In LDS theology God the Father is not the eternal God, rather Mormons teach that God had to become God by obedience to the law, at a certain point in time. Mormon tell us, just as Jesus has a Father, that Father has a Father, and that Father has a Father, etc., thus an infinite regression of Fathers. Hence, the hope of the Mormon male is to gain eternal life in the highest degree of the celestial kingdom, where he can become a God of his own planet and have endless sex with his wife or wives; and have spirit children to people his planet. Just as God the Father did and continues to do.
To avoid the usual Mormon allegations (especially by Mormon missionaries) such as: “That is just your opinion” or “You are misrepresenting Mormonism” all of the statements below concerning official LDS doctrine will be from the LDS “General Authorities”1 and authoritative LDS literature given to her own people:
Joseph Smith Jr., founder and first President/ Prophet of the Mormon Church:
I will go back to the beginning before the world was, to show what kind of being God was. . . . God himself was once as we are now, and is an exalted man, and sits enthroned in yonder heavens . . . it is necessary we should understand the character and being of God and how he came to be so; for I am going to tell you how God came to be God. We have imagined and suppose that God was God from all eternity. I will refute that idea, and take away the veil, so that you may see. These are incomprehensible ideas to some, but they are simple.
It is the first principle of the Gospel to know for a certainty the Character of God, and to know that we may converse with him as one man converses with another, and that he was once a man like us; yea, that God himself, the Father of us all, dwelt on an earth, the same as Jesus Christ himself did; and I will show it from the Bible. Here then, is eternal life–to know the only wise and true God; and you have got to learn how to be Gods yourselves, and to be kings and priest to God, the same as all Gods have done before you, namely by going from one small degree to another, and from a small capacity to a great one. . . . (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, 345-47; emphasis added).
Lorenzo Snow, fifth President/Prophet:
As man is, God once was; as God is, man may become (The Millennial Star, 54:404).
Orson Hyde, of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles:
God our Heavenly Father was perhaps once a child and mortal like we are and rose step by step in the scale of progress, in the school of advancement; He has moved forward and overcome until He has arrived at the point where He is now (Journal of Discourses, 1:123; emphasis added).
Milton R. Hunter, of the First Council of the Seventy:
Mormons prophets have continuously taught the sublime truth that God the Eternal Father2 was once a mortal man who passed through a school of earth life similar to that through which we are now passing. He became God–an exalted being–through obedience to the same eternal Gospel truths that we are given opportunity to day to obey (The Gospel Through the Ages, 104; emphasis added).
Even more, in the official LDS booklet: Achieving A Celestial Marriage, Lesson 1 (“Celestial Marriage–Key to Man’s Destiny”) reads:
God was once a man who, by obedience, advanced to his present state of perfection; through obedience and celestial marriage, we may progress to the point where we become like God. . . . God became God by Obedience to Law.
That “God became God” is not only a pagan idea but it denies the very nature of God Himself, by rejecting His eternality as God (cf. Is. 43:10, LXX: “…So that you may know and believe Me and understand that I AM…” Notice “I AM” in the Greek LXX and not “I am He” as with 41:4. Jesus makes the same claim in John 8:24: “Unless you believe that I AM you will die in your sins”; cf. Gk.).
Biblical Teaching
That God is not eternal but had to become God is a teaching that attacks the very essence of God and the heart of historic biblical theology- namely Who God is. God is immutable: “For I am the LORD, I change not. . . .” (Mal. 3:6). Because God does not change, our salvation is assured, however, the Mormons worship a changing God (was once a man). Accordingly, the LDS god, could at anytime change the requirements of their salvation.
Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God (Ps. 90:2; emphasis added).
“Hast thou not known? Hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the LORD, the creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? There is no searching of his understanding” (Isa. 40:28; cf. Ps. 102:25-27).
God is Creator of all things:
“Thus saith the LORD, thy redeemer, and he that formed thee from tee womb, I am the LORD that maketh all things; that stretch forth the heaven alone; that spreadeth abroad the earth by myself” (Isa. 44:24)
“For thus saith the LORD that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited: I am the LORD; and there is none else” (Isa. 45:18)
In point of fact, church history is no friend of LDS doctrine. Never has there been any church Father that agreed with this decidedly un-biblical teaching, that God was not always God, or as stated in official LDS publication: “God became God.” The church (and the early church) has always and universally affirmed: There exists one Eternal uncreated God that has always been God.
Notes
1, The LDS General Authorities are the men who determine what LDS doctrine is. The General Authorities include: The First Presidency (i.e., the LDS President and his two counselors), Council of Twelve (i.e., the Twelve Apostles), the Patriarch to the Church, Assistants to the Twelve, First Council of the Seventy, and Presiding Bishopric.
2, The term “eternal” in Mormon theology, means that “matter,” or intelligences, have always existed, hence, in that sense, Mormons say that God and man are eternal. But, Mormons do not believe that God was always God only that His “matter” or intelligence has existed, as with ours. Thus, man and God are of the same species.