Can humans become gods through eternal progression?
We are literally spirit children of Heavenly Father, and children can grow up to become like their parents. Through Christ's Atonement and faithfulness to sacred covenants, God's children can be exalted and become like him. The Bible itself says 'you are gods' and promises that we will be joint heirs with Christ.
— Latter-day Saint teaching; see Gospel Topics Essays, 'Becoming Like God', and Doctrine and Covenants 132:20
Scripture does hold out a glorious destiny: believers will be adopted as God's children, share in his life, and be made like Christ in holiness. But the Bible draws a permanent line between the Creator and his creatures. God says that no god was formed before him and none will be after him, that he is God from everlasting and is not a man. Christians will share God's glory by grace forever, but they will never become additional gods. There is one God, and we will worship him forever.
What Scripture says
10“You are My witnesses,” declares the LORD, “and My servant whom I have chosen, so that you may consider and believe Me and understand that I am He. Before Me no god was formed, and after Me none will come.
God declares that no god was formed before him and none will exist after him.
6Thus says the LORD, the King and Redeemer of Israel, the LORD of Hosts: “I am the first and I am the last, and there is no God but Me. 7Who then is like Me? Let him say so! Let him declare his case before Me, since I established an ancient people. Let him foretell the things to come, and what is to take place. 8Do not tremble or fear. Have I not told you and declared it long ago? You are My witnesses! Is there any God but Me? There is no other Rock; I know not one.”
God says he is the first and the last, and that he knows of no other God besides himself.
2Before the mountains were born or You brought forth the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting You are God.
God is God 'from everlasting to everlasting', before the world existed.
19God is not a man, that He should lie, or a son of man, that He should change His mind. Does He speak and not act? Does He promise and not fulfill?
God is not a man; his nature differs from ours.
6I have said, ‘You are gods; you are all sons of the Most High.’ 7But like mortals you will die, and like rulers you will fall.”
The 'gods' addressed here are human judges who will 'die like men', a rebuke, not a promise of deity.
34Jesus replied, “Is it not written in your Law: ‘I have said you are gods’ ? 35If he called them gods to whom the word of God came—and the Scripture cannot be broken— 36then what about the One whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world? How then can you accuse Me of blasphemy for stating that I am the Son of God?
Jesus quotes Psalm 82 in an argument from lesser to greater about his own unique sonship, not to teach that humans become gods.
3His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through the knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. 4Through these He has given us His precious and magnificent promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, now that you have escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.
Believers become 'partakers of the divine nature' by escaping corruption: sharing God's life and holiness, not becoming another God.
2Beloved, we are now children of God, and what we will be has not yet been revealed. We know that when Christ appears, we will be like Him, for we will see Him as He is.
When Christ appears, we will be like him, a promise of transformation into his image.
The case
What Latter-day Saints teach
Latter-day Saints believe that every person lived before birth as a spirit child of Heavenly Father. Through Christ's Atonement and faithfulness to ordinances and covenants, especially temple sealing, God's children may be exalted: raised to share the kind of life God has. Doctrine and Covenants 132:20 says those who receive this exaltation "shall be gods." In the King Follett Discourse (April 7, 1844), Joseph Smith also taught that God himself was once a man who progressed to his exalted state. Lorenzo Snow later expressed both ideas in a couplet the Church still quotes: "As man now is, God once was: As God now is, man may be."
The Church's essay "Becoming Like God" presents this teaching carefully. It says little has been revealed about God's past. It calls the popular image of people receiving "their own planet" a caricature. It affirms that God's children will always worship him. Christians should describe the doctrine at that level of care, and avoid caricatures of it.
Even so, the core idea remains: God and humans are the same kind of being at different stages, and humans may progress to become gods. That is where the Bible draws a clear line.
The biblical case
1. There is only one God, and there will never be another
Isaiah 40–48 is the Bible's most sustained teaching on who God is. In it, God repeatedly says there is no God besides him. Isaiah 43:10 is especially pointed: no god was formed before him, and none will be after him. Isaiah 44:8 adds that he knows of no other "Rock." If God had a Father who was exalted before him, or if gods were to be formed after him, these statements would not be true.
2. God has always been God
Psalm 90:2 says God is God "from everlasting to everlasting," before the mountains were born. Malachi 3:6 says the LORD does not change. Numbers 23:19 and Hosea 11:9 say God is not a man. The Bible never presents God as a being who grew into deity. He is the uncreated source of everything else (Genesis 1:1; John 1:3).
3. The "you are gods" passage is a rebuke
Psalm 82 addresses unjust rulers who are called "gods" because they judged on God's behalf. The next verse says they "shall die like men" (Psalm 82:7). When Jesus quotes it in John 10:34-36, he argues from the lesser to the greater: if Scripture can call mere human judges "gods," how much more can the one the Father consecrated and sent be called the Son of God? Jesus is defending his own unique identity, not teaching that his hearers will become gods.
4. Our destiny is glorious, and it is a gift
Scripture's promises are astonishing. Believers are adopted as God's children (Romans 8:15), will be conformed to Christ's image (Romans 8:29), will be like him when he appears (1 John 3:2), and become "partakers of the divine nature" (2 Peter 1:4). Early Christian writers spoke of this as deification. Irenaeus said Christ became what we are so that he might bring us to be what he is. Athanasius said the Word became man "that we might be made God."
But these writers held two truths together. Humans can share God's life, holiness and immortality, and humans remain creatures forever. Athanasius spent his life defending the confession that only the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are eternal and uncreated. The deification they described is like iron glowing in a fire: it shares the fire's heat and light, but it never becomes the fire.
| Historic Christian theosis | Eternal progression | |
|---|---|---|
| God's nature | Eternal, uncreated, never a man (apart from the incarnation of the Son) | An exalted man who progressed |
| Number of gods | One God, forever | Potentially many exalted beings |
| Human destiny | Share God's life by grace, remain creatures | Become gods like the Father |
| Worship | God alone, forever | Heavenly Father, forever |
Why it matters
The longing behind eternal progression is good. Humans were made for more than this life, and God really does intend to glorify his children. But the gospel offers something better than becoming a god: being united forever to the one true God, who needs nothing and gives everything. We do not climb up to deity. The eternal Son came down to us, became human, and lifted us into his life by grace (Philippians 2:5-11). Our joy will be to know and worship him forever.
Word study
hebrew · “was formed, fashioned” · Isaiah 43:10
Yatsar is the potter's word, used of God forming Adam from the dust (Genesis 2:7). In Isaiah 43:10 God says that before him no god 'was formed' and none will come after him. The verse rules out both a god who came before the LORD and gods formed after him, which is precisely what an endless chain of exalted beings would require.
“But what about…?”
Didn't early Christians like Athanasius teach that we become gods?
Yes, they used language of deification. Athanasius wrote that the Word 'was made man that we might be made God' (On the Incarnation 54). But he and the other Fathers meant participation in God's life by grace, while remaining creatures. Athanasius fought hard to defend that there is only one eternal, uncreated God. His teaching does not include God having once been a man or humans becoming gods of their own.
Isn't it natural for children to grow up to be like their parents?
Scripture describes our relationship to God as creatures made in his image and as children by adoption through Christ (Romans 8:15; Galatians 4:4-7). Only Jesus is God's Son by nature (John 1:18). The family analogy is precious, but it is an analogy. Scripture never extends it to say humans share God's being or attain his rank.
Doesn't Romans 8:17 say we will be joint heirs with Christ?
It does, and it is a wonderful promise. But an heir inherits what the giver shares, in this case glory, life and the new creation. The same chapter speaks of being conformed to the image of the Son (Romans 8:29). Being glorified with Christ is not the same as becoming a God alongside the Father.
Do Latter-day Saints really believe God was once a man?
Joseph Smith taught this in the King Follett Discourse (1844), and Lorenzo Snow later summarized it in a well-known couplet. The Church's essay 'Becoming Like God' quotes that couplet but adds that little has been revealed about God's past, so little is taught about it. It is fair to describe the teaching while noting that Latter-day Saints place their emphasis on the second half, human potential.
Where Christians differ
Go deeper
- articleThe Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
- ancientOn the IncarnationAthanasius
- book · 1991The Mormon Concept of God: A Philosophical AnalysisFrancis J. Beckwith & Stephen E. Parrish
- book · 1997How Wide the Divide? A Mormon and an Evangelical in ConversationCraig L. Blomberg & Stephen E. Robinson
- book · 2002The New Mormon ChallengeFrancis J. Beckwith, Carl Mosser & Paul Owen (eds.)
Sources (6)
- Gospel Topics Essays, 'Becoming Like God': quotes Lorenzo Snow's couplet; states that 'Little has been revealed about the first half of this couplet'; calls the 'own planet' idea a caricature; affirms that God's children will always worship him
- Joseph Smith, King Follett Discourse, April 7, 1844
- Doctrine and Covenants 132:20 (the exalted 'shall be gods'); 130:22 (the Father has a body of flesh and bones)
- Athanasius, On the Incarnation 54.3
- Irenaeus, Against Heresies 5, preface: Christ became what we are that he might bring us to be what he is
- Catechism of the Catholic Church, para. 460
Related questions
Are Mormons Christians?
Many Latter-day Saints sincerely love Jesus and live admirable lives, and that should be honored. But the question is not about sincerity or morals. It is whether Latter-day Saint teaching about God and Christ is the same as the faith the apostles handed down. On central points, such as whether there is one eternal God, whether God was once a man, and whether the Son is eternally God, it differs, and the Church itself says it rejects the historic creeds. So the honest answer is that Latter-day Saints follow a different account of Jesus than historic Christianity confesses.
Was there a Great Apostasy that required the gospel to be restored?
Jesus promised that the gates of Hades would not prevail against his church and that he would be with his people to the end of the age. The New Testament warns of false teachers and a falling away, but never of a total loss of truth and authority. The writings of the earliest Christians after the apostles show the same gospel continuing: Jesus as Lord and God, his atoning death and resurrection, and baptism in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Jesus himself holds an unending priesthood, so it could not be lost.
Isn't the divine within us the real spiritual truth?
This view rightly senses that we were made for God and that the spiritual life is more than rules. But the Bible teaches that God is the Creator, distinct from his creation, not the sum of all things or our hidden true self. If everything is God, then good and evil, love and cruelty, are equally divine, and there is no one to love us or to forgive us. The Christian hope is better: not discovering that we are God, but being united to God who made us, through Christ.
This entry is a draft and has not yet been theologically reviewed.