What It Means for Christians That God Is Our Father
As we look at the scriptures, let us remember that essential truths are repeated over and over again, they are not hidden in some obscure verse. While much must be taken on faith alone, there is individual revelation through which we may know the truth. As Job says, “There is a spirit in man: and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding.” We can receive inspiration through the Holy Ghost, and can have as full an understanding of spiritual things as we are willing to earn.
Biblical Foundations: God as Our Father
There is a question in the Old and New Testaments: “What is man, that thou are mindful of him? And the son of man, that thou visitest him?” (Ps 8:4, Heb 2:5-7) The simple answer to this question is that we are the children of God! This is taught over and over: “All of you are children of the most High” (Ps 82:6), “We are the offspring of God” (Acts 17:29). If the reader concedes that the scriptures are true and that we are His children, you must allow that God is our father. This is repeated over and over again in the scriptures.
Recall that Christ did not speak only of the Father or my Father; He spoke of your Father, and our Father. He even placed them in one sentence, saying “…I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God” (John 20:17). Aren’t we commanded to pray “Our Father which art in heaven”? (Matt 6:9) You might say ‘every Christian knows that’, but too many Christians belittle the teaching that we are literal sons and daughters of God. For example, once we realize we are children of God we know that we are all brothers and sisters. This realization ought to inspire a desire not to injure each other or transgress against each other in any way.
Christ taught us to be “perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect” (Matt 5:48), to take on His attributes, to follow the pattern of our parentage. This was not new, He commanded Abraham: “walk before me, and be thou perfect” (Gen 17:1). Even a young child knows that a baby chick will not grow up to be a dog, horse or armadillo. It will be a chicken, it will follow the pattern of its parentage. All living things reproduce “after their own kind” (Moses 2:12, 24). A mammal will not beget reptiles, nor “do men gather… figs of thistles” (Matt 7:16). Surely no one with reverence for God could believe that His children evolved from slime or from reptiles! The theory of evolution will have an entirely different dimension when the workings of God are fully revealed.
Implications of Divine Parentage
Since every living thing follows the pattern of its parentage, are we to suppose that God had some other strange pattern in mind for His offspring? What is in error when we use the term Godhood to describe the ultimate destiny of mankind? We may now be in our progression and are juvenile or even infantile compared with Him. However in the eternities to come, if we are worthy we may be like unto Him, enter His presence, “see as we are seen, and know as we are known,” and receive a “fullness” (D&C 76:94). The Lord Himself declared in Genesis: “Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil,” (Genesis 3:22) suggesting the process of approaching godliness had commenced. Some Christians read these passages as metaphorical, because they experience the Bible through the lens of doctrinal interpretations that developed over time after the period described in the New Testament. I testify in the name of Christ this is not metaphorical, but literal. Many influential theologians and teachers in early Christianity taught literal deification doctrine as well including Irenaeus, who died around AD 202, Clement of Alexandria and Basil the Great. This doctrine is still followed to some degree today in Eastern Orthodoxy.
How many Gods are there, anyway? There are many references in scripture which speak of one God. For example there is “one God and Father of all” (Eph 4:6). However, if you hold too rigid an interpretation of those verses, you create serious theological problems for yourself. This is because there are at least an equal number of verses that speak in plural terms of “lords” and “gods.” I will name just three: “and God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness” (Gen 1:26, see also Rev 1:6). When Jesus was accused of blasphemy on the grounds that “thou, being a man, makest thyself God” Christ himself responded by quoting scripture: “Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are gods” (Ps 82:6). Finally, “If he called them gods, unto whom the word of God came, and the scripture cannot be broken; Say ye of him, whom the Father hath sanctified, and sent into the world, Thou blasphemest; because I said, I am the Son of God?” (John 10:34-36).
Sharing in the Divine Nature: Biblical and Historical Insights
The acceptance of this truth does not mean accepting multiple gods of mythology or polytheism of the pagans condemned by Isaiah and others. There is one God, the Father of all, there is only one Redeemer and Savior, and there is one Holy Ghost, a personage of spirit. I’ve emphasized the word ‘one’, but I have used it three times. Three is plural. Paul in fact did the same thing: “For though there be that are called gods, whether in heaven or in earth (as there be gods many, and lords many,) But to us there is but one God, the Father” (1 Cor 8:5-6). Anyone who believes and teaches of God the Father, accepts the divinity of Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost teaches a plurality of Gods. In fact so did Stephen, who gave his witness: “But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up steadfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God.”
When the early Apostles of Christ were gone, those who assumed the leadership of the Church abandoned revelation and relied on reason. The idea of three separate Gods offended them, as it appeared to contradict scripture which refer to one God. To reconcile this, they took verses here and there and ignored all else that bears on this subject. They tried to stir the three ones together into some mysterious kind of a composite one which cannot be squared with the scriptures. Paul understood this doctrine and wrote, “Let this mind be in you, which was also Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God” (Philip. 2:5-6).
What would inspire one to purity and worthiness more than to have a spiritual confirmation that we are the children of God? This thought need not fill us with arrogance, but rather overwhelming humility. Nor does it sponsor any inclination to worship oneself or any man. This doctrine is not invented, much of it was preserved in the Bible from prophets in ancient times. As they foretold, further light and knowledge was revealed. With the restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ came the Book of Mormon, another testament of Jesus Christ. Other revelations were given and continue to be given, and verses which previously seemed to oppose one another have harmony.
Our Divine Heritage: God’s Fatherhood and the Promise of Heirship
The Prophet Joseph Smith asked, “What kind of a being is God?” We need to know, he argued, because “… if men do not comprehend the character of God they do not comprehend themselves.” Human nature is at its core, divine. The Father is the one true God. This is certain: no one will ever ascend above Him; no one will ever replace Him. Nor will anything change that relationship that we, His literal offspring, have with Him. He is Elohim, the Father. He is God. Of Him there is only one. We revere our Father and our God, and we worship Him. There is only one Christ, one Redeemer. We accept the divinity of Him. We accept the promise that we may become joint heirs with Him, as Paul taught: “The spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: and if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ” and “Wherefore thou are no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ” (Rom 8:16-17, Gal. 4:7). What does this mean? We don’t have to guess, John records the Lord’s words: “To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne” (Rev 3:21).
I bear my sure testimony and witness that Jesus is the Christ, the Only Begotten of the Father in the flesh; that He is our Redeemer, our Savior; that God is our Father. I testify in the name of Christ that if we qualify through faith, repentance, baptism and endure in Christ, keeping His commandments and relying on His merits, we may become even as He is, just as Christ overcame. If you wish to know more please ask me or another member of my faith. Also feel free to visit this web site that shares this and more, or if you want to read on your own consider Our Search For Happiness, by M Russell Ballard. I am again indebted to the late Apostle Boyd K Packer for most of the content of this article.