Updates: Will I get my own planet after Death?
On the LDS website there is a FAQ article which explains that the idea that the idea of faithful LDS members getting their own planet is a myth. It is not based in doctrine of the Church, and they claim that they do not, and have never purported to understand the afterlife.
I would argue it has been an active teaching for some time.
Members of the church have not cultivated a myth, or “misunderstood” biblical doctrine to get to this conclusion. This has been a teaching for quite some time in the LDS church, and it has a basis in Mormon doctrine.
In a periodical printed by the LDS Church they speak of a discussion between LDS President Lorenzo Snow and then BYU President George H. Brimhall.
While doing a tour of Brigham Young University they come upon a group of children making clay spheres. Young stopped to watch them work and commented to Brimhall “these children are not at play making mud worlds, the time will come when some of these boys, through their faithfulness to the gospel, will progress in knowledge, intelligence, and power, in future eternities, until they shall be able to go out into space where there is unorganised matter and call together the necessary elements, and through their knowledge of and control over the last and powers of nature, to organise matter into worlds, on which their posterity may dwell, and over which they shall rule as gods”.
In the semi-annual General Conference the President of the LDS church Joseph Fielding Smith gave a talk about morality being a condition precedent to celestial glory (see here). He states that through faithfulness we will have the opportunity to build worlds and populate them.
LDS Scriptures: D&C 132:20
In the FAQ it downplays the idea that we can become gods after death by simply stating that we can become “like our Heavenly Father”. Clearly, their own doctrines contradict this as they clearly state that we will be gods who hold power over all.
In an article written by Hugh W. Nibley he discusses what it means to have dominion over the earth, and how this relates to our time here on earth.
Nibley argues that we are quite capable of exercising the power of dominion that has been granted to us by God, but that we must take care with this responsibility as if we fail then we can only bring “the condemnation of God and the contempt of all creatures”.
He goes on to say that if we do not “act in a godlike manner” that we will not be entrusted with a creation of our own worlds.
In 1981 a book was published that contained a number of talks and articles by President Spencer W. Kimball, its purpose was to address a range of topics that young people may struggle with as they get older.
In this book Kimball discusses the responsibility that we all have to overcome our weaknesses and live according to the gospel. He details that we “have this life of limited hearts in which to learn of God and to become the masters of our own destiny; we have in addition to this life plus eternities to learn of the earth and the things thereon, and to accumulate secular knowledge what will help make us gods, which is our destiny”.
Gospel Principles was written both as a personal study guide and as a teacher’s manual. It is a book made up of 47 chapters that each discuss a particular topic related to church doctrine, ordinances, or personal responsibility.
This book has a chapter that explains that “Exaltation is eternal life, the kind of life God lives. He lives in great glory. He is perfect. He possesses all knowledge and all wisdom. He is the Father of spirit children. He is a creator. We can become like our Heavenly Father. This is exaltation”.
If members of the church can prove themselves faithful and worthy to enter into the highest degree of the celestial kingdom of heaven then they will become exalted. The book further explains that those who are exalted will also receive other blessings, one of which is that they will become gods.
The Gospel Fundamentals book is similar to the Gospel Principles book in that it is designed to provide guidance on the basic principles of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
In this book there is a chapter that discusses eternal life, and in this again they explain that those who are worthy will be able to “have spirit children and make new worlds for them to live on”.
Similar to the last two examples this book the Doctrines of the Gospel is a book designed to help people to “study the principles and doctrines of the gospel of Jesus Christ”.
In chapter 10 it gives an overview of why we are here on earth, and how we can use this time to “develop the attributes of godliness”, with this skill (and if we prove worthy) we will have the ability to “develop a kingdom over which you will preside as its king and god”.
The Miracle of Forgiveness - Spencer W. Kimball
In his book “The Miracle of Forgiveness” Kimball quotes a statement made by Lorenzo Snow where he backs up the idea that we “shall have the power and the right to govern and control and administer salvation and exaltation and glory to their offspring,…standing in the midst of their posterity, governing and controlling them, administering life, exaltation and glory worlds without end”.
(Lorenzo Snow, Deseret News, 13 Mar. 1897; quoted by Spencer W. Kimball in The Miracle of Forgiveness [1969], 246)
