On the Nature of God

As a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, also known as a Mormon, I have some of my own views on the nature of God derived from the general theology. These include the belief that He is literally the Father of our spirits, that we also have a spiritual Mother, and that we have the potential to become like them. Aside from that, we don’t have a great deal of set theology, and we tend to be left on our own to work out the details. It can be fun to theorize, but in the end, we’re all just trying to work out what we can with our limited knowledge.

For me, this has brought out thoughts on what is meant by “God”. To me, “God” is a job title, the same as “Father” and “Mother” are. This can be relational, but it doesn’t have to be. God, the Father, will always be our God. However, we have referred to others as “God” at one point or another. Jesus Christ is “God” in that He was the principal actor in creating the Earth, acting under the direction of “God”, the Father. Adam, then known as Michael, was also “God” when he (and others unspecified) were helping in the creation of Earth, under the direction of “God”, Jesus, who took his orders from “God”, the Father.

The confusion comes from giving that title to whomever is doing work beyond what we can imagine possible by humans. It’s the same as calling the ability to cure sickness through antibiotics a “miracle”. We have many, many things in our everyday lives that would have been called a “miracle” in previous eras. The use of Flint and Steel to make fire would once have been considered a miracle.

In this same way, if we make it through the process of becoming like God, God the Father (and Mother) will always be our God. This does not reduce Him in any way, just as my being a father does not make my own father any less a father.