MORMON 18

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THE SPIRITS OF HUMAN BEINGS ARE BORN ON ANOTHER PLANET, FATHERED BY THEIR "HEAVENLY FATHER", GROW TO HUMAN SIZE AND ARE THEN SENT TO EARTH WHERE THEY ARE COMPRESSED IN SIZE SO THEY WILL FIT INSIDE THE BODIES OF HUMAN BABIES

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All people seem to have a need to find the source of their existence. This is true in families, as genealogists attempt to trace the ancestral lines in order to determine who was the first in a particular family or try to trace back as far as possible the origin of the family. This is also true in religious belief. Questions are always asked in regards to the origin of the human race and the origin of the universe.

The biblical answer is very clear, asserting that God is the origin of everything that is, the creator of the universe and the creator of the human race. God is as far back as a person can go in determining origins, because there is nothing farther back than God. God is self-existent, having existed from all eternity past and will exist for all eternity in the future. God is the all- knowing, all-present and all-powerful being from which everything was created. God creates by His power and everything that is becomes, where there was nothing before. God is the creator of the universe, of time and of humanity.

Mormon doctrine is not so clear on the matter of origins and attempts to answer the question in a somewhat oblique manner, providing no definite confirmation of just how everything, including humanity came to be. Bypassing the ultimate origins of everything that is, Mormon teaching usually begins with a time and place called the "pre-existence". This is a planet and a time which stretches from a period of the past into the present in which the spirits of all human beings exist prior to being sent to this earth to inhabit the bodies of human babies which are known as "earthly tabernacles". The Mormon God is quite a bit different from the God revealed in the Bible. The Mormon god was once just a man, like all human beings, and lived at one time on another planet just like the earth. This particular man was faithful to the teachings of the god that organized his planet, which were revealed to him and the other people on that planet. When this man died, he was resurrected and then exalted to the place of a god as a result of the works that he personally did in relation to the teachings of the god of his world. As a god, this exalted man was given a planet of his own which he inhabits today with his many wives, since the Mormon religion is based on the practice of polygamy by its gods. In fact, it is absolutely necessary that a Mormon god have many wives.

Since the Mormon god is an exalted man, he has a physical body just like human beings, but it is a celestial body, having been transformed into a refined substance that cannot be seen or detected by normal human beings. The bodies of his many wives have been transformed into the same substance.

The Mormon god and his many wives are physical beings, having all the attributes of human beings, which they actually were at one time, and as a consequence they are able to produce children. They produce many children at a prodigious rate, as the wives are essentially baby producing machines and are eternally pregnant.

Although the Mormon god and his wives are physical beings, the children that they produce are spiritual beings. They are all composed of the same refined substance as their parents, but the children do not have the same type of physical bodies as their parents. However, these children are not complete until a most unusual event happens.

As a result of the Mormon doctrine that their god was once a man prior to becoming a god, their religious beliefs are man-centered rather than God-centered. The biblical perspective states that God always was and man is a product of the creative act of God. Therefore, man is secondary and subservient to the Creator. In Mormon doctrine, this belief is reversed. Man always was, and God is a product of the obedience of a man to the Mormon doctrines, resulting is his being exalted to godhood. In Mormon doctrine, man predates god. This concept expresses itself in the Mormon belief that man has always existed and was never created by a god of any type. Mormon doctrine teaches that man has always existed as a core personality that expresses his being by virtue of an entity which is referred to as an "intelligence". This intelligence is a fully functioning being, having the form and size of an average human being but not possessing a physical body. Each intelligence is a self-existent, individual being, capable of thought, movement and not owing devotion to a creator-god, since they exist prior to the appearance of any god. These intelligences are infinite in number, their total being from infinity past to infinity future.

The unusual event that happens when spiritual babies are born to the Mormon god and his wives, is that one of these pre-existing "intelligences" enters the spiritual body of the new infant and, clothed in their new spiritual bodies, the "intelligences" become functioning children of the Mormon god (the heavenly father).

So, to review:

The core natures of human beings have existed eternally in the form of "intelligences" that are fully functioning beings with a form the same size as a human being, but without a body.
The Mormon god and his wives produce children who have spiritual bodies, each one of which become a host to one of the pre-existing "intelligences". When the spiritual body of the child of the Mormon god and the "intelligence" come together as one unified entity, they become the totality of the human soul, ready to inhabit the body of a human child at some point in the future.
These proto human souls are children of the Mormon god (heavenly father), live on the planet with their father and serve him in whatever capacity is required as sons and daughters. The male children also have wives, which can only be their sisters, but apparently they do not produce children while on their father's planet. This life on the planet of the heavenly father is called by Mormons the "first estate".

At some point, after a sufficient number of spiritual children have been produced by the Mormon god and his wives, he begins the process, along with his sons, of organizing another planet. The Mormon god uses pre-existing matter in the organization of this new planet, because he does not have the ability to create out of nothing as does the God of the Bible as recorded in the book of Genesis. This new planet will be the new place of habitation for the spiritual children of the Mormon god.

The Mormon god sends a son of his choice, along with the son's wife, to this planet to be the progenitors of the beings that will be its inhabitants. However, there is one problem to be overcome. Since the son and his wife, who are an Adam and Eve, possess spiritual bodies consisting of the refined substance, they are essentially incompatible with the new, physical world and are unable to produce human children. This difficulty is overcome gradually as the temporal and earthly nature of the new planet is able to infuse itself into the couple, so that after a time they are able to produce earthly, temporal children who are not composed of the same refined substance as the couple. This infusion of the temporal and earthly nature of the new planet changes the substance of the couple and they also become temporal and earthly, so that their children can see and know their parents. In addition another unusual event occurs with the birth of each new child.

With the birth of each child on the temporal, earthly planet, the father in heaven sends one of his spiritual children to inhabit the body of the new infant who is referred to as an "earthly tabernacle". This infusion of the spirit from the heavenly father into the earthly infant is not without consequences. Since the spirit from the heavenly father is the same size as an average human being and an earthly infant is so small, some changes must be made in order for the spirit from the heavenly father to fit into the new earthly baby. It is a fortunate circumstance that the spirit from heaven is very elastic in nature and has the ability to compress or reduce its size so that it can fit in the smaller "earthly tabernacle". However, this procedure is also not without consequences, because this reduction of size by the spirit from heaven can only be accomplished by removing the memory of the past life of the spirit. Therefore, the compression of size squeezes out the former memory of the "pre-existence" of the spirit and also accounts for the fact that an earthly being does not have any memory of a previous existence on the planet of the heavenly father, or of their infinite existence in the past as an "intelligence" prior to their life with the heavenly father. Life on the temporal, earthly planet is called by Mormons the "second estate".

Once a child is born, it is subject to the revelation given by the heavenly father. In the case of earth, the heavenly father is said to have given his revelation through the Mormon church and Jesus Christ. Since it is claimed by the Mormon church today that the church became apostate 200 years after Jesus Christ, the heavenly father was forced to give his revelation again, after an 1800 year silence, to the Mormon prophet, Joseph Smith, Junior. This revelation came to Joseph Smith through visions and by the discovery of golden plates that an angel revealed to him that were buried in the Hill Cummorah. Joseph Smith allegedly translated the golden plates and produced the Book of Mormon, which Mormons claim as their primary scriptural authority.

After death, person who has followed faithfully the doctrines and commands of the Mormon religion, will be resurrected to exaltation in the celestial world and may become a god just like his heavenly father. This person will also have many wives, obtain his own planet and father spirit children forever just like his heavenly father did. This process is repeated over and over again on countless other planets, and since this has been happening for eternity, there are an infinite number of planets and an infinite number of people and gods now engaged in the process, presumably producing and infinite number of new planets, people and gods every day. This process will continue for eternity. Mormons refer to this process as the "eternal progression".

There are several problems inherent in the doctrine of the "eternal progression":

Certainly one of the greatest difficulties is the assertion that the "intelligences" already exist for all individuals who have been born and will be born, from eternity past to those in the eternity future. This is a staggering number of "intelligences" because it is infinite in numerical value, but it is claimed that they already exist at this time. This is truly incomprehensible by the human mind.

An additional problem accompanies that of the "intelligences", because Mormons also believe that every animal and plant also has its spiritual counterpart which has always existed. Thus every animal and every plant that has ever existed or will ever exist in the future has a spiritual counterpart that has always existed and exists at this time. Thus every conceivable animal form and every conceivable plant form, including every blade of grass and every living seed, both in the infinite past and infinite future have a spiritual, literal counterpart that has always existed and exists at this present time. If it is impossible to conceive of the staggering number of "intelligences" that exist at this time, how much more of an impossibility is it to conceive of the infinitely greater number on animals and plants whose spiritual counterparts are claimed to already exist.

It is claimed that the heavenly father sent the plants and animals to earth along with his son Adam and his wife Eve when they came to populate the earth. Therefore, human beings, plants and animals had their origin on another planet. How did the plants and animals come to be on the planet of the heavenly father? The answer to that is not known, but is probably part of the next problem to be found in the doctrine of the "eternal progression".
Mormons begin their teaching about origins with the "eternal progression" and the "pre-existence" and "first estate" on the planet of their god, the heavenly father. However this is an explanation only for the process of the "eternal progression" once it has begun. It does not explain or deal with the origin of that eternal progression or how it came to be.

Mormon doctrine begins with the eternal "intelligences" which are the core being of humans. But the "intelligences" are the beginning of the process and a Mormon god is the end of the process. There is no explanation how the first "intelligence" received a spiritual body, since there was no god with his wife to produce a spiritual child. There was no Mormon god because there was no human being to become a Mormon God. There was no human being because there was no Mormon god to father a spiritual child, and no Mormon god to organize a temporal, earthly planet so that the spirit child could be sent there to begin a race of human beings.

Mormon doctrine begins with man as the center of the universe, existing from eternity as an "intelligence". God is relegated to a secondary position, not having existed for eternity but is instead a product of man himself. It is necessary for man to exist prior to god in Mormon theology. With this view, origins are thrown into disarray and their explanation becomes convoluted and impossible to understand.

To believe the Mormon doctrine of the "eternal progression", one must believe that from nowhere, a Mormon god and his wife appeared in order to produce the first spiritual child so that the first "intelligence" could inhabit the spiritual body of that child. This violates Mormon belief, because it is first necessary to be a human being, to go through the time of testing in life and follow the Mormon belief system in order to be exalted as a god after the resurrection. It is only possible to be resurrected from the dead and exalted as a god if there is a pre-existing heavenly father to accomplish the task.

If a Mormon believes that from nowhere, a human being appeared and was exalted as a god, then even greater problems are presented. Where did he get his wife. She must have magically appeared also. Where did they live? A temporal, earthly planet must have appeared also out of nowhere on which they could live, because there was no heavenly father to organize it. How did they know what belief system to follow, since there was no heavenly father in existence to give them a revelation? How did they receive their spirits, since there was no heavenly father and mother to produce a spiritual child in which an "intelligence" could infuse itself, and therefore could not then be sent to inhabit the body of the human being as its spirit?
Connected to the difficulty of the sheer, infinite number of "intelligences", animal and vegetable spirits, that are claimed to pre-exist, is the problem of physical matter. All physical matter necessary to compose all the planets organized by the infinite number of Mormon gods from eternity past to eternity future is claimed to already be in existence. This physical matter just is, not having been created. This is also a staggering concept and cannot really be understood or comprehended by the human mind.

What all of these problems reveal is that the founders of the Mormon church did not fully realize the consequences of what they were teaching and made no effort to understand the logical conclusion of what they proposed. It is doubtful that the majority of Mormon adherents fully realize the strange explanation offered to them by Mormon theology and would be very surprised to be told that their god is not a being that existed from eternity, but that man by means of the "intelligences" predates god. The "intelligences" have no need for allegiance to any being, because they were not created by a being that is superior to themselves. Yet, these "intelligences" form the core of the human spirit and become subject to a Mormon god which did not create them, but controls their destiny. To an observer from the outside, the "intelligences" do not seem to be very intelligent by their decision to come under the authority of the Mormon god. At one time the "intelligences" were all co-equal with each other, however, by participating in the process of the "eternal progression" they make themselves subservient to a Mormon god who was at one time an "intelligence" also. The "intelligence" takes a great chance by entering the stream of the "eternal progression". Depending on the human person of which they are the spirit, that person can be an unbeliever or a nominal Mormon believer and never achieve exaltation. This will be the fate of most human beings and most "intelligences". But perhaps the "intelligence" will be the spirit of a true and dedicated Mormon believer, who will one day be exalted to godhood. This is the destiny of only a few Mormon believers. The "intelligences" can only hope for the best.

Mormons must deny the creation account of the universe and man, as revealed in the Bible, because it does not agree with what they believe. In order to reject the account, they must find a reason to do so, but their standard reason for rejecting the portions of the Bible that do no support their other teachings, namely that the Bible was altered by corrupt Catholic priests or has been translated incorrectly, will not stand the test in the case of the book of Genesis. Historical and manuscript evidence prove those claims to be false. So they must simply deny the Biblical record as being untrue and substitute their own doctrine in its place, but in the process they remove the authority, truthfulness and accuracy of the Bible which they claim to be one of their scriptural authorities. By engaging in this action, the Mormon church reveals its true position regarding the authority of the Bible, making it subservient to their own doctrines rather than the Bible having authority over what they believe. The Mormon hierarchy only uses the Bible in an authoritative manner when they believe that it supports their own pre-determined doctrines. In all other cases, where the Bible contradicts Mormon doctrine, it is rejected, claimed to have been altered and mistranslated.

The Mormon church places itself in a position from which it cannot extricate itself, because Joseph Smith, the first Prophet, President, Seer and Founder of the Mormon church made his own translation of the Bible, claiming the translation came through revelation from God, and left the Genesis account of creation virtually unchanged. So in rejecting the biblical, Genesis account, the Mormon church also rejects the authority of their own prophet, Joseph Smith, but they refuse to admit that is the case. They simply ignore the contradiction, and most adherents seem not to know or care about the problem that is created.

END OF ARTICLE

Acknowledgments
Ideas, quotes and information provided by:
Jerald and Sandra Tanner, Utah Lighthouse Ministry - www.utlm.org
The Mormonism Web - http://mormonism-web.com

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:
On This Website:
    God
    Jesus Christ
    Eschatology
    Heaven
    The God of the Bible Is Different From The God Of The Mormon Church
    Mormons Are Polytheistic, Believing In An Infinite Number Of Gods
    The God Of The Mormon Church Was Once Just A Man
    Adam Was A Spirit Child Of His Heavenly Father And Was Not Created
    When Exalted, Mormon Men Will Rule Over Their Own Planets
    The Spirits Of Human Beings Have Existed In The Spirit World For Thousands Of Years
Other Resources:
    The Utah Lighthouse Ministry, Jerald & Sandra Tanner
    The Mormonism Web
    Alpha & Omega Ministries, James White

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