The Father and the Doctrine of the Godhead

Volume Two—Chapter Four THE FATHER AND THE DOCTRINE OF THE GODHEAD

#The Skeptics

Many in the world struggle with their belief in God. I am happy to acknowledge these skeptics. I respectfully acknowledge their right to believe whatever and however they wish. We may place them into three categories: (1) The atheist vociferously denies God’s existence. He claims to believe in no divine higher power whatsoever. (2) The agnostic is not quite so self assured. He does not necessarily deny the existence of God. Rather, he denies the possibility of ever knowing whether or not a divine being exists. (3) The apathetic is not much concerned one way or the other. He considers the issue of whether or not there is a God irrelevant and uninteresting.

We will not invest additional time here dealing with the skeptics and their concerns. The atheist, the agnostic, and the apathetic are intimately understood and loved by God. He hopes his promptings will eventually be heard by them.

#The Father’s History

I acknowledge the vast chasm between us mortals and our Father in heaven. One is tempted to conclude we have no right to even consider him and his divine characteristics. Yet he allows and even encourages our prayerful searching and pondering (John 17:3). I thus humbly undertake a consideration of this most noble and supremely intelligent being and express my gratitude for the information that is available to us.

Our Father in heaven was prepared for godhood. He passed through the same pattern of eternal progression we are now following. Joseph Smith said of him:

God himself was once as we are now, and is an exalted man, and sits enthroned in yonder heavens. . . . It is the first principle of the gospel to know for a certainty the character of God, and to know that we may converse with him as one man converses with another, and that he was once a man like us; yea, that God himself, the Father of us all, dwelt on an earth (TPJS, 345-46).

We can well imagine that once our Father had attained godhood he was ordained by his Father to begin organizing a new kingdom similar to those the family of the Gods had set up before him. Brigham Young taught: “In the resurrection, men who have been faithful and diligent in all things in the flesh, have kept their first and second estate, and [are] worthy to be crowned gods . . . and will be ordained to organize matter” (JD, 15:137).

Unique titles for the Father include the Father, God the Father, God the Eternal Father, or Elohim. The term God is ambiguous and might refer to either the Father or the Son. The term Lord seems to be almost specific for the Son.

#His Characteristics

We deny any suggestion of an abstract nature of God the Father. We affirm that he is a concrete being. He exists in space and time.

We perceive the Father as an exalted Man in the most literal, anthropomorphic terms. He is a distinct and unique individual. He has an eternal celestial body of flesh and bone. He is separate from the Son (Jesus Christ or Jehovah) who also has an eternal celestial body of flesh and bone. Another unique individual is the third member of the Godhead, the Holy Ghost or the Spirit of God. He possesses a body of spirit matter.1 The Lord revealed to the prophet Joseph Smith: “The Father has a body of flesh and bones as tangible as man’s; the Son also; but the Holy Ghost has not a body of flesh and bones, but is a personage of Spirit” (D&C 130:22-23).

We view the language of Genesis as literal and not allegorical. That is, human beings are created in the likeness (form) and image of a God who has a physical form and image (Genesis 1:26-27; cf. Moses 2:26-27).

The three members of the Godhead, though unique and separate individuals, share a oneness that is probably not clearly and fully understood by man. It certainly includes oneness of mind, purpose, and character (John 10:30; 17:11, 21-23). Most of what can be said of the Father is also true of the Son and vice versa.

In classical terms, our theology is “subordinationist.” That is, it views the Son and the Holy Ghost as subordinate to and dependent upon God the Eternal Father. They are the Father’s offspring. The Father is the source of their divinity. Without the Father, they would not be divine.

The Lord Jesus Christ, Jehovah, the Son of God, is the being who has spoken and still speaks with this earth’s prophets. But he is sent by the Father and speaks for him. He acts on behalf of and speaks the mind of his Father perfectly. We may refer to this privilege as the “divine investiture of authority.” Thus, we may study the scriptures to learn the mind of the Father. The Son assumes this role by assignment and calling. He essentially becomes the Father and communicates the Father’s will and mind to us (John 14:8-9).

#The Father and Character

We previously defined character as that attribute or ability to do something difficult because it is the right or righteous thing to do. The principle of character may aptly apply in both temporal and spiritual matters. As with all gifts of the Spirit, the gift of character should be regarded as having both deliberate and revealed forms—deliberate character and revealed character. An individual with strength of character has both strong deliberate character (deliberate faith) and solid revealed character. He has the strength and discipline to deliberately deny his natural self. He also has the gift of spiritual strength in overcoming his natural self and consistently obeying.

What about the Father? He obviously has the gift of character to perfection. Does he also have strong deliberate character (deliberate faith)? Does he even need deliberate character in his life as God?

We are all inclined to regard heaven as a state akin to “nirvana”—a place free from worry, pain, temptation, and struggle. We are inclined to think that God the Father has “arrived.” He is Perfection itself. He has achieved the pinnacle. His trials are over. He has overcome all resistance to perfect obedience to eternal law. He is God. He is all powerful. He can do any righteous thing he wishes, and he can do it easily. He has the ultimate in strength of character, of the revealed type. He doesn’t really have to display or exercise deliberate character (deliberate faith). He obviously possesses the potential for deliberate faith, but surely it lies dormant. There is no longer any situation that challenges him or causes him to struggle in any way. There is nothing of the natural self remaining in his soul. He doesn’t need to demonstrate his strength by acting against opposition. There is nothing that is difficult for him. He has the potential figurative strength of a lion, but he has earned the blessing of living as peacefully as a lamb. Are we really correct in this thinking?

We would never entertain the idea that the Father’s deliberate faith might atrophy because of disuse, but we might be inclined to think that he doesn’t really need to use it anymore. Exerting deliberate faith is an early step in spiritual growth, and the Father is well beyond that. Is this true? Are all the Father’s struggles over? Has he completed and overcome all of them?

It is difficult for us even to imagine that God could grow. In what areas could God possibly grow? Is he not perfect? Has he not achieved all that is possible to achieve? When we are asked if God is growing, in the Church we have conjured up the platitude that he is growing only in “dominions and eternal offspring.” Although we acknowledge spiritual growth must never stop, we cannot imagine God growing in any other way.

May I express a deeply felt bias here? I suspect we are wrong in many of our assumptions about God’s life. I believe, most emphatically that God is growing and will continue to progress and grow for all eternity. It is imperative that God, indeed that all of us, continue to grow forever. That is a given. Eternal growth and progression are sacrosanct. We are presumptuous, however, in attempting to define the ways God is growing. The fact is we have no idea or conception of the ways he is growing. We don’t know enough about him or about his present life to meaningfully speculate, in any specific way, about his eternal progression.

I would also not be surprised to learn that God lives a life of great challenge, excitement, interest, and even high drama. I suspect his strength of character is growing constantly because he is growing against resistance and opposition. I feel it is likely he is exercising his own form of deliberate faith in a demanding life of noble endeavor and high accomplishment. I imagine him as a magnificent being of great courage and great enthusiasm who is living a proactive and stimulating life. I see him living the life of a lion, not a lamb. I refuse to consider that there is anything of passivity in heaven or in his life.

Surely, also, his life provides him with constant joy and happiness. I see him as a distinguished Man of great dignity. I also see him as cheerful, positive, upbeat, passionate, and everlastingly loving. I even picture him with ruddy cheeks, a broad smile, and love in his eyes.

#How Intimate Is Our Relationship with Him?

How should we relate to the Father? How do we regard ourselves relative to him? Are we to lie prone and worship him from afar, or might we seek for an intimate and personal relationship with him? Many of us males here on earth, for example, are trying to be good fathers for our children. Is there a relationship between his relationship with us and ours with our children? Might we look to him as our Exemplar in this role? Some may reason, “Surely not, for he is so much higher than we are. How can we justify ourselves in assuming his situation even resembles ours? Are we not presumptuous in assuming he would be in any way invested in the mundane matters of our earthly fatherhood? Can we really presume to think he could identify with us in these matters? He lives in a different realm. He has a different perspective. He plays a different role. He has gone on well beyond and is not looking back. He has bigger fish to fry than us and our day-to-day parenting issues.” Or does he? Let’s consider further.

There can be no mistaking the intimate and personal relationship we share with him. He literally fathered our spirits. In this birth process, the essence of us, our intelligence, was combined with our spirit body. His paternity is not allegorical. We are his children in every literal sense. The feelings this perfectly righteous Father has for us completely befits this intimate paternal relationship. He loves us intimately, individually, and beyond our ability to understand. He loves us more than we can know. His primary yearnings include us and the issues that beset us.

The paternity of the Father sets the tone for a literal family relationship among humankind. Joseph Smith taught, “If men do not comprehend the character of God, they do not comprehend themselves” (TPJS, 343). Gods and humans represent a single divine lineage. We are the same species of being that he is, although we and he are at different stages of progress. This doctrine is stated concisely in a well-known couplet by President Lorenzo Snow: “As man now is, God once was: as God now is, man may become” (quoted by Preston Nibley, Presidents of the Church, 179). It is thus entirely appropriate to study carefully his dealings with humankind. Thereby we may glean how a righteous, noble father should interact with his children.

The scriptures suggest he does not intend to stand apart, above, or beyond us in any way. He yearns to be an important part of each life in all of its aspects. He resists separation from us of any kind. He said, “Look unto me in every thought [I’m right here]; doubt not, fear not” (D&C 6:36). In essence he is saying to us, “Though the veil obligatorily separates us for now, I’m here; please don’t forget me. Look around you in the world, and you will find me everywhere. I have created all things ‘to bear record of me, both things which are temporal, and things which are spiritual; things which are in the heavens above, and things which are on the earth, and things which are in the earth, and things which are under the earth . . . all things bear record of me’ (Moses 6:63).” He is saying, “I beg you to think of me often, don’t let me stray far from your heart or from your memory.” There is nothing of rigid, ritualistic formality in our relationship with the Father. Our relationship with him is highly personal and intimate.

He cares less for himself and his own welfare than for us and our welfare. Consider the well-known passage in Moses 1:39. It is as though the prophet Joseph Smith asked him, “What thing in all the universe is most precious to you? What do you spend your time worrying about? What is your main concern? What is the focus of your time and energies?” And the Lord answered him, “You are.” Speaking for the Father and himself, the Savior said, “For behold, this is my work and my glory—to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.” The essence of his relationship with you, that which most precisely characterizes his personal yearnings, is that he desires to live with you forever. He yearns for your return to him. There is nothing more important to him.

Like the Father, we must place the temporal and spiritual welfare of our children before our own. They must be more important to us than we are to ourselves. But, also like the Father, we must acknowledge there are many things our children must do for themselves. Our Father has purposefully placed us in a difficult (telestial, mortal) environment. It is outside of his physical presence. This is the only way we can accomplish that vital growth so essential to our eternal well being. Success in this life, and in the eternal life that follows, depends on our suffering through and learning from our own problems and adversities (D&C 58:26-29). So, we must support our children but not enable them. We must encourage them but not carry them. What should be our ultimate goal for our children? Like the Father’s goal, it should be to live with them forever. Nothing less than this will suffice.

Those of you who are mature parents have experienced life. You have earned your stripes in this rich and difficult mortal experience. You have learned many of life’s lessons the hard way. You have experienced the trials and heartaches inevitably associated with our sojourn here. You have earned wisdom born of trial. You have come to truly understand firsthand what your children are experiencing. Now, you must patiently, lovingly apply that wisdom to the lives of your children through example and counsel.

You may have reached the stage in life when your relationship with your earthly father begins to turn from pure “parent-child” to a more collegial one. Though that underlying reverence for his fatherhood never disappears, we do come to enjoy more of a peer relationship with our earthly father. This is a most positive thing. He often becomes our close friend and confidant. We come to experience our earthly father very nearly as a cherished contemporary.

What of our Father in heaven in this regard? He urges us to obey the commandments so that we may become more and more like him. That is his express wish. He yearns for us to “close the gap” between him and us. He also longs to deliver to us all that he has, so that we also may share in his supreme joy (D&C 84:38). There is nothing of the scarcity mentality with our heavenly Father. He is obviously anxious to share his abundance with each of us. He wishes to bring us up to more nearly his level. He desires each of us to become all that we can become. Can you even imagine the supreme joy of an eternal sojourn in the presence of such a Father? Though he will always be our Father and our God, perhaps, in the eternities, we may look forward to the time when we will be blessed with an almost collegial relationship with him. We must wait and see.

#Does the Father Empathize with Us as Does the Son?

Has the Father suffered all things so that he perfectly understands us? Has the Father himself suffered to the point of perfect empathy? Do we not usually ascribe the role of sufferer to our Savior, the Son of God? Did not his atoning suffering bring him painfully and violently to a state of perfect empathy for us? What about the Father? Has he also suffered all things so that he also empathizes with our plight? We must ever remember that the presiding God of our universe is the Father. He is all that the Son is and more. The Son, Jesus Christ, is God under the direction of, and only by virtue of, the supreme Father. The Father is the mentor for the Son. The Son “can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do” (John 5:19).

For a discussion of the Holy Ghost, see chapter 5, The Holy Ghost.