I would like to deal now with a distinctive teaching of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, the doctrine of eternal progression, also known as the doctrine of deification or becoming like God. Nicene Christians use some of this terminology but mean something quite different. President Lorenzo Snow reduced it to a helpful paradigm: “As man now is, God once was; as God now is, man may be.” What this basically means is that by the merits of Jesus Christ, a person may become righteous and obtain a divine nature. We might then have spiritual children of our own and be gods of our own planets, according to the LDS doctrine. “And then shall the angels be crowned with the glory of his might, and thesaintsshall be filled with hisglory, and receive theirinheritanceand be madeequalwith him.” (D&C 88:107) By “equal” they actually mean equal…