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Latter Day Saints will, on the one hand, assent to a multiplicity of Gods with humans being capable of being exalted to the same level of God as God the Father in the Bible. God the Father may have once been a mortal being such as we are.

On the other hand Latter Day Saint theology would not necessarily label itself as polytheistic or henotheistic. Instead their stance is that, regardless of the existence of other (equal) Gods, there is only one God whom we can and should worship now and only one God who responds and interacts with us.

Are these multiple Gods all part of our universe and, if so, do they have an agreement amongst themselves to stay out of each other's "plans of salvation" or is LDS postulating more of a multi-verse scenario where all of the various Gods are actually isolated from each other and cannot interfere?

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The church itself does not take a position on the multiverse; I personally know members of the church who believe the existence of a multiverse is likely, and others who find the idea far too speculative to be taken seriously.

A worthwhile thought experiment (for any theist) is: if God can create a universe, is there any reason why God could not create more than one universe?

In the Pearl of Great Price (accepted by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as scripture) Moses asks God a somewhat comparable question, and was told:

Here is wisdom and it remaineth in me.

...

But only an account of this earth, and the inhabitants thereof, give I unto you. (Moses 1:31b & 35a)

BYU Professor Randy Bott was famous for saying that this is a polite way of saying "this is none of thy business" =).

God specifically declined to provide this information.

My own personal belief (not church doctrine!) is that there is nothing in scripture to exclude the existence of more than one universe, and there is nothing in scripture to support the idea that antecedent Deities exist in this universe.

Furthermore, Doctrine & Covenants 93:29 states:

Man was also in the beginning with God. Intelligence, or the light of truth, was not created or made, neither indeed can be.

If man has always existed and the universe has not...it seems reasonable to believe more than this universe exists.

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  • But you do believe that antecedent deities exist somewhere, correct?
    – Mike Borden
    Mar 25, 2022 at 13:03
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    @MikeBorden that they exist, yes. Where they exist (or even what where means outside the spacetime of our universe) has not been revealed.
    – Hold To The Rod
    Mar 25, 2022 at 14:55
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The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has no doctrine on this (they do not postulate a multi-verse; nothing explicitly for or against this theory). This topic (where/what gods will do exactly) doesn't have many specifics as there are enough other subject matters to learn about and life to experience during mortality.

The basics of what we know and should focus on:

The Plan of Salvation presented during the council in heaven:

In the premortal life, our Heavenly Father called a Grand Council to present His plan for our progression (see Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Joseph Smith [2007], 209, 511). We learned that if we followed His plan, we would become like Him. We would be resurrected; we would have all power in heaven and on earth; we would become heavenly parents and have spirit children just as He does.

Mortality

This part of our existence is a time of learning in which we can prove ourselves, choose to come unto Christ, and prepare to be worthy of eternal life.

See also Becoming like God

If unsatisfied with above read arguments on this subject below, but this is all conjecture. Anything beyond this is speculation on my part:

Arguments for multiverse theory

  • it would make sense for those who are exalted to be a god of their own universe, without interfering with others
  • there is plenty that we do not know about science/multi-verse, to quote Dr Strange The Multiverse is a concept about which we know frighteningly little (like does it even exist, its all hypothetical)

Arguments against:

  • No doctrine, scripture, or even speculation by any LDS church leaders to my knowledge.
  • doctrine teaches using words about family (father, child, family, love, etc) and it seems weird to me if we were separated/apart from one another
  • there are other possibilities/theories that could work (I know of at least one other theory-but its also pure speculation and I have no strong evidence for/against)
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  • When you become like Him and have all power in heaven and on earth, where will you be...in this universe with Him?
    – Mike Borden
    Mar 25, 2022 at 13:05
  • @MikeBorden there is no explicit doctrine on this.
    – depperm
    Mar 25, 2022 at 14:13

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