Many things transpired with us while in
Nauvoo of a very interesting character. One important question was raised which
never left my mind nor inquiry until a satisfactory solution was obtained. I
received a revelation on the subject. The question was this, did our spirits
exist in eternity with a father or eternally with God? Some elders said that
the prophet Joseph should have said that our spirits existed eternally with God.
The question arose then, how is it that God is the father of our spirits? I
wondered, studies and prayed over it for I did not want to know how it could
be. I inquired of several of the brethren how that could be a father and son
and the son as old as the father. There was not a person that could or would
even try to explain the matter.
But it came to pass that in one time a vision
was opened, the voice of the spirit came unto me saying that all matter was eternal.
That it never had a beginning and that it should never have an end and that the
spirits of all men were organized of a purer material or matter upon the
principle of male and female, so that there was a time when my spirit, my immortal
spirit, as well as every other man’s spirit that was ever born unto the world,
that is to say there was a moment when the spirit was organized and begotten or
born so that the spirit has a father and the material or matter that our
tabernacles are composed of is eternal and as we understand are organized on
the principle of male and female. This revelation explained the mysterious question
so that I understood it and that our bodies are organized of a coarser
material. (History of Joseph Lee Robinson,
ed. Oliver Preston Robinson [History Comes Home, 2007], 43)