Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints believe that human beings can grow spiritually and progress morally until, through divine mercy and grace, they can inherit and possess all that the Father has.
To put it bluntly, if they’re faithful they can become gods. This is taught in revelations given to modern prophets (see Doctrine and Covenants 76:58; 132:19-20), as well as in sermons delivered by Joseph Smith. A couplet associated with President Lorenzo Snow, fifth president of the LDS Church, explains that “As man now is, God once was; as God now is, man may become.”
But this doctrine is often misrepresented and misunderstood, and has drawn a great deal of both mockery and hostility from critics of Mormonism. So it’s essential to understand it correctly.