Scrap Book of Mormon Literature (Vol. 1 of 2): Religious Tracts
Religion
Scrap Book of Mormon Literature (Vol. 1 of 2): Religious Tracts
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints -- Doctrines; Latter Day Saint churches -- Doctrines; Latter Day Saints
Evidences of the existence of a Supreme Being are seen in vast
profusion. They appeal to every rational mind. The order, beauty,
and sublimity of the heavenly bodies, moving through space in silent
majesty, each in its own orbit, balancing and counter-balancing each
other without an error in time or revolution, all preserving their own
identity and performing their own mission, proceeding thus through
everlasting ages, are perennial witnesses of the existence, power, and
glory of God. The earth itself, with its relations to other planets,
its products, its seasons, its adaptation to the needs of the creatures
that inhabit its surface or its atmosphere, joins in the grand chorus
of the music of the spheres, "forever singing as they shine, the
Hand that made us is Divine." Nature, however, while proclaiming the
existence of Deity, does not disclose His personality or reveal His
will. A knowledge of God can only come from God. Faith leads to that
knowledge.
The greatest religious teacher among men was Jesus, the Nazarene.
In his personality God was manifest in the flesh. {208} He revealed
Deity to humanity. He showed that God was in reality the Father of
the spirits of men. He proclaimed that he was in the beginning with
God; that he came forth from God, and would return to God, and that
all mankind were his brethren, made in the image of God and part of
his eternal family. This presents God as actually and literally "Our
Father which art in heaven." It takes away the mystery with which
false faiths have enveloped the Supreme Being, beclouding the minds of
men, and making God utterly incomprehensible. Jesus taught that his
Father and our Father is a personal being, man being in his likeness,
Jesus himself being in his express image. He taught also that he
was sent into the world to save mankind, and bring them back to the
Father's presence; that no man could come unto God but by him. The
true Christian religion, therefore, combines faith in Jesus Christ the
Son, with faith in God the eternal Father. Christ further taught the
existence of a divine spirit, proceeding from God, to enlighten the
souls of men; that is, the Holy Ghost, by which the mind and will of
God may be made known to man, and by which holy men chosen of God have
been inspired in different ages to declare his word.
These three, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, form the eternal
Godhead. They are not one person, as erroneously declared by modern
Christian churches, but are separate and distinct substances, though
one in mind and power and dominion. Jesus of Nazareth, as the Son of
God, was a personality as distinct from the personality of the Eternal
Father as is that of any earthly son from his father. The Holy Spirit,
though proceeding from both the Father and the Son, is not either of
them, but has an identity of its own. It is true that Jesus said, "I
and my Father are one." (John X; 30), but he also said, "My Father is
greater than I," (John XIV; 28).
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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