Abraham a Polytheist?

Abraham 4:1-"they, that is the Gods, organized and formed the heavens and the earth."

So because LDS Doctrine acknowledges the fact that there are multiple Gods some people see us as pagans with heretical doctrine of ordinances and temples. However, I believe Elder Talmage's description of paganism in his book "The Great Apostasy" makes it clear that what made Paganism heresy was not the multitude of gods but rather the moral values of their deities.  He said, "Paganism was a religion of form and ceremony, based on polytheism-a belief in the existence of a multitude of gods, which deities were subject to all the vices and passions of humanity, while distinguished by immunity from death.  Morality and virtue were unknown as elements of heathen service, and the dominant idea in pagan worship was that of propitiating the gods, in the hope of averting their anger and purchasing their favor."  In no part of LDS scripture or talk do we ever think of other gods as having vices and passions of humanity.  Our belief stems from the fact that we believe in our divine potential as Paul put it "we are the children of God: And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ".  We do not, however, worship a multitude of Gods, as Paul put it "to us there is but one God", meaning there is only one God in the sense of the God who created us, whom we worship, who has all power over us.

I find it interesting to point out that in the Pearl of Great Price we find Abraham speaking of many Gods.  However, most of the world recognizes Abraham as the first great monotheist.  Furthermore, the entire Jewish canon (the Old Testament) is recognized as being completely monotheistic.  I propose a solution to this seeming discontinuity.  Think about who Abraham was dealing with in Egypt.  All the wicked priests around him were polytheists and of the pagan fashion.  So he was raised with that mentality.  So when God spoke to Abraham it wasn't anything strange for Abraham to hear God speak of "the Gods".  So God started off by explaining to Abraham how polytheism really works, how it is about exalted beings counseling together and one presiding over all.  However, the Egyptian form of polytheism was abominable and so God had Abraham preach monotheism after explaining the true nature of "the Gods".  It was much more important (and still is) to focus on the one and only true God of all of us, the only one the matters for us.  That the others exist, yes, that they have any affect or say on our exaltation, no.  So since one of the great evils of Abraham's times and all of the Old Testament was pagan polytheism, God focused on helping them understand that He alone was their God.  In our days, however, we have religions that completely misunderstand the nature of salvation.  Thinking that our end goal is to be an angel throughout all eternity.  We, however, have a more complete vision of exaltation (not more than Abraham or the prophets but than our contemporaries) and for such it is necessary to recognize that the reason we can become a God is because there have always been more than one God.  Again, this doesn't change our worship or our respect for Deity, it just expands our view of the borders of the universe.

*I also find this quite ironic.  A renowned historian Edward Gibbon in his book "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire" wrote that pagans were "representing the Christians as a society of atheists".  Even the original believers in the True Church of Christ had complete misrepresentation of their view of deity.  Because the early Christians denounced the plurality of the gods that the pagans felt was essential, the pagan persecutors called them atheists.  In other words, because the early Christians worshiped too few gods for the pagans it was as if they didn't worship any gods.  So too today people misrepresent the LDS Christians as being polytheists (in the common vulgar sense of the word) because we accept the existence of multiple righteous Gods.  They weren't atheists, we're not polytheists, both solely worship, honor, respect and pray to the Father in the name of his Son by means of the Holy Ghost.