Heavenly
Mother
Dale G. Renlund once stated: "Very little has been revealed about Mother in Heaven, but what we do know is summarized in a gospel topic found in our Gospel Library application.9 Once you have read what is there, you will know everything that I know about the subject. I wish I knew more" [Your Divine Nature and Eternal Destiny, April 2022].
Our Truth Be Told
In February, Jenn Kamp and I got together and did an episode on her podcast Our Truth Be Told, about Heavenly Mother. Join with us as we discuss current teachings, past teachings and the doctrine and theology of our Mother in Heaven!
"Very Little" has been Revealed
Elder Dale G. Renlund referenced Heavenly Mother in his recent April 2022 General Conference address. He publicly referred also to the Gospel Topics Essay written on Her, stating that: "Once you've read what's there, you'll know everything that I know about the subject." He stated that everything there is to know is summarized in that essay. But what does the essay actually teach us? The Gospel Topics Essay teaches us precious little.
That Heavenly Mother exists.
"The doctrine of a Heavenly Mother is a cherished and distinctive belief among Latter-day Saints." (So cherished, in fact, that such a belief has never been canonized anywhere in Mormon scriptures.)
Joseph Smith taught women about Heavenly Mother (I'm uncertain why the essay leaves out that Joseph Smith also taught men this doctrine. Brigham Young as prophet, also taught concerning Heavenly Mother.
The essay states that "the earliest published references to the doctrine appeared shortly after Joseph Smith's death in 1844, in documents written by his close associates." This, however, is actually untrue. The first reference to Heavenly Mother was in February of 1844, published in the Times and Seasons, four months before Joseph Smith died.
No Revealed Knowledge?
In an address given in October of 1991, Gordon B. Hinckley stated: I regard it as inappropriate for anyone in the Church to pray to our Mother in Heaven. …I have looked in vain for any instance where any President of the Church, from Joseph Smith to Ezra Taft Benson, has offered a prayer to ‘our Mother in Heaven.’ I suppose those … who use this expression and who try to further its use are well-meaning, but they are misguided. The fact that we do not pray to our Mother in Heaven in no way belittles or denigrates her. …None of us can add to or diminish the glory of her of whom we have no revealed knowledge.”
This is, clearly, quite inaccurate. From prophets and apostles, from prophet's wives to poets and just regular members of the Church -Church History teaches us much concerning Heavenly Mother.
What does Church History teach us about Heavenly Mother?
As you'll see from the sources below, each of these things was taught concerning Heavenly Mother. Eliza R. Snow, plural wives of prophets Joseph Smith and Brigham Young, prayed to Heavenly Mother on behalf of Sylvia Sessions Lyon in 1847. Apostle Orson Pratt taught about a "celestial womb" and the plurality of Heavenly Mothers. Even Brigham Young, John Taylor, and Wilford Woodruff (all prophets of the Church) taught concerning our Mother in Heaven.
🗸 We have a Heavenly Mother
🗸 She once lived on an earth like we live now
🗸 She is a perfect, resurrected Being
🗸 Some of the early sisters prayed to her (including the prophet's wife)
🗸 She has Heavenly Parents, meaning we have Heavenly Grandparents
🗸 She has infinite knowledge
🗸 She has a “celestial womb” in which she carries us
🗸 She is one of many of God’s wives
🗸 She resides in God’s heavenly mansions and raises her children
W. W. Phelps
February 1844
'Tis like a little leaven/ The woman hid for good,/ When she, as queen of heaven,/ In gold of Ophir stood./ 'Tis like the court of Zion,/ Where garments all are white;/ Who'll reign like Judah's Lion,/ In everlasting light.
W. W. Phelps
to William Smith
December 25, 1844
O Mormonism! Thy father is God, thy mother is the Queen of heaven, and so thy whole history, from eternity to eternity, is the laws, ordinances, and truth of the "Gods"—embracing the simple plan of salvation, sanctification, death, resurrection, glorification and exaltation of man, from infancy to age, from age to eternity, from simplicity to sublimity
Brigham Young
Dedication of the 70s Hall
December 31, 1844
[Brigham Young] spoke of the relation we held to our Father in Heaven and to our Mother, the Queen. If we are faithful we will come in their presence and learn of our first estate.
W. W. Phelps
January 15, 1845
Come to me; here’s the mystery that man hath not seen; Here’s our Father in heaven, and Mother, the Queen, Here are worlds that have been, and the worlds yet to be; Here’s eternity, -endless; amen: Come to me.
W. W. Phelps
May 1, 1845
Now the acts of his spiritual body, while he was a child with his father and mother in heaven; and his acts while he was in the spiritual councils of the Gods for millions of years . . .
My Father in Heaven Eliza R. Snow
November 15, 1845
In the heav’ns are parents single?
No, the thought makes reason stare;
Truth is reason—truth eternal
Tells me I’ve a mother there.
David C. Kimball
June 15, 1846
So with us, when the voyage of life is over and we are safely anchored in port, then bursts upon our view the Father and Mother of heaven, who for thirty years or upwards we had not seen; the family from which we have been so long separated welcomes us back again, and from our Father or Master we receive the command to govern one, five, or ten kingdoms, as the reward of our fidelity.
Eliza R. Snow to Sylvia Sessions Lyon
May 2, 1847
Will with pray’r and supplication
Plead for thee before the throne
Of the great eternal mother
Therefore do not feel alone.
W. W. Phelps
1852
THE ETERNAL MOTHER
The 11th chapter and 7th verse of Job, rightly rendered from the original Hebrew, reads:—“Who has searched out God? Canst thou find out the Eternal Mother? Canst thou find out the perfection of the Almighty?” All right; spiritually or temporally, there cannot be a father without a mother, in truth, to continue the ad infinitum of lives,—except the sectarian god, who has neither body, parts, or passions; he has no wife, and, of course, he had no mother. “Oh gracious!” inquires the philosophising granny, “where did he come from?” “Why,” replies the King’s Jester, “maybe he is one of the Misses Lucifer”s come-by-chances:” Now hush, you,—slandering the Prince of this world’s family. Hush!
Orson Pratt
July 1853
How many different laws these particles have acted under during the endless school of experience through which they have passed is not known to us. What degree of knowledge they have obtained by experience, previous to their organization in the womb of the celestial female, is not revealed. One thing is certain, the particles that enter into the organization of the infant spirit, are placed in a new sphere of action: the laws to govern them in this new and superior condition must be different from any laws under which they had previously acted.
Please be patient as I transfer all of the sources for Heavenly Mother in the website. Thank you!
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