We had a wonderful Stake Conference this past weekend (First Weekend of September) in the Lake City Stake of Zion, and one of the Presidents in the Stake Presidency talked about Prayer, and about knowing our Heavenly Father. So I've decided to write this blog post in that line of thought. Who exactly is Our Heavenly Father?
If you are not too familiar with Latter-Day Saint religious views, then let me elaborate one of the the very first doctrines the missionaries teach. God is our loving Heavenly Father. We all knew God the Father on a unique, personal, individual basis. We spent a lot of time with Him in the Pre-Mortal existence learning from Him, being educated by Him, and being prepared for our mortal separation. What a wonderfully beautiful thought! That we are actually children of God! Not just some weird creation that He made out of clay one day when He was bored and decided He wanted a large-scale ant farm.
So what leads us to believe in this much more personal doctrine of Heavenly Father? Well, there are a few scriptures here and there that allude to such a relationship in the Bible. Let's start with the Old Testament, shall we? I'm glad you agree that that is a good starting point, saying as you don't have much of a choice! The first one I'd like to share is found in Jeremiah, First Chapter, Verse Five and it reads:
5 Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations
So Jeremiah records the Lord's words when he was called to be a prophet of the Lord; and the Lord tells him 'Hey, I knew thee before you were ever born! I Ordained thee before you were born!' Now, how could that have happened if there was not a pre-mortal existence? I've heard some people argue that the Lord was merely telling Jeremiah that he was fore-ordained to be a prophet, but when I look at the word knew it makes me think further of an actual relationship with God before this life ever was thought of. Then there is a verse in the Book of Job, chapter thirty-eight, verse seven:
7 When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?
Now, this is the Lord speaking and telling Job that Job knows nothing, He is asking Job, 'Where were you when I created the world? Where were you...' and He goes on a little bit. I look at it as the Lord asking Job, 'Did you shout for joy with the rest of my children?'
Now to fast forward a bit and throw in some New Testament references to keep building my case up! My first one will be from the Epistle to the Romans written by Paul who once was Saul. In chapter eight he throws down on being children of God, saying:
16 The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:
17 And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.
So Paul is saying to them; "Look, The Spirit itself tells us! WE ARE CHILDREN OF GOD!" So that is pretty enlightening! Then Paul later throws down on the Hebrews in his epistle to them saying:9 Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live?
Paul clearly seemed to enjoy teaching that God was indeed our Heavenly Father. Which is a rather delightful doctrine. Before I joined the Church, I could care less about God, but as my time in the Church continues to get longer and longer I can see more and more that God is truly our Heavenly Father. He loves us and He cares for us! He truly wants the best for us always because He is our father! So, next time I'm going to talk about what our Father in Heaven is like, as far as my best guesses go! Stay tuned folks!
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