Doctrine & Theology
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Exaltation and Becoming Like God

Do Latter-day Saints believe they will replace God, or is exaltation the biblical hope of becoming partakers of the divine nature?

Bible

The Bible answers

Bible · 2 Peter 1:4

KJV + NRSVUE

Partakers of the divine nature. The Eastern church still says theosis. We are not the odd ones.

King James Version

Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.

NRSVUE

Thus he has given us, through these things, his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may escape from the corruption that is in the world because of lust and may become participants of the divine nature.

Bible · Matthew 5:48

KJV + NRSVUE

King James Version

Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.

NRSVUE

Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Book of Mormon

Also restored

Doctrine and Covenants 76:58

Wherefore, as it is written, they are gods, even the sons of God—

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; then shall they be above all, because all things are subject unto them. Then shall they be gods, because they have all power, and the angels are subject unto them.

Ancient witnesses

Dead Sea Scrolls and related extra-biblical texts that illuminate the same pattern the Restoration restores.

11QMelchizedek citing Psalm 82; 4QInstruction

Psalm 82, read at Qumran as a council scene, says: “I have said, Ye are gods; and all of you are children of the most High.” 4QInstruction promises the righteous an “inheritance of glory” and speaks of walking according to the likeness of the holy ones.

Deification language is at home in the Bible and in the Scrolls. Jesus Himself cites Psalm 82: “Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are gods?” (John 10:34). The shock of Restoration teaching is not that humans may become like God. The shock is that modern Western Christianity forgot how biblical that hope is.

Wisdom of Solomon 2:23; 5:5

For God created us for incorruption, and made us in the image of his own eternity… Why have they been numbered among the children of God, and why is their lot among the saints?

Wisdom already joins image-of-God anthropology to a hope of incorruption and a lot among the holy ones. Exaltation is that hope restored, not a cartoon of humans knocking the Father off His throne.

Faithful answers

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Becoming Like God

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

The official essay places exaltation inside the Bible and the early church. Latter-day Saints will always worship the Father. Progression never changes His identity as our God. Little has been revealed about the speculative half of Lorenzo Snow’s couplet, and little is taught.

Latter-day Saints see all people as children of God in a full and complete sense; they consider every person divine in origin, nature, and potential… Latter-day Saints believe that God’s children will always worship Him. Our progression will never change His identity as our Father and our God.

  • Irenaeus, Clement of Alexandria, and Basil spoke of humans becoming what God is by grace. That is not a Restoration novelty.
  • President Hinckley distinguished deep, little-revealed theology (“as man now is, God once was”) from the firmly taught hope: as God is, man may become.
  • Exaltation is Christ-shaped: we become like Him by His Atonement, not by self-promotion.
  • Pride is incompatible with progress. Disunity is impossible between exalted beings.
Read the original

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Becoming Like God (Gospel Topics)

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Just as children can develop the attributes of their parents, each of us has the potential, through Christ, to become like our Heavenly Father. That potential is the point of the gospel, not a footnote.

Just as children can develop the attributes of their parents, each of us has the potential to become like our Heavenly Father.

  • The doctrine produces love of neighbor: every person is a child of God in a full sense.
  • Covenant, family, and charity are the school of exaltation.
  • This teaching expands beyond most contemporary churches because it takes the biblical parent-child image literally.
Read the original

Suggested videos

Faithful voices only. Most of these are independent — not official Church productions unless marked as such.

FAIR Latter-day Saints

Faithful Answers S1 E3: Are Mormons Christian? (Part 1)

Watch on YouTube

Further reading

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