AboutHannah Expertise I can answer questions concerning standard doctrines, scriptures, curiousities, Mormon culture and society. I will not respond to debates. I'm sorry, but there are some things that I simply will not answer, not because I don't want to, but there are some things that the LDS people do not discuss casually--it's only talked about within the temple. Though I am a member, I do not believe that anyone could convert anyone to a religion over something as impersonal as the internet. So I won't even try to.
Experience I have been a member of the LDS church for 8 years. Though I'm still a young person, I can answer most things about the church.
Question QUESTION: Hello, I have a friend who is studying with some Mormon missionaries and they have never Kolob to her. Also they have never mentioned to her that Mormons believe they can attain godhood. My husband has a friend who is married to a Mormon lady and has been attending her chapel for some time. He has never been told of these things either. I mean no disrespect to you but I am trying to find out when these doctrinal issues are brought out in the open. I thought that possibly happened if a person attended Temple. But I don't think that is the correct answer either. I have not found anyone who will talk to me about this. Thank you
ANSWER: They're brought out into the open when you're ready for them. There is some level of in the temple, but it's minimal in this situation. I'll try to explain it to you a bit. However, just the missionaries are told to use the spirit in knowing what would principle would be most valuable to a person at the moment. Teaching about exaltation (which is the God belief) first in the principles of the church is like saying, "Would you like to know about physics?" and then jumping into quantum, or starting chemistry with organic stoichiometry, or teaching someone to play a violin starting with Mendelssohn's E Minor Concerto. You see what I mean?
Kolob is really very simple. It's just a name. It's the star nearest to the home of God. In this case, I guess it'd be correct to just call it trivia almost. It's not extremely in depth doctrine. We don't know where Kolob is. It's just a name. And we don't really know how "close" "closest" is. It could be lightyears upon lightyears.
Exaltation: Okay, I tried to find an explanation that I had already written from an earlier question, but I couldn't find one that fit this question quite right. So here we go. Exaltation is the belief that we can become Gods and Goddesses if faithful. I'm trying give the in a nutshell version, so bear with me. So, there are a large number of things and qualifications to obtain exaltation. It's a process sort of. Exaltation always happens in pairs. A man and a woman married in divine, eternal marriage--they prove their worthiness and then they are granted with spiritual children (in the life to come), and they must create a plan for their children, just as our father (and mother incidentally) have made for us. (The next part is a snippet from a prior answer) Some say that Mormons are polytheistic, not so. We believe that there are other gods. But our god is God. He is the God of this earth, and we are not to worship any other God. The other gods have their own universes, and just to clarify, they aren't any of the other gods that people have thought of (such as: Greek pantheon, Celtic pantheon, what have you...they're completely different).
If you have any further questions, please do ask. I love follow-up questions. People don't teach this at first just because there are much bigger principles of the gospel that we need for the now, not because they don't want to teach this one or something.
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QUESTION: Hello again. I am a bit confused on Brigham Youngs's teachings being denounced as false doctrine by Spenser Kimball. (Adam God doctrine.) What confused me is Young was a Prophet and defended his teaching as Scripture. How then can a Prophet's teaching be denounced? Does this not discredit the Prophet?
Answer I know of the place that you're talking about "Adam God" doctrine. Could I have a reference on the Spencer W. Kimball? I'm not familiar with that particular piece. As a matter of fact, Brigham Young's quote concerning what is considered to make "Adam a God" is not at all what he is saying. Brigham Young spoke in very vague metaphors. Ones that unfortunately easily mean something else. However, if you know the doctrines of the church, you know what he's trying to say because they fit. If you know I mean?
Could you show me the Kimball so that I could answer your question more fully. Thanks.
