Good night! You really went off with your multiple postings. Methinks you are very much excited about Romney’s Mormon thing. Believe me, I have read much about Mormonism and it is not the brightest rock (from my earlier post) in the collection.
Just think about the concept of God and how he works. God will use something like Mormonism for his own glory. We cannot put God in a box. He has made man to seek his glory. Man exists for God’s glory. The circle of eternity. This is the key: We cannot determine for God what is in His best interest (which is what men do wrong).
Ya wanna convincingly tell us how a religion like Mormonism -- one that "mass produces" gods like a factory -- would "glorify God" when it produces beings in competition with Him as "rival gods?"
Temple Mormons like Romney believe they will one day run their own planet; receive worship like God; receive prayers like God; and receive all glory from the beings they "create."
The cousin of Romney's own father, Marion Romney, was one of THE TOP THREE hierarchical Mormons. Marion Romney said: “The truth is … man is a child of God— a God in embryo". (Marion G. Romney, in Conference Report, April 1973, p. 136; or Ensign, July 1973, p. 14).
Likewise, one of the "prophets" Mitt Romney honored as HIS "prophet" from when Romney was age 26 thru age 38 was Spencer W. Kimball...
Many people know of Spencer W. Kimball, the 12th "prophet" of the Lds church (1973-1985), as the man who allowed blacks to become Mormon priests in 1978...a doctrinal change that also impacted how Mormons see "Lamanites" -- Native Americans...as the Book of Mormon taught that Native Americans' skin color would change ... [Mormon racism]
Lds "prophets" like John Taylor (3rd Lds "prophet") and Kimball (12th Lds "prophet") likewise taught the "gods in embryo"???(Kimball was one of its key proponents)
Mormonism teaches this false "gospel" of self-transformation -- of pulling yourself up by the bootstraps to become a god?
Spencer W. Kimball on these very topics:
1969 "Being a god in embryo with the seeds of godhood neatly tucked away in him, and with the power to become a god eventually, man need not despair...he must...transform himself..." (Spencer W. Kimball, The Miracle of Forgiveness, pp. 173-174)
A couple he was advising in Kimball's office "did not understand that forgiveness is not a thing of days or months or even years but is a matter of intensity of feeling and transformation of self...This couple seemed to have no conception of satisfying the Lord, of paying the total penalties and obtaining a release..." (Ibid, p. 156)
To Kimball, you had to "pay the total penalties" for your sin -- vs. that being a role occupied by the true Jesus Christ.
September, 1974: Man can transform himself and he must. Man has in himself the seeds of godhood, which can germinate and grow and develop. As the acorn becomes the oak, the mortal man becomes a god. It is within his power to lift himself by his very bootstraps from the plane on which he finds himself to the plane on which he should be. It may be a long, hard lift with many obstacles, but it is a real possibility. Source: http://speeches.byu.edu/reader/reader.php?id=6057 (Spencer W. Kimball speech entitled Be Ye Therefore Perfect 9/17/74 devotional address @ BYU)
1975: Man is created in the image of God. He is a god in embryo. He has the seeds of godhood within him, and he can, if he is normal, pick himself up by his bootstraps and literally move himself from where he is to where he shows he should be." Source: http://emp.byui.edu/marrottr/LovevsLust.pdf, "Love vs. Lust," Spencer W. Kimball, Provo: BYU Publications, 1975
November 1977: Self-mastery, then, is the key, and every person should study his own life, his own desires and wants and cravings, and bring them under control. Man can transform himself and he must. Man has in himself the seeds of godhood, which can germinate and grow and develop. As the acorn becomes the oak, the mortal man becomes a god. It is within his power to lift himself by his very bootstraps from the plane on which he finds himself to the plane on which he should be. It may be a long, hard lift with many obstacles, but it is a real possibility. To be perfect, one can turn to many areas as a starting place....As we have stated before, the way to perfection seems to be a changing of one’s life—to substitute the good for the evil in every case. Source: By President Spencer W. Kimball An address given to students of Weber State College, Ogden, Utah on 4 November 1977 http://lds.org/ldsorg/v/index.jsp?hideNav=1&locale=0&sourceId=244ed0640b96b010VgnVCM1000004d82620a____&vgnextoid=2354fccf2b7db010VgnVCM1000004d82620aRCRD
July, 1978 Ensign Magazine: Lds church officially endorses Kimball Weber State College comments by publishing them in their official magazine
This quote also becomes part of Chapter 19 of what Lds officially teach college students in their Institute curricula: See http://institute.lds.org/manuals/doctrines-of-the-gospel-student-manual/doc-gosp-11-20-19.asp