God is Spirit? Alma 18 & 22

      "God is a great spirit" and "God created all things" are two concepts that go well together in the book of Alma.  Alma 18:26-29 says, "And then Ammon said: Believest thou that there is a Great Spirit?  And he said, Yea.  And Ammon said: This is God.  And Ammon said unto him again: Believest thou that this Great Spirit, who is God created all things which are in heaven and in the earth?  And he said: Yea, I believe that he created all things which are in the earth;..."  Alma 22:9-11 says, "And the king said: Is God that Great Spirit that brought our fathers out of the land of Jerusalem?  And Aaron said unto him: Yea, he is that Great Spirit, and he created all things both in heaven and in earth. Believest thou this?  And he said: Yea, I believe that the Great Spirit created all things, and I desire that ye should tell me concerning all these things, and I will believe thy words."
      If these Alma passages stated that God was confined to a physical body, it would be a problem.    Creating a physical body requires matter.  The matter in this physical body would need space to exist in.  It would also need time to exist in the space.  These passages state that God has created all things in the earth.  Matter, space and time are things that exist in the earth.  So, according to these passages, matter, space and time were created by God.
      Is it possible that God is subject to his creation?  Did he create himself?  If God was confined to a physical body, he could not have existed before time, space and matter were created.  Moroni 8:18 says, "For I know that God is not a partial God, neither a changeable being; but he is unchangeable from all eternity to all eternity."  The words from all eternity to all eternity mean from an infinite amount of time in the past to an infinite amount of time into the future.  God has always existed just the way that he is today.  He has never changed.  He existed before time began.  He is greater than matter, greater than space and greater than time.  He is not subject to them.  Matter, time and space are subject to him.  These are things he created.  These two passages say that God is a Spirit (not confined to a physical body).   So, the concepts of creating all things and God being a spirit, go well together.

All Religions Have Truth????

Can truth be found everywhere?  Do all roads lead to Rome?  Do all religions have truth?  If you study the Jews and Israelis in the Old Testament, you will see that they believed this.  They were involved in all the religions of their time. In the Old Testament, the Israeli's relationship with God was often compared to the relationship between a man and wife. The prophets many times referred to Judah and Israel as "harlot" sisters. Instead of being loyal to their God, they went after other gods like an unfaithful wife goes after other men.  Jeremiah 3:11 says, "And the Lord said unto me, The backsliding Israel hath justified herself more that treacherous Judah." That was the KJV.  The NIV paraphrases the verse this way: "The Lord said unto me, "Faithless Israel is more righteous than unfaithful Judah. In other words, it is better to just follow other gods than to follow Jehovah God and other gods. It is better for a woman not to marry than it is for her to marry and follow after other men. Israel stopped following God from King Jeroboam on through their history. Judah had some righteous and some unrighteous kings. John 14:6 says, "Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me." What a powerful verse. Not MY way - Jesus is the way.  Not my truth or what is relatively right for me - Jesus is the truth.

Relationship with God - Michael Quinn

      Michael Quinn is a brilliant Mormon historian who worked at BYU.  He has spent much of his life studying and writing about Mormon history.  Though he is far from perfect, he has been very loyal to the Mormon church.  I like his statement about relationship with God:  "Baptism cannot give you a relationship with God, and excommunication cannot take it away.  Neither has eternal significance unless sealed by the Holy Spirit of Promise.  I can only trust in God's love and in my relationship with Him."  (Mormon Mavericks pg.351)
     Religion is said to be the effort of man reaching up to God.  Christianity is said to be God's work of reaching down to man.  Some people are VERY religious and yet are very distant from God.  Others are not really religious and yet are very close to God.  Some people are extremely focused on their own religious accomplishment.  Others are very focused on God great mercy.  The woman at the well did not have a long list of religious accomplishments and yet she talked with Jesus face to face.  The Priests and Pharisees had long lists of religious accomplishments and did not even accept Christ or His miracles.  They wanted to kill Jesus.
      I like what Matthew 7:21-23 says:  "Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.  Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?  And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity."  What a powerful verse!  In reading about the life of Michael Quinn, it is obvious that having a close relationship with God was very important to him.  We should not be like the religious leaders of Jesus' day who were proud of their religious accomplishments, but hated Christ.  We should be more like the woman at the well.  We should strive to be close to God in spite of our unworthiness.  May we receive the tender mercies of God, our Savior and walk close to Him.

A Godhood Prediction

    Photo by Daniel Giannone on Unsplash

       According to Mormonism, how long would it take for a man to become a god?  I believe I can make an accurate prediction and narrow it down to the nearest second.  In the book Miracles of Forgiveness, Spencer W. Kimball said that God is "omniscient and omnipotent".  This means that God has an infinite amount of knowledge and an infinite amount of power.  You could also say that he has all knowledge and all power.  Let's suppose that I wanted to travel an infinite number of miles.  How long would it take me to accomplish my journey?  It would take me an infinite amount of time to travel an infinite number of miles.  Likewise, it would take an infinite amount of time to gain infinite knowledge and infinite power.  So I can safely say that it would not take one second more or one second less than an infinite amount of time to become a god.

     So how can this infinite problem be solved?  How did God become God if it would take an infinite amount of time to do so?  God solved this problem by already being God.  It would not take an infinite amount of time to travel an infinite number of miles if you were all ready there at your destination.  God did not have to gain infinite knowledge or infinite power because he already had infinite knowledge and infinite power.  He was already God!  Psalm 90:2 says, "Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God."  This verse is saying that God has been God at all times in the past and will be God at all times in the future.  Moroni 8:18 tells us that God did not have to change to become a God and that he already was like he is:  "For I know that God is not a partial God, neither a changeable being; but he is unchangeable from all eternity to all eternity."  This is amazing!  Moroni 7:22 says, "For behold, God knowing all things, being from everlasting to everlasting,..."  It has not taken God any time to become God because he has always been God.  Praise God for his infinite knowledge and infinite power!  Praise God for who he is!