Meeting with the Elders

Tonight I had my third meeting with the missionaries. At around 5:30am this morning I awoke to the oh-too-happy song by The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus playing on my phone. I was receiving a phone call. After fumbling to answer my phone at such an ungodly hour, I managed to answer with a very tired, “hhhhello?” I asked. “Hey Casey! This is Elder Johnson!” LOL … not quite what I was expecting that early in the morning. Turns out he called because he wanted to answer the question I posed during our previous meeting: How do you reconcile LDS doctrine that there are many gods (D&C 132, among many references) with Isaiah 44:6-8 which teaches that there is only one true god in existence?

I should note that near the end of our second meeting the two elders told me that I “wasn’t worth their time because [they] are looking for people who’re ready to convert.” I kid you not, I was speechless for about 12 seconds after hearing this =). So when I spoke with Elder Johnson this morning I was fairly surprised that he wanted to meet at all.

They arrived with a list of verses that seemingly taught a plurality of gods, and that men can become gods. Among them we examined Psalm 82:6 and 1 Corinthians 8:5. After taking a closer look at them they ended up agreeing with my interpretations (they had obviously never read the entire chapter of the verses they were citing). I then reiterated my challenge to them: If Isaiah 44:6-8 teaches that there is only one true god, and since the Bible won’t contradict itself, doesn’t this mean that the teaching of the Bible is that there is only one true god? If so, how do you reconcile this with the LDS teaching of a plurality of gods?

What is exciting about all of this is that they had obviously given this challenge a great deal of thought. My prayer for them is that every time they think about the Law of Eternal Progression – their belief that “as man is God once was, and as God is man may become” – that they would be convicted by Isaiah 44:6-8. Might our God be pleased to be merciful to these men and free them from the slavery of their sin.