How Can An Eternal God Have Once Been A Man?

This question was posed in an online group regarding the LDS doctrine that “God himself was once as we are now, and is an exalted man, and sits enthroned in yonder heavens!” (Joseph Smith, Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, sel. Joseph Fielding Smith, Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1938, p. 345).  Below it I have included my response in three parts.

Question:

Premise 1: God does not change
Premise 2: God is eternal
Logical conclusion: God has always been god and could not have once been man because that would have involved him not being god eternally and changing into god.

What is the flaw in this argument?

Why Only Jesus Could Be The Christ

Q: Was Jesus the only one who could have been the Savior? Was it possible for someone else to have been the Messiah?

A: Jesus alone was anointed as Savior because He was the only one who had the right to be the Christ (or the Messiah).  He could claim that right because it was His by birthright and by righteousness, and also by covenant.

“Jesus was chosen from before the foundations of the world to be the Christ, the Anointed One…He was the birthright son, and he retained that birthright by his strict obedience” (The Life and Teachings of Jesus and his Apostles, 15).

Christ’s claim to the Messiah-ship is actually fairly well established in scripture (particularly in the Bible).  Here is the case for Jesus’ unique and exclusive claim to the title of “The Christ” as well as to the responsibility and blessings that come with that title.

The Parable of the Talents and Predestination

“No one is predestined to receive less than all that the Father has for His children.” (D. Todd Christofferson, “Why Marriage, Why Family,” Ensign, May 2015, lds.org).

The Parable of the Talents which Jesus taught to His disciples in Matthew chapter 25 can be fairly instructive when considering the question of foreordination and election, and how it governs our placement in this world and our relationship to each other.

The Parable of the Talents teaches the importance of exercising righteous stewardship with those things that the Lord gives to us while we are in our second estate.  Even though each servant in the parable received differing amounts to start with, they were each expected to wisely manage the talents with which they had been entrusted, in order that the wealth could grow and increase in their care before they had to return what they had been given to the master.

We all start out with differing gifts in life, and some are seemingly given greater advantages and blessings in this life than others, such as being born into the covenant, or living in a country where freedom and prosperity reign instead of tyranny and strife.  We also come into life with certain abilities and talents which are innate, or which we developed during our life before we came here, and it may seem that some have received more natural talent or advantageous opportunity than others.

How Does Foreordination Work?

Q:  If someone is preordained to do something...does this mean that they can still choose not to?  Or will they just do it regardless? Also, are people preordained to do good things as well as bad? Or is it the same concept as destiny?

A:  When speaking about this principle, I think "foreordained" is a better word to use when it comes to gaining a full understanding of the concept. I choose to stress the importance of the terms we use, because misunderstandings concerning the doctrine of foreordination have caused much confusion and disagreement among Christians in all ages, and even among members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  However, foreordination is a doctrine which must be understood and taught correctly (and in the proper context), because it concerns where we came from, and what our purpose was in coming here.

“The combined doctrine of God’s foreordination is one of the doctrinal roads “least traveled by.” Yet it clearly underlines how very long and how perfectly God has loved us and known us with our individual needs and capacities. Isolated from other doctrines, or mishandled, these truths can stoke the fires of fatalism, impact adversely upon agency, cause us to focus on status rather than service, and carry us over into predestination.

“Yet, though foreordination is a difficult doctrine, it has been given to us by the living God, through living prophets, for a purpose. It can actually increase our understanding of how crucial this mortal second estate is and can further encourage us in good works. This precious doctrine can also help us go the second mile because we are doubly called.”  (Neal A. Maxwell, "A More Determined Discipleship," Ensign, Feb. 1979, lds.org).