essay about heavenly father

What Does the Bible Say About God as Our Father?

God the Father

“For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom all fatherhood in heaven and on earth is named” (Eph. 3:14–15). Ultimate reality is not cold, dark, empty space. Ultimate reality is the Father reaching out and gathering in sinners as his own dear children through the grace of Jesus the Son. Graciously, our heavenly Father shares the wonder of his fatherhood with us men. To be a father, therefore, is a sacred privilege and a high calling.

Unique to the Bible is the vision of the one God as the Trinity—God the rejoicing Father, God the obedient Son, and God the loving Spirit as the Presence between the Father and the Son. It is amazing but not surprising, then, that such a God would create us fathers on earth to embody something of his glorious fatherhood above.

What does the Bible say about God as our Father? The Old Testament says surprisingly little. Though the Old Testament clearly calls God “Father” a few times (for example, Isa. 63:16; 64:8; Jer. 3:19; Mal. 2:10), the writers of the Old Testament lay greater emphasis on our distance from God and the reserve we should feel before him. God is revealed more as separate from us and beyond us, and he is seen less as intimate and close to us. This Old Testament view of God is true and wonderfully humbling for us. We hasten to bow low before our powerful Creator and high King.

But in the New Testament, although God remains holy and majestic in our eyes, Jesus adds a strikingly clear emphasis on God as Father—both his Father and our Father (John 20:17). It is Jesus who calls God “Abba, Father” (Mark 14:36). It is Jesus who teaches us to pray to God as our Father (Matt. 6:9). It is the Spirit of the Son who leads us into intimacy with God as our own Abba Father (Gal. 4:6). Now we know that, as our Father, God cares for us and provides for us (Matt. 6:25–34). As our Father, he hears and answers our prayers (Matt. 7:7–11). As our Father, he disciplines us (Heb. 12:3–11). As our Father, he receives us and forgives us and rejoices over us when in repentance we come home to him (Luke 15:11–32). That God the Father has made himself God our Father means that he is personally, emotionally, and even sacrificially involved with us.

ESV Men's Study Bible

This ESV Bible includes study notes, articles, and daily devotionals written especially for men by more than 100 of the world’s leading Bible scholars and teachers, helping readers understand God’s Word more deeply and apply it to their lives.

The greatest glory of God, therefore, is not that he is separate and far beyond us; the greatest glory of God is that the One who is separate and far beyond us, who is high and lifted up, who created all things and needs nothing . . . that glorious God also chose to become our Father, lovingly adopting us as his own children forever (1 John 3:1). Pastor Tim Keller helps us understand how wonderful it is to have God as our Father: “The only person who dares wake up a king at 3:00 a.m. for a glass of water is a child. We have that kind of access.” And this astonishing right of entry into the presence of God is not a minor emphasis in the gospel. It is the heart of the message. To quote J. I. Packer, “To those who are Christ’s, the holy God is a loving Father; they belong to his family; they may approach him without fear and always be sure of his fatherly concern and care. This is the heart of the New Testament message.”

We as Fathers

What then does the Bible say about us earthly fathers? Many significant things, both glorious and tragic. The Bible says that fatherhood shapes personal identity and self-awareness, for both good and ill. Fatherhood can pass down a rich spiritual inheritance, binding our hearts to God (Ex. 15:2; Deut. 32:7; Ps. 44:1; 78:1–4), and fatherhood can also pass down a history of failure that we must not deny (Neh. 1:6; 9:2). Fatherhood is also how training, nurture, and wise correction influence the rising generation (Prov. 3:11–12; 4:1–4). In fact, God punished Eli for not restraining his foolish sons (1 Sam. 3:11–13). At a deeper level, Eli’s sin was honoring his sons above God (1 Sam. 2:27–30).

The Bible records many weaknesses in fathers. For example, Lot harmed his family by his half-hearted concern about the degrading influence of Sodom (Gen. 19:15–16, 30–38). Jacob unwisely showed favoritism to his son Joseph over his other sons (Gen. 37:3–4). Samson’s father weakly gave in to his son’s wrong desire for a woman from outside the covenant community (Judg. 14:1–3). David bungled a crisis in his family by failing to discern a threat to his daughter Tamar and by failing to discipline his sons Amnon and Absalom justly and effectively (2 Samuel 13).

That God the Father has made himself God our Father means that he is personally, emotionally, and even sacrificially involved with us.

It is also true that a wise father, in disciplining his children, is careful not to be so impossible to please that he drives them up the wall (Eph. 6:4). Moreover, a godly father is rightly graced with dignity and honor, and he can expect long-term impact (Ps. 127:3–5). To lead a family happily united in the Lord is a beautiful experience for a father (Psalm 128). A faithful father is not lazy or heedless but conscientiously takes responsibility for his children’s spiritual welfare (Job 1:4–5). He boldly claims his family for the Lord (Josh. 24:14–15). He leads his family through life with unmistakable spiritual commitment (Deut. 6:4–9). He brings his family before the Lord in prayer (John 4:46–53). He provides for his family with good earthly things, according to their legitimate needs (1 Tim. 5:8). He responds to their requests with good gifts (Luke 11:11–13). He looks into the future and plans an inheritance for his family (Prov. 13:22). In it all, in both failure and success, a Christian father is strengthened by his awareness that his own Father in heaven loves him and approves of him for Jesus’ sake (Rom. 8:15–17; Eph. 5:1).

The saddest part of being a father is the awareness that what theologians call “original sin” passes down to the next generation through natural fatherhood (Gen. 5:3; Rom. 5:12–21). Original sin is a negative energy within us all that resists God in order to play God. It is an irrational reflex of eagerness for rebellion and folly, heedless of the deadly impact, willing to risk misery and hell rather than bow before God. It is a kind of living deadness that only God can remedy (Eph. 2:1–10). And when we fathers see original sin acted out by our children, we must sadly acknowledge our own sinfulness reproduced in the ones we most love.

But the happiest part of being a father is seeing divine grace manifest in our children, as our Father in heaven performs the miracle of a new birth, so that our children come alive to God (John 3:1–8). God is able to give our children a new heart, a new nature, that loves God, loves other believers, and cherishes the gospel (1 John 3:9; 4:7; 5:1–4). We fathers play a role in our children’s second, supernatural birth by praying for them and raising them in the paths of the Lord (Eph. 6:4).

Finally, the Bible makes clear that a believing man becomes a spiritual father, as he leads someone to faith in Christ (Philemon 10). The New Testament holds up as an ideal a Christian leader who accepts fatherly responsibility for the spiritual growth of others (1 Thess. 2:11–12). When a man shows such gentle care for others, he may find that he has weighty influence in their lives (1 Cor. 4:14–17). May we fathers be faithful moment by moment to pursue our high calling, by God’s grace and for his glory, and for the eternal happiness of our children.

This article is written by Ray Ortlund and adapted from the ESV Men’s Study Bible .

Ray Ortlund is the president of Renewal Ministries, the pastor to pastors at Immanuel Nashville Church, and a canon theologian with the Anglican Church in North America. He is the author of several books, including Marriage and the Mystery of the Gospel ; The Death of Porn ; and the Preaching the Word commentaries on Isaiah and Proverbs. He is also a contributor to the ESV Study Bible . Ray and his wife, Jani, have been married for fifty years.

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God as Father

Other essays.

God is our Father not only in that he is our Creator but that he is also our Redeemer; this is what distinguishes the Christian’s relationship to God and what allows us to relate to him as Father.

In the Old Testament, God is the Father of Israel (and Israel is his son) in the context of God forgiving and redeeming Israel. While the Jews of Jesus’s day were hesitant to call God their Father (and angry at Jesus for doing so), Jesus claimed God as his Father and taught his followers to do the same. God is the Father and is also the Son, whom the Father sent to carry out his plan of redemption. What distinguishes the Son from the Father is not the quality of his being, which is just as divine as the Father’s is, but the functioning of their relationship, according to which the Son had come into the world to do the Father’s will. We relate to God as Father, therefore, through Jesus the Son, sharing in his sonship through the adoption we receive through Christ’s redeeming work for us.

Christians today take it for granted that God is our Father, but few people stop to think what this name really means. We know that Jesus taught his disciples to pray “Our Father” and that the Aramaic word Abba (“Father”) is one of the few that Jesus used and that it has remained untranslated in our New Testament. Nowadays, hardly anybody finds this strange and many people are surprised to discover that the Jews of Jesus’s day, and even his own disciples, were puzzled by his teaching. This is because the deeper meaning and the wider implications of the term “Father” are largely unknown today. So widespread and generally accepted has the name become that we no longer question it, and so we often fail to realize how important it is for our understanding of God.

Pre-Christian Understandings of God as Father

Jesus caused a reaction when he talked about God as his Father, but did he invent that idea? Were there no precedents in Judaism (or perhaps even among pagans) for his teaching? Jesus’s assertion that God was his Father first occurred in a debate about the Sabbath day of rest. Jesus claimed that it was proper for him to perform healings on the Sabbath because, in his words: “My Father is working until now, and I am working” (John 5:17). In other words, although God rested on the seventh day from his work of creation, his work of preservation and ultimately of redemption was still ongoing. Moreover, Jesus associated his own ministry with that continuing work of the Father, raising the question of their relationship in a way that antagonized his fellow Jews. As the Gospel records:

That was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God (John 5:18).

Was the reaction of the Jews justified? The Old Testament seldom uses the word Father as a description of God, but there are at least two important texts in which it does so. Both of them are found towards the end of Isaiah and occur in the context of sin and repentance. The first one reads like this:

You are our Father, though Abraham does not know us and Israel does not acknowledge us; you, O Lord, are our Father, our Redeemer from old is your name (Isa. 63:16–17).

The second reads:

O Lord, you are our Father; we are the clay and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand. Be not so terribly angry, O Lord, and remember not iniquity forever (Isa. 64:8–9).

At first sight it might appear that Isaiah was calling God Father because he was Israel’s Creator, but matters are not as simple as that. God was the Creator of every human being, not just of Israel, but he had not established a covenant relationship with everyone. It is clear from the way that Isaiah addressed him that he regarded Israel’s connection to God as something special, and different from what could be said about the entire human race. For him to call God Father was to acknowledge a particular relationship with him. In these verses, God is addressed as Father, not because he is Israel’s Creator, but because he is its Redeemer, which reveals the nature of the special relationship that God has with his chosen people.

The covenant context of God’s fatherhood is also expressed in other Old Testament texts, although the word “Father” is not specifically mentioned. Consider, for example, the words of Moses:

You are the sons of the Lord your God … For you are a people holy to the Lord your God, and the Lord has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth (Deut. 14:1–2).

Something analogous appears in Psalm 103:

As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him (Ps. 103:13).

Similarly, in Jeremiah we find the following:

Is Ephraim my dear son? Is he my darling child? For as often as I speak against him, I do remember him still. Therefore my heart yearns for him; I will surely have mercy on him, declares the Lord (Jer. 31:20).

In each of these cases, the underlying theme is that God is the Father of Israel. He has chosen the Israelites as his children, and because he has done so, he will redeem them in spite of their sinfulness. His fatherhood is expressed in that covenant context and would make no sense apart from it. Jesus brought this dimension out when he challenged the Jewish assumption that they were the children of Abraham, just as he was. He acknowledged their claim in a way but went on to say that in fact, both he and they were doing the work of their spiritual fathers, who were not the same. Jesus was doing the work of God his Father, but his Jewish opponents were doing the work of the devil, whom Jesus said was their true father—not Abraham. This so angered the Jews that they were moved to cry out that “God is our Father,” a recognition of the very thing that they were criticizing Jesus for saying but a claim to which the Old Testament bears witness (John 8:37–59). So, although it did not come naturally to the Jews, when provoked in this way, they were prepared to admit that God was their Father in the covenantal sense.

Non-Jewish peoples were quite different from this. Often they were prepared to recognize the existence of a divine Father figure, as we see from the name Jupiter (“Father Jove”), but it was not always clear what that meant. For some, their father god was a creator, but for others, and especially for Platonists in New Testament times, the Father was a hidden deity who dwelt above the heavens and had no direct contact with material things. Instead, he had a mind that produced thoughts and ideas, one of which was the Creator (Demiurge), who made the world. The reason for this distinction was that the Platonists knew that the world is imperfect, and so it could not have been made by the Father directly. In the early church, there were people whom we call Gnostics, who took over this way of thinking. They believed that Jesus Christ was the Son of the hidden Father, whom he had sent in order to redeem the world from the work of the (inferior) Creator. No Christian could accept that idea, however, because the Biblical revelation makes it clear that the Creator and the Redeemer are the same God. The God of the Bible is the Creator of all human beings, but the Father only of those whom he intends to redeem, and it was in his Son Jesus Christ that he revealed this purpose to those whom he had chosen for salvation.

Jesus and His Father

Christians call God their Father because that is what Jesus taught his disciples to do. He did this not in order to emphasize that God was their Creator (though of course he was) but because he was their Redeemer. Jesus had a unique relationship with God the Father that he wanted to share with his followers. During his time on earth, he was quite clear about this. “He who has seen me has seen the Father,” he said (John 14:9). “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30). There were some in the early Church who interpreted verses like these to mean that Jesus was himself the Father, merely appearing on earth in disguise. That view cannot be accepted, however, because on many other occasions Jesus either spoke to his Father or referred to him in ways that make it clear that the Father is a different person. This is particularly obvious in his words on the cross. When he said: “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34) and “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit” (Luke 23:46) there is no doubt that he was not talking to himself.

At the same time, it is also clear from the New Testament that Jesus had the authority of the Father to say and do the things recorded of him in the Gospels, and that what he did was the work of God. A good example of this occurs in Mark’s Gospel, when Jesus demonstrated to a skeptical audience that he had the power to forgive sins, a prerogative that belongs to God alone (Mark 2:6–12). His critics were therefore right to say that in calling himself the Son, Jesus was making himself equal to God, because Father and Son share the same nature. What distinguishes the Son from the Father is not the quality of his being, which is just as divine as the Father’s is, but the functioning of their relationship, according to which the Son had come into the world to do the Father’s will.

Jesus revealed that the Father had decided to redeem the world, not by himself but through his Son. The New Testament never explains why the Father and the Son are related to each other in this way. All that we can say is that both of them are eternally present in the Trinity, but why one of them is the Father and the other is his Son is a mystery hidden from our eyes (John 1:1–3) What we do know is that it was the Father’s plan to save his chosen people and that the Son voluntarily agreed to become a man in order to carry out the Father’s intentions (Phil. 2:5–8). The sins of human beings had to be paid for, not because the Father is vindictive but because his human children matter to him. What we do is important, and if our acts are wrong he cannot simply ignore them. The price of rebellion against God is death because God is the source of life, and so to be cut off from him is to be cut off from life itself. Spiritually dead people have no power to pay the price for their sins—only a sinless person can do that. That is why the Son of God became a man. He suffered and died, not just for our sake but also for the Father’s, because the Father’s justice was satisfied by his atoning death. The Father acknowledged this by raising him from the dead and taking him back into heaven, where he has placed him at his right hand as the ruler and judge of the world (Acts 2:32–33; Phil. 2:9–11; 1 Cor. 15:20–28).

The Father and Us

Father and Son remain distinct persons, but they work together for the salvation of those who have been chosen. The Father is revealed to us as the principle of the Godhead, the one who plans the work of salvation and who sends the Son in order to carry it out. The Son pleads for us in the presence of the Father and the Father forgives us because of the Son’s intercession on our behalf. We are encouraged to pray to the Father and enabled to do so because the Son has united us to him in his death and resurrection (Gal. 2:20). By this act, Jesus has associated us with himself as his siblings. The difference is that he is the divine and sinless Son of the Father by nature, whereas we are sinners who have been adopted by him. Jesus himself said as much when he told Mary Magdalene, after his resurrection, to go to his disciples, whom he now called his brothers, and tell them what was about to happen:

Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to my brothers and say to them, “I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God” (John 20:17).

By nature we are not children of God. As his creatures, we have nothing in common with his divine being, but by the indwelling presence of his Holy Spirit, we have been integrated into the life of the Trinity. It is because of this presence of the Spirit in us that we are able to approach the Father and have a relationship with him. As Paul wrote to the Galatians:

Because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying “Abba, Father!” So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God (Gal. 4:6–7).

In practical terms, the relationship that the Son has given us with God the Father is analogous to his own. In the Son, we have become heirs of the Father’s kingdom, co-rulers with him and even judges of the angels (1 Cor. 6:3). This high calling comes with a price tag, for just as the Son glorified his Father while on earth, so we too are called to glorify him (John 17:1–26). We cannot do this in our own strength, but only in and through the relationship that the Father has entered into with us, through the Son and the Holy Spirit. Just as everything they do is done in relation to the Father, so everything that we are called to do must also be done in the context of obedience to his will. It is to the Father that we pray, through the Son and in the Spirit, because that is the pattern of our relationship to God that he has revealed to us. We pray to the Father because our Creator is also our Redeemer, and it is in that redeeming love that we know him.

When Jesus says, "Be ye perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect," does that mean we can attain perfection, and should we?

There are a couple of things we need to understand about this statement. In the first place, the word that is translated “perfect” literally means “be complete.” So often, the New Testament and the Old Testament will describe people as being upright and righteous—not in the sense that they have achieved total moral perfection, but rather that they have reached a singular level of maturity in their growth in terms of spiritual integrity. However, in this statement, it’s certainly legitimate to translate it using the English word perfect. For example, “Be ye complete as your heavenly Father is complete.” Now remember that your heavenly Father is perfectly complete! So if we are to mirror God in that way, we are to mirror him in his moral excellence as well as in other ways. In fact, the basic call to a person in this world is to be a reflection of the character of God. That’s what it means to be created in the image of God. Long before the Sermon on the Mount, God required the people of Israel to reflect his character when he said to them, “Be ye holy even as I am holy.” He set them apart to be holy ones. The New Testament word for that is saints.

Now to the question of whether we can, in fact, achieve moral perfection in this world. If Jesus says to be perfect, the assumption would be that he would not require us to do something that is impossible for us to achieve. Therefore, there are Christians, many Christians, who believe that, indeed, it is possible for a person to reach a state of moral perfection in this life. That view is called perfectionism, and people develop a theology whereby there’s a special work of the Holy Spirit that gives them victory over all sin or all intentional sin that renders them morally perfect in this world. The mainstream of Christianity, however, has resisted the doctrine of perfectionism chiefly because we see the record of the greatest saints in biblical history and in church history who to a person confessed the fact that they, to their dying day, struggled with ongoing sin in their lives. Not the least of which, of course, was the apostle Paul, who talked about his ongoing struggle with sin.

Can a person be perfect? Theoretically, the answer to that is yes. The New Testament tells us that with every temptation we meet, God gives us a way to escape that temptation. He always gives us enough grace to overcome sin. So sin in the Christian life, I would say, is inevitable because of our weakness and because of the multitude of opportunities we have to sin. But on a given occasion, it is never, ever necessary. So in that sense, we could theoretically be perfect, though none of us is.

To ask Ligonier a biblical or theological question, email [email protected] or message us on Facebook or Twitter .

Home · Article · Remembering the Father in Fatherhood: Biblical Foundations and Practical Implications of the Doctrine of the Fatherhood of God

Remembering the Father in Fatherhood: Biblical Foundations and Practical Implications of the Doctrine of the Fatherhood of God

We have a great deal of instruction from the lord concerning fatherhood, but, frankly, we need more than instruction..

[ Editor’s Note: This article originally appeared in the Journal of Discipleship and Family Ministry , 1.2. Click here for a PDF version of this article.]

_____________________

We are privileged to have direct commands from God concerning fatherhood in Scripture. We are commanded to train and instruct our children in the ways of God without making them bitter (Eph 6:4). We are commanded (negatively) against provoking our children to the point of discouragement. Scripture teaches us to saturate our homes with the Word of God (Deut 6:7-8) and make sure proper discipline is meted out in order to lead our children away from dangerous folly and into the peaceful fruit of righteousness (Heb 12:7-11). Beyond these instructions, we have the Proverbs, compiled by a father whose heart burned to impart wisdom from above into the heart of his son (Prov 1:4-9). We have a great deal of instruction from the Lord concerning fatherhood, but, frankly, we need more than instruction. After all, even instruction manuals are typically illustrated. While we are indeed thankful for any directions we receive concerning child rearing, we could use more help. We need a model of fatherhood. We need to see fatherhood in action. Reading instructions is always made easier by seeing a living example. How much better would it be to have a living example of fatherhood? Thanks be to God, we have such an example. We have the perfect example to learn from now that we have become children of God. Now that the Sprit has helped us, we can cry out, “Abba, Father,” to the only perfect father knowable on the earth. We call the living God our Father.

The thought of calling God “Father” is almost unthinkable to many people, including Muslims. Born into the upper class of the Muslim society in Pakistan, Bilquis Sheikh later converted to Christ. In her testimony concerning her conversion, Bilquis Sheikh remembers how shocking it was when a certain Dr. Santiago first suggested that she address God as Father: “Talk to him as if he were my Father! The thought shook my soul in the peculiar way truth has of being at once startling and comforting” (1). You can read the remainder of Bilquis’s testimony in the book I Dared to Call him Father. My aim in this article is to shake our souls in the peculiar way truth has of being startling and comforting at the same time. Specifically, we who wish to call ourselves father have direct access to the perfect Father through Jesus Christ, his Son. If we know Christ, we know the Father–a truth both startling and comforting to us who hope to be (in an earthen vessel way) good fathers.

We have many fine examples of earthly fathers. Jonathan Edwards comes immediately to mind. So impressive was the outcome of Edwards’s parenting that liberal scholars in the early twentieth century used his family to argue for eugenics (2)! The Edwards family produced more than six dozen elected officials, including governors, senators, and Vice President Aaron Burr (who was Jonathan Edwards’ grandson by his daughter Esther). George Marsden writes, “the Edwards family produced scores of clergymen, thirteen presidents of higher learning, sixty-five professors, and many other persons of notable achievements”(3). A letter Edwards wrote to his daughter Esther is sufficient evidence of the wisdom and godly love he instilled in his family as their father. Esther had moved away from the family and had become ill. Suffering both from homesickness and bodily sickness, she wrote to her father for counsel. He replied, “Labor while you live, to serve God and do what good you can, and endeavor to improve every dispensation to God’s glory and your own spiritual good, and be content to do and bear all that God calls you to in this wilderness, and never expect to find this world anything better than a wilderness” (4). The profundity of Edwards in his ability to offer both a soft warning and a strong consolation to his daughter during her suffering is manifestly available to us who have access to him through his writings. We can learn from the earthly example of Jonathan Edwards.

A less theological example is the fatherhood example of Dick Hoyt. Dick Hoyt serves as a tremendous example of what it means to be a father devoted to his son. Dick was told that his son–a spastic quadriplegic–needed to be institutionalized because he would never be able to function properly on his own. Yet, Dick kept his son at home, working with his communication ability and keeping him in school. Dick’s son was able to let him know that he wanted to run in a 5k fundraiser for a high school classmate who had been injured. Dick actually ran the 5k pushing his son in a wheelchair in front of him all the way. At the conclusion of the race, Dick’s son told him that while they were running, he didn’t feel handicapped. That was all the incentive Dick Hoyt needed. He has now completed 68 marathons, 238 triathlons, and 6 ironman triathlons while pushing, pulling, and riding his son through every step, every swimming stroke, and every pedal.5 Dick Hoyt is undeniably devoted to his son in a way that few of us earthly fathers know. We can learn from this earthly example of fatherhood.

Yet, for all the devotion that Dick Hoyt has shown to his son, Rick, his devotion does not go far enough. It is not complete. The devotion that our heavenly Father has shown to his Son, Jesus Christ, is complete. It takes into account all glory and every joy in heaven and on earth. Our heavenly Father has, in fact, now given his Son the name that is above every name so that all will bow down in worship to him (Phil 2:9-11). Just as there is incompleteness in the example of Dick Hoyt, there is incompleteness in Jonathan Edwards, too. For all the wisdom that Jonathan Edwards was able to impart to his own children, his wisdom was, at best, borrowed from above, from the Father. As great as the greatest examples of fatherhood are for us on the earth, they pale in comparison to the singularly perfect example on display in the nature of our heavenly Father toward us who have been given the right to become children of God. Nothing should be clearer to the Christian father than the fact that he has a heavenly Father who is perfect. The Father Himself should instinctively be the preeminent source of our attempts to embrace fatherhood.

Yet, there has been a reticence in evangelicalism to exalt the fatherhood of God. In his book The Forgot- ten Father,6 Thomas Smail argues that Christians have abandoned the doctrine of the fatherhood of God as a consequence of liberal abuses of the term, on the one hand, and a charismatic emphasis of the Holy Spirit, on the other. John Armstrong agrees, saying that “over the last half century the church has experienced a wide-scale remembrance of the person and ministry of the Holy Spirit. In the process we have believed and preached a gospel in which the Father has been all but forgotten.”7 Smail’s work is an attempt to correct the excesses and return a rightful Christian emphasis upon the father- hood of God. Influenced by Smail’s work, Armstrong argues that it is time for Christians to carry the doctrine further into the practice of the church to bring about revival (8).

Biblical Foundations for the Doctrine of Divine Fatherhood If there is to be a revival of emphasis on the doctrine of the fatherhood of God, such a revival must be grounded in and formed by Scripture. Only the Word of God lasts forever without fail. So, for our understanding of fatherhood, we turn to Scripture to explore the instruction on this practical doctrine. We need not look far to find allusions to fatherhood. God the Father speaks univocally with the Son and the Spirit in creating humankind, “Let us make man in our image according to our likeness” (Gen 1:26, NASB) (9). This “fatherhood” of all humankind becomes paradigmatic of all fatherhood, as is clear in the institution of family. In the marriage of man and woman, there is both a separation from fatherhood and an expectation of fatherhood. The man leaves his father and mother so that he and his wife might become father and mother. In this manner, fatherhood is never discarded; it is always honored. No one is alive without it. The first man, Adam, becomes a father, begetting a son in his own likeness (Gen 5:3), and originates the rich human tradition of establishing genealogies. It is not in this genealogical sense of fatherhood that we are able to speak of God as the Father of all. He is instead Creator of all human beings, and, as such, he offers care and provision for all ( Job 38; Isa 43:6-7). God, as Creator, is, in a generic sense, Father of all. Yet, this general sense of fatherhood is not what the Bible is pointing to primarily when it speaks of God as Father. Speaking of God as a universal Father in the liberal sense of the twentieth century is an extrapolation of social theory placed back over biblical interpretation in the same manner a jockey places blinders over the eyes of his horse–ensuring that the animal will see only a particular course straight ahead.

When the Bible speaks of the fatherhood of God, it speaks much more intimately than any generic, Creator references can imply. In Isaiah 43:6-7, for instance, God does speak generically, of his “sons” whom he created for his glory. In the clear context of that passage, however, God is addressing his children, whom he calls by the individual name Jacob, and he promises to deliver them from their enemies by giving the enemies to Jacob. In this way–in the way of blessing his chosen ones with salvation and deliverance–God will be glorified in these sons who come from afar, whom he created for his glory. The Old Testament makes plain that the Father has a unique, chosen love for his son, Israel. Nowhere is this clearer than in the biblical account of the Exodus.

The Exodus account begins with the Father commanding Moses to confront Pharaoh, telling the Egyptian ruler, “Let My people go” (Exod 8:20). There is no hint here of confusing the “My people” in the story. Nei- ther Moses nor Pharaoh believes that God means everyone under Egyptian rule. It is clear to all parties that by “My people” God means Israel. Israel–the offspring of father Abraham whom God chose for covenant relationship–are the people whom God calls “My people” (cf. Rom 4:17). God the Father, in love, turns the fatherless Abraham into the father of many nations. The “children” of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob are children of the promise which God made to Abraham. They are children of the covenant. As such, they are uniquely the children of God. He is uniquely Father to them, as is made plain throughout the Old Testament (Deut 1:31; 8:5; 14:1; 2 Sam 7:14; Hos 11:1).

What is stated in these Old Testament passages is on plain display in the Exodus itself. In the dramatic clash of power between God and Pharaoh, it becomes clear that the Father is demanding his right to nurture his own son. Pharaoh’s folly consists of denying the Father his son. In fact, Pharaoh’s consistent hardness toward God’s repeated pleas ends with one of the two power figures losing his firstborn son. The heavenly Father does not lose his son. Pharaoh is the foolish, hard-hearted loser at the end of the Exodus encounter. Though Pha- raoh had suffered through frogs and blood and hail, he had not yet reached the depths of his rebellious despair. The final verdict made clear that this encounter was ultimately about a Father and his son: “Then you shall say to Pharaoh, ‘Thus says the Lord, ‘Israel is My son, My firstborn. So I said to you, ‘Let My son go that he may serve Me’; but you have refused to let him go. Behold, I will kill your son, your firstborn'” (Exod 4:22-23, NASB).

Already, our minds are racing to apply this doctrineof fatherhood to our daily lives, as we recognize one aspect of the father’s task to confront every earthly power which holds our sons captive. Even as the Father fought a victorious encounter with the world’s most powerful man (and his so-called gods), so, too, we will be called to fight against those who would hold our children captive to the god of this world. It is a good application. Yet, we must be patient because more is left to unfold from the New Testament–much more. Though the Old Testament has indeed revealed uniqueness to the concept of fatherhood, we do not yet see a fully individualized access to the Father by the sons of Israel. Instead, we find a predominantly cultic (or communal) concept in operation. Israel as a group was considered to be the children of God. It is not made abundantly clear that individuals understood the full implications of divine paternity.

In his impressive, six-volume work, God, Revelation, and Authority , Carl F. H. Henry asserts that familial intimacy exists in passages such as Psalm 23, Psalm 27, Psalm 30, and throughout the book of Job (10). Yet, Henry explains these passages as having derived from the logical working out of the covenant rather than from any conscious or formulated theology of fatherhood. In other words, Israelites seeking to be faithful to the covenant were seeking God the Father as children should. They did trust his care, provision, and promises. But they did not have clear revelation concerning the Father. They had Moses and Abraham, but not yet Jesus. Consequently, they did not have the individual sense of fatherhood which we see revealed in the New Testament. As Henry concludes, “Divine fatherhood in the individual sense has no significance let alone sure place in the Old Testament religion” (11). Before we make our application, then, we must wait to see the full development of the doctrine of the fatherhood of God as it is disclosed in the New Testament.

No one doubts but that the New Testament books–particularly the gospels–explode with copious commentary concerning the fatherhood of God. The fourth gospel alone has 107 occurrences of the term Father relating to God (12). But the New Testament doctrine, as we have seen, is not a novel development; it is, rather, refined gold from the furnace of redemption,having gone through creation, curse, covenant, Exodus, conquest, kingdom, and exile. The fatherhood of God for his son never disappeared along the way. It simply waited for the arrival of God’s only begotten Son for its definitive declaration. In former days, God spoke to his people through prophets in many different ways, but now, he has spoken finally and decisively in his Son (Heb 1:3). The Apostle John agrees with the writer of Hebrews, “No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, he has explained him” ( John 1:18). Jesus Himself made this plain when he said, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father” ( John 14:9).

Jesus reveals the Father. This fact is laden with implications for every aspect of our lives, but it is particularly germane to us as fathers who are looking to the New Testament for help. We come to a place of quiet sobri- ety in which we realize that Jesus Christ opens for us a reality heretofore unknown. In times past, men knew of gods. The Babylonians had their creation myth complete with Marduk defeating Tiamat. The ancient Greeks had Plato’s Demiurge. Eastern religions had an uncountable number in the pantheon of gods involved in creation. Seemingly, every culture and people has explained creation in some way. So, it is no startling concept to hear of the Christian view of creation or of the Creator God. What is startling, however, is the accompanying truth that startled Bilquis Sheikh-namely, we know the Creator God as our heavenly Father. Christ has made him known. Islam–with its unyielding monotheism–knows nothing of God as Father. Even Judaism has not fully understood the implications latent in the covenantal language. It took the Incarnation of Christ to display–reveal, manifest, explain, exegete–the comforting truth of the “Our Father.” We have a heavenly Father. This reality, at first, is startling.

For all the good we can say about a father, we should begin with the fearful acknowledgement that fathers can be a little bit scary. Typically (and by design) fathers are the more authoritative and demanding members of the family. Sons and daughters rightfully fear their fathers to a certain extent. The deep reverence children are supposed to possess toward their fathers is found in Jesus’ basic prayer instructions to his followers. He tells them to begin their addresses to their heavenly Father with “Let your name be holy” (Matt 6:9). We are commanded to sanctify or consecrate or “holi-fy” (if there were such a word) the name of our heavenly Father. Whatever we go on to say about the familiarity we have with our Father, we must begin such statements of familiarity with the startling reality that he alone is set apart in holiness. The Father must be allowed to stand alone in holiness. Such holiness in the Lord’s Prayer is an indication that our approach to the Father is more about honoring and revering him than it is asking for goods and services to be rendered by him. As Leon Morris puts it, “This prayer is not so much a petition that God will do some great act that will show everyone who and what he is, as a prayer that he will bring people to a proper attitude toward him. It expresses an aspiration that he who is holy will be seen to be holy and treated through his creation as holy” (13). Neither Morris nor we need to revert back to God merely as creator in saying such things about his name being hallowed. Rather, the point becomes for us the reality that we actually are able to approach the God behind the name that is set apart as supreme Creator and Ruler of the universe. It is the Creator God (and the Almighty Ruler God) whom we approach as Father. So, we must remember reverence when we cry, “Abba, Father.”

We should be clear about what we are saying with respect to fatherhood. We are not attempting here to begin with our earthly concept of fathers and transferring that idea to our heavenly Father. We are, rather, understanding that Christ reveals the perfect Father and, in so doing, instructs those who would approach this Father to do so with due reverence (rather than with a laundry list of wants, demands, or tests). This eternal reality–the reverence with which the divine Son approaches the heavenly Father–displays the norm by which we understand the reverence all fathers are sup- posed to receive. Certainly, no earthly father warrants the consecration due to God alone, but, still, God the Father is behind every other legitimate father on earth. Therefore, fatherhood itself is exalted, as it reflects the ultimate reality of the approachable God. Fatherhood is a holy endeavor.

What we see in the New Testament is that Jesus reveals the Father. We simply cannot begin with our earthly concepts of fatherhood if we hope to get to the right revelation of our perfect, heavenly Father. Though earthly fatherhood reflects the glory of the heavenly Father, it will never display him fully or rightly. Indeed, as strange as this may sound, we cannot even begin with the Father himself for our understanding of God the Father, for “no one has seen him.” Instead, we must look to Jesus Christ if we are to see the Father. In this sense, understanding fatherhood is impossible apart from devotion to Christ. No place exists in speaking of the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man generically. The Father has children who are able through the firstborn Son to approach him. This is what Christ himself said: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through me” ( John 14:6). Fatherhood–rightly understood–begins with Christ. Preeminently, God is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Christ, then, reveals his Father to us. As Henry says, “The exclusive sonship that Jesus claims for himself is what enables all penitent sinners to experience moral and spiritual reconciliation with God. Jesus the ‘beloved Son’ in whom the Father delights . . . introduces alienated sinners to the Father’s love which they may share through his mediatorial work” (14). We come to the Father through the Son.

As we noted before, Jesus–the one who gives access to the Father–also gives instruction concerning our approaching the Father. He says we must begin with reverence and sanctity. Jesus, who knows better than anyone the depth of the separation between God and sinners, has made a way through his own death and resurrection for us to have access to the Father, but such access is neither casual nor broad; it exists because of Christ. Jesus has mediated the means by which we approach our perfect Father in Heaven, and Jesus says, “Approach with care because he is Holy.” With holiness as our groundwork for approaching the Father through Christ, we begin to see the glorious reality of the Father unfold, so that throughout his life, Jesus would com- mit himself to the will of the Father. As a child, Jesus separated from his earthly father and mother for a time because he had to be about his father’s business (Luke 2:49).15 During his public ministry, Jesus was devoted to the will and purposes of his heavenly Father ( John 2:4; Mark 3:31-35; Luke 11:27-28). And, at the end of his earthly life, Jesus famously prayed to the Father, “Not my will, but Yours be done” (Luke 22:42). As John makes plain, Jesus was always intent on accomplishing the Father’s will ( John 5:19). From his early journey to Jerusalem with his parents to his last journey to Jerusa- lem with his disciples, Jesus devoted Himself to do his Father’s will.

In so completely accomplishing the work which the Father gave him to do, Jesus proved what he taught his followers, that the Father’s name is hallowed. So, Jesus’ entire life on earth never outgrew the opening of the Lord’s Prayer. And Jesus, because he so faithfully consecrated the name of his Father, ended up putting the Father on full display throughout his life. Pleasing the Father was the preeminent delight and purpose of the Son because the Father alone was set apart in his perfections. What the Father commanded was the great good of accomplishing his mission. Obedience was not simply good. It was Jesus’ privilege, purpose, and pleasure. The dynamic of the Father’s will and the Son’s obedient delight is evident in the prayer of John 17. The prayer in John 17 brings into particularly sharp focus the per- fect union of the Father and the Son (vv. 5-6) and spells out for the followers of Christ what it means to know the Father (vv. 1-3). John 17 is an intimate engagement between the only perfect Son and the only perfect Father ever known.

Because of the profundity of this prayerful encoun- ter between God the Father and God the Son, scholars have had some difficulty deciding upon exactly how they ought to refer to John 17. D. A. Carson notes that since the 16th Century the passage has frequently been called Jesus’ “High Priestly Prayer” (16). The prayer does offer unique intercession (v.9) for Christ’s followers. However, as Carson points out, the prayer might be bet- ter explained in other ways such as consecration. Says Carson, “The most widely adopted [view] is as follows: Jesus prays for Himself (vv. 1-5), for his disciples (vv. 6-19), and for the church (vv. 20-26)”(17).

The point is not to belabor classification of the prayer, but, rather, to say that this prayer at the end of Jesus’ earthly ministry was itself quite consistent with the prayer he taught his followers from the beginning. Indeed, Jesus confessed that he has “hallowed” the Father’s name by accomplishing all of the work which the Father gave him (v. 4). And, again consistent with the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus prayed throughout John 17 (at the end of his life) nothing other than “Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done.” Those exact words are not always used, but the ideas contained in those words are abundantly clear. Everything about John 17 is for the Father to glorify the Son because the Son has glorified the Father. And the glorification largely consisted of the work the Son accomplished by setting apart a people who would receive the revelation of the Father. In other words, the work of the Son was to accomplish the will of the Father. The will of the Father was to reveal Himself to a group of people who would come to know him via the redemption accomplished by the Son. Glorification would ensue in the unity and harmony of worshiping wills as the children are drawn forever to the Father’s eternal home.

Therefore–and this is extremely important in understanding the fatherhood of God–Jesus prayed uniquely for the very people to whom he revealed the Father. “I do not ask on behalf of the world, but of those whom you have given me; for they are yours” ( John 17:9). Clearly, fatherhood is about unique revela- tion in relationship. In heaven, just as we find on earth, the term father makes reference to familial authority over particular children. Most of the people who were alive when Jesus walked visibly on the earth never came to know the Father. They were also excluded from this prayer (John 17:9, 14). Jesus prayed for his disciples and revealed to them particularly God the Father. Certainly, Christ did what he did publicly so that all men are without excuse for not following him. But the mission of Christ was a redemption mission to secure God’s people for his glory. The will of God is not open-ended. It is purposeful and directed, just as the determination we see when earthly fathers work to provide for their children. In Christ, it is accomplished. The children of God have an inheritance in the Father’s house forever on account of the Son.

Practical Implications of Divine Fatherhood Looking to Jesus for our knowledge of the Father (and hence our most basic understanding of fatherhood), we find three unmistakable essentials of fatherhood. First, we understand that fatherhood is the source of identity. Second, fatherhood expects unity. Finally, fatherhood begets harmony. So, identity, unity, and harmony are primary elements on display in the father-son relationship of God. These three elements are displayed in the prayer of John 17, as Jesus acknowledges that his position as son has been given to him by his father (vv. 1-2). The unity between the Father and the Son is found in Jesus’ statement that he accomplished the work which the Father gave him to do (v. 4). And so, Jesus could then pray for the full harmonious effects of his sonship to be displayed as the Father glorifies himself and his Son (v. 5). Throughout the prayer, identity, unity, and harmony are on display. These three elements, then, might serve as our own fundamental framework for defining fatherhood. Perhaps more light on these three features of fatherhood will serve to help us apply this doctrine in our own families.

Unity First, the Son’s identity is derived from the identity of the Father. In one sense, the concept of identity is the most obvious of all. Even in earthly terms, the father gives his name to his son, and the son continues to bear that name and even multiply that name through his own sons. Likewise, Jesus is given the name that is above every name (Phil 2:9). He is the only begotten of the Father. Jesus bears the name faithfully. It is the Father’s name which is hallowed, according to the Son. The Father is set apart in holiness. The Son makes plain that his task is to obey and faithfully represent his Father. This is, in fact, Jesus’ identity as much as it is his task. This reality of his identity led Christ to a confronta- tion with religious leaders in John 8. The Jewish leaders first asserted that Abraham was their father (8:39). Jesus doubted that possibility on the basis that they were not obeying Abraham, and they desired to kill Jesus. The Jewish leaders then sought the higher ground by claim- ing that their father was actually God himself. Again, Jesus displayed the dubious nature of their claim on the basis that they were rejecting the Father’s Son (8:42). Jesus made explicit in this verse what was sometimes less clear in the parables, namely, that “If God were your father, you would love me, for I proceeded forth and have come from God, for I have not even come on my own initiative, but he sent me.” Jesus confirmed that he honored his Father and that the Jews were dishonoring the Father because they were dishonoring the Father’s only begotten Son (Jn 8:49). These Jewish leaders retorted that they were serving their father, Abraham. Jesus, again, corrected them, explaining to them that they did not bear the image of God the Father: “You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father” ( John 8:44).

Identity, it seems, requires that the offspring bear the name and imprint of the father. Bearing the name obviously involves more than just writing “Smith” on application blanks which ask for a name. Identity, in the sense in which we are speaking about fatherhood, requires an intentional name bearing which requires the offspring to display the character of the father. Thus, the offspring can be identified by his or her actions. When a group of leaders exhibit a willingness to lie and to kill, Jesus is able to point out to them that their father is the devil, a liar and murderer from the beginning. The pres- ence of an apple on the ground is a good indication that an apple tree is near. Likewise, the presence of deceit and murder reflects the presence of the devil, not God. Thus, reality demands that the son (or child) identify the father by his actions and desires. Jesus, of course, did this perfectly. We, of course, do not (so, James 3:8-12). Yet, we are not by our imperfections excused from the burden of reality. The Father expects the Son to identify him through his actions and desires on the earth. The perfect Son complies.

Our own identities as fathers must be exhibitions of the will and desires of the heavenly Father himself. Nothing is more important for an earthly father than that he be transformed by the renewing of his mind into the image of Christ, who himself is the image of God. The reason this transformation is so crucial is two-fold. First, this is our identity as Christians. We have received Christ and, therefore, have become children of God ourselves. If we hope to be good fathers, we must first be faithful children. Second, this is the only honest way to live before our children. If we are children of God, then acting in any manner short of exhibiting our Father’s will and desires is hypocrisy. The only way to be a Christian father is to display a great devotion to the will of our heavenly father. If we are not devoted to the Father, we will be hypocrites before our own children. As fathers, we must first realize we are children of God. That is our identity. Fathers must delight themselves in the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Unity and Harmony From a very early age, we begin to ask our little ones, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” How many times has a child answered, “I want to be an obedient child who accomplishes my father’s will”? Probably never. The question is innocent enough as a reflection of our desires to consider the future well-being of the child. The question is good in that it forces the child to consider his or her own future. Undoubtedly, the question is reaffirmed daily by schools and counselors and relatives who assure our little ones that they can become anything they want to be–especially in America. The question may actually be evidence of our own imbibing the existential air of our surroundings, believing that the existing soul itself has the power to become its own preferred destiny. The question may affirm a course of self-exaltation which does not end with, “Not my will, but Thy will be done.” The question may reflect a hidden, un-Christian expectation that our children should leave our homes with the heart set on “My will be done.” We must instead teach our children first and foremost to unite their wills to the will of their fathers. How might this be done?

I know a wise young father who is seeking to train his three year-old to obey his will. I think he is modeling a biblical approach when he says to his son, “Isaiah, you may not play with that toy right now. Now is the time for you to eat your dinner.” When the three year-old protests, demanding to know why he cannot have his own way in this matter (and this three year-old is particularly adept at raising objections), his father replies, “Because I have authority in my house and over you, my son.” I think this is the correct response. It is more than a simple, “because I said so,” although even that might be the right response at times. Anyone who has heard the incessant, whining drones of a misbehaving three year-old will agree there are times when explanations should cease so that order might prevail. But in the instance of Isaiah and his dad, we find a model which we can follow. Isaiah’s dad has taught him three very important realities which will serve him well for the rest of his life.

First, Isaiah (even at the age of three) understands that all authority belongs to God. His dad has made him memorize Matthew 28:18, “All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth.” So, when little Isaiah is told–on the basis of his father’s derived authority–that he can or cannot do something, he is also taught that his little will must yield to that of his father. His father is teaching Isaiah to unite his will to that of the father who is above him. Second, Isaiah knows that his own father has a will that must be respected and that his earthly father is following the order prescribed by the heavenly Father. The heavenly Father has given all authority into the hands of Jesus. Jesus has all authority on the earth, and he affirms fatherly authority in the home; he expects fathers to do the will of the heavenly Father (Luke 11:28; John 15:7-11; Eph 6:4). Isaiah’s dad has taught him this from Matthew 28, and he has taught Isaiah that there is a higher authority than the author- ity of an earthly father. In this way, Isaiah is learning both from instruction and from example that our wills must be yielded to the divine will of our heavenly Father. And, third, Isaiah is already learning that in the Father’s will, he has limited authority now, but he is growing toward having his own home, his own family, and his own authority someday. Isaiah has already said to his dad, “When I get big, I will have kids, and God will give me authority, too, right Dad?” Absolutely right, Isaiah. Isaiah is learning to unite his will to the will of his earthly father. His earthly father is both teaching him and modeling for him the way a son unites his will to the father. Isaiah is growing up with both an identity and a unity rooted in biblical fatherhood. As fathers, we affirm the identity of our sons by helping them see that they should unite their wills to our wills. Together, our wills become one with the will of our Father who is in heaven. Together, we honor his name. Together, we unite under the banner, “Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven.” And so, whatever vocation is chosen by our children, it is chosen because we (parents and children) have discerned that this vocation is God’s calling. Obeying this calling is a form of uniting wills (those of the child, the father, and the heavenly Father). Such a unity of wills is our identity as children of God.

This unity of wills works itself out in the harmony modeled by Jesus in John 17. The third fundamental fea- ture of fatherhood is harmony. At the conclusion of his prayerful intercourse with the Father, Jesus prays that all believers will be united in the harmony of the heavenly unity found in the Trinity. The end result of this harmony is effective witness: “I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent me, and loved them, even as you have loved me” (John 17:23). In other words, father- hood’s fruit is revelatory harmony. Our homes ought to reflect the harmony of the Trinity. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are one in will and purpose. Our homes ought to reflect that unity. It is the father’s responsibility to ensure that his home reveals the harmony of God himself. The father does this, as we have seen, by staying true to his identity as a child of God and by promoting through his teaching and his behavior the unity that exists within the Godhead. To put it a different way, the unity of the Godhead should be upheld in the harmony of the home. The father is responsible for making that happen. And how does the father make sure this harmony defines his home? He does this in two ways. First, he must live faith- fully to his own identity as a child of God, uniting his will to that of the Father through Jesus Christ. Second, he must actively demand–even enact–a unity of wills in the home so harmony will result.

This demand for a unity of the wills is a clarion call for fathers to take seriously the task of discipline. Discipline, as the three year-old Isaiah has taught us, extends from the heavenly Father to earthly fathers and from earthly fathers to their sons and daughters. The father of the home must insist that all persons in the home fol- low his will for the family. He demands such unity not because he has a hidden hint of Mussolini tucked away in his psyche; rather, he demands this unity because he loves his family, and he knows the greatest good for himself and for each person in his family is to obey the will of God. He understands the harmony (and consequent witness) which comes from wills united to the will of God. In short, he himself understands the love of discipline.

Hebrews 12 offers the child of God a promise that is, to use Bilquis Sheikh’s terms, both startling and com- forting. Granted, one does not typically read this prom- ise in any popular Bible promise books. But the promise is clear: “Those whom the Lord loves he disciplines” (Heb 12:5). Discipline is an expression of focused and particular divine love; it is reserved exclusively for the children of God: “He scourges every son whom he receives” (Heb 12:6). If one is loved by God, he will be disciplined by God. The nexus of discipline and love is inexorable in a fallen world. The reason this connection must exist between discipline and love is that the pres- ent course of this world is darkness and destruction. The rebellion of the natural man is so complete that he can- not know the way of God (1 Cor 2:14). Consequently, a radical reorientation must occur. The child of God must be transferred out of his natural domain and into the righteousness of the kingdom of God (Col 1:13-14). Our place in the kingdom as the children of God is not easily known. Like children, we must humble ourselves before our heavenly Father and learn from him what it means to be his children. He graciously guides us (by his discipline) away from the dangers and darkness of this present world and into the reality of what it means to be a child of the Living God. This is our identity in Christ: Children of God. And what child goes with- out discipline? Certainly not the children of God. God deals with them as sons, and sons are always disciplined by their fathers (Heb 12:7-10). Discipline does not have a negative connotation from God’s perspective toward men. It is positive.

Discipline is not negative, but it does, apparently, hurt. Hence, the child of God must be commanded not to faint under the stroke of discipline (Heb 12:5); rather, the child must endure the scourging. The language here is that of harsh correction such as one would find in spankings or some form of corporal punishment. But the method is not nearly as important as the impact of the discipline. Such discipline is reserved to safeguard harmony, direct the will to unity, in order to affirm and establish identity. God disciplines his children just as fathers discipline their children. When a self-willed child goes against the good will of the father, discipline must follow. So much needs to be said here, but cannot be addressed in this article. Suffice it to say here that corrective discipline (as opposed to instructive discipline) is reserved for use when a child goes against the will of the father. Defiant behavior or rebellious actions are what we are speaking of here– not accidentally spilling milk or breaking a jar. Of course, such defiance can often be masked with a smile or even in the cloak of obedience, as when the son in one of Jesus’ parables assured his father that he would do all that the father said and then went away without ever lifting a finger to do the father’s will (Matt 21:30). Defiance takes many forms. The loving father will address all forms of defiance with indignant and unflinching love so the child will know his will is not in unity with the will of his father. The issue is not so much about right versus wrong behavior. The issue is that the father is not well-pleased, and the son must readjust his will to the will of the father. There is a breach of relationship, a broken harmony, and the break is a direct result of a defiant will seeking its own harmful way against the good will of the father. The father must act swiftly and sharply and lovingly before the defiant will leads the child further down the road toward destruction. So, the father disciplines the child whom he loves, just as our heavenly Father disciplines us whom he loves in Christ Jesus.

So much more could be said concerning discipline and a father’s love, but here we conclude by simply restating what we have come to see of our heavenly Father and his great love. The Father establishes the identity of his children. So, we fathers must understand that we give our children more than a name. We give them an identity. They alone of all the children on the earth are our children. Hence, we expect them to act and think accordingly. The will of the father, which is a good will anchored in the will of our heavenly Father, is para- mount in the home and should be the will to which the child unites. Finally, the uniting of the wills of fathers and their children in the home makes for a harmony that shines forth in a strong witness to the goodness of our heavenly Father whom Christ has made known. Christ makes him known to us. We make him known to the world through the harmony that flows from our unity of wills as children of God.

At the end of our child-rearing, if we have done our jobs well, we will be intimately closer to our own children as a result of the harmony that comes from wills united to the Father through Christ, his Son. Such a finish is what we desire. Setting our earthly children on the eternal course of the children of God is the highest hope of our parenting endeavor, isn’t it? Our wills are united to the will of the Father, and that is all we want from our children so that we may be able to end our time with them on earth anticipating our time with them in heaven. Listen to the way Edwards said it in his letter to Esther: “You are like to spend the rest of your life (if you should get over this illness) at a great distance from your parents, but care not much for that. If you lived near us, yet our breath and yours would soon go forth, and we should return to our dust, whither we are all hastening. ‘Tis of infinitely more importance to have the presence of an heavenly Father, and to make progress towards an heavenly home. Let us all take care that we may meet there at last” (18).

(1) Bilquis Sheikh and Richard H. Schneider, I Dared to Call him Father: The True Story of a Woman’s Encounter with God (Grand Rapids, MI: Chosen, 1978),13th Edition, July 2000, 49.

(2) Albert E. Winship, Jukes-Edwards: A Study in Education and Heredity (Harrisburg, PA: R. L. Myers, 1900).

(3) George Marsden, Jonathan Edwards: A Life (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2003), 500-501.

(4) As quoted in Iain Murray, Jonathan Edwards: A New Biography (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1987), 402.

(5) Dick Hoyt was recognized by the 109th Congress in a special statement from the floor calling him “The World’s Strongest Dad,” by U.S. Representative John J. Duncan, Jr. (R-TN) on June 23, 2005. Richard Neal (D-MA) presented another resolution honoring Dick Hoyt and his son, Rick, on the floor of the House of Representatives on May 18, 2006.

(6) Thomas A. Smail, The Forgotten Father (Grand Rapids: MI: Eerdmans, 1980).

(7) John H. Armstrong, “Reformation and the Forgotten Father,” Reformation and Revival 7:2 (Spring 1998) 8.

(8) Ibid., 8-12.

(9) All Scripture verses are quoted from the New American Standard Bible Updated edition.

(10) Carl F. H. Henry, God Who Stands and Stays, Part Two, in God, Revelation, and Authority, Volume 6 (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 1999), 309.

(12) Cameron, W. J., “Father, God as,” in Evangelical Dic- tionary of Theology, Walter Elwell, editor (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 1984), 408.

(13)Leon Morris, The Gospel According to Matthew, PNTC (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans Publishing, 1992), 145.

(14)Henry, GRA, Vol. 6, 313.

(15) I. Howard Marshall, The Gospel of Luke: A Commentary on the Greek Text, The New International Greek Testament Commentary (Exeter [Eng.: Paternoster Press, 1978), 129, points out that “about my father’s business” is a legitimate translation, though Marshall himself prefers viewing the original as a reference to the temple.

(16) D. A. Carson, The Gospel According to John, PNTC, (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1991), 552.

(17) Ibid., 553.

(18) As quoted in Ian Murray, Jonathan Edwards: A New Biography, 402.

Gregory C. Cochran

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What does Jesus mean when he says 'Be perfect...'?

Author: Paula Gooder , 22 September 2016

Ever scratched your head over Jesus' call to 'Be perfect' in Matthew 5.48? You're not alone. Paula Gooder considers how we can understand this verse – with the help of some Japanese pottery.

Some Bible passages hit a nerve more than others. I can always tell which ones are currently pressing people’s buttons because I receive a higher than usual number of ‘What do I do about this?’ emails, Facebook posts and Twitter posts.

One of those passages is Matthew 5.48, ‘Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect’. It is one of those verses that makes any normal person throw up their hands in horror and walk off.

‘Be perfect’? Really? Be without flaws on all occasions?

There must be a few people who rise higher in their chairs and comment smugly ‘I already am perfect’, but most of us regard the command with dismay. What is more we don’t just have to be ‘normally’ perfect, we have to be perfect ‘as your Father in heaven is perfect’. Oh great, why don’t we all give up now?

Jesus is summarising his teaching on the law

So what does this verse mean? The first thing to recognise is that this verse sums up Jesus’ teaching on the fulfilling of the law. Matthew 5.17 onwards sets out the new relationship of Jesus’ disciples to the law. And it’s no easy task. Jesus’ expectations of his disciples are of a whole life fulfilling of the law – not just squeaking through by not doing certain things, we are not to think them either.

Jesus' new relationship with the law is taxing and far reaching. So verse 48 sums up all teaching on this subject and clearly resonates with the Levitical command to be holy as ‘the Lord your God is holy’ (Leviticus 19.2). Following is no intellectual exercise it requires whole-life transformation. We are called to mirror the character of God, not merely to do or say the right things.

Okay, okay, I know I’m not helping! That just makes it worse not better – now we don’t just have to be perfect, we have to mirror the character of God too. So before we go further let’s just be clear, this is challenging and it’s meant to be challenging and there is no way round that. Jesus’ calling to us requires our all and more.

Jesus wasn't asking for perfection

However (that word you’ve all been waiting for!), I don’t think that what Jesus was asking from us is perfection. He was asking a lot, but not that. It is interesting that all the translations stick with the word ‘perfect’ for Matthew 5.48.

As someone pointed out to me recently, this is probably a legacy from the Vulgate which translates the Greek word into Latin as ‘perfectus’ (though even that word doesn’t quite have the sense of being without flaws that our English word has).

Be rounded, be whole, be complete as God is

The Greek word here is teleios and it can mean ‘perfect’ but is more usually used to refer to maturity or wholeness. If we have a quick look at where this word is used elsewhere in the New Testament you will see what I mean (I’ve put the word that translates teleios in bold so you can see it more easily).

Yet among the mature we do speak wisdom (1 Corinthians 2.6)

Let those of us then who are mature be of the same mind (Philippians 3.15)

and let endurance have its full effect, so that you may be mature and complete (James 1.4)

So a possible alternative translation would be ‘Be mature as your Father in heaven is mature’. The trouble is that’s no better – it just doesn’t sound right though it is probably closer to what Jesus meant. Be rounded, be whole, be complete as God is. God does not say one thing and think another; God does not pretend compassion while really not caring at all. God is sincere, whole, and wholehearted and we should be too. That is how we reveal that we are deeply and richly rooted in God’s commands.

There is power in imperfection

But perfection is not what we are aiming for, far from it in fact. One of my favourite passages from Paul is 2 Corinthians 4.7 which says that ‘we have this treasure in clay jars, so that it may be made clear that this extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us.'

The extraordinary power that Paul has been talking about is God’s glory that shines in the world. Ben Witherington observes that the Corinthians were well known for their pottery – not just their highly glazed pottery but their pots made of inferior clay that, when fired, cracked and made great light diffusers.

Paul’s point in 2 Corinthians is that our cracked imperfect exteriors (in this instance his in particular) are nothing to be ashamed of — they are vital. A well glazed pot keeps the light in; only a pot riven with cracks can shine God’s light in the world. The cracks let the light out.

When I have spoken about this in past people have brought to my attention Kintsugi pottery (an example of which you can see at the top of this post). Kintsugi pottery is a Japanese practice which mends broken pots with gold or silver so that that resulting pot is more beautiful than the one that broke.

We are called to be who we are with all our cracks and imperfections

It’s a slightly different image but still as powerful. As Christians we are not called to be perfect. We are called to be who we are with all our cracks and imperfections, knowing that God’s glory will shine through those cracks into the world around us and that the gold of God’s love will mend our brokenness into something far more beautiful than it was before.

The Christian calling is not a calling to perfection. It is a calling to remain uncomfortably with our imperfections so that God’s glory can shine all the more powerfully.

None of this solves the challenge of Matthew 5.48. The more I look at it the more convinced I am that ‘perfect’ is the wrong translation but at the same time I know why no one has tried to change it: nothing else quite works. Anyone got any ideas?

This post first appeared on paulagooder.co.uk .

Whose Father in heaven?

In matthew, the lord’s prayer is a prayer for enemies..

When Jesus begins the prayer that has come to be called the Lord’s Prayer with the words “Our Father” (Matt. 6:9), who is included in his “our”?

In the history of the prayer’s interpretation, “our” has sometimes been understood expansively: the crowd, all people, all of creation. It has also been understood narrowly: the children of Abraham, the Jewish people, anyone who has accepted that Jesus is the Christ, the disciples.

One possibility that has been missing from the debate is that the “our” is at once far more universal and far more specific than the tradition has allowed. I’m convinced that the “our” in the Our Father includes both the person praying and that person’s enemies. The prayer is teaching us how to pray for our enemies.

Consider the prayer’s context within the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus gives the crowd extensive instructions on how to deal with those whom they consider their enemies and those who are persecuting them. This culminates in his admonition to “love your enemies and pray for your persecutors” (Matt. 5:44). This context is essential in understanding what it means that Jesus tells the people to be the “salt of the earth” or what to do if someone takes you to court. That same focus remains when Jesus teaches the crowds how to pray: the “our” is both us and those with whom we are fighting.

If this sounds unusual to us, it might have sounded even more so to Jesus’ first listeners. These weren’t just any people. Jesus’ crowd was the poor, the underclass, the socially despised. They would have been persecuted by many people, and many people would have had a great deal of power over them. The question of how to be in relation to these people was not an abstract one; this is one reason Jesus focuses so extensively on it.

Reading and preaching the Sermon on the Mount for decades, I missed this context until I decided to memorize the text in biblical Greek and set it to music. Recognizing how awful my rote memory skills were, I decided to look for patterns in the text that would make my task easier. The patterns I found suggest that the Lord’s Prayer in Matthew 6 is not in a separate section at all but is directly connected to Jesus’ insistence on praying for persecutors in Matthew 5:44.

After telling the crowd to love their enemies and pray for their persecutors, Jesus then tells them why they should do this. They have a connection to those people: the Father (our Father) who gives sunshine and rain on both the “good” and the “bad” (Matt. 5:45). This also clarifies the instruction to pray for their persecutors. Initially this would likely sound as outrageous as asking them to love instead of hate their enemies. But Jesus then reminds them that “even the most despised tax collectors can love their friends,” and he asks them to do better than that: to be perfect like the Father who gives sun and rain to the good and the evil, the just and the unjust (Matt. 5:45–48).

Does he then change the subject at the beginning of what we call chapter 6? I would argue he does not. The connection is clearer in Greek. In the same way that “pay” sounds like “pray” in English, the first word of chapter 6 is prosecheteh , which means, “Pay attention!” We might expect him to instead say prosuchestheh (“pray”), because this would continue the previous thought. The soundalike words add rhetorical force. Jesus is saying, in effect, Before I tell you how to pray for those who persecute you, pay attention! Let me tell you how not to pray for them: don’t make big public gestures of righteousness .

This is the centerpiece of three actions that Jesus says should not be done in front of people (almsgiving, prayer, and fasting), in contrast with three things he just said should be: gentleness, mercy, and peacemaking. “Let your light shine so that people see your good works and glorify the Father” (Matt. 5:16). This contrast creates further rhetorical tension (and makes the passage easier to remember).

Jesus then turns to the matter at hand: how to pray for those who persecute you. First you acknowledge the connection that you share: Our Father . Then you acknowledge that over which you are in conflict: our daily bread . The Lord’s Prayer becomes a prayer about conflict and ultimately one that teaches peace and empathy. And each of the phrases begins to connect more powerfully to the others.

Although it is impossible to know how the first listeners heard this prayer, I can imagine it must have grabbed their attention. It must have seemed outrageous compared to what they would normally do—pray against their enemies. And in each phrase of the prayer for persecutors, the outrage and rhetorical force only grows.

Imagine how it might have felt to hear “Our Father”—that is, the Father of both me and the one who is taking my food, livelihood, health, shelter, safety, family. Jesus focuses attention on the conflict by asking the crowd to pray, ”Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” Because if it is God’s will being done, my persecutors would not be hurting me like this. God’s will is to fix this, right?

Then Jesus adds to this demanding prayer. Give my persecutors and me the very necessity they are denying me. Why should I ask that the bad guys who stole my bread, housing, or family be given the very things they are taking from me? They don’t deserve those things. They are the bad guys. I deserve them. I am the one who worked for them. If they came by here now, I would attack them and take my bread back. The rhetorical force of the prayer is growing, as is my attention and likely my outrage as I consider this odd-sounding request to ask that the Father give what is needed to survive to the very ones who have taken it from me.

In this reading of the prayer, “Forgive us” is not a generic nicety. It is a request that I be forgiven along with the person who has taken from me. Wait! The thieves stole it; I didn’t. They need forgiveness, not me. At this point wouldn’t I be far more inclined to ask God to make those people rot in hell for what they have done?

But perhaps I start to remember the words Jesus spoke just moments before: “Everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty” (Matt. 5:22), guilty as if they had committed murder. Getting angry like this lands me in the company of the persecutors. Not only have I perhaps done something comparable at some time in my life, but at this very moment, I am doing a greater evil.

Jesus has just flipped things around on me. I was the pure, innocent victim in solidarity only with other victims; now I am also in solidarity with my own victimizers, with the persecutors. At this moment, I have the opportunity to gain peace by both receiving forgiveness and giving it to the ones who robbed me of mine.

Finally, the grand bargain appears. At the height of my rage I’m told to ask for forgiveness based on how forgiving I am toward this person I want to murder a million times over. The implicit question: If the Father, the judge of all judges, gives me a pop quiz to examine how forgiving I am, would I pass or fail? The obvious answer is that I would fail. No wonder then that the very next phrase in the prayer is “and lead us not into testing”—because if we were to be tested we would fail, and the consequences to us would be most disastrous since we would become the ones not forgiven. And then the inevitable conclusion: “deliver us from evil,” from the consequences of our failure to forgive. This sequence drives us to humility and to a frame of mind that allows us to receive the gift of forgiveness, which in turn motivates us to give that gift to others.

If there were any doubt about the rhetorical force of his instructions, Jesus concludes the prayer in Matthew with a challenge: “So if you forgive them, then the Father will forgive you; but if you don’t forgive them, then He will not forgive you” (Matt. 6:14–15). This is the closing bracket to the difficult question of how to pray for those who persecute you.

Jesus has offered a step-by-step way to peace for those whose peace has been broken, a way to become peacemakers even to those who were responsible for their loss. The way to peace and freedom is to find solidarity with the persecutors, to recognize them as members of your own family, and then to ask and to offer forgiveness. By adopting a way to pray for those responsible for our worst-case conflict, it makes it possible for us to pray for all the lesser cases. The alternative to not forgiving in this way would be to miss out on experiencing peace, on becoming a new peacemaker—and to risk becoming the next peacebreaker.

A version of this article appears in the print edition under the title “Whose Father?"

Charles Manto

Charles Manto is author of “Our Father”: The Lord’s Prayer for Our Persecutors . He lives in Arnold, Maryland.

We would love to hear from you. Let us know what you think about this article by writing a letter to the editors .

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What Do the Scriptures Say About Our Heavenly Mother?

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One of the most unique and beautiful doctrines of the Restoration is the truth that we have a Mother in Heaven. Although we don’t yet know as much as we would like to know about her, we are blessed to have a knowledge of her existence and a basic understanding of her divine nature and essential role in the Plan of Salvation. As we faithfully study what has been revealed about her, the Spirit will confirm to each of us the knowledge we sing about in our hymn, that in heaven “I’ve a mother there” (Hymn 292).

In October 2015, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints published an official essay surveying the history and summarizing the doctrine regarding our Mother in Heaven. This was exciting because, although it was a doctrine that had been believed and discussed since the days of Joseph Smith, it had never been summarized in an official statement before. This essay showed that it was not a speculative or fringe doctrine that we should avoid but a doctrine meant to be understood and believed by the mainstream of the Church. While the official essay chronicles many of the key statements by church leaders, the purpose of this article is to show what the scriptures say on this important doctrinal topic.

One scriptural source we can turn to for information about our Heavenly Mother is the book of Abraham. Critics of that book try to attack its divine origin by questioning Joseph Smith’s inspired translation , but as Jesus Christ explained “ye shall know them by their fruits” (Matt. 7:16). What this means for the Book of Abraham is that the greatest evidence that it is an inspired book of scripture is not found in arguments about its historical origins, but in the many divine truths it reveals. Among these many truths is the beautiful and inspired doctrine of our Heavenly Mother.

The book of Abraham adds to our understanding of our Heavenly Mother by revealing her role in the creation. In the book of Genesis, our knowledge of who participated in the creation is limited to the classic introductory verse: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Gen. 1:1). The book of Moses adds to this by revealing that God sent His Only Begotten Son, Jesus Christ to perform the work of creation (Moses 2:1).

But the book of Abraham reveals even more by explaining that Jesus Christ did not work alone, but was assisted by “the Gods” (Abr. 4:1). In the previous chapter, “the Gods” are identified as “the noble and great ones” (Abr. 3:22), whom Jesus Christ invited to assist him in the creation. “We will go down,” said Jesus to these valiant pre-mortal spirit children of God, “for there is space there, and we will take of these materials, and we will make an earth whereon these [spirit children of God] may dwell” (Abr. 3:24). Presumably they are called “Gods” because they have inherited that title as the children of God.

Jesus Christ and these noble and great spirits were sent by our Heavenly Father to create the earth and everything on it. Everything, that is, except man. As Elder Bruce R. McConkie has explained, Heavenly Father “used the Son and others to perform many of the creative acts, delegating to them his creative powers … But there are two creative events that are his and his alone. First, he is the Father of all spirits, Christ’s included; none were fathered or created by anyone else. Second, he is the Creator of the physical body of man. Though Jehovah and Michael and many of the noble and great ones played their assigned roles in the various creative events, yet when it came time to place man on earth, the Lord God himself performed the creative acts” (A New Witness for the Articles of Faith p. 63).

Interestingly however, when the book of Abraham describes the creation of man it states that “ the Gods went down to organize man in their own image, in the image of the Gods to form they him, male and female to form they them” (Abr 4:27, emphasis added). If Jesus Christ and the noble and great ones did not assist Heavenly Father in the creation of man, then why does it say “the Gods” rather than simply God? Who was the other God that created us with our Heavenly Father? When we understand the doctrine of Heavenly Parents, the answer is clear. This verse is one of the few scriptural references of our Heavenly Mother and it shows that she, along with our Heavenly Father, is our creator. Our Heavenly Father and Heavenly Mother, “the Gods” as they are called in this verse, joined together to create all of us as spirits, and again to create the physical bodies of Adam and Eve.

This interpretation is confirmed by an official statement by the First Presidency, which states that “all men and women are in the similitude of the universal Father and Mother, and are literally the sons and daughters of Deity. ‘God created man in His own image.’ This is just as true of the spirit as it is of the body” (The Origin of Man, 1909 republished in February 2002 Ensign). This is also supported by the Family Proclamation, which states that, “All human beings—male and female—are created in the image of God. Each is a spirit son or daughter of heavenly parents, and, as such, each has a divine nature and destiny” (The Family: A Proclamation to the World, republished in Nov. 2010 Ensign).

Understanding that mankind was created as the literal children of Heavenly Parents helps us understand an important verse in the next chapter of Abraham that also refers to our Heavenly Mother. Like the accounts of creation found in Genesis and Moses, the book of Abraham first gives a general overview of the creative periods followed by a more detailed explanation of these events in the following chapter. It is in this inspired scriptural commentary that we read that “the Gods” (still referring our Heavenly Father and Mother) not only created the bodies of Adam and Eve, but later sealed them in eternal marriage (Abr. 5:7,14; Joseph Fielding Smith, Doctrines of Salvation 2:71). It was after being sealed to Eve that Adam observed that “a man [shall] leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife, and they shall be one flesh” (Abr. 5:18).

Leave his father and his mother! How can Adam leave his father and mother unless he has and knows both his father and his mother? It is apparent in the book of Abraham that this is a direct quote from Adam and is therefore a clear reference to our Heavenly Father and Heavenly Mother who raised Adam as his earthly parents as well as his Heavenly Parents. It was from observing Their perfect marriage relationship that Adam learned that husbands are to cleave to their wives and together they are to be united as one.

The application of this unity between husband and wife is illustrated after Adam and Eve leave the Garden of Eden. There we read that Adam and Eve worked together, raised their children together, prayed together, received revelation together, worshipped together, and sacrificed together (Moses 5:1-4). This classic example of what it means to work together as “equal partners” in marriage is a pattern for all of us, but it is a pattern that Adam and Eve must have learned by watching our Heavenly Parents work together in their own divine labors.

The implication of this is that the work of our Heavenly Father is also the work of our Heavenly Mother. It is Their “work and glory, to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man (Moses 1:39). As Elder M. Russell Ballard has taught, “We are part of a divine plan designed by our Heavenly Parents who love us” (When Thou Art Converted: Continuing Our Search for Happiness, p. 62).

As the work of our Heavenly Father is also the work of our Heavenly Mother, so the divine attributes of our Heavenly Father are the divine attributes of our Heavenly Mother. The book of Abraham refers to them both as “Gods,” implying that they are both glorified and perfected beings. This would mean that the divine attributes spoken of our Heavenly Father would also apply to our Heavenly Mother as she is at his side, “enthroned with glory, honor, power, majesty, might, dominion, truth, justice, judgment, mercy, and an infinity of fulness, from everlasting to everlasting” (D&C 109:77).

Although we direct our worship to our Heavenly Father and do not pray to our Heavenly Mother, both are Gods worthy of our emulation. As Elder Dallin H. Oaks has taught, “Our theology begins with heavenly parents. Our highest aspiration is to be like them” (Ensign, May 1995). Speaking of those couples who become like our Heavenly Parents through eternal marriage, the scriptures declare: “Then shall they be gods, because they have no end; therefore shall they be from everlasting to everlasting … [and] they have all power” (DC 132:20, italics added). This gives us insight into our own potential future exaltation and the exaltation of both our Heavenly Father and our Heavenly Mother. They are Gods, together . As a result, everything we know about our Heavenly Father helps us understand our Heavenly Mother.

Some wonder why we do not know more about our Mother in Heaven. I have heard well-intentioned Church members offer their own reasons for why they think this is, suggesting that it is to protect her. But this is speculation and there is a danger in speculation. As Elder Dallin H. Oaks has explained, “If you read the scriptures with this question in mind, ‘Why did the Lord command this or why did he command that,’ you find that in less than one in a hundred commands was any reason given. It’s not the pattern of the Lord to give reasons. We [mortals] can put reasons to … commandments. When we do, we’re on our own. Some people put reasons to [some questions of the past], and they turned out to be spectacularly wrong” (Life’s Lessons Learned, p. 68-69).

It is wise to “wait upon the Lord” and let him answer the unanswered questions in his own time. Meanwhile, we should continue to trust in Him, recognizing that as he has told us “my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways” (Isaiah 55:8).

Although we do not know everything about our Heavenly Parents, we know enough for now. We know that we are their children, created in their image, and that they love us. We know that they are Gods, with all the divine attributes of Gods. We know that if we follow their plan in faith we can grow up to become like them. Instead of being critical that we do not know more about our Heavenly Mother, we should be grateful for the knowledge that we have, for who else on earth knows this?

A few years ago, I was preparing a lesson on our unique view of the Godhead and how it differs from the doctrines of other Christian churches (see Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, Ensign Nov. 2007). As I was doing some research, I found a website sponsored by another church which described their doctrine about God. In describing the creation, this website explained why they believed mankind could not literally be created in the image of God. Their reasoning for this I found very interesting. Paraphrasing it as well as I can remember, they explained that “being created in the image of God must be interpreted as being figurative, not literal. We cannot literally look like God, because the Bible says that God created male and female in his image. The only way for men and women to both be in the image of God is if there were both a male and female God who created them and that is just heresy.” I was impressed by the line of reasoning but saddened by the ultimate conclusion.

We are the children of Heavenly Parents and we are created in their image. We can one day return to them and even become like them. While some might call this heresy, we consider it to be among the most sacred and beautiful doctrines ever revealed. “In the heavens are parents single? No the thought makes reason stare, Truth is reason, truth eternal tells me I’ve a mother there” (Hymn 292).

Dann Flesher November 30, 2016

Today's mankind should be very comforted by the fact that we do not presently know the name of our Heavenly Mother. I have only SLAPPED one of my three children, and just once. That one time happened almost instantly when that child bad-mouthed their mother, and my wife. Suppose, just for a moment, that someone would start to write Her Holy name on a bathroom wall.... I hate to think of the consequences.

Hal Bateman November 26, 2016

I agree with division of work. Mother in heaven is 'at home,' in the premortal existence teaching all her and Heavenly Father'S spirit children while Heavenly Faather is 'At work' creating worlds. In the same way I take our oldest son with me when I install a sprinkler system for a homeowner, the FAther took his oldest Son with him to organize Adam and Eve on this earth. This pattern is continued in the FIrst Vision to Joseph Smith. Just as I love to watch our son dig all the trenches (the hard work) while I lay the pipe in the trench (easy work) HEavenly FAther loves to watch his Son organize new worlds while He watches and approves his work. They just love working together on BIG construction projects in the same way I love to work with our son on really tiny construction projects. By hdb

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Partner with us, heavenly mother: “a cherished and distinctive belief among latter-day saints”.

by Sharon Lindbloom 17 May 2021

This belief is rather vaguely explained in a Gospel Topics essay (“ Mother in Heaven ”) which says in part,

“The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints teaches that all human beings, male and female, are beloved spirit children of heavenly parents , a Heavenly Father and a Heavenly Mother. This understanding is rooted in scriptural and prophetic teachings about the nature of God, our relationship to Deity, and the godly potential of men and women. The doctrine of a Heavenly Mother is a cherished and distinctive belief among Latter-day Saints.”

The Gospel Topics essay refers to Heavenly Mother as “divine,” but goes no farther than that. The Salt Lake Tribune article supposes that Mormonism’s Heavenly Mother is “a God of mystery,” and “the invisible Mrs. God.” Such ideas, while not official Mormon doctrine, do reflect authoritative LDS teachings.

Ten years ago Brigham Young University Studies Journal (BYU Studies 50, no. 1, 2011) published a paper on the topic of Heavenly Mother by scholars David Paulsen and Martin Pulido. In “ ‘A Mother There’: A Survey of Historical Teachings about Mother in Heaven ” the authors presented statements spanning 165 years of LDS history that portray Mormonism’s Heavenly Mother as: a divine person; a procreator with Heavenly Father; Heavenly Father’s wife; a parent concerned with and involved in our pre-mortal, mortal, and post-mortal probations; a co-creator of worlds; and a co-framer of the plan of salvation. They wrote,

“Several Church leaders have affirmed that Heavenly Mother is a fully divine person and have used reverential titles such as ‘Mother God,’ ‘God Mother,’ ‘God the Mother,’ ‘God their Eternal Mother,’ and ‘Eternal Mother’ in referring to her. Elder John A. Widtsoe (Quorum of the Twelve, March 17, 1921–November 29, 1952) wrote: ‘The glorious vision of life hereafter… is given radiant warmth by the thought that… [we have] a mother who possesses the attributes of Godhood.’ This is echoed by Elder James E. Talmage (Quorum of the Twelve, December 8, 1911–July 27, 1933): ‘We… [are] literally the sons and daughters of divine parents, the spiritual progeny of God our Eternal Father, and of our God Mother.’ Furthermore, President Brigham Young (President of the Church, December 27, 1947–August 29, 1877) taught that ‘we were created . . . in the image of our father and our mother, the image of our God,’ indicating that calling Heavenly Mother ‘God’ is consistent with the biblical account of the creation of both ‘male and female’ being in ‘the image of God’ (Gen. 1:26–27).”

These are not correlated Mormon doctrines, of course, but they are the doctrinal teachings of LDS prophets and apostles–those who Mormonism says have been chosen and equipped to speak for God in doctrinal matters. These prophets and apostles have clearly and forthrightly identified Heavenly Mother as a God.

The Mormon church’s Bible Dictionary says, “there are three separate persons in the Godhead,”:

“When one speaks of God, it is generally the Father who is referred to…the Son, known as Jesus Christ…is also a God…The Holy Ghost is also a God…” (“ God ”)

And, according to LDS prophets and apostles, Heavenly Mother is also a God. Considering authoritative LDS teachings on Heavenly Mother, Mormonism’s Godhead must be comprised of at least four Gods: Heavenly Father, Heavenly Mother, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost.

I say “at least” because an early LDS apostle, Orson Pratt, also taught that “If none but Gods will be permitted to multiply immortal children, it follows that each God must have one or more wives” ( The Seer , 158).

“We have now clearly shown that God the Father had a plurality of wives, one or more being in eternity, by whom He begat our spirits as well as the spirit of Jesus His First Born, and another being upon the earth by whom He begat the tabernacle of Jesus, as His Only Begotten in this world. We have also proved most clearly that the Son followed the example of his Father… We have also proved that both God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ inherit their wives in eternity as well as in time; and that God the Father has already begotten many thousand millions of sons and daughters and sent them into this world to take tabernacles…” ( The Seer , 172)

Certainly Orson Pratt’s teaching is controversial, yet since he was an apostle, Mormonism claims he was a prophet, seer, and revelator called by God to speak God’s truth. If that’s the case, then we cannot know how many divine persons – how many Gods — are in Mormonism’s Godhead.

You will find no Heavenly Mother (or Heavenly Mothers) in the Bible. Nor are there three, four, or an uncountable number of Gods. The Bible does not say that the Father is a God, that Jesus Christ is a God, and/or that the Holy Ghost is a God; it says that there is only one true God . Christian theologian James White explains,

“God has been pleased to reveal to us that He exists as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit…the Bible, taken in its completeness, accepted as a self-consistent revelation of God, teaches that there is one Being of God that is shared fully by three divine persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.” ( The Forgotten Trinity , 14, 29. For more information please see “ What is the Trinity? ” by Eric Johnson)

This is so important.

The first and greatest commandment that God has laid upon us is this: “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might” (Deuteronomy 6:4-5; see also Mark 12:28-30). Furthermore, “…these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise” (Deuteronomy 6:6-7). Regarding this Old Testament passage, an article at Ligonier Ministries concludes, “Only believing in the right God grants us access to heaven.” For as Jesus Himself said as He prayed for His people, “And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent” (John 17:3). Hear God’s own testimony of Himself –

“Before me no god was formed, nor shall there be any after me.” Isaiah 43:10
“I am the first and I am the last; besides me there is no god.” Isaiah 44:6
“Is there a God besides me? There is no Rock; I know not any.” Isaiah 44:8
“For I am God, and there is no other.” Isaiah 45:22

Mormonism’s doctrine of a plurality of true Gods opposes God’s own testimony, His self-revelation. If we listen to God there is no question of how many Gods are in the Godhead; we know there is only One.

“To the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.” -1 Timothy 1:17-

Find more about the Christian doctrine of the Trinity here .

To see Sharon’s other news articles, click here .

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Mormonism’s gospel tree, continuing lds criticism of other churches: greedy ministers and lazy congregants, difficulties in life are part of the “universal quest for godhood,” notes lds apostle..

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Heavenly Mother Should Be Joyful, Not Another Cultural Battle

Gospel Fare
September 6, 2022

The doctrine of a Heavenly Mother is not unique to Latter-day Saints, with every world religion pointing in some way to the divine feminine. Even so, this is one element of our teaching that does differentiate us from other Christian faiths. As summarized in an official essay , “The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints teaches that all human beings, male and female, are beloved spirit children of heavenly parents, a Heavenly Father and a Heavenly Mother.”

It’s that essay that has bounded the work of McArthur Krishna and Bethany Brady Spalding, authors of the bestselling series “ Girls Who Choose God ” (Deseret Book, 2014), and Our Heavenly Family, Our Earthly Families (Deseret Book, 2016). More recently, McArthur and Bethany collaborated on a two-part children’s book, “ A Girl’s Guide to Heavenly Mother ” and “ A Boy’s Guide to Heavenly Mother .”

Having spent several hours with Bethany and McArthur recently, our editor Jacob was struck by not only their love for the gospel and the Church of Jesus Christ—but also by the tangible peace and joy you feel in their presence. Most of us on the Public Square team admittedly felt reservations about their work initially, based on experiences with others on the topic. This can be a difficult topic to know how to discuss in a faithful way. But we’ve been consistently struck by how intently these two women have been seeking to respect the line that Elder Dale Renlund underscored in his recent address: relishing revealed truth without getting drawn away by other potentially distracting possibilities.

In short, we’ve sensed Bethany and McArthur represent a welcome departure from some of the anger witnessed in online discourse about this sacred subject, along with some of the recent media treatments about what this doctrine means for Latter-day Saint women. We wanted to know more about their experiences and how they would respond to some of the concerns lingering for people who are witnessing the acrimony online.

This conversation has been edited for clarity.

Jacob Hess: What is it that has motivated you to do so much on this topic?

Bethany Brady Spalding: McArthur and I have both found tremendous joy, meaning, and purpose in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The restored gospel is bursting with truths that empower women, including the knowledge of a Heavenly Mother that reinforces for girls and women a clearer vision of their potential and eternal destiny. McArthur and I are each now raising girls, and we want to share with our daughters—and all daughters of God—these truths that have illuminated our lives.

From the beginning of our writing career almost a decade ago, McArthur and I have been very deliberate about creating books that are faith-affirming and in alignment with current church teachings and doctrine. And that firm commitment has enabled all of our book s to be published by or carried by Deseret Book. We want to be known as women who draw upon the restored gospel to inspire and celebrate women.

We’ve been focusing our writing on the revealed truths about Heavenly Mother for a few different reasons. When the Young Women’s theme was changed in 2019 to include the phrase, “I am a beloved daughter of Heavenly Parents,” we felt that it was an exciting time to help young women learn more about what prophets, apostles, and female church leaders have taught about Heavenly Mother.

But we want to be clear that this emphasis in our work on Heavenly Mother is not meant to elevate her or this doctrine above Heavenly Father or any other gospel truth. We are simply striving to shine more light on this “ cherished and distinctive belief ” that has still been in the shadows for some. When something has been neglected or disregarded, or misunderstood for a period, it is often necessary to pay additional attention to it to restore balance. And that’s the aim of our work, to help others celebrate the partnership of our Heavenly Parents who “ work together for the salvation of the human family .”

McArthur Krishna: Isn’t that a particularly joyous idea? It’s joy that honestly got me interested in writing about Heavenly Mother. I’ve learned in my own life how the gospel is a message of joy — in all its many aspects. And the knowledge of Heavenly Mother has so much potential to reinforce and accentuate that joy.

And yet, I’ve been struck by the distinct lack of joy — both among Instagram advocates of Heavenly Mother and among some others who have concerns around this teaching. The advocates online are not always joyful because they think they need to fight for Heavenly Mother and sometimes fear judgment for doing so. It is hard to celebrate when you worry about being attacked and feel the need to defend. The concerned side also can worry excessively that any additional focus on this doctrine is going to entice women out of the church … so much so that they may end up missing the joy this truth might add.

The reality is that a Mother in Heaven is joyous! And yes, both sides seem to risk missing out on that blessing. We hope to uplift hearts with both of these concerns (or wherever else on the spectrum of belief you might be).

We sometimes hear, more often than you might think, something along the lines of “It’s great we have a doctrine of Heavenly Mother; we just don’t need to talk about it.” That’s simply not what the prophets have taught. Heavenly Mother matters. If we want to talk about premortal life, being born to this world, eternal families, divine progression, exaltation — they all need Heavenly Mother.

For anyone who was taught she was too sacred to talk about and that doing so is somehow disrespectful, again, that is not doctrine (see footnote #2 of the Church’s Gospel Topics Essay and the article it references, A Mother There ). All this is good news! Knowing we have a Mother in Heaven is expansive, magnificent, and inspiring. Families are the fullness of our doctrine. And Heavenly Mother represents the divine destiny for women on the covenant path … to me, all of that adds up to a respectful gospel conversation we can be excited about and not fearfully avoid.

JH: What has the response to your books been — especially among active members of the Church? Is there anything that stood out to you about that response?

BBS: We’ve honestly been humbly blown away by the response to our Girl’s and Boy’s Guides to Heavenly Mother . There has been such an outpouring of joy, elation, celebration, awe, and gratitude — thanking us for compiling the teachings of prophets, apostles, and female church leaders about Heavenly Mother and sharing them in a faith-affirming and accessible way. Over and over, young women have told us how valuable our book has been for them as they recite the new Young Women theme and desire to know more about being a beloved daughter of Heavenly Parents. And many parents have expressed appreciation for giving them another tool to teach their children about this extraordinary Latter-day Saint doctrine. Youth leaders have also commented on how helpful our books have been in lessons, class discussions, camps, and activities.

MK: Bethany’s right — the response has been overwhelmingly encouraging. Our books have sold out twice; I think that clearly speaks to the yearning desire there is to know of this doctrine. But, we should be clear, this landscape is not about us or our books. We offer our talents, but the point is this joyous gospel truth (that we don’t always treasure), and the reaction to THAT has been amazing.

In the Gospel Topics Essay , Elder Oaks says, “Our theology begins with Heavenly Parents. Our highest aspiration is to be like them.” In sharing this with so many women around the world, we’ve watched them light up with joy when they learn more about the Mother they will be like — it is literally awe-inspiring.

JH: You’ve spoken about women in other countries appreciating this reminder due to some of the intense cultural challenges some of them face. Can you say a little more about that?

MK: Both Bethany and I have lived and traveled extensively abroad. I lived in India for eight years. And these experiences have reinforced for both of us that there are many intense issues that women face around the world that can be solved, or at least helped, by a deeper appreciation for the revolutionary message that Jesus Christ taught, summarized by Nephi , that “ all are alike unto God .”

The reality is that some cultures teach that women are less than men. Some cultures accept domestic violence. Some cultures don’t encourage men and women to be united and work together to support their families. The knowledge outlined in that Gospel Topics Essay about Heavenly Mother can help eradicate harmful cultural perspectives and open hearts even more to the truth that women and men are equally-valued children of God.

BBS: Yes, I was recently chatting with a dear friend of mine from South Africa, who serves as the Relief Society President in her Cape Town ward, and is the Executor Director of an organization that empowers female survivors of domestic violence. Witnessing up-close on a daily basis the abuse of women, my friend commented on how much an understanding of Heavenly Mother like we have in the Church — a divine being, working harmoniously side-by-side with Heavenly Father — could change lives in her community.

MK : In the process of translating our Girls Guide to Heavenly Mother book into Spanish, however, our translator told us that very few people in her country of Ecuador even knew that we have the doctrine of a Mother in Heaven. Before Elder Renlund’s talk in General Conference, many simply had no idea. For us, this seemed tragic. We have the doctrine … so we don’t want people to go through life without this knowledge.

So we felt inspired to make a short video to celebrate the doctrine in the Gospel Topics Essay . The Church has shown how powerfully uplifting videos can be. They also can be spread more easily than books, be translated into more languages much more easily than a book, and be watched for free.

BBS: Another reason we felt compelled to create a video was that we were troubled by the tone of the news coverage and social media after Elder Renlund’s talk. We wanted to shift the conversation from one of gloom and doom to one of joy, as McArthur emphasized earlier.

If you listen to the people who speak in that video, you can see they are faithful Latter-day Saints who love the gospel of Jesus Christ and who have been blessed by this additional understanding of Heavenly Mother — much like many other gospel doctrines bless our lives when we embrace them more. Simply applying the rich teaching within that essay could do so much good across cultures.

Both McArthur and I have had countless meaningful missionary experiences where people outside of our faith have found the concept of Heavenly Mother within the restored gospel of Christ to be exhilarating and delicious. Many had felt a void in their own lives and faith traditions that the centrality of family and equal partnerships in marriage — reflected in the valued place of Heavenly Mother — helped to fill.

JH: I’m understanding this awareness you’re wanting to celebrate as part of the gospel panorama and something you hope will strengthen people on the covenant path rather than providing some kind of alternative enlightenment. I also don’t hear you advocating for any particulars of what this looks like in practice, or even claiming to know. We can trust prophet leaders to continue to lead out on this. C an you say a little more about how exactly you’ve seen an appreciation of this gospel teaching strengthen people’s faith — perhaps especially the women?

MK: President Monson used to encourage us to “look up” when we need encouragement — something President Nelson has also emphasized, once stating :

Trees reach up for the light and grow in the process. So do we as sons and daughters of heavenly parents. Facing upward provides a loftier perspective than facing right or facing left. Looking up in search of holiness builds strength and dignity as disciples of Deity.

When invited to speak at firesides, we only quote from the Gospel Topics Essay . One of my favorite lines says that Heavenly Mother is the “eternal prototype” for wom en. Especially in our world today, looking up to this model can expand women’s richness of purpose and dignity of spirit.

When women get reminded of the truths our gospel teaches — the bold and beautiful idea that their destiny is Godhood, that they are made in their Mother’s image, that this earth life is time to practice our embryonic divinity, that they are to create and work as partners with men —they have even more reason to rise up in faith and power. I’m consistently surprised at how enlivening these doctrinal discussions are with members. The Spirit is so strong.

We often get notes of follow-up from people sharing how this doctrine helped them embrace the call from President Nelson to “step forward” and “take your rightful and needful place in your home, in your community, and in the kingdom of God—more than you ever have before.”

I’ve also seen how this model of Heavenly Mother reminds women that their souls need investment … that it’s not wrong to want that (something we sometimes forget as mothers). While there is beauty and growth in sacrifice and service, it’s possible to overdo it. One friend of mine said that while her mothering muscles were super strong, it sometimes feels like she has shelved her other god-given talents for the last twenty years. But if we are truly on the developmental trajectory to become like our Mother, then our own souls need investment too.

And, let’s be clear, while women can certainly grow up to be like our Father in Heaven, I will not be a Father in Heaven. That’s why a clear awareness of Heavenly Mother helps me learn about my eternal destiny and divine development as a woman.

None of this replaces Jesus, who, as the Savior of the World, is playing a role no one else can. But in our experience, women wrestling with mental health, personal worth, feeling overwhelmed, feeling consumed by their many demanding roles, feeling alienated — all have told us how much this additional truth has helped them receive even more of the purpose and power available in the gospel of Christ.

JH: This makes sense for women especially. Would you say the same is true for boys and men too?

BBS: Last year, I was invited by the Branch President of a Spanish-speaking branch to come and speak to the youth about Heavenly Mother. While discussing quotes from the Gospel Topics Essay about how “the divine Mother, [is] side by side with the divine Father,” the young men instantly made the connection that machismo — a prevalent sentiment in many of their traditional cultures that encourages men’s dominance over women — is not aligned with the restored gospel and our enlightened understanding of men and women working as equal partners.

More recently, I met a father who had been on a backpacking trip with his college-age sons, and they had been using our Guides to Heavenly Mother to discuss what qualities they hope to find in the women they want to date and eventually marry. My own 80-year-old father, who tragically lost his own mother when he was only six years old, has found deep comfort in the teaching from Harold B. Lee that he has a Heavenly Mother who is “even more concerned, probably, than our earthly father and mother, and that influences from beyond are constantly working to try to help us when we do all we can.” He has hung artwork of Heavenly Mother from our book in his home. I honestly marvel at the profound meaning young men and men in the Church find in this gospel teaching.

MK: I’ve been struck by how often men express confusion on this point, asking something like, “Why does this doctrine of Heavenly Mother matter to me?” My response is usually to point out that the Gospel Topics Essay teaches that our Heavenly Parents are the “divine pattern” — “work[ing] together” and “side-by-side” for the salvation of their children. If we’re not recognizing half the pattern, then how can we build families, faith communities, and even the world? Applying this principle of divine equality in our relationships is vital. And the doctrine of Heavenly Mother gives men and boys the clear injunction that working together unitedly with women is the model we need to practice. In our sexualized and objectifying world, that’s something boys in every country need, including in the USA.

JH: Despite these heartening benefits, there remains some honest concern among some about how this might potentially disrupt people’s faith and discipleship. For instance, we hear of concerns about an overdone focus on Heavenly Mother interfering with our faith in Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. What do you think about that?

MK: I have not met anyone who has become more aware of Heavenly Mother who somehow thinks that she replaces Christ in His role of the Atonement. I have not met anyone who thinks Heavenly Mother negates Heavenly Father. Instead, they seem to appreciate better how united they are in working together for our salvation. As President Nelson has said recently , “My dear brothers and sisters, Jesus Christ invites us to take the covenant path back home to our Heavenly Parents and be with those we love.”

My experience is that reminding people of our doctrine regarding Heavenly Mother actually reinforces their commitment to why following Christ matters. In the Gospel Topics Essay , Elder Oaks says, “Our theology begins with Heavenly Parents. Our highest aspiration is to be like them.” The reason Christ’s Atonement matters is because it is the bridge that gets us back to be like and be with our Heavenly Parents.

The path to Christ ultimately returns us to the presence of our Parents in one united path. I am not saying that people’s paths look all the same. I am saying that we are all trying to get home. I love these recent words by Elder M. Russell Ballard :

I testify there is no greater goal in mortality than to live eternally with our Heavenly Parents and our beloved Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. But it is more than just our goal—it is also Their goal. They have a perfect love for us, more powerful than we can even begin to comprehend. They are totally, completely, [and] eternally aligned with us. We are Their work. Our glory is Their glory. More than anything else, They want us to come home—to return and receive eternal happiness in Their presence.”

We are Their work and Their glory — isn’t that stunning? They all want us to grow, develop, and become like Them.

And no, a divine Mother takes nothing away from our Father in Heaven or Jesus Christ. The Gospel Essay quotes Elder Clawson as saying: “We honor woman when we acknowledge Godhood in her eternal prototype.” In that same talk, he says, “It doesn’t take from our worship of the Eternal Father, to adore our Eternal Mother, any more than it diminishes the love we bear our earthly fathers, to include our earthly mothers in our affections.”

So, while there is no competition among Deity, what we do see is women anxious to understand better how this unity and inclusion can work. So in that sense, a reminder of this larger divine pattern of working together is a really good thing.

JH: I lost my mother a few years ago, and like anyone who’s lost their Mom, know how much you feel her absence. Even though I can’t have a direct relationship with her right now, it has felt important to stay aware of her and cherish her memory. That’s kind of what I’m hearing from you both here — encouraging this kind of sweet awareness while respecting lines we’ve been encouraged to respect (e.g., not praying to Heavenly Mother).

BSS: Absolutely yes. People can be humbly aware and appreciative of the presence of the Father and the Son in their lives and still long for a sense of a Mother too. That’s partly because of what we know in The Family Proclamation about gender as “an essential characteristic of individual premortal, mortal, and eternal identity and purpose.” That means mothers are different from fathers and have unique traits that reach and bless their children in different ways.

About five years ago, my own mother started experiencing dementia and now is officially diagnosed with Alzheimer’s — and is no longer able to connect and communicate with me in meaningful ways. Although I still have my father and brothers in my life, I have a great sense of loss and a profound longing for a vibrant relationship with my mother.

MK: Even when we feel the love of others around us, we all recognize the love of a mother as unique. Like a beautiful story of a Marine who shared in sacrament meeting about his earthly mother dying when he was young — and always feeling that lack. Learning more about his Heavenly Mother brought him comfort. With all of the other family who loved him, he still felt the need for his mothers.

We often hear of people with complicated relationships with a childhood father finding healing in finally appreciating the reality of a Father who loves them. For people who have complicated relationships with their earthly mothers or even their own mothering, Heavenly Mother can be a way to still celebrate the glory of motherhood without angst. And no, that doesn’t have to cross any lines we’ve been encouraged to respect.

JH: Thank you. Just to be clear, it sounds like you don’t have major concerns that discussions about Heavenly Mother have the potential to distract and pull people away from the plain and simple gospel truths that build faith day-to-day?

BBS: What could be more plain and simple than a Mother’s love?! Young Women are taught in lesson after lesson that earthly mothers are essential for their children’s spiritual and physical well-being. Can we use the Gospel Topics Essay to illuminate the truth that Heavenly Mother is essential for her children too? She’s not a distraction!

I also find it a bit ironic that all during my growing up years (and still today), I’ve been admonished by church leaders to not adopt the ways of the world … to not set my hearts on the fleeting glimmer of worldly glory… to set our sights higher than the latest magazine model, pop singer, or movie star. But now that we’re appreciating more our Heavenly Mother as an eternal prototype for women, that’s dangerous too?

It’s valuable to remind people of Sister Patricia Holland’s charge:

I have heard it said by some that the reason women in the Church struggle to know themselves is because they don’t have a divine female role model. But we do. We believe we have a mother in heaven. … Furthermore, I believe we know much more about our eternal nature than we think we do; and it is our sacred obligation to express our knowledge, to teach it to our young sisters and daughters.

If Sister Holland feels that we have a sacred obligation to discuss what we know about our Heavenly Mother, then I don’t think we should automatically put those conversations in the camp of dangerous distractions.

All that being said, through conversations with some impressive women in the Public Square community, I am beginning to understand their worry that too much focus on Heavenly Mother can create imbalance or bitterness. I can see that. And my response is, let’s focus on balance (embracing Heavenly Parents together) and gratitude for the truths that have already been revealed about Heavenly Mother. Those two approaches––balance and gratitude — really ground me in my faith and discipleship as a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

MK: We do understand the concern people have for how this is being talked about online. That concern has prompted us to just launch a new Instagram page called “cherished doctrine” (referencing a line from the Gospel Topics Essay that calls Heavenly Mother a cherished doctrine). Originally just a place to keep people updated about our books, we looked around and saw the need for a welcoming online space on this topic that is aligned with the Church.

We hope this page can cross boundaries of concern and help us all grow in knowledge. We know there are people who want to learn more after the Young Women Theme changed to include Heavenly Mother or after Elder Renlund’s General Conference talk but who are worried about doing it respectfully. And we really don’t want to draw lines between Heavenly Mother and the Church. Like our other efforts, we hope this can become a church-focused landing place for those who want to appreciate this aspect of the beautiful restored gospel and how it connects to the full picture of God’s plan for us.

JH: That’s great that you’re modeling another kind of conversation online. I think some of this social media drama may be what leads to the kind of fatigue you hear from some faithful members when they come across encouragement to pay more attention to this topic. It’s like, “this again? You really think we need to talk about this more…like right now ?”

When you’re used to seeing so much hostility online and watching loved ones step away, this may be an understandable weariness and wariness. But from what you’ve said, it strikes me that maybe it’s precisely because of how difficult things have become around us that this discussion you’re encouraging (done the right way, with the right spirit) could be a timely blessing for heavy hearts out there, and another tender mercy to help bolster spirits.

MK: Oh yes, I am not weary-ing of talking of my “divine destiny” as a woman. To me, that is not heavy, but lifting!

It’s honestly the opposite concern I have compared with many people. My concern is that without celebrating the doctrine we have about Heavenly Mother, we will miss out on this gospel truth that could strengthen and bless women while also missing out on the fullest understanding of what it means to build towards the eternities with one another.

Our goals are healthy women, thriving couples, and strong families. And ultimately, I think the best way to judge something is by its fruits. The fact is that many women are reporting that the fruits of their experience of becoming more aware and appreciative of the doctrine of Heavenly Mother are rich and good. They are more invested in their families and feel more joy, energy, and hope for their own future.

In a church where over half the membership of the Church is female, I hope we could see more talk of our divine destiny not as a distraction but as a motivation. Let’s not forget that The Proclamation on the Family states, “Each [person] is a beloved spirit son or daughter of heavenly parents, and, as such, each has a divine nature and destiny.”

Once again, the doctrine of Heavenly Mother reinforces for women a more expansive vision of who they can be in the eternities. As then Elder Nelson once said , “As begotten children of heavenly parents, we are endowed with the potential to become like them, just as mortal children may become like their mortal parents.”

If we are to become like Them , we must learn of both of them — while appreciating how our Savior makes all of this possible. Jesus is The Way … our Parents are the goal.

All this helps explain why I believe a deeper appreciation of this doctrine of Heavenly Mother can actually help nurture and expand faith in the Church … because it highlights such an expansive, magnificent place for women.

BBS: That’s the kind of positive spiritual momentum we hope to encourage. I so desperately want my girls to hear in church that as they follow Christ on a journey home towards heaven that there is a Mother there side by side with the Father to welcome and embrace them. That my girls can see themselves in God—a perfected man and woman sealed together.

That’s why I don’t feel like we should fear members of the Church coming to understand more about Heavenly Mother. I’m also drawn to the scripture in the New Testament that states , “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear.” Our Heavenly Parents embody perfect love. Knowing about them should cast out fear, not create fear.

JH: Thanks for these answers. I know we’re really digging into this, but it’s helpful because of the legitimate reasons for concern. We’re all familiar with the Book of Mormon warning against “looking beyond the mark” — which Elder Quentin Cook explained is “when we elevate any one principle, no matter how worthwhile it may be, to a prominence that lessens our commitment to other equally important principles or when we take a position that is contrary to the teachings of the Brethren.” In that same discussion, Elder Cook cautioned against focusing on “certain gospel principles” or pursuit of “’gospel hobbies’ with excess zeal” — adding “Almost any virtue taken to excess can become a vice.”

I know you’re working hard to shape a conversation that avoids these extremes, and precisely for that reason, I’d like to ask you to speak and elaborate on how we can bring meaningful attention to Heavenly Mother without falling into these other traps.

MK: You bet, Jacob, we can go too far on anything—food storage, word of wisdom, the last days’ signs from the book of Revelation. That’s something we all need to be personally and individually watchful of. At the same time, we might also examine the situation more closely. Are there any unmet needs in the women who are being “swept away” by a seeming hyper-focus on Heavenly Mother? Instead of being quick to assume an emphasis on this doctrine is largely to blame, I wish we could look more deeply at these many needs.

I don’t believe the doctrine around our Mother in Heaven is to blame for people leaving the Church. Is there any fear in me of people going off the rails? Not even close to the amount of fear I have of members of the Church not gaining the blessings that are possible.

So, while we can talk about the dangers of going too far … I think we also need to acknowledge a very real danger of not even being aware of our doctri ne at all, much less applying it!

BBS: I certainly see the wisdom in Elder Cook’s counsel not to approach gospel principles with excess zeal. I have witnessed up close the detrimental outcomes of doing so in lots of different areas. So overzealousness is real. And it’s fair to say there’s been some overzealousness on both sides of the Heavenly Mother conversation. Some people may have gone too far in their explorations of Heavenly Mother, and at the same time, some bishops and stake presidents have been overzealous by telling members of their wards and stakes that they aren’t allowed to even talk about a Heavenly Mother. One ward I know of here in Virginia decided that their members were allowed to speak of Heavenly Mother only at home and not at church. And that kind of overzealousness can also be dangerous.

We feel that the best way to address overzealousness (on both sides of the spectrum) is to create more balance. And that is what Elder Renlund did with his April 2022 General Conference. He affirmed that the balance can be found by sticking to the doctrine taught about Heavenly Mother in the Gospel Topics Essay .

Not everyone has enjoyed that same balance in the past — and not even today. That’s why it’s been wonderful to see more references to Heavenly Parents in General Conference and why more discussion about Heavenly Mother could bless us too. To be clear, we’re not demanding more doctrine (like Elder Renlund warned against); we’re hoping for more discussion and application of the truths found in the Gospel Topics Essay , so we can find that beautiful balance!

If some people have arrived at a place of estrangement or frustration with this doctrine, we recognize how that can be influenced by the kinds of hostility that arises online. But let’s also recognize that some may sincerely feel discouraged that we have such a cherished and distinctive doctrine of Heavenly Mother but don’ t often perhaps apply that doctrine as fully as we could. A nd that disconnect can be disheartening—including to me.

JH: Since meeting you both and learning more of your work and writing, I confess that I find myself almost inadvertently inclined to edit out direct references in our communications together to “Him” — our Lord Jesus — or to “Father,” as in Heavenly Father. I don’t like that. And I don’t think that’s the kind of thing you’re hoping for, right — a hesitancy to ever refer to the Father and Son alone, or the generalizing of our language to Heavenly Parents exclusively?

BBS: We certainly do not want to eliminate or discourage the use of the titles Father and Christ — or our profound appreciation for their distinct roles. We simply want to encourage more space for the title of Mother to be appreciated in our sacred language.

To me, spiritual growth comes as we change our thoughts, words, and actions to more fully align with gospel truths. If the restored gospel teaches us that God is not just Heavenly Father but also a Heavenly Mother, then I feel that it is important to shift my language to reflect that knowledge. Martin Pulido, one of the scholars that wrote the BYU Studies article, A Mother There (a text the Gospel Topics Essay cites), encouraged Latter-day Saints to develop a “mother tongue”… the ability to speak of Heavenly Mother comfortably and naturally wherever and whenever it is doctrinally accurate.

As I have studied and learned about the “divine pattern” set by our Heavenly Parents and how Heavenly Father works together in perfect partnership with Heavenly Mother for the salvation of the human family, my admiration and appreciation for Heavenly Father has deepened in important ways. And a s a mother myself—who would do absolutely anything to protect and care for my children—I have a new and heightened awareness of the sacrifice Heavenly Mother made as well to give the gift of her Son to the world. This adds to my understanding of how vital Jesus Christ’s life, mission, and example was and is to the human family. So I would say that my faith in Heavenly Father and in the Savior has been strengthened through my study of Heavenly Mother.

MK: No need to police your language in talking with us, Jacob! Our concern is more that our thinking and language can expand where it makes sense. J esus’ divine mission to overcome sin and death so that the entire human family has the opportunity to become at one with God again is even richer to me, knowing that reuniting and reunion includes a Heavenly Mother. It reminds me of a quote we have in our book by Elder Glenn L. Pace:

Sisters, I testify that when you stand in front of your heavenly parents in those royal courts on high, and you look into her eyes and behold her countenance, any question you ever had about the role of women in the kingdom will evaporate into the rich celestial air because at that moment you will see standing directly in front of you, your divine nature and destiny.

It is very clear to me that the doctrine of Heavenly Mother draws me closer to Christ and the gospel. When I have a vision for who I can become, then I feel like rejoicing! I can GLORY in the gospel plan—because it includes me.

Now, I know people will say I was included before coming to such awareness. In a sense, they’re right. But let me give a tangible example of what we sometimes miss. When I searched the term Godhood on the Church’s website, this is what came up: “Godhood See Eternal Life ; Exaltation ; Man, Men—Man, potential to become like Heavenly Fathe r.”

As you can see, women are not explicitly included in that reference to a very basic — but absolutely vital — theological question. Yes, I can become like Heavenly Father, but I will not become a father in the heavens. If I reach my highest potential, I will become a mother in the heavens . It is important to be reminded of this “ divine destiny .”

None of this, to be clear, means we are demanding to go beyond what has been revealed. People often say we don’t know enough to teach or that very little has been revealed. But we have already received in prophetic teaching incredibly rich doctrines that can — and should! — inspire and guide our life choices. Elder Holland has said, “I want you to … know who you truly are. You are literally a spirit daughter of heavenly parents with a divine nature and eternal destiny. That surpassing truth should be fixed deep in your soul and be fundamental to every decision you make as you grow into mature womanhood.” This knowledge makes me rejoice in my membership in the Church.

BBS: Well said, McArthur. A s I have witnessed how empowering the doctrine of Heavenly Mother is for girls and women—members of the Church and beyond—I am increasingly grateful for the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ that has given us this profound, life-changing knowledge that is not known to so, so many. And it makes me want to shout for joy!

JH: As a final question, if you could say one thing to the women who have been frustrated about this conversation —or who want more understanding about Heavenly Mother—what would that be?

MK: First of all, while not policing you or anyone else, I would remind us that sticking strictly with the Gospel Topics Essay offers us plenty of information to teach about Heavenly Mother: We know She loves us. She is concerned about us. She and Heavenly Father designed the plan for our lives. We know Heavenly Mother “works together” with Heavenly Father for the salvation of Their family. We know Heavenly Father and Heavenly Mother would not be exalted beings without each other. And that’s just a few tidbits — there’s more!

Beyond that, someone told me recently that the most common word i n the scriptures is “ask.” I don’t know if that is true … but we certainly have the model of Joseph Smith asking. So, I would tell them to “ask.” If a person is feeling frustrated about this in any way and wants to better understand the truth of this doctrine or why it matters, or how to apply it, I would ask God — the ultimate source of all truth and wisdom.

And I would also say my personal philosophy is to work. Jesus taught a lot of analogies about working in the vineyard. In a faith community, everything takes work. If we believe in the gospel doctrine of having a Heavenly Mother, then we work to enact that truth in our faith community. If you are frustrated about this topic (or any other), find a way to bless others’ lives in that arena.

BBS: I would say what I said to the Salt Lake Tribune:

Even if we focused only on what is taught in the Gospel Topics Essay on Heavenly Mother, it would be revolutionary for girls and women. The essay affirms these truths: our understanding of Heavenly Mother is rooted in scripture; She stands side by side with Heavenly Father; She helped design the Plan of Salvation and works together with Heavenly Father for the salvation of the human family; Heavenly Mother is concerned about her children, can influence us, and is constantly trying to help us. Those are big, beautiful, bold truths that can transform the way women see themselves now and in the eternities.

Help us usher in the ongoing restoration … good things are sure to come. In a recent interview with Latter-day Saint scholars, Harvard professor of law and religion Noah Feldman said that the reality of a Heavenly Mother is one of the greatest gems Latter-day Saints can give to the wider world. I want to be a part of that!

JH: I’ve appreciated how responsive you’ve both been to the questions and concerns our community and team have raised. I’ve personally found this exchange with you edifying and encouraging. Is there anything else you’d like to share?

BBS: Girls, Young Women, and Women need to know that their eternal progression leads to a designing, creating, loving, involved, influencing c o-equal partner God! This is all doctrine from the Gospel Topics Essay . Heavenly Mother is not an invisible, secondary sidekick . This knowledge, this vision is essential, and it is beautiful.

I also just have to say how much we’ve both learned from our ongoing dialogue with the Public Square community over the past few months. We’ve gained more empathy for some of the concerns people have and created some mutual respect and bonds of affection.

MK: Agreed! We have learned a lot and have been able to incorporate those learnings into future work. It feels like a lot of the concerns are about going “too far.” And, I guess that makes sense in our agitated American society prone to polarizing. H owever, I would also like to offer a re-framing of the situation.

This doctrine is JOYOUS! In addition to a Father and a Brother—we have a Mother!

If you don’t feel that yet, pause … get still. Tune in. How do you feel? Doesn’t that reality just make your heart dance? Ok, I’m a dancer, so maybe that’s just me. But doesn’t the truth of Heavenly Mother make your heart sing or glory or at least swell!?!

I want to be sure that in all the concerns, we don’t take away the sheer joy of a Mother in Heaven.

About the authors

Bethany Brady Spalding

McArthur Krishna

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14 Myths and Truths We Know About Our Heavenly Mother

“The doctrine of a Heavenly Mother is a cherished and distinctive belief among Latter-day Saints,” the Church’s gospel topics essay “ Mother in Heaven ” reads.

Although Latter-day Saints know the topic of our Heavenly Mother is sacred and that She is crucial to the plan of salvation, many might wonder why we don’t know more about our divine Mother. In fact, many misconceptions and myths have been circulated about our Mother in Heaven because of the relative silence that surrounds Her.

But Latter-day Saints do have access to many revealed truths about Heavenly Mother, thanks in large part to the Church’s efforts to make historical records, scripture, and documents more accessible than ever before. These truths can help us understand our Mother in Heaven, feel nearer to Her, and understand our own potential in an elevated, clearer way.

► You'll also like: The Name of Heavenly Mother and Father: Insights That Might Change How You Read the Scriptures

To help us draw nearer to our Heavenly Parents, here are some myths and truths regarding our Heavenly Mother it is important for Latter-day Saints to understand.

1. Truth—Heavenly Mother shaped who we are before this life, and She will continue to shape and mentor us through eternity.

The love of our Heavenly Mother has been a constant stream of strength and comfort since premortality. As “ The Family: A Proclamation to the World ” reveals, “All human beings—male and female—are created in the image of God. Each is a beloved spirit son or daughter of heavenly parents, and, as such, each has a divine nature and destiny.”

Knowing our spiritual history and makeup alters everything we know about ourselves and our future possibilities. As Sister Kathy Kipp Clayton said in a 2015 Worldwide Devotional, “We have [Heavenly Father’s] spiritual DNA coursing through our veins” (“ A Regal Identity ”). Because of the revealed doctrine of “The Family: A Proclamation to the World,” we know that we also have the divine DNA of our Heavenly Mother filling our veins and our souls, allowing us to become like our divine Parents.

Sister Susa Young Gates, daughter of Brigham Young and editor of the Church’s Young Woman’s Journal and Relief Society Magazine , wrote that our Heavenly Mother’s “watchful care” and “careful training” helped shape our souls and prepared us for mortal life and eternal life to come (“Editor’s Department,” Young Woman’s Journal 2). In fact, she stated “our great heavenly Mother was the greater molder” of the prophet Abraham’s nature, “greater than his genetics, his prenatal impressions, his cultural or natural environment, or even his earthly mother’s nurturing” the BYU Studies article “A Mother There” clarifies.

That knowledge of how influential our Heavenly Mother is in each of our lives and destinies can help us each “rise to the stature of the divine” within us (Gordon B. Hinckley, “Rise to the Stature of the Divine within You,” October 1989). And it can help us realize stunning celestial truths.

“There is an exalted woman, the Mother of your spirit, who cares, instructs, and watches over you, who is helping govern the universe. There is someone on your side, urging you to become all you can be, who sent Her son along with the Father to help show you the way,” says Martin Pulido, co-author of the BYU Studies essay “ A Mother There ” and editor of Dove Song. “That is probably the most important thing for us to grasp. Recognizing there is someone who has had a tremendous influence on us before we came here, who is no doubt thinking about you all the time while you are here and helping you get where you need to be—it is overwhelming. That’s power.”

2. Myth—There is a “sacred silence” surrounding our Heavenly Mother that keeps us from speaking about Her.

Myths have circulated in our culture that have left some Latter-day Saints believing the topic of Heavenly Mother is taboo or deserves a “sacred silence.” While we might not have as much revealed about our Mother in Heaven as we do our Father, much of the silence that surrounds Her stems from our own discomfort or lack of knowledge, not from a Church mandate.

About the myth that Church members must remain quiet about our Heavenly Mother to protect her sacredness, Pulido asks, “How is the temple or God the Father any less sacred” of a topic, or how can any statement from mortal men and women on these topics change their holiness, glory, or nature?

“I had qualms with that [reasoning], and that is partly why Professor Paulson and I wrote the BYU Studies article about Heavenly Mother, to turn that notion on its head and say that’s not really the case,” Pulido says.

If the “sacred silence” theory surrounding Heavenly Mother is a myth, why don’t we talk about her more?

Pulido shares a few insights. “For some, I think it is cultural habits are hard to break. . . . It’s still an entrenched view of having this sacred silence about her, so I think time will just have to heal that wound. I believe the article I wrote and the Church’s article on the topic that followed create a space in which we can speak of her more often. . . and what we do with that space and how we fill that up, I think that is on each of us, in how we choose to speak about Her in our talks, our lessons, our meetings, our conversations, and so on.”

He continues, “I will say here, there are many distinctive parts of our LDS doctrine that we don’t vocalize frequently from the pulpit.” One example Pulido gives is the King Follett Sermon, which revealed the truths that “God was once a man possessing a body of flesh and bone, that God cannot and did not create the world out of nothing, and that the spirit of man is intelligence co-equal with God—these are incredibly distinctive and illuminating doctrines as to what Mormons believe about man’s nature and potential, including the nature of the God they worship,” Pulido says. However, these truths are not mentioned regularly over the pulpit or in our hymns. Pulido continues, “My point is to question whether we can draw an inference between the importance of a topic and the frequency with which it is mentioned over the pulpit.”

One of the main reasons Pulido thinks Mormons do not speak often about Heavenly Mother and doctrines found in the King Follett Sermon is because we are still learning about those truths and how to communicate them with people outside our religion. “We need to remember how young our religion is,” Pulido says. “We are still getting comfortable with and coming to grips with our theology. We are still creating vocabulary and are very self-conscious about beliefs that conflict with mainstream Christian beliefs . . . we're trying to find ways to talk about them intelligently and persuasively. Early Christianity took centuries to codify its texts and symbols in art and theology.”

Latter-day Saints might also shy away from topics like Heavenly Mother because it highlights where our doctrines diverge from the rest of Christianity. While it is good to build common ground, Pulido says, “We need to be comfortable with our peculiar doctrines, like our belief in Heavenly Mother. We’ll get better at explaining and articulating ourselves, even if it takes a while for us to master our mother tongue—pun intended. But we can get there. We should also remember that as a global Church, we proselyte far more than mainstream Christians and that other faiths will be far more amenable to the notion of a Heavenly Mother.”

3. Truth—Heavenly Mother played a vital part in our creation and the plan of salvation.

Elder Melvin J. Ballard taught:

"No matter to what heights God has attained or may attain, he does not stand alone; for side by side with him, in all her glory, a glory like unto his, stands a companion, the Mother of his children. For as we have a Father in heaven, so also we have a Mother there, a glorified, exalted, ennobled Mother. That is a startling doctrine, I recognize, to some folk, and yet we ought to be governed by reason in giving consideration to this doctrine which is a revelation from God" (Sermons and Mission Services of Melvin Joseph Ballard, 205).

Many Church leaders have taught that our Heavenly Parents were both vital not only in the creation of our spirits but of our bodies as well. As Elder M. Russell Ballard taught, “We are part of a divine plan designed by Heavenly Parents who love us” ( When Thou Art Converted , 62).

Our Heavenly Mother is a creator of universes, a framer of worlds without end, a God over limitless creations, and our eternal Mother working in perfect partnership with our Heavenly Father. And our Heavenly Mother continues to influence and shape our life.

As Patricia Holland shared in a BYU devotional, “In the ongoing process of creation—our creation and the creation of all that surrounds us—our heavenly parents are preparing a lovely tapestry with exquisite colors and patterns and hues. They are doing so lovingly and carefully and masterfully. And each of us is playing a part—our part—in the creation of that magnificent, eternal piece of art” (“Filling the Measure of Creation”).

4. Truth—We know more about our Heavenly Mother’s nature than many might realize.

Since our Heavenly Mother stands as an equal partner side by side with our Heavenly Father, much of what we know about our Father can illuminate our understanding of our Mother. As the Encyclopedia of Mormonism states, “A Heavenly Mother shares parenthood with the Heavenly Father. This concept leads Latter-day Saints to believe that she is like him in glory, perfection, compassion, wisdom, and holiness.” Her unending love, Her glory, Her majesty, the sacrifice of Her Son, Her patient and constant arms reaching out for us, comforting us—many of these eternal truths are equally applicable to our Heavenly Mother and Father.

And the ultimate embodiment of both of our Heavenly Parents’ attributes can be found through their divine Son, our Savior, Jesus Christ. As Pulido says, “We can all strive for the same virtues that our Heavenly Mother possesses to the maximal degree, which I believe were shown to us through the ministry and life of Her Son, who can be viewed as the image of both Father and Mother. He is the way.”

Lead image by Cailtin Connolly

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Celebrating distinctive LDS doctrines, this landmark children's book illuminates the essential role of families both in heaven and on earth. No matter where we live, what we look like, or what we believe, all of us are children of Heavenly Parents who love us perfectly. Our Heavenly Parents gave us the gift of earthly families to help us grow and become like Them. Families are the best school for learning how to love, forgive, cooperate, pray, create, work, play, and figure out how to be with each other forever. Depicting the deep joys as well as the messy realities of family life, this book will inspire you and those you love to practice building an eternal family every day.

5. Myth—The first mention of Heavenly Mother was published after Joseph Smith’s death.

“Mention of Heavenly Mother did first appear in a publication while Joseph Smith was alive,” Pulido says. While many are familiar with Eliza Snow’s hymn “O My Father,” her famous poem was not the first recorded mention of Heavenly Mother. “The first account was February 1844, four months before Joseph died, in a poem by William W. Phelps [published in the Times and Seasons ]. It has a beautiful scene where Heavenly Mother submits to Her Son to be sent to save us. Joseph Smith was the editor of the Times and Seasons , so he would have been aware of this poem. Phelps also ascribed the truth of a Heavenly Mother to Joseph Smith later that year in December 1844, and the following year.”

Many other records also reveal that Joseph Smith taught about our Heavenly Mother to others. For example, Joseph Smith spoke about our Heavenly Mother to the third Relief Society president of the Church, Zina D. Young. After losing her mother to "the most trying of circumstances," Zina was speaking to the prophet about her intense grief and asked the question: "Will I know my mother as my mother when I get over to the Other Side?"

To which Joseph Smith responded, "Certainly you will. More than that, you will meet and become acquainted with your eternal Mother, the wife of your Father in Heaven" ( History of the Young Ladies' Mutual Improvement Association of the Church of Jesus Christ of L.D.S., from November 1869 to June 1910, 16).

6. Truth—Our Heavenly Mother is intimately involved in our lives now.

President Harold B. Lee taught, “Sometimes we think the whole job is up to us, forgetful that there are loved ones beyond our sight who are thinking about us and our children. We forget that we have a Heavenly Father and a Heavenly Mother who are even more concerned, probably, than our earthly father and mother, and that influences from beyond are constantly working to try to help us when we do all we can,” (“The Influence and Responsibility of Women,” Relief Society Magazine 51 ).

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Speaking beautifully and poetically of our Heavenly Parents’ love, Elder Jeffrey R. Holland compared his and his wife’s love of their children to the infinitely greater capacity of our divine Father and Mother:

“To my beloved Pat and me, our children are more precious possessions than any crown or kingdom this world could offer. There is literally not anything in righteousness we would not do for them; there is no stream so deep nor mountain so high nor desert so wide that we could be kept from calming their fears or holding them close to us. And if we ‘being evil’ can love so much and try so hard, what does that say of a more Godly love that differs from our own as the stars differ from the sun? On a particularly difficult day, or sometimes a series of difficult days, what would this world's inhabitants pay to know that heavenly parents are reaching across those same streams and mountains and deserts, anxious to hold them close?” (“The Meaning of Membership: A Personal Response,” However Long and Hard the Road).

7. Truth—Heavenly Mother changes our ideas of the nature of God and what godhood means.

“Men and women cannot be exalted without each other. Just as we have a Father in Heaven, we have a Mother in Heaven,” the Church’s “Mother in Heaven” article emphatically states.

The BYU Studies article “A Mother There” also illuminates this idea, stating, “It should be no surprise, then, that most Mormon leaders could not understand how Father or Mother could be divine alone. For either to be fully God, each must have a partner with whom to share the power of endless lives.”

How does this idea of Heavenly Parents—two divine beings working together to bring about our happiness and exaltation—change the way we envision deity?

“The revelation of Heavenly Mother wasn’t adding an extra God to some Mormon pantheon,” Pulido says. “The revelation of Heavenly Mother was redefining the very nature of what it means to be God.”

While Heavenly Mother and Heavenly Father are different, distinct beings, they willingly join together, opening themselves not only to each other but to us. “God's oneness is a voluntary coming together—a marriage and preservation of differences. . . . In that view, no person removed from others or the world is a God. To be a God means to be intimately bound up in a relationship with another,” Pulido says. “To be divine we have to be open to another, which means allowing ourselves to suffer—like when God cries over the world in the Book of Moses. In traditional mainstream Christianity, God cannot be influenced by the world at all. He influences it through pure activity. He affects everything, but nothing affects Him. That is not how we understand God at all. He acts for sure, but He is also acted upon by the Mother, by us, by everyone. He is an incredibly affected, emotional being.”

8. Myth—By not praying to Heavenly Mother, we belittle Her glory or contribution.

As the Church’s gospel topics essay states:

“Latter-day Saints direct their worship to Heavenly Father, in the name of Christ, and do not pray to Heavenly Mother. In this, they follow the pattern set by Jesus Christ, who taught His disciples to ‘always pray unto the Father in my name.’ Latter-day Saints are taught to pray to Heavenly Father, but as President Gordon B. Hinckley said, ‘The fact that we do not pray to our Mother in Heaven in no way belittles or denigrates her.’”

Likewise, we do not pray to Jesus Christ or the Holy Ghost; we are not suggesting they are less divine by doing so. This does not preclude us from mentioning our Savior, the Holy Ghost, or Heavenly Mother within our prayers. Nothing we can do or say could detract from the glory, power, and love of our Mother in Heaven, and while we follow the example of our Savior in praying to our Heavenly Father, there are many ways we can incorporate Heavenly Mother in our worship—including remembering Her role in our creation and the plan of salvation, thinking of Her in the temple, mentioning Her in our prayers, being mindful of Her as we read the scriptures, cultivating gratitude for all She has done for us, and searching for Her influence in our daily lives.

9. Truth—Our Heavenly Mother can help us understand our own identity and what we are capable of.

“As man now is, God once was: As God now is, man may be.” Many Latter-day Saints are familiar with this couplet created by President Lorenzo Snow, one which was inspired by the King Follett Sermon given by Joseph Smith. But the meaning behind this phrase deepens and broadens when we begin to understand God as a Heavenly Father and Mother, united in purpose and Their love for us.

Understanding this truth changes how we see and interact with one another by helping us understand there is divinity within every person. “Our highest aspiration is to become like our heavenly parents, which will empower us to perpetuate our family relationships throughout eternity,” President Dallin H. Oaks shared.

“We are children of God with a spirit lineage to Heavenly Parents,” President Oaks during general conference. “When we understand our relationship to God, we also understand our relationship to one another. All men and women on this earth are the offspring of God, spirit brothers and sisters. What a powerful idea! No wonder God’s Only Begotten Son commanded us to love one another. If only we could do so! What a different world it would be if brotherly and sisterly love and unselfish assistance could transcend all boundaries of nation, creed, and color.”

Viewing each other not only as brothers and sisters but as souls with the potential to become gods and goddesses can humble and transform us as well as deepen our relationships—including with ourselves. As Pulido say, “The doctrine of spirit birth from divine Parents brings this feeling of belonging and feeling you are indebted to something greater than yourself. This relates to what philosopher Lisa Guenther has noted, which is a central ingratitude arising in humans from forgetting those who sacrificed to make them. For her, birth is an irreplaceable gift-event known as ‘being-from-others.’ The gift is the possibility to have possibilities, and this is not a gift I can repeat, reject, or repay.” No matter what relational challenges, abuse, or struggles we might experience, we can find comfort in knowing we have perfect Heavenly Parents whose love and power are unending—and who both see limitless potential in us.

10. Truth—Our Heavenly Mother helps us understand the power and potential of women.

Elder B.H. Roberts shared that our knowledge of Heavenly Mother testifies of “the nobility of woman and of motherhood and of wifehood—placing her side by side with the Divine Father” ( Defense of the Faith and the Saints ).

As the BYU Studies essay states, “The soul-making trials of her earthly experience, coupled with continuing growth after a celestial resurrection, helped [Heavenly Mother] hone the qualities of divinity to move her from ‘womanhood to Godhood.’”

► You'll also like: LDS Artist Shares How Painting Heavenly Mother Changed Her Perspective of Motherhood

Often within our Church we can speak of deity in masculine terms. Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ are both male, and we refer to the Holy Ghost often using male pronouns. Even angels depicted in our art or Church history are often male, such as Moroni, Michael, Peter, James, John, Elijah, John the Baptist, etc. Without understanding and knowing the reality and nature of our Heavenly Mother, and by failing to incorporate Her in our religious conversations, Pulido says, “Women are bound to feel left out and marginalized. They are bound to ask questions like ‘Where do I belong? Are we somehow less than men? How do I find the divinity, and what's heavenly in me?’”

Knowing women are included in godhood, that heaven is based on the structure of family, helps us understand the power daughters and sons of God possess and the trust our Heavenly Parents have in them.

11. Myth—In honoring our Heavenly Mother we slight the Heavenly Father or takes away from His glory and power.

President Rudger Clawson taught, “It doesn’t take from our worship of the Eternal Father, to adore our Eternal Mother, any more than it diminishes the love we bear our earthly fathers, to include our earthly mothers in our affections. . . . We honor woman when we acknowledge Godhood in her eternal prototype” (“Our Mother in Heaven,” Millennial Star ). As a Husband and Wife—equal partners—working in unison to bring about our exaltation, any praise or glory we give to our Heavenly Father or Mother naturally praises and glorifies the other. In fact, just as the knowledge that we can become gods and goddesses adds to the glory and majesty of God—helping us understand Mother and Father as the parents of future deity, the Gods of gods—the knowledge of a Mother in Heaven brings added power and glory to our understanding of Father in Heaven, and vice versa. Understanding our Heavenly Parents as glorified beings who overcame all mortality could offer, who grew in intelligence and glory to the point of creating universes and spirit children, only adds to Their power and complexity.

12. Truth—Knowing Heavenly Mother can bring power, comfort, and love to our lives.

Orson F. Whitney testified, “It is through sorrow and suffering, toil and tribulation, that we gain the education that we come here to acquire and which will make us more like our Father and Mother in heaven" ( Faith Precedes the Miracle , 98). Understanding that our Heavenly Parents not only endured mortality but gloriously triumphed over and grew from their challenges in life can empower us no matter what we may face.

And part of that power comes from knowing we are never alone. As Sister Chieko N. Okazaki, former first counselor in the Relief Society general presidency, testified:

“I wonder at the strength and courage of our Heavenly Parents, sending us to experience mortality, and of all the deaths they have suffered through with us in our own suffering. We know something of the Father's powerful grief as he withdrew from his Son, Jesus Christ, as Christ fulfilled the Atonement and died on the cross. . . .

“We too can anticipate that when the time comes for us to step through the veil of mortality, leaving our failing and pain-filled bodies behind, we will see the loving smile and feel the welcoming embrace, not only of our Heavenly Parents and of the Savior, but also of our loved ones who will greet us in full vigor, full remembrance, and full love” (Sanctuary, 129-130).

The reality of a loving Mother in Heaven can strengthen us even in times of joy—not only in moments of heartbreak. As Pulido shares, “There is a woman who shaped my soul, who cares and loves me, and who is helping govern this world. She watches the sparrow; She watches each grain of sand and star in the sky; She watches the lilies; She watches me. She is by my side, and She is helping me become all that I can be. That has been enormously powerful on my testimony. Now, I will add here that I feel very deeply in that way about my Heavenly Father, too. Knowing that I have two [Parents] who work together to do that—that empowers me even more.”

13. Truth—There is so much left for us to discover about Heavenly Mother.

“As with many other truths of the gospel, our present knowledge about a Mother in Heaven is limited. Nevertheless, we have been given sufficient knowledge to appreciate the sacredness of this doctrine and to comprehend the divine pattern established for us as children of heavenly parents,” the Church’s essay on Heavenly Mother reads.

While it is true that we have access to an unprecedented number of historical documents, Church essays, quotes, articles, poetry, and art focused on Heavenly Mother that previous generations of Church members never had access to, there is still much for us to discover through study, through personal revelation, and as a church.

About his experience helping research and write the BYU Studies groundbreaking article on Heavenly Mother, Pulido says, “I’m overwhelmed not only by how much has been said but also by how much more there is to know. There is so much more to be uncovered. While working on Dove Song , I became aware of the limited scope of my earlier research on Heavenly Mother, which had zeroed in on English LDS sources, and failed to include foreign language works. I realize how much more is available for me to research now from these international works, which in combination with additional English material uncovered (we had lots of gaps in the middle 20 th century due to lack of digitized records, likely warrants a revision of that prior article.”

14. Myth—We can understand Heavenly Mother’s role by understanding gender roles in our culture today.

Often people try to explain the relationship of our Heavenly Father and Mother by projecting our cultural ideas onto their relationship. As the BYU Studies article notes, many scholars and writers “lament that Latter-day Saints usually acknowledge her existence only, without delving further into her character or roles, or portray her as merely a silent, Victorian-type housewife valued only for her ability to reproduce.”

Pulido adds, “I see the problem with [trying to understand God by using anthropomorphic and human-shaping reasoning] is that social roles for and between men and women are not agreed upon around the world now, nor will they in the future. . . . Wherever and whenever we are, we need to be open to thinking beyond our current day’s social roles for our Heavenly Parents. This includes not scoffing at traditional ones, like bearing and rearing children.”

We’re blessed to know that our Heavenly Mother is equal to our Father in Heaven not only in power and love, but also in Her complexity and abilities. While our Heavenly Parents are distinct and might carry out different roles, there is little doubt that both are essential and both accomplish feats beyond our current mortal understanding.

As Elder Glenn L. Pace testified at a BYU devotional:

“Sisters, I testify that when you stand in front of your heavenly parents in those royal courts on high and you look into Her eyes and behold Her countenance, any question you ever had about the role of women in the kingdom will evaporate into the rich celestial air, because at that moment you will see standing directly in front of you, your divine nature and destiny.”

Tyler Chadwick, Dayna Patterson, and Martin Pulido recently created an anthology of Mormon poetry focused on Heavenly Mother entitled Dove Song , which includes some art. Spanning early Church history to modern day, Dove Song includes 138 poems from 80 poets and artists such as William W. Phelps, Eliza R. Snow, John Lyons, Lula Greene Richards, Carol Lynn Pearson, Linda Sillitoe, and so many more. Alongside many unknown

“Heavenly Parents,” Topics and Questions (2023)

Heavenly Parents

All human beings are beloved spirit children of heavenly parents . Because of our divine parentage, we each have divine potential. This divine origin defines our true identity.

In our premortal life, we learned the plan of salvation , which provides the way to inherit eternal life , the life of our heavenly parents. The purpose of our existence, including mortal life, is to prepare us to receive this glorious gift.

Little has been revealed about our Heavenly Mother beyond a knowledge of Her existence. Although we do not worship Her, we honor Her as a divine parent. Following the example of the Savior, we pray only to our Heavenly Father. 1 We receive guidance and direction from Heavenly Father and His Son through the Holy Ghost .

In this life, we strive to develop the godly attributes possessed by our heavenly parents. These attributes are exemplified in the life of Jesus Christ.

Our Heavenly Mother: Silence or Reverence?

Keeping silent about Heavenly Mother often leads to incorrect assumptions, proving more problematic than protective.

"Truth eternal tells me I've a mother there." -Eliza R. Snow, "O My Father"

Photo by Brooke Lark

We’ve all heard explanations about why we don’t discuss Heavenly Mother. Some say that we don’t talk about her for fear of sullying her name, like the world has done to Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. Because of explanations such as this, many members of the Church believe that we should maintain a sacred silence about Heavenly Mother.

However, David A. Paulsen and Martin Pulido explain in their article “ ‘A Mother There’: A Survey of Historical Teachings about Mother in Heaven ” that keeping something sacred does not mean maintaining silence but, rather, reverence . The authors compiled more than 600 sources referencing Heavenly Mother, with the earliest dating back to 1844 and many coming from LDS leaders who have talked openly of Heavenly Mother. These references answer questions like Who is Heavenly Mother? How do I develop a relationship with her? What is her role? Following is a sample of the references in this article:

Elder Erastus Snow taught that “there can be no God except he is composed of the man and woman united, and there is not in all the eternities that exist, or ever will be a God in any other way.”
According to Sister Susa Young Gates, “The divine Mother, side by side with the divine Father, [has] the equal sharing of equal rights, privileges and responsibilities.”
President Gordon B. Hinckley stated: “I regard it as inappropriate for anyone in the Church to pray to our Mother in Heaven.”
Elder Glenn L. Pace declared: “I testify that when you stand in front of your heavenly parents in those royal courts on high and you look into Her eyes and behold Her countenance, any question you ever had about the role of women in the kingdom will evaporate into the rich celestial air, because at the moment you will see . . . your divine nature and destiny.”

Paulsen and Pulido conclude, “As Latter-day Saints should be deeply reverent when speaking about any sacred subject, Church leaders may well caution an individual to be respectful of and to avoid teaching unorthodox views about Heavenly Mother.”

When we understand the doctrine, we won’t get confused and conclude it’s wrong to think and speak of our Heavenly Mother. As we come to know our Heavenly Parents—relying upon the Savior as our advocate with God and listening to the Holy Ghost as our testifier of truth—we will come to know our Mother in Heaven and feel that she and our Father in Heaven love us deeply, positively influence our lives, and are always very near.

Read David A. Paulsen and Martin Pulido’s full article: “ ‘A Mother There’: A Survey of Historical Teachings about Mother in Heaven .”

Source: BYU Studies

—Natalie Cherie Campbell, Mormon Insights

feature image by a fox

Find more insights

Discover doctrine about our Heavenly Mother in this LDS.org gospel topics essay .

Read more about Heavenly Mother in the Mormon Insights article “ We Have a Mother in Heaven ,” by Sarah Martin.

Watch this video for more doctrinal understanding about our heavenly parents.

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Book Review: Memoirist Lilly Dancyger’s penetrating essays explore the power of female friendships

This cover image released by Dial Press shows "First Love" by Lilly Dancyger. (Dial Press via AP)

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Book Review: Memoirist Lilly Dancyger’s penetrating essays explore the power of female friendships

In 2021 Lilly Dancyger’s first book, “Negative Space,” was praised for its unflinching portrait of her father’s heroin addiction

Who means more to you — your friends or your lovers? In a vivid, thoughtful and nuanced collection of essays, Lilly Dancyger explores the powerful role that female friendships played in her chaotic upbringing marked by her parents’ heroin use and her father’s untimely death when she was only 12.

“First Love: Essays on Friendship” begins with a beautiful paean to her cousin Sabina, who was raped and murdered at age 20 on her way home from a club. As little kids, their older relatives used to call them Snow White and Rose Red after the Grimm’s fairy tale, “two sisters who are not rivals or foils, but simply love each other.”

That simple, uncomplicated love would become the template for a series of subsequent relationships with girls and women that helped her survive her self-destructive adolescence and provided unconditional support as she scrambled to create a new identity as a “hypercompetent” writer, teacher and editor. “It’s true that I’ve never been satisfied with friendships that stay on the surface. That my friends are my family, my truest beloveds, each relationship a world of its own,” she writes in the title essay “First Love.”

The collection stands out not just for its elegant, unadorned writing but also for the way she effortlessly pivots between personal history and spot-on cultural criticism that both comments on and critiques the way that girls and women have been portrayed — and have portrayed themselves — in the media, including on online platforms like Tumblr and Instagram.

For instance, she examines the 1994 Peter Jackson film, “Heavenly Creatures,” based on the true story of two teenage girls who bludgeoned to death one of their mothers. And in the essay “Sad Girls,” about the suicide of a close friend, she analyzes the allure of self-destructive figures like Sylvia Plath and Janis Joplin to a certain type of teen, including herself, who wallows in sadness and wants to make sure “the world knew we were in pain.”

In the last essay, “On Murder Memoirs,” Dancyger considers the runaway popularity of true crime stories as she tries to explain her decision not to attend the trial of the man charged with killing her cousin — even though she was trained as a journalist and wrote a well-regarded book about her late father that relied on investigative reporting. “When I finally sat down to write about Sabina, the story that came out was not about murder at all,” she says. “It was a love story.”

Readers can be thankful that it did.

AP book reviews: https://apnews.com/hub/book-reviews

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Peggy Mellon Hitchcock, Who Helped Timothy Leary Turn On, Dies at 90

She was an enthusiastic supporter of the counterculture. And when she suggested that her brothers rent Mr. Leary a mansion, she made psychedelic history.

A portrait of Peggy Hitchcock, a woman with wavy, shoulder-length blond hair, wearing a beige T-shirt and holding a framed close-up photograph of the Dalai Lama.

By Penelope Green

Peggy Mellon Hitchcock, the energetic scion of a storied wealthy family who funded Timothy Leary’s psychedelic adventures — and famously helped him find the spot to do so, at her brothers’ estate in Millbrook, N.Y. — died on April 9 at her home in Tucson, Ariz. She was 90.

The cause was a stroke, said her daughter Sophia Bowart. Ms. Hitchcock had been suffering from endometrial cancer.

Timothy Leary hadn’t yet been thrown out of Harvard for his experiments with psychedelic drugs when he met Ms. Hitchcock one weekend at the apartment of Maynard Ferguson , the jazz trumpeter and bandleader, in the Riverdale section of the Bronx.

“Pretty Peggy Hitchcock was an international jet-setter,” Mr. Leary wrote in his 1983 autobiography, “Flashbacks,” “renowned as the colorful patroness of the livelier arts and confidante of jazz musicians, racecar drivers, writers, movie stars. Stylish, and with a wry sense of humor, Peggy was considered the most innovative and artistic of the Andrew Mellon family” — that is, the family of the Pittsburgh industrialist who was secretary of the Treasury under three presidents.

He and Richard Alpert, his comrade in psychedelics at Harvard — who would later split from Mr. Leary and become the guru Baba Ram Dass — were looking for someone to bankroll a summer in Mexico, where they would conduct more of the acid tests they had been doing at school. Mr. Leary described it as “a psychedelic summer camp.” Ms. Hitchcock was gung-ho.

As Mr. Leary wrote, they had found their Becky Thatcher.

Summer camp was successful; more trips were had, with only a few minor freakouts, adding more data to Mr. Leary’s studies. Back home, Mr. Leary and Ms. Hitchcock fell into an on-again, off-again love affair. (She described it to Robert Greenfield, Mr. Leary’s biographer , as “a swinging door relationship.”) Ms. Hitchcock had been dating Allen Eager, a jazz saxophonist who was also a heroin addict, Mr. Greenfield wrote, and when her mother heard that she was involved with Mr. Leary, she exclaimed: “Oh thank God! She’s going out with a Harvard professor!”

When Mr. Leary and Mr. Alpert’s careers at Harvard blew up in 1963, Ms. Hitchcock found a new home for them and their coterie. Her younger twin brothers, Billy and Tommy, had just bought property in the Hudson Valley village of Millbrook: 2,500 acres of rolling hills and woods with stables and outbuildings and two mansions. The brothers weekended in one, a place they called the Bungalow. The other, half a mile away, was a fanciful, if run-down, turreted 64-room white clapboard confection. They rented it to Mr. Leary for $1 a year, and he soon turned it into a psychedelic palace and research center.

Ms. Hitchcock spent half her time in Manhattan at her Park Avenue penthouse — about which her friend Charles Mingus wrote a song, “Peggy’s Blue Skylight” — and half at Millbrook, roaring up from the city, as Mr. Leary wrote, “in a car loaded with cases of champagne and exotic foods and drinks.”

She was not there when G. Gordon Liddy raided the place in 1966; in those days, Mr. Liddy, who a few years later would be caught up in the Watergate scandal, was working in the local prosecutor’s office, and the town was suspicious of Mr. Leary’s antics. But she was in residence in 1964, when Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters barreled up in Furthur, their psychedelic school bus — blaring rock ’n’ roll, hurling green smoke bombs and totally harshing the Millbrook crew’s more contemplative buzz.

This highly anticipated meeting of the two heads of the LSD state — the West Coast and the East Coast divisions — rendered in looping prose by Tom Wolfe in “The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test,” had been brokered by Allen Ginsberg. But Mr. Leary failed to show. The Pranksters were told that he was in the middle of a three day acid-trip upstairs and couldn’t be disturbed — he later wrote that he actually had a terrible cold and had gone to bed with a fever — so Ms. Hitchcock gave the rambunctious pilgrims a tour instead. (They were “freaks,” she told Mr. Greenfield, “but nothing unusual.”)

Mr. Kesey, Mr. Wolfe wrote, was hurt and disappointed that Mr. Leary had stood him up. So much for a meeting of the highest minds. To the openhearted Pranksters, as Mr. Wolfe put it, Millbrook was just “one big piece of uptight constipation.”

Meanwhile, Mr. Leary had fallen in love with Nena von Schlebrügge, a successful (though ambivalent) fashion model, whom he married at Millbrook. Then Ms. Hitchcock married, and divorced, Louis Scarrone, a doctor. Inevitably, the Millbrook scene disintegrated into chaos, and both women embarked on their own adventures, and away from Mr. Leary.

Ms. von Schlebrügge took off with Robert Thurman, the ex-monk and Buddhist scholar, whom she met in the kitchen of Millbrook while trying to get Mr. Leary to sign their divorce papers. (Married since 1967, the Thurmans became a kind of Buddhist power couple and the parents of the actress Uma Thurman.) And Ms. Hitchcock had begun a romance with Walter Bowart, a counterculture journalist, and moved with him to Arizona.

Mr. Bowart was a founder of The East Village Other, a newspaper, as Margalit Fox wrote in her obituary for Mr. Bowart in 2008, so far out that “it made The Village Voice look like a church circular.” Mr. Bowart had gained a bit of fame in 1966 when he testified before the Senate Committee on Juvenile Delinquency and urged the committee members to try LSD.

In Arizona, the couple set up camp in the Chiricahua Mountains, where they ran a Sufi spiritual center for about a year, after which they moved to a ranch in Tucson and married in 1970. Ms. Hitchcock bankrolled a publishing house for Mr. Bowart called Omen Press, which published books on metaphysics and spirituality. They divorced in 1980.

“She was a vibrant person, very enthusiastic,” Billy Hitchcock said of his sister. “She had a completely open mind. Generous hearted to the point where people could take advantage of her. She had a lot of pain in her life, she was unlucky in love, but you would never know it. She was a real force. Whatever she did, she threw herself into.”

Margaret Mellon Hitchcock, the third of five children, was born on June 29, 1933, in Manhattan into a family of great privilege. Her mother, Margaret (Mellon) Hitchcock, was a daughter of William Larimer Mellon, a founder of Gulf Oil. Her father, Thomas Hitchcock Jr., was a World War I fighter pilot, polo star and stockbroker.

Known as Tommy, he served as a lieutenant colonel in World War II and died when his plane crashed during a training exercise in England. Peggy was 11 at the time and her father’s favorite, Billy Hitchcock said, and his death hit her hard.

Ms. Hitchcock attended the Brearley School in Manhattan, Miss Porter’s School in Farmington, Conn., and Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania.

In addition to her daughter Sophia and her brother Billy, Ms. Hitchcock is survived by another daughter, Nuria Bowart; her stepsons, Wolfe and Wythe Bowart; her sister, Louise Stephaich; and three grandchildren. Her brother Tommy and a half brother, Alexander Laughlin, both died last year.

Ms. Hitchcock’s third marriage, to Larry Weisman, a lawyer, ended in divorce. Her fourth marriage, to Allan Bayer, a doctor and saxophonist, was by all accounts a happy one. Mr. Bayer died in 2007 . At her death, Ms. Hitchcock was chair of the board of directors of AUDIT USA — Americans United for Democracy, Integrity and Transparency — a nonprofit devoted to election transparency, one of many causes she supported.

In 1989, Ms. Hitchcock met the Dalai Lama in Santa Monica, Calif., and her life took another turn. She became a Buddhist and a supporter of Tibet House in Manhattan, and she opened an Arizona outpost, the Arizona Friends of Tibet, where the Dalai Lama came to teach a few times. So did her old friend Dr. Thurman.

“She was a totally marvelous person, a people artist,” Dr. Thurman said. “These social people, people of privilege like Peggy, can really bring people together — the good ones, that is. It’s a real creativity, and she was one of the best.

“We are sure she is in a heavenly place,” he added, “and expect to hear from her soon.”

Penelope Green is a Times reporter on the Obituaries desk. More about Penelope Green

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The Good and Perfect Father
God our heavenly Father is "perfect" (Matthew 5:48), and there is about him a "fullness" since he "fills all in all" (Ephesians 1:23). Our God is "the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth" (Isaiah 40:28) who as such cannot be "compared" to or said to be "like" any other (Isaiah 40:25), who is everywhere ...
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Just as we have a Father in Heaven, we have a Mother in Heaven. As Elder Dallin H. Oaks of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles has said, "Our theology begins with heavenly parents. Our highest aspiration is to be like them." 15. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints teaches that all human beings are beloved spirit children of a ...
What Does the Bible Say About God as Our Father?
As our Father, he hears and answers our prayers ( Matt. 7:7-11 ). As our Father, he disciplines us ( Heb. 12:3-11 ). As our Father, he receives us and forgives us and rejoices over us when in repentance we come home to him ( Luke 15:11-32 ). That God the Father has made himself God our Father means that he is personally, emotionally, and ...
God as Father
The Father acknowledged this by raising him from the dead and taking him back into heaven, where he has placed him at his right hand as the ruler and judge of the world (Acts 2:32-33; Phil. 2:9-11; 1 Cor. 15:20-28). The Father and Us. Father and Son remain distinct persons, but they work together for the salvation of those who have been ...
When Jesus says, "Be ye perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect
For example, "Be ye complete as your heavenly Father is complete." Now remember that your heavenly Father is perfectly complete! So if we are to mirror God in that way, we are to mirror him in his moral excellence as well as in other ways. In fact, the basic call to a person in this world is to be a reflection of the character of God.
Remembering the Father in Fatherhood: Biblical Foundations and
The heavenly Father has given all authority into the hands of Jesus. Jesus has all authority on the earth, and he affirms fatherly authority in the home; he expects fathers to do the will of the heavenly Father (Luke 11:28; John 15:7-11; Eph 6:4). Isaiah's dad has taught him this from Matthew 28, and he has taught Isaiah that there is a ...
What the "Mother in Heaven" Gospel Topics Essay Teaches Us About Our
The essay says that as children of our Heavenly Father and Mother, we have "a divine nature and destiny," and that "our highest aspiration is to be like them." Therefore, every time we talk about becoming like Heavenly Father we can also add our Heavenly Mother to that statement, especially when speaking to any group including women.
What does Jesus mean when he says 'Be perfect...'?
Jesus wasn't asking for perfection. However (that word you've all been waiting for!), I don't think that what Jesus was asking from us is perfection. He was asking a lot, but not that. It is interesting that all the translations stick with the word 'perfect' for Matthew 5.48. As someone pointed out to me recently, this is probably a ...
God the Father
Heavenly Father is the Supreme Creator. Through Jesus Christ , He created heaven and earth and all things in them. 2 Alma said, "All things denote there is a God; yea, even the earth, and all things that are upon the face of it, yea, and its motion, yea, and also all the planets which move in their regular form do witness that there is a ...
PDF Part 1 : The Father's Love : Infinite God, Our Heavenly Father
Sunday November 04, 2018 The Father's Love Part-1 : Infinite God, Our Heavenly Father. The is a simple guide for use in Life Group discussions. Our objective is to focus on the application of the Sunday sermon - how each one is becoming a doer of the Word and building their life on God's Holy Word. The Life Group meeting would normally last for ...
Worship God as Our Father
And he is for us. Let's worship in light of that! "Our Father" is the third track on Stephen Miller's new album Liberating King. Watch the video below. Stephen Miller ( @stephenmiller) serves as a worship pastor at Prestonwood in Dallas, Texas. He is a husband, father of five, songwriter, and author of two books, including Liberating ...
The Reality of Heavenly Mother
The essay reads, "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints teaches that all human beings, male and female, are beloved spirit children of heavenly parents, a Heavenly Father and a Heavenly Mother. This understanding is rooted in scriptural and prophetic teachings about the nature of God, our relationship to deity, and the godly ...
Strengthening My Relationship with Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ
Spend quality time with Them. 7. Serve together. 8. Show Them trust and commitment. 9. Admit when you're wrong. 10. Learn how They show you love. 11. To start out, I chose to learn about my Heavenly Father and the Savior (#5), to spend quality time with Them (#6), and to learn how They offered me love (#10). 1.
We Have a Mother in Heaven
We Have a Mother in Heaven. January 12, 2016 All Articles, Faith. "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints teaches that all human beings, male and female, are beloved spirit children of heavenly parents, a Heavenly Father and a Heavenly Mother.". Our Mother in Heaven is real but is rarely discussed in Mormon culture.
Whose Father in heaven?
Imagine how it might have felt to hear "Our Father"—that is, the Father of both me and the one who is taking my food, livelihood, health, shelter, safety, family. Jesus focuses attention on the conflict by asking the crowd to pray, "Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.". Because if it is God's will being ...
"A Mother There"
Obviously, these references to our heavenly parents show that Mormon leaders considered Heavenly Mother to be the wife of our Heavenly Father, an idea clearly explained by President George Q. Cannon (First Presidency, October 10, 1880-July 25, 1887) when he said, "God is a married being, has a wife. . . . We are the offspring of Him and His ...
What Do the Scriptures Say About Our Heavenly Mother?
It is in this inspired scriptural commentary that we read that "the Gods" (still referring our Heavenly Father and Mother) not only created the bodies of Adam and Eve, but later sealed them in eternal marriage (Abr. 5:7,14; Joseph Fielding Smith, Doctrines of Salvation 2:71). It was after being sealed to Eve that Adam observed that "a man ...
Heavenly Mother: "A Cherished and Distinctive Belief Among ...
The Gospel Topics essay refers to Heavenly Mother as "divine," but goes no farther than that. ... a procreator with Heavenly Father; Heavenly Father's wife; a parent concerned with and involved in our pre-mortal, mortal, and post-mortal probations; a co-creator of worlds; and a co-framer of the plan of salvation. They wrote, ...
Heavenly Mother Should Be Joyful
The essay affirms these truths: our understanding of Heavenly Mother is rooted in scripture; She stands side by side with Heavenly Father; She helped design the Plan of Salvation and works together with Heavenly Father for the salvation of the human family; Heavenly Mother is concerned about her children, can influence us, and is constantly ...
Knowing God as a Loving Father
Here are some Bible verses on God's unlimited power: "God has spoken once, twice I have heard this: that power belongs to God" ( Psalm 62:11 ). "Great is our Lord, and mighty in power; His understanding is infinite" ( Psalm 147:5 ). "Our God is a consuming fire" ( Hebrews 12:29 ). Even though God is shown to be the omnipotent ...
14 Myths and Truths We Know About Our Heavenly Mother
"The doctrine of a Heavenly Mother is a cherished and distinctive belief among Latter-day Saints," the Church's gospel topics essay "Mother in Heaven" reads. Although Latter-day Saints know the topic of our Heavenly Mother is sacred and that She is crucial to the plan of salvation, many might wonder why we don't know more about our divine Mother.
Heavenly Parents
Following the example of the Savior, we pray only to our Heavenly Father. 1 We receive guidance and direction from Heavenly Father and His Son through the Holy Ghost. In this life, we strive to develop the godly attributes possessed by our heavenly parents. These attributes are exemplified in the life of Jesus Christ. Related Topics. God the Father
Our Heavenly Mother: Silence or Reverence?
However, David A. Paulsen and Martin Pulido explain in their article " 'A Mother There': A Survey of Historical Teachings about Mother in Heaven " that keeping something sacred does not mean maintaining silence but, rather, reverence. The authors compiled more than 600 sources referencing Heavenly Mother, with the earliest dating back ...
Book Review: Memoirist Lilly Dancyger's penetrating essays ...
In a vivid, thoughtful and nuanced collection of essays, Lilly Dancyger explores the powerful role that female friendships played in her chaotic upbringing marked by her parents' heroin use and ...
Book Review: Memoirist Lilly Dancyger's penetrating essays ...
For instance, she examines the 1994 Peter Jackson film, "Heavenly Creatures," based on the true story of two teenage girls who bludgeoned to death one of their mothers.
Book Review: Memoirist Lilly Dancyger's penetrating essays explore the
In 2021 Lilly Dancyger's first book, "Negative Space," was praised for its unflinching portrait of her father's heroin addiction. In a new essay collection, "First Love," Dancyger ...
Shelley The Chandelier Cottage
thechandeliercottage on May 5, 2024: "Happy Sunday friends! ️Matthew 6:14 If you forgive others their transgressions, your heavenly Father will forgive you ...". Shelley🌿The Chandelier Cottage🌿 | Happy Sunday friends!🌸💕 🕊️Matthew 6:14 If you forgive others their transgressions, your heavenly Father will forgive you🕊 ...
Dear Heavenly Father
Listen to Dear Heavenly Father - Single by Luv2Rhyme on Apple Music. 2023. 1 Song. Duration: 3 minutes.
Peggy Mellon Hitchcock, Who Helped Timothy Leary Turn On, Dies at 90
Her father, Thomas Hitchcock Jr., was a World War I fighter pilot, polo star and stockbroker. Known as Tommy, he served as a lieutenant colonel in World War II and died when his plane crashed ...