In Mormonism the concept of a divine council is not completely foreign. However, it is also something that we never really discuss either. Scripturally though, it is clear that the Mormon understanding of God’s Divine Council is completely different from what the scriptures describe. This is another example of mixing truth with error and then claiming that we have the fulness when we clearly don’t.
Mormonism
In Mormonism, the concept of a Divine Council can really be traced back to the Book of Abraham. The Book of Abraham itself has a number of questions surrounding it, however for our purposes here we will ignore those questions. I would however not rely on it as a sole source of doctrine for any concept.
In the Book of Abraham, we can see the concept of multiple God’s organizing themselves starting in chapter 3. It reads:
Now the Lord had shown unto me, Abraham, the intelligences that were organized before the world was; and among all these there were many of the noble and great ones; and God saw these souls that they were good, and he stood in the midst of them, and he said, “These I will make my rulers;” … And they went down at the beginning, and they, that is the Gods, organized and formed the heavens and the earth. … And the Gods took counsel among themselves and said: Let us go down and form man in our image, after our likeness
Abraham 3 – 4
In this case we can see the many references to multiple Gods who seemingly worked together to create the earth, and populate it with all life that we know today. These Gods counseled together in order to discuss and plan how to accomplish the objectives of the head God who we would refer to as the Father. This objective seemed to be to create another earth and continue the divine plan. However, the specifics of each situation seemed to be up to the Divine Council’s discretion.
In Mormonism we make a lot of assumptions, about this time and these events, which are completely unscriptural. It is really important to separate the traditions we have been taught from what the scriptures actually teach. In Mormonism, we also assume that the word “Gods” here refers to the Godhead. However, again that is completely unscriptural as we will see.
Actually, the more I think about the Mormon concept of the Godhead the less it actually makes sense. From this account though, we can see that multiple Gods organized, planned, and counseled together in order to create this earth. After each step, then they organized, planned, and counseled together pertaining the next step and so on until they rested on the seventh day.
Scriptures
The scriptures themselves agree with the theme of a Divine Council that accomplishes the work of God. However, the way it is described is certainly not in alignment with the understanding of mainstream Mormonism. The first place we can look at is Psalms 82. In this specific psalm it mentions how God was among the Gods in his council who were not acting according to his will. These lessor gods it appears were favoring the wicked and God really didn’t take kindly to that. It reads:
God takes his stand in the divine assembly; among the divine beings he renders judgment: “How long will you judge partially by showing favor on the wicked? … Indeed I said, ‘You are gods, and all of you are sons of the Most High. However, as all human beings do, you will die, and like other rulers, you will fall.’ Arise, God, to judge the earth, for all nations belong to you.
Psalms 82- ISV
It appears that these lessor gods had some kind of dominion over the earth, and they were using this power to promote wicked practices. God wanted the poor, the fatherless, and the needy to be taken care of. However, it seems the exact opposite was happening instead. As a result, God told the rebellious council members that they themselves would die like humans for their going against God’s divine plan. Essentially God was going to kick out some of the council members because they couldn’t or wouldn’t follow the purpose of the council to begin with.
Another reference to this Divine Council is contained in Psalms 89 where there is another very clear mention of these Gods as the Book of Abraham referred to them. It reads:
Even the heavens praise your awesome deeds, LORD, your faithfulness in the assembly of the holy ones. For who in the skies compares to the LORD? Who is like the LORD among the divine beings? God is feared in the council of the holy ones, revered by all those around him.
Psalms 89 – ISV
This is another clear reference to an assembly of divine beings and mentions that even though these beings are divine, and they would be gods to us, then God himself is still far above them in all aspects. God chooses to partner with these divine beings, however he most certainly doesn’t have to partner with them to accomplish his objectives. He chooses to for their benefit not his own.
One scripture that always confused me when I thought of things through the lens of mainstream Mormonism was Job 1. In the book of Job we see that Satan seemingly approaches God, uninvited, and then challenges him concerning Job. The main problem with this idea is that Satan supposedly was already cast out of heaven for rebellion. Are we to believe that he was cast out, however can return whenever he feels like it? The Mormon interpretation makes no sense, however of course the Divine Council interpretation does. Job 1 reads:
One day, divine beings presented themselves to the LORD, and Satan accompanied them. … Then the LORD asked Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one like him on earth. The man is blameless as well as upright. He fears God and keeps away from evil.” But in response, Satan asked the LORD, “Does Job fear God for nothing? …” Then the LORD told Satan, “Very well then, everything he owns is under your control, only you may not extend your hand against him.” So Satan left the LORD’s presence.
Job 1 – ISV
In this passage it mentions Satan and some other divine beings were in a divine council setting in which Job was brought up. Just to be clear, this is quite clearly after the creation events we discussed previously and certainly after Satan was supposedly cast out of heaven according to Mormon doctrine. In response Satan challenges God, saying that Job was only a blameless person because God has blessed him so richly. Job wouldn’t be such a good example if his life was not as pleasant.
God accepted the challenge and Satan was allowed the opportunity to test Job further to see if he would curse God. In the next chapter we see Satan again in a divine council, with God, and he asks for further permission to test Job more severely. This again is granted as long as Job survives. This of course is completely contradictory to the Mormon explanation of things. However, again this supports a Divine Council concept perfectly where there are divine beings who have specific stewardships and roles.
An amazing explanation of this Divine Council can be found in 1 Kings 22 where we get some insight into how the Divine Council works and their actual purpose. At this time Israel had been split into two kingdoms the Northern Kingdom and the Southern Kingdom of Israel. During a meeting between the kings of each respective kingdom it was decided that they would jointly go to war however they would ask God first, which is frankly pretty wise.
They called in many prophets to tell them if their decision was a good one. However, these prophets appeared to simply be yes men who would give the king what he wanted, likely to maintain their favored position. However, Micaiah, a true prophet of God, was asked to inquire of God. In return Micaiah mentioned that God decided, in a Divine Council, that the King of Israel needed to die. We can read this in 1 Kings 22:
Therefore, listen to what the LORD has to say. I saw the LORD, sitting on his throne, and the entire Heavenly Army was standing around him on his right hand and on his left hand. “The LORD asked, ‘Who will tempt King Ahab of Israel to attack Ramoth-gilead, so that he will die there?’ And one was saying one thing and one was saying another. “But then a spirit approached, stood in front of the LORD, and said, ‘I will entice him.’ “And the LORD asked him, ‘How?’ “‘I will go,’ he announced, ‘and I will be a deceiving spirit in the mouth of all of his prophets!’ “So the LORD said, ‘You’re just the one to deceive him. You will be successful. Go and do it.’ “Now therefore, listen! The LORD has placed a lying spirit in the mouth of all of these prophets of yours, because the LORD has determined to bring disaster upon you.”
1 Kings 22 – ISV
This account is certainly different from everything I was taught in church about how God works. In the vision of Micaiah, he saw a Divine Council where God wanted King Ahab dead and wanted the council to figure out how. They discussed things and then eventually one member said they were going to use the false prophets to deceive the king. God then mentioned that the plan would work, and they were to do it. Shortly after this, the king does indeed follow the false prophets and ends up dying in the battle.
This account though is very specific in how God wanted an outcome and then let the Divine Council deliberate as to the best way to achieve that outcome. It also mentions that this lying sprit was from God in order to accomplish his objectives. We wouldn’t generally think of God as doing things like this, however it is consistent with many of the other ways that God has acted throughout the scriptures.
In fact, the Divine Council is so fundamental to how God works it actually seems to be a mark of whether someone is a true prophet or not. We can see this in Jeremiah 23, where Jeremiah is speaking very strongly against the false prophets of his day that would tell anyone whatever they wanted to hear. He mentions that unless a prophet enters into God’s council and gets a mandate from God directly then they are speaking their own words and not the words of God. Jeremiah 23 reads:
This is what the LORD of the Heavenly Armies says: “Don’t listen to the words of the prophets who are prophesying to you; they’re giving you false hopes. They declare visions from their own minds—they don’t come from the LORD! … But who has stood in the LORD’s council to see and hear his message? … I didn’t send these prophets, but they ran anyway. I didn’t speak to them, but they prophesied. … If they had stood in my council and had delivered my words to my people, then they would have turned them back from their evil way, from their evil deeds.”
Jeremiah 23 – ISV
According to Jeremiah, it seems that many people were prophesying in the name of God, however they were in fact not delivering the words of God, but the words of some other god or their own ideas. That certainly sounds very much like what is happening today. We can get someone to prophecy of almost anything we want in the name of God. However, that absolutely doesn’t mean it is in fact from God and his will.
Being invited into God’s council is also exactly what we see in Isaiah 6. Isaiah is introduced into the Divine Council and immediately realizes he is unclean and shouldn’t be there. Isaiah is made clean and then given a mandate from God that he should call the people to repentance. This is also exactly what happened to Lehi in 1 Nephi 1. Lehi was invited to the Divine Council, and he was told to call the people to repentance. Lehi did this until the people tried to kill him and God asked him to flee. Lastly, Alma was invited into the Divine Council in Alma 36. He received a mandate from God, and this is what changed him so drastically.
In addition to these scriptures, we can see many other references in the scriptures to an assembly of divine beings that decide things and then ensure their plan is carried out. For instance, Daniel 4 is another example. In the vision that Daniel interpreted, King Nebuchadnezzar mentions he was told that the events he saw were the verdict of the Divine Council so we can know when it happened that God was supreme above all things.
Conclusion
The Divine Council is a concept that is all over the scriptures. However, frankly the KJV makes it difficult at times because the translation is not entirely accurate according to the original Hebrew or Greek. We can see this when we look at the many other translations of the Bible. I personally prefer the International Standard Version (ISV) which attempts to be a middle ground between a literal translation and an idiomatic one. For instance, some concepts may be easy to describe in Hebrew or Greek, however, would be a foreign concept in English. The ISV tries to maintain these concepts in a way that is clear and concise.
As we have seen though, the concept of a Divine Council, that God uses to govern the affairs of the earth, is clearly scripturally based. These divine beings hold positions of power and prominence in God’s affairs. It is also clear that the word “Gods” in the Book of Abraham cannot mean Godhead but must mean instead those divine beings that govern alongside God. These divine council members also couldn’t have been just a group that organized and planned the creation of the earth. They were a group of divine beings that were actively governing the affairs of men.
It is these divine beings that rebelled and started going their own way as described in Genesis. Interestingly, in the Bible the name Satan is never actually used in the way that we would use a proper noun like a name of a specific individual. However, the word that is translated as Satan just simply means The Accuser instead. It is this accuser that is a member of the Divine Council and may have been part of a specific role as 1 Kings 22 discussed. However, this accuser may then have taken the role too far and gone against the will of God and been part of the divine council rebellion discussed in Psalms 82.
This concept also shows that the Mormon understanding of the creation and governance of this earth is far too simplistic to be correct. In Mormon doctrine, God is directly governing things, with Satan being cast to earth yet still retaining all his divine powers. This is clearly an approximation of truth, but mixed with many falsehoods. It is important to realize that just because we hear something in a conference talk or see it in a temple endowment ceremony, then that doesn’t make it true.
This concept also makes it very clear that eternally we may have advanced responsibilities, but we can never just “coast” spiritually. We are always able to ascend or descend spiritually as we choose to follow God or not. We always have a choice to obey or disobey and that choice will always have a positive or negative consequence. It is a choice that we personally have to make. We can align ourselves with God and trust in his eternal wisdom, or we can go our own way and trust in ourselves and die like men like Psalms 82 mentions. We are the ones to decide our own fate.
