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"So we are very comfortable, frankly, in letting it be known that we do not hold a fourth- or fifth-century, pagan-influenced view of the Godhead, and neither did those first Christian Saints who were eyewitnesses of the living Christ. We are New Testament—not Nicene—Christians."
Knowing the Godhead
GOD WAS ONCE A MORTAL MAN
(1-2) He Lived on an Earth like Our Own
“God himself was once as we are now, and is an exalted man and sits enthroned in yonder heavens! That is the great secret. If the veil were rent today, and the great God who holds this world in its orbit and who upholds all worlds and all things by his power was to make himself visible,–I say, if you were to see him today, you would see him like a man in form–like yourselves in all the person, image, and very form as a man; for Adam was created in the very fashion, image and likeness of God and received instruction from, and walked, talked and conversed with him, as one man talks and communes with another.” (Smith, Teachings, p. 345.)
(1-3) He Experienced Conditions Similar to Our Own and Advanced Step by Step
“Remember that God, our heavenly Father, was perhaps once a child, and mortal like we ourselves, and rose step by step in the scale of progress, in the school of advancement; has moved forward and overcome, until He has arrived at the point where He now is. “Is this really possible?” Why, my dear friends, how would you like to be governed by a ruler who has not been through all the vicissitudes of life that are common to us mortals? If he had not suffered, how could he sympathize with the distress of others? If he himself had not endured the same, how could he sympathize and be touched with the feelings of our infirmities? He could not, unless he himself had passed through the same ordeal, overcome, and overcome step by step.” (Orson Hyde in JD, 1:123.)
Achieving a Celestial Marriage Student Manual, copyright 1976, Corporation of the President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, p. 129
Knowing the Godhead
GOD WAS ONCE A MORTAL MAN
(1-2) He Lived on an Earth like Our Own
“God himself was once as we are now, and is an exalted man and sits enthroned in yonder heavens! That is the great secret. If the veil were rent today, and the great God who holds this world in its orbit and who upholds all worlds and all things by his power was to make himself visible,–I say, if you were to see him today, you would see him like a man in form–like yourselves in all the person, image, and very form as a man; for Adam was created in the very fashion, image and likeness of God and received instruction from, and walked, talked and conversed with him, as one man talks and communes with another.” (Smith, Teachings, p. 345.)
(1-3) He Experienced Conditions Similar to Our Own and Advanced Step by Step
“Remember that God, our heavenly Father, was perhaps once a child, and mortal like we ourselves, and rose step by step in the scale of progress, in the school of advancement; has moved forward and overcome, until He has arrived at the point where He now is. “Is this really possible?” Why, my dear friends, how would you like to be governed by a ruler who has not been through all the vicissitudes of life that are common to us mortals? If he had not suffered, how could he sympathize with the distress of others? If he himself had not endured the same, how could he sympathize and be touched with the feelings of our infirmities? He could not, unless he himself had passed through the same ordeal, overcome, and overcome step by step.” (Orson Hyde in JD, 1:123.)
Achieving a Celestial Marriage Student Manual, copyright 1976, Corporation of the President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, p. 129