LDS teachings about Heavenly Father

"God Himself is an exalted man, perfected, enthroned, and supreme" (Doctrines of the Gospel
Student Manual - Religion 430-431, chapter 7, page 17).
"Through a continual course of progression, our Heavenly Father has received exaltation and
glory; and He points us out the same path ... we shall eventually come in possession ... of everything
that heart can desire" (Lorenzo Snow, The Teachings of Lorenzo Snow, 3-4). See also "Religion
430-431 - Doctrines of the Gospel Student Manual", page 92.
When you climb up a ladder, you must begin at the bottom, and ascend step by step, until you
arrive at the top; and so it is with the principles of the Gospelyou must begin with the first, and
go on until you learn all the principles of exaltation. But it will be a great while after you have
passed through the veil before you will have learned them. It is not all to be comprehended in this
world; it will be a great work to learn our salvation and exaltation even beyond the grave. This
is the way our Heavenly Father became God. It is the first principle of the Gospel to know for a
certainty the character of God. He was once a man like us; God himself, the
Father of us all, dwelt on an earth, the same as Jesus Christ himself did (Teachings of the Prophet
Joseph Smith, pp. 345346, 348; Gospel Principles, chapter 47, 1998, p. 305).
https://www.scribd.com/doc/314530354/Lds-Gospel-Principles-1997
The statement "This is the way our Heavenly Father became God" was removed from the 2009
version of Gospel Principles. The 2009 edition omits the copyright reference to the 1998 version.

"If we passed our tests, we would receive the fulness of joy that our heavenly parents have
received" (Gospel Principles, page 14). The LDS version of Heavenly Father and Mother received
their fulness of joy (exaltation, eternal life - 3 Nephi 28:10; Doctrine and Covenants 76:59; 84:38)
through their heavenly parents; Jesus' grandfather and grandmother for lack of better terms.
"We believe in a God who has attained his exalted state by a path which now his children are
permitted to follow. In the face of direct charges of blasphemy, the church proclaims the eternal
truth: As Man Is, God Once Was, As God Is, Man May Be" (Doctrines of Salvation, page 430).

Subsequent Mormon teachings have been just as clear on Heavenly Father becoming a God:
"Mormon prophets have continuously taught the sublime truth that God the Eternal Father was
once a mortal man who passed through a school of earth life similar that through which we are
now passing" (The Gospel Through the Ages, 1945, p 104).

"God himself was once as we are now, and is an exalted man ... God himself, the Father of us all,
dwelt on an earth, the same as Jesus Christ himself did ... He is the one who was once as we are
now" (Religion 430-431 - Doctrines of the Gospel Student Manual, chapter 3, page 8).
"The progression of our Father in heaven to godhood, or exaltation, was strictly in accordance
with eternal principles" (Achieving a Celestial Marriage Student Manual, p. 129).
"In order to understand the subject of the dead, for consolation of those who mourn for the loss of
their friends, it is necessary 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 take away the veil, so that you may
see" (History of the Church, volume 6).
"The means was provided, and the means was rejected, and then when our Father has done this,
though he be God, is yet limited to law, by obedience to which he became God, and he must
honor the same, he cannot step beyond those limitations and set aside the law" (Conference
Report, October 1923, page 31).

The teaching that the Mormon Heavenly Father is an exalted man can also be found in other
passages:

April 1971, New Era, People on other Worlds

April 1971, Ensign, The King Follett Discourse
May 1976, New Era, How to Gain a Testimony
July 1979, Ensign, Line Upon Line
February 1982, Ensign, I Have a Question
January 1989, Ensign, The Restoration of Major Doctrines Through Joseph Smith
February 2002, Ensign, The Origin of Man
January 2005, Liahona, Strengthening the Family: Created in the Image of God, Male and
Female
October 2008, General Conference, God Loves and Helps all His Children
2008, Teachings of Presidents of the Church - Joseph Smith, chapter 2: God the Eternal
Father
February 2012, Liahona, Our Father in Heaven.

At one point in his life, Joseph Smith wrote, "By these things we know that there is a God in
heaven, who is infinite and eternal, from everlasting to everlasting the same unchangeable God,
the framer of heaven and earth, and all things which are in them" (Doctrine and Covenants
20:17). The Book of Mormon teaches something similar: "For I know that God is not a partial
God, neither a changeable being; but he is unchangeable from all eternity to all eternity" (Moroni
8:18).

At another point in his life, he taught that Heavenly Father changed from some type of being into
a God:
"I will go back to the beginning before the world was, to show what kind of being God is. What
sort of a being was God in the beginning? Open you ears and hear, all ye ends of the earth, for I
am going to prove it to you by the Bible, and to tell you the designs of God in relation to the
human race, and why He interferes with the affairs of man. God himself was once as we are now,
and is an exalted man, and sits enthroned in yonder heavens!".
"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". These two quotes are also found on page 345 of the
1938 version compiled by Joseph Fielding Smith.
This is also found on the LDS Churchs website:
https://www.lds.org/ensign/1971/04/the-king-follett-sermon?lang=eng&_r=2

"I testify that our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ live. They are resurrected and glorified beings
who love us and watch over us" (Conference Report, April 2010, page 63).
"Father in Heaven: A perfect being who looks like a mortal man but has a resurrected body of
flesh and bones. He is the Father of our spirits, to whom we pray" (Gospel Fundamentals, 2002,
Words to Know, p. 280).

"These spirit beings [referring to those on planet Earth], the offspring of exalted parents, were
men and women, appearing in all respects as mortal persons do, excepting only that their spirit
bodies were made of a more pure and refined substance" (Doctrines of the Gospel Student Manual,
chapter 6, page 14).

The following writing by Joseph Smith reveals that Heavenly Father is a polygamous husband:
"Verily, thus saith the Lord unto you my servant Joseph, that inasmuch as you have inquired of my
hand to know and understand wherein I, the Lord, justified my servants Abraham, Isaac, and
Jacob, as also Moses, David and Solomon, my servants, as touching the principle and doctrine of
their having many wives and concubines - Behold, and lo, I am the Lord thy God, and will answer
thee as touching this matter."
"Abraham received all things, whatsoever he received, by revelation and commandment, by my
word, saith the Lord, and hath entered into his exaltation and sitteth upon his throne. Abraham
received promises concerning his seed, and of the fruit of his loinsfrom whose loins ye are,
namely, my servant Joseph -which were to continue so long as they were in the world; and as
touching Abraham and his seed, out of the world they should continue; both in the world and out
3

of the world should they continue as innumerable as the stars; or, if ye were to count the sand
upon the seashore ye could not number them. This promise is yours also, because ye are of
Abraham, and the promise was made unto Abraham; and by this law is the continuation of the
works of my Father, wherein he glorifieth himself" (Doctrine and Covenants 132:1-2,29-31).
The Mormon Heavenly Father glorified himself in the same law. A polygamous marriage is a
requirement for exaltation as pertaining to the law of the LDS priesthood: They [the virgins] are
given unto him to multiply and replenish the earth, according to my commandment, and to fulfill
the promise which was given by my Father before the foundation of the world, and for their
exaltation in the eternal worlds, that they may bear the souls of men; for herein is the work of my
Father continued, that he may be glorified (vv. 61, 63).