Chapter Seven
“Our Father Who Art in Heaven”
We once knew well our Elder Brother and our Father in Heaven. We rejoiced at the prospects of earth life that could make it possible for us to have a fulness of joy. We could hardly wait to demonstrate to our Father and our Brother, the Lord, how much we loved them and how we would be obedient to them in spite of the earthly opposition of the evil one. Now we are here. Our memories are veiled. We are showing God and ourselves what we can do. Nothing is going to startle us more when we pass through the veil to the other side than to realize how well we know our Father and how familiar His face is to us.
Ezra Taft Benson
“He Called Me by Name”
In the spring of 1820, the great restoration of all things promised by the prophets of old began. On a clear and beautiful spring morning, a young man, troubled about which church he should join, sought out a secluded place where he could ask God for help. He received his answer in a most glorious vision of the Father and the Son. And from that morning has flowed all that we know today—new scripture; priesthood power and authority; a global church with a membership of more than thirteen million; prophets, seers, and revelators; the largest women’s organization in the world; temples and meetinghouses all over the world; books, manuals, handbooks, and curriculum; a force of more than fifty thousand full-time missionaries.
But think for a moment. Of all the knowledge that has come from that opening morning, of all the words that have been written and spoken in the Church since the Restoration began, what was the very first word of the Restoration?
I saw a pillar of light exactly over my head, above the brightness of the sun, which descended gradually until it fell upon me. It no sooner appeared than I found myself delivered from the enemy which held me bound. When the light rested upon me I saw two Personages, whose brightness and glory defy all description, standing above me in the air. One of them spake unto me, calling me by name and said, pointing to the other—This is My Beloved Son. Hear Him! (Joseph Smith–History 1:16–17)
“Calling me by name”—think of the significance of that simple statement. These two beings had come from the far heavens where they reigned as gods. Their power and glory and majesty “defy all description,” yet the Father did not have to inquire about who Joseph was or what his name was. They knew him! He was an unschooled farm boy, living in an obscure village. His family was poor. They lived in a simple cabin. Yet God knew him. And they had heard his prayer and came down from heaven to answer it personally.
Joseph learned several things that day—that Satan was real and powerful, that the Father and the Son had greater power than he did, that the godhead was not some amorphous, mysterious, three-in-one, indefinable being. In one glorious blaze of light, this fourteen-year-old lad learned more about God than all the scholars and ministers of Christendom had in hundreds of years. But along with all of that, there was something totally unexpected: Heavenly Father knew who Joseph was, and He had heard the prayer of his heart. It cannot be overstated how profoundly that knowledge has affected all that we believe and how we worship.
It is really quite astonishing when we think about it. In a matter of moments, false doctrines and erroneous conceptions that had been held for centuries were totally overthrown and proven false. That was the beginning of the Restoration. The true knowledge of God was restored.
The Character, Attributes, and Perfections of God
In Lectures on Faith, Joseph said that the second thing required if we are to have faith sufficient to bring us to salvation, is “a correct idea of his character, perfections, and attributes.”1 Joseph then listed those aspects of His character and His attributes and testified that God held them all in perfection. Here is the list he made of God’s character:
• He was God before the world was created, and He was the same God after it was created.
• God is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, abundant in goodness, and He was so and will be from everlasting to everlasting.
• God changes not; there is no variableness in Him. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
• He is a God of truth and cannot lie.
• God is no respecter of persons but accepts all who fear Him and work righteousness.
• God is love.2
The six attributes of God given in the next lecture are:
• Knowledge
• Faith or power
• Justice
• Judgment
• Mercy
• Truth3
In regard to God’s perfections, the Prophet taught: “What we mean by perfections is, the perfections which belong to all the attributes of his nature.”4 In other words, God not only has knowledge, He possesses all knowledge. He not only has power, He is omnipotent, or all-powerful. He is perfectly just. He is perfect in His judgment and mercy and love. He has all truth, and nothing other than truth in His nature.
Joseph felt this point was so important that he gave example after example of how this worked:
• “Unless he was merciful and gracious, slow to anger, long-suffering and full of goodness, such is the weakness of human nature, and so great the frailties and imperfections of men, that . . . doubt would take the place of faith, and those who know their weakness and liability to sin would be in constant doubt of salvation. . . . [Knowing] he is slow to anger and long-suffering, and of a forgiving disposition, and does forgive iniquity, transgression, and sin . . . does away doubt, and makes faith exceedingly strong.”5
• “Without the knowledge of all things God would not be able to save any portion of his creatures. . . . Unless God had power over all things, and was able by his power to control all things, and thereby deliver his creatures who put their trust in him from the power of all beings that might seek their destruction, whether in heaven, or earth, or in hell, men could not be saved.”6
Compare this idea with that held by the Greeks and the Romans. They had a whole pantheon of gods—Zeus, Poseidon, Mercury, Mars, Athena, and so on. (The Romans even believed that there was a god that presided over dung heaps. His name: Beelzebub. Evidently the Christians thought that an appropriate description of Satan.) Their gods were capricious, lustful, selfish, and petty deities. One can hardly generate much real faith in gods like that.
The True Nature of God
In chapter one, we gave a couple of examples of how our knowledge of God’s attributes—or lack of knowledge—can affect faith. One woman questioned God’s love because she had not been born beautiful. Another rejected the counsel of her doctor to have an abortion, even though the consequences for her could have been enormous.
It seems oddly contradictory, but there are numerous examples where individuals who believe that God is a loving and perfect Being, still question in their mind the reality of His character and attributes. In the previous chapter we discussed the feelings of people who believe that God is there, but who feel that He finds them so evil and abhorrent that they cannot approach Him.
In chapter five, we listed different questions that people ask when tragedy strikes them or someone they love. Let’s review a few of those and others to see how such questions really are questions about the nature of God and whether He is really perfect in all things.
• I have tried my whole life to do as He asks, to keep His commandments, to be faithful. And now this. Why, God? Why are you doing this to me? Do you really know me? Do you understand what I am going through here? Is this how you demonstrate your love? If you are all-powerful, as they say, then why don’t you change things? Maybe you really don’t care what happens down here.
• Recently, a drunk driver lost control of his car and hit a minivan, killing an entire family who had been active in the Church. Couldn’t God have intervened just enough to cause the driver to slam into a tree instead of the family’s vehicle? Or at the very least, why didn’t God give the family a prompting to get off the road or take another route? I don’t understand why He wouldn’t use His power and foreknowledge to save them. It is so unfair. Why does God allow the wicked to cause good people so much pain and suffering?
• When women all over the world are able to bear children whom they will neglect or abuse, and millions of others are terminating their unwanted pregnancies through abortion, why doesn’t the Lord hear our prayers and grant us our righteous desires for a child? Where is the justice in a system like that? Where is God’s mercy? I’m not talking about mercy just for me. Some of those children are terribly abused. If He sent them to our home, they would be loved and accepted and cared for. It just doesn’t seem right.
• If there is a God, why would He allow the tsunami in Indonesia, or the earthquake in Haiti, to take the lives of nearly a quarter of a million people in each case? I know there is a God. However, it is very difficult to understand how He can be all-powerful, all-knowing, and perfectly loving, and yet still let this happen. Maybe there are some things beyond His control. Or maybe He is a vengeful and punishing deity.
• My best friend is a much better person than I am. So why has she suffered so much more pain and tragedy in her life than I have? I’m questioning both the justice of God and His judgment. Doesn’t the Lord promise to bless the righteous? If so, then this doesn’t make sense. Life is not fair. Can’t God change that? And if He thinks I deserve more blessings than my friend, then I guess I’m questioning how well He knows each of us.
Or, let’s look at a couple of more positive examples of how an understanding of God’s attributes and perfections blessed people in a time of great need. Amanda Barnes Smith lost her husband and two sons at Haun’s Mill in a tragedy far beyond what most people ever face. But her first reaction was to turn to God for help in blessing Alma. And that wasn’t blind desperation. She believed that He knew of her anguish and that His love for her would not allow Him to forsake her in her time of need. She also had absolute confidence in His power. Remember what she told young Alma? “The Lord can make something there in the place of your hip, don’t you believe he can, Alma?”
Another example: When her son begged her to let him join the Mormon Battalion, Drusilla Dorris Hendricks felt the whisperings of the Spirit ask her, “Are you afraid to trust the God of Israel? Has He not been with you in all your trials? Has He not provided for your wants?”
It is absolutely astonishing that Drusilla didn’t rise up in indignation at those questions. She had endured eight very difficult years because her husband had been crippled while trying to save others. Yet she acknowledged that God had sustained her. Such faith came from a deep trust and a strong conviction that God knew her and all of her sufferings and sacrifices. While rationally it made no sense to let her son join the Battalion, she knew God would not ask anything of her that was not right and for her best good.
Earlier we asked what made the difference between those who have the faith and testimony to endure and those who don’t. Well, here is at least one answer, if not the answer: Strong faith and a deep testimony are founded on a correct knowledge of God’s attributes, His character, and His perfections. People like Stillman Pond, Amanda Smith, Drusilla Hendricks, and Francis Webster and so many others didn’t just believe in Heavenly Father and Jesus. They knew them. Not just of them. Not just about them. They knew God.
Here were people who understood what Helaman meant when he said to his sons:
And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall. (Helaman 5:12)
Notes
Epigraph. Ezra Taft Benson, The Teachings of Ezra Taft Benson (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1988), 24.
^1. Joseph Smith, Lectures on Faith (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1985), 38; emphasis in original.