Joseph Smith — "There is an infinite number of holy personages, drawn from worlds without number…"
There is an infinite number of holy personages, drawn from worlds without number, who have passed on to exaltation and are thus gods.
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Details
Statement attributed to Joseph Smith, often quoted by later LDS leaders (Bruce McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, 'Plurality of Gods')
Date: c. 1844
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Understanding this quote
What it means
Countless divine beings exist throughout an endless universe, each having progressed through mortality and achieved godhood through a process called exaltation. The cosmos is not governed by a single God but populated by innumerable exalted beings across infinite worlds. Divinity is not exclusive or singular but a status attainable through righteous progression, making godhood a destination rather than an origin.
Relevance to Joseph Smith
Smith's doctrine of eternal progression held that humans share the same nature as God and can ascend to godhood themselves. Articulated most fully in his 1844 King Follett discourse, this theology broke radically from Christian orthodoxy. Smith taught God was once a man, rejected the Nicene creed, and founded a church premised on ongoing revelation. This quote captures his pluralistic, expansive cosmology where divinity is achievable and the universe teems with exalted beings.
The era
Smith lived 1805-1844 during America's Second Great Awakening, when upstate New York's 'burned-over district' saw explosive religious revival, sectarian competition, and prophetic movements. Traditional Protestant and Catholic theology insisted on a singular, eternal, uncreated God. Smith's polytheistic cosmology emerged as a direct challenge to Nicene orthodoxy at a moment when religious identity was fiercely contested. His teachings provoked violent persecution, culminating in his murder at Carthage, Illinois in 1844.
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