LDS Who was the first God

[Peter1000]

Look, you are rude and condescending. What happened to "show your good works?" In one post, you say, "When you read Ephesians 1:3-5 there is no reasonable person that can say we were not preexistent."
... Now you call me "Silly person." Grow up!

Sorry for calling you 'silly', it obviously fully distracted you from what I was trying to tell you. So I will be smarter in the future.

 

[Peter1000]

Hi Peter1000, Jesus is not God the Father, He is God the Son, but He, like both the Father and the Holy Spirit ~is~ YHWH/Jehovah. The Biblical mystery of the Trinity/Godhead is that there is one God who exists from everlasting as three Persons. We baptize in God's Name (as I know you know), and His (singular) "Name" is, "the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit" .. Matthew 28:19.

The OT is very confusing, using many names for God (God the Father) and the Lord God (Jesus). Many confusing names. And I believe they are interchanged at random. I do not think the translators knew what name(s) belonged to God the Father, and what name(s) belong to God the Son. And also, with a Trinitarian understanding, I think it muddles up that distinction between the Persons. Leaving us with lots of theories, and possibilities, and lots of questions, all of which area as authoritative as the other.
Kind of a mess.

As for your question to Phoebe Ann, I believe that the physical appearances of YHWH in the OT were made by the preincarnate Jesus, who is "God" the Son, not by God the Father. St. John, for example, indicates (in John 12:41) that it was Jesus who was sitting on the throne in Isaiah 6:1-7, and I believe as well that the finger that wrote in the dust before the angry mob in John 8:8 belonged to the very same hand that wrote the 10 Commandments on two tablets of stone atop Mt. Sinai.

I believe you are right about what God appears in the OT. I believe God the Father gave his Son, God the Son the power and authority to create and to govern the created. So it is God the Son that you see primarily in the OT. I too believe that it is the same finger that wrote on the 2 tablets atop Mt. Sinai, as well as wrote in the dust in Jerusalem. But because of the mess of the OT, we are not sure when God the Father is seen.

But we know this about the Father. He was seen by Stephen at his stoning (Acts 7:56)
Acts 7:56 King James Version (KJV)
56 And said, Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God.

So here you have God the Son, standing next to God the Father. And Stephen saw them both.

So there is 1 sighting of God the Father.

The other is from John in Revelations:
Revelation 4:1-3 King James Version (KJV)
4 After this I looked, and, behold, a door was opened in heaven: and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me; which said, Come up hither, and I will shew thee things which must be hereafter.
2 And immediately I was in the spirit: and, behold, a throne was set in heaven, and one sat on the throne.
3 And he that sat was to look upon like a jasper and a sardine stone: and there was a rainbow round about the throne, in sight like unto an emerald.

Who is 'one that sat on the throne'? God the Father or God the Son?

That is answered in Revelations chapter 5:
Revelation 5 King James Version (KJV)
5 And I saw in the right hand of him that sat on the throne a book written within and on the backside, sealed with seven seals.

So now, John is again, seeing the same person 'the one that sat on the throne'. And he is holding a book. Now look who takes the book from him.
Revelation 5:6-7 King James Version (KJV)
6 And I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth.
7 And he came and took the book out of the right hand of him that sat upon the throne.

So now we know that 'he who sat on the throne' was and is God the Father. AND the one who came forward and took the book out of his hand, was the 'lamb, as it had been slain', which is another name for God the Son.


So 2 incidents in the NT that clearly men saw God the Father. And in each incident they also saw God the Son, either standing by His side, or taking a book out of His hand.

BTW, these 2 incidents confirm what the Church of Jesus Christ believes about the nature of God the Father and God the Son. That they are 2 separate and distinct Persons in time and space. Not a 3 in 1 or a 1 in 3, but 3 separate and distinct Personages. In fact that is the only way you can reconcile all scriptures trying to relate to us what the nature of God the Father and God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit is. It is the only way.

God the Father is spirit only, God the Son is clearly not.

But yet God the Son is the express image of his Father. Which to me means that whatever substance the Son is made of, so is the Father. Since the Son is made of a perfect, indestructible, highly mobile, multi faceted, resurrected body of flesh and bone and spirit, I believe the Father is also.

That is why the Son can stand next to his Father.
That is why the Son approach the throne of his Father, and can take a book out of the hand of the Father. If the Father was just an essence or spirit, he could not hold a book in the first place. Did you notice in Revelations 5:7 that it even tells us what hand the Father was holding the book in, it was His right hand. So at least we know God has a hand that can hold a book.

All mortals are not only in the 'image' of God, but we are also in His 'likeness'. Genesis 1:26. If God was just a spirit, we would be just spirits also, being in His image and likeness. But since we are flesh and bone and spirit, I come to a conclusion that God is too, again since He is in our image and likeness.

So God being only a spirit is debatable. He is in a sense 'spirit' in that his resurrected body is so perfect and fine and his personal spirit does fill his whole body with light and life. So I can see why John could say 'God is spirit', even though to me, that is a little short of correct.

I admit that this is as much conjecture on my part as it is Biblical fact, but it is what I have come to believe (or should I say, have come to "carefully" believe, as I try to never close my mind to such things, especially when God is in view and the evidence for what I believe is not overwhelming, which seems to be the case here).

We are all learning, every day, that is why I am on this forum. There are a lot of good things that people have researched and found that benefit me, so thank you for your contribution and I look forward to hearing from you more. We never close our minds to such things as talking about God and His Son Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit.