Lorenzo Snow's Couplet: "God" as a Reference to Jesus, not the Father?

Don Bradley, in a recent interview with Pastor Jeff of Hello Saints (Do Latter-day Saints Actually Believe in the Trinity? | HONEST Conversation), pointed out that Lorenzo Snow’s couplet seems to have been focused more on Jesus, not the Father. As it has been a while since I read the Journal of Discourses (I read the set back in 2007), I decided to check this out, and Don seems to be correct (emphasis added):

 

As man now is, God once was—even the babe of Bethlehem, advancing to childhood—thence to boyhood, manhood, then to the Godhead. This, then, is the "mark of the prize of man's high calling in Christ Jesus."

 

Source: Lorenzo Snow, "No Prominent Latter-Day Saint Who Lives His Religion Need Expect Justice in the Courts—the Same Sacrifices May Be Required of Modern As of Ancient Apostles—the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints Established By Divine Revelation—We Will Be Made Perfect By Suffering—Our Character As Latter-Day Saints Must Be Preserved Inviolate—Visit of Jesus to Kirtland Temple—Farewell," January 10, 1886, Journal of Discourses, 26 vols. (Liverpool: Daniel H. Wells, 1886), 26:368

John Chrysostom Against Icon Veneration in his Homiles on the Psalms

  

Praise the Lord, my soul. Let us sing this together with David: if he is not present in body, at least he is in spirit. For proof that the righteous are present with us, and sing along with us, listen to what Abraham says to the rich man: when he said, “Send Lazarus so that my brothers may learn what happens in Hades and put their affairs in order,” he replied to him, “They have Moses and the prophets.” Actually, Moses and all the prophets were long dead in the body, but in their writings they had them. After all, if a person sets up a lifeless image of son or dear one and thinks that person, though dead, is present, and through the lifeless image he imagines him, much more do we enjoy the communion of the saints through the divine Scriptures, having in them images not of their bodies but of their souls, the words spoken by them being of their very souls. (John Chrysostom, Homily on Psalm 146, in St. John Chrostom: Old Testament Homilies, 3 vols. [trans. Robert Charles Hill; Brookline, Mass.: Holy Cross Orthodoxy Press, 2007], 3:116)

 

Further Reading:

 

Answering Fundamentalist Protestants and Roman Catholic/Eastern Orthodox on Images/Icons

 

Lee Martin McDonald on the Canon of the Old Testament Among the Essenes at Qumran

  

All of the HB books, except perhaps Esther and Nehemiah, have been found at Qumran. In the case of Esther, it is likely that it was never considered as a sacred text among the Covenanters at Qumran not just because no portion of it was found there, but more importantly, it is not cited, quoted, or alluded to in any of the literature found at Qumran, and the festival of Purim, which is central to the later use of the book, is not mentioned in any of the calendar texts at Qumran. The scriptures of Qumran are not equal to the biblical canon of later rabbinic Judaism or any Christian OT canon and it is clear from what has survived that there were more non-biblical texts discovered at Qumran than biblical texts and their sacredness or scriptural status is not easily distinguishable from the biblical manuscripts.

 

No listing of a fixed collection of sacred books can be discerned at Qumran, though some scholars have suggested one. Also, the psalmic texts at Qumran exhibit significant variations from the later MT that became the fixed text of the HB. (Lee Martin McDonald, The Formation of the Biblical Canon, 2 vols. [London: T&T Clark, 2017], 1:239-40)

 

Scriptural Mormonism Podcast Episode 111: Wyatt Evans on his Conversion Story from Reformed Protestantism

 

Episode 111: Wyatt Evans on his Conversion Story from Reformed Protestantism

Lee Martin McDonald on the Reception of Athanasius's 39th Festal Letter (367)

  

Athanasius was probably the first to use the term canon (κανών) in reference to a closed body of sacred literature, and he also appears to be the first to list the twenty-seven books of our current NT canon, though in a different order (the Catholic Epistles follow Acts and precede Paul). As he indicated in the closing comments, one should not conclude from the use of the verb κανονιζομένων (“canonized” or “listed”) in Athanasius’s letter that all current and subsequent church leaders agreed fully with his catalogue of sacred texts. He unhesitatingly accepted the book of Revelation as a part of his biblical canon, but several other churches in the East did not agree with him. Cyril of Jerusalem and Gregory of Nazianzus, for example, left it out, and even today, as we saw above, the Greek Orthodox lectionary does not include readings from Revelation. While the canon set forth by Athanasius ultimately prevailed in the majority of the churches in succeeding centuries – it was adopted with the help of Augustine at the church councils of Hippo (393) and Carthage (397, 416) – there is no evidence, however, that Athanasius’ letter had a determining impact on all of the churches of his day whether in the east or even in his own region of Egypt, but it is likely that his list was reflective of the majority of churches with which he was acquainted in his generation. Certainly the list was not something that he himself created, but it reflected the books that most, not all, of the Christians acknowledged as Scripture. The multiple manuscript discoveries in Egypt from this time and later periods do not support the pervasive influence of Athanasius’ list even in Egypt, but as in most cases, there was considerable overlap. Not until almost seven hundred years later was the book of Revelation universally accepted into the NT canon of most churches, though many churches appear to have simply ignored it if we consider the content of the surviving manuscripts. We saw above the considerable difference in the number of manuscripts containing the Gospels, Acts, Paul, and the Catholic Epistles compared to Revelation. (Lee Martin McDonald, The Formation of the Biblical Canon, 2 vols. [London: T&T Clark, 2017], 2:306-7, emphasis in bold added)

 

“Mormon” Mariology | Can Latter-day Saints Venerate Mary?

 

“Mormon” Mariology | Can Latter-day Saints Venerate Mary?

Samuel Hawthornthwaite (1857) As a Hostile Witness to 19th-century Latter-day Saint Belief in Baptismal Regeneration

Samuel Hawthornthwaite, a former Latter-day Saint, in his 1857 book written against "Mormonism" acts as a hostile witness to early Latter-day Saint belief in baptismal regeneration (a doctrine many modern Church members seem to be embarrassed of):

No sooner was my head above water, and I felt my feet again, than I made a rush from the watery element to terra firma, leaving my companion to get out as best he could. The Saints struck up a Mormon hymn, while two or three of the brethren gathered round me, and gave me an extraordinary good rubbing with a rough towel, which in a few minutes transported me from the torrid zone to a tropical climate. Before I went into the water I was a Gentile and an alien, but now, being born again, I entered into the brotherhood in first-rate style; the consequence was, they flocked round me in groups, to wish me happiness on my advent into the new family.

 

. . .

 

On the Sunday afternoon following my water baptism, I attended the meeting of the Saints in the Hall of Science, Manchester. This was a large square room, well filled with brethren and sisters, who had assembled for the purpose of receiving the sacrament of bread and wine, and holding their usual Church meeting. I no sooner entered the room than I became the "observed of all observers," all eyes being fixed upon me as their new-born brother. I seated myself in the most obscure part of the room I could find, in order to screen myself from the scrutiny of my too inquisitive relations. After singing and prayer, the presiding Elder gave out the notice, that if there were any persons present who had been baptized and had not had hands laid upon them for the gift of the Holy Ghost, they must sit on a certain form placed near the stand. A person led me to the top of the room, where I sat myself down on the form; the three principal Elders came down from the platform and surrounded me; they then put their hands on my head, and one of them delivered the following speech in a very solemn and distinct tone:

 

"Dearly beloved brother, we, the servants of the Most High God, lay our hands upon your head in the name of Jesus Christ, and by virtue and authority of the Priesthood invested in us, to confirm you a member in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter- Day Saints; and, inasmuch as you have been baptized for the remission of sins, we say unto you, that your sins are all forgiven you. And also, by the same authority, we give and confer upon you the gift of the Holy Ghost, which shall be in you as a well of water springing up to eternal life; it shall show you things past, things present, and things to come, and guide you into all truth. Which blessing we seal upon you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, and by virtue and authority of the Priesthood invested in us. Amen." (Samuel Hawthornthwaite, Mr. Hawthornthwaite’s Adventures Among the Mormons as an Elder, During the Last Eight Years [Manchester, UK: Samuel Hawthornthwaite, 1857], 84, 85-86)