Who came first,
God or man?
for Mormons
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Who came first,
for Mormons |
The title of this paper may seem like a foolish question until you investigate the teachings of the LDS church about the god they worship. According to teachings of the LDS Church, the god of earth is an exalted man of flesh and bone. The official statement is: "The Father has a body of flesh and bones as tangible as man's. . ." (Doctrine & Covenants 130:22 -The D& C is an official LDS Scripture) Joseph Smith taught about a process he called "eternal progression" by which a man could become a god. He explained that the god of Mormonism, through "eternal progression" became the god of our earth.
God according to the LDS church began as a man, who lived a "worthy" life and was faithful to the god of the world he lived on. When he died he was resurrected to what they call the "Celestial" heaven, and there was made a god and given this earth to rule. This certainly brings up a puzzling and valid question: Who came first....God or Man?
Your answer, either way, has serious ramifications for Mormonism. If you say God came first then you have a real problem, because according the LDS teaching....the god of earth is an exalted man and that means god was a man before he was a god. If you answer is man came first that presents an enormous problem too because that means man created god? Do you see the point?
The plain fact is that the LDS church is teaching that man came first.... That also contradicts the Book of Mormon which says in Alma 22:12 "And it came to pass that when Aaron saw that the king would believe his words, he began from the creation of Adam, reading the scriptures unto the king -- how God created man after his own image, and that God gave him commandments, and that because of transgression, man had fallen." Did you know that nowhere in the Book of Mormon does it even hint that God is a god of "flesh and bone" and in no LDS scriptures is eternal progression mentioned?
The only answer is the biblical answer which correctly says that "In the beginning God created the heavens and earth." Further on the sixth day God created man. . . "And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them." (Genesis 1:1, 26-27)
So the Bible, God's word, answers the question and states that in the beginning, ...before the universe and earth existed, God created everything. Then on the sixth day of creation He created man and before the sixth day....man did not exist! Further it says that man was created complete exactly as he is today.
The Bible also says some other important things about God that totally contradict the teaching of the LDS church. The Bible says that God has always existed and has no beginning or end. The Bible says God is the "Eternal God." (Genesis 21:33) This means that God existed before the universe and the earth and that He is not subject to time as are material men in our physical world. God created time when He made the heavens and the Earth (Gen. 1:1-2, Heb. 1:2, 11:3). Psalm 102:27, says "thou art the same, and thy years have no end" (see Heb. 13:18, James 1:17). God tells us in the Bible, that He created time, space, the earth, the heaven, and exists beyond them, and that is not subject to either.
Yes, it is true that the LDS church says in the BOM and D&C that their god is eternal. However, this is impossible according to their teachings. Why, because their god was not always a god. The teach that their god was a man before he was a god and that even now he is a god of "flesh and bone."
The actual teaching of the LDS church is that their god first existed as an "intelligence" who did not have a body but only existed as a formless intelligence somewhere the regions of space. This bodiless "intelligence" then acquired a "spirit body" when he was born as a "spirit child" in heaven to the LDS Heavenly Father by one of his wives. This once "intelligence," now with a spirit body, continued in eternal progression and received a human body when the Heavenly Father allowed him to go to earth and be born to human parents. The god of earth, according to LDS teaching, was once a man who lived on some planet out in the universe, who because he was faithful and worthy, after he died and was resurrected into a Celestial heaven and became a god of flesh and bone. Next this once intelligence, then spirit child, then man and now resurrected man, became a god of flesh and bone. This man-god then was given the rule of this earth by the counsel of gods that meet near the center of the universe near the star Kolob. Clearly the LDS god was not eternally god as they claim, but a man who lived in time and became a god-man. Therefore the LDS god existed first as a man before he became their god.
This presents a serious problem for LDS church who tells its members that they worship the eternal God of the Bible. The truth is that Joseph Smith who is the founder of the LDS church invented their god and he most definitely is not the God of the Bible.
Therefore the answer according to the LDS Church is that MAN CAME FIRST.
God explains in Romans 1:21-23 how the teachings of false gods came about:
The truth is...God created man and the universe exactly as Genesis 1-2 have recorded! Our true Creator was never a man and the LDS description of their god is totally different from the God of the Bible. Only our true God and Creator exists and He tell us that He loves us and wishes us to be in heaven with Him when we die. Unlike the false gods created by foolish men, who require that men save themselves by their good works, good deeds and religion, our Creator offers to us salvation, forgiveness of sins and eternal life freely, if we will believe in Him and by faith accept Him as our Savior. To read an article that explains from the Bible God's plan of Salvation and how we can know our real God and Savior please click this line.
(For more information on a biblical comparison of the God of the Bible with the god of Mormonism go to:Is the God of Mormonism the God of the Bible? )
3-14-05
There are many serious problems with the teachings of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (the Mormons). The most somber is their teachings about their god. Joseph Smith in inventing his new religion made some colossal errors in his thinking. For example let us look at LDS Church's teaching concerning who is God.
"Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things" (Romans 1:21-23).
I welcome your comments: