Gramps,

Recently an aunt e-mailed me some information and asked me if this was the way I understood the teachings of my church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Someone had mailed her references that Mormons (sic) believe that Jesus “evolved” into a God. The same for God the Father. He was once a man who evolved into God. And he referred my aunt to an attachment from an ex-Mormon who is now Catholic. My aunt is Catholic. How can I respond to this question. I would like a reference that I could e-mail her so that she could read about it herself. Is there a book or article somewhere that puts our belief about this? Thank you.

Jo Ann, from Farmington, New Mexico

Dear Jo Ann,

There is a book that your Aunt can read on this subject. It is called the holy bible. We understand that Jesus was the first-born of the Father in the Spirit and the only begotten in the flesh. The Savior testifies of Himself as the first-born in the following scriptures:

Thus saith the LORD the King of Israel, and his redeemer the LORD of hosts; I am the first, and I am the last; and beside me there is no God. (Isaiah 44:6)

I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet, Saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last. (Revelation 1:10)

Speaking of the Savior as the first born, it has to refer to His birth as a spirit in the spirit world, before His advent upon the earth, for He was not the first born on the earth. However, He was the only person on the earth whose father was the Great God of heaven and earth. We read in John 1:14 that He was the Only Begotten of the Father in the flesh–

And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.

Now we know that God is the literal Father of the spirits of all mankind. As Paul tells us,

Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live? (Hebrews 12:9)

Therefore, the Savior must have been the first born of all the spirits, and thus is our Elder Brother, as we are all children of the same Father in Heaven.

So we can only conclude that the Savior was once a man, i.e., he lived as a mortal on earth, with the mortal, Mary, as His mother, and the immortal God, our Father in Heaven, as His father. He is now a God, and sits enthroned in yonder heavens. Of that there can be no doubt in anyone’s mind.

So if He was once a man and is now a God, is that not evolving from a man into a god?

Here’s the part that the world cannot understand, partly because it is not revealed in the bible, but it has been revealed to men through God’s holy prophets in our day; and that is, that as Jesus was born of Heavenly Parents in the pre-mortal spirit world, and indeed, was the first born of his generation, so His Father, our God, also had to have been born in His generation of the Gods. There is no son but has a father, and there is no father but who is also a son.

Gramps