Mormons- do you see a problem with this?

Question

LDS Apostle Orson Hyde, "God our Heavenly Father was perhaps once a child, and mortal like we are, and rose step by step in the scale of progress, in the school of advancement; has moved forward and overcome, until He has arrived at the point where He now is" (Journal of Discourses 1:123).

Now look at what the Bible says in Romans 1:21-23
"Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.
1:22
Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,
And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things."

The true God of the Bible was always God, the only God, always without sin. You, in saying He was a man who attained godhood, have changed Him into the corruptible image of man- and essentially denied His diety.

U cannot deny God and be a Christian and go to heaven

This goes along with the common, but blasphemous, Mormon saying, "as God was man is, as God is man can be"

CHeese- even if she's mormon, that is not appropriate. Come on- you are better than that!

Answer 1

I don't think you'll find any Mormon who views God as a corruptible man. We view Him as an incorruptible Man. There's a big difference there.

Answer 2

Mormons believe in the Bible, including Romans 1:21-23. These verses talk about those who worship idols, having corrupted in their minds and in their worship, the true nature of God. Mormons do not worship God as a corruptible man. They worship a perfect Man of Holiness. The scriptures do not talk about a time prior to our Heavenly Father becoming God.

The nature of Godhood has never changed. God the Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost are alike in all of the wonderful, loving, perfect attributes that we associate with God. Those qualities and characteristics that we identify with God will never change. It doesn't diminish the glory of someone who now has godly attributes to know that he progressed to those attributes from some less sublime state.

Answer 3

My problem is being wise enough to understand. God is eternal and so are we. We have a mortal existance to gain a body. We know that Jesus also went through mortality, and He is divine. We know that Jesus progressed in mortality. I don't know everything about Heavenly Father, except that yes, He is without sin. Brother Hyde did not deny His diety by suggesting that He too was once mortal. He just opened the possibility that Jesus followed the example of Father. We may also. Be ye perfect even as my Father in Heaven is perfect.

Answer 4

I see no problem with it. It isn't God less then He is, and it isn't bringing Him down to the level of man. The fact that He was once a man, and learned as we do isn't bringing Him down at all, it's making Him more then most think of Him.

God has always been our God. That hasn't changed. He has always been from the foundation of this earth, and the foundation of this universe.

Just because we believe that we can become joint heirs with Christ and become like God, doesn't mean that will make God not our God. He will always be God. He will always be over us, and we will always be subject to Him. That won't change. What father wouldn't want his children to become like him? If God really is our Father, then why wouldn't He want us all to be able to obtain what He has?

Here is a site that answers some of these questions for you. It may help you to understand where we are coming from.

Answer 5

I’ve never read that particular quote from Elder Hyde, but think it teaches two important doctrines that modern Christianity has lost. Prior to my commitment to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, I carefully investigated. It appears to me that much of modern Christianity misunderstands the nature of God, as taught in the Bible. Much of the traditional creeds seem to owe more to neo-Platonic concepts of immaterial perfection than to Peter and Paul.

First, early Christians realized that God is our caring, loving Heavenly Father, and His son commanded us, in the Sermon on the Mount, to “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father in Heaven is perfect.” We do not really know what God was like before He created the earth, but Elder Hyde’s imperfect analogy helps to realize His loving fatherhood, and His strong desire for His children to grow up and be like Him.

Second, early Christians understood that Christ’s atonement perfected us, enabling us to, through His grace, to be perfected like our Father.

It’s NOT that God is made low and corruptible, (for that is what is imperfect about Elder Hyde’s analogy) but that we can, through Christ, become ennobled and incorruptible.

I think most Mormons believe that man and woman can, through Christ’s perfecting atonement, become so much like Heavenly Father that it is not inaccurate to say we will be gods. However, that is always expressed in the lower case, meaning that only God is an appropriate object of worship. In decades of careful study of LDS doctrine and association with Mormons on three continents, I have never met a Mormon who felt he or she would be worshiped like God Himself.

Answer 6

I only see a problem with your interpretation. As far as what the Apostle Orson Hyde said, I don't have a problem with it. Is it so hard to believe the family unit on earth is the same in heaven? Why not? If God is our father, wouldn't he want us to have what he has and to become like him, just like a father would for his children here on earth.

Answer 7

Perhaps Brother Hyde was misinformed by yet again another Opinion of a Dead Prophet, and/or other published and taught doctrine. It's an easy mistake, but since no one in the church sees a 'problem' with obviously conflicting statements claiming to be true, the only correct answer is:

False: None of the above. After the Big Bang blew up in his mom's kitchen, god left the universe for parts unknown.

Answer 8

It's just another example of how the LDS have to complicate things. Yet they say "We're Christian". No, they are not. They don't even believe in the basics of Christianity. There is not one drop of it in their doctrine. Saying that God was a once a man and that we can became a god too, is blasphemy. I hope Joseph saves them a bag a marshmallows to roast.

Answer 9

Except for your strong opinions against such doctrine, I have no problem with it. But it is your right to believe as you wish. Please consider giving that same respect to Latter-day Saints.

Bear in mind that the progression that God the Father had made is not comprehensible in time and space and in the minds of men. God the Father is a Holy Man and He made us in His image. To us, to the Bible scholars, and to all mankind, God is forever. That matters and it does not contradict the Bible.

Answer 10

I have no problem with the quote. On the other hand, your interpretation and subsequent conclusion are faulty.