Many accuse Latter-day Saint theology of rejecting Jesus’ teachings of the narrowness of the way (Matt 7:14). Notwithstanding, in LDS theology, exaltation, while open to all, many commentators have noted that the way thereto is indeed narrow. As Melvin J. Ballard wrote:
The Mormon doctrine that we have just been declaring, that “as man is, God once was,” has its complement that, goes with it in that other very marvelous declaration that “as God is, man may become.” Do not let us misinterpret it, with the thought that man will become—for very few men ever will become what God is; and yet all men may become what he is. But they shall only become what he is by paying the price, by earning that right to enjoy that high privilege. (Melvin J. Ballard, “The Path to Celestial Happiness” in Blaine R. Porter, ed. The Latter-day Saint Family: A Book of Selected Reading [Provo, Utah: Brigham Young University Printing Service, 1966], 185-89, here, p. 187, emphasis added)
