Page 119 - Advanced Apologetics and World Views Revised

Chapter 16: Questions about World Religions

Connect …

Some of the meanest people I have met call themselves Christians. I have been to church
business meetings where various people almost have a fist fight over the color or the new pews. I’ve
experienced a church split where half the people in the church left and started their own church. The
world looks at some who name the name of Christ and laughs. To them, Christianity is simply a crutch
for living. They don’t see it really changing the lives of those who call themselves Christians. That is so
very unfortunate; since the lives we live are really the only “Bible” they can read.
Our questions today deal with the difference between true, life changing faith and a false faith that is
not visible. The Bible predicts that many in the future will be utterly shocked when Jesus says, “Depart
from me, I don’t know you.”

Objectives …

1. The student should be able to confront the Mormon belief that good Mormons will become gods
someday and progress in their deity experience.

2. The student should be able to explain why believers fight and why there are so many denominations.

3. The student should be able to confront the person whose life does not match his claims.

The Lesson …

Don’t you think everyone will eventually become like God?

President Lorenzo Snow made a statement on behalf of the Mormon church which was, “As man now is,
God once was; as God now is, man may be.” lxxxi Joseph Smith wrote, “God himself was once as we are
now, and is an exalted man, and sits enthroned in yonder heavens, and that men have got
to learn how to be Gods … the same as all Gods have done before.” lxxxii The LDS church
teaches that every Mormon is on a journey to become a god. They teach that Adam was a
man who eventually became the God we worship today. Brigham Young was taught by
Joseph Smith that Adam is “our Father and our God, and the only God with whom we have
to do.” lxxxiii

Is the Mormon doctrine of man becoming God in the Bible? The answer is absolutely not!
God is a spirit and is eternal. He had no beginning and has no end. He has never changed

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