WHO IS GOD?

Before we test a new revelation, perhaps we should begin with the most important question of all.

Who is God?

That sounds like a simple question.

But almost everything else depends upon the answer.

If someone brings us a new revelation, we need to know whether the God described in that revelation is the God who has already revealed Himself in Scripture.

So before asking what Joseph Smith taught about God, let's do something simpler.

LET GOD TELL US WHO HE IS.

1. GOD WAS GOD BEFORE THE WORLD EXISTED

Psalm 90:2 says:

“Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.”

Notice the language.

It doesn't say:

You eventually became God.

It says:

“From everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.”

Before the mountains.

Before the earth.

Before our world existed.

God was God.

2. WAS THERE A GOD BEFORE HIM?

Isaiah asks this question even more directly.

God says:

“Before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me.”
— Isaiah 43:10

That's an unusually strong statement.

No God before Me.

No God after Me.

Whatever else we eventually conclude, our understanding has to make room for those words.

3. DOES GOD KNOW ABOUT OTHER GODS?

Isaiah returns to the question.

“Is there a God beside me? yea, there is no God; I know not any.”
— Isaiah 44:8

Think about that statement.

If there are other Gods of the same kind as the God of Israel—Gods who existed before Him, Gods alongside Him, or Gods who became Gods as He did—this verse becomes difficult to explain.

God doesn't merely say:

“Don't worship the other Gods.”

He says:

“I know not any.”

4. “I AM GOD, AND THERE IS NONE ELSE”

Again:

“I am the LORD, and there is none else, there is no God beside me.”
— Isaiah 45:5

And again:

“I am God, and there is none else.”
— Isaiah 45:22

Isaiah is remarkably repetitive.

Perhaps because God doesn't want us to miss the point.

There is a fundamental distinction between:

THE CREATOR

and

EVERYTHING CREATED.

5. THE NEW TESTAMENT DOESN'T CHANGE THAT

Paul writes:

“There is none other God but one.”
— 1 Corinthians 8:4

Paul knows that people call many beings “gods” and “lords.”

He acknowledges that language in the next verse.

But then he says:

“But to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things... and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things.”
— 1 Corinthians 8:6

Christianity didn't replace Israel's one God with a collection of Gods.

The New Testament continues the biblical confession of the one God while placing Jesus within the extraordinary identity and work of the Creator.

6. WHAT ABOUT THE FATHER, SON, AND HOLY SPIRIT?

Now we have to be careful.

The Bible identifies:

the Father as God.

Jesus possesses divine identity and is called God.

The Holy Spirit acts and speaks personally and divinely.

At Jesus' baptism we see the Son in the water, the Spirit descending, and the Father's voice from heaven.

So we should not pretend the biblical evidence is simple.

The Father is not the Son.

The Son is not the Holy Spirit.

Yet Scripture continues insisting:

THERE IS ONE GOD.

Later Christians used the word Trinity to describe what they believed Scripture required them to affirm.

The word itself isn't found in the Bible.

So TEXT B4 TRADITION doesn’t begin with the word.

We begin with the passages.

Then ask:

What conclusion do the passages require?

7. NOW LET'S LISTEN TO LATTER-DAY SAINTS

The current official LDS explanation says that the Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost constitute the Godhead.

It also says each is a separate being, while they are perfectly united in purpose and doctrine. The Father and Son are described as glorified physical beings with tangible bodies of flesh and bones, while the Holy Ghost is a personage of spirit. Church of Jesus Christ

We have let Latter-day Saints describe their own belief rather than putting words in their mouths.

And we will recognize areas of agreement.

They believe in God the Father.

They believe in Jesus Christ.

They believe in the Holy Ghost.

They believe Jesus is Savior and Redeemer.

But their official material also acknowledges significant differences between their understanding of the Godhead and that of other Christian traditions. Church of Jesus Christ

Our question is not:

Which tradition is older?

Our question is:

WHICH UNDERSTANDING BEST FITS THE TEXT?

8. WAS GOD ONCE LIKE US?

Now we reach a more difficult question.

Joseph Smith taught something that went considerably beyond the traditional Christian understanding of God.

The LDS Church's own Gospel Topics essay discusses his teaching that God “was once as one of us.” It also records the well-known later LDS saying:

“As man now is, God once was: As God now is, man may be.”

But fairness requires us to add something important.

The same official LDS essay says that little has been revealed about the first half of that statement, and consequently little is taught about it. Church of Jesus Christ

So we will not claim to know details that present LDS teaching itself doesn't specify.

But the historical teaching raises an obvious biblical question.

Compare it again with Psalm 90:

“From everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.”

And Isaiah:

“Before me there was no God formed.”

Do those passages describe a Being who once existed as something less than God and subsequently became God?

That question deserves an answer from the text.

9. CAN HUMAN BEINGS BECOME GODS?

Current LDS teaching is much clearer on this side of the question.

The official Church essay says that human beings possess divine potential and may, through Jesus Christ, progress toward exaltation and become like Heavenly Father. It describes this teaching as central to Latter-day Saint belief. Church of Jesus Christ

And Latter-day Saints point to Bible passages for support.

Good.

Those are exactly the passages we should examine.

10. “YE ARE GODS”

Psalm 82:6 says:

“I have said, Ye are gods; and all of you are children of the most High.”

There it is.

But don't stop reading.

The next verse says:

“But ye shall die like men, and fall like one of the princes.”

Psalm 82 pictures God standing in judgment over other elohim.

We've already encountered that word in our earlier study.

And we learned something important:

ELOHIM DOES NOT AUTOMATICALLY MEAN “THE CREATOR.”

The word can be used for beings other than Yahweh.

Psalm 82 therefore cannot simply be reduced to:

“Humans can become Gods just like God.”

The passage has to be interpreted in its own context.

11. BUT JESUS QUOTED “YE ARE GODS”

He did.

In John 10:34 Jesus quotes Psalm 82 while answering an accusation of blasphemy.

But notice what Jesus does not say:

“Yes, human beings can eventually become Gods just as the Father is God.”

His argument turns on Scripture's own use of the word gods.

If Scripture could use that terminology for others, His opponents could not simply convict Him of blasphemy because of the language He used concerning His relationship to the Father.

John 10 therefore has to be read as Jesus' argument in context—not as though He stopped His discussion to reveal a doctrine of human exaltation.

12. “PARTAKERS OF THE DIVINE NATURE”

Here's another important passage.

Peter says Christians may become:

“partakers of the divine nature.”
— 2 Peter 1:4

That's strong language.

We shouldn't weaken it simply because somebody else uses it differently.

Christians really are being transformed.

We become more like Christ.

We share in God's holiness.

We receive eternal life.

We become His children.

But read Peter's next words.

He describes escaping:

“the corruption that is in the world through lust.”

Then he tells Christians to add:

virtue, knowledge, self-control, patience, godliness, brotherly kindness and love.

Peter is describing transformation into God's moral likeness.

He does not say:

You will become another God equal in nature to the Creator.

There's an enormous difference between:

BECOMING LIKE GOD

and

BECOMING GOD.

13. ARE WE GOD'S CHILDREN?

Absolutely.

Paul says:

“We are the offspring of God.”
— Acts 17:29

Christians are repeatedly called God's children.

But once again, context matters.

In Acts 17 Paul uses that truth to argue against idolatry.

Because humans are God's offspring, we shouldn't imagine that the divine nature is like gold, silver or stone fashioned by human art.

Paul isn't teaching that God and humans belong to a species of beings in which children eventually mature into Gods.

That conclusion would have to come from somewhere else.

14. THE BIBLE DOES PROMISE SOMETHING EXTRAORDINARY

We should not minimize what God promises Christians.

John says:

“We shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.”
— 1 John 3:2

Paul says believers are:

“heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ.”
— Romans 8:17

Revelation pictures Christ's people reigning with Him.

The Christian hope is breathtaking.

We will be transformed.

Glorified.

Immortal.

Incorruptible.

With Christ forever.

We will become more like Him than we can presently imagine.

But none of those promises requires us to erase the distinction between:

the eternal Creator

and

His glorified creatures.

15. CREATOR AND CREATURE

This may be the key distinction.

Romans 1 describes humanity's fundamental mistake:

“Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator.”
— Romans 1:25

There are creatures.

And there is the Creator.

We can be redeemed creatures.

Glorified creatures.

Immortal creatures.

Children of God.

Heirs of God.

Partakers of the divine nature.

But Scripture never says that redemption makes us the eternal Creator who brought all things into existence.

16. SO WHO IS GOD?

Let's allow Scripture to answer.

Before the world existed:

He was God.

From everlasting to everlasting:

He is God.

Before Him:

No God was formed.

After Him:

No God will be formed.

Beside Him:

He knows no God.

He created all things.

Everything else owes its existence to Him.

And yet this one God has revealed Himself through the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

That last truth raises difficult questions.

But difficult questions do not give us permission to ignore the clear statements.

17. NOW APPLY OUR TEST

In our last study we asked:

How should we test a new revelation?

We found the biblical principle:

A later message must be tested against what God has already revealed.

So now we have our first major test.

If a later revelation tells us something about God's nature, God's past, other Gods, or humanity's future as Gods, put that teaching beside:

Psalm 90.

Isaiah 43–45.

1 Corinthians 8.

Romans 1.

Psalm 82.

John 10.

2 Peter 1.

Don't begin by asking:

“What does my church say?”

Don't begin:

“What does Mormonism say?”

Don't even begin:

“What has Christianity traditionally said?”

Begin here:

WHAT DOES GOD SAY ABOUT HIMSELF?

Then follow the text wherever it leads.

TEXT B4 TRADITION

Read First. Conclude Later.

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