Democracy in Mormon Heaven?

[Allweather]

I was reading the King Follet Sermon today, and noticed that Joseph Smith makes references to a vote of the grand council of gods. Here is a small quote:

““The contention in heaven was—Jesus said there would be certain souls that would not be saved; and the devil said he would save them all, and laid his plans before the grand council, who gave their vote in favor of Jesus Christ. So the devil rose up in rebellion against God, and was cast down, with all who put up their heads for him. (Book of Moses—Pearl of Great Price, Ch. 4:1-4; Book of Abraham, Ch. 3:23-28.)””

Emphasis is mine. My questions are: does Heavenly Father operate Mormon Heaven by submitting questions to a vote of the other gods? Does the LDS church know how this system is set up?

 

[GrammasRose]

I was reading the King Follet Sermon today, and noticed that Joseph Smith makes references to a vote of the grand council of gods. Here is a small quote:

““The contention in heaven was—Jesus said there would be certain souls that would not be saved; and the devil said he would save them all, and laid his plans before the grand council, who gave their vote in favor of Jesus Christ. So the devil rose up in rebellion against God, and was cast down, with all who put up their heads for him. (Book of Moses—Pearl of Great Price, Ch. 4:1-4; Book of Abraham, Ch. 3:23-28.)””

Emphasis is mine. My questions are: does Heavenly Father operate Mormon Heaven by submitting questions to a vote of the other gods? Does the LDS church know how this system is set up?

Apparently in the beginning he did.

 

[Tmaque]

I was reading the King Follet Sermon today, and noticed that Joseph Smith makes references to a vote of the grand council of gods. Here is a small quote:

““The contention in heaven was—Jesus said there would be certain souls that would not be saved; and the devil said he would save them all, and laid his plans before the grand council, who gave their vote in favor of Jesus Christ. So the devil rose up in rebellion against God, and was cast down, with all who put up their heads for him. (Book of Moses—Pearl of Great Price, Ch. 4:1-4; Book of Abraham, Ch. 3:23-28.)””

Emphasis is mine. My questions are: does Heavenly Father operate Mormon Heaven by submitting questions to a vote of the other gods? Does the LDS church know how this system is set up?

The LDS Church has no official position on this just like it has no official position on the teaching that God was once a man. Certainly, there are many LDS that subscribe to both concepts.

 

[Allweather]

The LDS Church has no official position on this just like it has no official position on the teaching that God was once a man. Certainly, there are many LDS that subscribe to both concepts.

I see. Was there ever a time when the LDS had an official position on these sayings?

Surely the LDS people who heard this sermon took it very seriously. How could they have heard such detailed descriptions of the nature of God from the lips of their founding prophet and not incorporated them as “official teachings” of their church?

Here you had a man who, for several years, was claiming to get regular, detailed messages from God on a variety of subjects. Smith, in the sermon, says:

““I will go back to the beginning before the world was, to show what kind of a being God is. What sort of a being was God in the beginning? Open your ears and hear, all ye ends of the earth, for I am going to prove it to you by the Bible, and to tell you the designs of God in relation to the human race, and why He interferes with the affairs of man.”” Emphasis mine.

Smith commands “Open your ears and hear, all ye ends of the earth…” This sounds like the preamble to a major saying, one which is to be heard and understood by everyone. So, how could it be that the LDS church has not had an “official teaching” on so important a saying from their founding prophet? Especially since he used a fair amount of biblical exegesis in this sermon to support his saying?