How Many Gods Are There?

I met with a couple missionaries in the summer of 2022. I asked them, “Don’t you guys believe that we can become gods?” The response I received was, “There have been leaders in the past who have taught that, but it’s not official doctrine.” This caught me off guard, but I took his word for it at the time.

I also watched a YouTube video of Preston Perry talking with a young missionary. As he bluntly asked the missionary if he believes that he can become a God. The missionary outright said, “No! We don’t believe that.” When we open up their Scriptures to D&C 132, here is what it reads at the top:

We also read in D&C 132:37b “Because they (Abraham, Isaac, & Jacob) did none other things than that which they were commanded, they have entered into their exaltation, according to the promises, and sit upon thrones, and are not angels but are gods.“

• LDS doctrine teaches that we can receive our own thrones and become gods just as Abraham, Isaac and Jacob have done.

Joseph Smith also taught the following in the King Follett discourse, “God himself was once as we are now, and is an exalted Man, and sits enthroned in yonder heavens…it is necessary that we should understand the character and being of God, and how he came to be so; for I am going to tell you how God came to be God. We have imagined and supposed that God was God from all eternity, I will refute that idea, and will take away and do away the veil, so that you may see.”

Below are quotes from other LDS prophets who echo this idea that we too can become creator Gods:

“Not only can we become Gods, but we can create other worlds as well: “We will become gods and have jurisdiction over worlds, and these worlds will be peopled by our own offspring.” – Prophet Joseph Fielding Smith

“All those who are counted worthy to be exalted and to become Gods, even the sons of God, will go forth and have earths and worlds like those who framed this and millions on millions of others.” – Prophet Brigham Young

“They will receive everything our Father in Heaven has and will become like Him. They will even be able to have spirit children and make new worlds for them to live on, and do all the things our Father in Heaven has done.” – Gospel Fundamentals 2001 (LDS teaching manual)

For over 100 years, becoming Gods and creating our own world was official doctrine in the LDS Church. But in last few decades, the LDS Church has heavily backed off of this doctrine. Yet hints of it are still presently on the official LDS website today:

• “Our creative potential” to do what? What would we be creating in the eternities?

• We will aspire to be just like our heavenly parents and use our creative potential to do the same things that they have done before us.

Prophet Russell Nelson also stated at the 2018 Christmas devotional meeting, ““When the Father offers us everlasting life, He is saying in essence, ‘If you choose to follow My Son—if your desire is really to become more like Him—then in time you may live as We live, and preside over worlds and kingdoms as We do.’”

Jesus created our universe, right? He is our example and we want to become like Him as well. If our elder spirit brother used his creative potential to form our universe, why wouldn’t we be able to one day form our own universe? A common phrase I hear from LDS members is that “God wants us to have everything He has.” My first response to this is, “Please show me a Bible verse that clearly states this without reading into the text.” But let’s also critically think about this and its implications:

What does God have? He has a universe that He created and that he governs. God has a throne. God also has many people who worship him. If we are going to be consistent with the phrase, “God wants us to have everything that He has,” it logically leads us to believe that your life here on earth is preparing you to one day become a God (like our father and eldest spirit brother) and to create and govern your own world. You will have your own throne and you also will have people who faithfully worship and pray to you as their God…because after all: God wants you to have everything that He has, right?

Becoming Gods is indeed part of LDS doctrine and the LDS gospel. I’ve noticed over the years that when missionaries meet with investigators, they will very rarely (if ever) teach them that, “We can become Gods.” Instead, they will commonly say, “We can become LIKE God.” The hidden implication here is that we can become a God in the same way that Jesus or the Father is a God. I am not saying that LDS missionaries are out to intentionally deceive people. I always love meeting with missionaries and buying them lunch any time I get the opportunity. But whether they realized this or not, I can testify that this intentional phrasing has resulted in a number of investigators converting to the LDS Church while having no clue that the LDS gospel clearly teaches that they can become Gods. Had a number of converts been informed of these things, they would not have joined the LDS Church.

___________________________________________________________

What Did The Prophets Isaiah and David Say?

Before reading the following Scriptures, I invite you to put your doctrines on the shelf and allow God’s Word to freely speak to you for what it clearly says:

Isaiah 43:10 “Ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord, and my servant whom I have chosen: that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I am he: before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me.”

Isaiah 44:6-8 “This is what the Lord says – Israel’s King and Redeemer, the Lord 
Almighty: I am the first and I am the last; apart from me there is no God…Fear ye not, neither be afraid: have not I told thee from that time, and have declared it? ye are even my witnesses. Is there a God beside me? yea, there is no God; I know not any.”

Psalm 90:2 “Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.”

___________________________________________________________

When reading God’s Word, we see 3 clear teachings:

1. God is the only self-sufficient God who has ever existed. No God has ever been formed before Him and no God will ever be formed after Him.
2. God doesn’t even know of any other Gods. If Jesus and heavenly Father truly were two separate Gods, how is it that Jesus doesn’t even know about His own dad or any other Gods for that matter? After all, Jesus is all-knowing, isn’t He?
3. From eternity past to eternity future, God has always has been God and he has never been anything less. He was never a sinful man like us who progressed and eventually became a God over time.

______________________________________________________

Below are the most common Bible verses that LDS members might respond with in regard to this topic:

John 10:34 “Jesus answered them, “Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are gods?”

• Jesus is quoting Psalm 82:6 which says, “I said, ‘You are “gods”; you are all sons of the Most High.’
  • Ask yourself the question: “Do I hope to one day become a god like the ones that are mentioned in Psalm 82?” Let’s quickly study this chapter together and find out.

Psalm 82:1 “God presides in the great assembly; he renders judgment among the “gods”

• The one and only true God is judging these other “gods.” That doesn’t sound like a good thing.

Psalm 82:2 “How long will you defend the unjust and show partiality to the wicked.”

Psalm 82:5 “The ‘gods’ know nothing, they understand nothing. They walk about in darkness;”

• I know that I wouldn’t want to be like these “gods,” knowing nothing, walking about in darkness, showing favoritism to the wicked, and being judged by the one true God. Who then exactly are these “gods?”

Psalm 82:7 “But you will die like mere mortals; you will fall like every other ruler.”

• This passage is not talking about other creator Gods. It is talking about wicked rulers and kings. I think I can confidently say that neither of us want to become like one of these “gods.”

___________________________________________________________

1 Corinthians 8:5 “For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth (as indeed there are many “gods” and many “lords”).”

• What is the context? What is Paul talking about in this chapter? Jump back one verse to find out:

1 Corinthians 8:4 “So then, about eating food sacrificed to idols: We know that “An idol is nothing at all in the world” and that “There is no God but one.”

• Paul is talking about idols and false gods…not creator Gods. There is only one creator God who has ever existed and we will never become like Him in that sense.

___________________________________________________________

Romans 8:17 “And if children, then heirs — heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if so it be that we suffer with Him, that we may be also glorified together.”

• True believers of Jesus are joint heirs in the sense that they will have a glorified body in the same way that Jesus did after he rose from the dead. They will get to share in his glory meaning that they will get to be in the glorious presence of God. But this is not in any way saying that we will become a God like Jesus. And this is what the early church fathers were getting at when they taught on the doctrine of “theosis,” which is another word for “deification.” LDS will conflate this term with becoming Gods in the same way that Jesus is a God. Before continuing, we need to point out that neither LDS nor Bible based Christians view the early church fathers as authoritative.

• While the claim doesn’t hold much weight, it still is worth quickly addressing. The term “theosis” does involve transformation in the sense of becoming more God-like in terms of His nature and character. But it is a far cry to assume that the church fathers believed that we can actually become creator Gods like Jesus. Justin Martyr is one of the early church fathers who taught that we can become “gods,” but in what sense? As previously discussed, the word “gods” in the Bible can be referring to false idols or earthly rulers. When the early church fathers used the word “god,” what did they mean?

“There will be no other God, O Trypho, nor was there from eternity any other existing . . . but he who made and disposed all this universe. Nor do we think that there is one God for us, another for you, but that he alone is God who led your fathers out from Egypt with a strong hand and a high arm.” – Justin Martry

Even though Justin and other early church fathers stated that we can become “gods,” they clearly also believed that there is only one creator God who has ever existed. The early church fathers were communicating that believers will become “gods” in the sense that our resurrected bodies will be like that of Christ’s resurrected body, but they will never become a creator God as He is. Both the Scriptures and the early church fathers are clear that there always has been and always will be only one creator God. A good rule of thumb is to always interpret the ambiguous statements in light of the clear statements.

___________________________________________________________

According to God’s Word, how many creator Gods are there?

Does God’s Word teach that you can become a creator God one day in the same way that Jesus is a creator God?

To learn more about the one true God, check out my Bible Lesson, “Who Is Jesus Really?”

Please let me know your thoughts, things you appreciated or things that you disagreed with in the comments section below!