Articles of Faith: What Do Latter-day Saints Believe About the Godhead 4?

 

Article of Faith 1

We believe in God, the Eternal Father, and in His Son, Jesus Christ,

                                and in the Holy Ghost.

 

This is the fourth article on the Godhead in my series on the Articles of Faith of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The past few weeks, I discussed a statement by the Prophet Joseph Smith in a lecture on faith titled “The Character of God.” Early in the lecture, he shared three things that are necessary to have faith in God strong enough to lead to salvation. The statement is important enough to repeat in this discussion. 

Let us here observe, that three things are necessary, in order that any rational and intelligent being may exercise faith in God unto life and salvation.

First, The idea that he actually exists.

Secondly, A correct idea of his character, perfections and attributes.

Thirdly, An actual knowledge that the course of life which he is pursuing is according to his will. — For without an acquaintance with these three important facts, the faith of every rational being must be imperfect and unproductive; but with this understanding, it can become perfect and fruitful, abounding in righteousness unto the praise and glory of God the Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Two weeks ago, I discussed the personality of each member of the Godhead, or Trinity. Last week, I used the words of Elder James E. Talmage to share some of the divine attributes of the Godhead (The Articles of Faith [1890], pp. 42-44). This week, I will share the words of Elder Bruce R. McConkie (A New Witness for the Articles of Faith [1985], 45-50) to discuss how God is or can be known to everyone.

1. God is known by instinct.

All men are spirit children of God the Eternal Father. In the premortal life we all dwelt in his presence, saw his face, and heard his voice. We were as well acquainted with him in that day as we are with our earthly fathers in this. The spirit within us is the offspring of God. Now housed in a tabernacle of clay, it is the intelligent, sentient, believing, knowing part of the human personality. The mind of man is in the spirit.

The probationary nature of our mortal estate calls for us to forget the life we lived and the experiences we had when we dwelt in the courts of the Eternal King. But it does not divest us of the spiritual and mental talents we acquired while in that eternal world. We are born into mortality with every innate capacity, every instinct to believe truth and cleave unto light, every faculty and ability with which we were then endowed.

Further, as part of life itself, all mortals are endowed with a heavenly gift called the light of Christ. This divine endowment manifests to us the difference between good and evil. We do not need to be taught what is right and wrong. This knowledge is bred in our bones; it is hereditary; it is innate, inborn, and intuitional in nature. Call it conscience, if you will, say that it is a divine inheritance from a Divine Parent; identify it as a spark of divinity sent by Deity to fire the soul with the flames of righteousness; call it the Spirit of Christ – it has many names. But what counts is that it is real. It is “the true light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world.” (D&C 93:2.) Of it Mormon said: “The Spirit of Christ is given to every man, that he may know good from evil.” (Moroni 7:16.) In a revelation to Joseph Smith the Lord called it “the Spirit of Jesus Christ, and the Spirit giveth light to every man that cometh into the world.” All receive a divine inheritance at birth. It is a free gift as far as any act performed in mortality is concerned….

2. God is known by reason.

Man’s instinctive belief in God and his inborn desire to worship a Supreme Being is strengthened by reason. The seeds of belief are watered from the wells of reason, and the tree of faith soon sprouts in the believing soul. And the more man learns about himself and all the mysteries and marvels of the human body; the more he knows about life in all its forms and varieties; the greater his knowledge becomes about the planets and suns that sweep through the starry heavens – the more he knows about all things, the clearer it becomes to him that there is a divine hand, an omnipotent power, a supreme person, a ruling law that first created and now governs all that is. Truly, all things attest that there is an Almighty God. “All things denote there is a God,” Alma said, “yea, even the earth, and all things that are upon the face of it, yea, and its motion, yea and all the planets which move in their regular form do witness there is a Supreme Creator.” (Alma 30:44.)

But seeking God by reason alone and through intellectual processes without more is fraught with peril. It is easy for a rational mind to see order in the system of creation and to learn of the laws by which worlds and galaxies are controlled. There are evidences of design on every hand; cause and effect operate in the animal and vegetable kingdoms as well as with the rocks and the rains. The peril lies in assuming that the laws and powers are God, in worshipping and serving “the creature more than the Creator.” (Romans 1:25.)

Neither instinct nor reason, nor the two combined, sets forth the nature and kind of being whom men must worship to gain salvation. Both simply lay a foundation and chart a course leading to a knowledge of the true and living God. Every rational person knows there is some supreme power, some first great cause, some omnipotent force in the universe. The reasoning step that follows this recognition is that the design is not the designer, the contrivance is not the contriver, the law and power are not the being by whom these came. The existence of created things simply bears witness that there is a Creator….

3. God is known through history and tradition.

Because God created man in his own image and likeness and placed him on earth as an essential requirement for gaining salvation, because salvation is gained through a knowledge of God and an obedience to the laws of his gospel, and because eternal life itself consists of knowing the Father and the Son, it follows that God must in necessity reveal himself and his laws to man. This he did. Adam our father, the first man of all men, the primal parent of the human race, received a knowledge of God by revelation. God the Eternal Father walked and talked with him in the Garden of Eden; the Lord Jehovah appeared to him after the fall; and from angelic ministrants and by the gift of the Holy Ghost he learned the saving truths of the gospel. This was the beginning of the knowledge of the true God among man. “And Adam and Eve blessed the name of God, and they made all things known unto their sons and their daughters.” (Moses 5:12.)

Adam is the pattern. He stands as earth’s first prophet, and among his righteous descendants a host of prophets are numbered. At least eight generations of descendants lived to hear his teachings. Presiding high priests representing seven of these generations (Seth, Enos, Cainan, Mahalaleel, Jared, Enoch, and Methuselah) were all with him at Adam-ondi-Ahman when the Lord Jehovah appeared and ministered among them. (D&C 107:53-55.) To see and commune with either the Father or the Son is to know them both, for hey are in the express image of each other and are one in all they do….

4. God is known by revelation.

Though every man in his inner being, by instinct and in the very marrow of his soul, knows there is a God; though logic and sense and reason, and the persuasive voice of nature, and the thunderous trumpet of creation, all bear witness that there is a God; though the voice of our fathers, carried to us by history and tradition, speaks the common consensus of all men that there is a God --- yet, in the final and supreme sense, there is only one way to know God. That way is by revelation. Where religion and divine beings are concerned, we are in the realm not of the mind and of the human senses, but of the Spirit. God stands revealed or he remains forever unknown. The Holy Ghost is a revelator. His mission is to reveal truth and to bear witness of the Father and the Son. There is no other way to gain knowledge of the true and living God; revelation alone is the source of that perfect wisdom….

“How do men obtain a knowledge of the glory of God, his perfections and attributes?” the Prophet [Joseph Smith] asked. His answer: “By devoting themselves to his service, through prayer and supplication incessantly strengthening their faith in him, until, like Enoch, the brother of Jared, and Moses, they obtain a manifestation of God to themselves.” (Lectures on Faith 2, Questions and Answers.) “Verily, thus saith the Lord: It shall come to pass that every soul who forsaketh his sins and cometh unto me, and calleth on my name, and obeyeth my voice, and keepeth my commandments, shall see my face and know that I am.” (D&C 93:1.)