Is God the Father Married?

[majick275]

It appears that the LDS freely admit that they don’t know exactly what is meant by “Mother in Heaven”.

That’s not necessarily a bad thing. I think it’s okay to say “we don’t know” when doctrine supports that.

I still find it disturbing though that they believe in literal spirit parents.

 

[catholic-rcia]

I have never pinned God to a gender, even before I was Baptized Catholic. I always thought that he was above that. I love the picture of the Prodigal son that Rembrandt painted many years ago. It shows the son on his knees after he came back. The fathers hand is on his shoulder, it is large, embracing his son as if to hold him up. The other hand is smaller, the hand of a mother embracing her son the only way a mother could.

We have the qualities of God, mothers and fathers alike. God is so far above are ways, our thoughts. He is neither male nor female. But both qualities do come from Him.

God Bless

 

[paul_barlow]

catholic-rcia:

I have never pinned God to a gender, even before I was Baptized Catholic. I always thought that he was above that. I love the picture of the Prodigal son that Rembrandt painted many years ago. It shows the son on his knees after he came back. The fathers hand is on his shoulder, it is large, embracing his son as if to hold him up. The other hand is smaller, the hand of a mother embracing her son the only way a mother could.

We have the qualities of God, mothers and fathers alike. God is so far above are ways, our thoughts. He is neither male nor female. But both qualities do come from Him.

God Bless

then explain please why the holy scripture adress god as a male see genesis1:26-27 as an easy example. no bashing please i would like to keep one thread spiritual. i like the item on rembrandt. but you seem then to argue the oposite. the lords prayer states our father. this is christ teaching us to pray. if he was not male he would not have said that. christs teachings were simple for us simple folk.

 

[Robert_in_SD]

If the LDS church teaches that we have a spiritual mother and a father in heaven, then what does that make Mary, the mother of Jesus? Is she God’s heavenly wife? Was she just used by the Heavenly Father to bring Jesus into the flesh? Is she now exalted? If so, is she some other God’s wife or the wife of the Heavenly Father, which leads me to believe that a Heavenly Father can have more than one Heavenly wife?

I’m really confused about what a married Heavenly Father implies about the relationship between God and Mary, the mother of Jesus. Any LDS out there who can clear this up for me?

 

[Chris-WA]

amgid:

You would be as unwise to speculate on that as the LDS have been. Who says that religion must provide an explanation of everything divine?

I agree that there is much we don’t know and won’t know until we are in heaven, but God keeping our “heavenly mother” a secret makes no sense at all. That topic is so fundamental to our understanding of God and relationship to him that the simpler answer must be the truth: He has no wife. God created us by Himself. The creation story certainly doesn’t leave anyone to believe that some other hand was involved in the creation of mankind, nor does anything in scripture hint at a heavenly mother.

Where did your God come from? What makes you think that I need to be able to tell you where my God came from?

I know exactly where He came from. This has been revealed in scripture. God has no beginning and no end, therefore He always existed. He had no beginning. He is the first cause. He created time and space, and therefore exists apart from it. He is not constrained by either.

No, that has nothing to do with it

You said yourself that your explanation was simply your opinion. Therefore, you cannot dismiss the explanation I gave regarding the connection between eternal progression, celestial marriage, and this idea of a heavenly mother. My opinion is that this idea was simply Mormon leaders taking these ideas to a logical conclusion. If you believe in eternal progression and in eternal marriage, then is makes sense that God Himself may be the result of the eternal progression of a man who achieved godhood along with his eternal wife, and together they are the parents of our spirits. This was first put forth in strong discourse by Joseph Smith and continued by Brigham Young along with other GA’s.

The logical conclusion from this is that God is just the god of our world, but that there are other gods for other worlds. You claim that the GA’s must have received a revelation regarding a heavenly mother. But have they ever said they received such a revelation? Would they not say so if they did?

 

[ben_dy]

Robert in SD:

If the LDS church teaches that we have a spiritual mother and a father in heaven, then what does that make Mary, the mother of Jesus? Is she God’s heavenly wife? Was she just used by the Heavenly Father to bring Jesus into the flesh? Is she now exalted? If so, is she some other God’s wife or the wife of the Heavenly Father, which leads me to believe that a Heavenly Father can have more than one Heavenly wife?

I’m really confused about what a married Heavenly Father implies about the relationship between God and Mary, the mother of Jesus. Any LDS out there who can clear this up for me?

Robert,

See my quotes from Orson Pratt in message #9 posted above - although I would take these statements as speculative theology and most (if not all) LDS would likely say that if there is no doctrine about Mary to be found in the standard works (or, in the case of the Bible as correctly translated and all the other caveats placed upon it as an inspired work - we’re not privy to that which is inspired or not nor told - save in a few cases - what has been removed, changed, etc.) or taught by the current prophet that there is no doctrine, period.

The most recent teaching I can find even vaguely concerning Mary and the “siring” of Christ comes from a teaching of president (and prophet, seer, and revelator, etc.) Ezra Taft Benson, in which he taught, “The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints proclaims that Jesus Christ is the Son of God in the most literal sense. The body in which He performed His mission in the flesh was sired by that same Holy Being we worship as God, our Eternal Father. Jesus was not the son of Joseph, nor was he begotten by the Holy Ghost. He is the son of the Eternal Father.” (BUT NOTE: This comes from “The Teachings of Ezra Taft Benson” and is most frequently quoted on ‘anti-Mormon’ websites - and I don’t have a copy of the book to verify the quote nor when this was spoken or written - if not at the time that Benson was prophet, then the teaching would not have been ‘binding’ by LDS at that time: my note on this quote says “1988” but that is also the publication date of the book.)

As I understand it, now, even though this was taught by a prophet if it is not taught by the SITTING prophet, it’s not only not doctrine, it can’t be understood as current theological thinking.

It’s confusing to me - and, I suppose, to curious LDS members - just what doctrine concerning a particular matter may or may not be… there’s no recourse beyond staying on top of what the current president teaches and what is taught in the standard works (and only that therein that is currently taught and understood by the current prophet I suppose).

It seems that the only teaching authority within the LDS church is the CURRENT prophet and if he is silent on any given area of doctrine, one can only speculate. There is, apparently, no recourse to the teachings of past prophets, etc. And, boy, one thing I learned is NOT to think that when you read McConkie’s “Mormon Doctrine” you’re actually reading much that current LDS members will necessarily accept as “Mormon Doctrine”!

So I’m not sure that anyone here - LDS or not - could answer your question. It would have to be put before president Hinckley and - at his death - dealt with yet again by the prophets yet to come.

 

[catholic-rcia]

“then explain please why the holy scripture adress god as a male see genesis1:26-27 as an easy example. no bashing please i would like to keep one thread spiritual. i like the item on rembrandt. but you seem then to argue the oposite. the lords prayer states our father. this is christ teaching us to pray. if he was not male he would not have said that. christs teachings were simple for us simple folk.”

Then God said: “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. (This would be in the image of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, One God, One Spirit 1 (The Christian Godhead-Trinity) 1-Corinthians all of twelve is a good read.) Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, and the cattle, and over all the wild animals and all the creatures that crawl on the ground.”

God created man in his image; in the divine image he created him; male and female he created them

(Created) We being Creature, God being Creator, no beginning and no end.

This would mean that God created man “Good” in the image of God.

By calling God “Father”, the language of faith indicates two main things: that God is the first origin of everything and transcendent authority; and that he is at the same time goodness and loving care for all his children. God’s parental tenderness can also be expressed by the image of motherhood, which emphasizes God’s immanence, the intimacy between Creator and creature. The language of faith thus draws on the human experience of parents, who are in a way the first representatives of God for man. But this experience also tells us that human parents are fallible and can disfigure the face of fatherhood and motherhood. We ought therefore to recall that God transcends the human distinction between the sexes. He is neither man nor woman: he is God. He also transcends human fatherhood and motherhood, although he is their origin and standard: no one is father as God is Father of our being. - Father Lukenfarh

I am very happy that the God of Christianity is neither male nor female, that he is far above us. That he gives us His Mercy through Christ Jesus. He will always be the center of my life here on earth and in heaven. Here we learn how to love as God loves us. Here we search for a creator that has always been at our side; here we learn what it is to know him and to love Him. No marriage on earth can ever compare to the union we will have with Him. To have what Christ has always had throughout eternity. He does not measure His love the way we humans do.

Spend some time here: www.http://www.catholic.com/library/god_christ.asp

 

[catholic-rcia]

In heaven we will all be married to God, in the same way that Jesus and the father have always been throughout all eternity. Creation will be included in the Trinity. This is the great gift given. We will not love one more than another.

If you have children and love them, you will have “all” to love even more. Love cannot be measured in heaven. You family will become much larger in Heaven. It’s all about God! And yes God has always been married…to Jesus His Son. And the love that they have always had is given to us through the Holy Spirit, the love between the Father and the Son.

“An elementary school was abuzz with excitement. One of the teachers was about to marry. To celebrate the occasion another teacher asked her class to write about weddings and their little essays would be presented to the soon-to-be-married teacher as a wedding present. One of the children described the wedding and then moved on to the intimate details. After the reception the happy couple go home to eat wedding cake. That little girl’s concept of a honeymoon is no more laughable than our concept of our heavenly honeymoon. Heaven has joys we cannot even conceive of. One of the wonders of heaven is that we will have an increased capacity for love. Couples will be many times more in love with each other than they ever were on earth. In comparison, their earthly love will seem as tame as a ‘romance’ between five-year-olds. And yet the astounding thing is that everyone else in heaven will thrill this former couple as utterly as they thrill each other. Everyone will be so head-over-heels in love with everyone else as to render unthinkable an exclusive relationship such as marriage. Heaven will be the place where dreams come true – where the honeymoon never ends and where people are more exciting and loving and perfect than we dare hope. And that’s just each other. The joy we will find in Jesus is indescribable." Author Unknown