Revision as of 23:48, 12 December 2014

1. REDIRECTTemplate:Test3

Response to claims made in "Chapter 6: Siblings from Eternity Past"

154 - Heavenly Father and Heavenly Mother "through some kind of sexual union" clothed each of us with a spirit body

The author(s) of Becoming Gods make(s) the following claim:

Heavenly Father and Heavenly Mother "through some kind of sexual union" clothed each of us with a spirit body.

Author's sources: Bruce R. McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, 750.

FAIR's Response

Question: Did Bruce R. McConkie claim in Mormon Doctrine that our heavenly parents created our spirits "through some kind of sexual union"?

Elder McConkie never talks about a sexual union between our heavenly parents in Mormon Doctrine

It has been claimed that Bruce R. McConkie in his book Mormon Doctrine talks of a "sexual union" between heavenly parents.^[1] However, nothing in Elder McConkie's statements in Mormon Doctrine say anything about spirit creation via "some kind of sexual union."

Relevant passages include:

Entry Spirit Birth: "1. In the literal sense, the expression spirit birth has reference to the birth of the spirit in pre-existence. Spirits are actually born as the offspring of a Heavenly Father, a glorified and exalted Man. They will be born in a future eternity to future exalted beings for whom the family unit continues."

Entry Spirit Bodies: "Our spirit bodies had their beginning in pre-existence when we were born as the spirit children of God our Father. Through that birth process spirit element was organized into intelligent entities. The bodies so created have all the parts of mortal bodies."

Entry Spirit Children:"1. All men in pre-existence were the spirit children of God our Father, an exalted, glorified, and perfected Man. "The Father has a body of flesh and bones as tangible as man's" (D. & C. 130:22); the offspring born to him in that primeval sphere had bodies of spirit element....In a future eternity, spirit children will be born to exalted, perfected glorified couples for whom the family unit continues. The very glory of exalted beings is to have "a fulness and a continuation of the seeds forever and ever."

Elder McConkie emphasizes that spirit children are the literal offspring of God, but the means of their creation is not specified. The Heavenly Mother is not even mentioned. This does not necessarily mean that Elder McConkie or other General Authorities did not personally believe that such a thing was achieved through some sort of sexual intercourse - only that it was not Church doctrine.

156, 394 n. 28-31 - The belief in a "Heavenly Mother" is not supported by scripture and was simply added by Joseph Smith

The author(s) of Becoming Gods make(s) the following claim:

The belief in a "Heavenly Mother" is not supported by scripture and was simply added by Joseph Smith so that his views about God "would make sense."

Author's sources:

• Milton R. Hunter, The Gospel Through the Ages, p. 98.
• Cannon, in Daniel H. Ludlow, vol. 2, p. 961.
• Bruce R. McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, p. 516.
• Gordon B. Hinckley, "Daughters of God," Ensign (Nov. 1991): 100. off-site

FAIR's Response

Gospel Topics: "Our theology begins with heavenly parents. Our highest aspiration is to be like them"

"Becoming Like God," Gospel Topics on LDS.org:

Eliza R. Snow, a Church leader and poet, rejoiced over the doctrine that we are, in a full and absolute sense, children of God. “I had learned to call thee Father, / Thru thy Spirit from on high,” she wrote, “But, until the key of knowledge / Was restored, I knew not why.” Latter-day Saints have also been moved by the knowledge that their divine parentage includes a Heavenly Mother as well as a Heavenly Father. Expressing that truth, Eliza R. Snow asked, “In the heav’ns are parents single?” and answered with a resounding no: “Truth eternal / Tells me I’ve a mother there.”45 That knowledge plays an important role in Latter-day Saint belief. As Elder Dallin H. Oaks of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles wrote, “Our theology begins with heavenly parents. Our highest aspiration is to be like them.”^[2]

Question: Do Latter-day Saints believe in a female divine person, a "Heavenly Mother" as counterpart to God, the Heavenly Father?

Latter-day Saints infer the existence of a Heavenly Mother through scripture and modern revelation

Because LDS theology rejects the doctrine of creation out of nothing (creatio ex nihilo) as a post-Biblical addition to Christian belief, and because they see God as embodied in human form while rejecting creedal Trinitarianism, having a female counterpart to Our Heavenly Father seems logical and almost inevitable. This is especially true given the LDS embrace of the doctrine of theosis, or human deification. Thus, the Heavenly Mother shares parenthood with the Father, and shares His attributes of perfection, holiness, and glory.

There is evidence for this doctrine in ancient Israel,^[3] and within the Book of Mormon.^[4]

As early as 1839, Joseph Smith taught the idea of a Heavenly Mother.^[5] Eliza R. Snow composed a poem (later set to music) which provides the most well-known expression of this doctrine:^[6]

In the heav´ns are parents single?
No, the thought makes reason stare!
Truth is reason; truth eternal
Tells me I´ve a mother there.
When I leave this frail existence,
When I lay this mortal by,
Father, Mother, may I meet you
In your royal courts on high?

In 1909 the First Presidency, under Joseph F. Smith, wrote that

man, as a spirit, was begotten and born of heavenly parents, and reared to maturity in the eternal mansions of the Father [as an] offspring of celestial parentage...all men and women are in the similitude of the universal Father and Mother, and are literally the sons and daughters of Deity....^[7]

The 1995 statement issued by the First Presidency and the Council of the Twelve Apostles, entitled The Family: A Proclamation to the World, states that all men and women are children of heavenly parents (plural), which implies the existence of a Mother in Heaven.^[8]

All human beings—male and female—are created in the image of God. Each is a beloved spirit son or daughter of heavenly parents, and, as such, each has a divine nature and destiny.

157

Claim
According to Brigham Young, our spirit body was created via a sexual union of Heavenly Father and Mother.

Author's source(s)

• Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses 11:123.

Response

• "Celestial sex"

162

Claim
LDS belief in a "queen of heaven" is a pagan belief.

Author's source(s)

• Jeremiah 7꞉17-19
• Jeremiah 44꞉17-19
• Jeremiah 44꞉25-27

Response

• Nature of God/Heavenly Mother

Notes

1. ↑ Richard Abanes, Becoming Gods, 154. Abanes uses as his reference Bruce R. McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, 2nd edition, (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1966), 750. GL direct link
2. ↑ "Becoming Like God," Gospel Topics on LDS.org (February 25, 2014)
3. ↑ Alyson Skabelund Von Feldt, "Does God Have a Wife? Review of Did God Have a Wife? Archaeology and Folk Religion in Ancient Israel," FARMS Review 19/1 (2007): 81–118. off-site wiki
4. ↑ See Daniel C. Peterson, "Nephi and His Asherah: A Note on 1 Nephi 11:8–23," in Mormons, Scripture, and the Ancient World: Studies in Honor of John L. Sorenson, edited by Davis Bitton, (Provo, Utah: FARMS, 1998). [191–243]   direct off-site A shorter version of this article is also available in Daniel C. Peterson, "Nephi and His Asherah," Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 9/2 (2000). [16–25] link
5. ↑ Elaine Anderson Cannon, "Mother in Heaven," in Encyclopedia of Mormonism, 4 vols., edited by Daniel H. Ludlow, (New York, Macmillan Publishing, 1992), :961.off-site
6. ↑ This is Hymn #292 in the current LDS hymnal ("O My Father"). Written at Joseph Smith's death, the poem was originally published as Eliza R. Snow, "Invocation," Times and Seasons 6 no. 17 (15 November 1845), 1039. off-site GospeLink (See Terryl L. Givens, People of Paradox: A History of Mormon Culture (Oxford University Press, 2007), 168. ISBN 0195167112. ISBN 978-0195167115.)
7. ↑ Messages of the First Presidency, edited by James R. Clark, Vol. 4, (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1970), 205–206. GL direct link (italics added). Originally in First Presidency, "[Evolution:Primary_sources:First_Presidency_1909 The Origin of Man]," Improvement Era 13 (November 1909), 61–75.
8. ↑ The First Presidency and Council of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, "The Family: A Proclamation to the World," Ensign (November 1995): 102. (Statement issued by President Gordon B. Hinckley on 23 September 1995.) off-site