~~~~~The Mormon Church consistently taught the following as doctrine
from 1844 to 2005~~~~~
"God himself was once as we are now, and is an exalted Man, and sits
enthroned in yonder heavens. That is the great secret... It is the first
principle of the Gospel to know for a certainty the character of God and
to know...that he was once a man like us.
Here, then, is eternal life--to know that only wise and true God, and
you have got to learn how to become Gods yourselves, and to be kings and
priests to God, the same as all Gods have done before you. .. God
himself, the father of us all dwelt on an earth the same as Jesus Christ."
~~ The Prophet Joseph Smith Jr, Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith
Jr, 342-345, also quoted heavily by the church, see Gospel Principles,
Chapter 47.
"The idea that the Lord our God is not a personage of tabernacle is
entirely a mistaken notion. He was once a man. Brother Kimball quoted a
saying of Joseph the Prophet, that he would not wor****p a God who had
not a Father; and I do not know that he would if be had not a mother;
the one would be as absurd as the other. If he had a Father, he was made
in his likeness. And if he is our Father we are made after his image and
likeness.
"He once possessed a body, as we now do; and our bodies are as much to
us, as his body to him. Every iota of this organization is necessary to
secure for us an exaltation with the Gods."
~~ Prophet Brigham Young, True Character of God, Salt Lake Tabernacle,
February 23, 1862, Journal of Discourses, Vol. 9, p.286
"What, is it possible that the Father of Heights, the Father of our
spirits, could reduce himself and come forth like a man? Yes, he was
once a man like you and I are and was once on an earth like this, passed
through the ordeal you and I pass through.
"He had his father and his mother and he has been exalted through his
faithfulness, and he is become Lord of all. He is the God pertaining to
this earth. He is our Father. He begot our spirits in the spirit world.
They have come forth and our earthly parents have organized tabernacles
for our spirits and here we are today. That is the way we came.
~~ Prophet Brigham Young, 14 July 1861, Recorded in "The Essential
Brigham Young", p.138
"Many religions teach that human beings are children of God, but often
their conception of Him precludes any kind of bond resembling a
parent-child relation****p.
The Prophet Joseph Smith taught of a much simpler and more sensible
relation****p: “God himself was once as we are now, and is an exalted
man, and sits enthroned in yonder heavens! That is the great secret. If
the veil were rent today, and the great God who holds this world in its
orbit … was to make himself visible … , you would see him like a man in
form—like yourselves in all the person, image, and very form as a man;
for Adam was created in the very fa****on, image and likeness of God, and
received instruction from, and walked, talked and conversed with Him, as
one man talks and communes with another.”"
~~ “Strengthening the Family: Created in the Image of God, Male and
Female,” Ensign, Jan. 2005, 48
"The doctrine that God was once a man and has progressed to become a God
is unique to this church."
~~ Official LDS Lesson Manual, 1997, page 34, "The Teachings of Brigham
Young"
"That exalted position was made manifest to me at a very early day. I
had a direct revelation of this. It was most perfect and complete. If
there ever was a thing revealed to man perfectly, clearly, so that there
could be no doubt or dubiety, this was revealed to me, and it came in
these words: "As man now is, God once was; as God now is, man may be."
This may appear to some minds as something very strange and remarkable,
but it is in perfect harmony with the teachings of Jesus Christ and with
His promises."
~~ Prophet Lorenzo R. Snow, Unchangeable Love of God, Sunday, September
18, 1898.
"We all know that like begets like and that for the offspring to grow to
the stature of his parent is a process infinitely repeated in nature. We
can therefore understand that for a son of God to grow to the likeness
of his Father in heaven is in harmony with natural law. We see this law
demonstrated every few years in our own experience. Sons born to mortal
fathers grow up to be like their fathers in the flesh. This is the way
it will be with spirit sons of God. They will grow up to be like their
Father in heaven. Joseph taught this obvious truth. As a matter of fact,
he taught that through this process God himself attained perfection.
From President Snow's understanding of the teachings of the Prophet on
this doctrinal point, he coined the familiar couplet: "As man is, God
once was; as God is, man may become." This teaching is peculiar to the
restored gospel of Jesus Christ."
~~ Elder Marion G. Romney, General Conference, October 1964
"We often say, and you have heard the expression as it has already been
referred to in this conference, that "as man now is, God once was, and
as God now is, man may become." The only way man may become as God now
is, is through fulfilling the laws of celestial marriage and the laws of
the gospel, as I have just read to you the word of the Lord from the
D&C. Can we afford to overlook such op****tunities for exaltation? Temple
marriage is not just another form of church wedding; it is a divine
covenant with the Lord that if we are faithful to the end, we may become
as God now is."
~~ Elder Eldred G. Smith (Patriarch to the Church), General Conference,
October 1948
"Mormonism be it true or false, holds out to men the greatest
inducements that the human mind can grasp. And so it does... It teaches
men that they can become divine, that man is God in embryo, that God was
once man in mortality, and that the only difference between Gods, angels
and men is a difference in education and development.
Is such a religion to be sneered at? It teaches that the worlds on high,
the stars that glitter in the blue vault of heaven, are kingdoms of God,
that they were once earths like this, that they have been redeemed and
glorified by the same laws, the same principles that are applied to this
planet, and by which it will ascend to a perfected and glorified state.
It teaches that these worlds are peopled with human beings, God's sons
and daughters, and that every husband and father, may become an Adam,
and every wife and mother an Eve, to some future planet."
~~ Orson F. Whitney, Divine Evidences of Truthfulness, Y.M.M.I.A. Annual
Conference, June 9th, 1895.
"So the Prophet Joseph Smith, in this age, has added to this truth by
the assertion that "As man is God once was, and that as He is man may
became," because He is our Father, and like begets like, and inherent
within us are the attributes of divinity that shall lead us into
perfection, which Christ intended His Saints to attain unto."
~~ Elder Joseph E. Robinson, General Conference, April 1912
"God our Heavenly Father is still progressing. While He knows all that
is, all that has been, and possibly all things that He designs for the
future and what will be in the future, yet He is constantly adding to
His dominion, constantly increasing His power, constantly developing in
His resources and in His glorious aspirations. This, at least, is our
understanding of the condition of our Father in heaven.
The thought has been expressed and accepted as a truth, that as we are
now, God has been, and as God is now we may be; and if we admit this to
be a truth-and I have no disposition to dispute it-then I repeat that
even God our Heavenly Father has not reached the ultimatum of His
greatness, His power, or His capacity, but that He is continually
increasing and expanding in power, in dominion, in glory and in
greatness, if I may be permitted to use such terms as these which some
people who know no better would call blasphemous, in connection with the
Supreme Being, the Father of us all.
~~ Prophet Joseph F. Smith, Sustaining Each Other in the Gospel,
Sunday, February 16, 1896.
"We are His children in Very deed, having been born of Him in the
spirit, and we have inherited the very attributes which he possesses.
They are in us, and they make us God's embryo, We believe that as we are
now God once was, and by the practice of virtue and righteousness, by
obedience unto law and authority, He has become what He is, and as He
is, man may become, on the same principle."
~~ Elder George F. Richards, General Conference, April 1913
"The doctrine of the relation****p between God and men, as made plain
through the word of revelation, is today as it was of old, though in the
light of later scripture we are enabled to read the meaning more
clearly. It is provided that we, the sons and daughters of God, may
advance until we become like unto our Eternal Father and our Eternal
Mother, in that we may become perfect in our spheres as they are in
theirs. That grand truth, taught by the Prophet Joseph and ridiculed for
the time, has now gripped the minds of the thinkers and philosophers of
the age... It was crystallized into what we may call an aphorism, by
President Lorenzo Snow: 'As man is God once was; as God is man may be'."
~~ Elder James E. Talmage, General Conference, April 1915
"Mormon prophets have continuously taught the sublime truth that God the
Eternal Father was once a mortal man who passed through a school of
earth life similar that through which we are now passing. He became God
- an exalted being - through obedience to the same eternal Gospel truths
that we are given op****tunity today to obey."
~~ Elder Milton R. Hunter, The Gospel Through the Ages, p 104
"It is a Mormon truism that is current among us and we all accept it,
that as man is God once was and as God is man may become. That does not
signify that man will become God. I am sorry to say, and yet it is a
truth, that not many men will become what God is, simply because they
will not pay the price, because they are not willing to live up to the
requirements; and still all men may, if they will, become what God is,
but only those who are heirs of the celestial glory shall ever be
possible candidates, to become what God is."
~~ Elder Melvin J. Ballard, General Conference, April 1921
"We remember the numerous scriptures which, concentrated in a single
line, were said by a former prophet, Lorenzo Snow: "As man is, God once
was; and as God is, man may become." This is a power available to us as
we reach perfection and receive the experience and power to create, to
organize, to control native elements. How limited we are now! We have no
power to force the grass to grow, the plants to emerge, the seeds to
develop."
~~ Prophet Spencer W. Kimball, General Conference, April 1977
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