W.W. Phelps teaches we can become kings and queens to our Eternal Father.

Date
Jun 1, 1845
Type
Periodical
Source
W. W. Phelps
LDS
Hearsay
Direct
Reference

W. W. Phelps, "Communications. The Paracletes. Continued.," Times and Seasons 6, no. 10 (June 1, 1845): 917-18

Scribe/Publisher
Times and Seasons
People
W. W. Phelps
Audience
Latter-day Saints
PDF
Transcription

To continue the history of the seven holy ones, who agreed to take upon them bodies of flesh, and work out a more exceeding and eternal crown of glory, upon Idumia, it will be necessary to premise, that Milauelph, and his first companion in the flesh, knew before they left their "first estate," what their father's will was; and that when they should begin to replenish the earth, Satah, who had been raised and educated with them in their father's family, would descend form heaven like lightning to tempt them, that they might know to choose good and reject evil. These two, who had engaged to people Idumia: to subdue it, and to return, having kept the faith once delivered, to the chosen seed, were informed, when they agreed to go and labor their hour, that besides the comforter, to bring all things to their remembrance, the angels which attended them on high should attend them below to preserve them from the secret or unforseen snares of those angels who kept not their first estates but were left in their sins, to roam from region to region, and in chains of darkness, until the great day of judgment.

It was written in the law of the Lord on high, that they that overcome by obedience, should be made kings and queens, and priests and priestesses to God and his Father, through the atonement of the eldest son, and that natural eyes should not see, nor natural ears hear, neither should the natural heart conceive the great, glorious, and eternal things, honors and blessings, that were then, in the Father's dominions, and mansions, prepared in the beginning for them that kept the faith to the end, and entered triumphantly into their third estates: (the eternal life).

It was also written in the law of the Lord on high, that when the Lord punished men for their sins, he would "punish the hosts of the high ones on high," and the "kings of the earth upon earth," -- that spirit might judge spirit, and flesh judge flesh; for this honor have all the just, and this honor have all the saints.

Having this understanding Idumia was placed in its space, but was "desolate and empty." and the life organizing power of the Gods, or sons of the "head," moved over the matters and then the land and water separatedcam" and they went on and organized a world, and created every thing necessary to beautify and adorn it, with life and the power of lives to sustain it, until it should fill the measure of all designed, from a mite to a mammoth; from a man to a God; and Milauleph's and his wife's spirits, clothed in heavenly garments, and learned in eternal wisdom, witnessed the creation, as the spirits of the Gods had witnessed their Father: for even the elder brother could do nothing but what he had seen his Father do in eternities before.

Perhaps this subject may excite the curiosity of some: as it will lead the mind back among the worlds that have been organized and passed away, -- and among the Gods and angels that have attended to execute the laws and decrees of one universe after another, from eternity to eternity, from the beginning till (now); and, to increase the curiosity of having this present world pass away with a great noise, when there is no place found for it; -- and of having organized a new heaven and a new earth, wherein dwelleth "righteousness" and as our fathers cannot be perfect without us, nor we without them; and as the man is not without the woman, neither the woman without the man in the Lord, perhaps Milauleph and his wife, as king and queen to God, and all the sons and daughters of the "head" will shout for joy, and the morning stars sing together again, at the "third" entrance of Idumia and sanctified millions! -- Who knows?

JOSEPH'S SPECKLED BIRD.

BHR Staff Commentary

Commenting on the importance of Phelps's two-part " Paracletes," historian Samuel Brown noted that

Beyond presenting a link between Joseph Smith and Young’s Adam-God, Phelps’s short story provides windows on several other aspects of early Mormon belief. Contrary to the “infinite regress” view, and in support of Blake Ostler's “kingship monotheism,” Phelps reports a “head” God, one intermittently identified with the Lord-God of the Old Testament. (He would later equivocate on this point, following uncertain cues in Joseph Smith’s June 1844 Sermon in the Grove.) Contrary to some versions of Brigham Young's Adam-God formulation, Adam was an immature immortal, and the “head” remained involved in earthly affairs. In support of Eliza R. Snow and others, the divine anthropology clearly included God’s wife, the entity later dubbed Mother in Heaven (though more likely denominated the Queen of Heaven at the time). (Samuel Brown, "William Phelps's Paracletes, an Early Witness to Joseph Smith's Divine Anthropology," International Journal of Mormon Studies, volume 2 [Spring 2009]: 66)

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