It is comon knowledge that the Prophet Joseph Smith taught a doctrine about God which was radically different from contemporary Jewish/Christian religion. At the hearts core of his doctrine was the belief that in both form and person God was essentially a man. The first clear indication of this doctrine is found in the Book of Mormon which was the earliest publication of the Church. Therein it is stated that God created man in shape and form after the image and likeness of His own body. The best example of this is found in the third chapter of Ether, where in response to prayer "the Lord stretched forth his hand and touched" sixteen different "stones one by one with his finger." Following this the Lord showed himself" in bodily form to the brother of Jared and then explained:

Seest thou that ye are created after mine own image? Yea, even all men were created in the beginning after mine own image. (Ether 3:6-16; see also Mosiah 7:27; Alma 18:34; 22:12)

In another revelation received in December of 1830, the same doctrine is both affirmed and enlarged upon. It states that God possesses a body, and the creation of man in the image and likeness of God is explained in terms of procreation. "A genealogy was kept of the children of God", it says, "And this was the book of the generations of Adam". In continuing, it states that "God created man . . . In the image of his own body" and then, after giving a genealogy of Adam's sons, who are likewise described as being born in Adam's image and after his likeness, it concludes by stating that "this is the genealogy of the sons of Adam, who was the son of God".¹ Later, during the Nauvoo period, the Prophet began to expound upon this doctrine. "God the Father" was in a very literal sense, "Our Father in Heaven" he taught. Indeed not just in one sense, but in a dual capacity both in the spirit and in the flesh, man was the offspring of God.²

While portraying God in such literally physical and human terms, it was only a matter of time before the Prophet would have to recognize that God was both male and female. You cannot say that we look like God without saying at the same time that He looks like us. And if God looks like us, you cannot escape the conclusion that there must be both male and female gods, for that is precisely what human beings are. It is only natural then that the designation "God the Father" would bring to mind questions regarding the existence of God our Heavenly Mother. This was the substance of the Prophet's revelation on Celestial marriage³ that belief in a Mother in Heaven is basic and essential to belief in a Father in Heaven, and in the Kingdom of God one does not exist independent of the other. In other words, the Prophet taught that God the Father is a married man, and that He and His wife (who is our Mother in Heaven) had literally peopled this Earth with their own offspring.⁴

What is hard to understand is that even though we believe in a Heavenly Mother, still we never pray to Her. In fact there is no ritual in Mormon religion which involves Her worship, or even the acknowledgement of Her existence.⁵ In attempting to answer the question, as to why this is so, some have conjectured that perhaps the Father did not wish to have our Mother profaned and therefore He has kept Her from us. But this answer has always seemed inadequate to me. It does not seem right that God would deny His children access to their Mother on the grounds of such a petty issue. I was surprised when I discovered that generally speaking this answer leads in the right direction the only problem is that it does not go far enough to get to the real heart of the problem.

If we want to learn about our Mother in Heaven and Her absence in our religion, we must go back to the source of our cultural beginnings. That is where we will find our answer. We will find it buried in sacred history - we must pay a visit to Ancient Israel on the day of their transgression, for that is the source from whence the decree came.

The world did not always have a Father God who stood alone without His Mate. At the beginning of time there was a better day - a time when both the Father and our Mother, stood side by side in the sacred temple of religion. But their children became fallen, and finally even Israel transgressed - for she made of our Mother a harlot, and of Her worship a license for sin. On that day the curse of God fell on Israel. She was denied the Priesthood, and the secret of the Gods was taken from man. From that day on, the Father would stand alone - no image would be made to symbolize His person - no mate to stand at His side. The religion of our Mother vanished from Earth - and the Priestesshood (to which her daughters were rightful heirs) vanished with it. But we are getting ahead of our story, so let us back up and get a few things in perspective. Let the Bible come to life - let us remove the misty fog of past generations and see things as they really were. We cannot get our Mother in perspective without our Father at Her side. We need the whole religion as it originally was brought into our view.

It is of course understood that traditional Jewish/Christian religion does not share with us our lofty ideals about Father and Mother. For more than a thousand years they have denied the physical essence of God. This alone would preclude the possability of God having a body, to say nothing of Him being male or female. Regardless of gender as expressed in scriptural noun and pronoun usages, from their perspective God the Father is neither male or female. In fact, the Bible notwithstanding, in reality, the Father is not a person at all - at least not in terms that we can comprehend.

It goes without saying that all these theological differences lead to different interpretations of the Bible. This is especially true where it concerns the nature of the Godhead and the Gospel that was revealed to Adam and the Patriarchs. To be sure, it is generally conceded by Jews, "Christians" and Mormons, that the Patriarchs from Adam to Moses had the Gospel, but that is where the agreement ends. The Jews believe that the pure religion of Heaven was monotheism, and that this was the doctrine that was originally revealed to Adam and passed down to Moses. God can only be understood in abstract terms. First and foremost is the ridgid doctrine of philosophic monotheism - the idea that God is and can only be ONE - polytheism in any form is unthinkable.⁶ In the days of Moses, the children of Israel went into apostasy, and because of this it was necessary to again restore the Gospel in its original purity through the ten commandments and the Law of Moses. For the Jew then, the Law of Moses merely reestablished what God had already revealed to Adam and the Patriarchs.

In keeping with this, traditional "Christianity" would agree with the Jew, that monotheism was the original religion revealed by God to Adam, and that Moses restored what had already been revealed to the Patriarchs, but they do not believe that the Fulness of the Gospel was had on Earth until the advent of Christ, for Baptism and other teachings unique to Christianity do not appear in the Old Testament.

On the other hand, contrary to both Jew and "Christian", the Prophet Joseph Smith taught that the religion which was originally revealed to Adam and which passed down through the lineage of the Patriarchs was a pure form of Anthropomorphic Polytheism or more accurately expressed, Theomorphic Polytheism.⁷ According to the Prophet, the Gospel in its fulness was first given to Adam, and passed down through the lineage of the patriarchs, form Enoch to Noah to Abraham. Hense, according to the Prophet, the religion of the Patriarchs included Baptism, all the gifts of the Spirit, and the knowledge of Christ, as well as that of our Father and Mother in Heaven and all the coinciding ordinances of the Temple. It was not until the apostasy of Israel, during their sojourn with Moses in the wilderness, that the Fulness of this Gospel was first taken from the Earth. In other words, it was the Prophet's view that rather than restoring the Fulness of the Gospel as it was had by the Patriarchs, the Lord at this time took the Fulness of the Melchizedek Priesthood out of their midst, and with it the knowledge of God, and left in the stead thereof the Aaronic Priesthood and a carnal law, commonly known as the Law of Moses.⁸ Thus, as far as the masses were concerned, the children of Israel remained in darkness, without the whole knowledge of God for thirteen centuries - from Moses to Christ.⁹

What is interesting is that notwithstanding the opposition of the Jewish/Christian community, still the historical record reveals that typical religion in the ancient world held major concepts in common with those of Joseph Smith. In fact the similarities are so striking, that many critics have claimed Mormonism is Pagan. Quite frankly, the parallels cannot be denied. Both Mormon and Pagan religion believe in many gods - Both believe in a God who possesses a physical body.¹⁰ Both believe in a Father and Mother in Heaven, who literally procreated (rather than created) man in their own image, and after their own likeness.¹¹

The similarities between the pagan practice of ancestral worship and the Prophet's doctrine on God as set in the context of the Patriarchal order is another striking parallel, for in the mind of the Prophet not only was Eloheim the great ancestor of the human race, but we were also commanded to honor our earthly parents and other intermediate ancestors as well. Indeed, in accordance with the Prophet's doctrine, in the celestial order of government, all faithful parents who hold the Fulness of the Melchizedek Priesthood stand as God and Goddess to their own posterity.¹² What makes the connection here is that the Prophet believed that this form of government was to be established here on Earth, as well as in Eternity.

No doubt, admitting all this will only add to the clamor of the anti-Mormon crowd, but my reason for mentioning it is constructive, as it brings our minds to a sharp focus on the same issues as they relate to the religion of the Bible. Is it possible that the same doctrinal parallels which exist between Mormon and Pagan religion can also be found in the religion of ancient Israel. Did the religion of the Patriarchs and Prophets originate completely independent from their Pagan neighbors, or is it possible that the religion of the Hebrews and Pagans both had a common origin, and that they held major theological concepts and cultic rituals in common with each other. Could this have been the reason why the children of Israel were so often tempted by the idolatry of pagan religion - because there was not as great a distinction between them and their neighbors as we have formerly been led to believe.

Did early Hebrew religion conceive of God in physical human form? Did they believe in a literal Father and Mother in Heaven? Was monotheism really the original religion that was revealed to Adam and the Patriarchs, or was monotheism something which snuck in through the back door on some dark night, thousands of years later? And equally important - did Moses reestablish and perpetuate the same religion as was had by the Patriarchs - or did he as the Prophet said, make radical changes and go contrary to their religion and in fact outlaw and eradicate major portions of it, and establish in the stead thereof another gospel and religion based upon a lesser law. Of course we can agree that both Moses and the Patriarchs prayed to the same God, but that is not the question. The question is, did they both have and perpetuate the same Religion, Priesthood and Ordinances.

And finally, is traditional Jewish/Christian theology in keeping with the Bible - or is it in its present form merely the end product of a long evolution which involves thousands of years of change?

These questions are basic to the restoration. It is only regretable that restrictions on time will not allow us to fully explore all the proof texts - we will therefore have to be satisfied with a general smattering of the subjects which have been named, and then proceed on with the main focus being upon the subject of the Hebrew Goddess. (cont.)

¹Moses 6:8 22

²(Unpublished Revelations 61:18) He even taught that as God's progeny, it was expected of us that we would some day become all that our Heavenly Father is, and that this was the ultimate purpose for which the Gospel had been given to man, that we might "become gods, even the sons of God." (D&C 76:58)

³D&C 132

⁴"The Trinity and the Holy Spirits &emdash; The Doctrine as Joseph Taught It", Doctrine of the Priesthood, Vol 5: (April 1988) No. 4 2nd edition, pp. 16-32

⁵Without the doctrine of Adam-God as taught by President Brigham Young, there is no detailed doctrine of a Heavenly Mother in Mormon theology. Only in his teachings do we find concrete information about our Mother in Heaven, along with a knowledge of who She is and the role which She has played in the salvation of Her children. Indeed, through President Young's teachings we learn that our Heavenly Mother offered up her life as a sacrafice, in order to bring her children into a mortal probation, that they might be promoted into eternal progression as Gods. Independant of his teachings, all we know about our Heavenly Mother is that God the Father is married, and that His wife is our Mother in the spirit, and that some how she is also the mother of our flesh. No doubt, had the Prophet Joseph Smith lived longer, we would know more about Her, but through treachery, his life was cut short.

⁶Dr. Ralph Patai, in describing the mainstream thought of Jewish understanding and faith regarding the character of God states the following:

"As for God, He is not merely the One and Only God, but also eternal, omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient, aphysical (and therefore invisible), inscrutable, and incomprehensible, as well as just, good, compassionate, merciful, and benevolent. Since, being pure spirit, he is without body, he possesses no physical attributes and hence no sexual traits. To say that God is either male or female is therefore completely impossible from the viewpoint of traditional Judaism. As Maimonides, the greatest medieval Jewish philosopher, put it, "God is not a body, nor can bodily attributes be ascribed to him, and He has no likeness at all." (The Hebrew Goddess 7-8)

⁷But the Polytheism of the Prophet was not in all respects the same as that believed in by the ancient Pagans, for he did not conceive of the gods as being in rivelry and at war and contention with one another. Quite to the contrary the Polytheism which was believed in by the Prophet was perfectly expressed in the last prayer of Jesus, as he knelt down in Gethsemane to pray for his people:

"These words spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee: As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give Eternal Life to as many as thou hast given him. . . . . I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do. And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was. I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world: thine they were, and thou gavest them me; and they have kept thy word. . . . . I pray for them . . . which thou hast given me: for they are thine. And all mine are thine, and thine are mine; and I am glorified in them. . . . Neither pray I for these alone but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: . . . And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me. Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world. . . . . And I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them." (John 17:1-2, 4-6, 9-10, 20-24, 26)

⁸In accordance with the Bible, when Moses came down from the mount and found the children of Israel in the midst of an orgy, he threw down the tablets upon which the Lord had written the law. Later another set of tablets containing the ten commandments was produced, but according to a revelation which was received by the Prophet Joseph Smith in 1832, this second set of commandments did not contain the same law as was given in the first set of tablets which were destroyed, for the Lord said:

"Hew thee two other tables of stone, like unto the first, and I will write upon them also, the words of the law, according as they were written at the first on the tables which thou brakest; but it shall not be according to the first, for I will take away the priesthood out of their midst; therefore my holy order, and the ordinances thereof, shall not go before them; for my presence shall not go up in their midst, lest I destroy them. But I will give unto them the law as at the first, but it shall be after the law of a carnal commandment; for I have sworn in my wrath, that they shall not enter into my presence, into my rest, in the days of their pilgrimage." (JST Exodus 34:1-2; see also D&C 84:16-25)

⁹If this should prove to be true, then it would mean that the Book of Genesis (which is the record of the Patriarchs, who had the fulness of the Gospel) has been passed down for more than a millennium through a benighted generation, who were denied the knowledge of God. And this being the case, we ought to be honest enough to acknowledge that the Book of Genesis would be doctored and tainted in accordance with the doctrine of the new religion, as we cannot realisticly expect that a people would preserve that which they could not understand.

¹⁰D & C 130:22; The Early History of Israel, 146-147

¹¹Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament 1:253

¹²(TPJS 323) For more on this see "Adoption - Law of the Kingdom - Forgotten Doctrine of Mormonism, Part 1", Published in Doctrine of the Priesthood Vol. 8: (April 1991) No. 4.