PUZZLE #24 - The Great Spirit

Those who are acquainted with the race of people who lived on the American continents since before the white men came here, you may call them Indians or native Americans, know that they refer to their supreme being as the 'great spirit'. This is their expression for what the white man calls 'God'. Why is that? Why don't the
native Americans refer to him as 'great exalted man'? Do they believe that God is a spirit?

The primary claim of the Book of Mormon is that the origin of these native Americans is a Hebrew family transplanted here by an act of God. In time that family was split into two factions, one wicked, and the other righteous. The wicked ones (Lamanites) were cursed with a dark skin, later became today's native Americans. The righteous (Nephites) were allowed to keep their white skin, but the story says that they were exterminated by the Lamanites.

In two passages (Alma 18:26-28 Page 255 & Alma 22:9-11 Page 264), the missionaries speak to two prominent members of the Lamanite race, trying to teach them about God. In each account, the missionary allows his listener to continue in the belief
that God is a Spirit. Neither missionary explains that God is really an exalted man with a body as tangible as man's. Isn't that a genuine PUZZLE, given that Mormonism believes that God is an exalted man, not a Spirit?

If the two missionaries had believed (as the Mormons do) that God is an exalted man, why didn't they correct that errant concept? Did the missionaries ever tell them that God wasn't really a 'spirit'? No.

When Joseph Smith and his associates produced the Book of Mormon, they still believed that God is a Spirit. They had been raised as Christians, knowing the text of John 4:24. As late as 1835, Joseph Smith was still teaching that God the Father is a personage of Spirit. This can be seen in his vivid description of God in Lecture #5 of the Lectures on Faith (see post entitled "Body or Spirit" elsewhere in this blog).

In 1843, section 130 of the Doctrine and Covenants was published, and it said that God had a body as tangible as man's, but in 1835, the God that Joseph Smith worshipped was still a Spirit.

Is it possible that Joseph Smith never saw God in 1820 or any other time? Is it possible that God was the 'Great Spirit' for the Alma's native Americans because the writer believed Him to be a Spirit? Is it possible that because Joseph Smith believed that God was a Spirit, and because the native Americans believed that God is a Spirit, that Joseph wrote these two passages into his Book of Mormon in 1830, in order to link together the Lamanites of his book, the native Americans of his day, and the Hebrews of the Old Testament?

He had the Lamanites learning something about God that he believed was true. He had them learning that God is a Spirit, just like Jesus said in John 4:24. Unfortunately, that is not what Mormonism teaches.