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A follow-up to this question, if the LDS church teaches that men can become gods, how does it reconcile this with the concept that there is only one God?

Isaiah 45:5:

I am the LORD, and there is no other; apart from me there is no God. I will strengthen you, though you have not acknowledged me,

Exodus 20:3:

“You shall have no other gods before me.

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3 Answers

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I suppose if you wanted to split hairs, you could technically consider the LDS faith to be polytheistic, since Mormons believe God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost to be separate and distinct individuals.

Outside of that, it's pretty simple. Mormons worship God the Father, through the Son. While we believe that there are other gods out there, they are not our God. I find that an analogy helps me think about this clearly: At work, I have one boss. He is my boss and no one else is. There are other bosses, but I do not report to them, they do not affect my quarterly reviews, and I don't really interact with them in any sort of manager-underling relationship. The same goes for God.

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So how does this view explain the verses stating there is only one God ? for example, Isaiah 45:5 " I am the Lord, and there is none else, there is no God besides me;"(Inspired Version) – 2tim424 Sep 15 '11 at 22:15
as I understand it, that's akin to saying "thou shalt have no other gods before me". Basically "I'm your God, and no one else is". It helps to think of "God" as a title denoting one who is worthy of worship. Beings who are like the Father but are not Him should not be worshipped, because they are not our creators. They have nothing to do with our existence. – Dave DeLong Sep 15 '11 at 22:20
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And when God says he is unaware of any other gods? Isaiah 44:8 "Fear ye not, neither be afraid; have not I told thee from that time, and have declared it? yea are even my witnesses. Is there a God besides me? yea, there is no God; I know not any."(Inspired Version) – 2tim424 Sep 15 '11 at 22:35
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But you just mentioned three "separate Gods" in your answer... Are not the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit within the scope of our existence? – Flimzy Sep 15 '11 at 22:48
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@WhatAboutJohn3_17 sounds like great fodder for a new question – Dave DeLong Sep 15 '11 at 23:18
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I don't have time for a well researched answer right now, but I want to offer two quick thoughts:

  • LDS doctrine refers to a "Godhead" consisting of three distinct individuals: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost. Because they are perfectly united in purpose and goodness, we refer to them as one God. Jesus taught this concept by saying that all who know him know the Father and by saying that he only does what the Father sent him to do. We follow Jesus' example and only pray to the Father and only worship the Father. There is no other God outside of His power and authority.

  • God the Father is the ruler of the universe. As His children, He is willing to share His power with us and make us like Him should we prove our willingness to obey His will. But we will always recognize Him as our Lord and Father just as Jesus does. In this way we wholeheartedly accept the commandment that we shall have no Gods before him.

I wanted to quickly contribute to the discussion even though I don't have time to find these concepts explained anywhere authoritative. Hopefully someone else can fill in the gap.

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LDS doctrine reconciles the two concepts quite easily, in fact. From Moses 1:35:

But only an account of this earth, and the inhabitants thereof, give I unto you.

The revelations we are given are limited in scope to this world and the people living on it, and how they can find salvation. And within that scope, they are correct. Any knowledge beyond that does not affect us, nor does it have any bearing on where we'll end up spending eternity, so we don't really need to worry about it; we've already got our hands full with trying to live up to the basics!

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That's not a reconciliation, that's a side-stepping. If the honest answer is "we don't know" I could accept that... but the other answer to this question suggests that it has been thought about, and answered... at least by some Mormons. Maybe the views in @Dave's answer aren't "official"? – Flimzy Sep 16 '11 at 6:41

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