Father
As Father of all mankind, every soul who has lived, will live and is now living upon the earth, He alone deserves our most respect, and every devotion, and duty to obey His every word. He is often depicted in the writings of supposedly religious people as an angry vengeful god, much like Thor with his hammer smashing us to bits, or Zeus burning us with his fiery lightning bolts.
But from what the scriptures tell us of Satan, Lucifer, the devil, we learn that these are the characteristics of the enemy of all righteousness who was cast down from the Father’s presence for rebellion. He is also labelled the “accuser of his brethren” and uses falsehoods to accuse God, the Father through all his deceived subjects on earth to accuse the Father day and night of the very things he is doing. This is so much like some modern politicians who falsely label and accuse the other politicians of doing the same things they are doing so that their acts are hidden while the other politician is destroyed.
Revelations 12:10 And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night.
Isaiah 14: 12 How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!
13 For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north:
14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.
15 Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit.
Lies about the Father’s character provide excuses for us to not change our behavior, to remain in our sinful ways. When one finds oneself bound in the “chains of hell”, half of the chains are lies told to us by Satan himself and all his minions. They trap our minds in a false loop of logic. The other half of the chains are sins we committed willfully believing those lies.
D&C 93:25 And whatsoever is more or less than this is the spirit of that wicked one who was a liar from the beginning.
As the angel told an obedient Adam, who obeyed before he knew anything about the plan of salvation or the reason for difficult and tedious preparations for an animal sacrifice:
Joseph Smith Translation Genesis 4:7 And then the angel spake, saying, This thing is a similitude of the sacrifice of the Only Begotten of the Father, which is full of grace and truth;
So from the very beginning of time, Adam knew that God was a God of truth and Satan who had deceived both he and Eve, was the Father of all lies.
D&C 93:23 Ye were also in the beginning with the Father; that which is Spirit, even the Spirit of truth;
24 And truth is knowledge of things as they are, and as they were, and as they are to come;
25 And whatsoever is more or less than this is the spirit of that wicked one who was a liar from the beginning.
26 The Spirit of truth is of God. I am the Spirit of truth, and John bore record of me, saying: He received a fulness of truth, yea, even of all truth;
27 And no man receiveth a fulness unless he keepeth his commandments.
28 He that keepeth his commandments receiveth truth and light, until he is glorified in truth and knoweth all things.
Jonathan Edwards, an early American preacher, wrote a sermon and preached it: “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.” His sermon was interrupted numerous times by people moaning and crying out. He said at one point in the sermon:
“The God that holds you over the pit of hell, much as one holds a spider, or some loathsome insect over the fire, abhors you, and is dreadfully provoked: his wrath towards you burns like fire; he looks upon you as worthy of nothing else, but to be cast into the fire;”[i]
And so the lies about the Father have been spread from Sumerian and Babylonian times, to apostate Israelites, to the capricious chance god of atheists of modern times.
Nothing could be further from the truth. In ancient Hebrew, God, the Father, is spelled with two letters, Aleph and Lamed. The ancient picture and meaning of Aleph were an Ox head, representing a strong and mighty leader. The ancient picture and meaning of Lamed were a shepherd’s staph meaning a leader who guided his flock with all gentleness and love and self-sacrifice. So from very ancient times, we get a picture of a God who is strong and mighty but treats us tenderly as a shepherd who loves his sheep and leads them carefully, gently with a shepherd’s staff. Jesus compared himself to a shepherd who would lay down his life for his sheep.
John 10:11 I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.
12 But he that is an hireling, and not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep, and fleeth: and the wolf catcheth them, and scattereth the sheep.
13 The hireling fleeth, because he is an hireling, and careth not for the sheep.
14 I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine.
15 As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down my life for the sheep.
Since the Father rarely appears in the Scriptural record, and the God, the Great Jehovah of the Old Testament is Jesus Christ, we would not know much about God, the Father were it not for Jesus’ teachings about Him. We know that:
John3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
Here we see the supreme act of love. Something that only Abraham was tested in. The offering of one’s own and most beloved son for the love of others of His children who were lost and fallen and cut off from Heaven. For no unclean thing can dwell in Heaven and sinning makes us dirty, cutting us off from Heaven. There had to be a way to clean us from all sin or Heavenly Father would lose all His children.
Also, the Son tells us that He does nothing but what he has seen His Father do previously. So we know the works and character of the Father from watching how Jesus acted and what he did on earth.
John 5:19 Then answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise.
20 For the Father loveth the Son, and sheweth him all things that himself doeth: and he will shew him greater works than these, that ye may marvel.
21 For as the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them; even so the Son quickeneth whom he will.
22 For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son:
23 That all men should honour the Son, even as
they honour the Father. He that honoureth not the Son honoureth not the Father
which hath sent him
[i] https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Sinners_in_the_Hands_of_an_Angry_God
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