God
The Prophet Joseph Smith taught, "God is the only supreme governor and independent Being in whom all fulness and perfection dwell; who is omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscient; without beginning of days or end of life; and that in him every good gift and every good principle dwell; and that he is the Father of lights; in him the principle of faith dwells independently, and he is the object in whom the faith of all other rational and accountable beings centers for life and salvation" (Lectures on Faith, pg. 9).
"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth" (Gen. 1:1). "Heaven" is to be understood as the place wherein all things pertaining to this earth were made spiritually first, where God himself dwells and not to the cosmos or sidereal heavens that is studied in the field of astronomy. For God has revealed through Moses that He, "made the heaven and the earth and every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew. For I, the Lord God, created all things, of which I have spoken, spiritually, before they were naturally upon the face of the earth. For I, the Lord God, had not caused it to rain upon the face of the earth. And I, the lord God, had created all the children of men; and not yet a man to till the ground; for in heaven created I them; and there was not yet flesh upon the earth, neither in the water, neither in the air" (Moses 3:5).
God "has a body of flesh and bones as tangible as man's" (D&C 130:22). For God created man "in the image of is own body, male and female" (Moses 6:9). In the Garden of Eden when God created the body of man, God placed the spirit of man into the physical tabernacle which is the body that houses the man's spirit. Moses and Aaron declared "O God, the God of the spirits of all flesh" (Numbers 16:22). As the apostle Paul taught, "God that made the world and all things therein...For in him we live, and move, and have our being...For we are also his offspring" (Acts 17:24-28).
God is an exalted man. He "sits enthroned in yonder heavens" and dwells in "everlasting burnings in immortal glory." The prophet Joseph Smith taught, "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 with him, as one man talks and communes with another" (KFD, Joseph Smith).
God is clothed in authority. It is by God that Jesus Christ received his authority. The apostle Peter testified that Jesus "was ordained of God" (Acts 10:42). That God "anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power" (Acts 10:38). As Paul taught, Jesus Christ was "called of God an high priest after the order of Melchisedec" (Hebrews 5:10).
God personally opened the Dispensation of the Fulness of Times by visiting and calling Joseph Smith to be His chosen servant to restore the fulness of the gospel of Christ once again upon the earth. In the spring of 1820 God the Father and His Son the resurrected Jesus Christ visited and communed with Joseph Smith. Joseph Smith sought guidance from God and after soliciting God through prayer he records, "I saw a pillar of light exactly over my head, above the brightness of the sun, which descended gradually until it fell upon me...I saw two Personages, whose brightness and glory defy all description, standing above me in the air." God then called Joseph by name and pointing towards Christ said, "This is My Beloved Son. Hear Him!" (JS History 1:16-17)
"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth" (Gen. 1:1). "Heaven" is to be understood as the place wherein all things pertaining to this earth were made spiritually first, where God himself dwells and not to the cosmos or sidereal heavens that is studied in the field of astronomy. For God has revealed through Moses that He, "made the heaven and the earth and every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew. For I, the Lord God, created all things, of which I have spoken, spiritually, before they were naturally upon the face of the earth. For I, the Lord God, had not caused it to rain upon the face of the earth. And I, the lord God, had created all the children of men; and not yet a man to till the ground; for in heaven created I them; and there was not yet flesh upon the earth, neither in the water, neither in the air" (Moses 3:5).
God "has a body of flesh and bones as tangible as man's" (D&C 130:22). For God created man "in the image of is own body, male and female" (Moses 6:9). In the Garden of Eden when God created the body of man, God placed the spirit of man into the physical tabernacle which is the body that houses the man's spirit. Moses and Aaron declared "O God, the God of the spirits of all flesh" (Numbers 16:22). As the apostle Paul taught, "God that made the world and all things therein...For in him we live, and move, and have our being...For we are also his offspring" (Acts 17:24-28).
God is an exalted man. He "sits enthroned in yonder heavens" and dwells in "everlasting burnings in immortal glory." The prophet Joseph Smith taught, "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 with him, as one man talks and communes with another" (KFD, Joseph Smith).
God is clothed in authority. It is by God that Jesus Christ received his authority. The apostle Peter testified that Jesus "was ordained of God" (Acts 10:42). That God "anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power" (Acts 10:38). As Paul taught, Jesus Christ was "called of God an high priest after the order of Melchisedec" (Hebrews 5:10).
God personally opened the Dispensation of the Fulness of Times by visiting and calling Joseph Smith to be His chosen servant to restore the fulness of the gospel of Christ once again upon the earth. In the spring of 1820 God the Father and His Son the resurrected Jesus Christ visited and communed with Joseph Smith. Joseph Smith sought guidance from God and after soliciting God through prayer he records, "I saw a pillar of light exactly over my head, above the brightness of the sun, which descended gradually until it fell upon me...I saw two Personages, whose brightness and glory defy all description, standing above me in the air." God then called Joseph by name and pointing towards Christ said, "This is My Beloved Son. Hear Him!" (JS History 1:16-17)