A few questions

[MotoEric]

Hi,

I had a few questions and I thought that I would go to people who would know. Before I get to the questions, let me state that it is absolutely NOT my intention to offend. If any of my questions ARE offensive, please realize that I am asking out of ignorance, not trying to disguise calumny.

I should also mention that I checked askgramps and mormon.org and wasn’t able to find direct answers to these questions (maybe my fault for not trying hard enough). Just wanted to let you know that I’m not trying to get you to do all the work for me : )


1)I have heard that members of the LDS church prefer not to be called Mormons. Is that correct and if so, what do they prefer to be called? LDS’ers seems a little awkward. : )

2)Is it an LDS belief that God is omnipotent?

3)Is God omnipresent? And if not is there a place that he resides?

4)What is the relationship between Jesus and Satan?

5)Can men evolve into a godlike state and rule over their own planets in a similar fashion to how God rules over us?

6)Can man eventually become omnipotent?

7)Has the process of evolving into godhood happened on other planets with other humanoids prior to earth?

8)Is God a singular entity or are there others like him?

9)Did Jesus have wives?


As you can tell, my knowledge of LDS beliefs is pretty sketchy. Thanks for whatever help you can offer and I’m sure that your answers will spur more questions.


Eric

 

[Comprehend]

Hi,

I had a few questions and I thought that I would go to people who would know. Before I get to the questions, let me state that it is absolutely NOT my intention to offend. If any of my questions ARE offensive, please realize that I am asking out of ignorance, not trying to disguise calumny.

I should also mention that I checked askgramps and mormon.org and wasn’t able to find direct answers to these questions (maybe my fault for not trying hard enough). Just wanted to let you know that I’m not trying to get you to do all the work for me : )


1)I have heard that members of the LDS church prefer not to be called Mormons. Is that correct and if so, what do they prefer to be called? LDS’ers seems a little awkward. : )

I will give the short answer and then if you want more detail i'll answer as best as I can.

The church leaders have asked that we use the official name "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints" and have asked others to please use it as well. We will answer to almost anything (and get called almost everything) but LDS, and Latter-Day Saints are the most common.

2)Is it an LDS belief that God is omnipotent?

No, there are laws even God must obey.

3)Is God omnipresent? And if not is there a place that he resides?

No, God has a body of flesh and bone that looks like ours. Heaven of course.

4)What is the relationship between Jesus and Satan?

They have the same spiritual father, just like we all do. God formed all of our spirits.

5)Can men evolve into a godlike state and rule over their own planets in a similar fashion to how God rules over us?

There is no official doctrine that teaches this. We do believe that some will be able to progress after this life. We would always be subservient to God no matter how far we progressed.

I am a little concerned about your use of the term "evolved" what do you mean by it?

6)Can man eventually become omnipotent?

nope.

7)Has the process of evolving into godhood happened on other planets with other humanoids prior to earth?

There is no official teaching on this either. We are not taught about what went on in other worlds, only this one.

8)Is God a singular entity or are there others like him?

There is no official doctrine on "others like him" but if you expand on what our doctrine does teach, it would be logical that there are others.

9)Did Jesus have wives?

There is no official teaching either way. Many believe he did, many believe he didn't.

As you can tell, my knowledge of LDS beliefs is pretty sketchy. Thanks for whatever help you can offer and I’m sure that your answers will spur more questions.


Eric

I can guess what kind of websites you have been visiting to get that sort of information.

 

[MotoEric]

I can guess what kind of websites you have been visiting to get that sort of information.

You are free to guess, but you would probably be wrong. I have visited exactly one anti-LDS site that I can remember. I have visited numerous sites that I believe espouse official LDS apologetics. Feel free to check out any of my posts or threads. I hope that you will see that I'm not interested in or engage in belittling anyones faith or patronizing sites that do.

Thank you for the answers.

By evolve I meant spiritual progression. Continual progression through hard work to become a better person. I understand the confusion. I did not mean gradual species movement towards a godhead as espoused Chardin and others.

Thanks again,

Eric

 

[Sola'lor]

1)I have heard that members of the LDS church prefer not to be called Mormons. Is that correct and if so, what do they prefer to be called? LDS’ers seems a little awkward. : )

It is prefered that we are called "Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints." But that is kind of long so we take Mormon or LDS, or whatever.

2)Is it an LDS belief that God is omnipotent?

I believe that God has the abilitiy to do anything. However there are laws God must follow. If He breaks those laws then he will cease to be God. But it's not that he Can't break those laws, it is just that he chooses not to break them.

3)Is God omnipresent? And if not is there a place that he resides?

I believe that God can only be in one place at one time. Actually I read this thing that if you accelerate to the speed of light you would be everwhere in the universe at the same time. God is being of light. Maybe there is some correlation. But then that is getting a little deep. I would say that while God only is in one place at any time his power can be everywhere at once. This allows Him to control the universe all at the same time.

4)What is the relationship between Jesus and Satan?

In the pre-mortal life Jehovah and Lucifer were both spirit children of our Heavenly Father. We are all also Spirit children. Jehovah was the first Spirit child born unto Heavenly Father. The rest followed. When Lucifer rebelled against Heavenly Father, he was cast out and became Satan. When Jehovah was born on this Earth, He became Jesus Christ. So from all that the answer is that Jehovah and Lucifer are spirit brothers. Also we are all brothers and sisters of Jehovah and Lucifer.

5)Can men evolve into a godlike state and rule over their own planets in a similar fashion to how God rules over us?

No, Man cannot evolve into a godlike state. I do believe that wo/men can progress into a godlike state. However there is not official doctrine that outright says "those who reach the celestial kingdom can become gods." I personnaly believe that those who make it will be allowed to progress to a godlike state. When we reach a point where we are ready to go out on our own we will each be given our own universe, just as God has his own universe. Then we will be the god of the people in our own universes. BUt there can be no intermixing meaning that I for example couldn't go into your universe and interupt things. Along with this it doesn't mean we will be equal with God. He will still be our God, but since His children have progressed to godhood he will no longer be the Gopd of one universe but will be the God over children who each have their own universes. Thus His Glory will increase. But that is all "Sola'lor doctrine."

6)Can man eventually become omnipotent?

If a man can become a god then a man would have the same powers as God.

7)Has the process of evolving into godhood happened on other planets with other humanoids prior to earth?

In this universe? I would say no. If God was once a man and then progressed to His current state, Then I would say it has happened in God's Father's universe. As God's brothers and sisters would ahve progressed to the state of godhood as well. But again no official Chruch doctrine.

8)Is God a singular entity or are there others like him?

In our universe we have only one God. That is our Heavenly Father. We also have other entities that are above us. Such as Jesus Christ and our Heavenly Mother(aka God's wife).

9)Did Jesus have wives?

I believe he was married here on the Earth, probably only to one woman. This is because it is neccesary to be sealed together in marriage by the power of the priesthood, in order to reach the highest degree of the Celestial kindgom. Will Jesus practice polygamy in the Celestial kingdom? I don't know. Will anyof us practice polygamy in the Celetsial kingdom? At least those that were Sealed to more than one woman here on Earth will but other than that I don't know.

 

[Comprehend]

You are free to guess, but you would probably be wrong. I have visited exactly one anti-LDS site that I can remember. I have visited numerous sites that I believe espouse official LDS apologetics. Feel free to check out any of my posts or threads. I hope that you will see that I'm not interested in or engage in belittling anyones faith or patronizing sites that do.

I wasn't implying at all that you intended to act negatively towards our religion. My comment was directed towards the quality of the website, not you.

Thank you for the answers.

no problem.

By evolve I meant spiritual progression. Continual progression through hard work to become a better person. I understand the confusion. I did not mean gradual species movement towards a godhead as espoused Chardin and others.

Thanks again,

Eric

sounds good.

 

[madhatter85]

Hi,

Hello!

1)I have heard that members of the LDS church prefer not to be called Mormons. Is that correct and if so, what do they prefer to be called? LDS’ers seems a little awkward. : )

We do not like the term "Mormons" because we do not worship Mormon, In reality we prefer to be called Latter-day Saints.

2)Is it an LDS belief that God is omnipotent?

Of course.

3)Is God omnipresent? And if not is there a place that he resides?

His spirit is with us, his presence is felt, But we blieve he resides high in the heavens and that the planet closest to the place in which he resides is "Kolob" and that it is the greates plaent of them all and that it governs everythign else in the universe in regards to time.

4)What is the relationship between Jesus and Satan?

We are all children of our heavenly father, Jesus and Lucifer were our spirit brothers, and when the great plan was brought for for us to gain exaltation and become liek our heavenly father, Lucifer's plan was rejected because he wanted the glory. and Jesus' plan was selfless and proper, givign all the glory to God, and his plan was chosen and he is now our savior. Lucifer got butthurt and angry and because of that he was cast out of heaven from the presence of our heavenly father, and he took 1/3rd of the hosts of heaven with him. and they now try to lead people away in mortality because Lucifer is miserable and he wants everyone else to be miserable with him.

5)Can men evolve into a godlike state and rule over their own planets in a similar fashion to how God rules over us?

Yes, Scriptures in the Bible and in the Book of Mormon point to this, "all that my father hath shall be given" things of that nature, there are quite a few refrences to this state of exaltation.

6)Can man eventually become omnipotent?

Man+Woman sealed for time and eternity, man cannot become a God by humself because he is not whole. Man+ Woman become God when sealed fot ime and eternity by the proper Melchesedic priesthood (mentioned in Hebrews 5,7, and 6)

7:11 If therefore perfection were by the Levitical priesthood, (for under it the people received the law,) what further need was there that another priest should rise after the order of Melchisedec, and not be called after the order of Aaron?
7:21 (For those priests were made without an oath; but this with an oath by him that said unto him, The Lord sware and will not repent, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec

7)Has the process of evolving into godhood happened on other planets with other humanoids prior to earth?

One could possibly assume, but it does not pertain to us.

8)Is God a singular entity or are there others like him?

There could be, but we do not answer to them, Heavenly Father is our only God, this planet, this universe governed and set forth by him.

9)Did Jesus have wives?

no idea, it is not part of our doctrine.

As you can tell, my knowledge of LDS beliefs is pretty sketchy. Thanks for whatever help you can offer and I’m sure that your answers will spur more questions.

no problem.

 

[Aqualung]

Hi,

I had a few questions and I thought that I would go to people who would know. Before I get to the questions, let me state that it is absolutely NOT my intention to offend. If any of my questions ARE offensive, please realize that I am asking out of ignorance, not trying to disguise calumny.

I guess I'll add my answers to the growing list of answers.

1)I have heard that members of the LDS church prefer not to be called Mormons. Is that correct and if so, what do they prefer to be called? LDS’ers seems a little awkward. : )

The term "mormon" was originally meant to be offensive, but through repeated use it has become not offensive to most people. It's kind of like the word "gay". The word "gay" was originally applied to homosexuals as an idictment of their "hedonistic" lifestyle (gay used to mean hedonistic) and was meant as a pejorative. Now, however, it's accepted terminology (and, in fact, people think you're dissing homosexuals if you use that word to refer to other things, like things that are stupid). In this same regard, mormon was originally meant to be offensive, but most mormons will even call themselves that. On the other hand, if you said, "Haha, that book is a peice of mormon" I bet a lot of them would get pretty offended.

2)Is it an LDS belief that God is omnipotent?

Yes. However, there will be a lot of interpretations of that. For example, I believe that he is omnipotent in the realm of logical possibility. So, he couldn't do something that is logically impossible (like make a rock so big he couldn't lift it) because that would render the word "omnipotent" meaningless to take such liberties.

3)Is God omnipresent? And if not is there a place that he resides?

No. He is not omnipresent, although the effects of the Holy Spirit are omnipresent. Like somebody sending out an email, that person only has to be by a computer, but everybody can read the email.

4)What is the relationship between Jesus and Satan?

Spiritually, they are both children of their heavenly father (and therefore termed "spirit brothers"). But Christ is the most highly regarded spirit child (and, in fact, is Lord of this earth), whereas Satan is so badly regarded that he was cast out of heaven.

5)Can men evolve into a godlike state and rule over their own planets in a similar fashion to how God rules over us?

LDS believe in a doctrine of eternal progression. What that means, though, is not specifically stated in doctrine. Many believe that, like how babies grow into adults, children of our heavenly father also have the potential to grow into a similar state. Also, the Bible teaches that if we are faithful in this life, we will become "heirs of God and joint-heirs of Christ" and, since Christ is Lord of this world, being "joint heirs with Christ" might also contain some of that.

6)Can man eventually become omnipotent?

I don't know. Refer to somebody in this thread who is more knowledgeable than me.

7)Has the process of evolving into godhood happened on other planets with other humanoids prior to earth?

Nothing to affirm or deny this has ever been stated.

8)Is God a singular entity or are there others like him?

Same as above.

9)Did Jesus have wives?

Same as above, but with one caveat. The scriptures state that to become exhalted one must be married. If one extends this to Christ (and I think that's fairly reasonable - after all, the requirement for baptism was extended to him) it would mean that at some point he got married. But again, I don't think anything has been stated to this effect.

 

[MotoEric]

Thank you for all the replies.

Among other things, I was not aware that LDS members believed that Jehovah was separate from the Heavenly Father.

Thanks again,

Eric