Does God Exist?

   It is my testimony that God does indeed exist. He is a glorified and immortal being of flesh and bones and has the appearance of a man, as we are created in his image, but He is glorified and perfected possessing all knowledge and possessing infinite power and capacities. He lives in his heavenly kingdom, an exalted and holy sphere only inhabited by exalted beings and only visible and comprehendible through spiritual manifestations provided by him. He with his resurrected and exalted son, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost, a personage of spirit, form the God Head by which he presides over his creations.

   He is the literal Father of our spirits, or in other words, we are his spirit children. In his infinite power and capacity he loves each one of us. Because of his love for us he has provided a plan by which we may obtain happiness and have joy in this life, be able to qualify for a life with him in his heavenly kingdom, and learn and grow to become like he is -to literally obtain the knowledge, power, capacity and glory which he possesses. Like any earthly father who loves his children, our Heavenly Father wants to help us obtain what is best for us but has allowed us to have the freedom of choice, that we may become agents unto ourselves. He will therefore not force any of his teachings and ways on us but allows each of us to choose for ourselves. As expected, not all choose to follow his way. In fact some have chosen to live in opposition to his plan thereby disqualifying themselves for some of God's most choice blessings. Nevertheless because we are his children God still loves each of us no matter what our choices are and his hand still remains outstretched towards us.

    I love the words of Elder Eyring of the quorum of twelve apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints: “Heavenly Father has perfect foresight, knows each of us, and knows our future. He knows what difficulties we will pass through. He sent His Son to suffer so that He would know how to succor us in all our trials. … That is why He sent His Firstborn to be our Redeemer, the greatest act of love in all creation. That is why we must expect that it will take the help of God and time to polish us for eternal life, to live with our Father.“

   Eyring goes on to quote George Q. Cannon, an earlier latter-day saint apostle of the church, “There is not one of us but what God’s love has been expended upon. There is not one of us that He has not cared for and caressed. There is not one of us that He has not desired to save, and that He has not devised means to save. There is not one of us that He has not given His angels charge concerning. We may be insignificant and contemptible in our own eyes, and in the eyes of others, but the truth remains that we are the children of God, and that He has actually given His angels—invisible beings of power and might—charge concerning us, and they watch over us and have us in their keeping.”

   Eyring continues, “We cannot force God’s children to choose the way to happiness. God cannot do that because of the agency He has given us. Heavenly Father and His Beloved Son love all of God’s children no matter what they choose to do or what they become. The Savior paid the price of all sins, no matter how heinous. Even though there must be justice, the opportunity for mercy is extended which will not rob justice." This great act of love and mercy of which Elder Eyring speaks is the gift of his only begotten son, Jesus Christ, and Christ's atoning sacrifice through which, on the conditions of repentance, we can be forgiven of our transgressions of God's law and again renew our relationship with our Heavenly Father, and once again qualify for God's greatest gift to man, even eternal life, the type of life God himself lives.

   What a wonderful and magnificent being: possessing all power, all knowledge by which power and knowledge he created the universe and all that is in it, possessing the capacity that his very influence can exist everywhere at the same time, as evidenced by his ability to create worlds without end and yet minister to each one of us on an individual basis, to help us with our individual concerns. He is a great and wondrous being that can do such magnificent things way beyond what the feeble attempts of science can even endeavor to explain, way beyond what the philosophies of men can help us to achieve and are even able to conceive, yet he is a personable father to us all, one who loves us perfectly on an individual basis and wants us to succeed, not just in this short existence know as mortality, but wants us to succeed and be happy throughout eternity and to have what he has, to literally be like him. Can there exist, even in our wildest imaginations and thoughts, a greater being than our Heavenly Father? No! He is the ultimate father of all. Why would we ever want anything other than that which will bring us perfection: a state of existence whereby we are made perfect, whereby we become all that we can become -to fill the measure of our creation, having a fullness of joy and happiness, satisfying all of our longings and most intimate desires! No plan that exists or ever will exist, not person who exists or ever will exist, no other god that exists or ever will exist can ever offer us such great prospects other than our true and living Eternal Heavenly Father.

   Let us embrace his truth, that we may know the only wise and true God, and Jesus Christ, whom he hath sent, that we may qualify for God's most choice gift to his children, a life lived like He lives, even Eternal Life.

Thomas W. Moore