The last comment was made by an LDS member from Boston also thinks a heavenly mother is what sets Mormonism apart from other Christian religions.
I’ve got a news flash for those who’ve been misled by Joseph Smith and company. There is no heavenly mother in Christianity. Membership roles of the Trinity have all been spoken for and filled from everlasting to everlasting.
God is Spirit – John 4:24
Jesus is God and came here as man to redeem fallen mankind – John 1:1, 13-14
Holy Spirit is God who resides inside each believer upon confession of faith – John 14:23-26, 1 Cor 1:16, Acts 2:17-18
We also have Isaiah 9:6 which is God’s “ace in the hole” if you will and sums up the roles of each member in the Trinity.
On this Mother’s Day I’m praying the women of Mormonism will stop and think about the special role our Lord has given to them as females whether they’re moms or not. He loves you because He created you and He does indeed have a plan especially for you – Jeremiah 29:11.
No one knows you like He does and even if you think He can’t redeem you from what you may have done you might be surprised to find out He still hung there for you personally so you can be saved! Your salvation isn’t dependent upon whether or not you’ve given birth, but totally upon you becoming born again in Christ! The only new birth going on is your new life that’s hidden in the Lord – Colossians 3:3, 2 Corinthians 5:17.
The reason there’s little to no information on a Heavenly Mother in Mormonism is because the leaders of that group hold tight to a male dominant role that has nothing to do with equality and nothing to do with respecting females. Even the roles of the Mormon godhead take on a subordination theme according to Robert Millet in his book Mormon Faith: Understanding Restored Christianity, pgs 28-29.
The leaders of Mormonism have thrown carrots to member’s heartstrings in the attempt of forming a “Families are Forever” heavenly goose-bump moment. In reality this has no place in what God has ordained or planned and can’t be found anywhere in the Bible. Even Terryl and Fiona Givens who authored “The God Who Weeps” said this is where Mormonism takes a “radical break from Christianity”.
The radical break he’s speaking of is the Mormon polytheistic godhead and how they’ve defined the way earth was created. In Abraham 4:1-5:21 the gods set up the creation of the earth and placed man upon it and in this system of theology there aren’t any signs of a personal God who creates or takes care of His creation.
There’s barely room for Jesus in Mormon theology with all the talk of working to become gods yourself and the idea there’s a mother in heaven is beyond the realm of anything biblical.
With the hidden innuendos of this mysterious heavenly mother there’s been a lot of talk with no concrete LDS doctrine other than a mere shout out for her. And if you think the Bible is silent about her, you’d be wrong. As a matter of fact the Bible has a lot to say about the queens and priestess’ Israel and Judah was worshipping at the time of the Babylonian takeover circa 600 BC!
We’ve written about this a few times before – after I did a bible study on the book of Jeremiah it opened my eyes about the Book of Mormon and why the Lord punished Israel. One of those reasons was for their blatant worship of false goddesses and bowing to them in groves of trees. Asherah was a fertility goddess known all throughout Mesopotamia in the Deuteronomistic era that you can read about in 1 Kings 14:23, 15:12, 2 Kings 17:10, 2 Kings 18:4, et al.
Ashera was nothing more than a wooden pole or post that would be placed in a grove of trees and it was there people could gather around it/her to worship. It’s not known whether they were carved with a specific image or not, but archaeological finds within the past twenty or so years have indicated she was still in use at the times of the Assyrian and Babylonian takeover.
The remarkable and most compelling evidences of Asherah and Mormonism’s Heavenly Mother being comparable are the striking ways in which each goddess was/is used.
The era of cult worship objects for Israel had ended for the most part by the end of the second millennia BC, but for some reason they had a strong affinity for Asherah they couldn’t pull themselves away from. Evidence of this is seen when we study the times of Isaiah through Jeremiah. While they’d still take her into the groves of trees and it’s believed they also incorporated her name into everyday objects and honored the power they thought she held.
As late as 1992 pottery shards were discovered 35 kilometers (22 miles) southwest of Jerusalem with the inscriptions “for (the goddess) Asherat” and another which said “sanctified to Asherat”.
The shards are from storage jars (probably olive oil) and written in either Phoenician or Hebrew – there is still some uncertainty about that. The pieces of wood found held the name of Asherah in various forms along with dates indicating the Israelites acknowledgement and use of her in the same era.
With Mormonism we see similarities of this same type of power in the LDS hymn #292, “O My Father” (see excerpts below) written by Eliza R. Snow who was married to both Joseph Smith and Brigham Young respectively.
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.
When I leave this frail existence,
When I lay this mortal by,
Father, Mother, may I meet you
In your royal courts on high?
Then, at length, when I’ve completed
All you sent me forth to do,
With your mutual approbation
Let me come and dwell with you.
There is no worshipping or praying to the Mormon Mother in Heaven, but not believing she exists is curiously tantamount to apostasy – D&C 132:19-21. The ideology of families in heaven is mandated by LDS leaders every time they give speeches at General Conference and publish writings for their periodicals.
True salvation for Mormons is found nowhere else but the Celestial Kingdom. The phrase “Families are Forever” means long after the end of the earth you become a god along with your wife who becomes a goddess and you then procreate spirit babies who will one day inhabit an earth much like this one that you’ll create.
Mormons perform endowment ceremonies in the temple to “seal” family members to each other so they can spend eternity together; thus the phrase Families are Forever. As you can see there wouldn’t be any forever families if it weren’t for a heavenly mother begetting spirit babies…
We’re praying Mormons will see the futility in believing doctrines like this and come to have a saving knowledge and relationship with the real Jesus of the Bible. We’ve listed some of the core doctrinal beliefs of Mormonism below.
With Love in Christ;
Michelle Grim
1 Cor 1:18
Encyclopedia of Mormonism, pg 961; “For Latter-day Saints, the concept of eternal family is more than a firm belief; it governs their way of life. It is the eternal plan of life, stretching from life before through life beyond mortality.”
Mormon Doctrine, pg 516; “The begetting of children makes a man a father and a woman a mother whether we are dealing with man in his mortal or immortal state.”
Man, His Origin and Destiny, pg 351; “Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is “the express image” of his Father’s person. (Hebrews 1:3.) He walked the earth as a human being, as a perfect man, and said, in answer to a question put to him: “He that hath seen me hath seen the Father.” (John 14:9.) This alone ought to solve the problem to the satisfaction of every thoughtful, reverent mind.” – Joseph Fielding Smith
Women’s Conference, Sep 1991; “It has been said that the Prophet Joseph Smith made no correction to what Sister Snow had written. Therefore, we have a Mother in Heaven. Therefore, (some assume) that we may appropriately pray to her. Logic and reason would certainly suggest that if we have a Father in Heaven, we have a Mother in Heaven. That doctrine rests well with me.
However, in light of the instruction we have received from the Lord Himself, I regard it as inappropriate for anyone in the Church to pray to our Mother in Heaven….
I suppose those…who use this expression and who try to further its use are well-meaning, but they are misguided. The fact that we do not pray to our Mother in Heaven in no way belittles or denigrates here.” – Gordon B. Hinckley