nowhere in God's word and not even in official Mormon 'scriptures". All this speculation proves nothing. "Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty." 2 cor 3:17 and "God is NOT a man, that he should lie" Num 23:19. GOd is NOT a man, nor an exalted man of anykind. He is Spirit. That is His nature. Jesus BECAME a man, but always retained His godly nature, thus he was the "God-man" at all times. That is opposite of Mormon teaching that states, as man is, god once was, as God is man may BECOME. Jesus, on the contrary BECAME man, but eternally existed as God. There is NO "god mother". However, since men and women are created in His image, I would say God contains within His nature both female and male like characteristics, since we are created in His image. SOme challenges for any willing to look into it: Answering Mormons

[parsnips]

Being created in his image, to me, means that characteristics of God can be found in us. Namely the ability to reason, make decisions, and the capability to love.

[cgrantreed]

Originally Posted by yellows23

How did God the father who was mortal,went from mortal man to immortal man???? When God the father was a mortal man,was there anybody else there too??? any other mortal men???Before God the father created the earth-immortal body,where did he live as a mortal man??? another solar system??? or planet??? Non-LDS believe God was always immortal male who is a spirit-god head of the trinity-never a mortal man as us.We as a mortal man or human are imperfect-weakness-sin,Even Paul,Peter,and Moses,others,are not perfect.Peter deny Jesus three times.

Yellow... A-Train's post...second down... explains that pretty good. The common Christian assumption is that because the Bible does not start in the preexistence that life must have started with a "God" and Adam and Eve, that there was no BEFORE earth. Just that God happened and he dumped people on this spinning mass of stuff that he created. If its so cut and dried then what difference does it make? Then what difference would it make what happens in heaven? You live, you die, you go to heaven. How boring and pointless.

We believe that this process that we live in RIGHT NOW is part of a recurring process, WAY more detailed than simply living and dropping dead and going to heaven. We believe that we too can become Gods of our own worlds by following the process. Its not as simple as living a good life and heading to heaven to be a God. We frankly don't know every detail about it but we do know that God the Father had to do the same process that we have had to do. He was resurrected and made immortal. He became deity through His process in Heaven after his life and through this he is now able to have world(s) of his own stewardship. He is immortal and Deity now. Just as we have now in our world...He had a wife. We have no idea who she is or what her name is but she did/does exist in immortality like her husband.

None the less... He is still God.

[a-train]

Originally Posted by newvid

"Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty." 2 cor 3:17 and "God is NOT a man, that he should lie" Num 23:19. GOd is NOT a man, nor an exalted man of anykind. He is Spirit. That is His nature. Jesus BECAME a man, but always retained His godly nature, thus he was the "God-man" at all times. That is opposite of Mormon teaching that states, as man is, god once was, as God is man may BECOME. Jesus, on the contrary BECAME man, but eternally existed as God. There is NO "god mother". However, since men and women are created in His image, I would say God contains within His nature both female and male like characteristics, since we are created in His image. SOme challenges for any willing to look into it: Answering Mormons

The fallacy of this argument is in the notion that the LDS position is that God was once not God. The LDS position is emphatic. It is that God the Father has ALWAYS been God. Jesus has ALWAYS been God. This is not the opposite of 'Jesus became a man, but always retained His godly nature.' This is the same doctrine. Mormons believe that Jesus has always been and always will be God. The doctrine is throughout the scriptures both ancient and modern.

-a-train

[parsnips]

A-Train, you need to to read up on your doctrine, because, as far as I can tell, Joseph Smith taught that God wasn't always God. To quote the introduction to his famous King Follet sermon:

..for 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, so that you may see.

So as we see, the idea that God was always God, is a notion Joseph sought to refute in the sermon.

He goes on in the sermon to state that God was once a man, and he lived on Earth, and Joseph attempted to elucidate his position from biblical sources. So, it is a false statement that the LDS position has always been that God the Father has always been God.

[WillowTheWhisp]

My personal belief here is that we are only given the information which is relevant to us at this particular time. The Bible begins with a beginning which relates to the creation of this earth on which we live. For our own sakes for our own salvation we don't need to know any more. Why baffle us with things beyond our comprehension when we haven't even mastered the things which do matter?

One day we will know for sure what our true relationship with our Heavenly Father is. One day, when it matters. Meanwhile what matters most whilst we are here is whether we follow the teachings of our Saviour and accept his atoning sacrifice on our behalf. We can worry about the finer details of our eternal lineage later. Just because something isn't written in the scriptures doesn't mean it isn't true. It just means it isn't vital to know. The Bible doesn't tell is about all the other galaxies in the vastness of space (there's just a vague reference to stars) but that doesn't mean they aren't there.