A question for Mormons: Are women created in the image of God?

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Forgive me if I’m missing something obvious in Mormon theology, but if God has a male body, how can females be created in His image?
 
Good_Daughter said:
Forgive me if I’m missing something obvious in Mormon theology, but if God has a male body, how can females be created in His image?
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I am not Mormon so I’m guessing here but I think they would answer that since there God is a personal being he too made men and woman as personal beings.

A better question is if God was human to begin with?

Sure, they say he was a man but does that mean he was a “human”?
 
Good_Daughter said:
Forgive me if I’m missing something obvious in Mormon theology, but if God has a male body, how can females be created in His image?
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Image means form or likeness, men and women have the same form as God.

Paul
 
I would say that since Mormons believe in gods and goddesses, the women are made in the image of their “heavenly mothers”.

Paul
 
holy_wood said:
I am not Mormon so I’m guessing here but I think they would answer that since there God is a personal being he too made men and woman as personal beings.

A better question is if God was human to begin with?

Sure, they say he was a man but does that mean he was a “human”?
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Humans may have a bodily form in likeness to God’s, but that does not mean God is human.

Paul
 
holy_wood said:
A better question is if God was human to begin with?
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According to Mormonism, yes.
Sure, they say he was a man but does that mean he was a “human”?
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Since they teach that “gods, angels and men are all the same species”, then yes their gods are exalted humans.

Paul
 
Paul_G said:
Humans may have a bodily form in likeness to God’s, but that does not mean God is human.

Paul
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How so? If God the Father actually has a bodily form, what is he if not human? Or do you mean he used to be human but moved up to being divine? This is a serious question.

Catholics believe that the Father is pure spirit. So to say we are made in his image means we have intellect and will, like God. Our physical bodies share in his creative aspect in that we can cooperate with him in the generation of children. But, of course, God creates the soul directly.
 
PaulDupre said:
According to Mormonism, yes.

Since they teach that “gods, angels and men are all the same species”, then yes their gods are exalted humans.

Paul
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If all the same species, how do angels differ from God and men?
 
Claire_from_DE said:
If all the same species, how do angels differ from God and men?
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Glad you asked.
“Angels are those beings who have been on an earth like this, and have passed through the same ordeals that we are now passing through…They are persons who have lived upon an earth, but did not magnify the Priesthood in that high degree that many others have done who have become Gods, even the sons of God. Human beings that pertain to this world, who do not magnify or are not capable of magnifying their high calling in the Priesthood and receive crowns of glory, immortality, and eternal lives, will also, when they again receive their bodies, become angels and will receive a glory” (Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, 9:102).
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So, Mormon humans who live good Mormon lives but don’t quite make it to godhood become angels. This is confusing, since Moroni was about as heroically faithful as anyone could be, yet he is an angel, not a god. Where did he screw up, I wonder? Maybe he missed a tithing payment here and there.:rolleyes:
“What are angels? They are intelligences of the human species. Many of them are offsprings of Adam and Eve. That is they are men, who have, like Enoch or Elijah, been translated; or, like Jesus Christ, been raised from the dead; consequently they possess a material body of flesh and bones, can eat, drink, walk, converse, reason, love, fight, wrestle, sing, or play on musical instruments” (LDS Seventy B. H. Roberts, The Mormon Doctrine of Deity, pg. 256).
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“God, angels, and men are all of one species, one race, one great family, widely diffused among the planetary systems as colonies, kingdoms, nations, etc.” (LDS Apostle Parley P. Pratt, Key to the Science of Theology, 1978 Deseret Book reprint, pg. 21)
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Paul
 
Claire_from_DE said:
How so? If God the Father actually has a bodily form, what is he if not human? Or do you mean he used to be human but moved up to being divine? This is a serious question.

Catholics believe that the Father is pure spirit. So to say we are made in his image means we have intellect and will, like God. Our physical bodies share in his creative aspect in that we can cooperate with him in the generation of children. But, of course, God creates the soul directly.
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Interesting questions, I will have to respond to your comments tomorrow night, have a good night.

Paul
 
Good_Daughter said:
Forgive me if I’m missing something obvious in Mormon theology, but if God has a male body, how can females be created in His image?
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Genesis 1:

27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

Genesis 5:

2 Male and female created he them; and blessed them, and called their name Adam, in the day when they were created.

zerinus
 
Paul Moroni’s angel status as I understand it is not his final state. He can be “promoted” latter.
 
teancum79 said:
Paul Moroni’s angel status as I understand it is not his final state. He can be “promoted” latter.
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correct. in mormon theology you get a number of “types” of angels. those without a body (yet to be born) - peter, james and john in the temple ceremony; those without a body (awaiting resurrection)- gabriel (noah), moroni, Michael (adam); those who were “translated” (thus they have a body)- enoch, john the beloved, 3 nephites; and those who are “ministering angels” (resurrected beings in their final state who are “celestial” but not exalted) - I have no trustworthy specific examples of this type but they are definitely spoken of in numerous authoritative instances by LDS “prophets” . all except ministering angels are in a temporary state awaiting final judgment.
 
PaulDupre said:
I would say that since Mormons believe in gods and goddesses, the women are made in the image of their “heavenly mothers”.

Paul
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Maybe that’s what is meant in Gen1:26, “And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness”. He could have been addressing a goddess who participated in creation. Would that idea harmonize with Mormon theology?
 
Good_Daughter said:
Maybe that’s what is meant in Gen1:26, “And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness”. He could have been addressing a goddess who participated in creation. Would that idea harmonize with Mormon theology?
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That would in fact harmonize with Mormon Theology. Maybe not in Goddesses, but in the “pre-existence” theology of Mormonism. Not at all like the Trinitarian view of that same verse that we Christians hold.

in Christ
Steph
 
zerinus said:
Genesis 1:

27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
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This is one scripture I was thinking of when I asked my initial question.

In light of Joseph Smith’s revelation that God has a male physical body, how do Mormons see the female human body, which is quite different from the male human body, as an image of God?

From what you’ve bolded in your post I wonder, does an image of God contain both male and female?
 
tundramom said:
That would in fact harmonize with Mormon Theology. Maybe not in Goddesses, but in the “pre-existence” theology of Mormonism. Not at all like the Trinitarian view of that same verse that we Christians hold.
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Yeah, I don’t think the Goddess idea would fit, since doesn’t Mormon theology specifically state that only men can become Gods? That women can only receive glory through their husband, spending eternity as a sort of “uber-wife”.
 
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