Question
Gramps,
Thanks for your wonderful site and work. As a boy I read a quote from Joseph given in answer to where God came from. He said something like.” Was there ever a father who was not first a son..or a son who cannot become as his father?” I have searched and cannot find it. Does this sound familiar to you?? God be with you,
Joel
Answer
Joel,
Your quote comes from Joseph Smith’s Sermon in the Grove. It was given June 16, 1844 in a grove of trees just east of the Nauvoo Temple. In it, Joseph establishes that each member of the Godhead is a separate and distinct God, and those who merit exaltation become gods (but we don’t worship them). His primary text is Revelation 1:6 – “And hath made us kings and priests unto God and His Father: to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.”
In the middle of this discourse, Joseph shares this:
I learned a testimony concerning Abraham, and he reasoned concerning the God of heaven. “In order to do that,” said he, “suppose we have two facts: that supposes another fact may exist — two men on the earth, one wise than the other, would logically show that another who is wiser than the wisest may exist. Intelligences exist one above another, so that there is no end to them.”
If Abraham reasoned thus — If Jesus Christ was the Son of God, and John discovered that God the Father of Jesus Christ had a Father, you may suppose that He had a Father also. Where was there ever a son without a father? And where was there ever a father without first being a son? Whenever did a tree or anything spring into existence without a progenitor? And everything comes in this way. Paul says that which is earthly is in the likeness of that which is heavenly, Hence if Jesus had a Father, can we not believe that He had a Father also? I despise the idea of being scared to death at such a doctrine, for the Bible is full of it.
Gramps
