[Footnote A: Mormon, 7:7.]
Seeing, then, that reference is so frequently made to the members of the Godhead as separate and distinct persons, it is clear that the Book of Mormon is in harmony with the views contended for in the body of this work, as to the plurality of Gods, and the doctrine receives increased emphasis from other passages of the work. The Prophet Alma, for instance, says:
He [God] gave commandments unto men, they having first transgressed the first commandments as to things which were temporal, and becoming as Gods, knowing good from evil, etc.[A]
[Footnote A: Alma, 12:31.]
Then again, the Savior when instructing the Nephite apostles, said to them:
Ye shall be judges of this people, according to the judgment which I shall give unto you, which shall be just; therefore, what manner of men ought ye to be? Verily I say unto you, even as I am. * * * * And ye shall sit down in the Kingdom of my Father; yea, your joy shall be full, even as the Father hath given me fullness of joy; and ye shall be even as lam, and I am even as the Father; and the Father and I are one.[A]
[Footnote A: III Nephi, 27:27; 28:10.]
If the disciples became as Christ, and Christ, we are assured, is as the Father is, then these words of Jesus contemplate that these men will become as God now is, and hence Gods, and hence a plurality of Gods.
With reference to the form of God, the Book of Mormon has two very important and very emphatic passages on the subject. The first Nephi, in a great vision given to him of the future, was attended by a spirit who gave him explanations, as the several parts of his vision passed before him. And now Nephi's account:
And it came to pass that the Spirit said unto me, Look! and I looked, and beheld a tree; * * * * and the beauty thereof was far beyond, yea, exceeding all beauty, and the whiteness thereof did exceed the whiteness of the driven snow. And it came to pass after I had seen the tree, I said unto the Spirit: I behold thou hast shown unto me the tree which is precious above all. And he said unto me: What desirest thou? And I said unto him: To know the interpretation thereof; for I spake unto him as a man speaketh; for I beheld that he was in the form of a man; yet, nevertheless, I knew that it was the Spirit of the Lord; and he spake unto me as a man speaketh with another.[A]