a very important question.

what kind of being is god, the father, of whom are all things? if you should be sent into the missionary field to preach the gospel, you would find this one of the most difficult questions you would have to answer. for god is somewhat of a mysterious being in the opinions of most men. very few men have ever claimed to have seen god, or to have held converse with him. and for that which seems mysterious, men like to find hard, complicated answers. the simple truth does not satisfy them.

the truth is simple and easy.

yet, the simple answer is nearly always the right one. a missionary to the south sea islands found himself one day trying to explain to the natives the nature of hail. there is neither hail nor snow nor sleet on the islands. there are really but two seasons—the dry and the wet. when it is wet it rains. the missionary tried by many various roundabout ways to make the natives understand that hail is frozen raindrops. the natives knew nothing about frost. they had no previous knowledge with which to associate his explanation. and, as you know, we cannot understand anything new unless we can tie it up with something that we already know.

the missionary became desperate. finally, he thrust his hand into a bowl of rice standing on the floor, lifted a handful, and allowed it to fall again in a shower to the ground. "hail," he said, "is like that." instantly {30} the natives got the picture. they saw the raindrops turned white and hard, and pelting the earth in their fall. the simple explanation went home.

jesus's explanation of god.

now, jesus's explanation of what kind of being god is, is even more simple and clear than is this illustration of what hail is like. but men have strayed into the worshipping of many different kinds of god, because they have refused to accept the simple truth.

near the close of his mortal life on the earth, jesus delivered a very excellent farewell discourse to his disciples. it is full of words of cheer and comfort. amongst other things jesus said:

"i am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the father, but by me. if ye had known me, ye should have known my father also: and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him.

"philip saith unto him, lord shew us the father, and it sufficeth us.

"jesus saith unto him. have i been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the father; and how sayest thou then, shew us the father?"

the meaning of jesus's answer.

is not this answer very simple and very clear? is there any good reason for mistaking this answer? you hear it said very often of a young man that he is the very image of his father. if you should some day say to a young man, "i should like very much to see your father," what should you think the father looked like, if the young man were to answer, "he that has seen me has seen my father"? {31} could you possibly in reason help thinking that the father and the son were alike?

we know what manner of man jesus was. jesus possessed a body of flesh and bones; or, as john the beloved, said, "the word was made flesh and dwelt among us." besides, jesus was so much like other men that his own people could not see anything different in him. when jesus went into his own country and taught in the synagogue, the people were astonished. "whence hath this man this wisdom," they asked, "and these mighty words? is not this the carpenter's son? is not his mother called mary? and his brethren, james and joses, and simon, and judas?" to his own people jesus was but an ordinary man.

the testimony of paul.

but the disciples of jesus learned to understand what jesus meant by his teaching about god. said paul, "god, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds; who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the majesty on high."

the truth about god.

it is not necessary, then, to go a round-about way to find out the nature of god. the simple explanation is the true one. the god of abraham and of isaac and of jacob—the supreme god of this world—is a person. he possesses a body of flesh and bones. his son is so much like him that {32} he could say in truth, "he that hath seen me hath seen the father." jesus was the express image of god's person.

god is our father.

jesus's favorite name for god was father. this beautiful word means many things to us in the teaching of jesus. first, jesus was really the son of god, and could rightfully speak of him as "my father." but jesus taught us more than that. not only is jesus the son of god—the only begotten in the flesh—but we are all the children of god. he is the father of our spirits, so that we may also rightfully pray to him as "our father who art in heaven." then, if god is really our father, he must have the same kind of feelings for us that fathers always have for their children. indeed, since he is god, his feelings must be deeper and truer than those of any earthly father. jesus put it thus:

"what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone? or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? if ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?"

a real joy to know the true god.

it is a matter of comfort and joy to know the true god—to worship a god whom we can understand, whom we may recognize. it is no wonder that people everywhere become confused when they try to pray to a god who is something yet nothing, who is everywhere yet nowhere, who sits on the top of a topless throne, and so forth. it is no wonder that people are looking for the true god.

{33} "we know that there is a god in heaven, who is infinite and eternal, from everlasting to everlasting the same unchangeable god, the framer of heaven and earth, and all things which are in them—that he created man, male and female, after his own image and in his own likeness, created he them, and gave unto them commandments that they should love and serve him, the only living and true god, and that he should be the only being whom they should worship."

the references

john 14:6-9. heb. 1:1-3.

john 12:45. john 1:14.

matt. 13:35. doc. and cov. 130:22.

col. 1:15. matt. 7:9-12.

phil. 2:6. doc. and cov. 20:17-19.

the questions

1. how do we learn to know things?

2. why have men strayed from the true conception of god?

3. what kind of being is god?

4. what did jesus say god is like?

5. what did his disciples understand jesus to mean?

6. in what sense is god the father?

7. how is he like other fathers?

8. why could you not worship any other god than a personal god?

9. what did jesus teach joseph smith concerning god?