Public Correction: Mistakes Made on Mormon Machinations 05.26.24

Earlier today we were corrected by James White for a post we made critical of Mormon / Latter Day Saint theology. In our post, we made the following assertion:

(Mormons believe that) Jesus was once a regular sinful man who became exalted and turned into a God after doing many good deeds. ‘God the Father’ himself was also once a man on another planet, but because he likewise was such a good Mormon, he was granted the right to become a God over this earth.

They believe that they too can become capital ‘G’ Gods of their own planet one day, and in fact, hold that there are millions of Gods. For them, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are all and individual separate Gods, with the Father and Son having human bodies of flesh.

Mormons categorically deny the idea of salvation by grace alone and believe Jesus and Lucifer are siblings- with Jesus and Satan both being the product of divine procreation; the firstborn of many spirit children made by God the Father and his heavenly wife. They believe Jesus became the Redeemer because he had a better strategy than his brother Lucifer, which caused war to break out in heaven and Satan cast out.

They believe the scriptures we have are all corrupted and that’s why they have the new revelation of Joseph Smith.

There are some errors here, mostly through some use of sloppy and casual language, but also as a result of some confusion on my part about what life was before all these Mormon Gods were exalted, and so I’m going to let James White, who publicly posted this in response to us, explain how we got it wrong.

Well, the most obvious one is that you said they teach Jesus was a sinner. That’s not true. They would never say Jesus was “once a regular sinful man who became exalted and turned into a God after doing many good deeds.” Jesus is, in LDS theology, a savior figure, which most Mormons differentiate from, for example, themselves, if, as a man, they are worthy of exaltation to godhood.

They wouldn’t say God the Father was “such a good Mormon,” they would say he obeyed the laws established to bring about exaltation. Further, he was not “granted the right to become God over this earth;” instead, he lives upon a planet that circles a start named Kolob, and, like all other gods before him, he organizes pre-existing matter (there is no creatio ex nihilo), and did so so as to organize this earth.

Yes, a worthy priesthood holder who is sealed in the temple to his wife (wives) is able to become exalted, just as Elohim was (just how Jesus was exalted is a matter of dispute, especially amongst the earliest LDS leaders). God the Father (Elohim) and the Son (Jesus) have bodies of flesh and bone (no blood) but the Spirit does not have a physical body (some speculated in the past that the Spirit would have to obtain one at some point in the future).

Mormons do not deny salvation by grace alone since salvation is a multi-faceted concept. What they deny is exaltation by grace alone. Salvation can be as basic as resurrection, and everyone will be resurrected. And while it is quite true that Jesus and Lucifer are spirit-brothers, many modern LDS are unaware of this idea, nor why it is necessary in their scheme of things.

The general knowledge of LDS theology of Mormons has collapsed disastrously over the past decades.

Yes, they believe the revelations given through Joseph Smith are perfect (there are more and more modern Mormons willing to think otherwise) and they continue to believe the Bible has had many “plain and precious truths” removed from it. Mormonism is changing rapidly today, and I do not see how even its billions and billions of dollars can keep it from eventually fracturing and splintering.

Dumb mistake on our part, and we’re sorry, and we’ll be more careful in the future.