After almost 50 years as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints I am still amazed at the depth and simplicity of the doctrines of the Church. The Church is not a new religion, it is a reestablishment of the fullness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. In 1830 the Church was organized, new scripture was introduced with the bringing forth of the Book of Mormon and the gospel was preached under the guidance of apostolic authority. This is a restoration of the work of Jesus Christ in the earth.
It is a restoration of God’s authority to prophet servants in the earth. Men and women that were chosen before they were born. (Jeremiah 1:15). They were chosen to to stand as “watchmen on the tower” and organize the kingdom among all the people of the earth. With this authority and direct connection with the God of Heaven, we now have greater understanding than ever before of the wonders of eternity and the mysteries of an endless cosmos. God has given us increased knowledge regarding the order of heaven and the nature of family relationships in eternity. Heaven is about eternal parenthood and the nurturing power in family units. (Ephesians 3:15)
The Abrahamic covenant established in the Old Testament tells us that Abraham’s seed or posterity would be as numerous as the sands of the sea shores or the stars in the heavens. In other words, endless. God desires to extend these same promises and blessings to us as descendants of Abraham. Modern day covenant Israel is entitled to these blessings if they will make and keep the covenants of the eternal Gospel. Joseph Smith was called to be the prophet of this, the dispensation that will prepare the earth for the second coming of the Savior. His calling was to gather Latter-day Israel and establish the Church and Kingdom of God on the earth in order for these preparations to take place.
I won’t elaborate on the many aspects of these events in this message. I would like to explain as I understand them some of the things we have learned about the nature of God, godliness, the Godhead and Godhood. I will explain the nature of the Godhead and purpose and reason that God created us in the image of God, male and female.
I will mention traditional theological ideas and concepts regarding the nature of God as taught in modern Christendom so that the similarities and differences of what the prophet Joseph Smith revealed might be well understood.
Tradition has taught for about two millennia that the nature of God is an unknowable mystery and always will be. This narrative was established in early centuries by some of the early clerics after the death of Jesus and his apostles. Modern biblical theologians teach that God will not communicate with us again in this life and the that the Bible is the complete revelation.
The narrative established by early Christian philosophers is that for no apparent reason, the only all-powerful, all-knowing spiritual force in existence acted on a singular basis to perform a one-time act of creation. That is this earth, and it is the only one that this mysterious God will ever create. The motive postulated by classical theologians is that love of necessity is the motive for (Its) actions. I say Its, because the trinitarian concept of deity is a genderless, incorporeal power. It has no form or physical presence other than to project itself as two beings that are metaphorical representations of a father and son.
The explanation put forth by biblical apologists is that the trinitarian Godhead is not really a familial relationship, but a symbolic representation of family terms in order for humans to somehow begin to relate to what God is doing for us. The literal nature of God is unknowable according to modern Christian theologians. The Bible does, however, clearly designate and refer to them as a God the Father, and his Son which would make them male beings. Modern biblical professors do not agree with the literal descriptions of the Bible prophets or the proclaimed Son of God himself.
The narrative and teachings about God in mainstream Christianity do not actually come from the Bible. They come from early philosopher theologians, monks, and clerics as they formulated opinions. In the 16th century the Protestant Reformation disavowed the authority of the Catholic Church. The thing to note is that the reformation did not reform those conclusions and opinions, they just denounced Catholic church and added their own opinions to the teachings that came from what they claimed was an errant foundation. ( We might ask how truth flowed through an errant organization.?)
The average modern Christian believer seems, however, to prefer to believe that the personages mentioned in the Bible are actually real people capable of a relationship with us. The established doctrinal teachings of protestantism and Catholicism claim that we humans are merely creatures and have no real eternal value or relationship with deity since our souls are created into existence in a random fashion out of nothing. In other words, our spiritual nature did not exist before our mortal birth according to classical theology.
There is much more that could be covered regarding traditional ideas about God and Its relationship to man, but that is not the purpose of this essay.
Latter-day Saint theology is revealed theology. It comes directly from God to his prophets. It is not opinions or based on study of the Bible that results in a new conclusion of what God is trying to say or do
Who is God according to Latter-day Saints?
God the Father is not a single parent. He is the actual father of our spirits. There is no fatherhood without motherhood. Our existence declares the order of creation we witness in the earth. One of the important understandings of the restoration is that we have a Heavenly Mother. The love of God for us is inseparably connected to the fact we are their literal children. We are the result of our Heavenly Parents love for each other. It is a deep and abiding love and we are connected to them forever. We have their spiritual DNA. They are eternal parents and we are created in their image, male and female. It is their desire to nurture us in the ways of eternal glory and exaltation. This is the fullness of eternal life. We were begotten spiritually by them before we were born on the earth. We have been nurtured at their side for some eons of eternity.
We have come to earth to temporarily inhabit a fallen mortal body which by and through the atonement and grace of Jesus Christ will be resurrected to a perfect and glorified state in a future day. Our spirits are formed from spiritual matter, and some eternal component of intelligence, the full nature of which has not been revealed. It is sufficient to know that we are not created out of nothing and that God created the earth because HE does love us and wants us to become like Him and our Eternal Mother.
The creation of man and woman in the Garden of Eden wasn’t God acting to create for the first time but was based on an eternal pattern of creation.
As we define God and the divine nature and order that is described in that definition, we see the principle center of love and creation as our Heavenly Parents. We also know that there is an eternal Godhead presided over by God our Father, that includes his Son, Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost. Jesus is the spirit son of our Heavenly Parents. He is a literal Son. Following the divine plan of salvation and exaltation, Jesus was also chosen and foreordained to be the only Begotten Son of God in the flesh to receive the power of the Father and therefore be our Savior and Redeemer.
In the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, we have learned something about the love of God and their desire to share with us, to empower us through the grace of our Savior the divine nature of the eternal union of male and female souls. As I mentioned, the Abrahamic blessings speak of an infinite posterity. There is no limit to the expansion of the family throughout an infinite heavenly cosmos.
Such a glorious opportunity is only available because of the power and priesthood that are found in the eternal gospel of God to which we are to inherit as joint-heirs with Jesus Christ. This opportunity that we speak of is called exaltation. It means that we as eternal beings can have the capacity to increase forever if we honor here on earth as husband and wife, marital and gospel covenants that center on the divine powers of procreation shared by men and women. This is a divine stewardship we are given in this probationary mortal life that we call our second estate, the first of which was with our Heavenly Parents. There we chose to participate in the opportunity and now we have the opportunity and accountability to demonstrate our willingness to honor it and seek to align our will with God’s.
Now when we speak of God, we may be referencing one of may things. We can speak of our Eternal Father as God, or our heavenly Father and Mother together as God. Jesus is God. He and the Holy Ghost as members of the Godhead are rightly called God. Jesus was the creator of the earth with delegated power and authority from the Father. He was and is Jehovah, the God of Israel. We might also speak of all those exalted through the principles and truths of the eternal Gospel as God. Though they be many, or one, or even an infinite number of exalted persons, we are still one with God as none is separated from the vine of truth that is Jesus Christ and our Heavenly Father and the endless family from which we all proceed. There is no beginning and there is no end.
Just we are exalted by obedience to eternal principles, so to our Heavenly Parents were exalted and are part of an eternal family. The basic principle is that the family never ends. We will often hear the term that God has no beginning and no end. So it is with the family. The family is God and God is the family. This mystery of no beginning would be the same if there were only one being or infinite beings. There is only one truth and we see clearly designated in creation that the family is of God and from the eternal source of His existence. There is no person that does not pertain to a family of exalted and glorious parents.
The good and evil in which we find presented to us is not something God invents or creates. These states of the spirit and soul are co-eternal principles associated with the intelligence from which God forms the spirits of his children. We don’t know much about the infinite sources of intelligence and matter as very little has been revealed to us at this point.
It is sufficient to know that we are not created out of nothing. If this were not the case then God would in fact be the creator and perpetrator of evil in the world and humans would be mere puppets. By his power he separates the righteous and the wicked and extends dominions and powers to the righteous. The reason God can’t just destroy the wicked and stop them from existing is because all individuals are eternal beings.
What we do know is that evil is always overcome through God’s eternal priesthood power. There is no dominion by evil. The righteousness of God will always prevail. The dominions of the righteous will extend the love of God for all of eternity in realms of Celestial Glory and familial order. Those not willing to make and keep the necessary covenants in mortality will not receive the blessings associated with those covenants in eternity.
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