Was God once a man?

“As man now is, God once was, and as God now is, man may become” --Lorenzo Snow. 

Irenaeus, an early church father, said nearly the same thing.  “We have not been made gods from the beginning, but at first men, then at length gods but following the only true and steadfast Teacher, the Word of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, who did, through His transcendent love, become what we are, that He might bring us to be even what He is Himself. - 1

This is without a doubt one of the most borderline, esoteric teachings of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  Certainly it challenges ideas that must be reckoned with such as, God is unchangeable, God cannot fall, and the eternality of God.  Not all Latter-day Saints accept the idea which suggest a regression of divine beings. Mormon doctrine on this point can be hazy, both in and out of the church.  Though classified as esoteric, one can make an appropriate claim that this has been taught in the past, not only in our church, but in the Bible as well.

Just as Jesus Christ is a glorified human being, so it can be said of the Father.  Like father, like son.  If one believes Jesus is THE only God there is, then it should be plain--Jesus was a man.

There is much in ancient Christian literature to show a belief that man can become God (theosis), however, there is much less available to show that they believed or understood that God was once a man. Besides the above quote by Irenaeus, interesting examples are found in the Armenian literature. This material shows that at least some Christians may indeed have had a belief that God was once a man.

For example, in one translation of an ancient Armenian Christian document which Michael Stone entitles “Concerning Adam, Eve and the Incarnation,” we find, following Eve’s telling Satan that they would die if they ate the fruit of the tree, that the serpent replies, “That is not so! God was a man like you. When he ate of the fruit of this tree he became God of all.” 2

There is biblical scripture that supports concepts conducive to the idea that God was once a man. One of these is John 5:19-20. “Then answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, 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. For the Father loveth the son, and sheweth him all things that himself doeth.”

Notice this is given in the present tense, "seeth."  But it would not seem to make sense that the Father is doing the same things Jesus is doing at the same time.  But Jesus is rather presently seeing what the Father did.  It can be surmised the Father showed Christ a vision of his own experiences so that Christ could carry these details out. But present tense or not, we are told Jesus follows what the Father did.

There is also a multitude of scripture that can be used to support the idea that God is a holy man with a physical body. One of these is Hebrews 1:3. “Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person.” Christ could only be the exact representation of the Father if the Father himself possessed a body of some sort. In fact, some who wish to avoid what I feel is the plain meaning of Hebrews 1:3 actually go so far as to separate the natures of Christ or declare that the passage could not possibly infer that the Father is embodied.

I believe it is more correct to say that God is exactly as the Bible describes Him—an exalted Man.

The Savior says over and over again that he is the “Son of Man.” It is plain that Jesus is the Son of God; therefore, God must be a Man since God is His Father and Jesus is His Son.

Romans 8:28 tells us that we are to be, 'conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren."  Like father, like son, like all of us.

We are made in the image of God, therefore, God must look like us and we like Him.  James says that men are made in “the similitude of God” (James 3:9).

God is our Eternal Father. He created us in his image, in His exact similitude. We are His offspring (Acts 17:29). If we are His offspring and made in His similitude, and are in His image, then logic dictates that He must be a Man.

Jesus said that if we have seen Him, we have seen the Father (John 14:9). Jesus was a man, therefore, if they are identical, God must also be a man.  What else would, or could He be if He is the Father of Christ and if Christ is in His express image?  

His order in all of creation is that one kind will reproduce to more of the same kind.  Dogs will beget dogs.  Trees will beget trees.  Why would he deviate from this pattern when He begat us?  We are of the same species, but it like an acorn and an oak tree.

He said to Mary, “Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God.” (John 20:17) Among other things, this passage teaches that Jesus is not the same being as His and our Father. He is God’s Son, a separate and distinct being. If God were an omnipresent spirit, as some believe, then Christ would not have had to ascend to Him, because the Father would have in fact been Him already. But if He is both Jesus’ Father and Mary’s Father, what must He be?

Stephen saw a vision (view, sight, see, form, shape, appearance, position, location, etc.) of Jesus standing on the right hand (righthand side, not to the left, or beneath, or above, but to the side) of God the Father (a being, a person, someone who occupies space so that Jesus can be to the right of Him), not an amorphous, formless nothing, not an invisible spirit (Acts 7:56).

The form of the Father and Son were never fundamentally different, in scripture, in thought, or in good logic. The heavens tell us in every way, God is a man just like His Son. Straightforward and simple.  If He tells us we can inherit all that the Father has, well, one thing He has is an eternal nature--that He has been God through all eternity.  Then if we can inherit this from Him, did He inherit it as well? As Stephen E. Robinson puts it, "Does the infinite not bestow infinity upon the finite with which it is joined together in one?" 3 

 

1- Against Heresies, Vol. 5: Preface; TANF vol. 1, p.526. In AH 4:38

2- Michael E. Stone, Armenian Apocrypha Relating to Adam and Eve (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1996), 25.

3- How Wide the Divide, p.92.