“As man now is, God once was: As God now is, man may be”
- Lorenzo Snow (Prophet of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints; 1814 - 1901)
There's a scripture that members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints quote a lot and which was one of the inspirations for this website's name, and that's Moses 1:39:
"For behold, this is my work and my glory—to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man."
Life has a purpose and that is to prepare for eternal life. Eternal Life is the driving force behind EVERYTHING Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ have done and continue to do for us. All Christians share a common notion of "Salvation through Christ" yet the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is additionally greatly focused on a related yet distinct understanding of life to come called "Eternal Life". While this idea, that we can become as God is, may seem new and strange to some or even sacrilegious to others, it really is what Christianity is all about when you think about it. But let me begin by emphasizing that our relationship to God will forever be us as His children who give glory to Him forever and ever and no one else.
**NOTE: If you wish to get in contact with missionaries of the Church to learn more, you can do so at https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/comeuntochrist/requests/missionary-visit
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ESOTERIC DOCTRINE OR CORE BELIEF?
Just about 2 months before I'd conclude my full-time mission in Mexico, my companion and I were sitting on Aurelia's porch teaching her about Heavenly Father's Plan of Happiness (See "Hello" and "The Plan of Happiness and Salvation"). Aurelia's baptismal date was soon approaching and we were all excitedly preparing for it, her more than anyone, so we felt at home with her, comfortable talking about anything and everything. This must of steered the conversation a bit because near the end of the lesson my companion made some comment about, "Becoming Gods". I don't remember or have a record of what that exact comment was in my journal, but I just remember her confusion and instant skepticism. To be fair, this comment was out of the left field for what was supposed to be a basic missionary discussion. Understandably, I'd even say that almost all other religions would consider such a notion, that we ourselves can become Gods, sacrilegious without the restored understanding that we have (See "Apostasy and Restoration"). Without skipping a beat, my companion, feeling that he had dug himself into a pit said, "Elder Robertshaw will explain that more" and dipped out of the conversation. And miraculously, also without skipping a beat, the spirit enabled me to explain this notion with utter simplicity and confidence that I even surprised myself.
The sweet and simple explanation of "Becoming Gods" I gave Aurelia was this and I offer it to you too: "God is our loving Heavenly Father. We are His children. Everything He does is to help us, as His children, become as He is." The first scripture that came to mind that I shared with her was Matthew 5:48, "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect". That is to say that Heavenly Father desires that we be like Him, even perfect (or according to the Greek translation, "complete" or "whole"). You can read more about this in one of my first posts, "More Than Good". Suffice it to say that Aurelia was satisfied with my explanation and was subsequently baptized soon after.
CHRISTIANITY: JESUS CHRIST'S ROLE
It's almost even fascinating to me that this bold idea of "Becoming Gods" is sometimes a target of criticism from opponents of our faith. Because when you break it down, and the scriptures truly testify of this, the underlying message of Christianity is "Becoming Like God". God has put forth instructions called "commandments" that if we follow, we will be blessed, even with the greatest blessing of all which is to live with God and our families forever (D&C 14:7). Let me explain.
Eternal Life and Immortality go hand-in-hand but are not synonymous. Immortality is to live forever as a resurrected being. Through the Atonement of Jesus Christ, everyone will receive this gift. Eternal life, or exaltation, is to live in God’s presence and to continue as families. Like immortality, this gift is made possible through the Atonement of Jesus Christ. However, to inherit eternal life requires our “obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel” (Articles of Faith 1:3). Therefore, everything that the Lord commands is for this purpose, to help prepare us to return to His presence.
In one of the last moments with His disciples before His arrest and crucifixion, Jesus Christ offered a prayer on behalf of those who believe in Him that we sometimes call the "Intercessory Prayer" (John 17). In it, He says, "And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent" (vs. 3). In other words, Eternal Life is to know God.
It is a theme of particular emphasis in the Gospel of John, which testifies that Jesus came to earth to reveal the Father to us (John 1:18; 14:6–11; 16:25). Knowing God means more than believing that He exists or having an intellectual understanding of Him; it means becoming acquainted with Him through personal experience and living His teachings. Elder Bruce R. McConkie (1915–85) of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles pointed out the difference between merely knowing about God and knowing Him:
“It is one thing to know about God and another to know him. We know about him when we learn that he is a personal being in whose image man is created; when we learn that the Son is in the express image of his Father’s person; when we learn that both the Father and the Son possess certain specified attributes and powers. But we know them, in the sense of gaining eternal life, when we enjoy and experience the same things they do. To know God is to think what he thinks, to feel what he feels, to have the power he possesses, to comprehend the truths he understands, and to do what he does. Those who know God become like him, and have his kind of life, which is eternal life”.
BECOMING ONE IN CHRIST
Another interconnected theme of the Intercessory Prayer is the idea of "Becoming One"; says Jesus to Heavenly Father speaking of us, "That they all may be one; as thou, Father art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us...and the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: I in thee, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one..." (John 17:21-23). This is where the word we use "Atonement" comes from: "At - ONE - ment" (See "One"). The power to "be one" with God is made possible through the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Generally speaking, when we say "the Atonement of Jesus Christ", we usually speak of it in three parts: 1) Christ's comprehensive suffering in the Garden of Gethsemane, 2) His crucifixion and death on the cross, and 3) His glorious resurrection.
While many Christian theologians have expressed the magnitude of the Savior’s Atonement by emphasizing human depravity, Latter-day Saints understand the magnitude of the Atonement of Christ in terms of the vast human potential it makes possible. The possibility of eternal life hinged on the success of the Atonement of Jesus Christ. This was part of Heavenly Father's plan from before the Earth was. We needed a savior to atone for, that is to say, pay the price for our sins. Jesus Christ, being sinless, and being the "Only Begotten of the Father" (John 3:16; Alma 12:33-34), was the only one who could atone for our sins, and thus He did, also taking upon Himself all our "pains, afflictions, temptations, sicknesses, and infirmities" (Alma 7:11-12) causing Him to bleed from every pore that we might not suffer like He did if we repent (D&C 19:16-18). I invite you to see my post "Knowest Thou the Condescension of God?" which explores this idea of "suffering" and why bad things happen, even to good people.
He was perfectly obedient in all things and not only made repentance and forgiveness of our sins possible, but He was also "the firstfruits of them that slept" (1 Cor. 15:20). His perfect sacrifice meant that He would rise from the dead on the third day and that consequently, we will too be resurrected one day (John 5:28-29; Alma 11:41). Like Him, the Living Christ, our spirits will one day be eternally reunited with our perfected bodies. I testify this Easter season that Jesus Christ is at the center of everything and that without Him, we would have no hope in this life or the next. With Him, everything has meaning, both life, and death and there is glorious recompense in the life to come for the faithful who repent and keep their covenants.
CHILDREN OF GOD
I can't testify enough of Heavenly Father's Plan of Happiness. You can read my previous post if you want a more in-depth explanation (See "The Plan of Salvation and Happiness"). But if I may take the liberty, to put things in the simplest way, this plan could be summed up in two interrelated categories: 1) The eternal nature of God, and 2) Our divine potential as children of God. Difficulty to accept the notion of becoming as God one day lies in the failure to understand our relationship to God and our divine potential as literal children of Him.
For those who want a more scriptural approach, several biblical passages teach that humans can become like God. The likeness of humans to God is emphasized in the first chapter of Genesis: “God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness… So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them” (Gen. 1:26-27). After Adam and Eve partook of the fruit of “the tree of the knowledge of good and evil,” God said they had “become as one of us,” (Gen. 3:22) suggesting that a process of approaching godliness was already underway. Later in the Old Testament, a passage in the book of Psalms declares, “I have said, Ye are gods, and all of you are children of the most High” [emphasis added] (Psalm 82:6). New Testament passages also point to this doctrine. The Apostle Paul taught that we are “the offspring of God” and emphasized that as such “we are the children of God: and if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ” (Romans 8:16-17). The book of Revelation contains a promise from Jesus Christ that “to him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne.” (Rev. 3:21)
THE MOST-HIGH GOD
For some observers, the doctrine that humans should strive for godliness may evoke images of ancient pantheons with various competing deities. Such images are incompatible with Latter-day Saint doctrine. The first of the 10 commandments given to Moses remains, "Thou shalt have no other God before me" (Exo. 20:3). Latter-day Saints believe that God’s children will always worship Him. He will always be the most High God. Our progression will never change His identity as our Father and our God.
In addition to the many in the world who don't believe in God, there are many who don't know the true nature of God. Some believe God is amorphous, invisible, incomprehensible, and unknowable. But modern-day revelation through living prophets, starting with the First Vision Joseph Smith had in the spring of 1820, just over 200 years ago, fills in many of the gaps of knowledge that were lost over millennia. I am grateful for living prophets today that help us understand God and communicate what His will is for us.
ETERNAL PROGRESSION
In April 1844, Joseph Smith gave an inspired sermon that has come to be known as the "King Follett Discourse". “What kind of a being is God?” he asked. Human beings needed to know, he argued, because “if men do not comprehend the character of God they do not comprehend themselves.” (See Josephsmithpapers.org). Since that sermon, the doctrine that humans can progress to exaltation and godliness has been taught within the Church. Suffice it to say that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints believes strongly in "eternal progression".
I do not know all things, but this I know, that Heavenly Father loves us and desires to bless us, even with "all that He has" (D&C 84:38). I have a testimony that Heavenly Father has a plan for us and that Jesus Christ is at the center of it all. I testify that Jesus Christ successfully performed an infinite atonement for all mankind, making eternal life possible. I invite all of us to rededicate ourselves to knowing Him and Hearing Him more deeply in our lives. He lives!
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