As Joseph Smith stated directly in section 130, the Father and the Son are physical beings. The scriptures clarify that when Jesus was resurrected, He inhabited a body of flesh and bones (Luke 24:39). To say that Jesus is now some kind of disembodied, ethereal being is to take away His body and confine Him to a second death. Joseph Smith’s teachings on this matter are clear. In a discourse on January 5, 1842, Joseph taught, “That which is without body or parts is nothing. There is no other God in heaven but that God who has flesh and bones. John 5:26, ‘As the father hath life in himself, even so hath he given the son to have life in himself.’ God the Father took life unto himself precisely as Jesus did.”¹

Joseph also taught that “the same sociality which exists among us here will exist among us there, only it will be coupled with eternal glory” (D&C 130:2). The word sociality, a broad term that encompasses “socialness, or the quality of being social,”² captures the Prophet’s vision of the afterlife. At times the popular conception of heaven comes across as stale and boring. We imagine beings on clouds, playing harps and singing praises to God, but no kind of dynamic action or growth. Heaven must be more than that to be a meaningful, eternal home. One non–Latter-day Saint author captured this sentiment: “Heaven is not dull; it is not static; it is not monochrome. It is an endless dynamic of joy in which one is ever more oneself as one was meant to be, in which one increasingly realizes one’s potential in understanding as well as love and is filled with more and more with wisdom. It is the discovery, sometimes unexpected, of one’s deepest self. Heaven is reality itself; what is not heaven is less real.”³

Joseph Smith believed that in heaven the most real things in this life—our connections to the ones we love—endure and become even stronger than they were on earth. Parley P. Pratt captured this sentiment when he wrote, “It was Joseph Smith who taught me how to prize the endearing relationships of father, mother, husband, wife, brother, sister, son and daughter. It was from him I learned of marriage for eternity, that the refined sympathies and affections which endeared us to each other emanated from the fountain of divine eternal love. I had loved before[,] but I knew not why. But now I loved with the pureness and intensity of elevated, exalted feeling which would lift my soul from the transitory things of this groveling sphere and expand it as the ocean.”⁴

Without these connections—this sociality—heaven would not be heaven.

1. Discourse, 5 January 1841, as Reported by William Clayton, p. 7, JSP.

2. Webster’s 1828 Dictionary, “sociality,” webstersdictionary1828.com/Dictionary/sociality.

3. Jeffrey Burton Russell, A History of Heaven, 1997, 3–4.

4. The Autobiography of Parley P. Pratt, 1874, 297–98.

Many scriptures suggest that time is relative. Abraham recorded this principle in relation to the Lord teaching him about the fall of Adam and Eve: “Now I, Abraham, saw that it was after the Lord’s time, which was after the time of Kolob; for as yet the Gods had not appointed unto Adam his reckoning” (Abraham 5:13). This scripture suggests that the nature of time on earth is different than the nature of godly time. In an 1832 revelation Joseph Smith prophesied that after the Savior’s return, the people of Zion would declare, “Satan is bound and time is no longer” (D&C 84:100) These words suggest that time will be perceived differently after the Savior’s arrival. Alma declared simply, “all is as one day with God, and time is measured only unto men” (Alma 40:8). In Doctrine and Covenants 130:4, Joseph Smith taught that time is relative to the place in the universe where a being lives. God’s attempts to describe the nature of time to mortals can be likened to a person attempting to describe color to someone who is blind. Time is vital and vibrant, and just because we in our present state cannot perceive all its hues and tones does not mean they are not there.

Perhaps of more immediate application to us is the Prophet’s teaching that “there are no angels who minister to this earth but those who do belong or have belonged to it” (D&C 130:5). This connects to the doctrine that angels are men and women in different stages of their eternal development. The angels who minister to us undoubtedly have personal connections to us. President Joseph F. Smith taught:

When messengers are sent to minister to the inhabitants of this earth, they are not strangers, but from the ranks of our kindred, friends, and fellow-beings and fellow-servants. The ancient prophets who died were those who came to visit their fellow creatures upon the earth. They came to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob . . . In like manner our fathers and mothers, brothers, sisters and friends who have passed away from this earth, having been faithful, and worthy to enjoy these rights and privileges, may have a mission given them to visit their relatives and friends upon the earth again, bringing from the divine Presence messages of love, of warning, or reproof and instruction, to those whom they had learned to love in the flesh.⁵

5. Joseph F. Smith, Gospel Doctrine, 1970, 435–36.

The earliest mention of a Urim and Thummim comes from Abraham, who had one in his possession but did not describe its form or purpose (Abraham 3:1). The Urim and Thummim are also mentioned in the Old Testament as revelatory instruments worn by the high priest of Israel (Exodus 28:30; Leviticus 8:8). We do not know the precise nature of the instruments used in the time of Moses, only that they were small enough to fit in the breastplate of the high priest. During Joseph Smith’s time, the term Urim and Thummim appears to have broadly described physical objects used to provide revelation. Joseph Smith wrote in his 1842 history that he translated the Book of Mormon “by means of the Urim and Thummim.”⁶

In every case, the use of divine revelatory instruments appears to be limited to those who are called as prophets or to high positions of authority. Revelation 2:17 and Doctrine and Covenants 130:6–11 teach that the power to see and know the greater truths of the universe will be expanded to all those who receive exaltation. The earth itself will become an instrument of revelation to all those who dwell on it. President Brigham Young taught in an 1861 discourse, “This earth, when it becomes purified and sanctified, or celestialized, will become like a sea of glass; and a person, by looking into it, can know things past, present, and to come; though none but celestialized beings can enjoy this privilege. They will look into the earth, and the things they desire to know will be exhibited to them, the same as the face is seen by looking into a mirror.”⁷

The Urim and Thummim, which will be given to each person who enters the celestial kingdom, not only functions as a divine instrument of revelation but as a symbol of purity and overcoming sin. Some scholars have pointed out that the white stone may also be symbolic of a custom in ancient Greece and Rome: victors of athletic contests were given white stones. According to the Apostle John and Joseph Smith, this symbol of victory also carries a new name, signifying the victor’s readiness to begin a new life in celestial glory.⁸

6. Times and Seasons, 2 May 1842, p. 772, JSP.

7. Brigham Young, in Journal of Discourses, 9:87.

8. Nelson Study Bible: New King James Version, 1997, 2168.

Joseph Smith’s attitude toward the Second Coming, expressed in Doctrine and Covenants 130:12–17, is an excellent example of a healthy perspective on the end times. There are some things that Joseph is certain of, such as the looming war between the Northern and the Southern states in America. The prophecy of the American Civil War given to Joseph Smith on December 25, 1832, was fulfilled to the letter. The war began in South Carolina on April 12, 1861—twenty-nine years after the prophecy was given—when Confederate forces fired on the Union installation of Fort Sumter (D&C 87:1–3).

Joseph also reported that he was told, “Joseph, my son, if thou livest until thou art eighty-five years old, thou shalt see the face of the Son of Man; therefore let this suffice, and trouble me no more on this matter” (D&C 130:15). Rather than offer a definitive interpretation of what this revelation meant, Joseph acknowledged that this prophecy could be fulfilled in multiple ways. Joseph received revelations about the signs of the times (D&C 38, 45, 133), but he never claimed to know the precise time of the Savior’s return to earth. One of his revelations declared that “the hour and the day [of the Second Coming] no man knoweth, neither the angels in heaven, nor shall they know until he comes” (D&C 49:7). In a discourse from the final months of his life, Joseph declared, “Jesus Christ never did reveal to any man the precise time that he would come. Go and read the scriptures and you cannot find anything that specifies the exact [time] he would come, and all that say so are false teachers.”⁹

9. Discourse, 10 March 1844, as Reported by Wilford Woodruff, p. 212, JSP.

Joseph Smith taught that intelligence is something to be sought after and developed during our time on earth. The revelations given to Joseph Smith contain numerous references to the importance of education (D&C 88:79–80, 118; 93:36, 53). Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf aptly summarized this emphasis on education when he said, “For members of the Church, education is not merely a good idea—it’s a commandment.”¹⁰ Joseph suggested that intelligence is gained not only through education but through “diligence and obedience” (D&C 130:19). Some lessons are learned in classrooms, and others are learned through the labor of keeping the commandments and enduring to the end.

The pursuit of intelligence will also be a primary pursuit in the next life. On another occasion, Joseph taught: “When you climb a ladder[,] you must begin at the bottom, and ascend step by step until you arrive at the top, and so it is with the principles of the Gospel—you must begin with the first and go on until you learn all the principles of exaltation; but it will be a great while after you have passed through the vail [sic] before you will have learned them. It is not all to be comprehended in this world; it will be a great work to learn our salvation and exaltation even beyond the grave.”¹¹

10. Dieter F. Uchtdorf, “Two Principles for Any Economy,” October 2009 General Conference.

11. JS History, 1838–1856, volume E-1 [1 July 1843–30 April 1844], p. 1970, JSP.

God governs the universe through law. There are moral laws as unbreakable as the laws of physics. God’s laws govern everything from the motion of the planets (Alma 30:44; D&C 88:42) to the deliverance of His children (2 Nephi 9:25). Every kingdom God has created is given a law (D&C 88:38), and the blessings we receive come in response to our obedience to this law. However, our relationship to God is not merely transactional. While it is true that when we obey God’s law we receive blessings, as a loving Father, God also goes to great lengths to provide us with gifts that are acts of mercy. He arranged for the sacrifice of His Only Begotten Son to “answer the ends of the law, unto all those who have a broken heart and a contrite spirit” (2 Nephi 2:7). The Father and the Son carried out the atonement “to bring about the plan of mercy, to appease the demands of justice, that God might be a perfect, just God, and a merciful God also” (Alma 42:15).

God found a way to perfectly obey the law but also extend mercy to His children. He asks us to adhere to the laws He has given, and in response to our obedience He provides us blessings. But He also asks us to look beyond the purpose of the law to see the character of the Lawgiver and the mercy and love He shows to us. God respects the laws of the universe as their Author and Creator. God is not the servant of the law. The law originated with Him and is thus governed by Him.

In an 1834 letter to the Church, Joseph Smith and other Church leaders taught:

Can we suppose that he has a kingdom without laws? Or do we believe that it is composed of an innumerable company of beings who are entirely beyond all law? [and who] Consequently have need of nothing to govern or regulate them? Would not such ideas be reproachful to our Great Parent, and an attempt to cast a stigma upon his glorious character! Would it not be asserting, that we had found out a secret beyond Deity? that we had learned that it was good to have laws, and yet He, after existing from eternity, and having power to create man, had not found out the fact, that it was proper to have laws for his government! We admit that God is the great source and fountain from whence proceeds all good; that he is perfect intelligence, and that his wisdom is alone sufficient.¹²

On another occasion, Joseph Smith taught that God is the Author of the law. He stated, “God has made certain decrees which are fixed, and immovable, for instance; God set the sun, the moon, and the stars in the heavens; and gave them their laws, conditions and bounds which they cannot pass, except by his commandments; they all move in perfect harmony in their sphere, and order, and are as lights, wonders, and signs unto us.”¹³

12. Letter to the Church, circa February 1834, p. 136, JSP.

13. JS History, 1838–1856, volume C-1 [2 November 1838–31 July 1842], p. 1296, JSP; see Joseph Fielding McConkie, Answers: Straightforward Answers to Tough Gospel Questions, 1998, 166–67.

Latter-day Saints believe that both God and Jesus exist as physical beings of flesh and bones. Their influence and power extend everywhere in the universe (D&C 88:12–13), but They exist in physical bodies. This knowledge comes from direct revelation, beginning with the First Vision in 1820, and was verified multiple times by Joseph Smith. Members of the Church also teach that Jesus is not only a spirit son of the Father but his literal Son. The First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve have unitedly declared, “[Jesus Christ] was the Firstborn of the Father, the Only Begotten Son in the flesh, the Redeemer of the World.”¹⁴ In one account of the First Vision, Joseph Smith even noted the physical similarities between the Father and the Son: “I saw two glorious personages who exactly resembled each other in features, and likeness.”¹⁵

In one of his final sermons, Joseph Smith taught of the connection God and Jesus Christ have to mortal men and women. While angels are humans in different stages of their eternal development, God and Jesus Christ are realizations of the full potential of every human being. In a sermon recorded by Wilford Woodruff, Joseph taught:

God who sits in yonder heavens is a man like yourselves That GOD[,] if you were to see him today that holds the worlds[,] you would see him like a man in form, like yourselves. Adam was made in his image and talked with him, walk[ed] with him . . . As the Father hath power in himself so hath the Son power in himself to do what the Father did[,] even to lay down [his] body and take it up again . . . And you have got to learn how to make yourselves God, king and priest, by going from a small capacity to a great capacity to the resurrection of the dead, to dwelling in everlasting burnings, I want you to know the first principle of this law, how consoling to the mourner when they part with a friend to know that though they lay down this body[,] it will rise & dwell with everlasting burnings to be an heir of God and joint-heir of Jesus Christ[,] enjoying the same rise[,] exaltation[,] and glory until you arrive at the station of a God.¹⁶

Joseph also explained that the Holy Ghost “has not a body of flesh and bones, but is a personage of Spirit” (D&C 130:22). Since the Father and Son possess physical bodies, it is natural to ask, will the Holy Ghost ever receive a body? Joseph Smith addressed the question in two discourses in Nauvoo. Franklin D. Richards recorded the first discourse , which was given by the Prophet on August 27, 1843. Richards noted, “Joseph also said that the Holy Ghost is now in a state of Probation[,] which if he should perform in righteousness[,] he may pass through the same on a similar course of things that the son has.”¹⁷ In another discourse recorded on June 16, 1844, Joseph taught, “But the Holy Ghost is yet a spiritual body, and waiting to take to himself a body as the Savior did or as God did or the Gods before them took bodies.”¹⁸

14. “The Living Christ: The Testimony of the Apostles,” ChurchofJesusChrist.org.

15. “Church History,” 1 March 1842, p. 707, JSP.

16. Discourse, 7 April 1844, as Reported by Wilford Woodruff, p. 135, JSP, emphasis in original.

17. Discourse, 27 August 1843, as Reported by Franklin D. Richards, p. 32, JSP.

18. Discourse, 16 June 1844–A, as Reported by George Laub, p. 30, JSP.