One of my Grandsons asked me, “Grandpa, I am confused by the statement in the Book of Mormon where it says that Jesus is the Father. What does that mean?” The response that follows is merely the thoughts of an old grandfather trying to answer the question of his grandson and is not to be construed as an official church response to that question. If there are other grandchildren out there with the same question, maybe this explanation can help serve to satisfy their curiosity or concerns as well. We believe in a Godhead of three separate personages: The Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. Why have certain scriptures then referred to the Son as the Father? Scriptures which reference Jesus as the Father are confusing to many Latter day Saints and have even caused some to wonder if there really are three separate beings.
When Moses was called to deliver the Israelites out of Egypt he was fearful and asked the Lord, “Whom shall I say sent me?” And Jehovah said unto Moses, “I AM THAT I AM: Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.”(Exodus 3:14) Moses was given to understand that the Israelites would understand who “I AM” is.
Also, in support of Jehovah or Jesus being the “I AM” of the Old Testament are these versus’ in the New Testament where Jesus was being questioned by the Jews: “Then said the Jews unto him, Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham? Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am.”( John 8:56–58) That should be interpreted as “I AM,” as evidenced by the fact that the Pharisees called him blasphemous and would have stoned him. It is also evidenced by what He said a little later in the same Book of John, Jesus referred to Himself as follows: “I AM the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman.”( John 15:1)
I believe the references to Christ as the Father also becomes a little clearer with a review of the following scriptures. In the great council before this world was created and when the plan of life and salvation was presented to us, Elohim asked, Who shall I send? “Lucifer, the son of the morning,” offered to be the savior and said, “Send me.” But he was rejected because he would have denied us our agency. “But, behold, my Beloved Son, which was my Beloved and Chosen from the beginning, said unto me, Father, thy will be done, and the glory be thine forever.”(Moses 4:2) The Savior was willing to subject His will completely to the Father’s:
“Behold, I am Jesus Christ the Son of God. I created the heavens and the earth, and all things that in them are. I was with the Father from the beginning. I am in the Father, and the Father in me; and in me hath the Father glorified his name.”(3 Nephi 9:15) This is how the Father and the Son are one: they are one in purpose and their hope is that one day we, too, will be one with them in purpose and mind.
“Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are.” ( John 17:10–11) He obviously was not suggesting that we all become one person but rather we become one in unity of purpose and mind. Again a similar scripture: “And that I am in the Father, and the Father is in me, and the Father and I are one—The Father because He gave me of His fullness, and the Son because I was in the world and made flesh my tabernacle, and dwelt among the sons of men. (D&C 93:3–4)
Probably the scripture that is most clear describing why Jesusis referred to as our Father is found in several verses in Mosiah. “And now, because of the covenant which ye have made ye shall be called the children of Christ, his sons, and his daughters; for behold, this day he hath spiritually begotten you; for ye say that your hearts are changed through faith on his name; therefore, ye are born of him and have become his sons and his daughters.” (Mosiah 5:7) A little further in the book of Mosiah: “And now I say unto you, who shall declare his generation? Behold, I say unto you, that when his soul has been made an offering for sin he shall see his seed. And now what say ye? And who shall be his seed? Behold I say unto you, that whosoever has heard the words of the prophets, yea, all the holy prophets who have prophesied concerning the coming of the Lord, I say unto you, that all those who have hearkened unto their words, and believed that the Lord would redeem His people, and have looked forward to that day for a remission of their sins, I say unto you, that these are his seed, or they are the heirs of the kingdom of God. For these are they whose sins he has borne; these are they for whom he has died, to redeem them from their transgressions. And now, are they not his seed?” (Mosiah 15:10–12)
How did we become His seed and if we are His seed, is He not our Father? “But behold, ye have both heard my voice, and seen me; and ye are my sheep, and ye are numbered among those whom the Father hath given me.” (Mosiah 15:10–12) This scripture testifies that we are His seed because the Father gave us to Him.
In summary Jesus Christ can be referred to as the Father for several reasons:
1. Because He and the Father Elohim are one in spirit and purpose.
2. Because He (at the request of Elohim) created this earth and made us in His image, therefore can He not be referred to as the Father—the creator of heaven and earth?
3. The Father, Elohim, gave us to Christ to be His seed, because He loved us and redeemed us from the fall through His divine sacrifice—as His seed, is He not our Father?
4. Isaiah testified of the Christ this way: “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor,
The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.” (Isaiah 9:6)
However, there was no doubt in the Savior’s mind that there is a distinction between he and the Man of Holiness, or Elohim, His Father. “If ye loved me, ye would rejoice, because I said, I go unto the Father: for my Father is greater than I.”( John 14:28)
I testify that Jesus Christ is our Father in the ways that are referred to above and that Elohim is God the Father of us all. Elohim is, “the Man of Holiness,” the Husbandman, and Christ is the True Vine, “the Son of Man,” the Great “I AM” and the Jehovah of the Old Testament. He is the Savior of all mankind who was prepared from before the foundation of this earth and who willingly suffered on the cross to atone for our sins and thereby redeem us from the fall.