Look at Doug’s last sentence in comment 40 of this thread.
He is the God.
And now look at the last phrase in Ezra 1:3 (KJV): “(he is the God,) which is in Jerusalem.”
I am studying Isaiah 45, which leads me to two questions:
1. Do LDS friends have a view like ancient King Cyrus concerning God’s status?
2. Was Cyrus the Son’s messiah? or the Father’s messiah?
Jesus in Idaho Falls 
Todd,
Before I comment, I thought I might point out that every computer from which I have visited your blog doesn’t show the recent comments sidebar when you visit the site. However, it does appear after you look at a post–but if you go back to the main page it vanishes again. I thought you might like to know in case your blog isn’t functioning the way you are intending it to.
As for your post itself, I believe you made a comment earlier on a presentation that Blake gave at a FAIR conference several years ago found here:
http://www.fairlds.org/FAIR_Conferences/2005_Fallacy_of_Fundamentalist_Assumptions.html
Blake’s presentation has now been placed online and I think it is much more enjoyable to watch than to read; and I think it talks very adequately about many of the issues surrounding questions such as the ones which you ask. It provides much needed context necessary to even broach the subject of the bible and its presentation(s) of God and its relationship to Mormonism as well as other Christian traditions.
The video can be found here in case you haven’t seen it:
It is broken into four or five segments.
Have a good one.
Computer problems . . . (sigh) . . . they develop my patience.
Todd
In looking at Isaiah 45 one thing that stood out from our discussions was that you believe God didn’t create evil but verse 7 says that he does.
I think it should be realised to read this chapter with an understanding of the thoughts of the writer. Verse 20 explains the intent of the statements. Christ (Jehovah) is establishing that all these other “gods” they follow are useless. HE has all this power. He holds the worlds together etc.
If I say to children, “no one is to touch that …” Is this an absolute, or relative statement? Obviously it is relative. All other statements and facts must be considered with it. The Bible clearly demonstrates that people will become Gods. Logical conclusion – there can be more than one God. Yet Christ stated there was only one God, and excluded himself from the statement. But he was the God of the Old Testament.
Plainly this examination leaves us with an understanding that while more than one God exists, to us there is but one Heavenly Father, and there is but one Lord Jesus Christ. And these are the two that we deal with.
Still, the Mormons have spooked America since the church’ s creation. Joseph Smith was called a fraud when he founded the church in 1830, and despite its best efforts to inject itself into the American cultural mainstream, the church is still viewed with suspicion in some quarters. Polls show that a substantial number of Americans would not vote for a Mormon for president. Catholic and Protestant denominations alike have challenged the inclusion of the church in historic Christianity.