Each of the Gospel authors begins his account with reference to the Old Testament, either by quotation or by allusion. John takes the reader to the introduction of the Old Testament with his opening phrase, "In the beginning . . ." Apart from observing that numerous (and often better) translations could be given for the early verses in the Gospel, John brings all of the essential elements of the Creation account into focus. God is the major reference in verses 1 and 2, and all things were brought into their present state by His Word (who also is a God). Life, light and darkness, and the coming forth of a man from the presence of God are mentioned by John, but not in the same way as in Genesis. The light and darkness of the Gospel do not simply designate day and night, for the light is the life of God in everyone who comes into the world, and the darkness was unable to capture or resist the light shining in it. John wrote of a man sent from God, John the Baptist, whose purpose was to bear witness of the light and life of the world. In verses 10 and 11, the reader notes that the world did not know its Creator and, more specifically, that his own people rejected him when he was in the world. This rejection is especially poignant, for whereas God's presence and glory were veiled in the tabernacle or temple of the Old Testament when Israel usually rejected God, in John's day "the Word also became flesh and was tabernacled in our midst, and we saw and observed his glory, glory as of an only-begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth." (John 1:14,  translation mine.) People now rejected God even though they could see and associate with him.  In this spiritual account of the Creation and the mortal tabernacling of God on the earth, men become begotten children of God as they receive him and receive authority to be born through him. Thus the relationship between Genesis and John's opening verses can be summarized: Although the world was created by God and the law for men was given through Moses, the fullness of life and light within the Creation can be achieved only through Jesus Christ, who was tabernacled in flesh so that men might see his glory, accept him, and come to God through him.   

(Studies In Scripture, Volume 5, p. 112 - 113)
 

"And the Word was God" (1:1). In the Greek, the word God comes first in this phrase, which gives it special emphasis. Though it comes first, it is predicative and without an article. This means that John wanted us to know that in the beginning, the logos had already achieved Godhood: He had developed within himself the divine nature. By this we do not merely mean that he developed a divine nature. The absence of the article implies that he has acquired the very same character and divine attributes as The God with whom he associated in the previous phrase. The emphatic  arrangement of this word gives special stature to the logos. Not only was Jesus to be the one who would actively implement the plan of our Father, not only did he have a close and personal fellowship with the Father, but "in the beginning" the Savior had already developed the very same attributes and character of the Father, thus attaining Godhood.(Studies In Scripture, Volume 5, p. 130-131)

 

By obedience and devotion to the truth he attained that pinnacle of intelligence which ranked him as a God, as the Lord Omnipotent, while yet in his pre-existent state. As such he became, under the Father, the Creator of this earth and of worlds without number; and he was then chosen to work out the infinite and eternal atonement, to come to this particular earth as the literal Son of the Father, and to put the whole plan of redemption salvation, and exaltation in operation. (Mormon Doctrine, page 127)

 

That exaltation which the saints of all ages have so devoutly sought is godhood itself. (Mormon Doctrine, page 321, Bruce McConkie, Apostle of the Mormon Church)

 

Joseph Smith said: "God himself was once as we are now, and is an exalted man, and sits enthroned in yonder heavens! I am going to tell you how God came to be God. We have imagined and supposed that God was God from all eternity. I will refute that idea, and take away the veil, so that you may see. It is the first principle of the gospel to know for a certainty the character of God, and to know that we may converse with him as one man converses with another, and that he was once a man like us; yea, that God himself the Father of us all, dwelt on an earth, the same as Jesus Christ himself did; and I will show it from the Bible.  "Here, then, is eternal life -- to know the only wise and true God and you have got to learn how to be gods yourselves, and to be kings and priests to God, the same as all gods have done before you, namely, by going from one small degree to another, and from a small capacity to a great one; from grace to grace, from exaltation to exaltation, until you attain to the resurrection of the dead, and are able to dwell in everlasting burnings, and to sit in glory, as do those who sit enthroned in everlasting power. . . . [Such persons are] heirs of God and joint-heirs with Jesus Christ. What is it? To inherit the same power, the same glory and the same exaltation, until you arrive at the station of a god, and ascend the throne of eternal power, the same as those who have gone before." (Teachings of Prophet Joseph Smith, pp. 345-347.) (Mormon Doctrine, page 321, Bruce McConkie, Apostle of the Mormon Church)

 

"What Kind of Being is God - The Prophet Joseph Smith said: "If the veil were rent today, and the great God who holds this world in its orbit, and who upholds all worlds and all things by his power, was to make himself visible I say, if you were to see him today, you would see him like a man in form" (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 345)." (Gospel Principles, Chapter 1, page 9, 1992)

 

President Gordon B. Hinckley of the Mormon Church stated:  "The whole design of the gospel is to lead us, onward and upward to greater achievement, even, eventually, to godhood. This great possibility was enunciated by the Prophet Joseph Smith in the King Follet sermon (see Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, pp. 342-62) and emphasized by President Lorenzo Snow. It is this grand and incomparable concept: As God now is, man may become! (See The Teachings of Lorenzo Snow, comp. Clyde J. Williams, Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1984, p. 1.)" (Teachings of Gordon B. Hinckley, page 179)

 

We hear considerable about evolution. Who is there that believes more in true evolution than the Latter-day Saints?-the evolution of man until he shall become a god, until he shall sit at the right hand of the Father, until he shall be a joint heir with Jesus! That is the Gospel of Jesus Christ, believed in by the Latter-day Saints. That is the kind of evolution we believe in, but not the evolution of man from some low type of animal life. (Gospel Truth, George Q. Cannon, Compiled by Jerreld L. Newquist. Salt Lake City, Utah: Deseret Book Company, 1974) George Q. Cannon was Counselor to First Presidency of Brigham Young, John Taylor, Wilford Woodruff, Lorenso Snow, Apostle of the Quorum of the Twelve.

 

People qualify themselves for this rank and degree of exaltation by bringing themselves fully in line with all that God has commanded them to do: "Here, then, is eternal life-to know the only wise and true God; and you have got to learn how to be Gods yourselves, and to be kings and priests to God,… namely, by going from one small degree to another, and from a small capacity to a great one; from grace to grace, from exaltation to exaltation, until you attain to the resurrection of the dead, and are able to dwell in everlasting burnings, and to sit in glory, as do those who sit enthroned in everlasting power" (TPJS, pp. 346-47). (Encyclopedia of Mormonism, page 554)

 

Latter-day Saints believe that God achieved his exalted rank by progressing much as man must progress and that God is a perfected and exalted man: "God himself was once as we are now, and is an exalted man, and sits enthroned in yonder heavens! That is the great secret. If the veil were rent today, and the great God who holds this world in its orbit, and who upholds all worlds and all things by his power, was to make himself visible,-I say, if you were to see him today, you would see him like a man in form-like yourselves in all the person, image, and very form as a man; for Adam was created in the very fashion, image and likeness of God, and received instruction from, and walked, talked and conversed with him, as one man talks and communes with another" (TPJS, p. 345).  Much of the LDS concept of godhood is expressed in a frequently cited aphorism written in 1840 by Lorenzo Snow, fifth President of the Church. At the time, Snow was twenty-six years old, having been baptized four years earlier. He recorded in his journal that he attended a meeting in which Elder H. G. Sherwood explained the parable of the Savior regarding the husbandman who hired servants and sent them forth at different hours of the day to labor for him in his vineyard. Snow continued, as recorded in his sister's biography of him: "The Spirit of the Lord rested mightily upon me-the eyes of my understanding were opened, and I saw as clear as the sun at noonday, with wonder and astonishment, the pathway of God and man. I formed the following couplet which expresses the revelation, as it was shown me…. As man now is, God once was: As God now is, man may be" (Eliza R. Snow, p. 46). (Encyclopedia of Mormonism, pages 554-555)