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You Tell Me!
Is it the LDS “Law of Eternal Progression”
Or
The LDS Law of Eternal In-breeding and Incest?
I think I spend way too much time reflecting on the inconsistencies of Mormon theology. Some of it is just so illogical that it defies rational explanation. I get frustrated. It Vexes me.
Taken one little segment at a time, actual Mormon doctrine is tough enough. But add in the tangential parts of the whole vagary from the many divergent directions and you get a tangled mess of such illogical, disconnected gobbledygook that it takes a massive case of spiritual blindness blended in with a major dose of vainglory to believe it.
I remember the many times I visited BYU years ago and would as I read the entry banner that said “The Glory of God is Intelligence.” [See D&C 93: 6] I would think. “Wow, so Many smart people going to hell.”
I get a song stuck in my head every now and then and can’t seem to shake it for days. A few nights ago I somehow found a phrase stuck in my head and it is still there. It is the Mormon phrase “Jesus Christ is the only begotten of the father”
It is found in D&C 76: 23, A vision given to Joseph Smith the Prophet and Sidney Rigdon, at Hiram, Ohio, 16 February 1832 (see History of the Church,1:245–52). 23
For we saw him, even on the right hand of God; and we heard the voice bearing record that he is the Only Begotten of the Father”
This morning, I went to the official LDS website and did a quick search on “Only Begotten Son” and this is what popped up.
Jesus Christ Is the Only Begotten Son of God
Jesus was the only person to be born of a mortal mother, Mary, and an immortal father, God the Father. That is why Jesus is called the Only Begotten Son of God. From His Father, He inherited divine powers (see John 10:17–18). From His mother, He inherited mortality and became subject to hunger, thirst, fatigue, pain, and death. https://www.lds.org/ensign/2010/12/jesus-christ-is-the-only-begotten-son-of-god?lang=eng
Their descriptive interpretation of that statement sent my mind in about four directions. But let’s try to stay on track.
According to standard LDS doctrine, this act of begetting Jesus Christ was the physical act of a physical, exalted man impregnating a physical un-exalted young woman.
The birth of the Savior was as natural as are the births of our children; it was the result of natural action. He partook of flesh and blood- was begotten of his Father, as we are of our fathers. —Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, 8:115
Bruce R. McKonkie, the late LD apostle and theologian studied the many remarks on this subject by many of the LDS prophets and leaders and reported this in his benchmark book, Mormon Doctrine:
ONLY BEGOTTEN SON: These name-titles all signify that our Lord is the only Son of the Father in the flesh. Each of the words is to be understood literally. Only means only, begotten means begotten, and Son means son. Christ was begotten by an Immortal Father in the same way that mortal men are begotten by mortal fathers. —page 546
We need to consider that Mary was one of ldsgod’s* actual daughters. According to LDS doctrine, she, and all of us here on earth were conceived by ldsgod and one of his thousands of goddess wives on that mysterious home planet near the great star, Kolob. [See: Kolob in Notes for an explanation of Kolob] He was committing incest.
*This man/god is not the God of the Holy Bible, not the God whom Jesus clearly described in John 4:24: God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth."
I figure that if anyone understood God’s true nature, His son certainly would. That being the case, I am going to refer to him herein as ldsgod, so as not to confuse the reader as to which one I am referring.
Now that we have cleared that up, let’s go back to the meat of this little essay.
What we have dealt with, so far is the LDS teaching that Jesus is the only begotten of the father. Where it skews off the Biblical doctrine is the Mormons teaching and belief that ldsgod came to earth and impregnated his daughter Mary physically. Thus, they teach that Jesus is the only “only-Begotten” in the natural, physical sense and make that a core doctrine.
Of course, this aligns with orthodox Christianity only in the sense that some of the words are the same. All else is fable. But it does sound good to the unsuspecting ear. The average Mormon does not think past the first line of the statement.
The Law of Eternal Progression
The Bed-rock Mormon Axiom that ties all this doctrine of multi-level, exalted men and women, godhoods and inhabited planets together is the “Law of Eternal Progression.” Lorenzo Snow, an early LDS apostle and prophet stated it quite clearly. It lines up with many of the earlier, LDS Prophetic utterances.
President Snow is certainly the ‘father’ of the adage, “As man now is, God once was; as God is now man may be.” (The Teachings of Lorenzo Snow, ed. Clyde J. Williams [1984], 1.)
I have read several Mormon apologetics works that now [in their “now let’s be Christians” era] seem to downplay this LDS proverb and the role Snow played in the declaration of core doctrines of the church. I can understand their reluctance as they try to break into the ranks of Christian orthodoxy, albeit, from the back door.
However, President Snow was no lightweight. He was President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles until he was called as the fifth president of the LDS Church from 1898 to his death in 1901 .
Quite frankly, this whole concept sounds like some spiritual Amway system, with ldsgod at the bottom rung of a multi-level godhood scheme. Right now, ldsgod only has humans in his celestial down-line until some of the holier Mormons here on earth earn their own godhoods.
Then ldsgod will have a tier of gods under him and so on up the eternal progressions until ldsgod has many levels of lesser gods operating under his multi-level system. I can’t help but envision some triple diamond level god floating across some distant galaxy in his massive Winnebago.
LDSgod Is an Exalted Man?
Mormonism teaches that ldsgod was a physical, mortal man who actually lived on another planet before becoming ldsgod. Here are just a quick few references from the many available to support my statement.
We have imagined and supposed that God was God from all eternity. I will refute that idea, and take away the veil, so that you may see….God himself, the Father of us all, dwelt on an earth, the same as Jesus Christ Himself did.. Joseph Smith, King Follett Discourse http://www.lds.org/ensign/1971/04/the-king-follett-sermon
God the Father, His Son Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost constitute the Godhead. President Brigham Young taught the Latter-day Saints to worship God the Father and address prayers to Him in the name of Jesus Christ. He taught further that God the Father was once a man on another planet who “passed the ordeals we are now passing through; he has received an experience, has suffered and enjoyed, and knows all that we know regarding the toils, sufferings, life and death of this mortality” Young, Brigham. Discourses of Brigham Young.John A. Widtsoe. 1941.
LDS Doctrine and Covenants states, "God is a glorified and perfected man, a personage of flesh and bones. Inside his tangible body is an eternal spirit." (130:22)
If you understand that the “Law of Eternal Progression” is the bedrock of Mormon Theology and look at it further from an anthropological viewpoint, you can understand why the LDS doctrine that “Jesus is the only begotten of the father” cannot be even remotely correct theology.
You see, in the Mormon system of human life, we all begin as ‘spiritual essences somewhere out in infinity. [please don’t make me look that up] When ldsgod and one of his ldsgoddesses breed [I say breed because it is just one god and a virtual herd of goddesses to keep continually pregnant] a baby spirit being is born. They believe that you and I and all mankind became spirit children of ldsgod and one of this herd of goddesses. I would guess that ldsgod is not just exalted, but pretty well exhausted, as well.
These ldsbabies [us] live out their time there in a family unit [Mommy, where is daddy? He is at the office, busy procreating, honey] until such time as each spirit baby is sent to an earth to be born physically, begotten in the flesh this time, so to speak.
There new baby grows up in his/her new earthly family unit and presumably lives out the Mormon doctrine of earning his/her godhood.
Presumably each child matures, goes through the temple to learn the signs, Masonic handshakes and tokens and the new name needed to enter celestial glory and godhood and is found worthy. Now it is off to godhood and a new planet to people it the same way it was done in his/her pre- earth, pre-existent life. Confused yet?
Now, as every Mormon knows from day one, Mormons need to get those spirit babies down here so they can become part of our eternal family and be gods and goddesses themselves. That’s why Mormons join in and get with the eternal program and beget so many children that even the Catholics are impressed.
So back to the LDS premise of ldsjesus being the only begotten son of ldsgod in the flesh.
Please, Tell Me it Isn’t So.
First, ldsgod was obviously an obedient Mormon Priesthood holder and a temple Mormon or he would never have become an ldsgod. Such a wonderful, obedient follower of the LDS theological and anthropological system of worlds upon worlds, gods upon gods would have been married in the temple and had a houseful of children he and his wife begot into human bodies.
Ergo, hence, therefore and consequently, we are finally to the end here.
The key to the LDS version of the doctrine of the only begotten son is that they teach ldsjesus was the only son begotten through a physical act of sex. Remember, in this tortuous system, it was a father impregnating his daughter
However, that falls completely off the table when you realize that ldsgod, when working out his godhood had to father a number of children; sons and daughters, all in the flesh…
It seems that the LDS theological position, as they try to sidle up to the Biblical Jesus is so flawed as to render this position fully without any merit other than great story Science-fiction.
Massive Inbreeding
As I read back through this article, I came upon one other factor. Massive Inbreeding.
If our current ldsgod came to his earth through the sexual breeding of his own ldsgod and his herd of sister-wives, every spirit baby who came with him to his earthly orb would be either a brother or sister or at least a half brother or sister conceived incestually by one single father.
Now, our Ldsgod makes it to his celestial planet near the great star, Kolob with a herd of his own sister-wives. Once settled in, they spawn all the soon-to-be-people like us, again from the same tight gene pool.
Now, according to LDS logic, when we were sent here to our earth, every person born here physically was born incestually by brother and sister incest. These earthly parents were born their first time at planet Kolob by ldsgod copulating with one of his sisters there.
So goes the bedrock of true LDS theology: layer upon layer of confusion and family sex. Enough twists and turns to make a great reality TV program.. Forget “Sister Wives.”
Talk about tight DNA! Project this over the infinite cycles of the LDS Law of Eternal Progression and Mormonism is truly based on a Law of Eternal Incest and Inbreeding.
Now, a Bit of Reality
It would be pretty easy to prove Mormonism fully and totally true by simple DNA testing. BYU has the capabilities. The Church certainly has the money. But I doubt they ever will have the intent. Just run random DNA tests for about 10,000 Mormons. If Mormonism is true and their theology something other than religious babble, the DNA tests will all show that common ldsgod factor. Same with brother/sister relationships
In closing, I would like to hear your own response and thoughts on this subject. It has been hard to work through, because I have tried to logically study and report on a very specious, illogical system.
Notes:
KOLOB: Let me try to explain “Kolob “to you. In the simplest of terms, Kolob is the great star nearest to the planet on which Mormons believe the ldsgod, his sister/wives, and spirit children reside.
It is where ldsgod and his many goddess wives procreate continually to produce billions of spirit babies, who are without bodies. It is the place from where we spirit children were sent to this earth to gain bodies and earn our own godhoods. It is the place from which all humans have travelled. Mormons believe it is where we lived in our pre-existent state. Clear? Hardly.
9 And thus there shall be the reckoning of the time of one aplanet above another, until thou come nigh unto Kolob, which Kolob is after the reckoning of the Lord’s time; which Kolob is set nigh unto the throne of God, to govern all those planets which belong to the same border as that upon which thou standest. PGP Abraham 3:9.
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