View scanned images of original published sources which
document the Mormon doctrine that God was once a man, and
that there are many Gods.
It was partly because of this "new revelation" on the nature of God that a number of Joseph's followers began crying "fallen prophet". In response they published The Nauvoo Expositor, a newspaper which only published one issue denouncing the 'many Gods' teaching. This newspaper also exposed Joseph's plural marriages. Joseph Smith had the Expositor declared a public nuisance and ordered it destroyed; for this he was arrested and put in the Carthage, Illinois jail, where he was brutally murdered.
Contrast Joseph's teaching of many Gods in this 1844 period with his earlier views affirming only one God in the 1835 D&C - Lectures on Faith, and the nearly orthodox views of the Trinity in the Book of Mormon (2 Nephi 11:7; 26:12; 31:21; Mosiah 3:5; 7:27; 15:1; 16:15; Alma 11:26-31,38-44; 18:24-28; 22:8-11; 41:8; 3 Nephi 11:27, 36; 24:6; Mormon 9:9-12,19; Moroni 8:18). (Article on Joseph Smith's progressing doctrine of deity.)
Note also the LDS view of the "Virgin Birth" as outlined in the final quotes by Mormon apostle Bruce R. McConkie.
Click on the links below to view scans of documents cited.
- Joseph Smith - Start of Section V on the subject of
the Godhead. 1835 Doctrine & Covenants - Lectures on
Faith, p. 52 (1835)
- Joseph Smith - The Father is a personage of spirit,
the Son is a personage of tabernacle (flesh and bone).
1835 Doctrine & Covenants - Lectures on Faith, p. 53
(1835)
- Joseph Smith - The Father is a personage of glory
and power. 1835 Doctrine & Covenants - Lectures on
Faith, p. 55 (1835)
- Joseph Smith - The Son is a personage of tabernacle
(physical body). 1835 Doctrine & Covenants - Lectures
on Faith, p. 56 (1835)
- Joseph Smith - Holy Spirit is shared mind of Father
and Son. 1835 Doctrine & Covenants - Lectures on
Faith, p. 57 (1835)
- Joseph Smith - Father, Son and Holy Spirit
constitute the Godhead.
1835 Doctrine & Covenants -
Lectures on Faith, p. 58 (1835)
- Joseph Smith - Start of discourse on plurality of
Gods. History of the Church, vol. 6, p. 473
(1844)
- Joseph Smith - Discourse continues. "I will preach
on the plurality of Gods. ... Hence the doctrine of a
plurality of Gods is as prominent in the Bible as any
other doctrine." History of the Church, vol.
6, p. 474 (1844)
- Joseph Smith - Discourse continues. Joseph claims
the Apostle Paul was here teaching plurality of Gods.
History of the Church, vol. 6, p. 475 (1844)
- Joseph Smith - Joseph ridicules Christian concept of
Trinity saying such a God would be a giant or monster.
History of the Church, vol. 6, p. 476 (1844)
- Joseph Smith - Discourse continues. God the Father
also laid down his life like Jesus had done.
History
of the Church, vol. 6, p. 477 (1844)
- Joseph Smith - Discourse continues. "Sons of God who
exalt themselves to be Gods, even from before the
foundation of the world, and are the only Gods I have a
reverence for." History of the Church, vol. 6, p. 478
(1844)
- Joseph Smith - Discourse concludes.
History of
the Church, vol. 6, p. 479 (1844)
- Joseph Smith - Joseph introduces discourse prompted
by death of Elder King Follett. Will speak in so far as
he has ability and is prompted by the Holy Spirit.
Journal of Discourses, vol. 6, p. 1 (1844); also
found in Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith,
pp. 342-362
- Joseph Smith - "There are but very few beings in the
world who understand rightly the character of God. ...
My first object is to find out the character of the only
wise and true God, and what kind of being he is; ..But
if I fail to do it, it becomes my duty to renounce all
further pretensions to revelations, inspirations or to
be a Prophet." Journal of Discourses, vol. 6, p. 2 (1844)
- Joseph Smith - Discourse continues. Joseph says he
will prove the world wrong. "God himself was once as we
are now, and is an exalted Man, and sits enthroned in
yonder heavens. ... We have imagined and supposed that
God was God from all eternity. I will refute that idea
... he was once a man like us; yea, that God himself,
the father of us all, dwelt on an earth the same as
Jesus Christ himself did. Journal of Discourses, vol. 6, p. 3 (1844)
- Joseph Smith - Discourse continues. "Here then is
eternal life — to know the only wise and true God ; and
you have got to learn how to be Gods yourselves, and to
be kings and priests to God, the same as all Gods have
done before you" Journal of Discourses, vol. 6, p. 4 (1844)
- Joseph Smith - Discourse continues. "Thus the head
God brought forth the Gods in the grand council. ... In
the beginning, the head of the Gods called a council of
the Gods; and they came together and concocted a plan to
create the world and people it." Journal of Discourses, vol. 6, p. 5 (1844)
- Joseph Smith - Discourse continues. The word for
create in Hebrew means to organize, using existing
material. "Element had an existence from the time He
[God] had." "The mind or the intelligence which man
possesses is coequal with God himself. ... The
intelligence of spirits had no beginning, neither will
it have an end. That is good logic. That which has a
beginning may have an end. There never was a time when
there were not spirits; for they are co-equal with our
Father in heaven." Journal of Discourses, vol. 6, p. 6
(1844)
- Joseph Smith - Discourse continues. "The first
principles of man are self-existent with God. ... This
is good doctrine. It tastes good. I can taste the
principles of eternal life, and so can you. ... The
greatest responsibility in this world that God has laid
upon us is to seek after our dead." Journal of Discourses, vol. 6, p. 7-9 (1844)
- Joseph Smith - Discourse continues. Mothers will
have their children with them in heaven but the children
will never grow. They will stay just as they died, "but
possessing all the intelligence of God. ... Eternity is
full of thrones, upon which dwell thousands of children
reigning on thrones of glory, with not one cubit added
to their stature." Journal of Discourses, vol. 6, p. 10 (1844)
- Joseph Smith - Discourse concludes. "No man knows my
history. I cannot tell it: I shall never undertake it."
Journal of Discourses, vol. 6, p. 11 (1844)
- Wilford Woodruff - "God himself is increasing and
progressing in knowledge, power, and dominion, and will
do so, worlds without end." Journal of Discourses, vol. 6, p. 120 (1857)
- Brigham Young - There are many earths that exist.
Every earth has its redeemer and every earth has its
tempter. Journal of Discourses, vol. 14, p. 71
(1870)
- Orson Pratt - God the Father was begotten by his own Father in Heaven who was begotten by still an earlier father on an earlier world and the regression is infinite. The Seer, p. 132 (1853)
Conception of Jesus' mortal body
- Brigham Young - "When the time came that His
first-born, the Saviour, should come into the world and
take a tabernacle, the Father cam Himself and favoured
that spirit with a tabernacle instead of letting any
other man do it." Journal of Discourses, vol.
4, p. 218 (1857)
- Brigham Young - "The birth of the Saviour was as
natural as are the births of our children; it was the
result of natural action. He partook of flesh and blood
— was begotten of his Father, as we were of our
fathers." Journal of Discourses, vol. 8, p.
115 (1860)
- Brigham Young - "The man Joseph, the husband of
Mary, did not, that we know of, have more than one wife,
but Mary the wife of Joseph had another husband."
Journal of Discourses, vol. 11, p. 268 (1868)
- Bruce R. McConkie - "Christ was begotten by an
Immortal Father in the same way that mortal men are
begotten by mortal fathers." Mormon Doctrine,
pp. 546-547 (1966)
- Bruce R. McConkie - Jesus is literal offspring of
the Eternal Father. "There is nothing figurative or
hidden or beyond comprehension in our Lord's coming into
mortality. He is the Son of God in the same sense and
way that we are the sons of mortal fathers." The
Promised Messiah, pp. 467-468 (1978)
- Orson Pratt - Each God has more than one wife. The
Virgin Mary was wife of Heavenly Father. "The fleshly
body of Jesus required a Mother as well as a Father.
Therefore, the Father and Mother of Jesus, according to
the flesh, must have been associated together in the
capacity of Husband and Wife; hence the Virgin Mary must
have been, for the time being, the lawful wife of God
the Father." The Seer, p. 158 (1853)