Questions: Members of the Restored Church speak
of something called progression, where a person can become like Heavenly
Father. Does God really want us to become like Him? Why should I be godly? What is godliness?
“And the members
shall manifest before the church, and also before the elders, by a godly walk and conversation, that
they are worthy of it, that there may be works and faith agreeable to the holy
scriptures- walking in holiness before
the Lord.” Doctrine and Covenants
20:69
“Therefore, what
manner of men ought ye to be? Verily I say unto you, even as I [Jesus Christ]
am.” 3 Nephi 27:27 The Book of Mormon
“I must preach and prophesy unto this people, and
declare the word according to the truth
which is in Christ.” Enos 1:26 The Book of Mormon
Members of the Restored Church believe
that we must become as Jesus Christ is, and that Jesus Christ (who is in the
express image of God the Father) is the truth of godliness.
“For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to
be conformed to the image of his Son,
that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.” Romans 8:29
“Who [Jesus Christ] being … the express image of his [God the Father’s] person. …” Hebrews 1:3
“[G]race and truth
came by Jesus Christ.” John 1:17
“Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the
Father, but by me.” John 14:6
“[T]he acknowledging of the truth which is after godliness.” Titus 1:1
What God the Father
and Jesus Christ are, is the truth, our truth. God is Christ’s Father and your
Father. He is your blueprint for development.
“I [Jesus
Christ] ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your
God.” John 20:17
Your Father wants
you to inherit all that He has, and what that really means is all that He
is. You are meant to be like Him. You
are designed to become like Him. You are
commanded to be like Him. Your essence,
your spiritual DNA, is a portion of Him. Your nature is divine.
“[G]odliness is profitable unto all things, having
promise of the life that now is, and of
that which is to come.” 1 Timothy 4:8
Being like God,
being godly, is beneficial in this life and for the life that will be. To be like God, we must know Him, and His
ways.
“Know the LORD.
…” Jeremiah 31:34
“[S]eek me daily, and delight to know my ways.” Isaiah 58:2
What is godliness? What is God your Father? Your Father is
intelligent.
“[T]he LORD is a God of knowledge. …” 1 Samuel 2:3
Not only is He a
God of knowledge, He is omniscient. Your
Father knows all things.
“Great is our Lord, and of great power: his understanding is infinite.” Psalms
147:5
“The eyes of the
LORD are in every place, beholding the evil and the good.” Proverbs 15:3
Your Father has
infinite understanding. He is mighty in wisdom.
“Behold, God is mighty, and despiseth not any: he is mighty in strength and wisdom.” Job
36:5
Wisdom is putting
knowledge to best use. To achieve His purposes, He uses His infinite
understanding in the best way possible.
You should be
intelligent and wise. Your Father wants you to have understanding. He wants you
to gain knowledge and wisdom.
“The fear of the
LORD is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and
instruction.” Proverbs 1:7
“Receive my
instruction, and not silver; and knowledge rather than choice gold.” Proverbs
8:10
You cannot, now,
know all things as your Father does, but you can continue to learn. Knowledge is gained incrementally, little by
little. Once you have mastered knowledge
in something, you are ready to receive more.
“Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make
to understand doctrine? … For precept must be upon precept,
precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there
a little.” Isaiah 28:9-10
He wants you to
understand things so that you can become strong and be free. Without knowledge
there is captivity.
“And wisdom and knowledge shall be the
stability of thy times, and strength of salvation: the fear of the LORD is
his treasure.” Isaiah 33:6
“Therefore my
people are gone into captivity, because they have no knowledge. …” Isaiah
5:13
What use is
knowledge if you have no wisdom? Your
Father wants you to be wise. A fool can
be knowledgeable, but still a fool.
“The tongue of
the wise useth knowledge aright: but the mouth of fools poureth out
foolishness.” Proverbs 15:2
Having and gaining
wisdom is more valuable than any of the riches of the Earth, and makes your
time on Earth valuable.
“Walk in wisdom
toward them that are without, redeeming the time. Let your speech be alway
with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every
man.” Colossians 4:5-6
“For wisdom is better than rubies; and
all the things that may be desired are not to be compared to it.” Proverbs 8:11
Your spirit comes
from God. As He is a being that is
constantly taking in information, knowing and seeing all, your spirit also
hungers for knowledge and understanding. It is designed to do so.
“And I will give you pastors according to mine heart,
which shall feed you with knowledge and
understanding.” Jeremiah 3:15
“The lips of the
righteous feed many: but fools die for want of wisdom.” Proverbs 1021
Your Father has all
knowledge and is wise. No doubt these attributes are reflected in your Father’s
justice and mercy, for He is just and merciful.
“[A] God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he.” Deuteronomy 32:4
“Justice and
judgment are the habitation of thy throne: mercy and truth shall go before thy
face.” Psalms 89:14
Your Father is the
lawgiver. He ensures heavenly justice
and righteous judgment. He also wants to
forgive. He wants to give mercy to His children.
“Gracious is the LORD, and righteous; yea, our God is merciful.” Psalms 116:5
God looks upon the
heart. Although He is the lawgiver, and His law and judgment cannot be broken,
He loves you and provides mercy to you because He understands what is in your
heart.
“[T]he LORD seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on
the outward appearance, but the LORD
looketh on the heart.” 1 Samuel 16:7
You should also be
just and merciful. You should treat others justly, ensuring that they are
treated fairly so they can understand the true consequences of their actions. Then
in mercy you must help them find a way past their mistakes.
“Thus saith the LORD, Keep ye judgment, and do justice: for my salvation is near to come,
and my righteousness to be revealed.” Isaiah 56:1
“He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what
doth the LORD require of thee, but to do
justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?” Micah 6:8
You cannot see a
person’s heart as your Father does. You
cannot for a surety know of the intents and motivations of a person, but you
must still exercise mercy as your Father does.
“Thus speaketh the LORD of hosts, saying, Execute true judgment, and shew mercy and
compassions every man to his brother: And oppress not the widow, nor the fatherless,
the stranger, nor the poor; and let none of you imagine evil against his
brother in your heart.” Zechariah 7:9-10
“Be ye therefore
merciful, as your Father also is merciful.” Luke 6:36
Your Father is
patient and longsuffering.
“The LORD is longsuffering, and of great
mercy. …” Numbers 14:18
You should be
patient and longsuffering.
“That ye might walk … unto all patience and
longsuffering with joyfulness.” Colossians 1:10, 11
Your Father is
powerful. He is the creator of the universe. He is the author of the infinite
heaven above you and all that is around you. He is omnipotent, having power to
do all things.
“[W]ith God all
things are possible.” Matthew 19:26
“And I heard as it were the voice of a great
multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty
thunderings, saying, Alleluia: for the
Lord God omnipotent reigneth.” Revelation 19:6
You can be powerful
if you trust in your Father. If you have faith in Him, what He is, and what He
says you can do, you can be like Him. He wants His children to be powerful.
“If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall
say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.”
Matthew 17:20
“Oh God, thou art terrible out of thy holy places: the
God of Israel is he that giveth strength
and power unto his people. Blessed be God.” Psalms 68:35
Your Father speaks
only truth. God cannot speak lies. What He says He will do, He will do. There is never any reason for Him to put
forth an untruth. That would be unrighteous.
Truth is strength and power.
Truth is endless. His works reflect truth.
“He is the Rock, his work is perfect: for all his ways
are judgment: a God of truth and
without iniquity, just and right is he.” Deuteronomy 32:4
“For his merciful kindness is great toward us: and the truth of the LORD endureth for ever.
Praise ye the LORD.” Psalms 117:2
“[T]he King of heaven, all whose works are truth,
and his ways judgment. …” Daniel 4:37
You can speak only
truth. You must actively seal truthfulness inside you and never let it forsake
you, and your works will also reflect truth.
“Let not mercy
and truth forsake thee: bind them about thy neck; write them upon the table
of thine heart. So shalt thou find favour and good understanding in the sight
of God and man.” Proverbs 3:3-4
“The lip of truth shall be established for
ever: but a lying tongue is but for a moment.” Proverbs 12:19
“These are the things that ye shall do; Speak ye every
man the truth to his neighbour; execute
the judgment of truth and peace in your gates.” Zechariah 8:16
Your Father is
eternal and unchanging. God’s character is fixed. He does not change.
“Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou
hadst formed the earth and the world, even
from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.” Psalms 90:2
“They shall perish, but thou shalt endure: yea, all of
them shall wax old like a garment; as a vesture shalt thou change them, and
they shall be changed: But thou art the
same, and thy years have no end.” Psalms 102:26-27
“Jesus Christ
the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.” Hebrews 13:8
You should be
stable and steadfast. It is not in your power to be eternal and unchanging now,
but you can be so someday. You must
practice being stable and steadfast in the attributes of godliness. One by one learn to be eternal in something,
and never give up.
“Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the
Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.” 1 Corinthians
15:58
“For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginnings of our confidence steadfast
unto the end.” Hebrews 3:14
Part of becoming
stable and steadfast is learning to be completely patient while waiting for the
Lord. It requires sturdy faith that you will see His promised blessings.
“When thou saidst, Seek ye my face; my heart said unto
thee, Thy face, LORD, will I seek. Hide not thy face far from me; put not thy
servant away in anger: thou hast been my help; leave me not, neither forsake
me, O God of my salvation. … Teach me thine way, O LORD, and lead me in a plain
path, because of mine enemies. … I had fainted, unless I had believed to see
the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living. Wait on the LORD: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine
heart: wait, I say, on the LORD.” Psalms 27:8-9, 11, 13-14
Your Father does
good works. God is the creator of the universe and of life. His works are endless.
“In the beginning God
created the heaven and the earth.” Genesis 1:1
“All things were
made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.” John
1:3
“[A]nd
God saw that it was good.” Genesis
1:10
His works are
wondrous.
“[S]tand still, and consider the wondrous works of God. Dost thou know when God disposed them,
and caused the light of his cloud to shine? Dost thou know the balancings of
the clouds, the wondrous works of him
which is perfect in knowledge?” Job 37:14-16
As God’s child you
should do good works as He does. Every
good work can be a creation of love, hope, and faith. Good works are also a reflection of perfection.
“Even so faith,
if it hath not works, is dead, being
alone. Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy
faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works.” James
2:17-18
“But be ye doers
of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if any be
a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his
natural face in a glass: For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and
straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. But whoso looketh into the perfect law of
liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of
the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.” James 1:22-25
“That the man of God may be perfect,
thoroughly furnished unto all good works.” 2 Timothy 3:17
Your Father is
perfect and holy. God is a being whose acts are always toward
righteousness. His perfection demands
the highest level of respect and honor.
This is reverence. Because He created us we add worship to
reverence.
“As for God, his way is perfect; the word
of the LORD is tried: he is a buckler to all that trust in him.” 2 Samuel 22:31
“[F]or he is an
holy God. ...” Joshua 24:19
You should be
perfect and holy. It may seem impossible now, but you can someday become
perfect and holy as your Father is.
“Make you
perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is
wellpleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ. …” Hebrews 13:21
“Ye shall be
holy: for I the LORD your God am holy.” Leviticus 19:2
“Be ye therefore
perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.” Matthew 5:48
You must rely on
God to help you get to perfection.
“God is my strength and power: and he maketh my way perfect.” 2 Samuel
22:33
God, your Father,
is love
.
“[F]or
God is love.” 1 John 4:8
All His actions are
guided by love. Because He is love He
gives you freedom to choose your path. Because He is love He created laws to
guide you towards behavior that will lift you to higher spheres. His laws exist
to show you correct behavior.
“For whom the
LORD loveth he correcteth; even as a father the son in whom he delighteth.”
Proverbs 3:12
Because He is love He is merciful to you when
you make mistakes.
“For God so loved
the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him
should not perish, but have everlasting life.” John 3:16
Because He is love His works are good. Because He is love He searches out the best
way to help His children, in wisdom. The universe and everything in it exists
because He loves His children.
“[F]or thou hast created all things. ...” Revelation
4:11
“For all things are for your [humanity’s] sakes. …” 2
Corinthians 4:15
“And we know that all things work
together for good to them that love God. …” Romans 8:28
“For thus saith the LORD that
created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath
established it, he created it not in vain, he
formed it to be inhabited: I am the LORD. …” Isaiah 45:18
Truth in love helps
things to grow. To grow you must be nurtured in truth.
“But speaking
the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things…” Ephesians 4:15
You were created in
love.
“The LORD hath appeared of old unto
me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with
an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee.” Jeremiah
31:3
You should be love.
It can be hard to always have a loving heart, but the greatest commandment of
all is for you to love God and then to love others.
“Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus
said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord
thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This
is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt
love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and
the prophets.” Matthew 22:36-40
Loving God more
than anything is the most important thing you can do. This love will guide your actions, and make
you hunger for the righteousness of God.
“Ye that love
the LORD, hate evil: he preserveth the souls of his saints; he delivereth
them out of the hand of the wicked.” Psalms 97:10
This love for Him will help you learn to love
others.
“Beloved, let us
love one another: for love is of God. …” 1 John 4:7
You must learn to
let your actions be guided by love, the kind of love that desires and works to
help others.
Just as you are a
spirit that has a body, God is a spirit that has a body. It is a body completely ruled by His
spirit.
“The Father has a body of flesh and bones as tangible
as man’s; the Son also; but the Holy Ghost has not a body of flesh and bones,
but is a personage of Spirit. Were it not so, the Holy Ghost could not dwell in
us.” Doctrine and Covenants 130:22
Many people teach
that God has no body but is only spirit.
This is not correct. God is a Spirit that has a body.
“For in him we
live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have
said, For we are also his offspring. Forasmuch
then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is
like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man’s device.” Acts
17:28- 29
“Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be
shed: for in the image of God made he man.”
Genesis 9:6
Because we are
God’s offspring, (and we have bodies) we should not think that God can be made
out of gold, silver, or stone. We live and move and have our being. We have
bodies. He also lives and moves, and has His being. We are made in His
image. He has a body.
In the Psalms we
learn more about God.
“Wherefore should the heathen say, Where is now their
God? But our God is in the heavens: he hath done whatsoever he hath pleased. Their
idols are silver and gold, the work of men’s hands. They have mouths, but they
speak not: eyes have they, but they see not: They have ears, but they hear
not: noses have they, but they smell
not: They have hands, but they handle not: feet have they, but they walk not:
neither speak they through their throat.” Psalms 115: 2-7
In another verse
the Psalmist adds this to the list of the attributes of idols:
“[N]either is there any breath in their mouths.” Psalms
135:17
Idols have mouths
that don’t speak, eyes that don’t see, ears that don’t hear, hands that don’t
handle, feet that don’t walk, don’t speak through their throats and have no
breath in their mouths. They are made only of silver and gold. They are false gods. Now reverse that to find what God really is.
God has a body: His
mouth can speak, His eyes can see, His ears can hear, His hands can handle
things, His feet can walk, and there is breath in His mouth. The Eternal God
lives.
“The eternal God
is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms. …” Deuteronomy 33:27
“My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God. ...” Psalms 42:2
“[T]he body
without the spirit is dead. …” James 2:26
“And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the
ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.” Genesis 2:7
“But as touching the resurrection of the dead, have ye
not read that which was spoken unto you by God, saying, I am the God of
Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.” Matthew
22:31-32
Your Father has a
bright glorious body. He has eternal
life, a condition of immortality and creative flesh. He is brighter than the
noon-day sun, and as mentioned before, would burn us if we were in contact with
Him.
“For our God is
a consuming fire.” Hebrews 12:29
“God is light,
and in him is no darkness at all.” 1 John 1:5
“His glory
covered the heavens, and the earth was full of his praise. And his
brightness was as the light. …” Habakkuk 3:3-4
Below is a verse
describing Jesus Christ in comparison to God the Father:
“Who being the brightness of his glory, and the
express image of his person. …” Hebrew 1:3
You can be
glorious. You are God’s child. Like Him, you are also a spirit that has a body.
If you are faithful in all things, if you become godly, if you can understand
and truly know God, you can gain a glorious and eternal body like your
Father’s.
“These words spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to
heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also
may glorify thee: As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should
give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him. And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God,
and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.” John 17:1-3
“Who shall
change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body…” Philippians 3:21
“Because the
creature [mortal human bodies] itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.” Romans 8:21
One of the first
things your Father gave you as His child was freedom to choose, or agency.
Becoming like Him is a learned process. Gaining eternal life is a process. You
chose to try to become perfect as He is perfect. You chose to know God.
“According as his divine power hath given unto us all
things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and
virtue: Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that
by these ye might be partakers of the
divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through
lust. And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to
virtue knowledge; And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and
to patience godliness; And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly
kindness charity. For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that
ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.” 2 Peter 1:3-8
“[A]ccording to the faith of God’s elect, and the acknowledging of the truth which is
after godliness; In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie,
promised before the world began.” Titus 1:1-2
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