PUZZLE #20 - Body or Spirit

"And they are one God, yea, the very Eternal Father of heaven and of earth."
(Mosiah 15:4 Page 176)

The writer is speaking of our Eternal Father in heaven. Notice the phrase 'they are one God'. The word 'they' refers back to verses two and three where it is speaking of the Father and the Son. It says that THE FATHER AND THE SON ARE ONE GOD. It doesn't say that they are one in purpose. We've seen this PUZZLE before, haven't we?

It adds that the God that 'they are' is the 'ETERNAL FATHER OF HEAVEN. It doesn't say that there are two Gods, and the one is the son of the other, and the son would be coming to earth to redeem his people. It says that the one who would come to earth to redeem us, would be the ETERNAL FATHER.

It is a beautiful passage of the true relationship between Jesus Christ and our Father in heaven. Verse one says that 'God himself' would come to earth to 'redeem his people'. Verse two says that He would be called the Son of God because 'He dwelleth in flesh'. He, our Eternal Father in heaven, would dwell in a body of flesh and be known as the Son of God.

That means that our Eternal Father in Heaven doesn't have a body of flesh. It's the body that the Son has that distinguishes him from the Father in this passage. Did Joseph Smith understood their relationship in this way when he wrote this passage, and when he wrote his 'Lectures on Faith'? A segment of Lecture #5 is presented as follows:

"There are two personages who constitute 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: The Father being a personage of spirit, glory and power: possessing all perfection and fulness: The Son, who was in the bosom of the Father, a personage of tabernacle, made, or fashioned like unto man, or being in the form and likeness of man, or, rather, man was formed after his likeness, and in his image;... and is called the Son because of the flesh." (Joseph Smith, Feb 17th, 1835)

After viewing these two documents from the pen of Joseph Smith, one is led to ask why Mormonism teaches a doctrine so completely opposite. Perhaps this is why:

"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 personage of Spirit. Were it not so, the Holy Ghost could not dwell in us." (D & C Sec. 130:22)

In 1843, section 130 was added to the Doctrine and Covenants. In the 1843 version, God the Father would have a body that He hadn't had in previous editions of the book. He would have the body that was absent when Joseph wrote the Lectures on Faith back in 1835. Did God change? It's a PUZZLE.

Of particular interest should be the phrase; "a personage of Spirit". In the 1835 Lectures on Faith, this phrase is applied to God the Father. In the 1843 revelation recorded as Section 130 of the Doctrine and Covenants, this phrase is applied to "the Holy Ghost".