Mormons often excuse away the clear evidence of Satan’s inspiration behind the men-becoming-gods doctrine of Genesis 3:5 by claiming that God made mankind in His image, so Satan’s offer to Eve to become “as gods” was really true and the lie was that men would die once they ate of the fruit. But this argument is flawed on three accounts.

First, Satan is a liar. John 8:44 explains, Satan does not tell the truth because there is no truth in him, so you cannot take part of Satan’s statements and make them true statements. Everything he says is twisted lies from the pit of Hell. 

Second, Scripture is clear that God would never put his children in a position where they would have to have to break one law (eating the forbidden fruit) in order to follow His plan (to bear children). Again, Scripture explains that God would never trap his children into transgressing his laws like that. James 1:13 explains, “God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man.” [NASB says, “God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone.”]

Third, the Mormon argument that humans are “gods in embryo” because we are made in “God’s image” is flawed because the image of God is not a physical human image, but rather a spiritual image. When Mormons try to argue that God’s image is a human or bodily image, it’s important to note that the text in Genesis 1:26 says, “Let US make man in OUR image” and then it says that God made man in “HIS OWN image” in Genesis 1:27. So how could that image be a human body? Even Mormons understand that Jesus, at that point, didn’t have a human body and neither does the Holy Ghost have a physical body. So obviously, God’s image cannot be referring to possessing a human body. 

Yet, some Mormons may try to argue that the image of “us” that God created mankind in is referring to God the Father creating humans after His and His so-called wife or “Heavenly Mother.” But even that Mormon argument has a problem with the text of Genesis because it says that God made man in “HIS own image,” not “their” own image. So the image of God the Father that He gave to males and females (Genesis 5:1-2) cannot be a reference to, and image made from, God and one of His so-called spirit wives.

So, what is the image of “US” that God was referring to? It is a spiritual image, “the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the IMAGE of him that created him,” as Colossians 3:10 states. If that image in which God created mankind was a reference to the human body, it would be impossible to “renew in knowledge.” Obviously that terminology of “image” must transcend basic humanity into something much more spiritual in nature, and this aligns with the image of “us” that God the Father possesses along with the Holy Ghost and the Son.