LDS Scripture Interpretation Question

[amontoya]

It is my understanding that the LDS church teaches that there is a plurality of gods, and that the god of this world was once a man who was taught to live the mormon way of life and then became a god. How does the LDS church interpret these verses?

“Who has directed the Spirit of the Lord, or as his counselor has instructed him? Whom did he consult for his enlightenment, and who taught him the path of justice, and taught him knowledge, and showed him the way of understanding?” Isaiah 40:13, 14

“Thus says the LORD, the King of Israel and his Redeemer, the LORD of hosts: 'I am the first and I am the last; besides me there is no god. Who is like me? Let him proclaim it, let him declare and set it forth before me. Who has announced from of old the things to come? Let them tell us what is yet to be. Fear not, nor be afraid; have I not told you from of old and declared it? And you are my witnesses! Is there a God besides me? There is no Rock; I know not any.” Isaiah 44:6-8

 

[Esdra]

Hi

I am not LDS, but I’ve studied this religion a bit. So, I give no warranty that my explanations are correct!

It is my understanding that the LDS church teaches that there is a plurality of gods, and that the god of this world was once a man who was taught to live the mormon way of life and then became a god. How does the LDS church interpret these verses?

Yes, in the Book of Abraham it is clearly written that there are more then one God.
As far as I know, Mormons believe in the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit as three different Gods.

I’ve also read somewhere that they believe that God was a human being and then became God - furthermore they believe that everyone can become a God who lives the “Mormon Way of Life” and that they get a planet for themselves. That is called Apotheosis. - But, I’m sorry to say that I don’t know where in their scriptures it says so.
And actually is deeply rooted in free-mansory. In fact, many parts of Mormonism stem from free-mansory, as Joseph Smith Junior as well as many early members of the LDS Church were free mansons.
So, actually, one could say that all that weiry stuff Mormons believe in are from free-mansory.

“Who has directed the Spirit of the Lord, or as his counselor has instructed him? Whom did he consult for his enlightenment, and who taught him the path of justice, and taught him knowledge, and showed him the way of understanding?” Isaiah 40:13, 14

“Thus says the LORD, the King of Israel and his Redeemer, the LORD of hosts: 'I am the first and I am the last; besides me there is no god. Who is like me? Let him proclaim it, let him declare and set it forth before me. Who has announced from of old the things to come? Let them tell us what is yet to be. Fear not, nor be afraid; have I not told you from of old and declared it? And you are my witnesses! Is there a God besides me? There is no Rock; I know not any.” Isaiah 44:6-8

I’ve just had a look at the Joseph-Smith Translation of the Bible. And there it says the same. So, from the Bible there is no explanation why Mormons believe in more than one god. And as far as I know the BoM, even there is no support for a plurality of Gods.

Hope I could help,
in Christ,
Esdra

PS: If I’ve told any nonsense, please feel free to correct me, my LDS friends.

 

[JeanMichel]

It is my understanding that the LDS church teaches that there is a plurality of gods, and that the god of this world was once a man who was taught to live the mormon way of life and then became a god. How does the LDS church interpret these verses?

“Who has directed the Spirit of the Lord, or as his counselor has instructed him? Whom did he consult for his enlightenment, and who taught him the path of justice, and taught him knowledge, and showed him the way of understanding?” Isaiah 40:13, 14

“Thus says the LORD, the King of Israel and his Redeemer, the LORD of hosts: 'I am the first and I am the last; besides me there is no god. Who is like me? Let him proclaim it, let him declare and set it forth before me. Who has announced from of old the things to come? Let them tell us what is yet to be. Fear not, nor be afraid; have I not told you from of old and declared it? And you are my witnesses! Is there a God besides me? There is no Rock; I know not any.” Isaiah 44:6-8

In the doctrine of the Mormon Church they only believe in God the Father, his Son, Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost. However, they believe these are separate persons; three Gods that fulfill one purpose. Whereas we focus on One God in three Persons; they turn it around and focus on three Gods in one Purpose.

Mormons have no doctrinal support, to my understanding, for the statement made by one of their leaders, Man is as God once was and God is as man may become. However, we believe that God became man (Jesus) and that we may become God. See CC 460: “For the Son of God became man so that we might become God.” This is a complicated topic; it takes a great deal of study to apprehend. “The only-begotten Son of God, wanting to make us sharers in his divinity, assumed our nature, so that he, made man, might make men gods.”

Mormons do not have a doctrine that man will have their own planet. This is an oft quoted statement by anti-Mormons just as we have oft repeated statements by anti-Catholics. What Mormons believe is that they will become one with God and that the rest of eternity they will glorify God, meaning they will do all he chooses for them to do. This MAY be to assist in the creation of worlds, etc. They have not had their leaders explain what some of the earliest leaders meant. When their recent prophet was asked about this on US television he stated they did not teach this or believe it. However, the early leaders said things, that never became doctrine or teaching, that sounded exactly like what you have stated.

Lastly, there is a confusion even among Mormons about this things about God being man. Mormons believe there was never a time when God was not God, but that God the Father was once a man just as Jesus was. The only Biblical reference for this is found in John 5:19, “19 Then answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he see the the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise.” They interpret this scripture to mean that Jesus could do nothing if he did not see the Father do it first. Of course, this poses the question when did Jesus see the Father do things? This is a problematic verse that those of greater wisdom and understanding than I can answer.

 

[ParkerD]

It is my understanding that the LDS church teaches that there is a plurality of gods, and that the God of this world was once a man who was taught to live the mormon way of life and then became a God. How does the LDS church interpret these verses?

“Who has directed the Spirit of the Lord, or as his counselor has instructed him? Whom did he consult for his enlightenment, and who taught him the path of justice, and taught him knowledge, and showed him the way of understanding?” Isaiah 40:13, 14

“Thus says the LORD, the King of Israel and his Redeemer, the LORD of hosts: 'I am the first and I am the last; besides me there is no god. Who is like me? Let him proclaim it, let him declare and set it forth before me. Who has announced from of old the things to come? Let them tell us what is yet to be. Fear not, nor be afraid; have I not told you from of old and declared it? And you are my witnesses! Is there a God besides me? There is no Rock; I know not any.” Isaiah 44:6-8

Hi, Amontoya,

I hope you are doing well.

I assume we all love Isaiah 40-46, wherein we find the verses you quoted but also the full scope of declaration by the Lord and Savior that He is the Creator of the heavens and the earth, and in Him we should trust with no doubt and no uncertainty about it, and unto Him “every knee shall bow, and every tongue shall swear.” (45:23) Verse 42:17 reminds of Isaiah 61:1-2 in that He brings “out the prisoners from the prison”.

Jehovah, the Lord, the Great I Am, is the Holy One of Israel, the Promised Messiah, the Anointed One, Alpha and Omega–the beginning and the end, the first and the last. Truly, beside Him there is no Savior. He is the only way. There is no other way to be saved, redeemed, justified, or sanctified, than by Him and because of Him. In a coming time, “the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together:” (40:5)

Joseph Smith taught that just as Jesus Christ lived on this earth as God the Son, and had life in Himself, even so the Father had lived on an earth and had life in Himself. That does not make the Father the same Person as the Son. It makes Them separate Persons with like qualities, including the quality of perfection always and the quality of self-resurrection.

Jesus taught that He was like His Father. Generally, the Jews rejected the teaching that He was declaring about Himself, that He is the Savior who had been prophesied to come to earth (Isaiah 61:1-3) and was Jehovah, their King and their Deliverer. Yet their departure from the true God had been prophesied, and Isaiah lets us know that they will yet come unto Christ and be saved as a people, as will the Gentiles as Isaiah also noted.

As far as your beginning statement, it is quite inaccurate in several respects.

“A plurality of Gods”, yes.

That the Savior is God the Son who lived among men on this world and suffered mortal pains yet was immortal and was Jehovah and Immanuel, God with us–yes.

Was He taught? Not by men, but yes by His Father through communing with God through prayer and meditation.

If by “Mormon way of life” you mean, “be perfect” (which is not something we can do by ourselves, we all know, and is why we need a Savior and Redeemer), then I guess that is a way to word such a “way of life.” But the Savior would not describe it that way at all. He asks all of us “Be ye therefore perfect”. That is a way of life for all of us to seek to attain.

The Father had life in Himself, just as Jesus had life in Himself. The Father didn’t need to be taught, just as the Son didn’t need to be taught.

Our focus in this life as far as Whom to follow and to trust as our Rock and our salvation should be on the Son, on following the Son and letting Him lead us as the Good Shepherd, just as He has promised to do. One of the important roles of the Son is to be our Advocate with the Father, so we should trust that the Son of God is going to do that perfectly, and be our perfect Judge. He also promised the Comforter to be with us in this world.

Have a beautiful, peaceful day.

 

[DeMarcus_Era]

It is my understanding that the LDS church teaches that there is a plurality of gods, and that the god of this world was once a man who was taught to live the mormon way of life and then became a god. How does the LDS church interpret these verses?

“Who has directed the Spirit of the Lord, or as his counselor has instructed him? Whom did he consult for his enlightenment, and who taught him the path of justice, and taught him knowledge, and showed him the way of understanding?” Isaiah 40:13, 14

“Thus says the LORD, the King of Israel and his Redeemer, the LORD of hosts: 'I am the first and I am the last; besides me there is no god. Who is like me? Let him proclaim it, let him declare and set it forth before me. Who has announced from of old the things to come? Let them tell us what is yet to be. Fear not, nor be afraid; have I not told you from of old and declared it? And you are my witnesses! Is there a God besides me? There is no Rock; I know not any.” Isaiah 44:6-8

Montoya,
Mormons aren’t alone in interpreting Is 40:13-14 to mean the Lord’s incomparability, not a denial of the existence of other deities.

The following is from The (IVP)*Dictionary of the Old Testament *.

Analysis of the Hebrew text demonstrates that several of the most common phrases in the Hebrew Bible allegedly used for denying the existence of other gods (e.g., Deut 4:35,39; 32:12,39) appear in passages that affirm the existence of other gods (Deut 4, 32). The result is that these phrases express the incomparability of Yahweh among the other elohim, not that the biblical writer contradicts himself, or that he is in the process of discovering monotheism. The situation is the same in Isaiah 40-66. Isaiah 40:1-8 is familiar to scholars (via the plural imperatives in 40:1-2) as a divine council text (Cross, Seitz). Isaiah 40:22-26 affirms the ancient Israelite worldview that described heavenly beings with heavenly host terminology (Heiser, “Divine Council,” 114-118). That Isaiah’s “denial statements” should be understood as statements of incomparability, not as rejections of the existence of other gods, is made clear in Isaiah 47:8, 10, where Babylon boldly claims, “I am, and there is none else beside me.” The claim is not that Babylon is the only city in the world, but that she has no rival.