Critics of Joseph Smith's Godhead theology have long speculated that he changed his mind about the nature of Deity, moving from modalism to binitarianism, to then tritheism. In this blog series I will argue against this idea and instead show that Joseph Smith always taught that Jesus and Jehovah were separate and distinct bodies. As we progress in laying out the evidence, my research will show that Joseph Smith's version of the Godhead is actually largely in line with the modern scholarship of the late Michael Heiser and his Two Yahwehs' position. I think Joseph Smith actually discovered and revealed, in his Restoration Scriptures, the Godhead that is most often presented in the New Testament (especially in the writings of Paul and the Gospel of John).
The First God & The Lectures on Faith
Restoring the Original Doctrine of The Lectures on Faith
The Joseph Smith Papers have produced a scanned copy of the 1844 Doctrine and Covenants, that Joseph Smith published just before he died; which includes The Lectures on Faith which are the doctrine portion of the Doctrine & Covenants. See page 5 here of a scanned 1844 (2nd Edition) D&C, to see how the Lectures are the "Doctrine" portion of the D&C in the original LDS Scriptures.
I believe this is the most authoritative source we have for interpreting what Joseph Smith meant in The King Follett Discourse, because Joseph Smith first took part in composing The Lectures on Faith and publishing them as doctrine bound in the Scriptures in 1835. Then he re-published the Lectures as the doctrine in the canonized Scriptures again in 1844 during the same year he said things like "the father had a father" in The King Follett discourse. Therefore, common sense says that since he published the Lectures as the doctrine in scripture, then they are clearly the most authoritative source for interpreting what Smith said and likely meant in his sermons that same year in 1844 when he republished the Lectures. Therefore, I don't think that Joseph Smith could have been arguing for a regression of gods, an endless cycle of gods with no beginning, no one divine Source; because in 1844, just months before he died, he again republished The Lecture on Faith and in particular Lecture 2:2 teaches the doctrine that there is only one Supreme Being or divine Source (i.e. a "First Cause").
We also have a continuity of thought with the 1844 re-publication of the Lectures, with Joseph earlier mentioning in 1839 that there was one supreme being over heading a Council of lesser gods in D&C 121:32: where he speaks of "the Council of the Eternal God of all other gods before this world was ..." Smith would later describe these lesser gods as Intelligences or spirits in The Book of Abraham, chapter 3. Note that the Divine Council concept is in line with the non-LDS biblical scholar Michael Heiser's scholarship on the biblical Godhead. Parley P. Pratt in turn dealt with "an infinite regress" and sustained the concept of a "supreme being" (First Cause) by interpreting the "Supreme Being" in Restoration (LDS) Scripture as being the the First God or the "Great God": meaning All Nooma (All Divine Spirit-Matter & Energy) as the ground of all Being, the ontological Source from which is formed the noomatic personages of the Father and Son as glorious bodies composed of fluid spirit-matter (nooma), which are the Deity (Supreme Being).
Thus we see that the first LDS theologians understood that there was an originating divine omnipresent Source sustaining all the other divine Forms in existence. Parley's brother Orson Pratt went on to provide the first footnotes to LDS Scriptures, and in D&C 131: 7 he provides a footnote in that verse that explains the meaning of the Father has "a body of flesh and bones" by drawing the reader back to Lecture 5; thus drawing the first LDS readers to conclude that the Father-Jehovah -- whom Joseph prays to in D&C 109 --- has a body of flesh and bone composed of refined spirit matter (see D&C 130: 22 and 131:7). In other words, the Father-Jehovah (as a personage of spirit-matter) is a part of the supreme governing Power's "Godhead," as Lecture 5: 1-2 puts it (emphasis added, words in brackets my own):
[1] In our former lectures we treated of the being, character, perfections and attributes of God. What we mean by perfections, is, the perfections which belong to all the attributes of his nature. We shall, in this lecture speak of the Godhead: we mean the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. [2] There are two personages [Jehovah and Jesus] who constitute [i.e. who form or compose] the great, matchless, governing and supreme power [see Lecture 2:2] over all things ...
The Fifth Lecture goes on to explain that the Sacred Spirit or Mind of the Father, is basically divine nooma/glory (the "Great God" as Pratt put it). As the Father is the form of (is constituted by) a noomatic material energy, i.e. the Father is a "personage of spirit, glory, and power" per Lecture 5; meaning He as a form or personage composed of the supreme Deity's "glory and power": words which signify the Source Deity's omniscient Mind emanating as the omnipresent Holy Spirit (i.e. Sacred Nooma), which functions as an omnipresent fluid substance (or liquid spirit-matter) that pervades all space and time like the rays of light (compare D&C 88). In other words, the supreme Deity of Lecture 2.2, expands His omniprsent nature into the formed personage of Father-Jehovah, which form we shall see is a spiritual/noomatic replica of the not yet born earth-born Jesus.
In the 1876 Doctrine and Covenants, in the Table of Contents, it says on page 420 that one of the important items of instructions (from Joseph Smith) on Feb 9, 1843 (which is D&C 130:1) is that "The savior to appear as a glorious personage in the form of a man." D&C 130:1 in turn reads, "When the Savior shall appear, we shall see him as he is. We shall see that he is a man like ourselves." I believe that this is what Joseph Smith was referring to in the King Follet Discourse: that when you see God you will see him in the form of a glorious personage, i.e. in the form of a man composed of spirit-matter as a noomatic body of flesh and bone.
As mentioned above, in the 1891 Doctrine and Covenants, on page 462, we see that Orson Pratt adds footnote [n] to D&C 130: 22:
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 [n]personage of Spirit. Were it not so, the Holy Ghost could not dwell in us.
Footnote [n] reads: "Lecture 5 : 2, 3." Drawing the reader toward Lecture 5 to interpret this verse. Then on page 463, Orson Pratt provides footnotes to D&C 131:7 directing the reader to his "pamphlet on Absurdities of Immaterialism." Thus providing an explanation for the idea that all spirit-matter and energy has its source from the emanating noomatic glory of the Deity Himself: as all things subsist in His expanding glory, His noomatic fulness, that literally fills all eternity, as He is:
... the only supreme governor, and independent being, in whom all fulness and perfection dwells; who is omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscient; without beginning of days or end of life; and that in him every good gift, and every good principle dwells; and that he is the Father of lights ...
(Lecture 2:2).
For an explanation of how the early Mormon theologians distinguished between the Holy Ghost and the Holy Spirit, and how Pratt understood the omnipresent fluid material substance of the Holy Spirit as emanating from the single Supreme Deity, see this slideplayer presentation: which does an excellent job providing a synthesis of the original LDS Godhead with this one diagram:
As this diagram sums it up, there was one Deity as one Divine Nature, one governing Power, the omnipresent Holy Nooma, as the omnipresent Divine Substance: operating through the immensity of space and grounding all forms of matter and energy by the Deity's nature as an all intelligent fluid energy, the Supreme Source: as all divine Fullness (Glory), Light and Truth.
On the Holy Spirit & Baptism of Fire by Eleanore Lawrence
LDS Cosmology Omni Abide by Joseph Owens
The word Pneuma
In this blog series, instead of typing out the word pneuma, I will instead type out "nooma," which is how you pronounce the Greek word pneuma: which etymologically means wind or breath, which is the fluid material substance through which the Deity emanates and infuses nature and humanity with divine power, intelligence and luminous glory.
Jesus is Not Jehovah (for Jehovah is actually the Father) & "Elohim" is not the name of the Father
LDS scholar Blake Ostler confirms that "Elohim" is not the proper name of the Father according to Scripture, and how Jehovah is the Father: whom Joseph Smith prayed to. In his essay Re-vision-ing the Mormon Concept of Deity, Ostler writes in footnote 30:
I note that there is no scriptural support for the view that Elohim is the proper name of the Father. Indeed, such use contradicts D&C 109 where Joseph Smith refers to Jehovah and Elohim interchangeably. Such usage could be adopted as a mere policy for purposes of keeping the divine persons distinct, but it also creates confusion regarding the identity of members of the Godhead. It must be recognized that no such usage is consistent in either the Bible or the Mormon scriptures.
Joseph Smith & Restoration Scripture never taught the later Doctrine of the literal Spirit-Birth of Souls by Heavenly Parents
Before we proceed, it is important to understand that the original doctrine was that the human soul is uncreated and non-birthed, as Joseph Smith taught. See Blake Ostler's podcast number 92 for details. This is important because the tradition of a "regression of gods" with no Head God (no First Cause or Supreme Being), is largely based on the later idea of "heavenly parents" birthing the souls of humans, which Joseph Smith never taught.
The One Supreme Being, Jehovah & The Divine Council as the "Elohim"
Here is a video of LDS scholar Blake Ostler explaining the original LDS doctrine of Monarchical Monotheism:
Theology Talk Ep 1: Has God Always Been God? Blake Ostler Says Yes by Thoughtful Faith podcast. At the 46 minute mark in the video linked above, they play a video of the Protestant Michael Heiser explaining Jehovah and the Elohim/lesser gods in the Divine Council. In the rest of the podcast, Ostler explains how LDS Scripture actually teaches there is one Deity (or Supreme Being) as the source of all other gods mentioned in LDS theology.
My Thesis in a Nutshell:
The reason that Jesus and the Father often sound like the same being in LDS Scripture is because Jesus is the Monogene of Father Jehovah: meaning Jesus is the only exact reproduction, the only unique gene/genome of Jehovah's noomatic body. Note that Jehovah's personage of spirit often appeared as the "angel of the Lord" in the Old Testament, see:
Who is The Angel of the Lord? (Animation) by Bible Animations
Who is the angel of the Lord? By Got Questions
To further understand the "angel of the Lord" as Jehovah in the form of a Man (before Jesus' birth), see Michael Heiser's lecture Two Powers of the Godhead - May 4, 2013. Basically, there were two Yahwehs/Jehovahs, which in Smith's scriptural language would have been the Deity of Lecture 2:2 and the form of the Father as a personage of spirit in Lecture 5. For a summary of Heiser's scholarship, see digitalseminary.com' summary titled The Second Yahweh.
The Bible's "angel of the Lord" (in the form of a Man), is Jehovah's personage described in Lecture 5. This is not to be confused with the appearance of the resurrected Jesus in Ether 3, which is a kind of holographic form of the not yet earth-born body of Jesus. So there is Jehovah's actual "personage of spirit" explained in the the Fifth Lecture on Faith, which is in the form of a Man as a personage of spirit, a body composed of pneuma (again, pronounced nooma), meaning it's a body composed of spiritual matter or substance. This is not the "body of spirit" described in Ether 3. In Ether 3, the brother of Jared is only experiencing an "appearance" of the risen Lord (Jesus) with nail marks in his hands, but he sees Jesus as he will later appear in the flesh on earth but before Jesus was even born and thus it is not the actual earth-born Jesus (but a vision of the future Jesus). Again, what appears to the brother of Jared in Ether 3, is not the actual resurrected Jesus (as Jesus had not been resurrected yet), but it is a vision of the resurrected Jesus before Jesus is even born; and thus it is meant to be interpreted as someone in Old Testament times seeing the resurrected Jesus in a dream-like visionary state; as the brother of Jared even talks with the risen Jesus yet it is obviously not the actual resurrected Jesus as that Jesus (the resurrected Lord) does not become a reality until later in the text when he actually appears to the Nephites in 3 Nephi. This is why in Ether 3: 17, Moroni says the following (my words in brackets), "... Jesus showed himself unto this man [the Brother of Jared] in the spirit [i.e. in a dream-like vision], even after the manner and in the likeness of the same body [the same resurrected body, nail marks and all] even as he showed himself unto the Nephites [referring to when Jesus would later visits the Nephites, centuries later in 3 Nephi in a resurrected body after being crucified in the flesh and rising from the dead]." Thus, we can see that, again, the tangible noomatic body of Father-Jehovah (composed of spirit-matter described in the Fifth Lecture) is is not what appeared to the brother of Jared in Ether 3.
The Fifth Lecture explains that the Father's personage of spirit (as He appears in the Old Testament) is basically the express image and likeness of the future (noy yet born) earth-born Jesus. What this means is that the Deity of Lecture 2:2, foresaw within His omniscient mind, the genetic formation of Jesus of Nazareth (born of Mary), and that earthly form would be the personage of the Deity; as the Deity formed for Himself a noomatic genome (personage) composed of spirit-matter as an exact noomatic twin replica of the future earth-born Jesus. In the words of the Fifth Lecture (click on the links I added to learn more about the meaning of the words and phrases used):
[The Deity's] Godhead ... [is] the two personages [of the Father-Jehovah and Son/Jesus] who constitute [i.e. form or compose] the great, matchless, governing and supreme power [see Lecture 2:2] ... The Father being a personage of spirit, glory and power ... The Son, who was in the bosom of the Father, a personage of tabernacle, made, or fashioned like unto man, or being in the form and likeness of man, or, rather, man was formed after his likeness, and in his image;—he is also the express image and likeness of the personage of the Father: possessing all the fulness of the Father, or, the same fulness with the Father; being begotten of him ... and is called the Son because of the flesh ... The Father and the Son possessing the same mind, the same wisdom, glory, power and fulness: Filling all in all—the Son being filled with the fulness of the Mind, glory and power, or, in other words, the Spirit, glory and power of the Father—possessing all knowledge and glory, and the same kingdom: sitting at the right hand of power, in the express image and likeness of the Father—a Mediator for man—being filled with the fulness of the Mind of the Father, or, in other words, the Spirit of the Father: which Spirit is shed forth upon all who believe on his name and keep his commandments: and all those [Christians] who keep his commandments shall grow up from grace to grace, and become heirs of the heavenly kingdom, and joint heirs with Jesus Christ; possessing the same mind, being transformed into the same image or likeness, even the express image of him who fills all in all: being filled with the fulness of his glory, and become one in him, even as the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are one.
In other words, the Old Testament Jehovah, as a personage of spirit-matter, as a noomatic genome, a personage of glorious spirit-matter, created an exact copy of Himself (His Genome) when forming Jesus on earth; so that we read above that Jesus is Father-Jehovah's express image and likeness; but the formation of Jesus as a duplicate seal of Jehovah in the flesh, was to be a combination of noomatic material and human flesh. In this way, Jesus was both the Father and the Son (Flesh), that is Jesus was Father-Jehovah incarnate (as Jehovah's duplicated genome, His express image): a mirror image and a copy, formed/molded into flesh. In other words, Jesus is an exact duplicate of Jehovah's personage of spirit but imprinted onto flesh as an exact twin duplicate seal of Jehovah's divine genome as the Unique Monogene (Only Begotten). Thus Jesus is part divine, part flesh, and basically an "identical twin" of Jehovah. Jesus is thus called the only begotten, which actually means basically the only same genome copy of Jehovah's noomatic personage; as in Jesus is an exact copy, i.e. a cast image molded into human flesh, and is called the Son due to his formation in flesh as Jesus of Nazareth. This is explained in much more detail in my blog post titled, Jesus as a Duplicate Seal (Facsimile) of Jehovah: the Only Monogene of the Father ...
As a twin duplicate, Jesus is also a separate and distinct personage and unique person (separate from the Father-Jehovah) with his own separate life lived on earth. Jesus as a man on earth is separate from the Father, who is a personage of spirit (a noomatic personage) in heaven. Thus Jesus prays to his Father (Jehovah) while Jesus is on earth. Meanwhile, Jesus says plainly in John 14: 8-10 that he who has seen him has seen the Father-Jehovah, and this is because they are one genome, an identical twin duplicate of each other.
So to summarize and recap, the Deity of Lecture 2:2, as the Head God of D&C 121:32, formed a noomatic body to dwell in as the "angel of the Lord" in the Old Testament, who was Jehovah (the Father as a "personage of spirit" in Lecture 5). Jehovah, as a spirit body then duplicated himself: essentially copying his divine genome as a noomatic body and molded himself, his genome, into a duplicate body composed of earthly human flesh which was Jesus of Nazareth (who wad called the Son because of the flesh). Jesus was literally both the Father and the Son as an exact genome of the Father. In other words, Jesus is the Father "because he was conceived by the power of God" (Mosiah 15:3). Note that the 1828 Dictionary defines conceieved as "Formed in the womb; framed in the mind; devised; imagined; understood." In other words, Jesus' flesh-body was formed in Mary's womb by the creative power of God. As in Jesus was formed by God's power and molded into the "express image and likeness of the personage of the Father" (Lec. 5). This is why in Luke 10:22/23 in Joseph Smith’s translation (or revision) of the Bible he changed the origional verse in the KJV to read:
“All things are delivered to me of my Father: and no man knoweth that the Son is the Father, and the Father is the Son, but him to whom the Son will reveal it.”
This revision/translation was done I think to emphasize that to see the Son's body was to simultaneously see the Father's body, because the Son is the exact duplicate genome of the Father, i.e. Jesus is basically an "idenditcal twin" of the Father. This is because again, Jesus was concieved (formed) in Mary's womb by God's molding power, wherein Jesus was molded into an exact twin duplicate of God's genome (as the Unique Monogene, i.e. Only Begotten).
Yet being born of Mary and growing up as a human, Jesus developed his own separate identity and personality as the Word (Logos) made flesh, yet they (Jehovah and His Logos) remain identical as One Genome.
Evidence that God created or manufactured a replica of his noomatic personage and divine nature (DNA) can be found all throughout the New Testament. For example, see Rev. 3:14 (EXB). The Fifth Lecture on Faith in turn quotes other New Testament passages of this sort.
So the Father-Jehovah is a personage of spirit as the identical twin image of the earth-born Jesus; Jehovah as a personage of spirit-glory (nooma), the "angel of the Lord" discussed above, a blueprint noomatic replica of the flesh body Jesus of Nazareth, i.e. the identical twin image (in the form of spirit-matter) of the earth born Jesus of Nazareth. But Jehovah is a "father" in that his genome conceived/formed Jesus, who is only called the Son due to his flesh body (see Mosiah 15: 1-5).
So Jesus and Jehovah are identical twins basically, and again the phrase "only begotten" literally means "only unique gene/kind." So that only Jesus is the unique gene, or only genome, of Jehovah. Christians in turn are not the only unique gene of Jehovah, but are only adopted into the divine family and partake of the divine genetic nature of Jehovah through Christ's seed implanted in them, as we read in Peter that Christians are to "partake of the divine nature (DNA)."
The understanding of Heiser's two Jehovahs, makes sense of the Lectures on Faith which are about the Deity and what constitutes His godhead: as the Deity is a Divine Genome ("species unique" as Michael Heiser puts it), composed of his personage of spirit (the form of Jehovah the Father) as His body of spirit composed of noomatic material, energy and power; and the Only Begotten Son, meaning the Only Unique Gene (i.e. Jehovah's duplicated Genome). Put another way, Jesus of Nazareth is the identical twin of Father Jehovah: who is the first fruits (genus) of God's Genome replicating itself; as Christians are adopted into this Divine Species by receiving God's DNA (sperma) through the nooma.
I put together the following illustration to summarize all this information so far:
In the next section below, I will explain in more detail how Jehovah's noomatic body was an exact mirror image of Jesus (a body of flesh born of a woman).
The Deity of Lecture 2:2 Foresaw Jesus being Born on Earth & then the Deity constituted (formed) for Himself the Form of Jehovah (a personage of spirit) based on the Form of the future Earth-Born Jesus
So a major difference between my view and that of Blake Ostler, is that Ostler believes that there is a mortal father of Jehovah, but that there is no father deity above Jehovah and that Jehovah the Father is the only Supreme Being. Ostler thinks Jehovah created his own earth before Jesus' birth and formed mortal parents for himself and chose to experience being born a human and life as a human; and that's how he as the Father has a father (as Joseph Smith says in the King Follet Discourse). Hence, Ostler thinks that Jehovah was not literally birthed by Heavenly Parents and has always basically been the only supreme being of Lecture 2:2.
My view is that what Joseph Smith could have likely meant in the King Follet discourse is that the Father (Jehovah) had a father in that if you read the Second Lecture on Faith, it refers to the only Supreme Being (Deity) as the "Father of lights," and thus the Deity "fathered," i.e. formed or molded a noomatic personage of spirit (Father-Jehovah) to dwell in. So technically the Father-Jehovah (as a personage) had a "father" (a molder of the personage of Jehovah) which was the Deity Himself (the "Father of lights"). So the Deity as the only supreme governing Power "fathered" His own personage of spirit, which is called the Father in the Fifth Lecture on Faith. Jesus in turn had a "father" because Jehovah's divine genome was used to create (i.e. "father") the earthly body of Jesus of Nazareth. Hence, Revelation 3:14 refers to the resurrected Jesus as "the ruler of all God has made [1:5; Prov. 8:30–31] ..." In other words, the Deity and His Logos made Jesus as the Monogene. So I think what Joseph Smith likelyn meant in scriptural context in the King Follet Discourse, is that the Father of Jesus (who is Jehovah) had a father (a progenitor) which was the Deity as "the Father of lights" (Lecture 2:2, emphasis added). So I think what Joseph Smith likely meant was that the Father-Jehovah had a "father" in the sense that as a molded personage of spirit-matter, Jehovah's spiritual/noomatic form was formed and thus he had a fathering-source (progenitor) which was Himself as He is the Deity of Lecture 2:2 (the Father of lights). In other words, the Ultimate Father of all the lights/lesser gods, that is the "Head God over all other gods" (D&C 121:32), which was the supreme governing power, formed for Himself a noomatic body named Jehovah, as a personage of spirit, modelled after His foreknowledge of the future form of Jesus of Nazareth. This "fathered"/formed body of spirit (Jehovah) became the Deity's personage of spirit, and He then duplicated his noomatic DNA (Genome) and thus "fathered" (formed) the Son/Jesus; and thus Jesus has a "father" (progenitor) or a source, as does the "form" of Jehovah, which is the Deity (the First Cause, or Supreme Being); and in turn, Christians become sons of God and Jesus becomes their "father" and they are the children of Christ as the Book of Mormon puts it. In other words, the terms "father" and "son" are really about seeding the Deity's divine nature (DNA) and replicating His image and countenance; and the original Source of this divine Image is the Deity of Lecture 2, the only Supreme Being.
In the next post here in this series on the LDS Godhead, I will provide further evidence from biblical scholarship and the Greek language of the New Testament, demonstrating that Jesus is an exact duplicate (like a wax seal) of the Father as the Monogene of the Father; and Christians in turn are adopted into the Divine Genus through the spiritual sperma of Christ that is carried through the fluid nooma breathed out by Christ onto his disciples and thus transmitting Jehovah's Divine Genes. As Jenn Arimborgo puts it:
Did you know that the Bible talks about the elements of gestation in a spiritual sense? I recently came across this verse in my personal studies:
"No one born (begotten) of God [deliberately, knowingly, and habitually] practices sin, for God’s nature abides in him [His principle of life, the divine sperm, remains permanently within him]; and he cannot practice sinning because he is born (begotten) of God" (1 John 3:9, AMPC, bold emphasis mine).
Other Bible versions use the term "seed" instead of "sperm" in this verse. That probably sounds a little less edgy, more polite. However, the actual Greek word in the Apostle John's original writing is transliterated sperma. This word, sperma, is translated "seed" in other New Testament passages, referring to what a farmer sows in the ground. In still others, sperma is rendered "descendants" or "offspring." However, in this verse, the wording "divine sperm" is clearly an accurate translation of the concept John was bringing to us when he penned the word sperma.
We can see this by the context: being born of God. Sperm and birthing are closely related ideas. Just as I was engendered by my physical father's seed, so I was born a second time, in spirit, by my heavenly Father's seed. Just as my dad's DNA is reflected in every cell of my body, so God's sperma remains in the makeup of my spirit and defines who I am. Here is another Scripture that utilizes the same illustration:
"You have been regenerated (born again), not from a mortal origin (seed, sperm), but from one that is immortal by the ever living and lasting Word of God" (1 Pet. 1:23, AMPC, bold emphasis mine).
So I think that when Joseph Smith asks rhetorically in the 1844 King Follet Discourse, "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?" I think he means that a father as a progenitor carries the seed/sperma, and thus he is referring to these Scriptures quoted above. For Jesus is the eternal tree (or true vine) that acts as a resurrection-life-giving seed (see John 12:23-25). Just as Jesus is the true vine, and his Father [Jehovah] is the husbandman (or Farmer/Vinedresser) in John 15:1, in The Lectures on Faith (that Joseph re-edited and re-published in 1844) the Deity is the originator (farmer/cultivator) as the Father of lights in Lecture 2:2, that formed the Father-Jehovah (a noomatic body) molded in the image of the future earth-born Jesus; while Jehovah is the progenitor of Christ and Christ is the father of Christians as the prototype of a saved being (see Lecture 7).
Again, remember that Joseph republished the Lectures on Faith that same year as the King Follet Discourse in 1844, which Lectures clearly explain that there is only one supreme being: as in the Deity (or "Farmer" of lesser gods) is basically replicating (spiritually seeding/"fathering") his divine genome (through his personage of spirit, glory and power); and shedding forth and pouring into people His genes/seed through the fluid nooma: filling up Christ first (as the Monogene) who recieved of the Deity's "fulness" (genes, nooma and luminous glory); so that LDS Christians too are likewise "to be partakers of the same fulness, to enjoy the same glory" (Lec. 5) by recieving the divine seed and luminous glory through Christ: as Christ became an immortal-life-gene-carrier, or as Paul puts it, Christ "became a life-giving spirit" (1 Corinthians 15:45), and as the Johanine community put it, Christ "came ·to give life [L that they might have life]—life in all its ·fullness [abundance]" (John 10:10 EXB). Jesus as a resurrected "holy being/genome," and luminous being, is the prototype of a saved being per Lecture 7; for Jesus, as the resurrected Christ, is a duplicate of Jehovah's genome (sealed/molded into flesh); so that Jesus' resurrection-body carries divine DNA and He seeds (implants) the divine seed/DNA into Christians noomatically, in order to transform them into noomatic resurrect-able bodies: as Christians are noomatically transformed into members of God's Family in the Divine Council through the spiritual gestation-like process of theosis.
This is of course only a very brief summary introduction. I will go into more detail and provide further evidence and analysis in future blog posts in the series.
