LDS PUblic Affairs: Mormons DO NOT believe they get planets

[_Mercury]

"I believe that God lives on a planet called Kolob."

This guy needs to think on a grander scale. It is more like a specially created Ring World with the flat dimensions of many planets, rather than either a single planet or orbital space station. This huge area is needed to house the Heavenly Host (both oxygen and methane breathers) as well as many mansions and a rather sizable area to accommodate Mormon-sized family reunions.

Louis Wu is a godlike individual. Maybe he and Teela could rule their sector of known space as Gods on the Ringworld.

[_Nightlion]

Adam and Eve did get a planet. This one. Although Christ takes it back for his 'nigh unto Kolob' when all things become new. They did not create it even if they might have given some input. We are to consider ourselves respectively the same in our exaltation.

[_excom]

I realize that this will not change the fact, but Nightlion is a whack job.

[_Jonah]

[bcspace tinfoil hat on] Well, President Kimball used the word "worlds" not "planets." The "get your own planet" thing is an anti-Mormon lie. Never was doctrine. No change here. Just more yellow journalism from the critics. [bcspace tinfoil hat off]

I think you are on to something here. In all of my days as a member I was NEVER taught that I would have my own planet. I was however taught that I would have/create my own "world". If anyone has a reference for receiving/creating my own "planet"...I'd sure love to see it. Apparently, in LDS-dom (dumb?), "planet" does not equal "world". Perhaps it has to be viewed as a "Wayne's World" type of context as opposed to a "Wayne's Planet" type of deal.

Ugggghhhhh...I am SOOOOOOOOO glad I don't have to jump through those LDS hoops anymore.

[_DannyBoy]

Answer to bcspace "Did we ever?" believe that we would get our own planet or planets? Yes, I was taught this many times as an active Mormon in the 1980s, and IT IS STILL TAUGHT by the Church. Go to www.LDS.org to "Gospel Fundamentalist" chapter 36: Eternal Life. This is published by the Church, on its own official website LDS.org. Quote:

"We Will Each Go to the Place for Which We Have Been Prepared

Jesus taught that our Father in Heaven has prepared many places for us to live. Each of us will be assigned to one of four places, according to how faithful to Jesus Christ we were. We will go to the kingdom we have prepared for by the choices we have made. These four places are the celestial kingdom, the terrestrial kingdom, the telestial kingdom, and outer darkness.


The Celestial Kingdom

This is the place where our Father in Heaven and Jesus live. It is a place where people will be happy, and it will be more beautiful than we can imagine. The people who will live in this kingdom will love our Father in Heaven and Jesus and will choose to obey Them. They must have repented of all their sins and must have accepted Jesus as their Savior. They must have been baptized and received the gift of the Holy Ghost. They must have a testimony from the Holy Ghost that Jesus is the Savior.

To live in the highest part of the celestial kingdom is called exaltation* or eternal life. To be able to live in this part of the celestial kingdom, people must have been married in the temple and must have kept the sacred promises they made in the temple. They will receive everything our Father in Heaven has and will become like Him. They will even be able to have spirit children and make new worlds for them to live on, and do all the things our Father in Heaven has done. People who are not married in the temple may live in other parts of the celestial kingdom, but they will not be exalted." (from "Gospel Fundamentalist: Chapter 36: Eternal Life" on LDS.org)

This is a new article from LDS Church Public Affairs, a.k.a. "The Ministry of Propaganda", which now says that Mormons DO NOT believe they will get their own planets in the Celestial Kingdom. I kid you NOT!!!!

"Now says"? Did we ever?

[_donbagley]

To mercury, I have the Frank Zappa album Sheik Yerbouti on vinyl. It is a masterwork of audio magic and virtuoso instrumentation. Let's not forget the satire. LP rules.

[_badseed]

This like all of the essays this is legal speak designed to get the non-LDS world to think LDS don't believe what they do believe and to still allow LDS in the know to still hold onto these same beliefs if they want to.

"While few Latter-day Saints would identify with caricatures of having their own planet, most would agree that the awe inspired by creation hints at our creative potential in the eternities," the article says.

The expectation of exaltation is more figurative and ambiguous than boiling it down to living on one planet, it says.

"Church members imagine exaltation less through images of what they will get and more through the relationships they have now and how those relationships might be purified and elevated," the article says.

All that said this has nothing to do with whether or not LDS leaders and the Church as a whole has taught that creating and presiding over worlds was actually taught and believed. It instead reduces the idea to part of the belief not the focus and dismisses non-LDS mockery of the idea as mere caraciture of the actual idea. There's no denial here just spin and deflection.

[_Bazooka]

Do Latter-day Saints believe they can become “gods”?
Latter-day Saints believe that God wants us to become like Him. But this teaching is often misrepresented by those who caricature the faith. The Latter-day Saint belief is no different than the biblical teaching, which states, “The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: and if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together” (Romans 8:16-17). Through following Christ's teachings, Latter-day Saints believe all people can become "partakers of the divine nature" (2 Peter 1:4).

Do Latter-day Saints believe that they will “get their own planet”?
No. This idea is not taught in Latter-day Saint scripture, nor is it a doctrine of the Church. This misunderstanding stems from speculative comments unreflective of scriptural doctrine. Mormons believe that we are all sons and daughters of God and that all of us have the potential to grow during and after this life to become like our Heavenly Father (see Romans 8:16-17). The Church does not and has never purported to fully understand the specifics of Christ’s statement that “in my Father’s house are many mansions” (John 14:2).

http://www.mormonnewsroom.org/article/mormonism-101#C14

A cloud and harp are hardly a satisfying image for eternal joy, although most Christians would agree that inspired music can be a tiny foretaste of the joy of eternal salvation. Likewise, while few Latter-day Saints would identify with caricatures of having their own planet, most would agree that the awe inspired by creation hints at our creative potential in the eternities.

Latter-day Saints tend to imagine exaltation through the lens of the sacred in mortal experience. They see the seeds of godhood in the joy of bearing and nurturing children and the intense love they feel for those children, in the impulse to reach out in compassionate service to others, in the moments they are caught off guard by the beauty and order of the universe, in the grounding feeling of making and keeping divine covenants. Church members imagine exaltation less through images of what they will get and more through the relationships they have now and how those relationships might be purified and elevated. As the scriptures teach, “That same sociality which exists among us here will exist among us there, only it will be coupled with eternal glory, which glory we do not now enjoy.”51

https://www.LDS.org/topics/becoming-like-god?lang=eng

Those who receive exaltation in the celestial kingdom through faith in Jesus Christ will receive special blessings. The Lord has promised, “All things are theirs” (D&C 76:59). These are some of the blessings given to exalted people:

1. They will live eternally in the presence of Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ (see D&C 76:62).
2. They will become gods (see D&C 132:20–23).
3. They will be united eternally with their righteous family members and will be able to have eternal increase.
4. They will receive a fulness of joy.
5. They will have everything that our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ have—all power, glory, dominion, and knowledge (see D&C 132:19–20). President Joseph Fielding Smith wrote: “The Father has promised through the Son that all that he has shall be given to those who are obedient to His commandments. They shall increase in knowledge, wisdom, and power, going from grace to grace, until the fulness of the perfect day shall burst upon them” (Doctrines of Salvation, comp. Bruce R. McConkie, 3 vols. [1954–56], 2:36; italics in original).

https://www.LDS.org/manual/gospel-princ ... n?lang=eng

All three official sources (Mormon Newsroom, Gospel Topics, Gospel Principles) talk about the same subject but give differing interpretations. Which one are we supposed to think is the right one? If we receive all the same dominion as our Heavenly Father, why does that not include dominion over a planet like earth? If it does include dominion over a planet like earth why is the Newsroom giving a categoric 'No' to the question? Why does the essay in Gospel Topics not give the same unequivocal 'No' to that same question? Why does the Gospel Principles manual suggest that the answer is, in fact, 'Yes'?

I repeat, which source is the definitive reference for doctrine and why haven't the other sources been deleted?

[_Mercury]

To mercury, I have the Frank Zappa album Sheik Yerbouti on vinyl. It is a masterwork of audio magic and virtuoso instrumentation. Let's not forget the satire. LP rules.

Look here, brother, who you jiving with that cosmik debris?

If there ever was a Zappa song about the church, Cosmik debris is it.

[_Kishkumen]

Too bad! I wonder what is so disturbing about a doctrine regarding the exalted creating worlds. Sure, it is not traditionally Christian, but it was long a distinctively LDS doctrine.

I don't invest much personal belief in this type of thing, but I do regret Mormonism's mad rush to become another flavor of vanilla ice cream.