Lorenzo Snow

This is the idea that God himself was once a human being who progressed to become God, and that faithful members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are on the same trajectory.

There's a famous summary attributed to the early LDS prophet Lorenzo Snow.

He said, "'As man now is, God once was.

As God now is, man may be.'" Now that means that the line between the human and the divine isn't just permeable in LDS theology, it's actually a continuum.

Grant that they didn't want to endorse as the prophet.

And, uh, you know, the guy was asking him like, "Well, do you believe that this is, uh, this person's a prophet?" "Yes." "Do you believe that, that Lorenzo Snow was a prophet?" "Yes." "Do you believe Joseph F.

Smith was a prophet?" "Yes." "Do you believe Heber J.

Grant was a prophet?" "I believe he should be quiet about old age security."

He was extremely deceptive.

What happens when a church spends generations teaching one doctrine as foundational truth only for its president to publicly downplay it when the media comes calling? In this episode of the Mormon News Roundup, we investigate the Lorenzo Snow couplet that encapsulates one of Mormonism's most extraordinary theological claims.

Lorenzo Snow was an early Mormon prophet, and he was one of Joseph Smith's bosom dudes.

Lorenzo Snow's entire life story is pretty damn insane.

We should cover that another time.

I have another video on that, but that's a digression.

Now, this is the very interesting couplet here that Lorenzo Snow put out, and it's become kind of famous in Mormon literature.

It's called, As man now is, God once was.

If you're talk- if you're talking about from the time of, uh, of Noah, [laughs] we're talking about tons of people that will have heard the gospel.

Um, you know, Latter-day prophets like Presidents Woodruff and, and, uh, Lorenzo Snow both saying the same thing.

I'm of a mind that far more people will accept the gospel in the spirit world than accept it here.

Absolutely.

She'll become a general relief society president of the Church.

She's got a cousin, Erastus Snow, who becomes one of the most revered apostles of his day, and she's got a little brother named Lorenzo Snow who becomes the fifth president of the Church.

So Casey, you asked me, was the Lamanite mission a success? The, the mission that was spurred on by sections 28, 30, and 32, was that a success? Ooh, I mean, if measured by the unanticipated impact of the preaching of these four missionaries to the non-Lamanites in the Kirtland, Ohio area, we might just have to say that this is one of the most successful missions in the history of the Church.

Let's just think about for a second, like, what comes as a result of this.

But I told him when I think of Joseph Smith, the first person I think of is Stuart Peterson, because that's what I grew up on watching the first vision from BYU films.

When I think of Lorenzo Snow, I think of Francis Urie, who also played Mr. Harris and Johnny Lingo.

We all see the world and the church a little bit differently based upon our culture and our conversation and dialogue.

So

So around the end of the 1800s, they actually have intense discussions about this.

It starts under Lorenzo Snow.

It continues under Joseph F. Smith and Heber J.

Grant.

Lorenzo Snow gathers together.

We have records of a meeting where he gathers together the first presidency in 12 and discusses the gathering.

And George Q. Cannon, who's the first council in the first presidency, brought up some of the problems.

That changes.

Church leaders like Lorenzo Snow, Joseph F. Smith encouraged Latter-day Saints to stay and build their local stakes.

And Casey, you could probably talk about that if you want to.

Yeah.