A little while ago someone posted a link to either mormon.org or lds.org that said mormons don't believe they can become gods.

I can't find it, but I needed it. My wonderful spouse thinks I just make this stuff up.

They've backed away from this in recent years, but it was known by the couplet:
"As man is, God once was; As God is, man may become."

Here is *a* link with it in it, but it isn't "endorsed" per se, but just mentioned:
http://www.lds.org/new-era/2007/01/the-quest-for-spiritual-knowledge?lang=eng&query=%22man+may+become%22

This one says it in a more endorsement way:
http://www.lds.org/general-conference/1977/04/our-great-potential?lang=eng&query=%22man+may+become%22

But here is the best one I found with Gordy saying "On the other hand, the whole design of the gospel is to lead us onward and upward to greater achievement, even, eventually, to godhood."
http://www.lds.org/general-conference/1994/10/don-t-drop-the-ball?lang=eng&query=%22man+may+become%22

Hinckley told a lie to the ‘world’. This is a link that show the exchange for the Times trying to get clarification from the church after the fact. More sidestepping. The prophets up to and including Hinckley taught this doctrine to the whole of the church. Hinckley himself taught that men could become gods in General conference in 1994 and even quoted the source of the belief (King Follet Discourse) just two years before he told the world outside of mormonism that he did not know if it was taught. Inside the church you must raise your hand and sustain that man. Outside the church all the glory of mormonism is left on the bench under old newspaper.

Hinckley lied straight up. Quoted out of context my ass.

http://mit.irr.org/dodging-and-dissembling-prophet



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 01/10/2013 01:11PM by AmIDarkNow?.

Those are great links, but I swear someone posted one from mormon.org.

It was like a FAQ page or something. I should have book marked it.

I distinctly remember the thread you are talking about but haven't been able to find it yet either.

One hint on the search feature is to change the time from 30 days to 90 days in case it was more than a month old.

Was it maybe the 2nd paragraph here:
http://www.mormonnewsroom.org/article/mormonism-101#C13

(Sorry, I inverted your OP & was searching backward. I'll have to read more carefully in the future)

Is this what you were looking for?

Q: Just another related question that comes up is the statements in the King Follet discourse by the Prophet.
A: Yeah
Q: ... about that, God the Father was once a man as we were. This is something that Christian writers are always addressing. Is this the teaching of the church today, that God the Father was once a man like we are?
A: I don’t know that we teach it. I don’t know that we emphasize it. I haven’t heard it discussed for a long time in public discourse. I don’t know. I don’t know all the circumstances under which that statement was made. I understand the philosophical background behind it. But I don’t know a lot about it and I don’t know that others know a lot about it.
(Time magazine of August 4, 1997, in an article titled "Kingdom Come," page 56) http://www.lds-mormon.com/time.shtml

Here's a FAIR article which admits the quoted interview is correct: http://www.fairlds.org/authors/fordham-michael/does_president_hinckley_understand_lds_doctrine

Richards site has great quotes from the prophets about becoming gods.

http://home.teleport.com/~packham/gbh-god.htm

From Fairmormon http://en.fairmormon.org/Mormonism_and_the_nature_of_God/Hinckley_downplaying_the_King_Follett_Discourse

“What was Gordon B. Hinckley's opinion about the King Follett Discourse?
In 1994, Gordon B. Hinckley emphasized the importance of the King Follett Discourse:
On the other hand, the whole design of the gospel is to lead us onward and upward to greater achievement, even, eventually, to godhood. This great possibility was enunciated by the Prophet Joseph Smith in the King Follet sermon and emphasized by President Lorenzo Snow. It is this grand and incomparable concept: As God now is, man may become!

Our enemies have criticized us for believing in this. Our reply is that this lofty concept in no way diminishes God the Eternal Father. He is the Almighty. He is the Creator and Governor of the universe. He is the greatest of all and will always be so. But just as any earthly father wishes for his sons and daughters every success in life, so I believe our Father in Heaven wishes for his children that they might approach him in stature and stand beside him resplendent in godly strength and wisdom.
(Gordon B. Hinckley, “Don’t Drop the Ball,” Ensign, Nov 1994, 46)”

The summary they provide after this quote really pisses me off!
“. It is this grand and incomparable concept: As God now is, man may become!”

We were ALL TAUGHT THIS! Therefore FAIR you CANNOT make this rediculous and baseless diversionary statement!

“It is amusing, though, to see anti-Mormons scramble to find fault—as if President Hinckley would announce a change of doctrine in a magazine interview!”

Bullshit. Hinckley knew exaclty what they were asking and he should have told them the same damn thing that he taught the church himself. He knew that doctrine by heart. We all did! All the word smithing by the apologists cannot change the fact that he lied outside the cirlce of belief. If mormons are so proud of their beliefs and hinckley was our champion as prophet of the church why did he not champion those same beliefs to the world? He was lying for the lord to get converts by down playing what the world would see as strange beliefs that converts will learn only after they join. That is called lying to get consent.

The Times was only trying to clarify doctrine. Mormon apologists are the worst of the worst. They feign a higher knowledge of a subject and then insert “you silly anti-mormons” which is condecenssion and re-direction. Always, always, always the LDS apologist are plugging the words “critics and anti-mormons” in there apologies when there is no need at all to do that. Just state the whole truth. When I was looking for answers this standard practice of the apologists sent me right out of the church. They verify the “critics and anti-mormons” claims then try to tell you how silly it was to ask a question about facts that were allready verified as valid.

Nope those weren't it either. But thanks for responding...

The question of whether LDS are taught as they were is now being downplayed and not even answered by amateur Mormons on the internet speaking as “men”.
Here is an example of someone who asked the question yet it never got answered in the reply.

http://www.whatdomormonsbelieve.com/2008/09/what-do-mormons-believe-becoming-gods-and-ruling-planets/

Here two mormons give conflicting answers to the Gods question.
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080901065030AAnFA9X

If you search the web this is now what we find. Mormonism is now the church of contradiction.

Check this out. This mormon does not answer the question either and quotes C. S. Lewis to try to expain the whole thing.
http://mormonfaq.com/faqs/why-do-mormons-think-they-can-become-gods

What was the doctrine of “as man is God once was, as God is man may become” that was published and taught to the whole church is now ‘anybody’s guess’.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 01/10/2013 05:52PM by AmIDarkNow?.

Ask Mormon Girl is the blog of author Joanna Brooks.
http://askmormongirl.wordpress.com/2012/01/02/do-mormons-believe-people-can-become-gods/

“Yes, I was raised to understand that this is Mormon doctrine. But the way it’s taught on any given Sunday sounds more like this:”

Johanna admits that this is what we were taught and that you would be hard pressed to find a mormon that does not believe this doctrine. No kidding! (I wonder where they got that doctrine) Yet here she is de-emphasizing by starting with “but”.

“Perhaps in response to this sensationalization, LDS Church President Gordon B. Hinckley appeared to distance himself and the Church from this doctrine in interviews given in 1997 and 1998. This and evidence that the concept of godhood is less frequently addressed in talks by LDS Church leaders than it was a few decades ago have led Mormonism’s most perceptive observers to wonder if the doctrine is being deemphasized. Jana Riess recently wrote in the Christian Century: “Does that mean that Mormons no longer believe that they can become gods? It is difficult to say. Many Mormons no longer think about the topic at all; it has become an insignificant aspect of contemporary theological expression. The idea may someday fade away, just as the church’s encouragement of plural marriage—once a cornerstone not just of Mormon practice but of its belief system—has faded away.”


Here Johanna calls Hinckely’s misrepresenting what he himself taught to the church in GC a “sensationalization”.

“the concept of godhood is less frequently addressed in talks by LDS Church leaders than it was a few decades ago have led Mormonism’s most perceptive observers to wonder if the doctrine is being deemphasized”

No kidding Johanna! Why would they wonder bout that? And BTW. It was just 1994 that the leaders taught this openly, not “decades” as you implied. The leaders were embarrassed to openly admit this doctrine outside the church and after Hinckely lying about it on multiple occasions has forced the churches hand on it. Downplay the doctrine without telling the members in GC that the church has backed off on said doctrine. It will die with the old guard. See the thing is, if you can push old doctrine into the past far enough it becomes somehow irrelevant in the minds of the uniformed.

“The idea may someday fade away, just as the church’s encouragement of plural marriage—once a cornerstone not just of Mormon practice but of its belief system—has faded away.”

This whole stement is a load of tripe. Talk about de-emphasizing!

Just like polygamy which is detested by modern mormons yet the doctrine remains in canonized scripture, so will the ‘become like God’ doctrine remain in the books but no one will talk about it anymore and anyone who brings it up will be called an “anti-mormon” yet both doctrines are carried to church every Sunday.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 01/10/2013 06:31PM by AmIDarkNow?.