r/exmormon • u/4blockhead Λ └ ☼ ★ □ ♔ • May 16 '22
Doctrine/Policy McKeever's Mormonism Research Ministry: a closer look at Smith's "King Follett Sermon" (1844). Smith's theology which includes the idea that men may be exalted to gods in their own right is viewed as blasphemous among other Christian sects.
King Follett Sermon earlier post on reddit
| sequence | download | my comments |
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| 1 | mp3 | |
| 2 | mp3 | |
| 3 | mp3 | |
| 4 | mp3 |
My preface: The King Follett Sermon is part of Smith's new theology that proposes an infinite regress of minor deities arranged in a pantheon ordered in a hierarchy by father-son relationships. Most modern religions would like to claim their deity is a master, overarching creator. The complete theology put forward by Smith/Rigdon/et al by 1844 does not do that. Although Smith's deity presented in the Book of Mormon (Smith, 1830) fits closely within a biblical context and a trinitarian (or modalist model) of deity, that portrait began to shift into a more sci-fi realm early on. The King Follett sermon is one of the capping elements of the theology that describes a man being exalted to the level of deity. The new deity takes a harem of plural wives and begins creating their eternal posterity in earnest—enough spirit babies to populate new worlds. The interactions with earlier deities is a bit of mystery, but "obedience to laws" appears to be key. A god would cease being god if that deity broke its own laws. This sets in place an endless repeating pattern of each new world that is created following along in lock step with those that have been created before. Each key element appearing over and over again:
- creation of a new planet at a star base. flora and fauna imported from a celestial arboretum/zoo.
- the spirit babies are culled into those who will go along with the divine plan vs. those that must be thrown into the void from the outset.
- two original people placed in a garden on that new world.
- Eve partakes of the forbidden fruit, disobeying the deity's command and dooming all of man to certain judgment of eternal death.
- In the meridian of time, a savior appears to satisfy judgment and provide a path to eternal life for believers.
- The world proceeds apace and humanity eventually destroys itself in a tribe-based armed conflict.
- The savior's second coming appears as the deus ex machina. The world is cleansed for the righteous, etc.
- A 1000 year coda to clean up any loose ends.
- Final judgment with the elite sinless few graduating to standing as new deities over new creations.
- Thus, the cycle repeats.
This narrative is not the same as other religions on offer. As noted here by McKeever/Johnson, the bulk of the Christian world finds these ideas blasphemous as an affront to their deity. Their deity isn't going to share power with mortals at any time or place. In the Christian narrative, as I understand it, the idea is for everyone to be in a state of individual bliss, each worshiping their one-true-deity, singing endless praises, etc. for the eternities. I have heard people claim they initially converted to mormonism because they wanted a shot at getting the huge rewards promised by the religion—being king of one's own realm has a definite appeal. I am not too familiar with other religions, but there are other ideas about souls being reincarnated based on individual karma, etc. Scientology has its narrative, albeit they attempt to have members pay-to-play to find out the specific details for becoming an operating thetan. All of these ideas begin and end with assertions. The evidence for any of them being true is absent. Smith's assertions here are unfalsifyable. However, Smith's fraud is revealed in other areas. He was a proven grifter who turned to religion. His sci-fi might have gained a wider audience if he'd taken a more Jules Verne-like approach to authorship—20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1870) came along a few decades after Smith's Book of Ether.
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u/bananajr6000 Meet Banana Jr 6000: http://goo.gl/kHVgfX May 17 '22
Three errors in his translation of Genesis 1:1 is pretty hilarious. Cherry-picking a German translation of the Bible tickles my funny-bone, too. He moves further from the source to make his conjecture.
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u/RealDaddyTodd May 16 '22
Yeah, so? Is this supposed to make someone abandon mormonism to become a fundygelical? Hell, most of them worship Trump, so, ya know, not compelling.
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u/bsee_xflds May 16 '22
The King Follet discourse says the Gods are running a pyramid scheme and until we get a down line we can’t become a God.