Mormonism and the nature of God/God is a Spirit/Lecture of Faith 5 teaches the Father is "a personage of spirit"

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Criticism

The Lectures on Faith, which used to be part of the Doctrine and Covenants, teach that God is a spirit. Joseph Smith's later teachings contradict this.

Response

The Lectures on Faith are seven lessons on theology delivered by the presiding officers of the Church to the School of the Elders at Kirtland, Ohio, in late 1834. The lectures are organized in the form of a catechism, which each lecture starting with instructions on doctrine, and the first five lectures concluding with a question-and-answer section to check class participants for understanding.

The Lectures were included as the "doctrine" portion of the 1835 Doctrine and Covenants (the revelations comprised the "covenants" portion), and remained in the D&C until they were removed from the 1921 edition.

Lecture 5 deals with the nature of God the Father, his Son Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost. Lecture 5.2 teaches:

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 fullness. 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. (emphasis added.)

Possible answers:

• Joseph didn't know the Father had a body at this point.
• Joseph's understanding of spiritual and physical bodies (D&C 131:7).
• Sidney Rigdon wrote the Lectures.

Further reading

FAIR wiki articles

• Lectures on Faith removed from Doctrine and Covenants
• Godhead and the Trinity

FAIR web site

• FAIR Topical Guide:

External links

• The Lectures on Faith
• Robert J. Woodford, "Doctrine and Covenants Editions", Encyclopedia of Mormonism 1:425–27.

Printed material

• Larry E Dahl, "Lectures on Faith", Encyclopedia of Mormonism 2:818–21.