Isaiah 55:8-9 reads:
For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.
Here are some reasons why, in the context of the book, I don’t think we should interpret this to mean that God got to where he is by progression or advancement, or that he is among others who are becoming the same kind of being (omnipotent, omniscient beings big-G Gods who are worshiped by their own spirit children):
- In 14:4-21 (13-14 in particular), one who says in his heart, “I will make myself like the Most High”, is condemned as pompous and arrogant (14:11).*
- He created the heavens and earth without any help or collaboration. “I am the Lord, who made all things, who alone stretched out the heavens, who spread out the earth by myself.” (Isaiah 44:24, cf. 40:22, 45:12)
- He never learned from another: “Whom did he consult, and who made him understand? Who taught him the path of justice, and taught him knowledge, and showed him the way of understanding?” (40:14).
- “His understanding is unsearchable.” (40:28) Like a stopwatch ticking up to infinity, we can progress forever but never arrive at the wisdom he has always had.
- He doesn’t have a divine genealogy (chronologically speaking): “Before me no god was formed, nor shall there be any after me.” (43:10)
- He is the first and the last: “I am the first and I am the last; besides me there is no god.” (44:6)
- He doesn’t know of any other like himself: “Is there a God besides me? There is no Rock; I know not any.” (44:8)
- None is alike or equal to him: “To whom then will you liken God, or what likeness compare with him?” (40:18) “To whom then will you compare me, that I should be like him? says the Holy One.” (40:25) “To whom will you liken me and make me equal, and compare me, that we may be alike?” (46:5)
- There is none like him: “I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me.” (46:9)
- His glory is uniquely his, and is not shared with any other: “For my own sake, for my own sake, I do it, for how should my name be profaned? My glory I will not give to another.” (48:11)
I don’t see reason to lessen these statements with the limiting qualifier, “for this planet”, or, “for his particular spirit children”, etc. Isaiah seems to be at pains to show that the Most High is literally the Most High, supreme over both “the heavens and earth”, which is an ancient way of saying “evvvvverything.” Isaiah 55:8-9 seems to be continuing the idea that God is entirely a different kind of being than us.
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* There is a neat contrast here with Isaiah 14: Satan & Babylon are (or will be) humiliated in hell for their arrogance, but Jesus, who was already equal with the Father (John 17:5), always the Most High, made himself “lower than the angels” (Heb. 2:9), and is “exalted… above every name” (Philippians 2:9). As Jesus said, “Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.” (Matthew 23:12)
Progressing as gods has been a controversial topic in Mormonism. Here’s one of my all time favorite Mormon go-to guys Bruce McConkie and what he had to say about a Mormon prophets view of progression:
“……a letter written by LDS Apostle Bruce R. McConkie and sent to a BYU Professor by the name of Eugene England. The purpose of McConkie’s letter was to let Dr. England know that he was very displeased with certain ideas he was espousing publicly. These included teachings taught in the past by leaders such as Brigham Young. McConkie admits in the letter that Brigham Young was guilty of teaching things that were “out of harmony with the gospel” (p. 6). In fact, McConkie makes the amazing confession that “I do not know all of the providences of the Lord, but I do know that he permits false doctrine to be taught in and out of the Church and that such teaching is part of the sifting process of mortality” (p. 7). Such a statement should be disconcerting to the average Mormon who has heard his leaders time and time again insist that, “God will never allow the prophet of the [LDS] church to lead the church astray.” Since when has teaching false doctrine not been a method of leading people astray?”
“McConkie soundly attacks Young’s notion that God is ever progressing in knowledge or that Adam is God. The letter is most revealing in that while Mr. McConkie claims that individuals who hold to some of the views of Mormonism’s 2nd president will be damned (p. 7), he fails to admit that Young must have been damned for teaching them. We offer this letter for your perusal.”
To see excerpts from the letter go to:
http://www.mrm.org/bruce-mcconkies-rebuke-of-eugene-england
What I find most interesting is this notion that you can trust the leaders of the LDS church especially the “prophet”. Had he been living during the reign of Brigham Young would McConkie have challenged him and said that he (Young) was just expressing his opinion? Fact of the matter is that the LDS people can’t trust those who call themselves apostles and prophets. This invented notion of “opinion” and “folk doctrine” simply won’t do.
I found the following very interesting. It’s interesting to me because we’ve had LDS post here over the years telling me specifically that I didn’t know what I was talking about regarding Mormonism. After some exchanges back and forth it became obvious that these LDS folks didn’t know what they were talking about.
So I offer the following from Mormons In Transition:
What is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon) teaching its members about who God is and what He is like? Does it teach non-members anything different? To find out I called two different Mormon missionary residences in my city. At the first number Elder Fieldcrest answered the phone. He was cordial and very willing to answer my questions on the nature of God. I asked two:
The first was, “Has God always been God, complete with all attributes of omnipotence, omnipresence, and omniscience?” His answer was “Yes. God has always been God.”
My next question was equally straightforward: “Was God once a man like us?” His immediate answer was “No.” When I asked does the Mormon Church teach that God was once a man, he said “No.” He went on to say that there is no specific teaching on that. God does have a body of flesh and bones, but he was never a man like us.
Two hours later I received a call back from the other missionary residence where I had left a message. This time I talked with Sister Sansburg. I asked her the same two questions. To the question “Has God always been God?” there was a pause and then “No. God was once a man.” I then asked, “So does the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints teach that God was once man like us?” To which, after a slightly longer pause, she answered “Yes.”
http://mit.irr.org/god-was-once-man-us-finessing-off-putting-mormon-doctrine
A couple of thoughts here. The first I already alluded to that the LDS folks are often either in denial or ignorance regarding what their church teaches about the nature of God. Secondly, if the Mormon gods have all been men, didn’t they progress from this state to the state of godhood? These gods quite obviously couldn’t have always been gods if they had been men, sinful men.
I’ve had the LDS folks try to claim that their gods are eternal because “matter” is eternal and their gods were constructed out of “matter”. Nice try I say. They don’t quite get the point that their gods haven’t always been gods. They were spirit offspring of a mother and father god out in another planetary system. They had a beginning. They weren’t eternal by any definition of the word.
Let’s face it. Mormonism is a mess. These folks aren’t going to become gods, they aren’t going to have their forever families and they aren’t getting their own planetary systems to rule over with “people” on their planets praying and adoring them.
The God Isaiah worshiped is the true Creator of all there is . The God Joseph Smith , Brigham Young , and the latter days prophets of Mormonism have introduced is not the same God Isaiah knew .
Joseph Smith drifted from the truth the Bible reveals about God and succumbed to personal apostasy and Brigham expanded on Smith’s error . Thus we go from one Almighty Creator God of the Bible to the Gods and Goddesses introduced by Mormonism . Few comparisons could be more clear .
The Mormon people have been fooled into thinking their prophets are directed by God to preach the gospel in the latter days — Matt 24:11 .
We pray for the Mormon people to realize their predicament . There is freedom , because truth matters .
I wonder what would happen to Mormon proselytizing efforts if those the Missionaries were talking to read what Isaiah taught about God , and then were told what Mormon leaders had taught about God ?
Teachings such as :
– God the Father is a human male who with His wives produced Jesus ( Jehovah) Lucifer , and all other peoples .
– God Himself was the offspring of another God , one higher and with more dominion than He.
– The Lord ( Jehovah ) God Almighty shares a heavenly home with a higher God than He .
– God was not always God
– Jehovah grew up in heaven , attended schooling there , and eventually gained the power to part the
Red Sea , and became intelligent enough to eventually be able to name all the stars .
– There are Goddesses in God’s heavenly home , they have been constantly bearing His sons and daughters through the eons of time , before He even created this earth .
– All males who follow the latter days gospel introduced by Mormon prophets can one day be and do all the things their heavenly Father God has done ( see above ) .
It takes great sales skill / techniques to sell a gospel that contains these kinds of doctrines , to sincere people looking for the true gospel but unfortunately listening to and being fooled into accepting Mormon leaders as true prophets sent by God , like Isaiah was .
Myself and many I know who have left mormonism for Christianity have tried to figure out who the Mormon God actually is. I think maybe it’s is the “light of Christ” power or energy of god, or sometimes called the holy spirit, (which is different from the holy ghost) according to the LDS website because its the only thing unchanging and eternal and omnipresent. The thing is, it seems this light is dependent on the holy monad who it’s attached to in order to have any usefulness, I don’t see how it could be self directed unless it were itself “person or persons” and if so why are they not worshiping IT as god (they do seem to call the light a he but apparently its not just jesus or the father- just assuming they are referring to father here) So this sea of light/spirit existed forever and the holy monads (intelligences) have existed forever and been built cities and worlds of this light. There is no one Top Dog over the light, just the monads who work in accordance with it who control it and create stuff with it. So once the light is organized by the top monad of a world, does it just stay put or does he actually have to will it to stay put and keep creating things, so he’s like sitting there in his spirit world trying to uphold and work on his universe. Seems stressful even for an exalted spirit being. Not sure how Jesus and the holy ghost even fit into the eternal picture here.
Isn’t it much easier and more Biblical (and logical) to say, there is one God, Father who is the Eternal Mind and law and knowledge and wisdom who has his Son (light) and Spirit with him eternally as his 2 hands and has built and is currently building and sustaining the world with these 2 hands? Humans are creatures that participate in Mind, Spirit and light as part of our being but we aren’t God (and certainly didn’t create ourselves) I can only be me, I can never be rock or tree or Lady Gaga lol. We are created by God to be sons/words/images of God in THE Son and THE Word who is THE image of God.