Becoming Gods? Is this true?

[crytsprospect]

"Wouldn't that be kind of like you asking about the Cathecism and a Catholic telling you to start at Genesis?

That wouldn't be a very polite Catholic, now would it."

Wow I should never have tried to help you. Mormon.org is a great place to go to learn the basics . Your statement has nothing to do with my suggestion.
I didn't suggest you go read the Book of Mormon I suggested you go to a site that will help you understand everything . It starts with the basics and goes from there.

I thought you had pure honest intentions and I was just trying to help. I am so very saddened I even answered your post.

To the other members on this site I apologize.

[skalenfehl]

The concept is not stated, to my recollection anywhere in the Book of Mormon, but many modern day revelations are also not found in the Book of Mormon. That book serves very powerfully to testify that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and the Savior of the world.

It is through Joseph Smith and the prophets that succeeded him that we have received new revelations such as the one in question.

[Malachi7]

Originally Posted by crytsprospect

"Wouldn't that be kind of like you asking about the Cathecism and a Catholic telling you to start at Genesis?

That wouldn't be a very polite Catholic, now would it."

Wow I should never have tried to help you. Mormon.org is a great place to go to learn the basics . Your statement has nothing to do with my suggestion.
I didn't suggest you go read the Book of Mormon I suggested you go to a site that will help you understand everything . It starts with the basics and goes from there.

I thought you had pure honest intentions and I was just trying to help. I am so very saddened I even answered your post.

To the other members on this site I apologize.

Sir, I'm asking about a specific topic regarding your religion. I'm a guest in your house asking questions about your beliefs.

Do you personally believe that you'll become a God and have spirit-children (I assume with a Goddess wife) and that these spirit-children will later take on physical bodies and become Gods themselves? That's what I read on a site critical of the Mormon religion.

For what it's worth, I think it's a legitimate criticism to say that the Mormon religion believes things very different from Christianity.

If I start at Mormon.org, how long will I have to read before I get to my specific topic of interest? One person in this thread linked me to an article at LDS.org, but there was no mention of the topic at hand in that article.

[Malachi7]

Originally Posted by skalenfehl

The concept is not stated, to my recollection anywhere in the Book of Mormon, but many modern day revelations are also not found in the Book of Mormon. That book serves very powerfully to testify that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and the Savior of the world.

It is through Joseph Smith and the prophets that succeeded him that we have received new revelations such as the one in question.

Oh, okay. It's not in the Book of Mormon.

Thanks.

[Malachi7]

Originally Posted by Flyonthewall

Your reaction is common. The thing you have to see past, is being a literal spirit child of our Father in Heaven, rather than just a creation. We have a potential to be just like our Father in Heaven, just as Romans 8:16, 17 states.

Our teachings do not go against what the Bible says, it just goes counter to how you read and interpret the Bible.

As your mortal father is your father, and will always be your father, even tho you grow up and become a father yourself, so will G_d be our G_d, and will always be our G_d.

We will be the first to state that our teachings are different from mainstream Christianity, but we will also tell you they are restored truths.

Sir, this concept isn't just different from mainstream Christianity. It's just different...period.

As far as I can tell it's uniquely Mormon.

[MorningStar]

These scriptures all deal with the antemortal existence of man. Notice The Book of Mormon references. So, I beg to differ when it is said that it doesn't mention it. I put them in a pretty purple color.

Num. 16: 22(Num. 27: 16) God of the spirits of all flesh. Job 38: 7all the sons of God shouted for joy. Eccl. 12: 7the spirit shall return unto God who gave it. Jer. 1: 5Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee. Zech. 12: 1Lord . . . formeth the spirit of man within him. John 9: 2who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind. Acts 17: 28poets have said, For we are also his offspring. Rom. 8: 29For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate. Eph. 1: 4chosen us in him before the foundation of the world. Heb. 12: 9subjection unto the Father of spirits. Jude 1: 6angels which kept not their first estate. Rev. 12: 7Michael and his angels fought against the dragon. Alma 13: 3called and prepared from the foundation of the world. Hel. 14: 17bringeth mankind . . . back into the presence of the Lord. D&C 29: 36third part of the hosts of heaven turned he away. D&C 38: 1seraphic hosts of heaven, before the world was made. D&C 49: 17man, according to his creation before the world. D&C 93: 29Man was also in the beginning with God. D&C 138: 53choice spirits who were reserved to come forth. D&C 138: 56before they were born . . . received their first lessons. Moses 3: 5in heaven created I them, and there was not yet flesh upon the earth. Moses 6: 36he beheld the spirits that God had created. Abr. 3: 22intelligences that were organized before the world was. Abr. 3: 23he stood among those that were spirits. Abr. 5: 7took his spirit . . . and put it into him.

[MorningStar]

Originally Posted by Malachi7

Sir, this concept isn't just different from mainstream Christianity. It's just different...period.

As far as I can tell it's uniquely Mormon.

We're happy to be unique. No problem. But our unique beliefs are also Biblically supported.

[skalenfehl]

It was also different to the Jews when they were about to stone Christ. But alas, it's written plain as day. I gotta get to bed. Good night.

[Snow]

Originally Posted by Malachi7

Psalm 82 speaks of human judges. Not deified men. The judges died like men, after all.

Does "becoming perfect" mean achieving the ability to have children after we die and that those children will go on to become Gods?

I've never heard that from any Christian teacher.

As I read Matt 5 I see that the text is about love, not about becoming eligible to become a God.

Do you also believe in the LDS idea that you'll have children after you die and that they'll become Gods too?

I also read that Mormons believe that God is a man of flesh and bone and that he became "exalted" and that Mormons think they're following that same path.

I hope you'll forgive me for saying that Christians won't accept this line of thinking as representative of Christian theology. (But what am I thinking? You're probably plenty aware of that.)

Many instances can be found in the Old Testament which apply the epithet "gods" to men. In the Old Testament, the most prominent reference for the Christian doctrine of deification ia Psalm 82:6 (LXX 81:6). The verses seem to apply to judges who represented God despite their mortality (cf. vss. 1 and 7), but the the phrase, 'Εγω ειπα, θεοι εστε by Jesus in John 10:34–36 clearly calls for a much broader interpretation. The early Church always understood Psalm 81:6 as asserting that men were originally created as gods and meant to occupy that rank, until the Fall brought on sin and mortality. Thus Christ's mission was to help fulfill their true destiny. See Benz, Ernst. "Der Ubermensch-Begriff in der Theologie der alten Kirche." TU 77 (1961): p147, Norman, Keith E. "Deification: The Content of Anthansian Soteriology p6.

[Snow]

Originally Posted by Malachi7

I'm not aware that any of these people taught that men could become Gods and have spirit-children that will later become Gods when they get physical bodies.

In fact, one website I read states that the concept isn't even found in the Book of Mormon.

Your awareness not withstanding, they all believed and taught the principle or doctrine of theosis. A few examples:

Justin the Martyr said in 150 A.D. that he wishes:
to prove to you that the Holy Ghost reproaches men because they were made like God, free from suffering and death, provided that they kept His commandments, and were deemed deserving of the name of His sons... in the beginning men were made like God, free from suffering and death, and that they are thus deemed worthy of becoming gods and of having power to become sons of the highest...
Also,
[By Psalm 82] it is demonstrated that all men are deemed worthy of becoming “gods,” and even of having power to become sons of the Highest.[Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho, 124.]

Augustine, one of the greatest Christian Fathers, said:
but He himself that justifies also deifies, for by justifying He makes sons of God. For He has given them power to become the sons of God, (John 1:12). If then we have been made sons of God, we have also been made gods.[Augustine, On the Psalms, 50:2.]

Clement, of Alexandria taught the doctrine of deification:
yea, I say, the Word of God became a man so that you might learn from a man how to become a god.[Clement of Alexandria, Exhortation to the Greeks, 1.]

And:
...if one knows himself, he will know God, and knowing God will become like God...His is beauty, true beauty, for it is God, and that man becomes god, since God wills it. So Heraclitus was right when he said, "Men are gods, and gods are men."[Clement of Alexandria, Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor, 3.1 see also Clement, Stromateis, 23]

Those who have been perfected are given their reward and their honors. They have done with their purification, they have done with the rest of their service, though it be a holy service, with the holy; now they become pure in heart, and because of their close intimacy with the Lord there awaits them a restoration to eternal contemplation; and they have received the title of "gods" since they are destined to be enthroned with the other "gods" who are ranked next below the savior.[Henry Bettenson, The Early Christian Fathers: A Selection from the Writings of the Fathers from St. Clement of Rome to St. Athanasius (London: Oxford University Press, 1956), 243–244. ISBN 0192830090.; Stromata 7:10 (55–56).]