God, the Eternal Father

In the most recent general conference, Elder Brik V. Eyre spoke about our identity as children of God. He said, “It is insightful that the first point of doctrine that our missionaries teach is that God is our loving Heavenly Father. Every subsequent truth builds on the foundational understanding of who we really are.” Given this doctrinal preeminence of the fact that we are children of our Heavenly Father, I have sometimes wondered why it is not more plainly or repeatedly stated throughout the scriptures. But Elder Eyre made an interesting point I hadn’t considered when he also said this: “It is no coincidence that in likely the most repeated scripture, God reminds us of our relationship with Him. Of all the names He could be identified by in the sacrament prayer, He has asked to be called ‘God, the Eternal Father.’” He is probably right that the sacrament prayers are the most repeated scripture, for every congregation throughout the world says them nearly every week in sacrament meeting. And in those, though we do not call ourselves His children explicitly, that is what we are saying as we address Him as our Father. And as I consider what the scriptures do say, I see that this title of Father for God is more common than the declaration that we are His children. But surely by calling Him our Father, the prophets of old were implicitly labeling us all as His children.

               Here are some examples from the Book of Mormon. Nephi taught us about then Father when he wrote about baptism, “The voice of the Son came unto me, saying: He that is baptized in my name, to him will the Father give the Holy Ghost, like unto me…. If ye shall follow the Son, with full purpose of heart, acting no hypocrisy and no deception before God, but with real intent, repenting of your sins, witnessing unto the Father that ye are willing to take upon you the name of Christ” (2 Nephi 31:12-13). We witness unto the Father—our Father in Heaven—when we are baptized with real intent. Jacob taught, “Behold, they believed in Christ and worshiped the Father in his name, and also we worship the Father in his name” (Jacob 4:5). King Benjamin taught his people, “I say unto you, that there are not any among you, except it be your little children that have not been taught concerning these things, but what knoweth that ye are eternally indebted to your heavenly Father, to render to him all that you have and are” (Mosiah 2:34). Clearly implied in his words is that we are the children of that Heavenly Father. Alma spoke multiple times about the “Only Begotten of the Father,” and the definite article there implies that “the Father” is not just Father to Christ but to all of us (Alma 5:48, 9:26, 13:9). The most frequent references to the Father are found in the words of the Savior to the Nephites as recorded in 3 Nephi. He declared as He introduced Himself, “I am the light and the life of the world; and I have drunk out of that bitter cup which the Father hath given me, and have glorified the Father in taking upon me the sins of the world, in the which I have suffered the will of the Father in all things from the beginning” (3 Nephi 11:11). All of these references to “the Father” suggest that He is speaking of a Father to all of us, and He made that even clearer when He taught, “That thine alms may be in secret; and thy Father who seeth in secret, himself shall reward thee openly…. But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father who is in secret; and thy Father, who seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly…. Be not ye therefore like unto them, for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of before ye ask him” (3 Nephi 13:4-8). He spoke to them of “thy Father” and “your Father” and surely His words were meant for all of us. And so, if God is “our Father,” then clearly we must be His children. Three times He spoke to them of “your heavenly Father,” reminding the and us that we have a divine Father in heaven who watches over us (3 Nephi 13:14, 26, 32). The scriptures indeed teach us that we are children of a divine Father, and they do that most clearly by calling God by the name of Father. And if He is a Father, then we are indeed His children.