Our Eternal Destiny

Colton Winder/ February 11, 2019/ Religion

“As man now is God once was, and as God now is, man may become…”

In the first episode of the reality television series that our family is presented on, Tami made reference to a belief that we consider to be a core foundation of our faith. She stated that this life is a probationary period for us to learn to become like God, because that is our ultimate goal. It’s a comment that was met with varying responses; some incredulous, some outraged, some damning us to Hell as heretics and blasphemers. How dare we believe that our most gracious Eternal Father’s plan allows for us to become like him and our dearly beloved Mothers in Heaven? (yes, I just went there, we believe that we have Mothers in Heaven as well).

In Mormonism, there’s a doctrine commonly preached that our purpose in this life is to learn to put off what has been termed “the Natural Man,” which is to say that we learn to put off our more base instincts, our selfish desires, and we eventually attain a state of righteousness that will allow us to again enter the presence of the Lord. Aside from this doctrine relating to our natural fallen state, however, Mormonism is a religion that is in many ways in harmony with the laws of nature as well. Species are propagated, they grow and develop to become as their progenitors were. Life is a constant cycle of progression and growth until death closes this mortal chapter. Death, however, is not the end of progression and growth. Some may view our belief that we can progress and grow to achieve what God has as a blasphemous doctrine, but we view it more as a natural progression.

Becoming like God

The couplet I began this essay with, which has been attributed to Lorenzo Snow (the fifth president of the LDS Church), was conceived by him following a discussion with the first Patriarch of the LDS Church, Joseph Smith Sr. (the father of the keystone prophet of Mormonism, Joseph Smith Jr.). In this discussion, ultimately centering around his conversion to this movement, Joseph Smith Sr. encouraged him by saying “you will become as great as you can possibly wish—EVEN AS GREAT AS GOD, and you cannot wish to be greater.” (as recorded in Eliza R. Snow, Biography and Family Record of Lorenzo Snow, Salt Lake City: Deseret News Co., 1884, pp. 9–10). The couplet I shared at the beginning of this essay could just as easily be changed to say “as a son now is his father once was, and as the father now is his son may become.” This is natural progression.

That being said, it’s not a progression that one can simply sit back and allow nature to take its course. That goes back to the doctrine of the Natural Man. No, this progression requires a great amount of diligence and refining. Metaphorically, we begin this process as craggy, jagged, rough stones on the face of a mountain. With time and weathering, the passage of water and wind, and the forces of gravity and nature, those jagged and rough edges are worn off of us until we become a gem of beauty and perfection. It’s a difficult process, filled with pain and hard lessons. It isn’t an easy path to tread, but we don’t grow inside of our comfortable spaces.

King Follett Discourse

In 1844, Joseph Smith Jr. preached a sermon at a funeral which is now known in many circles as the “King Follett Discourse” (King Follett being the man honored at the funeral). In this discourse, he plainly taught that “God himself was once as we are now, and is an exalted man, and sits enthroned in yonder heavens! … 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.”

There has been a lot of discussion and debate in religious circles since time immemorial. What is the true nature of God? Every religious belief and denomination has their view on the subject. One that seems fairly prevalent is what I have heard referred to as “the Worm Theory.” A very basic summary of this belief is that God created us to come to earth and be saved/ partake of his grace/ follow our predetermined path/ etc. and in the winding-up scene of this earth, we will be spared from God’s wrath so that we can worship Him for all eternity. I mean no disrespect to anyone else’s belief, but from my perspective it appears that the idea is that God created us to be worms beneath His feet and to spend the rest of eternity doing nothing but worshipping Him (for example, playing our lutes and singing His praises for all eternity).

I believe in a God that is much more concerned for His children and is much more practical and devoted to us than that. In Mormon scripture, we believe that God’s teaching in regards to this is that His “work and glory is to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.” (Moses 1:39). Now you may ask, what then is the glory of God that He so passionately works for?

According to our Doctrine and Covenants 93 36-37, the glory of God is intelligence. In short, we believe in a God that didn’t create us to be worms to worship at His feet for all eternity. We believe in a loving Eternal Father that with our loving Eternal Mothers created us to gain immortality and eternal life and to eternally gain glory by eternally gaining intelligence. In no way do we believe that this diminishes the glory of God or our lowly station in comparison to that held by Him and His beloved wives. Any and all glory that we attain to in this life and in eternity simply adds to His glory, and the truth and light inherent in this cycle provides all of us with eternal progression.

Increasing knowledge

Two of my favorite hymns in Mormonism discuss this topic. The first, “If You Could Hie to Kolob,” (also known in some circles as “the song for which there is no end”) states that “the works of God continue, and worlds and lives abound; improvement and progression have one eternal round.” In another Mormon hymn, entitled “The Spirit of God,” there’s a line that states that “the knowledge and power of God are expanding.” In mainstream LDS circles today, it’s very likely that a person claiming that God’s own knowledge and power are expanding would likely be met with either stony silence or vehement protestations. Quotes can be found by early leaders of the LDS Church that can set the stage for either belief.

On the one hand, we have Wilford Woodruff teaching that “God is increasing in knowledge. If there was a point where man in his progression could not proceed any further, the very idea would throw a gloom over every intelligent and reflecting mind. God Himself is increasing and progressing in knowledge, power, and dominion, and will do so, worlds without end.” (The Discourses of Wilford Woodruff, 3). On the other hand, Orson Pratt taught that “the Father and the Son do not progress in knowledge and wisdom, because they already know all things past, present, and to come” (Orson Pratt, The Seer, p. 117).

At the end of the day, any member of the mainstream LDS Church that is loyal and believing will pick up and run with whatever statement the current living prophet says is true. As I’ve attempted to make abundantly clear, that no longer applies to me and my family, to the chagrin of many in our lives. My personal belief is that overall, our Father and God is still progressing in His knowledge and power, but compared to the knowledge and power we have obtained and can obtain in mortality, God’s knowledge and power is so infinitely more vast and all-encompassing than ours is that to us, it may as well not be progressing. Maybe this doesn’t make sense to you, but it makes perfect sense to me and frankly, that’s what’s important to me. So if you are a loyal member of the LDS Church, please spare me your indignation and fiery testimonies. I have plenty of people fulfilling the role of Samuel on the wall and calling me to repentance. If you’re a born-again Christian, please spare me the same. I’ll fight for your right to believe what makes sense to you and sincerely hope that you’d all do the same for me.

Created in the image of God

Towards the end of his life, Lorenzo Snow wrote a poem based on the scripture found in Philippians 2:5-6, which says “let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God.” In Genesis 1:27, we’re taught that we too are created in the form of God, both male and female (because God in our belief is not and cannot be without Goddess), and as such, we don’t believe it is robbery either to aspire to be like our God. We believe that it’s perfectly within the will of God for us to become like Him, though he will always be our Father and our God (*see side-note at the bottom). I’m including here the text of Lorenzo Snow’s poem, which is as follows:

“Hast thou not been unwisely bold, Man’s destiny to thus unfold? To raise, promote such high desire, such vast ambition thus inspire? Still ’tis no phantom that we trace Man’s ultimatum in life’s race; This royal path has long been trod by righteous men, each now a God: As Abra’m, Isaac, Jacob, too, first babes, then men—to gods they grew. As man now is, our God once was; As now God is, so man may be,— which doth unfold man’s destiny. The boy, like to his father grown, has but attained unto his own; To grow to sire from state of son, is not ’gainst Nature’s course to run. A son of God, like God to be, would not be robbing Deity; and he who has this hope within, will purify himself from sin.”

(Lorenzo Snow, “Man’s Destiny,” Improvement Era, June 1919, pp. 660–61.)

I fully believe and have a testimony that the intent of our Father and Mothers in Heaven is for us to grow and progress until we attain a position like Their own, and that as we faithfully strive to prepare for that, we’ll earn the opportunity to grow and progress eternally. As someone who has a love of learning, that sounds like a dream come true to me. For that I will ever be worshipful and grateful towards our loving Eternal Parents.

*Side-Note: I saw a hashtag last year on Facebook that was shared by a couple of friends that said something along the lines of #MakeAdamGodagain. Another controversial topic in Mormonism is often referred to as the “Adam-God doctrine.” We’ll leave that discussion for another day, but know that it is on the horizon. I’m not sure how far out on the horizon it is, but it will be addressed by us someday.