God is the Father of our spirits

God is the Father of our spirits

1. God is literally the father of the spirits of all mankind (see Hebrews 12:9; Acts 17:28-29; Numbers 16:22)
2. Jesus declared that his god is our god and that his father is our father (see John 20:17)
3. We are created in God’s own image (see Genesis 1:26-27; Alma 18:24; Ether 3:15; Abraham 4:26-27 Moses 2:26-27; Mosiah 7:27)
4. God has love and concern for his children and his creations (see 1 John 4:7-10; Matthew 10:29-31; 1 Nephi 11:14-22; John 3:16)
5. God’s work and glory is to bring about the immortality and eternal life of his children (see Moses 1:39)

Bruce R. McConkie (Quorum of the Twelve)

Elohim is the Father of spirits…. Our finite minds cannot comprehend his infinite laws. But we can envision him as a Father, as a personal, loving being filled with tenderness and compassion. He is more than the Father of the Firstborn; more than the Father of the Only Begotten in the flesh; more than the Father in the sense that he created the first mortal man. He is, in deed and in fact, the Father of the spirits of all men in the literal and full sense of the word. Each of us was begotten by him in the premortal life. We are his spirit children.^[1]A New Witness for the Articles of Faith, p. 61.

Spencer W. Kimball

Our spirit matter was eternal and co-existent with God, but it was organized into spirit bodies by our Heavenly Father.^[2]The Miracle of Forgiveness, p.ix.

First Presidency (Joseph F. Smith, John R. Winder, Anthon H. Lund)

Man, as a spirit, was begotten and born of heavenly parents, and reared to maturity in the eternal mansions of the Father, prior to coming upon the earth in a temporal body to undergo an experience in mortality…. Man is the child of God, formed in the divine image and endowed with divine attributes, and even as the infant son of an earthly father and mother is capable in due time of becoming a man, so the undeveloped offspring of celestial parentage is capable, by experience through ages and eons, of evolving into a God.^[3]Messages of the First Presidency, 4:205.

Lorenzo Snow

Our spirit birth gave us godlike capabilities. We were born in the image of God our Father; He begot us like unto Himself. There is the nature of deity in the composition of our spiritual organization; in our spiritual birth our Father transmitted to us the capabilities, powers and faculties which He Himself possessed—as much so as the child on its mother’s bosom possesses, although in an undeveloped state, the faculties, powers, and susceptibilities of its parent.^[4]Teachings of Lorenzo Snow, p.4.

George F. Richards (Quorum of the Twelve)

We all had a spiritual birth, a spiritual existence and experience and we were born of God. Think of it, brethren and sisters, sons and daughters of God inheriting from Him through our spiritual birth the very attributes and qualities of Deity, which in our Father in heaven are perfect and make Him what He is. We are placed here upon the earth for the purpose, in part, of improving, magnifying and perfecting those qualities and attributes; so that, while we are now but gods in embryo, having been born of God, in His likeness, in His image, and having received from Him the attributes of Deity, through perfecting those attributes in time and in eternity we will be like Him in very deed, and be glorified with him in His kingdom.^[5]Conference Report, October 1914, p.16.

In Nauvoo, Illinois, on April 7, 1844, while discussing “the immortality of man” in a sermon, Joseph Smith removed his wedding ring, showed it to the audience, and said, “I take my ring from my finger and liken it unto the mind of man, the immortal spirit, because it has no beginning. Suppose you cut it in two; but as the Lord lives there would be an end.”^[6]“Conference Minutes,” Times and Seasons, August 15, 1844, 615. In the beliefs of the membership of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, humans, akin to God, possess eternal nature. While Joseph Smith and subsequent leaders did not fully clarify the intricacies of how both God and humans are inherently eternal and uncreated, the concept of a dual-sided immortality, encompassing an everlasting past and future, is a core tenet of the faith of the Latter-day Saints. Similar to other Christian denominations, Latter-day Saints hold that through Jesus Christ, the continuation of the soul is assured, as he enables a resurrected and exalted form of immortality and possible exaltation.

However, the teachings of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints diverge from mainstream Christianity by emphatically declaring that humans are not just eternal beings, but also direct “offspring of God”—God’s daughters and sons with boundless potential. This potential, however, is fully actualized only through the Atonement of Jesus Christ, which redeems humanity from sin and restores their divine relationship. Despite these doctrinal variances, the Latter-day Saints align with many Christians in affirming that death is not the termination of existence, but a transition towards resurrection and eternal life, a divine gift enabled by our Savior Jesus Christ. An important scripture from the Pearl of Great Price sums it up: “For behold, this is [God’s] work and [his] glory—to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man” (Moses 1:39).

These distinctive beliefs about the soul’s immortality and humanity’s divine lineage significantly influence Latter-day Saint thought and life today, forming a fundamental aspect of our worship and understanding of God the Father and His Son. This theological perspective not only offers a “heavenly perspective” but also an “earthly view,” fostering a sense of global kinship as all individuals are seen as God’s children. I feel this global kinship as I travel the world and interact with different peoples. I feel a sense of the connection we all have as sons and daughters of God and believe that if everyone truly felt this, we would have more peace in this world. As B.H. Roberts, a great Latter-day Saint thinker once declared:

I point out this noble relationship of man to Deity, not to flatter the former, but because I believe it to be a fact. It is a theme that I love to contemplate, not because it debases Deity, but because it elevates man, and must inspire him with noble aspirations, and to the performance of virtuous deeds. If but once understood and realized by mankind, I believe the conception would be a strong incentive to the reformation of the world.^[7]B. H. Roberts, The Gospel and Man’s Relationship to Deity, 10th ed. Deseret Book, 1965, 282.