Mormon Polytheism and the Ladder of Divinity

published 2025-08-23

by Christopher Howard

An appealing aspect of Mormonism is that the difference between you and between God is not, fundamentally, one of kind or category, but simply of degree. As the Mormon Apostle Lorenzo Snow famously stated:

As man now is, God once was:

As God now is, man may be.

— from the Biography and Family Record of Lorenzo Snow, Eliza Snow Smith, p. 46

Metaphorically, both we and God are climbing the same ladder — only God has made it quite a few steps higher than we have. Joseph Smith — the founder of Mormonism — explained it this way:

[Our loved ones who died] shall be heirs of God and joint heirs with Jesus Christ. What is it? To inherit the same power, the same glory and the same exaltation, until you arrive at the station of a God, and ascend the throne of eternal power [...] What did Jesus do? Why I [Jesus] do the same things I saw my Father do when worlds came rolling into existence [...] when I get my kingdom, I shall present it to my Father [...] He will then take a higher exaltation, and I will take his place, and thereby become exalted myself. So that Jesus treads in the tracks of his Father, and inherits what God did before; and God is thus glorified and exalted in the salvation and exaltation of all his children [...] When you climb up a ladder, you must begin at the bottom, and ascend step by step, until you arrive at the top; and so it is with the principles of the Gospel... — King Follet discourse, Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, 2nd Ed, Joseph Fielding Smith, pp. 347-348

The notes to this passage quote Elder B. H. Roberts:

The divinity of Jesus is the truth which now requires to be reperceived, to be illumined afresh by new knowledge, to be cleansed and revivified by the wholesome flood of scepticism which has poured over it: it can be freed now from all trace of grovelling superstition; and can be recognized freely and enthusiastically: the divinity of Jesus, and [the divinity] of all other noble and saintly souls, in so far as they, too, have been inflamed by a spark of Deity—in so far as they, too, can be recognized as manifestations of the Divine.

In other words, in Mormon teaching, there is nothing particular special about Jesus — he is climbing the same ladder of divinity as the rest of us. He is further up the ladder than most of us, but has not made it as far up as God.

What is, then, the key to advancing up the ladder, whereby we can eventually become what God is now? The answer, in Mormon teaching, is knowledge:

God himself, finding he was in the midst of spirits and glory, because he was more intelligent, saw proper to institute laws whereby the rest could have a privilege to advance like himself. The relationship we have with God places us in a situation to advance in knowledge. He has power to institute laws to instruct the weaker intelligences, that they may be exalted with himself, so that they might have one glory upon another, and all that knowledge, power, glory, and intelligence, which is requisite in order to save them in the world of spirits. — King Follet discourse, ibid, p. 354

If you are wondering where all this enlightenment is leading you, in more practical terms, then this explanation is helpful:

Implicit in the Christian verity that all men are the spirit children of an Eternal Father is the usually unspoken truth that they are also the offspring of an Eternal Mother. An exalted and glorified Man of Holiness (Moses 6:57) could not be a Father unless a Woman of like glory, perfection, and holiness was associated with him as a Mother. The begetting of children makes a man a father and a woman a mother whether we are dealing with man in his mortal or immortal state. [...] Mortal persons who overcome all things and gain an ultimate exaltation will live eternally in the family unit and have spirit children, thus becoming Eternal Fathers and Eternal Mothers. — From entry "Mother in Heaven", Bruce McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, 1966.

It is not difficult to understand why this sort of teaching — this ladder of divinity — would be appealing to many people. Nevertheless, it is a lie. In fact, it is the first lie recorded in Scripture. When our progenitors, Adam and Eve, rebelled against God, and ate the forbidden fruit, this was the lie used to tempt them:

Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, “Indeed, has God said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’?” The woman said to the serpent, “From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat; but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat from it or touch it, or you will die.’” The serpent said to the woman, “You surely will not die! For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate.” — Genesis 3:1-6 (NASB 1995)

Some translations render it something like "you will be like gods" (plural) since the Hebrew word has a plural form. But either way, the implication is the same: there was really no difference between Adam and Eve and between God, except that God was nefariously withholding from them some knowledge and experience that would allow them to make upward progress toward divinity.

We should desire to be like God, in regards to his character — loving the things he loves, and desiring to do his will. But on a fundamental level, in regards to God's being, power, and knowledge, there is an infinite and unbridgeable gap between us and between God.

In the prophecy regarding Cyrus, in Isaiah 45:5-7, God declares:

“I am the Lᴏʀᴅ, and there is no other;

Besides Me there is no God.

I will gird you [Cyrus] though you have not known Me;

That men may know from the rising to the setting of the sun

That there is no one besides Me.

I am the Lᴏʀᴅ, and there is no other,

The One forming light and creating darkness,

Causing well-being and creating calamity;

I am the Lᴏʀᴅ who does all these.

And in verse 12:

“It is I who made the earth, and created man upon it.

I stretched out the heavens with My hands

And I ordained all their host.

And then, in verses 20 through 22:

“Gather yourselves and come;

Draw near together, you fugitives of the nations;

They have no knowledge,

Who carry about their wooden idol

And pray to a god who cannot save.

“Declare and set forth your case;

Indeed, let them consult together.

Who has announced this from of old?

Who has long since declared it?

Is it not I, the Lᴏʀᴅ?

And there is no other God besides Me,

A righteous God and a Savior;

There is none except Me.

“Turn to Me and be saved, all the ends of the earth;

For I am God, and there is no other.

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Lockman Foundation