The Cosmological Grandeur of the Restored Gospel: Mining the Journal of Discourses

Worlds Without End in the style of Van Gogh

How is it that hardly any major religion has looked at science and concluded, “This is better than we thought! The Universe is much bigger than our prophets said, grander, more subtle, more elegant?” Instead they say, “No, no, no! My god is a little god, and I want him to stay that way.” A religion, old or new, that stressed the magnificence of the Universe as revealed by modern science might be able to draw forth reserves of reverence and awe hardly tapped by the conventional faiths.

-Carl Sagan

One of the unique characteristics of the restored gospel is the expansiveness of its cosmological vision. Traditional religion held a Ptolemaic worldview in terms of existential importance if not astronomical reality. This world was the creation that mattered, and all discoveries beyond its horizon landed in the realm of speculative theology, whereas almost from the beginning and long before infrared space telescopes the restored gospel preached a very fundamental premise that is radically distinct: this world and its inhabitants are only a small part of God’s creations.

However, we were only ever given little precious glimpses into this broader scheme. Even the one line from the temple: “I have only been doing that which has been done on other worlds” has a sort of understated power. It’s said in passing, so quickly that you could miss it if you weren’t paying attention, but that one statement abruptly zooms the camera out beyond this world, radically upending traditional Judeo-Christian cosmology almost into the cyclical perspective of Eastern faiths. Still, it’s unclear about what to make of it, and I think it’s meant to be that way. With all due respect to Scientology (As Latter-day Saints we should not be the ones to guffaw at other religions for being “weird,” although I might have other concerns about them), an ultra-detailed back story is sometimes a sign of somebody not being able to resist the temptation for a good story, whether it’s the apocryphal stories of child Jesus creating living birds from clay or Xenu and the galactic empire. And yes, some might put the Book of Mormon in that category; but still, the presence of a sort of sacred silence is a sign of spiritual maturity and Godly reverence. And that’s what we get with the expansive cosmology. Little precious morsels here and there hinting at something much grander than our little planet orbiting our mediocre star.

Still, despite the fact that it is spoken of less than, say, fasting, prophets, or the second coming, the big-picture grand cosmological vision of the restored gospel is logically important even if not rhetorically emphasized. That’s one reason why I get a little impatient when people seem to imply that the existential  center of the gospel is this or that initiative from 50 Temple Street, the latest scandal (real or imagined) in the news, or a little didactic insight from a scripture story, when the core is so much grander: worlds, Gods, and creation without end, powered by an infinite sacrifice of a God.

So to that end I have used AI (GPT-4o) to mine all references to this kind of grand vision from PDFs of the Journal of Discourses stored in Wikisource. Basically, everything addressing multiple worlds, people on those worlds, and deification. (I already addressed the other children of God on other worlds in my post on extraterrestrials and the gospel). I know, I know, it’s the Journal of Discourses and before Correlation some funny things were said over the pulpit; including the kind of speculative, off-the-cuff theology from Brothers Brigham and Orson that we all know and love, so the standard caveats apply. Still, the broader themes are emphasized enough I feel secure placing this closer to the center of the concentric circle of “doctrines” even if any one quote might be off.

Since AI occasionally hallucinates, I double checked each mined quote by hand. Ironically, it appears that the most copious recorders of the Journal of Discourses are evangelical types that are trying to make us look weird, so thanks where thanks is due, since I typically only had to paste the quote into Google and I would be directed to some kind of Mormon ministry that confirmed its place in the Journal of Discourses.

• “He presides over the worlds on worlds that illuminate this little planet, and millions on millions of worlds that we cannot see; and yet He look upon the minutest object of His creations; not one of these creatures escapes His notice; and there is not one of them but His wisdom and power has produced.”

• “There is an eternity of knowledge. There are worlds, as it were, without number; kingdoms without number; personages without number; intellectual beings of all grades and orders without number; and all these have their laws, their governments, their kingdoms, their thrones, their principalities, their powers, all moving and acting in the sphere in which they are placed; and they all have their  way of communication one with another.”

• “We are created, we are born for the express purpose of growing up from the low estate of manhood, to become Gods like unto our Father in heaven… The Lord has organized mankind for the express purpose of increasing in that intelligence and truth, which is with God, until he is capable of creating worlds on worlds, and becoming Gods, even the sons of God.”

• “Let us look forward to that state of more advanced happiness when this mortal shell shall be laid off; and when we, in the spiritual state, shall be enabled to enjoy those enlarged powers of locomotion which we have reason to expect.How much do we expect? That we may fly swiftly to other worlds on missions. We would not want to occupy three months time, in going from the earth to the moon, or from the earth to the sun, as we do in crossing these plains with ox teams, but we wish to go with greater velocity. If we go with the velocity of light, we should travel at the rate of one hundred and ninety-two thousand miles every second. There are substances in nature which are moving with this velocity. What is it that moves with this velocity? Is it any thing else but spirit? The light we see is spirit. What does the Lord say in one of the new revelations? “Ye shall live by every word that cometh out of the mouth of God; whatsoever is truth is light, and whatsoever is light is spirit,” consequently the light that comes from the sun is spirit. How fast does that spirit travel? It can be demonstrated that it can travel one hundred and ninety-two thousand miles per second; if then one portion of spirit can travel with that velocity, it is natural for us to suppose that any other portions of spirit can travel with the same velocity, and thus we shall be able to accomplish, and perform a greater amount of righteousness among other worlds and beings, than if we were compelled to lose three fourths, or nine tenths of our time on the journey.”

• “If we should take a million of worlds like this and number their particles, we should find that there are more Gods than there are particles of matter in those worlds. But the attributes of Deity are one; and they constitute the one God that the Prophets speak of, and that the children of men in all worlds worship.”

• “There is an eternity of knowledge. There are worlds, as it were, without number; kingdoms without number; personages without number; intellectual beings of all grades and orders without number; and all these have their laws, their governments, their kingdoms, their thrones, their principalities, their powers, all moving and acting in the sphere in which they are placed.”

• “We are created, we are born for the express purpose of growing up from the low estate of manhood, to become Gods like unto our Father in heaven… The Lord has organized mankind for the express purpose of increasing in that intelligence and truth, which is with God, until he is capable of creating worlds on worlds, and becoming Gods.”

• “You expect to see the time when you will have at your control worlds on worlds, if your existence endures”

• “He lives as we do, except the difference that we are earthly, and He is heavenly. He has been earthly, and is of precisely the same species of being that we are”

• “After men have got their exaltations and their crowns—have become Gods, even the sons of God—are made Kings of kings and Lords of lords, they have the power then of propagating their species in spirit; and that is the first of their operations with regard to organizing a world. Power is then given to them to organize the elements, and then commence the organization of tabernacles.”

      [For the ultimate mike drop sacrament meeting Mother’s Day talk]

• “Let me here say a word to console the feelings and hearts of all who belong to this Church. Many of the sisters grieve because they are not blessed with offspring. You will see the time when you will have millions of children around you. If you are faithful to your covenants, you will be mothers of nations. You will become Eves to earths like this; and when you have assisted in peopling one earth, there are millions of earths still in the course of creation. And when they have endured a thousand million times longer than this earth, it is only as it were the beginning of your creations. Be faithful, and if you are not blest with children in this time, you will be hereafter.”

• “It is not only a Sabbath-day religion and a Monday religion, but it is an everyday religion—a religion that will feast a person all the time. It draws forth the mind, and expands the understanding of every intelligent being who will open his mind to understand and see by vision the creations of God—the worlds that are and the worlds that have been,—who can grasp in the vision of his mind the truth that there never has been a time when there have not been worlds like this, and that there never will be a time when there will not be worlds organized and prepared for intelligent beings to dwell upon.”

• “What is man? A god, even the son of God, possessing noble aspirations, holy feelings, that may be governed by virtuous principles, possessing elevated ideas, wishing to realize everything that God has destined to submit to all his laws, to endure every kind of privation and affliction and suffering, as seeing Him that is invisible, looking for a city that hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God,—feeling to live for that purpose, and that alone. This is what man is, if he lives the religion of heaven, and performs faithfully those things God has appointed him to do, that he may increase from intelligence to intelligence, and go on with that eternal progression, not only in this world, but in worlds without end.”

• “How many Gods there are, I do not know. But there never was a time when there were not Gods and worlds, and when men were not passing through the same ordeals that we are now passing through. That course has been from all eternity, and it is and will be to all eternity.”

•  “Not only will the faithful and worthy subjects of the Kingdom of God, become kings: but more; each one will become a king of kings, and lord of lords… every faithful son of God, becomes, as it were, Adam to the race that springs from his loins… every true son of God becomes a king of kings, and a lord of lords.”

• “He lives on another planet; he is in another state of existence; he has passed the ordeals we are now passing through; he has received an experience, has suffered and enjoyed, and knows all that we know regarding the toils, sufferings, life and death of this mortality, for he has passed through the whole of it, and has received his crown and exaltation, and holds the keys and the power of this kingdom; he sways his scepter, and does his will among the children of men, among Saints and among sinners, and brings forth results to suit his purpose among kingdoms and nations and empires, that all may redound to his glory and to the perfection of his work.”

• “How many earths are there? I observed this morning that you may take the particles of matter composing this earth, and if they could be enumerated they would only be a beginning to the number of the creations of God; and they are continually coming into existence, and undergoing changes and passing through the same experience that we are passing through.”

• “I observed this morning that you may take the particles of matter composing this earth, and if they could be enumerated they would only be a beginning to the number of the creations of God; and they are continually coming into existence, and undergoing changes and passing through the same experience that we are passing through, Sin is upon every earth that ever was created, and if it was not so, I would like some philosophers to let us know how people can be exalted to become sons of God, and enjoy a fulness of glory with the Redeemer. Consequently every earth has its redeemer, and every earth has its tempter; and every earth, and the people thereof.”

• “The Latter-day Saint does not look for an empty heaven, where he has got to sing continually to the thrumming of the harp. The Saints look for a tangible heaven, the same as we have here, only glorified immensely. We expect to be like God, our heavenly Father—to take part in creation, in the creation and peopling of new worlds, and in doing things similar to what God has done. This is a subject of such magnitude that I can only briefly allude to it in passing.”

• “Now, shall we be made like the Lord, or are we some other species of beings, so far disconnected with him that we never need expect to reach… This is consistent and reasonable. Every species of being with which we are acquainted begets its own kind, and the young thereof, whether man, quadrupeds, fowls or fish, finally grow up and become like their parents.”

• “He withdraws. What for? To fulfill other purposes; for he has other worlds or creations and other sons and daughters, perhaps just as good as those dwelling on this planet, and they, as well as we, will be visited, and they will be made glad with the countenance of their Lord.”

• “Says one—’Do you mean to say, then, that there is a faculty in man, that he can behold the Lord and be in his presence, though millions on millions of miles distant, on another creation?’ Yes, just as easy as we can behold one another here in this room. We shall then see as we are seen, and know as we are known, and there will be a perfect redemption.”

• “When they receive their crowns, their dominions, they then will be prepared to frame earth’s like unto ours and to people them in the same manner as we have been brought forth by our parents, by our Father and God.”

• “We believe we will be perfected, purified and cleansed in him, and made not only the sons of God, but grow up unto him in all things, that we may become Gods like unto our Father who begat us. This is consistent with analogy. Analogy shows that sons here upon the earth, grow up and become like their parents.”

• “If they were immortal beings and celestial in their nature, the Lord would not act with them thus, for then they would always be in his presence, whether they are beings of one world or another, or whether the worlds upon which they dwell are as numerous as the sands upon the sea-shore; when they become celestial the veil that obscures the view of mortals is removed, and it makes no difference whether a world be one million, a hundred million, or a million million of miles distant from another, if the veil is taken away, they are still in each other’s presence.”

• “There is a spiritual faculty of seeing, different from that of the natural sight, a power of discerning through space, by which celestial beings can see innumerable millions of miles in distance, just as easy as mortals can see ten feet with their natural vision. To be in the presence of God, then, is simply to have the veil withdrawn, which will be done when we prove ourselves worthy of celestial glory.”

• “Now let us come along to the plan of redemption, and see how it is that we are exalted and brought back into the presence of God, and become as it were, gods, then we can form some idea concerning our Father and God.”

• “When we talk about celestial glory, we talk of the condition of endless increase; if we obtain celestial glory in the fullest sense of the word, then we have wives and children in eternity, we have the power of endless lives granted unto us, the power of propagation that will endure through all eternity, all being fathers and mothers in eternity; fathers of fathers, and mothers of mothers, kings and queens, priests and priestesses, and shall I say more? Yes, all becoming gods.”