In March 20, 1839, Smith dictated a monarchial monotheistic passage in Doctrine & Covenants 121:32, which reads:
According to that which was ordained in the midst of the Council of the Eternal God of all other gods before this world was.
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.
Source: Footnote 30 of Revisioning Mormon Concept of Diety (2005) by Blake Ostler
This video explains the origin of the name Jehovah and that Bible translations that capitalize the word LORD it means Jehovah. We learn that the word Jehovah (LORD) is used thousands of times in the Bible. In this video we learn that the word "Elohim" is actually a description of the "Divine Species" or heavenly "holy ones" (or divine beings), originating from the LORD (the Deity) who is the Source of all divine beings. So that there is basically no LDS Scripture where there is a distinct character or person with the name Elohim apart from Jehovah and the Divine Council (Elohim).
Distinguishing Between the Only Independent Supreme Being (the Deity or Divine Mind) and the Personages (Forms) of the Godhead
In the Second Lecture on Faith we read that there is clearly only one God, as quoted below (emphasis added):
2 We here observe that God 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: … he is the object in whom the faith of all other rational and accountable beings centers, for life and salvation.
Note the emphasis on fulness and light which will make sense of the meaning of the Holy Spirit in Lecture 5. Lecture 2 continues to cover the "evidences" for God's existence, but interestingly it describes the Godhead itself as part of God's creation:
… 4 We do not mean those evidences which are manifested by the works of creation, which we daily behold with our natural eyes: we are sensible, that after a revelation of Jesus Christ, the works of creation, throughout their vast forms and varieties, clearly exhibit his eternal power and Godhead. Romans 1:20: For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made: even his eternal power and Godhead. But we mean those evidences by which the first thoughts were suggested to the minds of men that there was a God who created all things.
Note that God is the only independent being from which all forms originate, who created "all things," including His Godhead. His Godhead are the personages of the Father and Son which are energized by His Holy Spirit or Divine Mind, which is the Deity's fluid Spirit/Nooma (Mind) as described in Lecture 5.
The Second Lecture then quotes from the LDS Book of Moses chapter 1, where God reveals to Moses how Jehovah appears in the form of the Only Begotten (the image of Jesus of Nazareth), which reads (emphasis added):
6 And the Lord God said unto the Only Begotten, who was with him from the beginning, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and it was done.
… 8 So God created man in his own image, in the image of the Only Begotten created he him …
The Only Begotten here is referring to the Monogene of Jehovah, which is the future earth-born Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus was "in the beginning" with Jehovah only within God's prescient Mind as the Logos (Word of God's power), who only appeared in Old Testament times as a non-actual form of Jesus of Nazareth as basically a holographic Medium. Then the Second Lecture states (emphasis added):
18 Two important items are shown from the former quotations: First, After man was created, ... God conversed with him [Adam] face to face: in his presence he was permitted to stand, and from his own mouth he was permitted to receive instruction—he heard his voice, walked before him, and gazed upon his glory [splendor]—while intelligence burst upon his understanding, and enabled him to give names to the vast assemblage of his Maker's works.
19 Secondly, we have seen, that though man did transgress, his transgression did not deprive him of the previous knowledge with which he was endowed, relative to the existence and glory [splendor] of his Creator; for no sooner did he hear his voice, than he sought to hide himself from his presence.
... 25 though our first parents were driven out of the garden of Eden, and were even separated from the presence of God, by a vail, they still retained a knowledge of his existence, ...
... 30 The object of the foregoing quotations is to show to this class the way by which mankind were first made acquainted with the existence of a God: that it was by a manifestation of God to man, and that God continued, after man's transgression to manifest himself to him and his posterity: and notwithstanding they were separated from his immediate presence, that they could not see his face, they continued to hear his voice.
... 34 The reason why we have been thus particular on this part of our subject, is, that this class may see by what means it was that God became an object of faith among men after the fall; and what it was that stirred up the faith of multitudes to feel after him; to search after a knowledge of his character, perfections and attributes, until they became extensively acquainted with him; and not only commune with him, and behold his glory, but be partakers of his power, and stand in his presence.
Note the emphasis on deification here by being partakers of God's Power in order to stand in his presence and behold his glorious splendor. We also see from these quotes that God became an object (a form) to exercise faith in through the "manifestation" of the Only Begotten. This manifestation of the Lord is always the twin/duplicate image of Jesus of Nazareth (the duplicate seal of Jehovah). As I covered briefly in the introduction to this blog series on the Godhead, the "Angel of the Lord" described in the Old Testament, in LDS Scripture is explained as a manifestation of the image of the earth-born Jesus (but before he was born).
To understand how Jehovah is manifested as the Angel of the Lord which is the appearance of the future earth-born Jesus, see these videos:
Here are some excellent screen shots from Who the Angel of the Lord Is (and What the Angel Does) -- Spiritual Beings Ep. 5 by The Bible Project. In the first screenshot, the Bible Project scholars explain that when Jesus was transfigured on Mount Tabor he was showing them a glimpse of God's former way of manifesting His Form as a “glorious human figure” which was a kind of holographic image of Jesus of Nazareth before he was born:
Note that this "glorious human figure" is not the Father-Jehovah who is a “personage of spirit, glory, and power” in Lecture 5. For the Father as a personage of spirit-matter would not always appear in his luminous form but would often “manifest” Himself through the visionary medium (or icon or avatar) of the actual body of the earth-born Jesus; which is what the Brother of Jared experienced in a visionary state, as he saw the resurrected Jesus as a “body of spirit” (as if a holographic image) before Jesus had even been born of Mary yet, and thus it appeared to be Jesus but clearly was not the actual resurrected Jesus. So that as the Bible Project puts it, "the Angel of the Lord was God appearing like a human," which in LDS Scripture further explains that the human figure appearing in the Old Testament as the Angel of the Lord is the actual earth-born human Jesus (in appearance only as a kind of hologram manifestation, as Jesus had not been born yet). Screen shot from the video with my added words as commentary:
Again, the Angel of the Lord on the left in the image above is not the Father-Jehovah of Lecture 5, but instead it is an avatar of the resurrected Jesus as described in Ether 3.The “Angel or Lord” was the Deity of Lecture 2 manifesting Himself as the express image of the Son (as we read in Lecture 5), for Jesus and Jehovah exactly resemble each other in features and likeness (as we read in the Wentworth Letter).
The Bible Project video then explains that the Angle of the Lord in the Old Testament sits in the tabernacle, and note how the throne in the image below (on the far left) acted as the seat of the icon of God; and then they combine the images from the left to right showing how God manifested Himself as a "luminous human figure" (the Angel of the Lord) as well as the "body of the tabernacle/temple" God dwelled in, and then they show an image of the earth-born Jesus of Nazareth, showing how God revealed himself in visions as the earth-born Jesus before he was born. So that the Bible Project explains that for the New Testament authors, "Jesus was Jehovah (God) become human":
The “Spirit of the Lord” in 1 Nephi 11 is likely the Angel of the Lord, as we read in 1 Nephi 10-11(emphasis added):
I [Nephi] … was desirous also that I might see, and hear, and know of these things, by the power of the Holy Ghost. ... As I sat pondering in mine heart I was caught away . . . into an exceedingly high mountain [Note: the language of entering a visionary state and compare the transfiguration on the Mount of Tabor above] . . . And the Spirit said unto me: Believest thou that thy Father saw the tree of which he hath spoken? And I said: Yea, thou knowest that I believe all the words of my father. And when I had spoken these words, the Spirit cried with a loud voice, saying: Hosanna to the Lord, the most high God. . . . And blessed art thou, Nephi, because thou believest in the Son of the most high God. . . . And . . . thou shalt also behold a man descending out of heaven, and him shall ye witness; and after ye have witnessed him ye shall bear record that it is the Son of God. … to know the interpretation thereof—for I spake unto him [the Spirit]
as a man speaketh; for I beheld that he was in the form of man; yet nevertheless, I knew that it was the Spirit of the Lord; and he spake unto me as a man speaketh with another (1 Ne. 10:17; 11:1, 4–7, 11)
This is exactly what is described as the Angel of the Lord in the Bible and also mirrors the “body of spirit (medium)” of Jesus appearing as if in his actual resurrection-body in Ether 3, thus it being only a Medium of Jesus, a "manifestation" of the resurrected body of Jesus to the Brother of Jared.
From the Second Lecture quoted above, we see that to see God face to face requires a vail removed, which is why Ether 3: 6 says "the veil was taken from off the eyes of the brother of Jared" before he saw a holographic image of the resurrected-Jesus. The reason why God manifests Himself only in visions to the early saints by them being "caught away in the spirit" is because of God's radiant glory (luminous splendor) which like the Sun can't be looked at, i.e. one cannot endure His divine presence without being transfigured into a similar divine substance as He is. This is explained in the Fifth Lecture where the Father-Jehovah is defined and described as a "personage of spirit, glory and power." This word glory is better translated "luminous splendor" which is similar to the radiant Sun which would destroy us if we were to draw too close to the Sun. This is why there is a need for deification (partaking of the divine nature) in order to be transfigured into a noomatic body and thus capable of being in the presence of Jehovah. This is why Joseph Smith speaks of "everlasting burnings in immortal glory" in the King Follet Discourse, by receiving a starry/celestial body of glory explained in D&C 76; so that one can be in the presence of Jehovah's personage of glory (luminous splendor).
Essence & Energies Distinction and Deity and His Perfections (Godhead)
The following excerpts from an article summarizing the doctrine of theosis in Eastern Orthodox Christianity will help us understand LDS theosis:
… To become like God is to acquire divine likeness, to be assimilated to God through virtue, and therefore, to be deified, to become a second god, a god by grace. [“Footnote reads: I said, “You are gods, sons of the Most High, all of you” (Ps. 82:6). “Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your Law, ‘I said, you are gods’?’” (John 10:34).]
… The acquisition of the Holy Spirit [Sacred Nooma] is nothing other than deification. The final goal at which every Christian must aim is to become god, to attain theosis; for Orthodoxy, our salvation and redemption mean our deification. …
… It is important to note that the idea of deification must always be understood in the light of the distinction between God’s essence and His energies, as St Gregory of Palamas stated, viz., union with God means union with the divine energies, not the divine essence. …
… In the mystical union of God and man through deification, the Creator and the creature are not fused into a single being, but remain distinct. …
… We remain creatures while becoming god by grace, as Christ remained God when becoming man by the Incarnation. We do not become God by nature, but created gods, gods by grace or by status. …
… Our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit, and we are to offer them as living sacrifices to God (1 Cor. 6:19, Rom. 12:1).
The full deification of the body must wait until the Last Day, when our redemption will be fully consummated and the righteous will rise from the dead and be clothed with a spiritual, incorruptible body. In that Day, the glory of the Holy Spirit which now shines hidden in the inward man will transfigure our bodies, coming out from within and shining visibly with the light of Mount Tabor. In the meantime, we receive the firstfruits of our redemption, and as such some saints have experienced tokens of the visible, bodily glorification. … the body is sanctified and transfigured together with the soul …
… “God has become man in order that man might become God” – the sentence occurs three times in St. Irenaeus, and again in St. Athanasius, and it becomes common to theologians of all ages. … However weak our attempts may be to follow Christ and keep his commandments [as Christians], of using our will in making choices that conform to the grace of God, we are already in some degree deified. …
… deification is not a solitary but a “social” process. The commandments are summed up in the love of God and the love of neighbor. These two are inseparable, for one cannot fulfill one without fulfilling the other. Only if one loves God – and therefore only if one loves his neighbor – can one be deified. As the Persons of the Trinity dwell in one another, so we must also dwell in our neighbors.
… theosis is practical because love of God and of our neighbors must be practical, i.e., expressed in action. Obviously the process of theosis does not exclude mystical experience, but it certainly includes the service of love. In our efforts, our synergia, we cooperate with the grace of God by conforming not only our minds and hearts to him, but also in imitating his love through actions. …
(Source)
The Lectures on Faith it turns out are very similar to Eastern Orthodox Christian teaching on the Essence-Energy distinction regarding the Godhead. According to wikipedia:
Eastern Orthodox views [on Essence and energy]:
In Eastern Orthodox theology God's essence is called ousia, "all that subsists by itself and which has not its being in another", and is distinct from his energies (energeia in Greek, actus in Latin) or activities as actualized in the world.[8] The ousia of God is God as God is. The essence, being, nature and substance...of God as taught in Eastern Christianity is uncreated, and cannot be comprehended in words. According to Lossky, God's ousia is "that which finds no existence or subsistence in another or any other thing".[9] God's ousia has no necessity or subsistence that needs or is dependent on anything other than itself.[9] It is the energies of God that enable us to experience something of the Divine, ...
This is similar to the LDS Lecture 2 where God is the only independent being out of which all Forms exist. As the Eternal "Essence" or the supreme governing power (per Lecture 2), who is omniscient and omnipresent, the Deity would be the Source of all forms, including the "forms" or personages of the Father and Son in Lecture 5. So that the Deity (Divine Essence) would manifest Himself through His Energies ("Perfections" per Lecture 5) which would be what Lecture 5 calls the Father's "personages of spirit (nooma) and glory," the Son's "personage of tabernacle," and the divine Mind/Spirit as a fluid substance filling people with the divine energy causing the process of noomatic deification. This is why Lecture 7 speaks of LDS Christians undergoing a process of deification and obtaining Jehovah's and Christ's power, fulness, and glory, which can be thought of as Noomatic Gene Therapy.
In the Fifth Lecture it's important to note that the Being of God (the Deity), and the attributes of His omnipresent Nature (or "essence"), is distinguished from the Godhead (the Forms of God). So that the formless/omnipresent Deity manifests in the form of two personages, that the Fifth Lecture says constitutes (or provides form for) the "governing and supreme power" (the Deity). This sounds very similar to the Essence-Energies distinction in Eastern Orthodoxy: in that the only supreme governing power (of Lecture 2) in Lecture 5 is described, in so many words, as the Deity who has formed "two personages": both of which are modeled after the earthly human form of Jesus, born of Mary, a form which the Deity foresaw in His prescient Mind and from which the Deity then formed His personage of glory as Jehovah, a Divine Genome that in turns forms Jesus' earthly Genome. The Deity also manifests as a fluid spiritual "Mind" that literally fills up all personages with the divine glory or divine light, so that they experience divine fulness. So that the personages are essentially energized with the Holy Spirit (the omnipresent Mind/Spirit of God) as the filling fluid energy of the Deity (the Energy of the Divine Essence/Mind) that energizes the personages of the Godhead. So that the luminous glory of the Deity literally fills the forms (personages) of the Father-Jehovah, Christ, and all Christians with the Deity's divine fulness of luminous glory (divine energy and splendor). This is clearly spelled out in the beginning of the Fifth Lecture that states (emphasis added):
[1] In our former lectures we treated of the being, character, perfections and attributes of God. What we mean by perfections [energies?], 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 who constitute [form, compose] the great, matchless, governing and supreme power over all things—by whom all things were created and made, that are created and made, whether visible or invisible: whether in heaven, on earth, or in the earth, under the earth, or throughout the immensity of space—They are the Father and the Son …
This analysis is important for better understanding the Sermon in the Grove and King Follett Discourse. For this information helps us understand that what Joseph Smith very likely meant by the "father" of Jesus' Father (i.e. the father of Father Jehovah), is that Joseph Smith was probably (or at least plausibly) referring to the "father" of Jesus' God Jehovah being the the only supreme governing power (the only Deity) described as the "Father of lights" in Lecture 2. For Joseph could have likely been thinking of the phrase "Father of lights" in Lecture 2 when he gave these sermons in 1844. In fact, just two weeks before Joseph Smith died he re-read and approved of The Lectures on Faith as the authoritative doctrine which be re-published in 1844, as scripture (God's inspired "word" or Standard Works). So that it is likely that what Joseph Smith meant in the Sermon in the Grove and King Follett Discourse, is that the only Deity as a Father of lights would have been the "father" (or progenitor) of Jehovah's "personage of spirit (spirit-matter)," which was a personage of luminous glory like a bright star shining with fire that mortals could not behold and thus a veil covered their eyes; and the only time they saw the Lord was in the form of the Only Begotten (a Medium of Jesus of Nazareth). According the biblical scholars, the apostle Paul associated the noomatic body a Christian fully metamorphizes into at the resurrection, to be a body composed of the substance of the stars, a noomatic material, that shines like the stars. Thus, when Joseph Smith talks about their always being a progenitor of a tree, or a son coming from a father, this very likely was Joseph Smith merely describing the process of deification; with the original Source of all seeds, fathers and sons (or deified beings), would be the single Sun-like Deity. (the Father of lights). Thus "the supreme governing power" of all forms is called the "Father of lights" in Lecture 2. This would not be a coincidence, but in fact intentional by Joseph Smith and the members of the School of the Prophets who said they were inspired in composing The Lectures on Faith to reveal the true doctrines of salvation therein.
First, consider how "According to Heb. 1:3, Christ is the image of God and the effulgence of His glory; therefore, the gospel of Christ is the gospel of the glory of Christ that illuminates and shines forth" (Source). In 2 Cor. 4:4 (RV) we read:
"In whom the god of this age has blinded the thoughts of the unbelievers that the illumination of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, might not shine on them."
Image of Pentecost
Consider these images that present the Deity or Divine Source (Essence) as the Sun shining forth through luminous Energia:
More images here
Christ was the first luminous earth-born being, the firstborn among many luminous siblings. Thus Paul says that Christians are to act out their identity and role as lights or luminaries. The following is from biblehub.com (emphasis added):
Philippians 2:15 (Literal Standard Version):
that you may become blameless and pure children of God, unblemished in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as luminaries in the world
Pulpit Commentary [on Phil. 2:15]:
Among whom ye shine as lights in the world; not "shine," but, as R.V., are seen or appear. Lights; literally, luminaries. The word is used in Genesis 1:14, 16 of the sun and moon. Comp. Ecclus. 43:7 and Wisd. 13:2, "where φεστῆρες ὀυρανοῦ is exactly equivalent to φωστῆρες ἐν κοσμῷ here, the κοσμός of this place being the material world, the firmament; not the ethical world, which has been already expressed by the crooked and perverse nation" (Trench, 'Synonyms of the New Testament').
lights φωστῆρες (phōstēres)[:] Strong's 5458: A light, an illuminator, perhaps the sun; a star; brilliancy. From phos; an illuminator, i.e. a luminary, or brilliancy.
The originating Source of this divine energy of Light forming luminary bodies would be God (the one Deity: the Father of lights). This is why I produced this illustration below and wrote at the bottom that Christians become like the Morning stars (Sons of God) in Job 38: 4-7), and Jesus is described as a luminous star in Revelation 22:16:
For an explanation of how the early Mormon theologians distinguished between the Holy Ghost and the Holy Spirit (Sacred Nooma), 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:
Note that this diagram above aligns well with the Eastern Orthodox doctrine of the Essence-Energies distinction, in that the yellow circles in the diagram above help us visually see the Father of light's "One Divine Fulness" illuminating all personages and forms. As this diagram sums it up, there was one Deity as one Divine Essence/Being, one governing Power, like the Sun as the Source of all light. This omnipresent Divine Power operating through the immensity of space grounds all forms or personages of spirit-matter and energy, through the Deity's Mind (or all intelligent fluid energy), which is the Supreme Source of all divine Fullness (Glory/Splendor), Light (Luminosity) and Truth.
The Sermon in the Grove and King Follet Discourse
So when Joseph Smith in his 1844 sermons and discourses points out that a son always has a father (progenitor), he likely is referring to all personages that become illuminated (deified) as the Sons of God like the Morning stars (Sons of God) in Job 38: 4-7, and Jesus is the bright Morning Star in Revelation 22:16; and in Revelation 21:22-25, from the New American Bible (Revised Edition) we read:
22 [a]I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God almighty and the Lamb. 23 [b]The city had no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gave it light, and its lamp was the Lamb. 24 The nations will walk by its light,[c] and to it the kings of the earth will bring their treasure. 25 During the day its gates will never be shut, and there will be no night there. Footnotes:
[a] Christ is present throughout the church; hence, no temple is needed as an earthly dwelling for God; cf. Mt 18:20; 28:20; Jn 4:21.
[b] Lamp…Lamb: cf. Jn 8:12.
[c] 21:24–27 All men and women of good will are welcome in the church; cf. Is 60:1, 3, 5, 11. ...
So that by a "son" Joseph is likely using the meaning of becoming an illuminated Son, just as Jesus was called the Son of God:
"because he [Jesus] dwelleth in flesh ... having subjected the flesh to the will of the Father ... conceived by the power of God [the "supreme power" per Lecture 2]; and the Son, because of the flesh ... And thus the flesh becoming subject to the Spirit [Nooma/Mind per Lecture 5], or the Son to the Father, being one God [in noomatic energy and Omnicience/All-Mind per Lecture 5]... the will of the Son being swallowed up [filled with divine fulness, see Lec. 5 and 7] in the will of the Father" (Mosiah 15: 2-3, 5, 7, emphasis added).
Jesus is the firstborn among many siblings, as Christians become illuminated "Sons" of God as Paul puts it. Jesus himself becomes the Father of Christians (as their progenitor spiritually) who are His children, as children of the Light of Christ. So the "father" (progenitor) of Jesus's Father would be the Deity of Lecture 2 called "the Father of lights": for the God of Lecture 2 is who begins the process of divine Sons and Fathers, which means Sons as flesh bodies becoming deified by the "fatherly" implantation of the divine seed (DNA) and noomatic fire: as the growth of a Celestial/Starry Family of the filling Divine Light; with the originating Source of this line of seeds into divine beings toward divine fullness, of Sons into Fathers, being the one supreme governing Power: who is the "Father" as the Creator of all fathers (or fatherly Light-makers), the one "Father of lights." For Father-Jehovah Himself is a personage of luminous gloried spirit-matter, as the express/exact image of the Son (Jesus of Nazareth). As I will explain in more detail in another post in this series, the one Deity formed for Himself the very first luminous body as a personage of spirit-matter (known as Jehovah); which body was an exact genomic duplicate of the future earth-born Jesus. For the omniscient Deity foresaw Jesus' entire life on earth and lived every facet of Jesus' life within the Deity's prescient Mind; and thus the Deity visualized Jesus' whole life, his conception, birth, life, death and ressurection, all before Jesus lived it; so that the Deity could transfer this knowledge to the Son (Jesus of Nazareth); and that is why Joseph Smith says in 1844 that that is why Jesus says He only does what He saw the Father do (see John 5:19-20). Jesus was seeing in visions what he himself was about to do, as He saw his own life "flash before his eyes" through the omniscient eyes of the Father. Even though he would have seen his own life, Jesus says he does what he saw "the Father" do because he considers himself to be the Father and Son (as He says of himself in the Book of Mormon), which is explained by the Fifth Lecture and by understanding the Greek language of the New Testament and we realize that Jesus is the Father and Son because they are the same exact duplicate genome.
The the "father" of Jesus' Father then is the originating Sun-like Source of all luminous bodies. This would include the Father-Jehovah's personage, which is the noomatic body of the one Deity (the Father of lights). The Deity, as the Source of all Light first illuminated Jesus as the first "body of flesh" to be swallowed up (filled) by the Divine Light and Fulness (thus He is called the Son, the firstborn Son). Jesus, as the Son of the Light, carries in Him the divine Light, or illuminating Divine DNA; and thus he fathers Christians supernaturally, who become His children as illuminated Sons of God, as the Lights of God; which is why Jesus talks of letting your light shine and in Revelation the light of Christ illuminates a whole city, as God, Christ, and resurrected Christians illuminate their environment. In other words, the only supreme governing power was the "father" (meaning the "creator") of Jehovah's personage (noomatic body) which the Deity formed as a genomic duplicate of the future earth-born Jesus of Nazareth); so that the "father of Jesus' Father (Jehovah)" would be the Father of lights in Lecture 2 (the only only supreme governing power). For all forms or energies originate from the Eternal Essence (the Deity) that forms His perfections or energies, which are His Godhead, Angels, and His luminous Christian Sons and Daughters. As the Deity's Godhead is how He manifests in form, or is how He is composed or constituted per Lecture 5; and then the Deity expanded his Divine Genome, so that Christians partake of His divine luminous nature. I will discuss this in more detail in another blog post on the subject of the King Follet Discourse and Sermon in the Grove in my Godhead blog series.
Unfortunately, Joseph Smith died shortly after giving the Sermon in the Grove and the King Follet Discourse, but he did edit and re-published the Lectures on Faith just two weeks before he died. So we know he approved of the Lectures' content. Thus, had Joseph Smith lived longer I think he would have explained his meaning in this sermons in 1844 to make things clearer, as I have here. He may have even read over the transcripts of his 1844 sermons and edited them or explained things more clearly as to what he exactly meant; or even if the transcripts we have are accurate, he may have changed his mind as he said in those sermons that he was basically speculating and "riffing" so to speak, which many creative types do, and then after creatively exploring ideas will later edit out and fine tune what they want finally published. So that when it came down to to what would be set in stone as doctrine and scripture, if Joseph had lived longer and had edited and polished those 1844 sermons himself, I think its likely we would have completely different published sermons today. Again, Joseph Smith re-edited and re-published The Lectures on Faith in 1844 just before he died, and thus they are his final authoritative doctrinal statement on the Godhead!
If Brigham Young had not later taught that Heavenly Father was Adam in the Garden of Eden (after Joseph died), which many LDS Leaders rejected and led to confusion, I don't think James Talmage would have been commissioned by the Brighamite Leadership to resolve the confusion on the Godhead leading to a new Godhead by Talmage in 1916; which led to the removal of The Lecture on Faith from the Standard Works in 1921 (despite Joseph Smith considering them true doctrine for salvation).
