The following Godhead theology is a combination of mainly the ideas of Joseph Smith and the "Pratt Brothers" (Orson Pratt and Parley P. Pratt), as well as Orson Hyde and a few other early LDS Apostles. In brief, I call it the Smith-Pratt Godhead theory.
I'm going to start with a very brief bullet point summary of the Smith-Pratt Godhead on the The First God & Intelligences Evolving into a Plurality of Gods:
- An intelligence has several definitions or meaning in LDS scripture and theology, which are as follows:
(1) An intelligence is a mini particle of spirit-matter (a kind of "spirit-atom") that are lesser than conscious spirit-minds (see #2 below) yet as spirit-atoms are agential phenomena emanating from the Deity.
(2) An intelligence is a greater intelligence as an eternal uncreated mind, an autonomous spirit or soul (a free agent with consciousness and identity) co-eternal with God.
(3) Intelligence is all truth and light and fluid fulness of God. The one independent Deity (the Father of all lights/intelligences) is eternal yet is also a personage Himself: a conscious being composed of "spirit atoms" and these mini intelligences (spirit-atoms) emanante from the First God and shines within and throughout everything: from stars and planets to humans infused with intelligence (or light and truth).
- All of creation has its source in the one Deity, the original Supreme Intelligence or Divine Consciousness (the First God of all other intelligences and Gods): This First God is called the Deity, the supreme governing power, as described in Lecture on Faith #2; this supreme eternal consciousness governs over all lesser consciousnesses or intelligences: as both spirit-atom particles and intelligences as mind-souls that become human personages.
- The mini intelligences combine with inert matter to form plants and objects and human bodies but the mind or soul of man is eternal and exists apart from the substance of the spirit-atoms/mini-intelligences.
- The mini intelligences (spirit-atoms) under the direction of the Deity as a spirit personage (Father Jehovah), interact and bond with inert matter to form our universe. This is how God performed miracles and created the world: by communicating with the mini intelligences which co-combine with inert matter forming every material form, and/or transforming one form into another form (as in the evolution of species through theistic evolution), including "turning water into wine" and transforming human souls into celestial bodies (per 1 Corinthians 15, D&C 76 and 132).
To support and explain this origional Godhead doctrine found in the original LDS Scriptures, I will be providing excerpts from articles and slideshares and video presentations by LDS members and Mormons who provide quotes and journal entries from the original prophets and apostles of the LDS Church.
What I began to notice as I did my research, is that this concept of God and the Godhead harmonizes all LDS scriptures and the collective witness or concensus of the teachings of the origional prophets and apostles all together. Not only does this Godhead theology harmonize all of the scriptures and various quotes and sermons by LDS prophets and apostles from the 1800s, it especially matches what Joseph Smith himself said and taught. As well as this Godhead theology also having doctrinal support in The Lectures on Faith which were the original doctrine of the LDS Church, voted on by common consent and signed and canonized into scripture by the First Presidency in 1835 (which included the signature of Joseph Smith): which was a canonized collective witness (doctrinal statement of belief), stating that the Lectures on Faith were important in providing the doctrines of salvation and the beliefs of the LDS Church. Meanwhile, it is important to note that these canonized Lectures were canonized after being reviewed and edited by Joseph Smith in 1844 just before he died. The fact that Joseph Smith chose to re-canonize the Lectures as the beliefs and doctrine explaining all LDS scripture in 1844, is important to keep in mind as we proceed.
I am emphasizing the importance of The Lectures on Faith because I personally think that Joseph Smith found a way to harmonize their content with his latest 1840s revelations -- found in D&C 130, 131, 132, Abraham 3-4, and his 1844 Sermons -- and that is why I think that after re-editing them he chose to re-cannonize them as doctrine in scripture in 1844. I also think its plausible, that for Joseph Smith, the Supreme Deity, the Father of Lights, described in Lecture 2, and the Deity's Mind (Holy Spirit) that constituted the forms/personages of the Godhead (the Father and Son) in Lecture 5, explained the the line of Father Gods with an original First God (the Deity of the Lectures) that began the chain of Gods.
The First God of All Other Gods
Today, after James Talmage formed his own understanding of the Godhead in 1916, there is little mention by the LDS Church (or Brighamite sect) regarding Joseph Smith's teaching about a potential First God. Yet we know Smith likely believed in a First God (as the originating divine Power of all other Gods/gods, based on his re-cannonizing the Lecturess on Faith in 1844).
The fact is Smith began publically teaching on intelligences and the Plurality of Gods in 1843. Just a year later he died. So he did not have time to articulate a cohesive theology. But we do know that he did mention a First God of all other Gods/gods, which is covered by LDS scholar Blake Ostler (and I will cover below). What we also know is that several LDS Apostles wrote about the concept of a First God, including Brigham Young (which I will discuss below). Thus, I think the preponderance of evidence points to the most probable position that Joseph Smith believed in a First God: from which emanates all intelligence(s) and the formation of other Gods/gods.
To start, we find the belief of a First God from Orson Pratt, the brother of Pareley P. Pratt (who worked closely with Joseph Smith as a theologian up to the day Smith died in 1844). In his article A Mormon Theogony, Nate Oman writes:
The closest we generally get to discussion of the birth of the gods is when we ask the peculiarly Mormon question of how God progressed to become God. Orson Pratt, however, did get down to more fundamental questions of origins.
I have been reading Wilford Woodruff’s diary, and I came across an interesting passage. He is describing the journey of the first band of pioneers to the Salt Lake Valley. You have always wondered, of course, about what they talked about as they walked for days and days. (The pioneer children, we all know, sang.) As it turns out, they spent much of their time engaged in theological speculation. On June 26, 1847, Wilford recorded the following conversation with Orson Pratt in his journal [[note: orgional misspellings were edited by me with my words in brackets to add commentary]]:
Then the question arose how did God receive his present formation? The answer given by Professor Pratt was something in the following language:
He says I throw out my ideas not as doctrine but for you to look at. You know when a Chemist goes to work to analize or try new experiments they often have to try many times before they put a thing perfect and take certain processes which are unnecessary and are afterward laid aside; and pursue the most perfect course that can be pursued. It may reasonably have been the case with the first being formed which may be called God. As eternity was filled as it were with particles of intelligence who had their agency, two of these particles in process of time might have joined their interest together, exchanged ideas, found by pursuing this course that they gained [doubled in?] strength to what one particle or intelligence would have and afterwards were joined by other particles and continued until they formed a combination or body through a long process. Yet they had power over other intelligences in consequence of their combination, organization and strength. And in the process of time this being, body or God, seeing the advantage of such an organization desired company or a companion and having some experience goes to work and organizes other beings by prevailing [over] intelligences to come to gather and may form something better than at first. And after trials of this kind and the most perfect way sought it was found to be the most expeditious and the best way to receive their formations or bodies either spiritual or temporal through a womb. [[...]]
For those of you who worry about such things, Wilford does write, “And Any person who should chance to read these lines I wish them to understand that the Ideas given upon these points were not given as doctrin but opinion untill sumthing better should present itself or be decided by revelation.” It occurs to me that there might be a valuable Mormon apologetic in this discussion. We tend to love faith promoting stories that take the form of “modern science has shown X, but we knew X by revelation long before modern science.” The most common example would be the stories we tell about the Word of Wisdom. Here we have Orson Pratt talking about the random evolution of complex intelligent life from a primordial soup a full twelve years before the publication of On the Origin of Species!
From the comments section of the above aricle:
Sci says (May 17, 2004):
Wow! Chemistry and primordial soup explain the origins of God. It is interesting how empirical and experimental the whole process sounds. My kind of God. Very cool, thanks for the reference Nate.
I would also like to point out the hint of natural selection: “they gained [double?] strength to what one particle or intelligence would have.” While not the full-blown concept that appeared in Darwin’s book, this idea does seem to imply some level of competition amongst intelligences.
One thing that is odd is that Pratt’s picture sounds to me like intelligences conglomerating until they reach some critical mass of intelligence in a lump that then thinks, “wait, I have a better idea, we could remake us faster if we did X Y and Z instead.” In contrast, origin of life researchers emphasize self-replication–early on, RNA became able to copy itself, and further developments occurred in an arms race to form better self-replicating systems. Pratt’s idea seems more like things sticking together and then replication being an afterthought. I have to say I favor Leslie Orgel in this case… the agglomeration model just seems too wildly improbable. But I suppose I shouldn’t take these wild speculations of Pratt (esp. his analogies) quite so literally.
... Jason says:
Let’s have some more Starwars-Gospel parallels.
“The scientific Star Wars explanation,” says Lucas, “is that the meta-chlorines can hear the Force, and they communicate with cells, and cells communicate with your consciousness.”
... clarkgoble says:
Pratt’s view was slightly different from a community of intelligences – depending upon what one means by that. The spirit is a collection of intelligent atoms, all in harmony in terms of unified dispositions. This spirit is in each divine being and they are unified with it.
Sheri Lynn says:
May 17, 2004 at 11:25 pm
“they gained [double?] strength to what one particle or intelligence would have.”
Double-stranded DNA comes to mind.
Take two complementary strands of RNA, methylate all the uracils, anneal them together within a lipid bilayer or two…and call me in the morning. :-)
Phooey. The electron was designed. Nothing by chance…except how many times I click on the post button.
Mark Butler says:
... We need free will somewhere, though, so the conventional LDS alternative is to adopt the idea of discrete intelligences, one per person, using a non-naive dualism of active and passive entities synechistically coupled together. The most well known representative of this view in Mormon history is B.H. Roberts, of course.
Where does theogony come in to this? Well, on the Smith / Smith / Roberts view, personal intelligences are self-existent in essence, uncreated, everlasting, and eternal (cf. D&C 93:29), so theogony in the fundamental sense is a mute issue. How the Most High came to acquire a (spirit) body is a much more interesting issue, of course. LDS views seem to divide into three categories:
Platonism, Accidentalism, and Intelligent Design.
Infinite _backward_ recursion (a la Young, Pratt, Roberts) pretty much holds that the term “Most High” applies to an infinite number of divine persons, that every exalted father becomes El Elyon to his posterity. This inevitably entails Platonism of some sort, eliminating divine discretion over anything really important, like the human form or the plan of salvation. Somehow God as Author sounds more appealing than God as Adept. This weakness is well known to orthodox Christian commentators in and out of the Church.
Theologies like those of Ostler and Paulsen lack this devastating weakness. One might of course, attempt to repair Brigham Young’s cosmology by interpreting the Hebrew notion of El Elyon, the Most High, the “Eternal God of all other gods” (D&C 121:32), in the natural sense – the one who righteously presides over the whole host of heaven – elected, sustained, chosen, upheld, it doesn’t really matter (cf. D&C 29:36). ...
As we can see from these comments, thinking Mormons are aware of the First God doctrine. I would add that it is more than just speculation, for Joseph Smith himself likely believed in a First God, for he republished the 2nd and 5th Lecture on Faith as the official doctrine on the Godhead. I believe that when Joseph Smith spoke in D&C 121:32 of the Head God of all other gods, he was referencing the Supreme Governing Power, the omnipresent Deity of Lecture on Faith #2, which is the Eternal Mind of Lecture #5.
Orson Pratt seems to have saw the connection as well, for in the 1891 Doctrine & Covenants, Orson puts a footnote in section 130:22 directing the reader to Lecture 5: 2-3. What this would have meant in the context of the origional LDS canon of Scripture and Orson Pratt's theology, is that the body of flesh and bone -- that composed (or constituted) God the Father's spirt personage (per Lecture 5) -- was made of the fluid substance of the Holy Spirit, which was a fluid substance composed of spirit-atoms. So that Pratt’s footnote above was designed to synthesize the doctrine of the Lectures on Faith with Joseph Smith's teachings on the embodiment of God the Father. This will make more sense as we proceed.
Joseph Smith and the others Apostles were likely influenced by the book A Philosophy of a Future State: which emphasized the mind or intelligence of man being capable of continual enlightenment and expansion into the eternities; so that any knowledge and intelligence acquired on earth would continue into the heavens. So Joseph spoke on how the glory ("splendor") of God is intelligence and a man is "saved" no sooner that he gets knowledge.
This elevation in knowledge can be tied back to Lecture on Faith #5, wherein the LDS Christian is described as receiving the same Mind as that which binds and unifies the Father-Jehovah and the Son (Christ) together as one. This Mind is the Holy Spirit, which Parley and Orson Pratt explain are spirit-atoms as an omnipresent fluid substance poured into bodies: which provides the glorification or celestial splendor of a resurrected/deified Christian body (as explained in Lecture on Faith #7 and D&C 76).
In his pamphlet The Absurdities of Immaterialism, Orson Pratt explained that the Holy Spirit was basically tiny particles of spirit-atoms as "mini intelligences," as an omnipresent fluid substance. So again as mentioned above, when forming the 1891 Doctrine & Covenants, Orson Pratt added footnotes in D&C 131: 7 next to the words "no such thing as immaterial matter" and "all spirit is matter," drawing his readers to then read his pamphlet Absurdities of Immaterialism (which one can find here from the Internet Archive site). So the early LDS members who followed the scripture's footnotes would have learn about "spirit atoms" in order to explain D&C 131:7 and Lecture #5. I put together excerpts from Pratt's pamphlet on the Holy Spirit as an omnipresent fluid substance composed of "spirit atoms", in my post here. Also see the 1891 D&C 130:22, where when it says "...the Holy Ghost is a personage of spirit," Pratt adds a footnote sending the reader to Lecture on Faith 5: 2,3, see here. Thus we see that Pratt’s pamphlet explained the Godhead of the Lectures on Faith, which again these doctrine forming Lectures were in fact declared doctrine in 1844 by Joseph Smith himself.
Based on the collective witness of Joseph Smith and the first Apostles who formed the first theology and doctrine (alongside Joseph Smith), as found in the original LDS Scriptures (canonized as doctrine by Joseph Smith himself); when all this data is understood in historical context, it becomes clear to me that original Mormonism held a belief in an original First God: the originating independent Power as an omnipresent Divine Mind (per Lecture 2 and 5), that accumulates glory ("splendor") and expanded power and dominion each time a less advanced spirit intelligence (conscious mind) expands in knowledge, dominion, and power (as explained in Lecture 7). In other words, as we read in D&C 132:63, wherein the "work of [God the Father continues as] he [is] glorified" every time one of the greater spirit intelligences (souls) of Abraham chapter 3 gains an earthly body and expands in knowledge and in kingdom power and dominion. As the "God above all other gods" (D&C 121:32) is enlarged and expanded in splendor and dominion through the expansion of the gods. In other words, the First God, the supreme Deity (as omnipresent fluid material "nooma" embodied in a personage of spirit-atoms), expands in glory and dominion through the deification of humans. This is the meaning of the LDS Book of Moses 1:39, "For behold, this is my [God's] work and my glory—to bring to pass the immortality [resurrection] and eternal life [deification] of man" (words in brackets my own). Thus, like the bright Sun would be expanded in splendor if a fiery ball was added to it, the original First God expands each time a lesser god gains knowledge and intelligence and kingdom power and dominion.
Restoring the Original Doctrine of The Lectures on Faith The First God as the Supreme Deity
Before anyone dismisses the Lectures on Faith as just "mere lectures," I recommend the person actually reads the preface where Joseph Smith himself calls them important doctrine. 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 in fact 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 that teaches the doctrine that there is only one Supreme Being or divine Source (i.e. a "First Cause") as an omnipresent substance per Lecture 5.
We also have a continuity of thought with the 1844 re-publication of the Lectures, with again, Joseph earlier mentioning in 1839 that there was one supreme being overheading 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. Again, 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 composed of spirit-matter) is a part of the supreme governing Power's "Godhead," as Lecture 5: 1-2 puts it below (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 (Nooma) or Mind of the Father, is basically divine glory/splendor as a diffuse substance (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 is 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 omnipresent nature (nooma) into forming the personage of the Father-Jehovah; and thus they (Father and Son) are the same Mind according Lecture 5: because they are composed of the same noomatic substance (or spirit-atoms) emanating from the one Supreme Power (Deity). They are one Mind, and Christians receive the same Mind (cosmic Noomatic Intelligence) as well, because the Fluid Nooma as fluid spirit atoms is also light and intelligence or truth. The First God grows in Kingdom expanding dominion and is glorified (see D&C 132:63) each time a soul-mind expands in knowledge and is exalted becoming a god, as the glory/nooma of the First God is all intelligence, or light and truth, expanding our universe.
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).
So it is clear from LDS Scripture that Joseph Smith taught on a First God, the original omnipresent independent Supreme Being.
The Difference Between the Holy Spirit & the Holy Ghost
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:
Click Image to Enlarge
Click on the images below from the SlideShare to enlarge them:
Also see these SlideShares for more on this subject:
In brief, the Holy Ghost is the third member of the Godhead, while the Holy Spirit is the omnipresent fluid spirit-atoms emanating from the supreme governing Power (the Deity or First God).
More Evidence for the First God Doctrine:
In the video presentation Gods Above God the Father by The Church of the Firstborn YouTube Channel, I found that while I don't agree with everything presented on this YouTube channel (for example I reject the Adam-god theory), I nonetheless think this presentation is the best presentation of what I have termed the Smith-Pratt Godhead: as it includes quotes from original LDS Prophets and Scripture, including Joseph Smith, and deals with the other Godhead theories yet supports the First God theory.
The description for the video states:
This presentation is about the doctrine revealed by the Prophet Joseph Smith during the last period of his life about a Plurality of Gods, that God the Father is an exalted man, and that Gods exist above him in the Grand Council of Heaven, quotes about Joseph Smith, Brigham Young, and other early Mormon leaders teaching this doctrine and also scriptural and logical arguments they made to support it. It also addresses modern apologetic arguments for a "Monarchical Monotheism" interpretation of Joseph Smith's Nauvoo cosmology, and evidence for and against an "Infinite Regression of Gods" model versus a first "Head God over all other Gods" in the Kingdom of Heaven.
In the Comments section the author of the video writes:
I'm really not critical of Infinite Regression -- if that makes sense to you then great! I wanted to make sure I included Brigham Young's statements clearly articulating that position and pointed out that the scriptures and quotes I use to argue for a "first God" are not entirely conclusive. But to me it makes more sense that there was a first God who started the process. If we trace back all human life on this planet, even though it seems to go back endlessly, eventually it goes back to a first father before all other fathers. I believe that in eternities that there would similarly be a first Father before all other Fathers. ... Orson Pratt speculated on how the first God came to develop a body (see 49:50 in the video). It's entirely speculative and theoretical, but to me that makes more sense than believing that this process goes back infinitely (So there's already infinite Gods basically) and human beings and every animal and plant life just 'naturally existed' without any intelligent design to create them or start the process. It almost reminds me of the ancient Greek theory that this world had always eternally existed and didn't actually have a creator.
Here are some screen shots of the main highlights of his video on a First God.
In the first screenshot he deals with Blake Ostler's emphasis on the Sermon in the Grove mentioning a Head God over the Gods, by saying this likely refers to the First God that Parley P. Pratt speculated on (as quoted above from Woodruff’s journal):
Click on image to enlarge
He then quotes Pratt in the next screenshot:
He then follows that up with supporting evidence from
D&C 121:32, and re-quotes Pratt again on the First God:
He finishes with a slide where he quotes Brigham Young, which I had never heard before, where Young said that "... when we get through from chief to chief of them [the Gods] we shall find there is one who is head of all ... " (
Complete Discourses of Brigham Young [20 Apiril, 1845], page 81):
So we have good evidence for a First God of all the Gods.
An LDS SlideShare Presentation on the Omnipresent Spirit Substance of the First God:
The following excerpts from a LDS slideshow does not deal with the original First God concept discussed above by Pratt in Wilford Woodruff's journal; however, it does clearly pausit an omnipresent Ground of Being that grounds all of the Gods, which is the Holy Spirit as a divine substance. The slideshow is titled: Metaphysics: LDS COSMOLOGY Module 16: 1: An Everlasting Covenant Made In Heaven: Differentiating Holy Ghost & Holy Spirit. I recommend first watching this SlideShare before continuing.
Here are the key excerpts and visuals from the SlideShare Presentation (emphasis added with my own editing for ease of reading):
... The Holy Spirit is a Divine Substance and the power by which the Godhead operates throughout the immensity of space and by which it is omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent. [See the Fifth Lecture on Faith for the origional LDS doctrine on the Holy Spirit being described this way].
Charles W. Penrose [of the Quarum of the Twelve wrote]:
“As I have previously explained, God is not every where present personally, but He is omnipresent in the power of that spirit—the Holy Spirit—which animates all created things … This Spirit which pervades all things which is the light and life of all things, by which our Heavenly Father operates, by which He is omnipotent [omniscient and omnipresent] never had a beginning and never will have an end. It is the light of truth; it is the spirit of intelligence … And we are told … that this Spirit, when it is manifest, is God moving in His glory. When we look up to the heavens and behold the starry worlds, which are kingdoms, we behold God moving in His majesty and His power. Now, this Spirit always existed; it always operated, but it is not, understood, and cannot be comprehended except through organisms. If you see a blade of grass you see a manifestation of that Spirit which is called God. If you see an animal of any kind on the face of the earth having life, there is a manifestation of that Spirit. If you see a man you behold its most perfect earthly manifestation. God’s Omnipotence, Omniscience & Omnipresence.
And if you see a glorified man, a man who has passed through the various grades of being, who has overcome all things who has been raised from the dead, who has been quickened by this Spirit in its fulness, there you see manifested, in its perfection, this eternal, beginningless, endless spirit of intelligence. Such a Being is our Father and our God, and we are following in His footsteps. He comprehends all things, because in Him dwelleth the fullness of the Godhead, bodily. He is a perfect manifestation, expression and revelation of this eternal essence, this spirit of eternal everlasting intelligence or light of truth. It is embodied in His spiritual personality or spiritual organism … [in short] … The perfection of its manifestation is in the personality of a being called God. That is a person who has passed through all the gradations of being, and who contains within Himself the fullness, manifested and expressed, of this divine Spirit which is called God.” (JD 26:21-25).
In D&C 88, we read that all matter is animated by the Light of Christ. Lecture on Faith #5 is clear that Christ is constituted or composed of the omnipresent Holy Spirit or Divine Mind. Since the Light of Christ or Holy Spirit is in and through all things, that means all things (including exalted Gods) are infused with the Divine Energy of the Spirit/Mind of the First God. This diffuse material fluid energy is described as The Mind (or Holy Spirit) in the 5th Lecture on Faith; which again became official LDS doctrine, canonized in LDS Scripture in 1835 and re-canonized in 1844.
This eternal Glory (i.e. the emanating "splendor" from the supreme independent being, the Deity/First God) as fluid light, truth and all intelligence, binds all the divine beings and personages in existence: such as eternal souls growing into gods as celestial personages of glory and power (as depicted below frome the SlideShare):
The First Deity described in
Lecture on Faith #2, is the omnipresent "
supreme governing power" and
"Father of lights": "Father" here, likely inferring the origional Father Deity (Supreme Being) of all other divine Fathers; and "lights" likely refers to all divine beings infused with the First Father's omnipresent Divine Light or luminous divine fulness/substance that deities souls into shining celestial beings. So that the omnipresent supreme Deity, as a divine
Mind (or Holy Spirit/
Sacred Nooma) is the light, glory/splendor and fulness
constituting (i.e. forming into existence and empowering [per the 1828 dictionary]) all divine personages, including the personages of the Father and Son over this earth (as explained in
Lecture #5). The omniprsent divine fluid energy or fullness and glory of this First Diety (Divine Mind) pervades all existence (as depicted below from the SlideShare):
The origional Deity exists co-eternally with our eternal soul or intelligence per the Book of Abraham chapter 3; and yet we as intelligences (eternal minds) were grounded in the omnipresent Light, Glory/Splendor, and Omni-Intelligent Fullness of this Supreme Deity; which Divine Mind placed all intelligences/minds to act independently in their own sphere. As D&C 93: 29-30 puts it:
Man was also in the beginning with God. Intelligence, or the light of truth, was not created or made, neither indeed can be. All truth is independent in that sphere in which God has placed it, to act for itself, as all intelligence also; otherwise there is no existence.
Joseph Smith further clarified things when he said, "The spirit of man is not a created being: it existed from eternity, and will exist to eternity. Anything created cannot be eternal. . . .” (Journal of Discourses 6:238). In other words, the mind of man is co-eternal with God.
More on Differentiating the Holy Ghost & Holy Spirit:
The SlideShare continues:
Differentiating Holy Ghost & Holy Spirit: God’s Omnipotence, Omniscience, Omnipresence ...
SPIRIT: Not a Divine Being But a Divine Substance ...
Parley P. Pratt [writes in] Key to the Science of Theology:
There is a divine substance, fluid or essence, called spirit, widely diffused among these eternal elements. This spiritual substance is the most refined, subtle, and powerful element in the universe. It is the light, life, power, and principle of all things. This divine element, or spirit, is the immediate, active or controlling agent in all holy miraculous powers... By this Divine Spirit all things were formed … and all in accordance with the laws of nature, it being perfectly natural for the subordinate elements to obey the supreme, all-controlling, all-pervading element, under the directing power of Deity.” (KST, p. 64, 67).
In Journal of Discourses, Volume 1, Discourse 2 (Spiritual Communication), Parley P. Pratt also explained that the Holy Spirit as a "spiritual fluid or element" is like "electricity ... an actual, physical, and tangible power, and is ... a real and tangible substance ..." To see how this accords with biblical scholarship, see my blog post "Spirit" as Nooma (A Fluid Filling Breathy Energy).
The Divine Substance and Modern Science
Note that this theology of the Holy Spirit acts as a plausible world-picture; as a diffuse divine substance makes rational sense because an atom is mostly empty space which is composed of “Dark” (i.e. Mysterious) Matter and Energy, as depicted below:
(Source)
As we read in the article Do Dark Matter And Dark Energy Affect Ordinary Atoms?, modern science explains:
"Dark Energy," [or Mysterious Energy] … appears to be a sort of energy associated with empty space… it can be argued that we've already seen something analogous to "dark energy," that is, a change in the energy of electrons inside atoms due to energy in empty space.
(Source)
(Source):
So if we combine Mormon theology with today’s science, dark/mysterious energy can reasonably be interpreted as the Holy Spirit and/or mini intelligences) which causes our universe to expand.
Dark/Mysterious Energy and Matter is what most of our Universe is composed of according to modern science:
Source
The Holy Spirit and/or atomistic intelligences, gives a theological explanation for Dark Energy and Matter. It also fits my conclusion of The Will to Glory as the heart of Mormonism which I argue in my blog post here. As this slideshare image puts it:
(Source)
This artice on "Everything is Matter" by DonaMajicShow, points out how Mormon Naturalism/Materialism actually makes sense of the current science more than other versions of Christianity.
The Science of Light & The Theology of Light:
In the year 2025, I learned of this article titled
Scientists turn light into a 'supersolid' for the 1st time ever: What that means, and why it matters
by Damien Pine. The article basically explains that light is now understood as more than just light waves or rays but also as a fluid substance, or as both a liquid and a solid. Note how this aligns with the original Mormon theology on how the Holy Spirit is divine truth and light as a divine substance as omnipresent fluid fulness:
The SlideShare on the Holy Spirit continues:
The Holy Spirit [is thus] Not a Divine Being But a Divine Substance. ...
... Charles W. Penrose: “When you go right down to the primary elements, they never had a beginning, they will never have an end. For in their primal condition they are not ‘created’.” (JD 26:27).
... ALL THINGS ARE MATERIAL (Immateriality Denied)
Erastus Snow: “We read about material and immaterial things … but in truth there is no such thing as immaterial substance.” (JD 19:272). 13
Intelligent, Animate, Spirit Matter Acting Matter.
TWO KINDS OF PRIMAL MATTER per 2 Nephi 2:14:
[1] THINGS WHICH ACT UPON
[2] Non-Acting Matter (Non-intelligent), Inanimate, Gross Matter THINGS WHICH ARE ACTED UPON.
D&C 88:13: "The light which is in all things, which giveth life to all things, which is the law by which all things are governed, even the power of God who sitteth upon his throne, who is in the bosom of eternity, who is in the midst of all things."
SPIRIT MATTER IS LIGHT & LIFE WITHIN ALL THINGS; SPIRIT As A MATERIAL, TANGIBLE SUBSTANCE
Charles W. Penrose:
Spirit is a substance, it is not immaterial; it may have some properties that are different from that which we see and handle, which we call matter, but it is a reality, a substantial reality.” (JD 26:22).
ALL MATTER IS CAPACITATED TO RECEIVE INTELLIGENCE
Brigham Young: “[All] Matter is capacitated to receive intelligence … matter can be organized and brought forth into intelligence, and to continue to increase in that intelligence.” (JD 7:2-3)
LIGHT AND TRUTH FORSAKE THAT EVIL ONE
Spirit Matter - D&C 93:29; 88:40: “Intelligence, or the light of truth, was not created or made, neither can be … light and truth forsake that evil one.”
LIGHT CLEAVETH UNTO LIGHT
Intelligence cleaveth unto intelligence; light cleaveth unto light.
In other words, the Light of Christ "in and through all things" in D&C 88, as the Mind or Holy Spirit per Lecture 5, is also omnipresent fluid spirit-matter which is an expanding part of the nature of the Supreme Source (the Deity):
The supreme governig Power created the forces and laws that form all of existence. So that like what science calls "dark matter" and light as both a liquid and a solid, the omniprsent glorious fulness of splendorous spirit-matter binds with all inactive matter:
For intelligence cleaveth unto intelligence; wisdom receiveth wisdom; truth embraceth truth; virtue loveth virtue; light cleaveth unto light; mercy hath compassion on mercy and claimeth her own; justice continueth its course and claimeth its own; judgment goeth before the face of him who sitteth upon the throne and governeth and executeth all things. (D&C 88: 40)
In Cleon Skousen’s “Intelligence Theory” of Atonement, the author James summarizes the early theory of "mini intelligences" (spirit-atoms) by Pratt and other LDS Leaders (see below his bullet points) by summarising the teachings of Skousen, who was taught the idea by the LDS apostle John A. Widtsoe:
The main points of Skousen’s theory are:
- The universe is composed of two basic building blocks:
- “intelligences” and “elements”.
- “Intelligences” are self-aware entities that are self-existent and at various levels of complexity and progression. They are independent and act voluntarily, and cannot be compelled. God is the greatest of the intelligences, and every human is an intelligence at his core and we rank relatively high on the scale of complexity and greatness.
- “Element” is matter, and there are two types of matter: spiritual and physical. They are fundamentally the same but exist on two different planes. Element is not voluntary nor even “alive”, but it is self-existent.
- God pairs together every intelligence with a portion of element. They are paired in complex but orderly ways, and they are assigned functions and roles and must abide by the physical laws of the universe. Some intelligences are paired with plant life, others with animal life, and every human is an intelligence which is paired with human “element(s)”. Other intelligences are paired with non-organic element(s).
- By pairing intelligences with element God is able to command these intelligence/element unions and accomplish the creation of the universe.
- God is “God” only because he is respected and loved by the intelligences of the universe. He derives his authority and power because the intelligences, who are paired with element/matter, decide to obey him. He is just and constant and they trust him. If God loses their trust they may no longer respect and obey him, and he would lose his ability to govern them and would essentially cease to be “God”.
- God created this Earth and populated it with humans (intelligences paired with element/matter).
The speech by Skousen can be watched and/or listened to on YouTube. The part on intelligences begins at about 25 minutes. At 40 minutes, Skousen discusses how Jesus does his miracles. For example, turning water into wine. Jesus, according to Skousen, basically talks to the the "little intelligences" (spirit-atoms) and they listen and obey and act upon inert atoms which transforms the water into wine, etc. This provides a scientific sounding understanding of Jesus's miracles. He then discusses Abraham chapter 4 and how the little intelligences obey the voice of God during the creation process. For a transcript of the speech see here.
The SlideShare continues to explain the Holy Spirit (or Mind of Lecture 5) which in turn explains the theological background of Skousen's talk of little intelligences aligning with God:
Charles W. Penrose: “This spirit which pervades all things... It is the light of truth; it is the spirit of intelligence.” (JD 26:23).
THIS SEA OF SPIRIT MATTER FILLS THE IMMENSITY OF SPACE. THIS SPIRIT MATTER EXISTS IN AND THROUGH, AND ROUND ABOUT ALL THINGS.
Charles W. Penrose:
“The elements of that eternal spirit which exists in and through and round about all things... never had a beginning and will never have an end. There was no beginning and there will be no end to its operations.” (JD:26:27-28).
Orson Pratt: “It is this same Spirit that acts in connexion with the Father and Son [see Lecture #5] in governing all things in the heavens and upon the earth, and through all the boundless extent of space.” (JD 2: 340)
THIS SPIRIT MATTER IS THE LAW BY WHICH ALL THINGS IN HEAVEN AND UPON EARTH ARE GOVERNED
Orson Pratt: “Portions of this Spirit, we say, exist throughout every part of space, and they perform all the work of governing, and keeping that perfect harmony which we behold in all nature. All nature is by these means made to submit to the great law of oneness.” (JD 2:341)
THE MATERIAL AGENT WHICH ACCOUNTS FOR UNITY, ONENESS AND PERFECT HARMONY OF UNIVERSE
Orson Pratt:
“... Cause this oneness, this union among the particles of the Spirit, to cease, and you would soon see all things go into confusion. Take away this Spirit, and you would immediately see some things going up, others down; some moving horizontally; one portion of the earth would divide from the other; one part would be flying here and another there.” (JD:2:340)
WITHDRAW HOLY SPIRIT AND ALL THINGS BOTH IN HEAVEN AND UPON EARTH WOULD COME UNDONE
THE OMNIPOTENCE OF GOD
Parley P. Pratt: “There is a divine substance, fluid or essence, called spirit, widely diffused among these eternal elements … It is the light, life, power, and principle of all things … the supreme, all-controlling, all-pervading element, under the directing power of Deity.” (KTST, p. 64, 67).
POWER BY WHICH GOD IS OMNIPOTENT & OMNISCIENCE
Brigham Young: “God is here; his influence fills immensity. He has his messengers throughout all the works of his hands. He watches every one of his creatures: their acts, their affections, and thoughts are all known to him; for his intelligence and power fill immensity. Not that his person does, but his Spirit does.” (JD 7:159)
POWER BY WHICH GOD IS OMNISCIENT & OMNIPRESENCE
Charles W. Penrose: “As I have previously explained, God is not everywhere present personally, but He is omnipresent in the power of that spirit – the Holy Spirit – which animates all created things.” (JD 26:23)
Brigham Young: “The Father and I are one, you disciples and I are one; it is quite a curiosity, but it is as true as it is curious. It is nothing more than a key-word to exaltation, glory, power, and excellency, by which principalities, kingdoms, dominions, and eternal lives will surround us.” (JD 1:272)
THE HOLY SPIRIT ACCOUNTS FOR UNITY AND ONENESS OF THE GODHEAD & THE ONE DIVINE SUBSTANCE AND AN INFINITE NUMBER OF DIVINE BEINGS
Orson Pratt: “Well, these three are called one, are they not? Yes, they are called one. Jesus prays that all his disciples may be made one, as he and the Father are one. If ever that prayer is answered, then, in one sense of the word, there would only be one God, but, in another sense of the word, there would not only be three, but a great many personal beings called gods.” (JD 19:319)
[THUS ONE ETERNAL SPIRIT ENERGY DWELLS IN AN INFINITE NUMBER OF EMBODIED GODS]
B.H. Roberts: “‘I and my Father are one,’ refers to a moral union— to a perfect union of purpose and will—not to a unity or identity of substance, or essence,” (Seventy’s Year Book, No. III, p, 215).
Holy Ghost is a Spirit Personage. Jesus Christ is a Glorified Body. God the Father is a Glorified Body.
Cause of Theological Confusion from Three Gods In One: They First Confuse Holy Ghost and Holy Spirit as One in Essence. The Holy Spirit is the Divine Substance, Infinite & Eternal, Omnipresent, Omniscient and Omnipotent. The Holy Ghost on the other hand is a Spirit Personage.
Click on image to enlarge
The Apostle Orson Hyde says very similar things in his 1842 pamphlet Ein Ruf aus der Wüst, writing:
Article 1:
On the Godhead
… There are two persons who constitute the great incomparableness, the highest governing force over all things, by which everything is created, visible and invisible, be it in Heaven, on Earth or under and in the same, or in the vastness of space. These two are the Father and the Son. The Father is a spiritual person full of glory and power and possessing all perfection. The Son, who was eternally in the presence of the Father, bears his perfect likeness and shares all his glory, power, and perfection. Human beings were created according to the image of similarity of these two persons and therefore bear in their divine features the emblems of power and government and were placed above all created beings.
… The Son took on a human body in the womb of the blessed virgin after he had been conceived in purity by the Holy Ghost. …
… he journeyed through his active life while proclaiming the will of His heavenly Father …
… Through this man, righteous judgment will come over all flesh, for He possesses the same will as the Father, and this will is the Holy Ghost, which is the executive representative of the Father and the Son. He is a glorious messenger of truth and comfort, sent by the Father through the Son into the hearts of all those who walk upright before him; and these three, namely the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost, are one.
… Therefore all those who keep his commandments will ascend from grace to grace and become heirs of the kingdom of God and fellow heirs of Jesus Christ. The closer they come to God through obedience, the more they will lose of their own will and receive of that of the Lord or of the Holy Ghost. They will be transformed again into His image and into His similarity with Him Who fills all things fully, and become one with the Son as the Son is one with the Father.
In the comment section to the article above someone rightly commented:
Wondering says:
… Hyde’s explanation of the Godhead seems quite consistent with the
Lectures on Faith and somewhat inconsistent with current LDS theology of the Godhead. …
This is because James Talmage and the LDS Leaders chose to abandon the doctrine of the Lectures on Faith after 1920. They decided to replace Joseph Smith's original theology bound in scripture, with James Talmage's theology he had invented in 1916. In contrast, former theologians like the Pratt Brothers and Orson Hyde, as seen above, had instead sought to harmonize the Lectures on Faith with the new Godhead teachings by Smith in 1840s Nauvoo, with the collective witness of all LDS Scripture.
Apostle Orson Hyde's Visual of the Kingdom of God, The First God, & The Omnipresent Energy of The Holy Spirit
Joseph Smith declared, “All the minds and spirits that God ever sent into the world are susceptible of enlargement” (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, pg. 354).
In the 1840s, the Apostle Orson Hyde created this visual of The Kingdom of God:
See
this blog post on Orson Hyde’s visual of the Kingdom of God, where the author explains the meaning of the diagram and compares it to modern science and the expansion of galaxies.
In my diagram below I combined the
slideshare diagram of a yellow circle (shown above) with Hyde's diagram:
The inner yellow circle in my visual above symbolizes the Holy Spirit, representing the original glory/splendor and fluid fullness of the Deity as the First God, the Father of lights: the supreme being, an omnipresent expanding force of plenty, represented by the larger outer yellow circle in my diagram below: representing the original "Father of lights" (of all other lights/gods), shining in the darkness of chaos (or matter unorganized). The outer yellow circle above is thus symbolic of the Divine Mind, the First God, as the Source of all creation(s) or the formation of order out of chaos (unorganized matter). With each of Hyde’s Kingdom diagrams representing the expansion of God's glory through growing kingdoms upon kingdoms, or souls growing from exaltation to exaltation into expanded celestial bodies of glory, which in turn glorifies the First Father of all the divine Fathers (per D&C 132: 63). As the Father of all lights of Lecture #2, whose nature is a divine substance of "fulness, light, truth and glory," is expanded and further glorified with each exalted soul becoming deified and expanding in their kingdom of glory, power and dominion; which again, further expands the kingdom, glory and power of the independent supreme being (the Deity) described in Lecture #2.
Recap & Summary
- The Divine Mind as the First God: If we imagine a circle representing the ocean this would be the Divine Mind, the glorious all in all in which we live, and move, and have our being, as Paul talks about God as the ultimate Source. So that basically you have the One Omni-Intelligence (Divine Mind) duplicating into expanded spirit-atoms of agential intelligences as quanta of power.
- Utilizing the imagery from the SlideShare above, basically spirit matter or mini intelligences then combine to form objects and things, including our physical noomatic body.
