We believe, as was taught by Joseph Smith, that "God himself was once as we are now, and is an exalted man, and sites enthroned in yonder heavens! That is the great secret. If the viel were rent today, and the great God who hold this world in its orbit, and who upholds all the worlds and all things by his power, was to make himself visible, I say, 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 recieved the instructions from and conversed with Him, as one man talks and ommunes with another. [Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith p. 345]
D&C 130:1 states: "When the Savior shall appear we shall see him as he is. We shall see that he is a man like ourselves.
It is for this reason that Jesus Christ is called both "Son of God" [Mark 1:1; 3:11] and Son of Man [Mark 2:10, 28]. John makes it clear that both titles are synonymous when he calls Jesus Christ "Son of man which is in heaven" [John 3:13]. "Man of Holiness" was an ancient title given to God the Father; thus Christ was literally the "Son of Man of Hiliness" [Moses 6:57; see also Joseph Fielding Smith, Answers to Gospel Questions 1:10-11; Jesus the Christ, pp 142-144]
In John 5:19-20 Jesus declares: "The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever [the Father] doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise. For the Father loveth the Son and sheweth him all things that himself doeth" What did Jesus do? He was born of a woman, lived a sinless life, and afte atoning for our sins was glorified with a resurrected doby of "flesh and bones" [Luke 24:36-39]. If Christ followed the example of his Father, then it is clear that God the Father was once man just as Christ and both of them are now glorified and exalted beings.
As the prophet Joseph Smith taught:
It is the first principal of hte Gospel to know for a certainty the Character of God, and to know that we may converse with him as one man converses with another, and that he was once a man ike us; yea that God himself, the Father of us all, dwelt on an earth, the same as Jesus Christ himself did. [Teachings pp 345-46]
2 comments:
On Topic
disclaimer: This post contains many inferences and realities that arise from this concept of God once being a Man. Some of the questions and extrapolations may not completely or precisely outline all the difficulties but are only a sample of the implications, and being reasoned by me a mere mortal may be false.
But first, the citation of the gospel of Mark defining Jesus as both Son of God and Son of Man express the dual nature of Jesus as being both fully God and fully man at the same time.
This concept is ignored by Mormons, and explained away by the philosophy that God was once a man.
Implications of God being a man.
To follow your Logic every action Christ took including dieing on the cross was also done by God. This implication assumes that the Father was once a christ on another world subject to doing also what his father did. A world similar to ours were that humanity also struggled with sin and seperation from their god. A beginingless cycle of gods and christs expanding backward infinitely. Who then is the first god?
And secondly, were does that leave the rest of humanity that does not hold the office of a christ, how can their worlds, the ones they create, be rescued or saved? Does it require a hitch-hiking christ to visit all their worlds and have worlds with teachings of a christ born on another world that would come and save their world?
jonathan said...
Who then is the first god?
Wer62 Replies
Why would I have to know? The only thing I need to know is to worship my Heavenly Father as directed by my savior Jesus Christ. Anything beyond that is information that is "not required for me to know".
jonathan said...
And secondly, were does that leave the rest of humanity that does not hold the office of a christ, how can their worlds, the ones they create, be rescued or saved? Does it require a hitch-hiking christ to visit all their worlds and have worlds with teachings of a christ born on another world that would come and save their world?
Wer62 Replies
I guess that depends on what you believe in your Bible. Do you believe you will inherit all things from God and what does "all" mean to you.
Wer62
Post a Comment