My mother was a wonderful woman. I always knew she loved me, my father, and my sister. When she died I was heartbroken. Everyone of us has an earthly mother by birth (or sometimes by adoption) who we should honor and, while children, obey. If our mother has died, hopefully, we have fond memories of her.
But what if someone was to tell you that you had another mother who gave birth to you in another time and place long before you were born to your earthly mother. What would be your response be to such a statement? Probably incredulousness, right? Yet, that is a standard doctrine of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, also known as the Mormons or LDS. That church teaches that God, who they call Heavenly Father, has a wife (or wives) in heaven who is our Heavenly Mother.
Today the LDS Church does not publicize this strange doctrine. They still believe it, but have made it more obscure to preclude criticism from orthodox Christian analysis. We can still, though, find it implied in many LDS sources.
According to the official LDS textbook, Gospel Principles, “God is not only our Ruler and Creator; He is also our Heavenly Father. All men and women are literally the sons and daughters of God. ‘Man, as a spirit, was begotten and born of heavenly parents, and reared to maturity in the eternal mansions of the Father, prior to coming upon the earth in a temporal [physical] body’ (Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Joseph F. Smith [1998], 335).” (Quoted in Gospel Principles, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 2011, p. 8.)
The online version of the LDS official manual for teaching on marriage has this to say:
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. (D&C 132:19-32.) Indeed, the formal pronouncement of the Church, issued by the First Presidency and the Council of the Twelve, states: ‘So far as the stages of eternal progression and attainment have been made known through divine revelation, we are to understand that only resurrected and glorified beings can become parents of spirit offspring.’ (Man: His Origin and Destiny, p. 129.) (Bruce McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, 517, quoted in Eternal Marriage Student Manual, LDS 2003. Online at https://www.lds.org/manual/eternal-marriage-student-manual?lang=eng).
One of the older official LDS marriage manuals stated this tenet more directly:
By definition, exaltation includes the ability to procreate the family unit throughout eternity. This our Father in heaven has power to do. His marriage partner is our Mother in heaven. We are their spirit children, born to them of celestial marriage… (God) does not stand alone; for by his side with him, in all her glory, a glory like unto his, stands a companion, the Mother of his children. For as we have a Father in heaven, so also we have a Mother there. A glorified, exalted, ennobled Mother. (Achieving a Celestial Marriage. Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1976. p. 129).
One historic source for confirmation of this belief is found in one of the LDS’ most honored hymns titled, “O My Father” by Eliza R. Snow (1804-1887), a plural wife of both Joseph Smith and, after Smith’s death, Brigham Young. The third stanza reads:
I had learned to call thee Father,
Thru thy Spirit from on high,
But, until the key of knowledge was restored,
I knew not why. In the heav’ns are parents single?
No, the thought makes reason stare!
Truth is reason; truth eternal
Tells me I’ve a mother there. (https://www.lds.org/music/library/hymns/o-my-father?lang=eng)
Joseph Fielding Smith (1878-1972), tenth president of the LDS, once made this interesting admission… “the fact that there is no reference to a mother in heaven either in the Bible, Book of Mormon or Doctrine and Covenants (three of the LDS official “Four Standard Works or scriptures), is not sufficient proof that no such thing as a mother did exist there” (Answers to Gospel Questions. Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1960, vol. III, p. 142).
So how do we, as Christians, respond to this bizarre notion of a Mother in Heaven? Well, we start by declaring that such a notion is thoroughly unbiblical, as is the LDS doctrine of the nature of God the Father. As we stated in one of our earlier articles on Mormonism (see: http://www.marketfaith.org/mormonism-versus-christianity-can-they-both-be-christian-part-1):
“From the earliest times, Christians have affirmed the ancient Hebrew belief that there is only one God who is Spirit and is the personal, eternal, infinite Creator of all that exists. He is the only God and necessary for all other things to exist. He is omniscient. omnipotent, and omnipresent. The New Testament teaches that He exists eternally as a Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (see Deut. 6:4; Isa. 43:10; 44:6-8; Matt. 28:19; John 4:24; 17:3).
That is not, in any sense, the Mormon concept of God. The LDS has taught, since the days of its founder, prophet Joseph Smith, Jr., that God (who they call “Heavenly Father”) is an exalted man (male human) with a physical body of flesh and bone. Smith said, “If the veil were rent today, and the great God who holds this world in its orbit, and who upholds all worlds and all things by his power, was to make himself visible – I say, if you were to see him today, you would see him like a man in form” (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 345).
The biblical Trinity is also denied. In Mormonism, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost are often talked about, but what they mean is three totally separate entities or gods. ‘The Father has a body of flesh and bones as tangible as man’s; the Son also; but the Holy Ghost has not a body of flesh and bones, but is a personage of Spirit. Were it not so, the Holy Ghost could not dwell in us’ (Doctrine and Covenants [D&C] 130:22). Furthermore, Mormonism is polytheistic, believing there are, along with these three, innumerable other gods in the universe.
This Mormon vision of God is totally outside the bounds of historic Christianity, including all three major branches: Catholic, Protestant, or Orthodox. If fact, the Muslim idea of God is closer to the Christian view than is Mormonism! At least Islam is monotheistic.
The fact is, as Joseph F. Smith admitted, the Bible makes absolutely no reference to a Mother in Heaven or Mother God. That idea is totally outside of the biblical concept of who God is and what He is like. The term “Father,” as applied to God, is a metaphorical term of reverence, endearment, love, and personal relationship. It does not in any way suggest that God has a gender or a sexual nature, as is Mormon teaching (Matt. 5:45; 6:4-9; 7:11; 13:43; Luke 11:2, 13; John 4:23; 5:23; 8:19, 42; Rom. 8:15; Gal. 4:6). Also, Jesus made clear that marriage is not practiced or necessary in heaven (Matt. 22:30; Mark 12:25).
As the late great evangelical theologian Carl F. H. Henry wrote: “In sharp distinction from the ancient Near Eastern fertility cults and their nature gods, the Bible studiously avoids imputing sexual organs to God even anthropomorphically. Feminine and masculine sexual elements are excluded from both the Old Testament and New Testament doctrine of deity. The God of the Bible is a sexless God. When Scripture speaks of God as ‘he’ the pronoun is primarily personal (generic) rather than masculine (specific); it emphasizes God’s personality.” (Revelation and Authority, vol. 5. Waco TX: Word Pub. Co., 1976, p. 159).
So, do we have a “Mother in Heaven?” The clear biblical answer is “No.” We have the One Infinite, Eternal, Creator God who Jesus taught us to address as “Our Father, who art in Heaven.”
© 2017 Tal Davis