Many Latter-day Saints like to argue that the Bible teaches some kind of henotheism rather than monotheism. They point to texts that speak of heavenly beings being delegated authority by God, such as Deuteronomy 32:8–9 and Psalm 82, to argue that the Bible does not really teach that there is only one God.
I would argue to the contrary that the Bible, when taken as a whole, strongly refutes the idea that there are other beings who are gods in the same ultimate sense as the God of Israel. For instance, in Jeremiah 10:11, God contrasts himself with the so-called gods of the other nations, declaring: “The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth shall perish from the earth and from under these heavens.” Paul similarly describes the gods of the pagan nations as demons (1 Corinthians 10:20) and as beings that “by nature are not gods” (Galatians 4:8). And in Revelation 4:11, the heavenly host declares that God alone is worthy “to receive glory and honor and power; for You created all things, and because of Your will they existed and were created.”
But in this post, I will engage in an internal critique that assumes the LDS worldview and ask whether it can account for what Latter-day Saints say that the Old Testament describes.
It is also worth acknowledging that Latter-day Saints use the word “god” in more than one sense. But my focus here is specifically about the beings whom Latter-day Saints interpret these Old Testament passages as describing: supernatural members of the divine council who exercise authority over the nations, rebel, and are punished by God for their rebellion.
My central question is: How does that fit within LDS theology and cosmology?
The obvious response is that they are members of God’s heavenly council. But that does not answer the question; it merely restates it.
The key question then is, who are these beings within the LDS plan of salvation?
My thesis is that LDS theology has no obvious place for supernatural beings who exercise genuine authority over nations, rebel against God, and are subsequently judged by Him.
This is because Latter-day Saint theology does not generally posit a separate class of divine beings alongside God. Angels are themselves human beings—either premortal spirits or resurrected/translated humans—and those who become gods do so through exaltation.
So who are these rebellious members of the divine council?
There are a few possibilities, but each raises significant problems.
- Exalted gods (i.e. gods of other worlds)
One option is that these are beings who have been exalted on another world and are therefore already gods in the fullest LDS sense.
But this option does not fit the biblical description. In LDS theology, exalted beings are fully deified, morally perfected, and united with the Father’s purposes. They do not compete with God for worship or set themselves against God’s purposes, nor do they lead nations into idolatry. They certainly would not be judged and condemned by God for injustice.
If these were exalted beings in the LDS sense, several questions arise:
Why would perfected gods accept idolatrous worship?
Why would they be judged and condemned to die (Psalm 82:7)?
Why would they be assigned nations only to lead people to idolatry and opposition to Yahweh?
I don’t think there’s a satisfactory answer to these questions.
- Resurrected celestial beings who did not receive exaltation
Another possibility is that these are resurrected beings who received a degree of glory (terrestrial or telestial) but were not fully exalted.
But this option runs into similar problems. Even beings who inherit a kingdom of glory in LDS theology remain subject to God. They do not rebel against him or set themselves up as rival objects of worship. It is also difficult to see how such beings could be condemned to “die like men” if they are already resurrected and immortal.
- Premortal spirits
Another possibility is that these “gods” were human spirits who had not yet been born into mortality.
This explanation is more plausible than the first two.
It is possible that human spirits could receive assignments from God before mortality. They might have been among the “noble and great ones” mentioned in the Book of Abraham (Abraham 3) and given positions of leadership over the nations.
But this explanation still raises serious problems.
In LDS theology, premortal spirits:
Do not have bodies
Are not yet exalted
And have not yet been tested through a mortal experience
Why, then, would Scripture describe them as gods exercising authority over the nations?
And if these spirits would eventually come to earth, why would God threaten them with the judgment that they would “die like men”? That would not be much of a threat if they were destined to become mortal anyways.
Furthermore, suppose these spirits initially followed Jesus but subsequently rebelled. How does that fit the LDS account of the premortal rebellion? If they joined Lucifer’s rebellion, LDS teaching says that they were already cast out of heaven and became Satan’s angels. How, then, could they continue to exercise authority over nations as members of God’s heavenly council?
And if they rebelled independently of Lucifer, LDS theology would need to account for a second category of premortal spirits who received divine authority over nations, subsequently rebelled against God, and yet are not simply numbered among Satan’s angels. But LDS theology has no category for those who “kept their first estate” and then fall away at some period of time before they are born on earth.
Furthermore, what becomes of those spirits now? If they rebel and follow Satan, then shouldn’t they share the fate of Satan and his angels? But the threat that they would “die like men” suggests that they will be born in mortality despite their premortal rebellion which seems difficult to reconcile with the LDS teaching that those who followed Satan were denied mortal bodies.
- Demonic or fallen spirits
As I already mentioned, this explanation seems to fit the biblical data best of all the explanations considered so far. The Old Testament frequently connects the gods of the nations with demons (see Deuteronomy 32:17), and the New Testament explicitly says that pagan sacrifices are offered to demons rather than to God (1 Corinthians 10:20).
But it does not fit LDS theology well. If these spirits followed Satan and were cast out after the war in heaven, why would God place them in charge of nations? Why would they still be part of God’s council in heaven? It just does not fit from an LDS perspective.
- Spirits in the Spirit World
Another creative proposal is that these beings are the spirits of dead humans who reside in the spirit world before their resurrection. But this solution does not fit LDS teaching either.
One possibility would be that these are spirits currently in spirit prison. But according to LDS doctrine, those in spirit prison are awaiting the opportunity to accept the gospel through proxy ordinances performed on earth. They are not described as ruling or governing nations. Why would God appoint unrepentant dead humans as spiritual governors over entire civilizations?
Alternatively, if these are righteous spirits in the spirit world, you would need to explain how this fits with the LDS description of the postmortal spirit world. In D&C 138, even the righteous dead are described as waiting for their deliverance, because “the dead had looked upon the long absence of their spirits from their bodies as a bondage” (D&C 138:49–50). You would then need to explain how such disembodied spirits could function as divine governors over nations, and how some spirits in this state could subsequently rebel and lead people living on earth astray. And you would also need to explain how the threat that they would “die like men” would make sense as applied to them.
6. Human Rulers and Kings
A final possibility is that Psalm 82 is referring not to supernatural beings but to human rulers or judges who have been given authority by God. This interpretation fits both LDS and Christian theology quite easily. But it does not support the argument that the Bible teaches henotheism or anything other than monotheism. If the “gods” in Psalm 82 are simply human rulers exercising authority delegated by the one true God, then the passage is not evidence for the existence of other divine beings at all.
Latter-day Saint friends, what do you think? What possibilities am I missing, or do one of these work better than I suggested? Let me know, and I will engage with your position in a follow-up post.
Conclusion
Ultimately, I believe that Latter-day Saints should stop appealing to these Biblical passages in support of their worldview.
If the “gods” of Deuteronomy 32 and Psalm 82 are merely human rulers exercising authority delegated by God, then these passages provide no evidence for henotheism or for the existence of multiple true gods. But if they are supernatural divine beings who genuinely exercise authority over the nations, rebel against Yahweh, and are subsequently judged by Him, then Latter-day Saint theology has no good explanation for who they are.