Thanks for commenting John. I believe as you wrote that the Godhead share the same divine nature and have different roles and functions. The question is, are they 3 separate beings, each a God? Does Jesus stand on the right hand (side) of the Father? Do the Father, and the Son, both have bodies as tangible as ours, separate and distinct from each other?

Christians do not believe that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are the same being / person. We believe they are distinct but they share the same divine essence / nature. When the teaching of the whole Bible is considered you will find that while have different ranks, roles and functions the Father, Son and Holy Spirit share the same divine nature by sharing divine attributes, names / titles and workings that confirm they share the same divine nature. This is the only way you can reconcile the distinction of personhood but union in nature and remain Monotheistic.

I appreciate you sharing your thoughts Alex. I’ll reply briefly to your answers and try to tie in a couple other thoughts.

You mentioned that God is worthy of worship because he’s the greatest conceivable being (all-knowing, powerful, loving, etc…). I would add that God is worthy of worship not simply because he exists in this state, but also because of the great opportunities he has provided to us through the atonement of Jesus Christ. He sent his Son into the world to show us how He Himself would live if he walked among us, full of love and compassion. Through the example of His Son, we gain a more tangible understanding of God the Father’s characteristics which make him worthy of emulation, devotion, and worship.

You mention God created angels as well as mankind. Do you think God has populated other worlds though, with other children? I mean he’s been around a very long time and if this world was populated with Adam & Eve roughly 6,000 years ago, what was God doing 100,000 earth years ago? Do you think it possible he was taking another set of children through a similar experience to what we are going through? Do you suppose that God just suddenly decided that after billions or trillions of years of existence that he would have offspring and create a world for them and never had done it before and never would after? That would seem very limiting on God in my estimation. After this earth period of life ends, what then for God? Just pause in the heavens and experience the bliss of billions of his children and angels singing praises to Him? Or will he not do it again in another act of love and bring more beings into existence?

I believe so. In one of our modern day scripture sections revealed to Joseph Smith, a modern-day prophet, we read about a visionary experience Enoch had:
Moses 7:30 “And were it possible that man could number the particles of the earth, yea, millions of earths like this, it would not be a beginning to the number of thy creations; and thy curtains are stretched out still; and yet thou art there, and thy bosom is there; and also thou art just; thou art merciful and kind forever;”

So part of my faith is that I can have confidence in God’s ability to save and exalt his children, because he’s quite practiced at it. He goes through endless rounds of creation.

Now to Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Do you believe in the divinity of Jesus Christ? I assume so. The key I think to seeing what I’m talking about that we really are God’s children and he intends for us to become something divine like Himself is along these lines.
-He sent his Son into the world as “the way, the truth, and the life” to show us how He lives and what he desires us to live like.
-Jesus Christ, Paul tells us, was equal to God. (Phil. 2:6 “Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God”)
-Jesus Christ and His Father in Heaven are two separate beings. I understand the mainline concept of the 3 in 1 trinity, but a careful reading of the New Testament will reveal numerous passages that indicate the oneness of God is being one in purpose, not one in being. For example, in John 17 he prays to the Father:
11 “And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, *that they may be one, as we are*.”
22 And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; *that they may be one, even as we are one*:
How else is this to be understood except that Jesus and his Father are separate beings, otherwise there would need to be a doctrine that in the end, the trinity isn’t 3 in 1, but all of Christ’s disciples-in-1? Jesus didn’t mean to assimilate his disciples in a physical sense, but in a spiritual. He wants us unified as he and his Father are.

Also the story of Stephen being stoned in Acts 7:55-56 he clearly states he sees two persons in the heavens with Jesus standing on the right hand of God. By this we also understand that as God created man in his image, God is in the image of a man. Jesus and God look like men, which also means, when God created Adam & Eve, there must be a template for a woman in heaven which is how “let US create man(kind) in OUR image.” The Hebrew word Elohim as used in Genesis 1:1 for the word God is a plural word. The -im ending makes it so. The Bible clearly states there is some type of plurality present in “God” creating all things.

One more comment related to your comment before the last.

Why worship God our Father if he has a Father who has a Father and so on back forever?
#1) Because we are commanded to
#2) Because He is the God that created us
#3) Because He is the God that loved us so much he sent His Son into the world to atone for our sins and die for us so that we might be redeemed

I encourage you to pray about these things and ask God yourself if what I’ve been sharing with you is truth. I know they are true and I love God with all my heart and want to be just like Him. He wants me to as well. He doesn’t want to hold his children back from their full potential. The scriptures are full of this message that we lived with him before coming to earth, he prepared this earth for us to dwell and be tested on, and has prepare mansions for us in heaven. Jesus Christ revealed that:
Revelation 3:21 “To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne.”

What does it mean to sit in Christ’s throne or the Father’s throne, except to rule with them in the heavens as children grown to become spiritual, holy adults?

Jesus Christ is going to be the “KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.” (Rev. 19:16). That’s not earthly kings and lords he is King and Lord of.

My answer: To me what makes God worthy of worship is that the Bible identifies him as the greatest conceivable being – being uncreated and eternal, all-powerful, all-knowing, all-loving etc. That is the picture of God that I get when I read the Bible.

You said: “What does the word worship mean to you?”

My answer: I suppose worship refers to the giving reverence and devotion. Now obviously we show reverence to powerful people, like the President or Queen, but we don’t give them devotion. Likewise, a mere powerful being that is limited and created may be worthy of reverence just like any angel, but I don’t see why it would be worthy of any particular devotion.

You said: “In what way do you worship God?”

My answer: By my devotion to doing God’s will and by endeavouring to draw closer to him.

You said: “Do you believe we are God’s only children in all the universe?”

My answer: No, I believe God also created angels. But that there is nothing greater than or equal to him.

You said: “Where did God come from?”

My answer: God is eternal and uncreated. He has always been. My understanding is that you attribute eternality and uncreatedness to the universe. So it’s a short step from them to say that it is actually God that possesses these attributes.

Alex, before I respond to a couple of your points I’d like to understand your current beliefs.
What qualities of worship do you see in God?
What does the word worship mean to you?
In what way do you worship God?
Do you believe we are God’s only children in all the universe?
Where did God come from?

You made an interesting point here: “Lets assume there are an innumerable quantity of Gods throughout the dimensions of time and space. We still just have one being that created us as his children. That being would be pretty worthy of our love for creating us and providing a Savior for us.”

My answer to this: I love my parents and I am their child, but I don’t see why that means I should worship them. To me this seems comparable to the point you’ve made as our lives aren’t ultimately attributable to this God, but really to those who created him… and back to infinity. The only God who is worthy of worship is the one who is the creator of absolutely everything.

I appreciate the dialogue.

Hi Alex, thanks for reading the article and asking your question. Let me list a few points.

1) Jesus Christ is our Savior and he commanded us to worship God our Father.

2) The word worship means “To adore; to pay divine honors to; to reverence with supreme respect and veneration.” When we worship a being, we seek to emulate them. We seek to become like them in every way. Our heart and mind study their attributes and perfections and seek to model our lives after them.

3) Lets assume there are an innumerable quantity of Gods throughout the dimensions of time and space. We still just have one being that created us as his children. That being would be pretty worthy of our love for creating us and providing a Savior for us.

4) Paul taught the Corinthians this exact lesson you’ve brought up.

1 Corinthians 8
4 As concerning therefore the eating of those things that are offered in sacrifice unto idols, we know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is none other God but one.
5 For though there be that are called gods, whether in heaven or in earth, (as there be gods many, and lords many,)
6 But to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him.

In verse 4 Paul acknowledges there is only one God we have anything to do with and that worship of idols is worthless. Verse 5 he declares that there are many idols people worship as gods whether in heaven or earth, and then adds a parenthetical expression that there are in face many gods and lords, but in verse 6 declares that “to us” there is but one God the Father AND one Lord Jesus Christ who are the two beings we are eternally tied to.

In the last chapter of C.S. Lewis’ “Mere Christianity,” he explains how God intends to make us “New Men” in a complete transformation and not merely an evolution. He lists several points and then this one. Note the middle section where he also shares the view that God intends to take us right out of our human nature and turn us into “gods”. Not equal to God, but an heir.

“(5) The stakes are higher. By falling back at the earlier steps a creature lost, at the worst, its few years of life on this earth: very often it did not lose even that. By falling back at this step we lose a prize which is (in the strictest sense of the word) infinite. For now the critical moment has arrived. Century by century God has guided nature up to the point of producing creatures which can (if they will) be taken right out of nature, turned into “gods.” Will they allow themselves to be taken? In a way, it is like the crisis of birth. Until we rise and follow Christ we are still parts of Nature, still in the womb of our great mother. Her pregnancy has been long and painful and anxious, but it has reached its climax. The great moment has come. Everything is ready. The Doctor has arrived. Will the birth “go off all right”? But of course it differs from an ordinary birth in one important respect. In an ordinary birth the baby has not much choice: here it has. I wonder what an ordinary baby would do if it had the choice. It might prefer to stay in the dark and warmth and safety of the womb. For of course it would think the womb meant safety. That would be just where it was wrong; for if it stays there it will die.”

I’ll conclude with a few questions.
If this collection of scriptures from the Bible is incorrect, what is the correct interpretation?
What is an heir and a joint-heir?
Why did God call us “gods”?
If God created this earth and the surrounding universe, for what purpose?
How long ago did he create this universe?
If he has always existed, what was he doing 1,000,000 years ago?
One billion years ago?
One trillion?
One trillion trillion?
Is it so hard to entertain the idea that a perfect being so filled with love for his creations, wants them to be filled with the joy and perfections that are his, and that he would devise a plan for them to become like him? If we are in his image, he called us children, and meant to be his heirs, shouldn’t we be considering the full ramifications of those statements?

“God the Father was Once a Man. With this foundation laid, the LDS doctrine is that God the Father was also once a spirit child of loving Heavenly parents who placed him in a mortal realm to be tested and tried and eventually exalted. He lived a mortal life on an earth just like this experience we are having. He was exalted to be a God and our Father is the only God whom we worship. It doesn’t take away from God that there are other Gods throughout the eternities. God the Father is the object of our adoration and love and we worship none other.”

Now, my question to you is why should we worship this version of God? If I was to grant, for the sake of argument, your scriptural justification, the reasoning is still unsupported by common sense because it means God is just like any created being. What really makes your God superior to any other being? Why should we worship him? It just seems totally arbitrary. Your God has no attributes that make him sole being that is worthy of worship (that can’t also be attributed to some other being).

Hi Tome,

Thanks for posting. It seems you believe there is a God, but I’m not sure how far that goes for you based on your answer. I’m not certain if you believe the Bible or some other faith that professes a belief in God.
I’d like to address your last paragraph wherein you state that no mortal man has ever come back from a visit with God and that no one can know the true rules of engagement. I believe there are “rules of engagement” that God has lined out and that, in fact, there are individuals who have seen and communicated with God and shared those experiences with man.
If you believe the Bible, then you would accept that numerous individuals have seen God as a corporeal being. Moses spake with God face to face on Sinai (Exo. 33:11), Stephen being stoned looked into heaven and saw Christ on the right hand of the Father (Acts 7) showing us they are two distinct beings, John the Revelator saw God sitting upon his throne in his recorded apocalyptic vision (numerous references such as Rev. 5:6; 7:11 and others) and others. If you don’t believe the Bible and argue that these are not valid in some way, then we can point to a modern day prophet, Joseph Smith, that made the claim that God the Father and his Son Jesus Christ both appeared to him in answer to a prayer of faith where he wanted to inquire as to which church he should join.
Joseph’s event started as the Holy Ghost worked upon him while reading in James 1:5-6 which says “if any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God that giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not and it shall be given him.” Joseph testified to the force this verse had upon him and resolve to go and pray. Now he either had the experience or he did not. He was either a prophet of God, or he was not. God either chose to reopen the lines of communication with man in our day as he did in olden times, or he did not. When Amos 3:7 says “surely the Lord God will do nothing but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets” the prophet either meant God works through prophets or not. When Jesus Christ said he would establish his church on a foundation of apostles and prophets with himself as the chief cornerstone, he either meant he would call apostles and prophets, or he lied.
I do not believe a person can merely ask God on a whim if something is true and expect an answer. At the end of the Book of Mormon, which is a book of scripture from the ancient Americas that Joseph translated, there is a promise that states if a person will read the book and ask God if it is true, having real intent and a sincere heart, God will manifest the truth of it to that person. A person can’t expect an answer without an actual study of the material, and a truly sincere heart asking God with real intent to act on if an answer is given. A person has to have a heart that witnesses to God if he will give the answer that person will follow the prophet that restored the Book of Mormon. That’s how you can know just as I know that the Book of Mormon is a true book of scripture, and that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God.
God wants his children to ask him questions. He wants to communicate with us. If you will take these steps to read and pray with real intent, no deception, I know God will answer you.

I have asked God and no God did not reveal that the Mormon story is true. Likewise, all modern “Christian” sects are also not true. And the reason for all of this is that Christians as well as Mormon christians put their faith in the writings of men who proclaimed to be writing “THE word of God” when actually they were writing their own interpretations of what they thought God said, or wants, or is. The same holds true for Mormons through Smith. Smith, just as other mortal writers proclaimed that only he knows the true word of God through an angel. That story by Smith’s own story and admission should tell you that what Smith proclaim is NOT the actual word of God, but stories proclaimed to be given to him by a third party.

From all of these stories written by mortal men, the Christian and Mormon churches were created. And thus, all churches, of Jews, Christians, Mormons, and Muslims, are created from the minds and hands of mortal men and not God.
The stories and teachings may have been “inspired” by God, but they are clearly NOT “THE” word or words of God.

The Mormon story is quite interesting I must say. It’s quite colorful and eventful and gives new and more modern connections to the people it wanted to sway. And, because it was new and interesting it did and has swayed a lot of people to it’s stories and faith.

However, the faith of Mormon’s is no more real or unreal than the faiths of Christians, Jews, or Muslims or any faith that originates in the Middle East.

You may be convinced of your beliefs, but such is the nature and want of belief. You WANT to believe that when you asked God that God would reveal the “truth” to you. And thus, the “answer” you received you though came from God, and that that answer fulfilled your previous choice, acceptance, and belief in the stories and faith of Mormonism. You were not pure, clean, nor innocent when you asked your question/s to and of God.

Many think that God will answer them if only they ask. Unfortunately, we can not know the true and actual rules of engagement with God. And as no mortal man has ever come back from a visit with God, regardless of some human’s claims, all we then have is again the words, thoughts, and conclusions of man telling us what God wants, asks, or is.

TT