The Great Secret


mikbone
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The following excerpt is a portion (13%) of my favorite General Conference talk of all time.  Joseph Smith's April 7, 1844 discourse.  Joseph Smith never gave the talk a formal name, and in attempts to draw attention to the importance of the lecture, in my mind I have given it the title "The Great Secret" - as Joseph Smith uses the term in the talk.  In the following seven paragraphs, I have done some formatting.  The italics are portions of the talk that are only found as recorded in Wilford Woodruff's journal.  The words in bold draw attention to the title. 

And as Joseph Smith rarely quoted scripture by book and verse, I have used [brackets] and underline to indicate scripture reference.  The doctrine is quite profound.  And it is particularly amazing that Joseph Smith used a dozen verses from the bible to weave a new ideology.  

If you see any other biblical verses that Joseph Smith is referring to, PLEASE let me know.  I suspect (from the words and tone of the text) that Joseph felt that the information needed to be supported from the bible (as opposed to the Book of Mormon or Modern Revelation), because many 'Mormons' in the audience (including Sidney Rigdon) were claiming that Joseph Smith was a fallen prophet at the time.  And they refused to believe anything that was not contained within the Bible. 

 

I am going to inquire after God because I want you all to know God and to be familiar with Him. If I can get you to know Him, I can bring you to Him.  And if so, all persecution against me will cease.  This will let you know that I am His servant, for [I speak as one having authority and not as a scribe]. Matthew 7:29

What kind of a being was God in the beginning, before the world was? I will go back to the beginning to show you. I will tell you, so open your ears and eyes, all ye ends of the earth, and hear, for I am going to prove it to you with the Bible. I am going to tell you the designs of God for the human race, the relation the human family sustains with God, and why He interferes with the affairs of man. First, God Himself who sits enthroned in yonder heavens is a Man like unto one of yourselves—that is the great secret! If the veil were rent today and the great [God that holds this world in its sphere and the planets in their orbit and who upholds all things by His power] Hebrews 1:2-3—if you were to see Him today, you would see Him in all the person, image, fashion, and very form of a man, like yourselves. [For Adam was a man formed in His likeness and created in the very fashion and image of God]. Genesis 1:26 [Adam received instruction, walked, talked, and conversed with Him as one man talks and communicates with another]. Genesis 3:8

In order to understand the subject of the dead and to speak for the consolation of those who mourn for the loss of their friends, it is necessary to understand the character and being of God. For I am going to tell you how God came to be God and what sort of a being He is. For we have imagined that God was God from the beginning of all eternity. I will refute that idea and take away the veil so you may see. Truth is the touchstone. These things are incomprehensible to some, but they are simple. The first principle of truth and of the Gospel is to know for a certainty the character of God, and that we may converse with Him the same as one man with another, and that He once was a man like one of us and that God Himself, the Father of us all, once dwelled on an earth the same as Jesus Christ himself did in the flesh and like us.

I will show it from the Bible. I wish I were in a suitable place to tell it. I wish I had the trump of an archangel. If I had the privilege, I could tell the story in such a manner that persecution would cease forever. The scriptures inform us (Mark it, Brother Rigdon) that Jesus Christ said:—What did Jesus say?—[As the Father has power in Himself, even so has the Son power in himself. To do what? Why, what the Father did. That answer is obvious; even in a manner to lay down His body and take it up again. Jesus, what are you going to do? “To lay down my life as my Father laid down His body that I might take it up again].” John 10:17-18 Do you believe it? If you don’t believe it, you don’t believe the Bible. The Scriptures say it and I defy all hell—all the learned wisdom and records and all the combined powers of earth and hell together to refute it!

[Here then is eternal life—to know the only wise and true God]. John 17:3  You have got to learn how to make yourselves Gods in order to save yourselves and be kings and priests to God, the same as all Gods have done—[by going from a small capacity to a great capacity, from a small degree to another, from grace to grace], John 1:16 until the resurrection of the dead, from exaltation to exaltation—till you are able to sit in [everlasting burnings] Isaiah 33:14 and everlasting power and glory as those who have gone before, sit enthroned. I want you to know that God in the last days, while certain individuals are proclaiming His name, is not trifling with you nor me.

I want you to know the first principles of consolation. How consoling to the mourners when they are called to part with a husband, father, wife, mother child, dear relative, or friend, to know, though they lay down this body and all earthly tabernacles shall be dissolved, that their very being shall rise in immortal glory to dwell in everlasting burnings and to sorrow, die, and suffer no more. And not only that, but to contemplate the saying that [they will be heirs of God and joint-heirs with Jesus Christ]. Romans 8:17 What is it? [To inherit and enjoy the same glory, powers, and exaltation until you ascend a throne of eternal power and arrive at the station of a God], Revelations 3:21 & 21:7 the same as those who have gone before. What did Jesus Christ do? “[Why I do the same things that I saw my Father do] John 5:19 when worlds came rolling into existence.” Saw the Father do what?” I saw the Father [work out His kingdom with fear and trembling] Philippians 2:12 and I am doing the same, too. [When I get my kingdom, I will give it to the Father and it will add to and exalt His glory]. Moses 4:2 He will take a higher exaltation and I will take His place and I am also exalted, so that He obtains kingdom rolling upon kingdom.” So that Jesus treads in His tracks as He had gone before and then inherits what God did before. [God is glorified in the salvation and exaltation of His creatures].  Moses 1:39

It is plain beyond comprehension and you thus learn that these are some of the first principles of the Gospel, about which so much has been said. When you [climb a ladder], Genesis 28:12-13 you must begin at the bottom rung. You have got to find the beginning of the history and go on until you have learned the last principle of the Gospel. It will be a great while after the grave before you learn to understand the last, for it is a great thing to learn salvation beyond the grave and it is not all to be comprehended in this world.

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