What do Members of the Church of Jesus Chris of Latter-day Saints Believe about God?
Many of life’s fundamental questions are centered on the nature of God. Does He exist? Is He aware of us? What can He help us accomplish?
Mormons—properly referred to as Latter-day Saints or members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints—believe that God does exist, that He is the literal Father of the spirits of all humanity, and that He loves us unconditionally.
All people, male and female, are created in the image of God. He has a body of flesh and bone as we do, although His is immortal. God is a separate and distinct being from His Son, Jesus Christ, and from the Holy Ghost, though all three work together with common purpose.
God is all-knowing, all-powerful, and all-loving. His greatest desire is for all His children to return to live with Him again.
OUR SPIRITUAL FATHER
Knowing what God is like is invaluable knowledge because when we learn about Him, we inevitably learn about ourselves. He is the Father of our spirits and He wants us to seek Him, know Him, and love Him. We are His literal spiritual offspring—His beloved children.
EARTHLY FATHER, HEAVENLY FATHER
The father figures in our lives can sometimes affect the way we perceive our Heavenly Father. It’s easy to project our mortal experiences onto our perception of Him. Some of us are blessed with loving, attentive fathers, and others end up with a distorted perception of the true nature of God because their experience with their earthly father has been less than perfect. We may struggle to believe that God loves us perfectly and accepts us completely because that may not be what we’ve experienced with our earthly father. Or maybe our earthly father has never been a part of our lives, so we have difficulty believing in the existence of God—or that we even need God. But no matter what we currently believe, when we find ourselves contemplating what our Heavenly Father is like, we must remember that He—unlike our earthly father—is perfect, which changes everything.
There are many things about our Heavenly Father that we are unable to understand while in this life. Isaiah, speaking as the Lord, said, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways.” Further explaining, he said, “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:8–9).
As our heavenly parent, God knows more than we do. Who better to lead and guide us through this challenging experience of life? This scripture can be a sweet reminder that our Heavenly Father is capable of a love that is more pure and incredible than anything we’ve experienced in our lives, and the beautiful truth is that we are the objects of that unfathomable love.
THE PERFECT PARENT
Our Heavenly Father is best described as the perfect parent. A perfect parent loves deeply and displays a selfless willingness to make sacrifices for their child’s welfare, which our Father did by giving us the gift of His Beloved Son, Jesus Christ. A perfect parent provides as many opportunities for a child’s growth as possible, while at the same time offering guidance and space for the child to learn on their own, which helps them gain confidence in their own ability. A perfect parent also provides appropriate boundaries for every stage of development to keep that child from harm. Our Father has done and continues to do all of these things for us.
Our Heavenly Father can be defined by every good word known to man: loving, kind, caring, compassionate, understanding, generous—and this is only the beginning. Our Father is good, loving, and unchanging—a fact we can take great comfort in. In this world of constant change, it’s a blessing to have a Heavenly Father who “is the same yesterday, today, and forever” (Mormon 9:9), one who can and always will serve as our spiritual North Star.
