Gods Many, Lords Many

bryceggorrell
Feb 8
9 min read

Updated: Apr 27

“How beautiful are the noble children! … Indeed, indeed, I might have remembered that the children of kings are men from the beginning.”

—Tabaqui, the jackal

“How little! How naked, and — how bold!”

—Mother Wolf

“Come along, Little Brother”

—Bagheera, the panther

(Rudyard Kipling, The Jungle Book)

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“There was a time when meadow, grove, and stream,

The earth, and every common sight,

To me did seem

Apparelled in celestial light,

The glory and the freshness of a dream.

It is not now as it hath been of yore;—

Turn wheresoe'er I may,

By night or day.

The things which I have seen I now can see no more”

“Earth fills her lap with pleasures of her own;

Yearnings she hath in her own natural kind,

And, even with something of a Mother's mind,

And no unworthy aim,

The homely Nurse doth all she can

To make her Foster-child, her Inmate Man,

Forget the glories he hath known,

And that imperial palace whence he came.

“Whither is fled the visionary gleam?

Where is it now, the glory and the dream?

Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting:

The Soul that rises with us, our life's Star,

Hath had elsewhere its setting,

And cometh from afar:

Not in entire forgetfulness,

And not in utter nakedness,

But trailing clouds of glory do we come

From God, who is our home”

“The child is father of the man;

And I could wish my days to be

Bound each to each by natural piety.”

—William Wordsworth

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As far as I know, there is only one religious persuasion that fully and formally embraces the doctrine of exaltation—the belief that fallen Man can, by the aid of Heaven, return to the presence of God and enjoy the same kind of eternal life He Himself enjoys.

This doctrine flies in the face of every major creed and system devised by man to approach the throne of grace, by teaching that Man himself may actually sit in such a throne, to go no more out. (2 Timothy 2: 10-12; Revelation 3: 21; Helaman 3: 27-30; also Hebrews 4; Alma 7: 25; 34: 36)

This teaching has raised more than a few eyebrows among those who suppose that believing it reduces Godhood in its might and majesty, and inappropriately positions depraved mortals in a state wholly incompatible with their nature.

It is difficult even for some who read the revealed scriptures given since the calling of Joseph Smith in this, the last and great dispensation.

If God is and was God from all eternity, how can it be that we teach He once was a mortal, subject to pain, sin, and death, but somehow overcame it all and attained His own exaltation by obedience to another above Him?

How can we teach that there are many such Gods, while being true to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—the One true and living God?

How can more than one of our Heavenly Father's children inherit all that He has? Wouldn't this require dividing His “estate” into smaller, constituent pieces? (Doc. & Cov. 84: 38; also Luke 12: 44; John 16: 15; Romans 8: 32; Revelation 21: 7; 3 Nephi 28: 10; Doc. & Cov. 132: 19-20)

These are important questions, worthy of deep and careful pondering guided by the light of revelation, to us collectively poured out in the written Word, and in personal, individual ministrations by the influence of the Holy Ghost.

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To achieve rapid clarity and comprehension among those already familiar with the government of God's kingdom through Priesthood, there’s a simple way I explain exaltation.

To such, the simplest explanation is by inviting the thought that “God” is an office of the Priesthood.

It is this highest and holiest station to which one worthy of exaltation is simply ordained, by one in authority to do so.

In like manner as one is ordained a Deacon, Teacher, Priest, Elder, High Priest, Bishop, Patriarch, Seventy, Apostle, etc., one who is given all the Father has is ordained from on High and is bestowed all the rights, privileges, keys, powers and authorities necessary to act in the rightful position to which they have been called and set apart.

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We only see males being ordained to offices of the Priesthood in this life. Does this exclude women from receiving eternal investments of divine power and authority?

Not by one whit.

I believe one reason women are not ordained to offices, but exercise priesthood authority anyway, is simply due to the fact that our Heavenly Father and His Son, Jesus Christ are both male, thus making males on Earth the fitting prototype and role model of exalted beings while in this fallen world. To be exalted, each of us—every male and female—must take on us the attributes of Jesus Christ, our perfect example.

Imagine all the wonderful things which our Heavenly Mother may be involved in, guiding our lives and looking after us as a tender Parent, with eternal omniscient influence and power to help. While here in mortality, it seems we are unaware of Her to a large degree.

We will know Her. Sometime we'll understand the divine plan in its fullness, and all the reasons for this apparent separation.

No different than the males who attain this lofty station, exalted women will likewise receive every power and authority necessary for them to enjoy an eternal state of never-ending happiness and to bring it to pass for their own children yet to be reared in the eternities ahead. Though men and women have different roles, all exalted beings will attain the same standing, with a fullness of joy and an abundance of power—absolute and abiding.

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Many sing and otherwise testify that they know they are a child of God. If children, then, offspring. If offspring, then, the potential for parenthood. (Romans 8: 16-17; Galatians 4: 7)

What offspring doesn't have the potential to grow up to be like their parent? Isn’t it simply according to this way of things that exaltation would bring about the completion of the fullest maturity of a child of God?

We can see a straightforward pattern in God's one eternal round: Parent, Child, Parent, Child, etc.

I am one of many children of one God, who is One of many children of one God, etc.

You and I and our Heavenly Father are all the same species.

You and I are more like Him than we are different from Him. Our great differences are a matter of degree, and not of type. We are the same kind of being, only we haven't reached maturity.

Is a caterpillar the same thing as a butterfly? Yes, but with some major growing up to do.

Make no mistake, we are very different from Him in important ways. But we are the same as He is in many ways, and in many ways, more fundamentally so.

"Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near:

"Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.

"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord.

"For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.

Isaiah 55: 6-9

Is God human? Or are we gods, still developing? I don't see much difference in the two descriptions. We are the immature, embryonic version of what He has become.

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Once exalted, we will have been gods from all eternity, since we will have eternally secured our opportunities. In our manner of speaking, as we read in the scriptures regarding our Heavenly Father, we may say this divine fulfillment works both backwards and forwards.

You have been you for a very long time! At least many millions of years! Your eternal intelligence was given form as a spiritual son or daughter of God a long time ago!

You have existed, in some form of intelligent life, from all eternity. You are a little "I Am," working to grow up and claim your potential. If you're exalted, you will have always been such an I Am, for you will always continue to be.

Abraham was taught about many noble and great premortal intelligent spirits, which had been chosen before birth (Abraham 3: 22-23). Chosen for what? Leadership responsibilities, up to and including Exaltation.

It stands to reason that, since all have the potential for exaltation, all have been given a similar provisional foreordination to such, conditioned upon their faithfulness. This conditional promise of exaltation is repeated in the covenants we make on earth which pertain to exaltation.

Once we have magnified our premortal foreordained responsibilities and opportunities, it is as though there never was any question about whether we would do so. Our standing in fulfilled majesty reaches backwards into eternity, through the "point in time" in which we were foreordained to the situation we now enjoy.

We are what we will be for all eternity, from all eternity.

A great perversion of this truth easily manifests as the idea of predestination—that God has assigned us to salvation or damnation, with no effect of individual agency.

Just because He knows what will happen, does not mean He is causing it to happen.

I can sit on a park bench watching an apple fall from a tree and know it will hit the ground. This knowing does not mean I caused it to fall from the other side of the park.

God knows exactly what course each life will take. He has spent eons with us in His presence, and knows what we will choose in any situation we face, at every moment. The choices that determine our lives are completely ours to make, nevertheless.

God is voting for us; Satan is voting against us. But it's our vote that really counts.

In the words of Richard G. Scott:

"We become what we want to be by consistently being what we want to become each day."

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Jesus confounded the murderously self-righteous rulers of the Jews by citing scripture declaring, "Ye are gods." (John 10: 22-38, see Psalm 82: 6)

The great truth is summarized succinctly by Lorenzo Snow:

"As man now is, God once was;

As God now is, man may be."

This message was declared boldly by the Prophet Joseph Smith in the funeral sermon of King Follett, who was killed in an accident in 1844.

Knowing his own life could end soon, Joseph took the occasion to pronounce doctrines of the highest, the most instructive, the most enraging-to-the-wicked character he could produce, to prove to the world once again he was a true Prophet, Seer and Revelator, called of God to open the greatest dispensation, ushering in the Kingdom preparatory to Christ's return in the flesh.

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Monotheism does not preclude the existence of multiple Gods.

Recognizing the existence of multiple Gods does not mean one is worshipping multiple gods.

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We know that this Earth will be Christ's, presumably in the same way that the planet where our Father resides is His. (Doc. & Cov. 130: 6-9)

Scientists believe that our galaxy is currently on a collision course with the one we call Andromeda, which will result in the creation of a different galaxy formed from remnants of the two parts.

Will this new galaxy be the one over which Jesus will take His place in presiding? I don't know. The details are intriguing to consider, but we must always keep our sights firmly on the doctrines that Jesus has taught, and which will allow Him to save and exalt us.

Joseph Smith said, "Let mysteries alone."

There is much that is not for us to understand now. There are cosmic arrangements, and familial arrangements which we will understand later. Make no mistake, there is an answer to every question, even if we must wait for the knowledge to come.

We know enough to get us on the path that will lead us into an understanding of all things.

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Your potential is limitless.

Your destiny can be great.

Your choices will make all the difference.

“Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not.

Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear⁠, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.

And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure⁠.”

1 John 3: 1-3

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Gods Many, Lords Many

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