Im/mutability of God

[BarbaraGordon]

Here's a question I was thinking about the other day. The immutability of God is an underlying assumption of many Christian traditions. Yet the progression of the same is the very foundation of LDS belief. How do you reconcile the idea of a progressive Deity with the OT and NT texts that describe God as one who does not or cannot change?

[Archaea]

Originally Posted by BarbaraGordon

Here's a question I was thinking about the other day. The immutability of God is an underlying assumption of many Christian traditions. Yet the progression of the same is the very foundation of LDS belief. How do you reconcile the idea of a progressive Deity with the OT and NT texts that describe God as one who does not or cannot change?

Perhaps it's one of a matter of perspective.

From one perspective he's immutable, from another he's mutable.

[Tex]

Originally Posted by BarbaraGordon

Here's a question I was thinking about the other day. The immutability of God is an underlying assumption of many Christian traditions. Yet the progression of the same is the very foundation of LDS belief. How do you reconcile the idea of a progressive Deity with the OT and NT texts that describe God as one who does not or cannot change?

Interesting that you should bring this up because it parallels another discussion Leb and I were just having.

Let me clarify the idea of deity for Mormons: God does not progress in the sense we think of the word. He does not gain knowledge he did not previously have. He does not become more righteous than he previously was.

The idea of God's progression (we call it "eternal progression") is rooted in the idea of procreating offspring and exalting them. Thus, as we convert to Him, are saved, and exalted ... his glory grows. He "progresses" in that sense. But he does not change in his perfections and attributes and character.

We do have a teaching in this church--the full implication of which really isn't understood--that God the Father was once a mortal man. It typically spawns from a combination of the couplet "as man is, God once was; as God is, man may become" and John 5:19. How this dovetails with what I just said is a point of philosophical debate among LDS folk, along with many other aspects of eternity that we simply do not understand.