CHARGE: It is arrogant to define God as human.

LDS RESPONSE: Yes it is, and Latter-day Saints do not define God as such, but do believe man is of God’s species.

REALITY: The LDS RESPONSE fails to mention they also believe that God is of MAN’S species. Mormons tend to split hairs about this issue; one of which they are seriously committed to.

To be certain – The LDS Church teaches that we are spiritual and physical children of God, and they are very clear this all happens in a very natural manner, via sexual activity.

The traditional Mormon view of God is summed up by the famous Lorenzo Snow phrase:

“As man is God once was, as God is man may be.”

Lorenzo Snow, Unchangeable Love of God (Salt Lake City, UT: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 18 September 1898).

The historic understanding of this strongly implies that God the Father was once a sinner, and that we ourselves may model our mortal experience unto godhood after the mortal experience he once participated in.

In his famous King Follett Discourse, Joseph Smith taught:

“God himself was once as we are now, and is an exalted man, and sits enthroned in yonder heavens! That is the great secret…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.”

Joseph Fielding Smith, Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith (Salt Lake City, UT: Deseret Book, 1938), 345-346.

Joseph Smith then boldly preached:

“If Jesus Christ was the Son of God, and John discovered that God the Father of Jesus Christ had a Father, you may suppose that He had a Father also. Where was there ever a son without a father? And where was there ever a father without first being a son? Whenever did a tree or anything spring into existence without a progenitor? And everything comes in this way. Paul says that which is earthly is in the likeness of that which is heavenly, hence if Jesus had a Father, can we not believe that He had a Father also? I despise the idea of being scared to death at such a doctrine, for the Bible is full of it.”

Joseph Smith, Jr., History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints – Volume 6 (Salt Lake City, UT: Deseret News, 1912 edition), 476.

CHARGE and LDS RESPONSE (originally) online at: fairlds.org/The_God_Makers (now obsolete).