Yes — and not in the cartoon sense, and not in the “just become a nicer person” sense either.
Latter-day Saint scripture really does use the word “gods” when describing exalted human beings. At the same time, modern Church explanations usually use a different phrase: God’s children can “become like Him.”
Those statements can sound very different.
So what do Latter-day Saints actually believe? Do humans literally become gods? Or is “becoming like God” simply another way of saying that Christians should become more loving and Christlike?
The short answer
Latter-day Saint belief in exaltation goes beyond moral improvement.
Doctrine and Covenants 132:20 says of those who receive exaltation:
“Then shall they be gods.”
The Church-published Gospel Principles, Chapter 47: Exaltation is similarly explicit. Among the blessings of exaltation it says:
“They will become gods.”
The same chapter adds:
“They will have everything that our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ have—all power, glory, dominion, and knowledge.”
So it would be misleading to say that Latter-day Saints merely believe people can become kinder, holier, or more Christlike.
But the opposite caricature is misleading too.
Church teaching does not say that exalted humans become Heavenly Father, replace Him, or become independent supreme beings competing with Him.
The Church also explicitly rejects the idea that belief in exaltation makes Latter-day Saints polytheists. Its official Becoming Like God essay says that images of competing deities are incompatible with Latter-day Saint doctrine. God’s children, it explains, “will always worship Him,” and their progression will never change His identity as their Father and their God.
In other words, “becoming gods” and “becoming like God” are not presented in Latter-day Saint teaching as two competing doctrines. The second helps explain what the first is intended to mean.
What does that mean — and what doesn’t it mean?
| Claim | A more accurate description of LDS teaching |
|---|---|
| “It just means becoming a better person.” | Too limited. Exaltation goes beyond moral improvement and involves becoming like God. |
| “LDS scripture says humans can become gods.” | Yes. That language appears explicitly in the Doctrine and Covenants. |
| “They become Heavenly Father.” | No. Heavenly Father remains their Father and God. |
| “They become independent rival gods.” | That is not how the Church describes exaltation. |
| “So LDS belief is polytheism.” | The Church explicitly rejects that conclusion. Exalted beings continue to worship God, and their progression never changes His identity as their Father and their God. |
| “Everyone gets his or her own planet.” | The Church says this popular formulation is not doctrine and is not taught in LDS scripture. At the same time, official Church materials have used broader language about creating worlds and governing them. |
| “Everyone becomes a god after death.” | No. Exaltation is connected to Jesus Christ, covenants, resurrection, faithfulness, and eternal progression. |
The “planet” question is a good example of why this subject becomes confusing.
The Church’s official Frequently Asked Questions answers the question “Do Latter-day Saints believe that they will ‘get their own planet’?” with a direct “No.”
But the popular idea did not emerge from nowhere.
LDS teaching has also included much broader language. In a 2002 Ensign article, Education for Real Life, Elder Henry B. Eyring quoted President Spencer W. Kimball saying that we learn and progress:
“so we may one day create worlds [and] people and govern them.”
So “Mormons get their own planet” is a poor summary of LDS exaltation. But it would also be misleading to suggest that LDS teaching has never included ideas about creating worlds and divine governance.
Why does scripture say “gods” while the Church usually says “like God”?
This may be the most interesting part of the question.
The word “gods” has not disappeared from Latter-day Saint scripture.
Doctrine and Covenants 76 describes the exalted as:
“gods, even the sons of God.”
Doctrine and Covenants 132 says:
“Then shall they be gods.”
Yet modern public explanations tend to lead with phrases such as “become like God,” “divine potential,” and “exaltation.”
That difference becomes especially clear in the famous statement associated with Church President Lorenzo Snow:
“As man now is, God once was: As God now is, man may be.”
The Church’s official Becoming Like God essay still quotes the couplet. But it treats its two halves somewhat differently.
Regarding the first — “As man now is, God once was” — the essay says that little has been revealed and consequently little is taught. It also quotes President Gordon B. Hinckley describing the subject as “some pretty deep theology” about which “we don’t know very much.”
But when Hinckley was asked about the second half — humanity’s potential to become like God — his answer was much more direct:
“As God is, man may become. We believe in eternal progression. Very strongly.”
So the Church has not removed “gods” from its canon or abandoned the doctrine of exaltation.
But modern Church explanations are noticeably more cautious about publicly emphasizing the first half of Snow’s couplet than the second.
Is this simply the Christian doctrine of theosis?
Not exactly.
Latter-day Saints are correct that the language of deification did not begin with Joseph Smith. Early Christian writers used remarkably strong language about humans becoming divine or participating in the life of God. The Church’s Becoming Like God essay itself discusses this early Christian tradition.
That makes theosis a real and useful comparison.
But similar language does not automatically mean identical theology.
Traditional Christian theosis maintains an ontological distinction between the uncreated Creator and created human beings: humans can participate in divine life by grace without becoming divine by nature.
Latter-day Saint theology, by contrast, rejects creation ex nihilo and teaches in Doctrine and Covenants 93:29:
“Intelligence, or the light of truth, was not created or made, neither indeed can be.”
In plain terms: traditional Christianity says humans remain creatures. Latter-day Saint teaching says the intelligence—the eternal element at the core of human existence—was not created or made.
Scholars at BYU’s Religious Studies Center have therefore described LDS thought as not making the same Creator-creature ontological distinction found in traditional Christianity.
So the most careful conclusion is:
LDS exaltation belongs to the same broad family of language as Christian deification, but the underlying theology is not identical.
Why does any of this matter?
Because exaltation is not simply an unusual nineteenth-century phrase sitting at the edge of Latter-day Saint belief.
It helps explain the larger LDS understanding of human destiny.
God is understood as the literal Father of His spirit children. Through Jesus Christ, those children can progress toward becoming like Him. Covenants and temple sealings are connected with eternal family relationships, and Gospel Principles connects exaltation with continued family relationships and “eternal increase.”
That is why reducing the doctrine to either extreme misses something important.
“Latter-day Saints just mean becoming nicer people” understates it.
“Latter-day Saints believe they will replace God and rule their own planets” distorts it.
So, do Latter-day Saints believe humans can become gods?
Their scriptures really do use that word.
Their modern explanations usually describe the same destination as becoming like God through Jesus Christ.
And the Church explicitly rejects the conclusion that exaltation means worshipping a pantheon of competing gods.
Understanding Latter-day Saint belief requires taking all of those statements seriously.
The word “gods” is real. So are the qualifications around it. You need both to describe the doctrine fairly.
Note: This is an independent article and is not an official publication of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The interpretations and conclusions presented here are the author’s own, based on the cited Church scriptures, publications, and other sources.