The Rise and Fall of Nauvoo

by B. H. Roberts

Footnotes:

[1]. For the consideration of the fulfillment of this prophecy the reader is referred to the writer's "New Witness for God," ch. XXIII.

[2]. Vol. xix, page 630.

[3]. The speech is published in the Missouri Republican for June 18, 1857. For a more complete consideration of the prophecy, the reader is referred to the author's "New Witness for God," chapter xxii.

CHAPTER XXIX.

DOCTRINAL DEVELOPMENT AT NAUVOO—OF THE BEING AND NATURE OF GOD.

WHEN Joseph Smith in 1820 declared that he had in open vision seen God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ standing together above him in the air, surrounded by a glorious brilliancy of light which defied all description, and that God the Father pointed to Jesus and said:

"Joseph, this is my beloved Son, hear Him"—

it is quite evident that new ideas pertaining to God were about to be promulgated among men. The facts of this vision were quite at variance with the orthodox notions entertained about the Godhead. It is quite true that Christians talked about the Father and the Son, and as for the latter they had to concede that He was in the form of man, and remains so to this day, as they have no reason to believe that the all-glorious resurrected body of flesh and bones with which Jesus ascended to His Father has been dissolved and become incorporeal; but no orthodox Christian believed that the Father and the Son of the Scriptures were two distinct and separate individuals—a conclusion which this very first vision of the Prophet's forces upon the understanding if it is believed. The anthropomorphism of the vision is also too emphatic for the orthodox conception of God; for notwithstanding the Scriptures teach that man was created in the image of God;^[[1]] and that Jesus Christ was the express image of His Father's person^[[2]]—and certainly Jesus was in the form of man—yet the Christian orthodoxy gave such explanations of these facts of Scripture that they accepted not at all the idea that God the Father was a personage like unto man in form and as distinct as to His person from His Son Jesus Christ as is any father and son among men. The orthodox creed of the Godhead is as follows:

We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, the maker of all things visible and invisible; and in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the Son of God begotten of the Father, only begotten (that is) of the substance of the Father; God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God; begotten, not made; of the same substance with the Father, by whom all things are made, that are in heaven and that are in earth; who for us men, and for our salvation, descended and was incarnate, and became man; suffered and rose again the third day, ascended into the heavens and will come to judge the living and the dead; and in the Holy Spirit. But those who say there was a time when He [the Son] was not, and that He was not before He was begotten, and that He was made out of nothing or affirm that He is of any other substance or essence, or that the Son of God was created, and mutable, or changeable, the Catholic Church doth pronounce accursed.

This is the creed of St. Athanasius, formulated at the Council of Nice, A.D. 325, and is universally accepted by orthodox Christians. The explanation of the creed as given by Athanasius will also be of interest:

We worship one God in Trinity and Trinity in Unity; neither confounding the persons, nor dividing the substance. For there is one person of the Father, another of the Son, and another of the Holy Ghost. But the Godhead of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost is all one: The glory equal, the majesty co-eternal. Such as the Father is, such is the Son, and such is the Holy Ghost. The Father uncreate, the Son uncreate, and the Holy Ghost uncreate. The Father incomprehensible, the Son incomprehensible. The Father eternal, the Son eternal, and the Holy Ghost eternal. And yet these are not three eternals, but one eternal. As also there are not three incomprehensibles, nor three uncreated, but one uncreated and one incomprehensible. So likewise the Father is Almighty, the Son Almighty, and the Holy Ghost Almighty, and yet there are not three Almighties, but one Almighty. So the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Ghost is God, and yet there are not three Gods, but one God.

It is of course apparent at a glance that the first great revelation to Joseph Smith declared facts in relation to the nature of God—His personality—the fact that the Father was distinct from the Son—the fact that the there were two—or a plurality of Gods—which are at variance with the orthodox creed on the subject of Deity. This truth he continued to unfold from time to time, though the fullness and climax respecting this doctrine was reached at Nauvoo; and as it is the teachings of the Prophet and not a defense of them which I here wish to exhibit, I quote his own words: