Is the trinity eternal?
When I was a member (active since childhood) I pictured the ultimate destiny of the most righteous and obedience to be Godhood. The idea seemed to be that I could become like, and come to play a role entirely analogouos to that of The Father.
But if that were the case, would I have a special son who would redeem my worlds? Would I then be part of a trinity that includes a disembodied (spirit bodied) being playing the role of Holy Ghost?
Do all of these past and future Godheads have the structure of a trinity? Or, if there are wives, is it really more than a trinity.
If so, it seems odd. The Holy Ghost seems the odd man out. He isn't even part of the family as it were. There is the Heavenly Father role, the special Son role (savior) and the heavenly Mother role and then.....? Then this extra adopted member playing the role of Holy Spirit? (As always, one can only wonder when the Holy Ghost will get his body--and then what will happen to the trinity?).
My impression is that originally, the Spirit was not thought to have a body or even be a person. But since by the time of the new testiment, God no longer was thought to have a body or human form and so was easily identified with this formless Spirit. Then there is the idea of Jesus as God. Eventually, compromise led to the notion of trinity.
Then comes two more speculations (eventually taken as doctrine in LDS circles). One is that even the Holy Ghost has a spirit body and is a person.
Second, the notion that God the father was once man and that we could have the same destiny.
I picture these as separate theological seeds which eventually sprout and then crowd into each other in unexpected way. As though the minds which gave rise to them were more prolific in imagination than they were able to see implications for future dissonance.
First it happened with the three ideas of God, Son and Spirit. Then it happens again with the new ideas introduced by Joseph Smith. Specifically, the eternal family unit, eventual Godhood and the human like personhood of even the odd man out, the Holy Ghost. Where will the future supplies of Holy Ghosts come from and who will they live with -whose family unit?
Seems like theological confusion to me-- but then, not every Mormon is telling quite the same story of our destiny and the origin of Gods.
exposure to Godhead members in the three kingdoms of glory
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- _Emeritus
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I posted some related thoughts on the MaD board (complete with my characteristic lack of attention to spelling etc.):
when believers want to give their claims more weight, they dress these claims up in scientific terms. When believers want to belittle atheism or secular humanism, they call it a "religion". -Beastie
yesterday's Mormon doctrine is today's Mormon folklore.-Buffalo
yesterday's Mormon doctrine is today's Mormon folklore.-Buffalo
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- _Emeritus
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I have no idea how to reconcile it, just theories. Then again, considering how much I know about the afterlife this is hardly surprising. What we have on heaven is meant as an enticement to draw us there. It is not addressed to our intellectual curiosity.
"Surely he knows that DCP, The Nehor, Lamanite, and other key apologists..." -Scratch clarifying my status in apologetics
"I admit it; I'm a petty, petty man." -Some Schmo
"I admit it; I'm a petty, petty man." -Some Schmo
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It's a good question. Obviously there is more to do with it than just the actual glory of the Gods preventing one from seeing the Father or the Father and Son and this seems to be indicated in D&C 107:19.
Machina Sublime
Satan's Plan Deconstructed.
Your Best Resource On Joseph Smith's Polygamy.
Conservatism is the Gospel of Christ and the Plan of Salvation in Action.
The Degeneracy Of Progressivism.
Satan's Plan Deconstructed.
Your Best Resource On Joseph Smith's Polygamy.
Conservatism is the Gospel of Christ and the Plan of Salvation in Action.
The Degeneracy Of Progressivism.