In the article, Was Joseph Smith
A Monarchotheist? by Loren Pankratz, on pages 43-45, we read (emphasis added):
… in the winter of 1834–35, lectures were given in Kirtland, Ohio that served as an early attempt to “formulate a systematic Latter-day Saint
theology.”[18] These lectures were published in the Church’s newspaper in May of 1835, and “All seven lectures were published together later
that year in the first edition of the Doctrine and Covenants, the lectures constituting the ‘doctrine,’ and Joseph Smith’s revelations, the covenants.’”[19] While it is debated whether or not Joseph Smith personally delivered all of the lectures, the “inclusion of the lectures in the
Doctrine and Covenants in 1835 strongly suggests that Joseph Smith approved of the content of the lectures.”[20] [[Note: Joseph Smith also edited the 1844 edition of the Doctrine & Covenants and in that 1844 edition Smith republished the Lectures on Faith as the Doctrine]]. These lectures have been said to represent the “breadth and depth of the mind of Joseph Smith.”[21]
“Lecture Fifth” of the Lectures on Faith teaches that Jesus [born of Mary as part human born of flesh, see Mosiah 15], having overcome, “received a fullness of the glory of the Father.”[22] Later, in “Lecture
Seventh” of the Lectures on Faith, it is taught that Jesus Christ is the prototype of a saved and glorified person. He is the example for us to
follow, a person who, through faith, “has become perfect enough to lay hold upon eternal life.”[23]
This early summary of the theology Joseph Smith developed depicts Jesus [as an earth-born human] advancing from having a non-deified status [as flesh] to being one who takes hold of eternal life, having received a fullness of glory. ... [Christ] becomes the archetype [a] trajectory ... to divinity.
Footnotes:
18. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Church History Topics,
“Lectures on Theology (“Lectures on Faith”), https://www.churchofjesuschrist
.org/study/history/topics/lectures-on-faith/. Robert Millet calls the Lectures on
Faith a “systematic study of faith.” See, Robert L. Millet, Precept Upon Precept:
Joseph Smith and the Restoration of Doctrine (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book,
2016), 217.
19. “Lectures on Theology.”
20. “Lectures on Theology.” See also Charles R. Harrell, “This Is My Doctrine”:
The Development of Mormon Theology (Salt Lake City: Greg Kofford Books,
2011), 121. Harrell claims that the consensus concerning authorship of the Lectures on Faith is that Joseph Smith “ultimately endorsed their contents and
sanctioned their publication.” Joseph Fielding Smith reminds the reader that
the Lectures “were not taken out of the Doctrine and Covenants because they
contained false doctrine,” and that “the Prophet himself revised and prepared
these Lectures on Faith for publication; and they were studied in the School
of the Prophets.” See Joseph Fielding Smith, Seek Ye Earnestly (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Company, 1970), 194.
21. Millet, Precept Upon Precept, 236.
22. Joseph Smith Jr., Lectures on Faith (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Company,
1985), 60.
23. Smith, Lectures on Faith, 75.
