We believe that God has revealed himself in our day that men again may be able to gain eternal life in his kingdom. The knowledge of God, the knowledge as to the nature and kind of being that he is, is the rock foundation upon which all true religion is based, and without that knowledge and without revelation from him, it is not possible for men to hope for or gain the blessings, honors, and glories of eternity.

The Master gave the key to this principle in his great intercessory prayer when he said,

And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent  John 17:3

The Prophet Joseph Smith said,

It is the first principle of the Gospel to know for a certainty the character of God and to know that we may converse with him as one man converses with another (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, page 345).

This knowledge of God, always coming by revelation, has been had in every age of the earth's history when the gospel has been here. The prophets have known of him and have borne witness to the people concerning his attributes and his laws. He created Adam "in the image of his own body"  Moses 6:9 and then walked and talked with him, with the very man whom he had created in his own likeness. He sent his Firstborn spirit Son, Jehovah, to commune with Moses "face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend"  Ex. 33:11 And then in the Meridian of Time he sent this same Son, among other reasons, to manifest to the world the nature and kind of being that he is, so that men might know him and worship him and keep his commandments and thereby be entitled to come back into his presence again.

Christ said that he was the Son of God  John 10:36 He said that he came forth from the Father  John 8:42 that he came to bear witness of the Father  John 18:37 It is written of him that he is the express image of his Father's person  Heb. 1:3 and this knowledge was had in all ages. And yet when the period of dark apostasy set in, men without revelation, without the Spirit of the Lord, sat down in conventions and conclaves and wrote creeds which attempted to define what kind of being he was. They said that he was in some mystical way three in one, that he filled the immensity of space, that he was everywhere and nowhere in particular present, that he was incomprehensible, unknowable, uncreated, incorporeal, and all the rest. And that is the understanding that prevailed in the world in the spring of 1820 when the Prophet went into that secluded place in a grove of trees to ask the Lord which of all the churches was right and which he should join. The Prophet said,

. . . I saw a pillar of light exactly over my head, above the brightness of the sun, which descended gradually until it fell upon me.

. . . When the light rested upon me I saw two personages, whose brightness and glory defy all description, standing above me in the air. One of them spake unto me, calling me by name, and said, pointing to the other—This is My Beloved Son. Hear Him!  JS—H 1:16-17

From that moment the knowledge of God began to roll forth in the world, and we expect to see a day, eventually, when the knowledge of God will cover the earth, as the waters cover the deep  Isa. 11:9 when it will no longer be necessary for any man to say to his neighbor, "Know the Lord," for all shall know him from the greatest to the least  Jer. 31:34

We have a scripture that says,

The Father has a body of flesh and bones as tangible as man's, the Son also; but the Holy Ghost has not a body of flesh and bones, but is a personage of Spirit  D&C 130:22

If we had lived in the beginning, in Adam's day, and had received the knowledge of God as taught by revelation from the mouth of Adam, the presiding high priest in the Church, we would have seen that the very name of the Father, literally interpreted, meant Man of Holiness, for as the scripture says,

. . . In the language of Adam, Man of Holiness is his name, and the name of his Only Begotten is the Son of Man  Moses 6:57

When Christ repeatedly referred to himself as the Son of Man, he was certifying that Man of Holiness, God the Eternal Father, was his Father, and he had no reference to his mortality his birth as the son of Mary.

All of us who have received the gospel have power given us to become the sons of God  John 1:12 We can do that by faith. And Paul says those that become, by adoption, sons of God are joint heirs with Jesus Christ  Rom. 8:14-17 entitled thereby to receive, inherit, and possess, as Christ has inherited before. The Apostle John, beloved disciple of the Lord, wrote these words:

Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not.

And now note particularly what he says:

. . . Now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.

And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure  1 Jn. 3:1-3

To that same John, who had written these words as moved upon by the Holy Ghost, the Lord said:

He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son  Rev. 21:7

And then again:

To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne  Rev. 3:21

These New Testament scriptures, and many others that could be cited, teach the doctrine of exaltation, a doctrine of eternal life and eternal lives, a doctrine of joint heirship with Christ the Son. And this knowledge has been given again, with more particulars, by revelation in this day. We are taught that Christ received not of the fullness at the first but went from grace to grace until he received a fullness, and that he finally received all power both in heaven and on earth. After having this truth recorded in the revelation, the Lord says that he is doing it so we may know what we worship and know how to worship, and that if we keep his commandments, we can go from grace to grace until, one in him as he is in the Father  John 17:21 we may inherit a fullness of all things  D&C 93:12-20

Now the knowledge of God is the beginning of true religion. Without it there cannot be faith in God. The knowledge of God is the end of all true religion. If we have that knowledge and seek, as John says, to purify ourselves as he is pure  1 Jn. 3:3 we can go on in eternal progression, having reached the blessings of peace and happiness here  D&C 59:23 and being assured of an eternal reward in the mansions that are prepared, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.