First of all, do Mormon's believe this. Yes! Do they know how it works? Mmmmm, kinda.
I don't know if anyone has a serious lock on this one. The ramifications of a Heavenly Mother make this one of the things Mormons get criticized for the most.
It has been said that a God is the union of celestial man and woman. When the bible says God, it is usually referring to Jesus, who is Jehovah. However, Jehovah is not the Father. No one knows Heavenly Father's or Mother's name (I'll get into the Jehovah thing more when I talk about the trinity in another post). There are times in the bible when God does not refer to Jesus it is possible in these instances that it is a combination of the Father and the Mother. Here is an example from the book of Genesis:
And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever:
'Us' would be the curious word in this sentence. Is this the 'royal we' or something else. Honestly I don't know, the bible has been translated many times and who knows what Moses' original sentence was.Mormons do not pray to Heavenly Mother, nor do they really worship her. Think about this like the Mormon priesthood. Women aren't allowed to hold the priesthood or preside over meetings. But that's not to say that they're not respected. It just means that they don't have the authority to act in the name of the Father.
Also, let me just say, Mormons are in it for the long haul. They're working on eternal progression. As I've mentioned in other posts, eternal marriage is a necessary ordinance to go to the highest degree of the Celestial kingdom for only 1 reason.
Now, let me throw a little monkey into this gumbo.
"As man is God once was, as God is man may become."
Non-Mormons hate this. Actually as a missionary I hated this too. It really comes across as pretentious when you say that eventually you'll be a God! Anyway, if God was like us, and we are commanded to get married for eternity, then it stands to reason that Heavenly Father has himself a little filly. And when they were like us they had some sort of eternal marriage.
It really does come across as pretentious... but I think the idea that they had was kind of empowering in a way. Hey look - you're a daughter/son of GOD! That makes YOU a goddess/god too... if you live right you can have that. --- the idea isn't "wrong". I get it. But as an atheist... I also understand how silly it all sounds.
ReplyDeleteThe LDS church has some pretty silly things but this one - a heavenly mother - and the idea of eternal progression doesn't sound too far out there for a church to believe... but then again... I'm biased; heard it my entire life haha.
Yeah, to people who grew up with this concept it sounds a lot better than getting saved and singing hymns with angels for the rest of eternity. Protestant literature always depicts a faceless gleaming god with a bunch of naked humanoids groveling at his feet. If that's the best concept of heaven Christianity can offer, then i think i need to hear more about hell. The only way the typical Christian heaven would be heavenly is if they put you on a Morphine drip as soon as you enter the pearly gates.
DeleteAnyway, i'm with you Diary, the Mormon afterlife doesn't sound too bad. And if Christians really are all striving to be Christ-like, the idea of progression seems logical.
Going deeper into Mormon doctrine, god not only has a wife, but is a polygamist!
ReplyDeletehe's probably a polygamist. and if not, he supports the principal.
ReplyDelete