[Footnote E: Studies in Religion, p. 189. Works Vol. IX.]
2. Revelation Presents a Personal Deity as the Object of Man's Faith and Worship: The Old Testament's revelation of God presents him to the world most emphatically as a personal being. "God is referred to as Almighty, All-Wise, All-Holy, the Eternal Creator, Sustainer, and Moral Governor of the universe. He is represented as entering into special relations with his highest creature, man, who is created in his image, after his likeness,[A] to be his vicegerent on earth,[B] and to increase in sympathy and fellowship with himself."[C]
[Footnote A: Gen. 1:26, 27.]
[Footnote B: Gen. 1:26-28.]
[Footnote C: "Belief in God"—Drummelow Bible Commentary, p. 49. See also The Index in both the Oxford and Cambridge Teacher's Bible Helps, under "God" and especially under the subdivision of "Attributes" in the former.]
"When we sum up the impressions and teachings about the God of the ancient Hebrews," says Professor Francis Brown, of Union Theological seminary, "the general result is very definite. We find a personal Being of great majesty, dignity and power, the Creator and Ruler of men, a being of holiness and transcendence; a being of righteousness, who promotes righteousness in others and punishes every breach of it; whose government is a moral government and from whose decisions there is no appeal; a being of kindness, tenderness and helpfulness, with gracious care for those who confide in him, whose plans are at length to be worked out and his desires realized in the unity of men under his benevolent sway amid the exhibition of the divine glories of righteousness and universal peace."[A]
[Footnote A: The passage is from "The Christian Point of View"—1902—Prof. Brown's passage represents only that view of God revealed in the Old Testament that he asserts is not inconsistent with the New. For he immediately adds to the above paragraph: "With every stroke of this drawing the New Testament picture is in accord. To this extent the spirit and teaching of Jesus Christ indorses the older revelation." (Ibid above). He then proceeds to show that some conceptions of God presented in the Old Testament, as he apprehends them, are not in harmony with the New Testament. I use the passage from Professor Brown, merely to show that other believers in the Old and New Testament revelation of God, as well as the Latter-day Saints, regard those revelations as presenting God to human consciousness as a personal being.]
If anything was lacking in the Old Testament revelation of God as a personal being, in closest relationship to man, then assuredly it would be supplied in the New Testament revelation of God through the person and character of Jesus Christ. For in the New Testament, in the most emphatic manner, the Christ is represented as "God manifested in the flesh."[A] He, under the direction of the Father, is Creator of the world; he is the brightness of the Father's glory; "and the express image" of the Father's person.[B] He so completely represented the Father that he declared that those who had seen him had seen the Father;[C] also after his resurrection he declared that all power in heaven and in earth had been given unto him, and in the full glory of that God-Power he sent forth his disciples to teach all nations and to baptize them in the name of the distinct persons of the God-head.[D] All that Jesus was and is, God is; for the Christ was God manifested in the flesh. Emphatically God is revealed as a personal being.
[Footnote A: I Tim. iii:16.]
[Footnote B: Hebrews i. See also Discourse by the writer, "Jesus Christ the Revelation of God," in Mormon Doctrine of Deity, Ch. IV, also chapter I, same work.]