"Hear, O, Israel: the Lord our God is one Lord."—Moses.
"The head of the Gods appointed one God for us."—Joseph Smith.[A]
[Footnote A: From discourse delivered 10th June, 1844. Mill. Star, vol. 24, p. 108 et seq.]
"He [Aaron] shall be to thee instead of a mouth, and thou shalt be to him instead of God."—The Lord to Moses (Exodus 4:16).
"See, I have made thee a God unto Pharaoh."—The Lord unto Moses (Exodus 7:1).
"I believe those Gods that God reveals as Gods, to be sons of God, and all can cry 'Abba, Father.'"—Joseph Smith.[A]
[Footnote A: Sixteenth of June sermon, 1844. Mill. Star, vol. 24, p. 140.]
It is evident from the above passages (Exodus 4:16, and Exodus 7:1) that God does appoint men to be Gods, even in this world. Why then should it be considered error to believe that from "the congregation of the Mighty," where "God judgeth among the Gods" (Psalm 82:1), there should be appointed One who should be our God? And is it strange that from henceforth, the true servants of God should stand up for the dignity and honor and exclusiveness of the power and authority of that One God over this earth against the claims, and to the exclusion of all gods and powers, that men in their vain imaginings set up against this God of heaven and earth, as did Moses, Paul and Joseph Smith? No wonder that Moses sent ringing down through the centuries that clarion sentence: "Hear, O Israel, Our God is one Lord;" that the Hebrew race stood as the witness of that one God, and fashioned their nomenclature accordingly; or that Paul said, "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;" or that Joseph Smith, in the Dispensation of the Fullness of Times, should take up the same refrain as these ancient servants of God, and say, "Pertaining to us, there is but one God;" "Those Gods whom God reveals as Gods, are sons of God, and all can cry Abba, Father!"
Of Our Revelations From God Being Local.
I suggest, as a further evidence, that the view here presented concerning our God, and the assertion of his oneness, that the revelations in the Bible are revelations, in the main, concerning our earth and the heavens pertaining to it; that these revelations do not attempt to deal with or furnish an explanation of conditions that obtain throughout the universe; that they do not attempt to give us any explicit information concerning conditions in the constellations of the Pleiades, Orion, Cassiopeia, or Ursa Major, to say nothing of those galaxies of worlds which lie beyond the vision of men, even when aided by the mightiest telescope. In other words, the revelations of the Bible are, in the main, local;[A] it is only here and there that a glimpse of things is given outside of our heaven and our earth. That being the case, the revelation of God to the Hebrew race was made in a nomenclature accordant with the facts to be expressed, hence—"Hear, O, Israel: our God is one Lord." This idea is emphasized in the Book of Moses, found in the Pearl of Great Price. The Lord revealed to Joseph Smith some of the writings of Moses in which the Hebrew prophet makes known the source of his knowledge concerning the creations of God, but it was concerning our earth and its heavens of which Moses was commanded to write: