InTruth
10-29-2009, 10:33 PM
"We believe in a God who is Himself progressive [not immutable like the Christian God], whose majesty is intelligence; whose perfection consists in eternal advancement -- a Being who has attained His exalted state by a path which now His children are permitted to follow, whose glory it is their heritage to share. In spite of the opposition of the sects, in the face of direct charges of blasphemy, the Church proclaims the eternal truth: 'As man is, God once was; as God is, man may be.'" (LDS Apostle James E. Talmage, Articles of Faith, Ch.24, p.430 - p.431, LDS Collectors Library '97 CD-ROM)
God is progressing? God use to be a man? Man is going to be as God is? I thought only God is as God is? Is “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever” (Heb. 13.8)? That's immutable.
"'It is the first principle of the gospel to know for a certainty the character of God,' the inspired word continues, 'and to know that we may converse with Him as one man converses with another, and that He was once a man like us; yea, that God himself, the Father of us all, dwelt on an earth, the same as Jesus Christ Himself did.' The Father is a glorified, perfected, resurrected, exalted man who worked out his salvation by obedience to the same laws he has given to us so that we may do the same." (LDS Apostle Bruce R. McConkie, A New Witness for the Articles of Faith, p.64, LDS Collectors Library '97 CD-ROM)
God has to work out his own salvation?
"Thus, on this beautiful spring morning in the Sacred Grove, Joseph Smith witnessed the renewal of God's dealing with his children in accordance with the great gospel plan of redemption. Upon this occasion God the Father and his Beloved Son Jesus Christ appearing as glorified Resurrected Beings unto a chosen servant of God, made known once again the state of immortality which man will attain in preparation for the next estate of eternity; that also the world once again could know the reality of the personal nature of God the Father and his Beloved Son. (LDS Apostle Alvin R. Dyer, Conference Report, April 1963, p.49 - p.50, LDS Collectors Library '97 CD-ROM)
God the Father was resurrected? I thought only Jesus died for our sins and was resurrected?
"As we stretch our imaginations to absorb the limitlessness of the creations of God we turn to a favorite song: If you could hie to Kolob in the twinkling of an eye, And then continue onward with that same speed to fly, D'ye think that you could ever, through all eternity, Find out the generation where Gods began to be? Or see the grand beginning, where space did not extend? Or view the last creation where Gods and matter end? Methinks the Spirit whispers, "No man has found 'pure space,'" Nor seen the outside curtains, where nothing has a place. The works of God continue, and worlds and lives abound; Improvement and progression have one eternal round. There is no end to matter; there is no end to space; There is no end to spirit; there is no end to race." (LDS Apostle Bruce R. McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, p.250, LDS Collectors Library '97 CD-ROM)
There is no end to space? NASA says there is an end to space. With better than 99% accuracy, NASA has shown the universe is flat geometrically, so the universe is not open, that is, it is approaching a limit (http://map.gsfc.nasa.gov/universe/uni_shape.html). God began to exist? I thought God was uncreated: the Bible says God is alone "from everlasting." What gods did exist? God said there is none but Him!
"God: Creator And Ruler Of Many Worlds. -- While it is true that evolutionists may be divided between theistic and atheistic groups, yet most of those professing belief in God consider him to be an indefinable force, essence, or power of an incomprehensible nature. According to revelation, however, he is a personal Being, a holy and exalted Man, a glorified, resurrected Personage having a tangible body of flesh and bones, an anthropomorphic Entity, the personal Father of the spirits of all men. (D. & C. 130:22- 23; Moses 6:51, 57; Abra. 3:22-24; Jos. Smith 2:16-19.)"
Jesus is not an exalted Man (He has a resurrected body not a fleshly one), but God who came in the "likeness of flesh," the fullness of the Godhead bodily, to die for our sins and resurrect to give us everlasting life whosoever believeth in Him. The Father is the Personal Father. Jesus is the Personal Son and the the Holy Spirit is the Person Life of the Father and the Son in the Triune Godhead as One Being, Co-Equal, Co-Inherent, Co-Uncreated, of One Substance, Distinct but not separate. What worlds would these be that God is ruling over beings? Hugh Ross, a prominent cosmologist, has calculated there are over 800 variables when multiplied together make life impossible on another planet in the universe.
"We are members of the family of the Eternal Father. He is a glorified and exalted and eternal Being, having a resurrected body of flesh and bones. His name is God, and the kind of life he lives is God's life. His name is also Eternal, and the name of the kind of life he lives is eternal life. Eternal life is God's life, and God's life is eternal life. We are commanded to be perfect as he is perfect and to advance and progress until we become like him, or in other words, until we gain eternal life. Thus Joseph Smith said, "You have got to learn how to be Gods yourselves, and to be kings and priests to God, the same as all Gods have done before you, namely, by going from one small degree to another, and from a small capacity to a great one; from grace to grace from exaltation to exaltation, until you attain to the resurrection of the dead, and are able to dwell in everlasting burnings and to sit in glory, as do those who sit enthroned in everlasting power." (Teachings, pp. 346-47.) Christ our Lord has so obtained, thus enabling him to say to the faithful: "Ye shall be even as I am, and I am even as the Father." (3 Ne. 28:10.)" (LDS Apostle Bruce R. McConkie, The Mortal Messiah, Vol.1, p.23 - p.24, LDS Collectors Library '97 CD-ROM)
More LDS Collectors Library '97 CD-ROM...
The Father used to have flesh and bones? The Bible says God is Spirit. Salvation is not by works, lest anyone should boast. Eternal life is not achieved by working for it but it is a free gift of God at new birth (born-again). "And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent" (John 17.3). The Bible doesn't say anything about us becoming Gods. Dwell in everlasting burnings? I thought that was for those who are going to Hell? McConkie admits he is going to burn in Hell. Jesus obtained perfection? He already was perfect from before time began. To be Christlike is not the same thing as becoming Gods, for there are no gods, only God is God: Father, Son, Spirit: One Being.
"I will prove that the world is wrong, by showing what God is. I am going to inquire after God; for I want you all to know Him, and to be familiar with Him; and if I am bringing you to a knowledge of Him, all persecutions against me ought to cease. You will then know that I am His servant; for I speak as one having authority. ... "
When did persecution against Joseph Smith cease? He is still exposed daily as a false prophet and hellbound.
"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 the veil were rent today, and the great God who holds this world in its orbit, and who upholds all 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 received instruction from, and walked, talked and conversed with Him, as one man talks and communes with another. ... "
God the Father an exalted man? It's a secret lie. The Bible says no man has ever seen the Father; that's why we see Jesus because in the Godhead the Son agreed to be the seen to enter into His creation. Even in the New City in eternity future we still will only see the Lamb. Adam never saw the Father. There is no such account in the Bible.
"In order to understand the subject of the dead, for consolation of those who mourn for the loss of their friends, it is necessary we should understand the character and being of God and how He came to be so; 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. ... "
He never refuted the fact that God was alone from everlasting. The darkness is still upon Joseph Smith.
God came to be? But the Bible says God always existed. Sounds like Satan trying to give a speech. There you have it. Joseph Smith is going to Hell. He rejects the Bible which says: "I the LORD [Jehovah] that maketh all things; that stretcheth forth the heavens alone; that spreadeth abroad the earth by myself" (Is. 44.24).
"Making himself equal with God” (John 5.18), Jesus said, “O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was” (John 17.5). Is “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever” (Heb. 13.8)?
"These are incomprehensible ideas to some, but they are simple. It is the first principle of the 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 like us; yea, that God himself, the Father of us all, dwelt on an earth, the same as Jesus Christ Himself did; and I will show it from the Bible. ... "
These are not incomprehensible ideas. They are simple false ideas. Smith got the character of God wrong. You can't converse with God as one man converses with another because it is He "who alone possesses immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see. No one has seen the Father except the one [Jesus] who is from God; only he has seen the Father" (1 Tim. 6.16, John 1.18).
God the Father never dwelt on earth as Adam or anyone else. God is Spirit.
God is progressing? God use to be a man? Man is going to be as God is? I thought only God is as God is? Is “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever” (Heb. 13.8)? That's immutable.
"'It is the first principle of the gospel to know for a certainty the character of God,' the inspired word continues, 'and to know that we may converse with Him as one man converses with another, and that He was once a man like us; yea, that God himself, the Father of us all, dwelt on an earth, the same as Jesus Christ Himself did.' The Father is a glorified, perfected, resurrected, exalted man who worked out his salvation by obedience to the same laws he has given to us so that we may do the same." (LDS Apostle Bruce R. McConkie, A New Witness for the Articles of Faith, p.64, LDS Collectors Library '97 CD-ROM)
God has to work out his own salvation?
"Thus, on this beautiful spring morning in the Sacred Grove, Joseph Smith witnessed the renewal of God's dealing with his children in accordance with the great gospel plan of redemption. Upon this occasion God the Father and his Beloved Son Jesus Christ appearing as glorified Resurrected Beings unto a chosen servant of God, made known once again the state of immortality which man will attain in preparation for the next estate of eternity; that also the world once again could know the reality of the personal nature of God the Father and his Beloved Son. (LDS Apostle Alvin R. Dyer, Conference Report, April 1963, p.49 - p.50, LDS Collectors Library '97 CD-ROM)
God the Father was resurrected? I thought only Jesus died for our sins and was resurrected?
"As we stretch our imaginations to absorb the limitlessness of the creations of God we turn to a favorite song: If you could hie to Kolob in the twinkling of an eye, And then continue onward with that same speed to fly, D'ye think that you could ever, through all eternity, Find out the generation where Gods began to be? Or see the grand beginning, where space did not extend? Or view the last creation where Gods and matter end? Methinks the Spirit whispers, "No man has found 'pure space,'" Nor seen the outside curtains, where nothing has a place. The works of God continue, and worlds and lives abound; Improvement and progression have one eternal round. There is no end to matter; there is no end to space; There is no end to spirit; there is no end to race." (LDS Apostle Bruce R. McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, p.250, LDS Collectors Library '97 CD-ROM)
There is no end to space? NASA says there is an end to space. With better than 99% accuracy, NASA has shown the universe is flat geometrically, so the universe is not open, that is, it is approaching a limit (http://map.gsfc.nasa.gov/universe/uni_shape.html). God began to exist? I thought God was uncreated: the Bible says God is alone "from everlasting." What gods did exist? God said there is none but Him!
"God: Creator And Ruler Of Many Worlds. -- While it is true that evolutionists may be divided between theistic and atheistic groups, yet most of those professing belief in God consider him to be an indefinable force, essence, or power of an incomprehensible nature. According to revelation, however, he is a personal Being, a holy and exalted Man, a glorified, resurrected Personage having a tangible body of flesh and bones, an anthropomorphic Entity, the personal Father of the spirits of all men. (D. & C. 130:22- 23; Moses 6:51, 57; Abra. 3:22-24; Jos. Smith 2:16-19.)"
Jesus is not an exalted Man (He has a resurrected body not a fleshly one), but God who came in the "likeness of flesh," the fullness of the Godhead bodily, to die for our sins and resurrect to give us everlasting life whosoever believeth in Him. The Father is the Personal Father. Jesus is the Personal Son and the the Holy Spirit is the Person Life of the Father and the Son in the Triune Godhead as One Being, Co-Equal, Co-Inherent, Co-Uncreated, of One Substance, Distinct but not separate. What worlds would these be that God is ruling over beings? Hugh Ross, a prominent cosmologist, has calculated there are over 800 variables when multiplied together make life impossible on another planet in the universe.
"We are members of the family of the Eternal Father. He is a glorified and exalted and eternal Being, having a resurrected body of flesh and bones. His name is God, and the kind of life he lives is God's life. His name is also Eternal, and the name of the kind of life he lives is eternal life. Eternal life is God's life, and God's life is eternal life. We are commanded to be perfect as he is perfect and to advance and progress until we become like him, or in other words, until we gain eternal life. Thus Joseph Smith said, "You have got to learn how to be Gods yourselves, and to be kings and priests to God, the same as all Gods have done before you, namely, by going from one small degree to another, and from a small capacity to a great one; from grace to grace from exaltation to exaltation, until you attain to the resurrection of the dead, and are able to dwell in everlasting burnings and to sit in glory, as do those who sit enthroned in everlasting power." (Teachings, pp. 346-47.) Christ our Lord has so obtained, thus enabling him to say to the faithful: "Ye shall be even as I am, and I am even as the Father." (3 Ne. 28:10.)" (LDS Apostle Bruce R. McConkie, The Mortal Messiah, Vol.1, p.23 - p.24, LDS Collectors Library '97 CD-ROM)
More LDS Collectors Library '97 CD-ROM...
The Father used to have flesh and bones? The Bible says God is Spirit. Salvation is not by works, lest anyone should boast. Eternal life is not achieved by working for it but it is a free gift of God at new birth (born-again). "And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent" (John 17.3). The Bible doesn't say anything about us becoming Gods. Dwell in everlasting burnings? I thought that was for those who are going to Hell? McConkie admits he is going to burn in Hell. Jesus obtained perfection? He already was perfect from before time began. To be Christlike is not the same thing as becoming Gods, for there are no gods, only God is God: Father, Son, Spirit: One Being.
"I will prove that the world is wrong, by showing what God is. I am going to inquire after God; for I want you all to know Him, and to be familiar with Him; and if I am bringing you to a knowledge of Him, all persecutions against me ought to cease. You will then know that I am His servant; for I speak as one having authority. ... "
When did persecution against Joseph Smith cease? He is still exposed daily as a false prophet and hellbound.
"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 the veil were rent today, and the great God who holds this world in its orbit, and who upholds all 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 received instruction from, and walked, talked and conversed with Him, as one man talks and communes with another. ... "
God the Father an exalted man? It's a secret lie. The Bible says no man has ever seen the Father; that's why we see Jesus because in the Godhead the Son agreed to be the seen to enter into His creation. Even in the New City in eternity future we still will only see the Lamb. Adam never saw the Father. There is no such account in the Bible.
"In order to understand the subject of the dead, for consolation of those who mourn for the loss of their friends, it is necessary we should understand the character and being of God and how He came to be so; 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. ... "
He never refuted the fact that God was alone from everlasting. The darkness is still upon Joseph Smith.
God came to be? But the Bible says God always existed. Sounds like Satan trying to give a speech. There you have it. Joseph Smith is going to Hell. He rejects the Bible which says: "I the LORD [Jehovah] that maketh all things; that stretcheth forth the heavens alone; that spreadeth abroad the earth by myself" (Is. 44.24).
"Making himself equal with God” (John 5.18), Jesus said, “O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was” (John 17.5). Is “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever” (Heb. 13.8)?
"These are incomprehensible ideas to some, but they are simple. It is the first principle of the 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 like us; yea, that God himself, the Father of us all, dwelt on an earth, the same as Jesus Christ Himself did; and I will show it from the Bible. ... "
These are not incomprehensible ideas. They are simple false ideas. Smith got the character of God wrong. You can't converse with God as one man converses with another because it is He "who alone possesses immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see. No one has seen the Father except the one [Jesus] who is from God; only he has seen the Father" (1 Tim. 6.16, John 1.18).
God the Father never dwelt on earth as Adam or anyone else. God is Spirit.