As Man Is, God Never Was: Deconstructing the “Exalted Man” Doctrine

As a researcher who has spent years navigating the complex corridors of Latter-day Saint history and theology, I’ve encountered one doctrine that sits at the very heart of Mormonism’s departure from historical Christianity: the idea that God the Father was once a mortal man. This concept, most famously crystallized in Lorenzo Snow’s couplet, “As man now is, God once was: As God now is, man may be,” is often presented as the “great secret” of the cosmos, a profound truth restored through Joseph Smith.

You’ll find this teaching in official Church manuals like Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Joseph Smith, it’s the theological climax of the famous King Follett Discourse, and it forms the bedrock of the Latter-day Saint concept of exaltation. Apologetic arguments defend it as a restoration of lost, plain, and precious truths.

My purpose here is not simply to disagree. It is to perform a critical analysis of the apologetic framework used to support this doctrine. By examining the evidence apologists present against the crucial biblical, historical, and philosophical evidence they consistently omit, a very different picture emerges—one of theological innovation, not ancient restoration.

Where Apologists Have a Point

To be intellectually honest, we must acknowledge the grains of truth in the apologetic position. Apologists are correct that the Bible often uses anthropomorphic language to describe God—He walks in the garden, has hands, and sits on a throne. They are also correct that some early Christian traditions, particularly Eastern Orthodoxy, use the language of theosis, or deification, suggesting that humans can “become like God.” Finally, they are absolutely right that Joseph Smith did, in fact, teach this doctrine authoritatively. The claim that God was once a man is not a fringe “anti-Mormon” invention; it is a core tenet of Nauvoo-era theology, enshrined in the words of prophets.

These points form the foundation of the apologetic argument. However, they are a foundation built on carefully selected evidence, which collapses when the full weight of the omitted context is applied.

The Problem of Ontological Proof-Texting

One of the primary apologetic tactics is to dismiss biblical verses that contradict the “exalted man” doctrine by reinterpreting them as statements about God’s character, not his fundamental nature (or ontology). The most prominent example is Numbers 23:19.

The apologetic claim is that when the Bible says, “God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent,” it simply means God isn’t fallible or deceptive like a man. This interpretation leaves open the possibility that God is, in fact, an exalted man by species.

What the Full Context Reveals

This reading ignores the powerful linguistic distinctions in the original Hebrew. The text sets up a contrast between El (God, the Mighty One) and two different terms for humanity: ish (a man, an individual male) and ben-adam (“son of Adam,” humanity in its created, mortal frailty). The verse’s logic is not that God’s character is different from man’s; it is that God’s character is different because His very being is different. He doesn’t lie because He is not an ish. The reason for His moral immutability is His ontological status. To claim God is an exalted man collapses this fundamental, categorical distinction that the scripture itself establishes.

This is reinforced elsewhere. Hosea 11:9 declares, “for I am God, and not man; the Holy One in the midst of thee.” In Hebraic thought, “holy” (Qadosh) means “separate” or “other.” God’s holiness is defined here by His non-humanity. The LDS doctrine functionally inverts this to say, “I am a Holy Man in the midst of thee.”

Furthermore, the apologetic reading creates a massive contradiction with the LDS doctrine of progression. The teaching that God was once a man on another world implies He underwent a mortal probation, where He had to learn, grow, and overcome. In other words, he was once a ben-adam who had to change and “repent” (in the sense of progressing from a lower state to a higher one). This directly violates the premise of Numbers 23:19, which states God is not a “son of man” that He should repent. The biblical God is immutable in his essence; the LDS God is a being defined by the most radical change imaginable—from mortal to divine.

Ignoring the Doctrinal Timeline

Apologetics often presents the “exalted man” doctrine as a timeless, restored truth. This ignores a clear and documentable evolution in Joseph Smith’s own theology. This doctrine is not present in the Book of Mormon, which contains mostly traditional language about the nature of God. Instead, it was the capstone of his theological development in the Nauvoo period.

The King Follett Pivot

The doctrine was unveiled publicly and explicitly for the first time on April 7, 1844, in what is now known as the King Follett Discourse. Speaking at a funeral, Joseph Smith declared what he called the “great secret”:

“God himself was once as we are now, and is an exalted man, and sits enthroned in yonder heavens! …if you were to see him today, you would see him like a man in form—like yourselves in all the person, image, and very form as a man.”

In that same sermon, he directly attacked the traditional, biblical understanding of God’s eternity, stating, “We have imagined and supposed that God was God from all eternity. I will refute that idea.” This is a frontal assault on scriptures like Psalm 90:2, which declares that from “everlasting to everlasting” (me-olam ad-olam), God is God. Joseph Smith’s sermon places God firmly within a linear timeline, giving His divinity a starting point—a moment before which He was not God. The Psalmist, in contrast, places God’s being before the creation of the world, making Him the uncreated ground of all existence.

By presenting this Nauvoo-era doctrine as an anciently restored truth, apologetics obscures its actual historical origins as a radical departure from both Smith’s earlier teachings and the biblical witness.

The Modern PR Pivot: Redefining and Dodging

While the “exalted man” doctrine is central to temple theology, the modern Church has become increasingly uncomfortable with its public promotion. This has led to strategic redefinition and outright evasion.

The Hinckley Dodge

The most famous example is President Gordon B. Hinckley’s 1997 interview with Time magazine. When asked about the doctrine that God was once a man, he responded, “I don’t know that we teach it. I don’t know that we emphasize it… I don’t know a lot about it and I don’t know that others know a lot about it.”

Apologists have scrambled to defend this statement, suggesting Hinckley was being “coy” or that the doctrine is merely “speculative.” But this is disingenuous. The doctrine is explicitly quoted in the Church’s own manual on Joseph Smith’s teachings, which Hinckley himself would have authorized. This wasn’t a misunderstanding; it was a calculated public relations move to distance the modern Church from its most controversial and un-Christian doctrine.

The “Own Planet” Semantic Game

More recently, the Church’s official “Gospel Topics Essay” titled “Becoming Like God” attempts another pivot. It dismisses the idea that Latter-day Saints believe they will “get their own planet” as a caricature. Yet, in the same essay, it affirms that exalted humans will “participate in His creative work” and become like God, who creates worlds. This is a classic case of semantic gaslighting: denying the folksy caricature while quietly affirming the underlying principle. As critics have noted, if you become a God who creates worlds (plural), the core concept of presiding over a world or “planet” is intrinsic to the theology, regardless of the exact phrasing.

The False Equivalence with Early Christianity

Perhaps the most historically audacious apologetic claim is that the “exalted man” doctrine was believed by the earliest Christians but was lost during a “Great Apostasy” fueled by Greek philosophy. This narrative is directly contradicted by the writings of the Ante-Nicene Fathers.

The Uncreated God of the Fathers

From the very beginning, Christian theologians defined God by His uncreatedness (agennetos). They did this not to accommodate Greek philosophy, but to defend Christianity from paganism, which was filled with gods who were born and made.

• Aristides of Athens (c. 125 AD): In one of the earliest Christian apologies, he wrote to the Emperor Hadrian, “I say, then, that God is not born, not made, an ever-abiding nature without beginning and without end.” This is a direct refutation of the King Follett theology.
• Novatian of Rome (c. 250 AD): Argued that God must be incorporeal because a body is made of parts, and whatever has parts is contingent and created. He asserted that scripture uses anthropomorphic language metaphorically, not literally.

Theosis is Not Exaltation

Apologists frequently try to connect LDS exaltation to the Eastern Orthodox doctrine of theosis. This comparison is a profound category error. Orthodox theology makes a critical distinction between God’s Essence (Ousia) and his Energies (Energeia).

• God’s Essence is His unknowable, uncreated, and imparticipable inner being.
• God’s Energies are His actions in the world—His grace, love, and light.

In Orthodox theosis, a human being becomes “god by grace” by participating in God’s Energies. They are filled with the divine life, but they never, ever cross the ontological chasm to partake of the divine Essence. The creature forever remains a creature.

LDS exaltation, in stark contrast, teaches that humans can cross that chasm. By becoming a God “by nature,” an exalted person attains the very essence of divinity, becoming the same species of being as God the Father. One is a doctrine of communion, the other is a doctrine of transmutation. To equate them is to ignore the fundamental premise of both traditions.

Conclusion

The Latter-day Saint doctrine that God was once a man is not an ancient truth restored, but a 19th-century theological innovation. Its apologetic defense is a case study in curating evidence to fit a predetermined conclusion.

It requires reinterpreting clear biblical statements about God’s otherness into mere metaphors of character. It demands we ignore the doctrine’s late arrival in Joseph Smith’s ministry. It relies on modern leaders publicly downplaying the very theology that underpins the temple endowment. And it forces a false equivalence with early Christian beliefs that, upon inspection, teach the exact opposite.

Ultimately, the issue is one of methodology. A historical or theological inquiry follows the evidence where it leads. Apologetics, by contrast, starts with the unshakeable conclusion that the doctrine is true and then constructs a defense by omitting contradictory data, redefining inconvenient terms, and isolating claims from their broader context. The evidence, when viewed in its totality, shows that the God of the Bible is God precisely because He is not, and never was, a man.

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References

• Aristides. (c. 125 AD). The Apology of Aristides. New Advent. https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/1012.htm
• “Becoming Like God.” The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/gospel-topics/becoming-like-god?lang=eng
• “Chapter 5: The Grand Destiny of the Faithful.” The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/teachings-of-presidents-of-the-church-lorenzo-snow/chapter-5-the-grand-destiny-of-the-faithful?lang=eng
• “Contrasting Theosis in Mormon and Orthodox Thought: Exaltation and Participation.” Patrum Theologia. https://patrumtheologia.wordpress.com/2017/05/28/contrasting-theosis-in-mormon-and-orthodox-thought-exaltation-and-participation/
• “Criticism of Mormonism/Books/Becoming Gods/Chapter 5.” FAIR Latter-day Saints. https://www.fairlatterdaysaints.org/answers/Criticism_of_Mormonism/Books/Becoming_Gods/Chapter_5
• “Dodging and Dissembling Prophet?” Institute for Religious Research. https://mit.irr.org/dodging-and-dissembling-prophet
• “Gospel Topics Essays: Becoming Like God.” Wheat & Tares. https://wheatandtares.org/2022/08/02/gospel-topics-essays-becoming-like-god/
• Heiser, Michael S. “Is ‘adam ‘Adam’?” https://drmsh.com/adam-adam/
• Huggins, Ronald V. “LORENZO SNOW’S COUPLET: ‘AS MAN NOW IS, GOD ONCE WAS’.” Evangelical Theological Society. https://etsjets.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/files_JETS-PDFs_49_49-3_JETS_49-3_549-568_Huggins.pdf
• “Is God allowed to update the Torah?” Undivided Looking. http://www.wall.org/~aron/blog/is-god-allowed-to-update-the-torah/
• “King Follett discourse.” Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_Follett_discourse
• “Numbers 23:19: Does God Change His Mind?” Mormonism Research Ministry. https://mrm.org/numbers-23-19
• Novatian. (c. 250 AD). On the Trinity. New Advent. https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0511.htm
• “Psalm 90 Commentary.” Sermon Writer. https://sermonwriter.com/psalm-90-commentary/
• Smith, Joseph. “The King Follett Sermon.” Joseph Smith Foundation. https://josephsmithfoundation.org/docs/the-king-follett-sermon/
• Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Joseph Smith. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/bc/content/shared/content/english/pdf/language-materials/36481_eng.pdf
• “wasmormon.org – Hinckley’s ‘I Don’t Know That We Teach It’ Interview.” https://wasmormon.org/hinckleys-i-dont-know-that-we-teach-it-interview/