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<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" height=90 BGCOLOR="#CC9900" TEXT="#080000" bgproperties="fixed" background="043005a0dwnjzk.gif"> <div> <A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="EDWARD WATSONS WEBWORLD"><U><B>home</B></U></A><B> | </B><FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#FFCC66" FACE="Arial" ><B>EDWARD WATS</B><B>ON'S WEBWORLD</B></FONT></div> <div> <A HREF="id61.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="SECTION 1 INTRODUCTION"><U><B>SECTION 1 INTRODUCTION</B></U></A><B>   |   </B><A HREF="id62.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="1"><U><B>1</B></U></A><B>   |   </B><A HREF="id66.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="2"><U><B>2</B></U></A><B>   |   </B><A HREF="id67.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="3"><U><B>3</B></U></A><B>   |   </B><A HREF="id68.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="4"><U><B>4</B></U></A><B>   |   </B><A HREF="id55.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="5"><U><B>5</B></U></A><B>   |   </B><A HREF="id69.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="6"><U><B>6</B></U></A><B>   |   </B><A HREF="id59.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="7"><U><B>7</B></U></A><B>   |   </B><A HREF="id71.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="8"><U><B>8</B></U></A><B>   |   </B><A HREF="id72.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="9"><U><B>9</B></U></A><B>   |   </B><A HREF="id60.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="10"><U><B>10</B></U></A><B>   |   </B><A HREF="id73.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="11"><U><B>11</B></U></A><B>   |   </B><B>12</B><B>   |   </B><A HREF="id75.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="13"><U><B>13</B></U></A><B>   |   </B><A HREF="id76.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="14"><U><B>14</B></U></A><B>   |   </B><A HREF="id77.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="15"><U><B>15</B></U></A><B>   |   </B><A HREF="id78.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="16"><U><B>16</B></U></A><B>   |   </B><A HREF="id79.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="17"><U><B>17</B></U></A><B>   |   </B><A HREF="id80.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="18"><U><B>18</B></U></A><B>   |   </B><A HREF="id81.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="APPENDIX"><U><B>APPENDIX</B></U></A><B>   |   </B><A HREF="id82.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="SECTION 1: CONCLUSION"><U><B>SECTION 1: CONCLUSION</B></U></A><B>   |   </B><A HREF="id65.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="ABBREVIATIONS"><U><B>ABBREVIATIONS</B></U></A></div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" height=390 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <B>[MORMONISM. The Faith of the Twenty-first Century. Volume 1. Edward K. Watson. (Liahona Publications. Copyright © 1998 Edward K. Watson.) pp. 117-120. MORMONISM: Section 1, Chapter 12. All rights reserved.]</B></div> <bR> <div> <U>CHAPTER 12</U></div> <bR> <div> <B>Is God Unchanging? Did He Create Everything? </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>A) Is God unchanging?</B> </div> <bR> <div>      Despite the misrepresentations of our opponents, the Latter-day Scriptures teach God is  immutable. He's unchangeable from eternity to eternity and is the same yesterday, today and forever (1 Ne  10:18; 2 Ne  2:4;  26:12; Alma  11:38-39,44; 3 Ne  24:6; Morm  9:9-10,19; Moro  7:22;  8:18; D&C  20:12,17,28;  35:1-2;  76:4;  78:16; Mos  1:3) which is identical to what the Bible says (Deut  33:27; Ps  90:2;  93:2;  102:24-27; Hab  1:12; Mal  3:6; Heb  1:12;  6:17-18; Jas  1:17). Wouldn't it be foolish for Joseph Smith to teach a doctrine that would contradict what God taught numerous times in the Bible and the Latter-day Scriptures? God doesn't change. He's consistent, always reliable and trustworthy. He keeps his side of the covenant even if man doesn't. </div> <div>      On the surface it appears that our belief that Heavenly Father was once a man like ourselves who developed into the God he currently is seems contradicted by our other doctrine that he is unchanging. Let us examine this doctrine in depth.</div> <div>      The Traditional Christian view of God understands him as possessing three persons but being one essence. God is immutable, he doesn't change according to the Bible but <I>at the same time describes a changing God!</I> </div> <bR> <div> <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" > </FONT><FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#000000" FACE="BernhardMod BT" > </FONT>Heb <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" > </FONT>13:8 <I>Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever. </I></div> <bR> <div>      Is Jesus, “God”? We say yes. Is he the same yesterday, today and tomorrow? We say yes (also see Moro  10:19).<I> But,</I> did he change? Yes! He was an incorporeal (not nonmaterial) spirit being for billions of years before being born to Mary 2,000 years ago. Jesus (God) <I>changed</I> from being completely nonhuman to human! He<I> changed</I> from an embryo to a fetus, to an infant, to a child, to an adolescent, to an adult. <I>He changed!</I> Since Jesus is God, and Jesus changed, it means <I>God changed!</I> God changed physically and in essence (purely nonhuman to part-human). </div> <bR> <div> <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" > </FONT><FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#000000" FACE="BernhardMod BT" > </FONT>Luke<FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" > </FONT> 2:52 And <I>Jesus increased</I> in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man. </div> <bR> <div>      Did Jesus increase in wisdom?<I> Did he change? </I>Isn't an “increase” a “change”?</div> <bR> <div> <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >  </FONT>John<FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" > </FONT> 5:19 Then answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you,<I> The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise.</I></div> <bR> <div>      <I>What did Jesus do?</I> Did he do what Heavenly Father did before him? If God the Son changed and replicated what God the Father did before him, <I>did God the Father change? </I>If not, Jesus is a liar.</div> <div>      Our opponents claim to be the true followers of Christ but they don't believe what Jesus said about his emulation of the Father, the significance of the humanity of Jesus or the implications of his incarnation. Neither do they seem to understand how God can be unchanging and changing at the same time. Their argument in reality isn't with us Mormons, it's with Jesus and the NT. We are merely believing what is clearly espoused in the Bible. </div> <div>      This needs to be clarified. The immutability of God is in reference to his nature. His nature as God doesn't change,<FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >1</FONT> in relation to the universe. Jesus was always “God” despite changing from being purely incorporeal to having a physical body. </div> <div>      If the Christian anti-Mormons truly believe God's `unchangeness' excludes a mortal incarnation and development; <I>they have no other choice but to abandon Jesus as being God and member of the Godhead!</I> They <I>must </I>abandon the NT since it clearly refers to Jesus as God and at the same time describes a “changing” (evolving) Jesus. (He did get circumcised and “grew” a beard didn't he?) Their only options are to convert to either Judaism or Islam.</div> <div>      The real problem lies in the origin of God. How did God come into existence? From the Scriptures it can be gathered that the universe was created by God therefore he had to precede this universe. As I understand it, the church teaches that Heavenly Father was once a man like us and resided on a world similar to ours. He eventually attained Godhood, and then created this universe and everything within. Such an idea drives anti-Mormons to rage. “How dare you Mormons say that God was once a man! Blasphemy!” The thing is, why be on the defensive? We should put the ball back in their corner and ask them, “<B>What did God do before he created this universe?</B>” If they're trained in philosophy, they'll say there never was a period before the creation and God was a hypostasis present. (See Chapter 14 and MORMONISM: Section 4). Usually, they won't be able to answer. “You don't know? How can you then say that the Mormon concept is wrong when you don't have an alternate idea?”</div> <div>      In order for an individual to say that this idea (God was once a mortal humanoid in another universe) is wrong, he or she must be able to prove why it's false. Since we teach that this occurred before the universe was created in an ancestral universe, they must be able to show that he was always [a] God <I>before</I> the universe was made. Can they do it? Absolutely not, since there isn't a single verse in the Bible that says what God was doing before he created the universe. All we have is when he created this heaven (universe? sky?) and earth. </div> <div>      The Mormon belief of God's mortal origin is based upon what is now known as the “multiverse cosmology” which resolves the unchanging God passages with the changing God described by the incarnation. It shows the “unchangeable God” passages are about God's status, not about a mortal evolution. He was God before creating time and the universe. he will still be God after time and the universe cease to exist.</div> <bR> <div> <B>B) Did God create everything?</B> </div> <bR> <div>      Our critics use many biblical passages which state God created all things and the heaven and the earth (Gen  1:1; Deut  10:14; Neh  9:6; Ps  8:1,3;  89:11;  96:5;  115:15;  121:2;  124:8;  134:3; Isa  40:25-26;  42:5;  44:24; Jer  10:12; Zech  12:1; Acts  17:24-25; Rom  11:36; Col  1:16-17; Heb  11:3; Rev  4:11). </div> <div>      An examination of these passages shows all things were created by the LORD. He created all things in this universe. Anything that is located outside this universe doesn't necessarily apply since God specifically focused on the universe when stating his creation (Isa  40:25-26). If they insist that these passages include other universes, if there are any; then we can say that the word “all” doesn't necessarily mean every single thing. It can mean a great amount without meaning all-encompassing. </div> <div>      The word, “all” doesn't necessarily mean every single person or thing. For example, the Samaritan woman said that Christ “ ...  <I>told me all things that I ever did”</I> (John  4:29) doesn't entail that he sat there and gave a full-life history of her life, or the statement, “ ...  and<I> were all baptized of him</I>  ... ” (Mark  1:5) doesn't imply every single person went to John the Baptist and was baptized of him since the NT says very clearly that there were some who refused to be baptized by John like the Pharisees (Luke  7:29-30). “Unto the pure all things are pure ... ”(Tit  1:15 and echoed in Rom  14:14). Does this mean everything is pure to those who are pure? What about incest? Pornography? Murder? Cannibalism? “All have sinned and come short of the glory of God” (Rom  3:23). Does this mean every single person, including Jesus are sinners since Jesus isn't excluded from this sweeping statement? Jesus was supposed to be sinless (2 Cor  5:21; Heb  4:15;  7:26;  9:14; 1 Pet  2:22; 1 Jn  3:5), thus the word “all” in Rom  3:23 doesn't mean every single human. All men came to Jesus (John  3:26) and all the earth followed Jesus (John  12:19). It should now be clear that the word “all” in the Bible doesn't necessarily mean “all encompassing.”</div> <div>      All passages in the Bible and the Book of Mormon that mention the eternal aspect of God only have reference to this universe. This is easily seen because the words used such as eternity, eternal, forever, without beginning and without end, are measurements of our time which did not exist before the universe was made.</div> <bR> <div> <B>[ENDNOTES]:</B></div> <bR> <div> 1.NIBD. Immutability.</div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="mailto:ewatson@shaw.ca" TARGET="_top" TITLE="mailto:ewatson@shaw.ca"><U>e-mail me!</U></A></div> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>