Gundeck makes a Guest apperance…
A guest post that I wrote, on a Hugh Nibley article titled “Christian Envy of the Temple” for Mormon Coffee, has been posted. I would like to thank the folks at Mormon Coffee for the opportunity to write for them.
GUNDECK
Thoughts and Devotions
I didn’t want to clog Jessica’s thread with this conversation so I came over here – I’m not aware of what Talmage taught and where he got his info. Nor am I aware of any specifics of what Snow taught.
My point was twofold – we don’t have a lot of specifics on the teaching so to extrapolate is difficult and aside from Talmage, we don’t have, to my knowledge, writings that were edited by the author and published. So we can never be certain what Joseph or Lorenzo taught, only what others think they taught. Since it’s not in our canon, we don’t have a measuring stick by which to judge Talmage.
Regarding exaltation – I think you’re pretty much right on. There will always be a fundamental difference between us and God. Hence our perpetual distinction in our canon between “God” and “gods.” I don’t pretend to understand it, and it would be a BIG surprise for me if in the afterlife I learn that God the Father had ever sinned.
Can you point me to your Talmage source, BTW?
Tom, it comes from Articles of Faith page 442 on Google Books. This is the Link
Yeah, Talmage defintiely takes a “God achieved His exaltation” stance.
I think there are two camps in the LDS Church on how to interpret the Snow couplet (three if you count “don’t care”). Talmage obviuosly falls in the “progression model” for God. Right now I’m more inclined to say He was always God – His mortal experience was one like the Savior’s in which He was both God and mortal. That’s what I get from the KFD, which as far as I know is the source of the doctrine.
Are you aware of any sources where Lorenzo Snow expounded on the topic?
Sorry for the dely in answering you. Once again I used Google Books for Snow. Page 46 of Biography and Family Record of Lorenzo Snow has the pertinent passages. I have to say if you are looking for books Google Books and Archive.org are both great resources. I have been reading some of the puritans online.