Clearing up misconceptions: Where does God live?


Byron
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Hi there. I will be asking a series of questions and would like to insert this introduction before them all to ensure that my intent is not misconstrued.

Though I believe God tells us there is no sin greater than another, I have a particular distain for gossip. Thus I would like to take any hearsay given to me about Mormonism and put it under a spotlight and find the truth.

 

Hearsay: Mormons believe God lives on a distant planet.

 

What is the truth here?

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Hearsay: Mormons believe God lives on a distant planet.

 

What is the truth here?

 

Almost laughably false.

 

This idea comes from the Book of Abraham where it states:

 

(Chapter 3)

2 And I saw the stars, that they were very great, and that one of them was nearest unto the throne of God; and there were many great ones which were near unto it;

 

3 And the Lord said unto me: These are the governing ones; and the name of the great one is Kolob, because it is near unto me, for I am the Lord thy God: I have set this one to govern all those which belong to the same order as that upon which thou standest.

 

4 And the Lord said unto me, by the Urim and Thummim, that Kolob was after the manner of the Lord, according to its times and seasons in the revolutions thereof; that one revolution was a day unto the Lord, after his manner of reckoning, it being one thousand years according to the time appointed unto that whereon thou standest. This is the reckoning of the Lord’s time, according to the reckoning of Kolob.

 

As you can clearly see, there is nothing about dwelling on a planet here at all, nor is Kolob a planet, but a star (though it could, reasonably be described as a planetary object of sorts -- not that it matters because God does not dwell thereon, but it is merely the nearest to God. Of course "nearest" could mean billions of light years for all we know.)

 

The plain fact is that we don't know exactly the nature of the place where God dwells. There are some suppositions based on other LDS scriptures -- specifically that the faithful will someday inherit the earth, inherit all God has, and create and populate worlds without number. Some of these ideas get conflated with the where God dwells thing I think.

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I echo the statements above.  "We don't know".

 

But if you need an image to focus your thoughts, you can think of him living on a planet far far away, or in another dimension.  It doesn't really matter.

 

The fact is that you and I are not there.  Yet He is always aware of us and notices even the fall of a sparrow.

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Hi there. I will be asking a series of questions and would like to insert this introduction before them all to ensure that my intent is not misconstrued.

Though I believe God tells us there is no sin greater than another, I have a particular distain for gossip. Thus I would like to take any hearsay given to me about Mormonism and put it under a spotlight and find the truth.

 

Hearsay: Mormons believe God lives on a distant planet.

 

What is the truth here?

somewhere that isn't earth. the scriptures don't mention a planet. that could be a possible interpretation of world or realm or something like that.

the closest in theLDS scriptures is a mention of a planet called Kolob that is said to be near to God..... but it doesn't elucidate whether it is physical proximity or as to righteousness (or both).

however there are definitely mormons who think that God lives on his own planet, depending on how you read the scriptures that can be a logical conclusion one draws from them

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however there are definitely mormons who think that God lives on his own planet, depending on how you read the scriptures that can be a logical conclusion one draws from them

Whereas I expect some Mormons do believe just so, I have never met one. As a large population group, I expect you could find Mormons who believe anything...and I mean ANYTHING. Some Mormons believing something hardly constitutes a qualifying criteria for what Mormons believe.

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  • 5 months later...

Anti-Mormons love to make "list attacks." They pile up a bunch of seemingly innocent questions that are intended to become un-answerable.  It's just a twist on the same insincere questions the Pharisees used on the Savior.  The premise of this thread sounds like one of those "list attacks" broken into small pieces. Beware. This smells fishy.  You may discover your answers cited on CARM.org or some other anti-Mormon web site.

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On 30/10/2015 at 4:53 PM, Byron said:

Hi there. I will be asking a series of questions and would like to insert this introduction before them all to ensure that my intent is not misconstrued.

Though I believe God tells us there is no sin greater than another, I have a particular distain for gossip. Thus I would like to take any hearsay given to me about Mormonism and put it under a spotlight and find the truth.

 

Hearsay: Mormons believe God lives on a distant planet.

 

What is the truth here?

Yes that's what the Mormon's teach, but it's most likely a spiritual location. 

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Just adding my two cents.

Mormonism is rather unusual among religions in that it preaches that God has a body. He is a physical being that exists in the same physical reality that we do. 

He is a glorified person, but all-knowing, all-loving, all-powerful. I think we have little concept of what God's life is like. As Isaiah says, his ways are not our ways, his thoughts not our thoughts. It is actually by design, that we have forgotten what our pre-mortal life was like, so that we can be tested and "stretched" in this life. Personally, I would be surprised if he just hangs out on a planet somewhere sitting on throne all the time.

Short answer is, we don't know. The Book of Abraham tells some info, but I think it's unclear and not anywhere near the full story.

Edited by tesuji
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6 hours ago, tesuji said:

 He is a physical being that exists in the same physical reality that we do. 

Actually... He can appear in this physical realm but this is not the realm where He exists. One of the amazing things about a resurrected body is that it obeys higher laws of physics, and that includes being able to traverse from this mortal sphere to the spirit world. It's a whole new set of rules that boggles mortal physics. For example an immortal body does not need oxygen to survive. And the body is made alive by a type of energy that has yet to be discovered by mortals. 

Edited by Sadliers
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I would suggest that if the Spirit, angels, visions, or dreams reveals to you something that you cannot find publicly taught plainly in the scriptures or by Church leaders that you keep such revelation to yourself. http://askgramps.org/why-cant-we-talk-about-what-goes-on-in-the-temple/

Quote

Lorenzo Snow set the example for us in this. Says he, “The Spirit of the Lord rested mightily upon me – the eyes of my understanding were opened, and I saw as clear as the sun at noonday, with wonder and astonishment, the pathway of God and man. I formed the following couplet which expresses the revelation as it was shown me. …

“As man now is, God once was:

“As God now is, man may be.”

As clear as the revelation was for Elder Snow, it had not yet been taught to the saints, let alone the world. He met with President Brigham Young, his mission president in England and then subsequently kept it to himself. “I did not know but that I had come into possession of knowledge that I had no business with; but I knew it was true. Nothing of this kind had ever reached my ears before. It was preached a few years after that; at least, the Prophet Joseph taught this idea to the twelve apostles. Now, however, it is common property” (Glory Awaiting the Saints, Deseret Semi-Weekly News, Oct. 30, 1894, 1).

Let us keep sacred things sacred.

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10 hours ago, Sadliers said:

Actually... He can appear in this physical realm but this is not the realm where He exists. One of the amazing things about a resurrected body is that it obeys higher laws of physics, and that includes being able to traverse from this mortal sphere to the spirit world. It's a whole new set of rules that boggles mortal physics. For example an immortal body does not need oxygen to survive. And the body is made alive by a type of energy that has yet to be discovered by mortals. 

I agree with you, but what I meant is that God is a physical being that exists in our same physical universe. Apparently, other Christian churches do not believe God is in our same physical universe, nor do they believe he has a physical body. See the book Wrestling the Angel: The Foundations of Mormon Thought: Cosmos, God, Humanity, by Terryl L. Givens, 2014,  chapter 11 "The Embodied God"

Since he is a physical being in our universe, he must logically be present somewhere. Does he live all the time on a planet? I think we have no idea, yet, about this kind of thing.

Edited by tesuji
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