Question 2: Was God once a man just as we
are?
And can we progress to become a God as He
is now?
>>Ankerberg: Let me give you a quote that
stood out to me.
And I want to put this up on the screen for
folks that you can look at.
Joseph Smith said this, “God, himself, was
once as we are now and is an exalted man and
sits enthroned in yonder heaven.
I’m going to tell you how God came to be
God.
We have imagined and supposed that God was
God from all eternity.
I will refute that idea and take away the
veil so that you may see he was once a man
like us and you have got to learn how to be
Gods yourselves.”
Dissect that a little bit for us.
>>Tanner: In Mormonism, they have what they
refer to as the plan of eternal progression.
And in this plan, they believe that everyone
has the potential to … every man has the
potential to become a God, just like heavenly
father — that we’re all the same species.
And so at one time they would say God was
a human who lived on some other world system,
which would have had a different God over
it, and he would have gone through a mortal
life — going to work, had a job, married,
and then died, went to heaven (and we don’t
know how long it takes), but after he went
through the school of whatever you have to
learn, he was declared a God.
And then he was able to go off and start his
own world to populate it with his spirit children,
who then have the same potential, eventually,
to become a God just like him.
So, you have this progression of every God’s
got a mom and dad and a grandma and grandpa.
And every child of God has the potential to
progress on to godhood.
And now for this Mormon male, the Mormon woman
is a helpmeet to her husband, but he is the
hope to become a God of his own world.
