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Smith and early Mormon leaders taught that any person with a testimony of Christ is a [[prophet]]. However, the LDS church is a highly hierarchial organization, with a president-prophet (usually assisted by two "Counselors") who claims to alone possess all the "keys" to prophetic power and authority. Most modern members of the LDS church believe that their current president, Gordon B. Hinkley (as of 2008), is a living prophet, and the sole person authorized to speak definitively for God on the earth today. Below this president and his counselors are twelve "Apostles," who are also considered "prophets, seers, and revelators," but who do not have the authority of the church president. Beneath the Mormon apostles are "Seventies," concerned mainly with heading up Mormon missionary efforts worldwide, together with a "presiding Bishopric" mostly concerned with temporal church affairs.

A local Mormon congregation, called a "ward" (equivalent to an Orthodox parish) is headed by a "bishop" (equivalent to an Orthodox parish priest), while a group of wards occupying a specific geographical area is organized into a "stake" (equivalent to an Orthodox diocese), headed by a "stake president" (equivalent to an Orthodox bishop; the disparity between Mormon and Orthodox usage of the term "bishop" can cause confusion for the uninitiated!).

Most modern members of the LDS believe that the current president of the Mormon Church is a living prophet. Another pillar of Mormon belief is their concept of [[theosis|deification]], which they refer to as the "Doctrine of Eternal Progression. Adhering " This doctrine bears no resemblance whatsoever to some extent the Orthodox doctrine of theosis, as explained by the [[Holy Fathers]] of the Church. In diametric opposition to the Trinitarian doctrines stated in dogmas of the [[First Ecumenical Council|First]] and [[Second Ecumenical Council|Second]] [[Ecumenical Council|Ecumenical Councils]], Mormons believe that [[God]] the Father was originally a human being, who was spiritually "begotten" by another "god" (and his "godess" wife) who had lived before him. However"Eloheim" (the Mormon name for God the Father) lived an ordinary human life on another planet, they believe and by following that He also maintains world's version of Mormonism, he gradually "progressed" to "become" a corporeal form and resides near a planet orbiting a star called god.  Having attained to "godhood," this "KolobEloheim" and his wife (''Doctrines or wives) were able to create and populate their own world--namely, ours--with pre-existent spiritual offspring who, by coming to earth and taking human flesh, embracing and living the Mormon religion, and Covenants''"enduring to the end" in the same, could themselves "progress" to "godhood, Abraham III)" where they could begin the process anew. As stated in  ''The Mormon Encyclopedia''states this doctrine succinctly:

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exaltation_%28Mormonism%29 Deification], then, in Mormon terminology, is a system of progression by which man becomes a god.  For a casual observer, this may seem similar to the Church's teaching of [[theosis]], but this is ''not '' so. :  :'''First''', there is a definite distinction in the Church between God and mankind, between the Creator and His Creation. God is eternal, and existed for eternity prior (and entirely separate from) His creation. The incarnation of the pre-eternal Word of God, the Second Person of the Most Holy Trinity as Our Lord Jesus Christ, was a unique union between God and His creation, which had never existed before. Mormonism, on the other hand, teaches that only matter and intelligence are eternal (not God), and that ''all'' of the "gods" essentially "evolved" in the same fashion, from physical matter. :'''Second''', the Orthodox Church clearly teaches that the Holy Trinity has always existed precisely as one God: "the Trinity, One in essence, and undivided." Mormonism, on the other hand, not only teaches a multiplicity of potentially millions or even billions of "gods;" it equally teaches that the Father, theosis Son and Holy Spirit are one in "purpose" only, and most emphatically not one in essence or hypostasis (as the Orthodox Church teaches). They are three "gods," say the Mormons, and not one in anything except a common purpose and mindset. This is diametrically opposed to Orthodox Christian teaching.:'''Third''', Theosis is a unification between God and mankind, not the creation of an entirely separate deity.

Exaltation is explained as becoming, through the sacrifice of Christ, a co-inheritor with Jesus in all that the Father possesses (Romans 8:16-17); that as children of God we are enabled to become one with God as Jesus is one with God, inheriting the same divinity and perfection they enjoy, eternally acting under their guiding influence and authority.