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Nephi asserts the identity of Christ with the God of the Old Testament (1 Nephi 19:10). Jacob and king Benjamin also equate Christ with the Creator (2 Nephi 9:5; Mosiah 3:5-8). Limhi related the words of Abinadi: "he said unto them that Christ was the God, the Father of all things" (Mosiah 7:27). In Ammonihah, Zeezrom asked Amulek, "Is the Son of God the very Eternal Father? And Amulek said unto him: Yea, he is the very Eternal Father of heaven and earth" (Alma 11:38-39). Moroni calls Jesus Christ "even the Father and the Son" (Mormon 9:11-12). When Christ appeared to the brother of Jared, he declared, "Behold, I am Jesus Christ. I am the Father and the Son" (Ether 3:14).
When Joseph Smith revised the Gospel of Luke, he substituted a verse which asserts the identity of the Father and Son. In the Authorized Version, Luke 10:22 reads: "All things are delivered to me of my Father: and no man knoweth who the Son is, but the Father; and who the Father is, but the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal him." But in Joseph Smith's translation (JST), this same verse is written: "All things are delivered to me of my Father; and no man knoweth that the Son is the Father, and the Father is the Son, but him to whom the Son will reveal it." The Book of Moses also seems to assume the identity of the Father and Son.
The concept of the Godhead as it is presented in the Book of Mormon is similar to Sabellianism, a doctrine favored by Sabellius, a Libyan bishop of the third century, who denied that the Son and the Holy Spirit are Persons distinct from the Father, but held rather that Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are names denoting the three aspects or successive manifestations of the one divine essence. Augustine refers to the Sabellian controversy in the City of God: "Thus when we speak about God we do not talk about two or three 'principles', any more than we are allowed to speak of two or three gods, although in talking of each person, whether the Father, the Son, or the Holy Spirit, we acknowledge that each of them is God. But we do not, like the Sabellian heretics, identify the Father with the Son, and the Holy Spirit with both Father and Son" (Augustine 1984, 404).
The Book of Mormon attributes unchangeableness to God. Nephi states that God "is the same yesterday, to-day, and forever" (1 Nephi 10:18). Moroni is more explicit: "For do we not read that God is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and in him there is no variableness neither shadow of changing? And now, if ye have imagined up unto yourselves a god who doth vary, and in whom there is shadow of changing, then have ye imagined up unto yourselves a god who is not a God of miracles" (Mormon 9:9-10). And later he states: "For I know that God is not a partial God, neither a changeable being; but he is unchangeable from all eternity to all eternity" (Moroni 8:18). The Doctrine and Covenants also declares: "there is a God in heaven, who is infinite and eternal, from everlasting to everlasting the same unchangeable God, the framer of heaven and earth . . . . which Father, Son, and Holy Ghost are one God, infinite and eternal, without end" (D&C 20:17, 28).
New teachings on Christ begin with Section 88:
[Christ] ascended up on high, as also he descended below all things, in that he comprehended all things, that he might be in all and through all things, the light of truth; which truth shineth. This is the light of Christ. As also he is in the sun, and the light of the sun, and the power thereof by which it was made. As also he is in the moon, and is the light of the moon, and the power thereof by which it was made; as also the light of the stars, and the power thereof by which they were made; and the earth also, and the power thereof, even the earth upon which you stand. And the light which shineth, which giveth you light, is through him who enlighteneth your eyes, which is the same light that quickeneth your understandings; which light proceedeth forth from the presence of God to fill the immensity of space -- the light which is in all things, which giveth life to all things, which is the law by which all things are governed, even the power of God who sitteth upon his throne, who is in the bosom of eternity, who is in the midst of all things. (D&C 88:6-13)
This description parallels Ephesians 4:6, 9-10. Section 93, which talks about Christ receiving the fullness of the Father, also parallels Philippians 2:5-11 and Colossians 1:19 and 2:9. Section 93 also gives this important teaching:
Man was also in the beginning with God. Intelligence, or the light of truth, was not created or made, neither indeed can be. All truth is independent in that sphere in which God has placed it, to act for itself, as all intelligence also; otherwise there is no existence. . . . For man is spirit. The elements are eternal, and spirit and element, inseparably connected, receive a fulness of joy; and when separated, man cannot receive a fulness of joy. The elements are the tabernacle of God; yea, man is the tabernacle of God, even temples; and whatsoever temple is defiled, God shall destroy that temple. The glory of God is intelligence, or, in other words, light and truth. (D&C 93:29-36)
In stating that intelligence "was not created or made," Section 93 echoes the Athanasian Creed: "The Father is made of none, neither created nor begotten. The Son is of the Father alone, not made nor created but begotten."
Sections 88 and 93 provide us with a fairly sophisticated cosmology, drawing upon the Bible to portray Christ as the light and spirit of truth, who is in all and through all. He is in the sun, the moon, the stars, and the earth; he quickens our understandings, gives life to all things, and is the law by which the world is governed.
However, the cosmology of the Doctrine and Covenants also seems to owe something to the philosophy of Plato. In the Republic Plato used the sun, light, and vision as an analogy to point to a higher reality, which he called the Good. The light of the sun gives to the eye the power to see and to objects the power to be seen. Similarly, the Good gives to the knower the power to know and to the objects of the understanding the power to be known. The objects of the understanding derive their existence and essence from the Good. Plato said that the Good is "the cause for all things of all that is right and beautiful, giving birth in the visible world to light and the author of light, and itself in the intelligible world being the authentic source of truth and reason" (Plato 1961, Republic 517c). In the same way, Christ is the light of truth, which quickens our understandings, and he is in the light of the sun, which gives light to our eyes, as stated in Section 88.
Plato described intelligible objects as unchangeable patterns. When God created the world, he looked to these unchangeable patterns as a model. Every sensible object is in the likeness of a pattern or form. Both the Book of Moses and sections of the Doctrine and Covenants claim that created things are in the likeness of spiritual patterns or forms. In the Book of Moses, God states: "For I, the Lord God, created all things, of which I have spoken, spiritually, before they were naturally upon the face of the earth. . . . And I, the Lord God, had created all the children of men; and not yet a man to till the ground; for in heaven created I them; and there was not yet flesh upon the earth . . . . And I, the Lord God, formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul, the first flesh upon the earth, the first man also; nevertheless, all things were before created; but spiritually were they created and made according to my word" (Moses 3:5-7). Section 77 is ambiguous, but claims either that spirit takes on the shape of things temporal, or that temporal things are created in the likeness of spiritual patterns: "that which is spiritual being in the likeness of that which is temporal; and that which is temporal in the likeness of that which is spiritual; the spirit of man in the likeness of his person, as also the spirit of the beast, and every other creature which God has created" (D&C 77:2).
Philo, a Jewish writer born in Alexandria, interpreted the Genesis of Moses in light of Platonic philosophy. He also held that God first created incorporeal and intelligible models or patterns, which served as the basis for the creation of corporeal bodies. Referring to Moses, Philo states: "In his concluding summary of the story of creation he says: 'This is the book of the genesis of heaven and earth, when they came into being, in the day in which God made the heaven and the earth and every herb of the field before it appeared upon the earth, and all grass of the field before it sprang up'(Gen. ii. 4, 5). Is he not manifestly describing the incorporeal ideas present only to the mind, by which, as by seals, the finished objects that meet our senses were moulded? For before the earth put forth its young green shoots, young verdure was present, he tells us, in the nature of things without material shape, and before grass sprang up in the field, there was in existence an invisible grass" (Saunders 1966, 219). Philo also distinguished between man created in the image of God as an incorporeal idea, and man created from the earth as an object of sense. However, he seems to have believed that the soul was not created: "for it says that the body was made through the Artificer taking clay and moulding out of it a human form, but that the soul was originated from nothing created whatever, but from the Father and Ruler of all" (Saunders 1966, 221). Philo's interpretation of Genesis also included the doctrine of the Logos, the immaterial Word or Voice of God, also spoken of as the first-born, through which the world was created and is governed by the principle of law.
Section 76 describes the three kingdoms and those who will inhabit them. The kingdoms differ in glory: "the glory of the celestial is one, even as the glory of the sun is one. And the glory of the terrestrial is one, even as the glory of the moon is one. And the glory of the telestial is one, even as the glory of the stars is one; for as one star differs from another star in glory, even so differs one from another in glory in the telestial world" (D&C 76:96-98). This description is derived from Paul: "There are also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial: but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another. There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars: for one star differeth from another star in glory. So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption . . . it is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body" (1 Cor. 15:40-44). Paul also spoke of being caught up into the third heaven (2 Cor. 12).
According to Section 76, those who inherit the celestial kingdom are those who accept the gospel, are baptized, receive the Holy Spirit, and are priests in the order of Melchizedek. Those who inherit the terrestrial kingdom are honorable men who die without hearing the law in this world, but accept the gospel when it is preached to them in the spirit prison. Those in the telestial world are those who claim to follow one sect or another, but do not accept the gospel of Christ; they include liars, sorcerers, adulterers, and whoremongers. Those destined for the celestial kingdom come forth in the resurrection of the just; those who will go to the terrestrial kingdom apparently remain in the spirit prison until the resurrection; but those who will go to the telestial world are first thrust down to hell and are not redeemed until the last resurrection, when Christ has completed his work. Those who inherit the celestial kingdom will dwell in the presence of God and Christ forever and receive the fulness of the Father. Those in the terrestrial world enjoy the presence of the Son, but not the fulness of the Father, while those in the telestial kingdom receive only the Holy Spirit through the ministering of angels. Those who follow the devil are called the sons of perdition; they suffer the second death, are cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, and are not redeemed: "And the end thereof, neither the place thereof, nor their torment, no man knows . . . wherefore, the end, the width, the height, the depth, and the misery thereof, they understand not" (D&C 76:45, 48).
The doctrine that there are different states and habitations corresponding to the condition of the soul after death is found in Plato's Phaedo. Plato illustrates the doctrine by means of a myth. He says that there are many cavities and channels in the earth through which rivers flow. Some of the cavities are deeper, some shallower, some wider, some narrower. The largest of the cavities is called Tartarus. There are also rivers of fire and lakes, and "a great place burning with sheets of fire, where it forms a boiling lake of muddy water greater than our sea: (Plato 1961, Phaedo 113a). The souls of the dead are led by their guardian spirits into this subterranean world, where they are judged. Those who have lived a life of holiness pass upward to a pure abode on the surface of the true earth, or "reach habitations even more beautiful, which it is not easy to portray" (Plato 1961, Phaedo 114c). They see the true heaven and commune with God face to face. Those who have lived a neutral life are sent to the Acherusian lake, and after "undergoing purification are both absolved by punishment from any sins that they have committed, and rewarded for their good deeds, according to each man's deserts" (Plato 1961, Phaedo 113d). Others who have committed great sins, but are judged to be curable, are cast into Tartarus until they have atoned for their sins. However, there is a fourth class of souls: "Those who on account of the greatness of their sins are judged to be incurable, as having committed many gross acts of sacrilege or many wicked and lawless murders or any other such crimes -- these are hurled by their appropriate destiny into Tartarus, from whence they emerge no more" (Plato 1961, Phaedo 113e).
Thus the celestial kingdom corresponds to those who have lived a life of holiness and pass upward to a pure abode; the terrestrial kingdom can be correlated with those who undergo purification in the Acherusian lake; the telestial world parallels those who have sinned, but are curable, who are cast into Tartarus, but later redeemed; and the sons of perdition correspond to those who are incurable and never emerge from Tartarus.
Section 93 says that intelligence must have the power to act for itself; otherwise there is no existence. This recalls an argument used by Lehi: "And if there is no God we are not, neither the earth; for there could have been no creation of things, neither to act nor to be acted upon; wherefore, all things must have vanished away" (2 Nephi 2:13). Lehi also states that since men have been redeemed from Adam's fall, they are "free forever, knowing good from evil; to act for themselves and not to be acted upon" (2 Nephi 2:26). Lehi seems to be arguing that the creation of things necessarily involves acting and being acted upon, and that if there were not this interaction and movement, the world would vanish. But man can be free to act for himself. Similarly, Plato argued that what distinguishes the animate from the inanimate is the ability to move itself, rather than to be moved by an outside force; to act, rather than to be acted upon. He asserted that the essence and definition of soul is self-motion and that if there were no first principle of motion, the world would cease to be: "The self-mover then, is the first principle of motion, and it is as impossible that it should be destroyed as that it should come into being; were it otherwise, the whole universe, the whole of that which comes to be, would collapse into immobility, and never find another source of motion to bring it back into being" (Plato 1961, Phaedrus 245d-e). Since the essence of the soul is self-motion and the self-mover is the first principle of motion, the soul is immortal, because a first principle could not come into being; otherwise it would not be a first principle. Similarly, Section 93 argues that intelligence "was not created or made, neither indeed can be." The concept of the necessity of a first principle of motion was developed by Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas as a proof for the existence of God.
Another argument used by Lehi shows the influence of Greek thought. In his blessing of Jacob, Lehi indulged in a bit of philosophizing: "For it must needs be, that there is an opposition in all things. If not so, my first-born in the wilderness, righteousness could not be brought to pass, neither wickedness, neither holiness nor misery, neither good nor bad. Wherefore, all things must needs be a compound in one; wherefore, if it should be one body it must needs remain as dead, having no life neither death, nor corruption nor incorruption, happiness nor misery, neither sense nor insensibility. Wherefore, it must needs have been created for a thing of naught; wherefore there would have been no purpose in the end of its creation" (2 Nephi 2:11-12). Lehi seems to be concerned with many of the same concepts which occupied the minds of early Greek philosophers. He lists pairs of contrary terms: righteousness and wickedness, happiness and misery, good and bad, life and death, corruption and incorruption, sense and insensibility. He argues that if everything in the world were united into one compound or body, none of the contraries could exist; therefore, there must be an opposition in all things. The Pythagoreans held that contraries were the principles of things, and they listed ten pairs of terms: limit and unlimited, odd and even, one and plurality, right and left, male and female, resting and moving, straight and curved, light and darkness, good and bad, square and oblong. However, Parmenides taught that the world was one, uncreated, immovable, and unchanging, neither coming into being nor perishing. In Parmenides's world the opposites could not function. Plato sought a middle ground, holding that the world was created, but that it also has intelligence and life and includes both the changing and unchanging. He argued further that "everything which has an opposite is generated from that opposite" (Plato 1961, Phaedo 70e). If there were not a process of generation from one opposite to another, "in the end everything would have the same quality and reach the same state, and change would cease altogether" (Plato 1961, Phaedo 72b). For example, if everything were combined and nothing separated, everything would be united into one. This was essentially what Lehi was concerned about; if all things were a compound in one, there could be neither good nor bad, happiness nor misery. If the world was created for a purpose, there must be an opposition in all things.
The Book of Mormon shows other evidence of Plato's influence. In the Book of Mormon, there are a number of people who use their oratorical skills to lead others away from a belief in Christ. Jacob, Nephi's brother, confronted a man named Sherem: "And he was learned, that he had a perfect knowledge of the language of the people; wherefore, he could use much flattery, and much power of speech, according to the power of the devil" (Jacob 7:4). Another such person was Nehor, who taught that "every priest and teacher ought to become popular; and they ought not to labor with their hands, but that they ought to be supported by the people" (Alma 1:3). Nehor's followers "went forth preaching false doctrines; and this they did for the sake of riches and honor" (Alma 1:16). Then a man named Korihor, who is called Anti-Christ in the Book of Mormon, appeared in the land of Zarahemla. He rejected the doctrine of Christ, because "ye cannot know of things which ye do not see" (Alma 30:15). He also taught that "every man prospered according to his genius, and that every man conquered according to his strength; and whatsoever a man did was no crime" (Alma 30:17). Korihor held further that "when a man was dead, that was the end thereof" (Alma 30:18).
These men are patterned after the Sophists, who were itinerant teachers in ancient Greece. Above all, they taught the art of rhetoric and skill in winning disputes. Through their public lectures, they gained popularity and accepted money for the instruction which they gave. In Plato's dialogue, the Sophist, they are portrayed as merchandisers in knowledge, who use flattery and deceit and attempt to sell the knowledge of virtue. The figure of Korihor incorporates the beliefs of other characters in Plato's dialogues. The Theaetetus, for example, examines the opinion that knowledge is perception, that all that we can know is what our senses tell us. In the Gorgias, Callicles argues that laws were framed by the weak to restrain the strong: "But in my view nature herself makes it plain that it is right for the better to have the advantage over the worse, the more able over the less. . . . that right is recognized to be the sovereignty and advantage of the stronger over the weaker" (Plato 1961, Gorgias 483d). The Phaedo examines arguments which claim that at death the soul ceases to exist. All of these doctrines were taught by Korihor.
In his 1832 history, Joseph Smith again affirmed that he held a traditional concept of God. He wrote that he was overawed by the majesty of nature and the intelligence of man, which "bear testimony and bespeak an omnipotant and omnipreasant power a being who makith Laws and decreeeth and bindeth all things in their bounds who filleth Eternity who was and is and will be from all Eternity to Eternity" (Joseph Smith 1984, 5).
In the winter of 1834-35, Joseph delivered a series of lectures to the elders in the School of the Prophets in Kirtland, Ohio. They became known as the Lectures on Faith and were included in the 1835 Doctrine and Covenants. The Lectures are a combination of theological treatise and catechism. In style and argument, they are an imitation of the famous Meditations of Descartes, a seventeenth century French philosopher.
Descartes was concerned with finding certainty in knowledge, certainty at least as rigorous as the proofs of mathematics. Since knowledge comes to us through our senses, and the senses can deceive us, how can we be certain of anything? It is even possible that God or an evil spirit could deceive us in the area of mathematical knowledge.
Descartes decided to contemplate only what he found within himself, the ideas present in his mind. He found one truth which seemed to be absolutely certain; he knew that he had to exist as a thinking being, even if he were deceived about other things, because he could not be deceived, if he did not exist. Descartes therefore stated as a general principle that whatever we conceive very clearly and distinctly is true. He utilized a concept common in the Renaissance, that of the lumen naturalis or light of nature: "for I could not doubt in any way what the light of nature made me see to be true, just as it made me see, a little while ago, that from the fact that I doubted I could conclude that I existed" (Descartes 1960, 37). It is the light of nature, therefore, which enables us to apprehend truth.
In addition, Descartes found that he could conceive of a supreme God, eternal, infinite, immutable, and all-powerful. The light of nature also teaches us that the cause of an idea must have at least as much reality as is contained in the idea. And since Descartes conceived himself to be a finite and imperfect being, he could not be the cause of the idea of an infinite and perfect being. Furthermore, if God is perfect, he can not be a deceiver. When we examine the idea of God, we see that the existence of God can not be separated from his essence, for he would not be perfect, if he lacked existence. Therefore, God exists.
In this way, by examining his ideas of himself and of God, Descartes was able to arrive at certainty. And since God exists and is not a deceiver, we can be certain that whatever we can conceive clearly and distinctly is true. It is the nature and attributes of God that assure us that we can know with certainty a multitude of other truths about the world.
The Lectures on Faith ask, what is the foundation for a belief in the existence of God? They note that in the beginning, man was in direct communication with God, without a veil separating them. Although Adam and Eve transgressed and were cast out of the Garden of Eden, they did not lose their knowledge of the existence of God. Mankind was now separated from the immediate presence of God, but continued to hear his voice. In the early ages of the world, the existence of God became an object of faith, founded upon the testimony of those who had seen and talked with God. The knowledge of the existence of God passed from father to son was a matter of tradition.
The Lectures state that in order to exercise faith in God, we must have the idea that God actually exists and a correct idea of his character, perfections, and attributes. From revelations recorded in scripture, we receive knowledge of the character of God: "that he was God before the world was created, and the same God that he was after it was created. . . . that he changes not, neither is there variableness with him; but that he is the same from everlasting to everlasting, being the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever . . . . that he is a God of truth and cannot lie" (Lundwall n.c., 35). There can not be a being greater than God, for otherwise, his plans might be thwarted. Equally, we can not have confidence in God without the idea that he is perfect, unchanging, and can not lie. In particular, the attribute of truth must reside in God, "for without the idea of the existence of this attribute the mind of man could have nothing upon which it could rest with certainty -- all would be confusion and doubt. But with the idea of the existence of this attribute in the Deity in the mind, all the teachings, instructions, promises, and blessings, become realities, and the mind is enabled to lay hold of them with certainty and confidence" (Lundwall n.d., 44-45).
Thus both the Meditations of Descartes and the Lectures on Faith are concerned with the quest for certainty. The basis of all certainty and knowledge is an analysis of the idea of God, a perfect being who can not deceive or lie. The idea of God assures us that we can apprehend truth and reality.
The Lectures on Faith then proceed to expound the nature of the Godhead.
There are two personages who constitute the great, matchless, governing, and supreme power over all things, by whom all things were created and made . . . . They are the Father and the Son -- the Father being a personage of spirit, glory, and power, possessing all perfection and fullness, the Son, who was in the bosom of the Father, a personage of tabernacle, made or fashioned like unto man, or being in the form and likeness of man, or rather man was formed after his likeness and in his image; he is also the express image and likeness of the personage of the Father, possessing all the fullness of the Father, or the same fullness with the Father; being begotten of him, and ordained from before the foundation of the world to be a propitiation for the sins of all those who should believe on his name, and is called the Son because of the flesh . . . . And he being the Only Begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth, and having overcome, received a fullness of the glory of the Father, possessing the same mind with the Father, which mind is the Holy Spirit, that bears record of the Father and the Son, and these three are one; or, in other words, these three constitute the great, matchless, governing and supreme power over all things . . . these three constitute the Godhead, and are one; the Father and the Son possessing the same mind, the same wisdom, glory, power, and fullness -- filling all in all; the Son being filled with the fullness of the mind, glory, and power; or, in other words, the spirit, glory, and power, of the Father, possessing all knowledge and glory, and the same kingdom, sitting at the right hand of power, in the express image and likeness of the Father . . . . (Lundwall n.d., 48-49)
This lecture mirrors Abinadi's speech before the priests of Noah: "God himself shall come down among the children of men, and shall redeem his people. And because he dwelleth in flesh he shall be called the Son of God, and having subjected the flesh to the will of the Father, being the Father and the Son -- the Father, because he was conceived by the power of God; and the Son, because of the flesh; thus becoming the Father and Son -- and they are one God, yea, the very Eternal Father of heaven and earth" (Mosiah 15:1-4). In fact the lecture shows some of the same confusion that we find in Limhi's attempt to relate Abinadi's teachings: "And because he said unto them that Christ was the God, the Father of all things, and said that he should take upon him the image of man, and it should be the image after which man was created in the beginning; or in other words, he said that man was created after the image of God, and that God should come down among the children of men, and take upon him flesh and blood, and go forth upon the face of the earth" (Mosiah 7:27).
The Lectures also state that it is "in the power of man to keep the law and remain also without sin." Furthermore, the Spirit of the Father "is shed forth upon all who believe on his name and keep his commandments; and all those who keep his commandments shall grow up from grace to grace, and become heirs of the heavenly kingdom, and joint heirs with Jesus Christ; possessing the same mind, being transformed into the same image or likeness, even the express image of him who fills all in all; being filled with the fullness of his glory, and become one in him, even as the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are one" (Lundwall n.d., 48-49). This reflects the epistles of Paul, especially 2 Corinthians 3:18: "But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord."
In November 1836 an article in the Messenger and Advocate revealed a new conception of the nature of God: "for how can any person be an heir of God, and yet never partake of either his power or glory; where would his heirship be? -- a mere fiction, as bad as a Methodist God, without either body or parts." This article was signed "S. R.," probably designating Sidney Rigdon. The Lectures on Faith had declared that the Father was a being of spirit, but now an official voice of the church was ridiculing the idea of a God without body or parts. Nonetheless, Oliver Cowdery used his position as editor of the Messenger and Advocate to argue for an infinite God: "The next, and great point, is that which believes in a God who is eternal; to constitute such a being must be one that never changes. To attach to his attributes changeableness at once argues finitude; and how any rational man can spread out his hands towards heaven, and worship, (in his mind,) such a being, is past our comprehension -- such is not the God we adore -- it is not the being we serve. The One we worship comprehends all things . . . No power so high that he does not surpass it . . . ." (Latter Day Saints' Messenger and Advocate, Dec. 1836). Clearly, there were differences of opinion in the church.
In March 1839, from a jail in Liberty, Missouri, Joseph Smith wrote: "God shall give unto you knowledge by his Holy Spirit . . . that has not been revealed since the world was until now . . . in the which nothing shall be withheld, whether there be one God or many gods, they shall be manifest. . . . And also, if there be bounds set to the heavens . . . according to that which was ordained in the midst of the Council of the Eternal God of all other gods before this world was" (D&C 121:26-32). Apparently, Joseph had time to think in jail and was preparing for a major change in doctrine.
On 8 August 1839 Joseph declared that angels have flesh and bones, and he then added some comments about spirit and matter: "The Spirit of Man is not a created being; it existed from Eternity & will exist to eternity. Anything created cannot be Eternal. & earth, water &c -- all these had their existence in an elementary State from Eternity. . . . The Father called all spirits before him at the creation of Man & organized them" (Joseph Smith 1980, 9).
On 5 January 1841 Joseph delivered the following teachings:
This earth was organized or formed out of other planets which were broke up and remodelled and made into the one on which we live. The elements are eternal. . . .That which is without body or parts is nothing. There is no other God in heaven but that God who has flesh and bones. . . . God the father took life unto himself precisely as Jesus did. The first step in the salvation of men is the laws of eternal and self-existent principles. Spirits are eternal. At the first organization in heaven we were all present and saw the Savior chosen and appointed, and the plan of salvation made and we sanctioned it. We came to this earth that we might have a body and present it pure before God in the Celestial Kingdom. The great principle of happiness consists in having a body. The Devil has no body, and herein is his punishment. . . . All beings who have bodies have power over those who have not. (Joseph Smith 1980, 60)
Joseph had now stated explicitly that God has a body of flesh and bones, a position which had been proposed by Sidney Rigdon in November 1836, but was opposed by Oliver Cowdery.
The statement that the earth had been formed out of other planets is similar to the Book of Moses, which had been written in 1830: "And worlds without number have I created; and I also created them for mine own purpose; and by the Son I created them, which is mine Only Begotten. . . . For behold, there are many worlds that have passed away by the word of my power. And there are many that now stand . . . . And as one earth shall pass away, and the heavens thereof even so shall another come; and there is no end to my works" (Moses 1:33-38).
See also Alma 42 and the Atonement