Winter of 1859:
A REVELATION OF JESUS CHRIST, GIVING AN EXPLANATION OF THOSE ONE HUNDRED AND FORTY-FOUR THOUSAND WHOM JOHN SAW STANDING WITH JESUS UPON MOUNT ZION
1. Who are they? They are the firstborn sons of one hundred and forty-four thousand Gods, all in advance of Jesus Christ. John said that they were the first-fruits unto God. Unto what God? Unto each of their own Fathers. How did they become the first-fruits unto the Lamb also? In that they were appointed by his Father to assist him in bringing to pass the salvation and exaltation of Adam’s posterity, and, consequently, they received his mark in their foreheads as a token of the appointment that they had received from him. Why did they come forth upon this earth to assist Jesus in bringing to pass that salvation and exaltation of Adam’s posterity? In order that they might continue to pass on from one stage of progression to another, and, ultimately, become Gods, like unto the Eternal Father.
2. How many progressive estates did the Eternal Father pass through before he became a God? Ten. What were they? His FIRST was a spiritual estate; his SECOND, a probation in the flesh; his THIRD, a resurrected or celestial estate. In HIs FOURTH estate he went forth upon a mortal earth, received a body died upon a cross, and was raised again from the dead. In his FIFTH estate he sat at the right and of his Father, and was a Mediator, and contended against and conquered death, hell and the grave. In his SIXTH estate, he took mortal bodies upon many mortal earths, and officiated in the office of a high priest, a prophet and a president.
3. His mission to each of the last five of those earths, was to preside over a dispensation of a thousand years on each earth; on the first of the five, he presided over the first thousand years; on the second of the five, over the second thousand years, and so on, unto and including the fifth. In his SEVENTH estate he was a prophet, and held the keys of the sixth dispensation. In his EIGHTH estate he was a prophet, Redeemer, lawgiver and president of seventh dispensation holding the full keys of the holy priesthood. In his NINTH estate he went forth upon his own earth to commence mortality, and having completed his mission, he died. He afterwards returned to his own earth and commenced the resurrection of his own posterity, and after its last great change he ascended his throne, and this was his TENTH estate. (The Spirit Prevails: Containing the Revelations, Articles and Letters Written by Joseph Morris, ed. George S. Dove [San Francisco: J. A. Dove and Co., Printers, 1886], 10-11)
11. What are those one hundred and forth-four thousand spoken of by John the Revelator? They are all high priests after the order of Melchisedec—all having obtained a resurrected body. Why were they called to officiate in the lesser offices of the priesthood? Because it was not known who they were while the Church was under an imperfect organization; hence, they officiated in all the lesser offices of the Church for the one work of the ministry. (Ibid., 12)
