Humans can become gods

They say

Isaiah 43:10 — no God formed after Him.

Isaiah is slamming idols, not Romans 8. Paul: joint-heirs with Christ. Peter: partakers of the divine nature. Psalm 82: ye are gods. If Isaiah cancelled exaltation, it cancelled their own verses too.

• Romans 8:16–17

  KJV · We are the children of God: And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ.

  NRSVUE · We are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ.

• 2 Peter 1:4

  KJV · That by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature.

  NRSVUE · So that… you may become participants of the divine nature.

• Gospel Topics Essays

  Becoming Like God

  “What the Church does *not* teach: that we will replace God, or that a required mortal biography of the Father is binding doctrine.”

• Gal1:8 library

  Exaltation / theosis

They say

You are not actually God’s offspring. That’s just a nickname.

Paul told unbaptized pagans in Athens they were God’s offspring — His genos, His kind — so they would stop carving Him out of gold. Hebrews 12:9: the Father of spirits. ‘Our Father’ is not a figure of speech. Covenant sonship in Christ sits on top of that origin. It does not cancel it.

• Acts 17:28–29

  KJV · For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring. Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone.

  NRSVUE · For ‘In him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we, too, are his offspring.’ Since we are God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the deity is like gold or silver or stone.

• Gal1:8 library

  Offspring of God

• Gospel Topics Essays

  Becoming Like God

  “What the Church does *not* teach: that we will replace God, or that a required mortal biography of the Father is binding doctrine.”

They say

Your book is about becoming gods.

The Book of Mormon’s punch is Christ, not a planet. 3 Nephi 28:10: fulness of joy in the Father’s kingdom, as the Father gave the Son. Exaltation’s fullest text is D&C 132 and the temple — still under the Father.

• 3 Nephi 28:10

  Ye shall sit down in the kingdom of my Father; yea, your joy shall be full, even as the Father hath given me fulness of joy.

• Gal1:8 library

  Own planet?

They say

D&C 132:20 — then shall they be gods. You want His throne.

The essay is public: we always worship the Father. Becoming like Him does not replace Him. “You get your own planet” is not in the baptismal interview and is not the handbook.

• Doctrine and Covenants 132:20

  Then shall they be gods, because they have no end; therefore shall they be from everlasting to everlasting, because they continue.

• Gospel Topics Essays

  Becoming Like God

  “What the Church does *not* teach: that we will replace God, or that a required mortal biography of the Father is binding doctrine.”

They say

This is unique Mormon blasphemy.

Athanasius taught that God became man so that man might become like God. The Church essay cites that early Christian teaching on purpose. They accept it in their own history. They reject it when we teach it. Use the essay.

• Gospel Topics Essays

  Becoming Like God

  “What the Church does *not* teach: that we will replace God, or that a required mortal biography of the Father is binding doctrine.”