Background
Mormonism’s Lorenzo Snow couplet theology suggests that Heavenly Father may have been a sinful mortal before becoming an exalted god. The clearest alternative position to this among Mormons is that Heavenly Father was a sinless savior for the previous generation of spirit children (our spirit-aunts and spirit-uncles). I have heard this referred to as The Royal Line of Sinless Saviors (RLSS).
Summary
According to traditional Mormon theology Jesus achieved a kind of secured state of non-exalted godhood in pre-mortality. Among the spirit children of our Heavenly Father, he was able to achieve a level of progression that the rest of us failed to achieve. Jesus enters into mortality not to learn from post-Fall inevitable sinful mistakes, but to sinlessly achieve his part in the plan of salvation. After his undeserved death and triumphant resurrection, he is able to be fully exalted unto full godhood, and presumably someday become his own Heavenly Father over his own spirit children, all without ever sinning.
Just as the future spirit children of Jesus would have a Heavenly Father that never sinned, some Mormons think that our Heavenly Father was once a sinless savior for a previous generation of spirit children. In this scenario, Heavenly Father would have, like Jesus, achieved a kind of non-exalted state of godhood in pre-mortality, to then play the role of a sinless savior on a fallen planet. He dies not due to any personal sinfulness. Rather, he dies an undeserved death in sacrifice for another generation of spirit children — spirit children that would essentially be our spirit-aunts and spirit-uncles — Heavenly Father’s brothers and sisters.
Continue reading “On the Royal Line of Sinless Saviors (RLSS) in Mormon thought”
