If there is a doctrine most important, it is the doctrine of our God. He is, in fact, the creator of all doctrine. God never changes. He also (by His own choosing or by some greater Celestial law) never lies.
If we suppose those two statements to be true, it must follow that the God taught by Joseph Smith and believed by the early Saints is the same God that is taught today.
He is not.
God As Trinity:
To me, the most confusing part of the Book of Mormon was the apparent Trinitarian view of the Godhead that it preaches. It seemed to come in direct opposition to the Church’s current teachings, those of a Godhead formed by three distinct, individual beings, each alike in power and purpose but separate in nature.
The doctrine of an evidently Trinitarian Godhead is taught by Nephi.
“And now, behold, this is the doctrine of Christ, and the only and true doctrine of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, which is one God, without end. Amen.” [1]
It is repeated by Abinadi in the book of Mosiah.
“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 of earth.” [2]
It is repeated, yet again, by the Prophet Abinadi.
“Teach them that redemption cometh through Christ the Lord, who is the very Eternal Father.” [3]
Alma teaches this doctrine in response to a direct question from Zeezrom, the antichrist.
“Now Zeezrom saith again unto him: Is the Son of God the very Eternal Father?
And Amulek said unto him: Yea, he is the very Eternal Father of heaven and of earth, and all things which in them are; he is the beginning and the end, the first and the last;” [4]
It is repeated by the Prophet Mormon.
“To sing ceaseless praises…unto the Father, and unto the Son, and unto the Holy Ghost, which are one God.” [5]
Jesus himself seems to teach this principle.
“Behold, I am Jesus Christ. I am the Father and the Son.” [6]
As a diligently studious member, I took great leaps to explain this apparent Trinitarian view of the Godhead by current Latter-day Saint doctrine. I attempted to claim that the phrase, “One God” meant simply, “Three Distinct Gods with One Purpose and One Calling.”
It was harder to explain the various descriptions of Jesus as “The Eternal Father.” I rationalized that Christ was the “Father” of all creation, a Being who used priesthood power to form the Earth, separate from his Father, God, who created humans. This leap, though, is a difficult one when the original Book of Mormon makes no mention of Spirit Birth, or of the Eternal Father being the literal Father of our spirits. In Joseph’s initial translation, Jesus is the Eternal Father in the exact way as God is the Eternal Father. They are the same God.
It did comfort me to read the descriptions of Christ as “the Son of the Eternal Father” in 1 Nephi 11:21, 11:32, and 13:40. It comforted me to read of Mary described as “the mother of the Son of God,” in 1 Nephi 11:18.
It was much later in my research that I discovered these to have been late changes to the Book of Mormon. Until 1837, these same verses in the original copies and manuscripts described Christ as “the Eternal Father” and Mary as the “Mother of God.” The original doctrine was clear: God and Jesus were One, not only in purpose, but in form and nature. One deity comprised of three parts.
The doctrine changed, and by necessity, so did the verses.
Having been required to explain this contradiction of doctrine, it came as a great surprise to me to learn that early saints, including the Prophet Joseph Smith, made no such attempt.
The three witnesses, in their testimony of the gold plates, testified of that singular God.
“And the honor be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost, which is one God.” [7]
The Bible, on the other hand, tends to vacillate between descriptions of God and Christ as the same being, and descriptions of God and Christ as distinct beings. On many occasions, the Bible seems to preach of a Father God, the Son of God, and The Holy Spirit as distinct individuals. This vacillation between descriptions may explain how so many sects of Christianity have different ideas about how many Gods there really are.
One such example of the Bible’s preaching of a separate Godhead, or a Godhead made of distinct beings, rather than One individual occurs in Luke 10:22.
“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.” [8]
Joseph Smith, in his Biblical revision, the Joseph Smith Translation of the Bible, corrected this verse. His verse now reads:
“No man knoweth that the Son is the Father, and the Father is the Son, but him to whom the Son will reveal it.” [9]
This clear Biblical description of God and Christ as two distinct beings was revised by the Prophet to show them as One deity. One being. The reason could not be clearer. The doctrine at the time accepted the Trinity as the true Godhead. God was Jesus. Jesus was God.
Latter Day-Saint historian Thomas G. Alexander agreed, claiming there to be little distinction between Christ and God in early Mormon theology.
“There is little evidence that [early] Church doctrine specifically differentiated between Christ and God. Indeed, this distinction was probably considered unnecessary…” [10]
Joseph’s own account of the First Vision depicts God and Jesus as a singular being. The first written account, given by the Prophet Joseph twelve years after the event (the only account, it is worth mentioning, written by Joseph’s own hand) states, “I was filled with the spirit of God, and the Lord opened the heavens upon me and I saw the Lord. And he spake unto me, saying, “Joseph, my son, thy sins are forgiven thee.” [11]
By 1834, the doctrine had changed.
The 1834-35 Lectures on Faith describe a new, “binitarian” view of the Godhead.
“There are two personages who constitute the great, matchless, governing, and supreme power over all things…They are the Father and the Son…[both] possessing the same mind…which mind is the Holy Spirit.” [12]
At this stage in doctrinal development, God and Jesus were separate entities, though singular in mind and purpose. The Holy Spirit, however, was not an entity Himself. He was the Mind of God, the immaterial conscience of the Father and the Son. He was God, but he was not an entity.
To further emphasize this point, the Lectures answered a direct question:
“How many personages are there in the Godhead? Two: the Father and the Son.” [13]
By the end of the Prophet’s life, he had adopted a similar belief in the doctrine of God as we have today. His new descriptions of the First Vision reference God and Jesus as two distinct personages, and the Spirit as a third. We hold this belief today.
God as Adam:
The doctrine of God did not remain constant following Joseph’s death. The Prophet Brigham Young introduced a new idea into Mormonism: that Adam was the literal God, the true Eternal Father. According to Brigham Young, Adam was not just the first created man; he was the creator of man.
He most famously preached this doctrine in a sermon given in 1852:
“Now hear it, O inhabitants of the earth, Jew and Gentile, Saint and sinner! When our father Adam came into the garden of Eden, he came into it with a celestial body, and brought Eve, one of his wives, with him. He helped to make and organize this world. He is MICHAEL, the Archangel, the ANCIENT OF DAYS! about whom holy men have written and spoken—He is our FATHER and our GOD, and the only God with whom WE have to do. Every man upon the earth, professing Christians or non-professing, must hear it, and will know it sooner or later. They came here, organized the raw material, and arranged in their order the herbs of the field, the trees, the apple, the peach, the plum, the pear, and every other fruit that is desirable and good for man; the seed was brought from another sphere, and planted in this earth. The thistle, the thorn, the brier, and the obnoxious weed did not appear until after the earth was cursed. When Adam and Eve had eaten of the forbidden fruit, their bodies became mortal from its effects, and therefore their offspring were mortal.” [14]
In a discourse given by Brigham Young in June of 1873, Brigham claimed that God had revealed the doctrine to him, and, interestingly, that Joseph Smith also believed the doctrine.
“How much unbelief exists in the minds of the Latter-day Saints in regard to one particular doctrine which I revealed to them, and which God revealed to me—namely that Adam is our Father and God—I do not know, I do not inquire, I care nothing about it. Our Father Adam helped to make this earth, it was created expressly for him, and after it was made he and his companions came here. He brought one of his wives with him, and she was called Eve, because she was the first woman upon the earth. Our Father Adam is the man who stands at the gate and holds the keys of everlasting life and salvation to all his children who have or who ever will come upon the earth. I have been found fault with by the ministers of religion because I have said that they were ignorant. But I could not find any man on the earth who could tell me this, although it is one of the simplest things in the world, until I met and talked with Joseph Smith.” [15]
This was not a doctrine to be taken lightly. The Prophet, at the end of his 1852 discourse, warned against those would not accept the Adam-God doctrine:
“Jesus, our elder brother, was begotten in the flesh by the same character that was in the garden of Eden, and who is our Father in Heaven. Now, let all who may hear these doctrines, pause before they make light of them, or treat them with indifference, for they will prove their salvation or damnation.” [16]
This doctrine was incorporated into the temple ceremony, where Brigham taught it, boldly and openly, at the veil.[17]
This doctrine was erased from history in the early 20th Century. Our current beliefs differ significantly from the doctrine taught by Brigham Young, and, though the old doctrine is rarely mentioned, when it is, it is considered heresy.
In a 1976 General Conference, President Kimball–Prophet, seer, and revelator–warned against preaching such false doctrines:
“We warn you against the dissemination of doctrines which are not according to the scriptures and which are alleged to have been taught by some of the General Authorities of past generations. Such, for instance, is the Adam-God theory. We denounce that theory and hope that everyone will be cautioned against this and other kinds of false doctrine.” [18]
Bruce R. Mcconkie even listed this doctrine as Number 6 of his 7 Deadly Heresies.
“The devil keeps this heresy alive as a means of obtaining converts to cultism…Those who are so ensnared reject the living prophet.” [19]
God as Our Father:
The quintessential doctrine of God as our literal Eternal Father, having created our spirits as His sons and daughters, is not found in the Bible, nor does it have any mention in the Book of Mormon, nor is it found in any of Joseph Smith’s teachings, or in the Doctrine and Covenants.
Rather, Joseph taught that spirits have no beginning, no end, no Heavenly parentage at all (beyond the figurative sense of a God in Heaven who loves and creates all other things.)
The God of the Book of Mormon is not the Father of our spirits. He is the Father of all things besides – He is “the very Eternal Father of heaven and Earth.” [20]
Joseph Smith made it clear that God was not the Father of our Spirits. Joseph taught that we were “begotten sons and daughters unto God,”[21] not of God, symbolizing that we are given unto Him through the atonement of Christ, not begotten by Him.
Joseph’s doctrine of God as our “adopted” Father, through the Atonement, is reiterated by the First Presidency and the Prophet Joseph F. Smith, stating,
“By the new birth—that of water and the Spirit—mankind may become children of Jesus Christ, being through the means by Him provided ‘begotten sons and daughters unto God.’” [22]
The doctrine of God as our literal Father did not appear until 1844, a few months after Joseph’s death. Orson Pratt was the introducer of the doctrine in his 1844 “Prophetic Almanac.”
“How many states of existence has man?
He has three.”
“How did he begin to exist in the first?
He was begotten and born of God.” [23]
This little paragraph was the first of its kind; the first time God was ever considered our Eternal, literal Father.
It wasn’t Joseph’s doctrine. It wasn’t even Brigham Young’s. It was Pratt’s.
The Doctrine swept the Church. In the following year, it would appear in discourse after discourse, in hymns, and in poems.
One must ask: why, if God was our Father, our literal Eternal Father, did He not specify such a thing earlier? In Joseph’s First Vision, perhaps? Or in the temple? Or at any time during Joseph’s life? Why didn’t he have it written in the Book of Mormon?
God as a Spirit:
When we think of God, most believing Latter-day Saints will picture a man, clothed in white, pale, bearded, with skin, bones, blood, and flesh.
This has not always been so.
The Lectures on Faith, which, it is worth mentioning, were once contained in the Doctrine and Covenants (they were the “Doctrine” of the Doctrine and Covenants), state,
“There are two personages who constitute the great, matchless, governing, and supreme power over all things—by whom all things were created and made that are created and made, whether visible or invisible; whether in heaven, on earth, or in the earth, under the earth, or throughout the immensity of space. They are the Father and the Son: The Father being a personage of spirit, glory, and power, possessing all perfection and fullness.” [24]
Prior to 1841, most Latter-day Saints would have raised an eyebrow to anyone claiming God had a body of flesh and blood.
In 1840, Elder Erastus Snow argued against a claim that Mormons believed in a corporeal God, stating that anyone who knew Mormon doctrine would believe otherwise.
“What Mormon, understanding our doctrines, ever said that God the Father had flesh and bones?” [25]
Apostle Parley P. Pratt, in 1840, stated the same.
“Whoever reads our books, or hears us preach, knows that we believe in the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost as one God. That the Son has flesh and bones, and the Father is a spirit…[A] personage of Spirit…not composed of such gross materials as flesh and bones.” [26]
That God is a being of flesh and blood is never mentioned in the Book of Mormon. It is not mentioned in any LDS discourse until 1841 (just three years before the Prophet’s death), when the Prophet Joseph made his first explicit declaration of God’s physical body.
“That which is without body or parts is nothing. There is no other God in heaven but that God who has flesh and bones.” [27]
Esteemed LDS historian Richard Bushman states,
“By 1841, [Joseph] had moved from a traditional Christian belief in God as pure spirit to a belief in his corporeality.” [28]
This discrepancy in beliefs raises an interesting question: Why did Joseph, even at the end of his life, believe in (a.) A Godhead composed of one or two individuals, and (b.) A God composed of spirit matter, rather than flesh and blood? Would not the First Vision have resolved both of these questions?
Church leaders have been tasked with resolving this discrepancy. They’ve done so dishonestly. Joseph Fielding Smith explained, for example, that the First vision resolved both of these questions.
“The vision of Joseph Smith made it clear that the Father and the Son are separate personages, having bodies as tangible as the body of man.” [29]
President Gordon B. Hinckley made a similar claim in the 2005 General Conference.
“I invite you to read that definition and compare it with the statement of the boy Joseph. He simply says that God stood before him and spoke to him. Joseph could see Him and could hear Him. He was in form like a man, a being of substance.” [30]
Neither Prophet cared to mention that these accounts did not occur until the early 1840s, twenty years after Joseph’s vision. They also do not mention that Joseph’s doctrine before that time was exactly opposite. They would have you believe that Joseph’s doctrine never changed. They would have you believe that the doctrine of today’s Church is the same as the doctrine of yesterday’s Church. It is not the same.
Current Church doctrine would indicate that we believe in a God of flesh and bone. If today’s Church is the same Church that was restored by the Prophet in 1830, should not the doctrines today be the same as the 1830 doctrines?
The God of early Mormonism is not the God of today. We believe in “God the Father [as] the Supreme Being…in whom we worship, and to whom we pray. He is the ultimate Creator, Ruler, and Preserver of all things. He is perfect, has all power, and knows all things. He ‘has a body of flesh and bones as tangible as man’s.’” [31] He is not Adam. The Holy Spirit is not “his mind.” He is not Jesus and Jesus is not Him.
Why is the doctrine so different? If God is the “same, yesterday, today, and forever,” why has he changed? Should not the true church of Jesus Christ believe in the original doctrine as taught by the restoring Prophet?
[7] This quote is found in the “Testimony of the Three Witnesses,” located among the first pages of the Book of Mormon. For most of Joseph Smith’s life, he and the Saints believed in a singular, Trinitarian God.
[9] Luke 10:22 (Joseph Smith Translation)
[10] Line Upon Line, edited by Gary James Bergera, 1989, pages 53-55
[11] The 1832 account of the First Vision was the first time anyone had ever heard of Joseph’s First Vision. His vision ostensibly occurred in 1820, 12 years before he ever wrote it down; 12 years before it was ever mentioned. Joseph’s description of “The Lord” as a singular personage matches the doctrine he was teaching at the time: that God was a singular individual, made of three parts: The Father, The Son, and The Holy Spirit, all comprising a single being.
[12] The Lectures on Faith: The Godhead; (While the Church has erased all public access to the “Lectures on Faith,” third-party distributors have published the Lectures for public use.)
[13] The Lectures on Faith: The Godhead, 5:1
[14] Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses Vol. 1:50-51
[15] Brigham Young, The Deseret News, June 08 1873; pp. 308
[16] Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses Vol. 1:51
[17] Excerpts From the Diary of L. John Nuttall, February 7, 1877, MS 923, Church History Library
John Nuttall was a prominent figure in Church history. He was a member of the Council of Fifty and served as the first recorder of the St. George Temple. His journal includes a recording of Brigham Young’s lecture at the veil, in which he preached the Adam-God doctrine. He records the lecture as follows: “Adam was an immortal being when he came on the earth. He had lived on an earth similar to ours he had received the priesthood and keys thereof and had been faithful in all things and gained his resurrection and his exaltation and was crowned with glory, immortality and eternal lives and was numbered with the Gods for such he came through his faithfulness, and had begotten all the spirits that was to come to this earth and Eve our common mother who is the mother of all living, bore those spirits in the Celestial World and when this earth was organized by Elohim, Jehovah, and Michael who is Adam our common father…Father Adam’s oldest son (Jesus the Savior) who is the heir of the family is Father Adams’ first begotten as it is written. (In his divinity he having gone back into the Spirit World, and came in the spirit to Mary and she conceived.”
[18] Spencer W. Kimball, General Conference, 1976
[19] Bruce R. McConkie, The Seven Deadly Heresies, 1980
[21] Doctrine and Covenants 76: 24
[22] Improvement Era, Aug. 1916, 934–42
[23] Orson Pratt, Prophetic Almanac for 1845, p. 7-8
[24] The Lectures on Faith: The Godhead
[25] Erastus E. Snow, E. Snow’s reply to the Self-Styled Philanthropist, of Chester County, pp. 6: This statement was recorded by Snow as a reply to an antagonist of the Church who had made the audacious claim that Mormons believed in a corporeal God of flesh and bone.
[26] Parley P. Pratt, An Answer to Mr. William Hewitt’s Tract against the Latter-day Saints, pp. 9
[27] Quoted by William Clayton, reporting an undated discourse given by Joseph Smith in Nauvoo, Illinois; in L. John Nuttall, “Extracts from William Clayton’s Private Book,” p. 7, Journals of L. John Nuttall, 1857–1904, L. Tom Perry Special Collections, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah; copy in Church Archives.
[28] Richard L Bushman, Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling, p. 420
[29] Joseph Fielding Smith, “Origin of the First Vision,” Improvement Era, Apr. 1920, 496
[30] Gordon B. Hinckley, “The Great Things Which God Has Revealed,” Apr. 2005
