King Follett Discourse - Topics

Topics

Doctrinal topics in the sermon include:

• the fundamental nature of reality --

man is not a contingent being, moreover God made the world from preexisting "chaotic matter."

"I take my ring from my finger and liken it unto the mind of man ... because it has no beginning"

"The pure principles of element, are principles that can never be destroyed."

• the character and nature of God --

"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."

"God himself was once as we are now, and is an exalted man, and sits enthroned in yonder heavens! That is the great secret. If the veil were rent today, and ... God ... (were) to make himself visible ... if you were to see him today, you would see him like a man in form -- like yourselves in all the person, image, and the very form as a man."

• Humanity’s potential to become Gods themselves. --

Smith discussed the potential of mankind by referencing Romans 8:17, then stating that men may go: "...from one small degree to another, and from a small capacity to a great one; from grace to grace, from exaltation to exaltation ... until (they) arrive at the station of a God."

Smith taught, "You have got to learn to become Gods yourselves, the same as all Gods before you have done."

• the tie between the living and their progenitors --

"Is there nothing to be done? -- no preparation -- no salvation for our fathers and friends who have died without having had the opportunity to obey the decrees of the Son of Man?"

"God hath made a provision that every spirit in the eternal world can be ... saved unless he has committed (the) unpardonable sin."

Regarding his personal religious experiences, Smith stated: "I don't blame anyone for not believing my history. If I had not experienced what I have, I could not have believed it myself." Concerned with difficulties facing the church and threats on his own life, he closed the two hour and fifteen minute address with a plea for peace and invoked God's blessing on the assembled Latter Day Saints.

Although the discourse is considered by Mormons to be one of the most important given by Smith on the nature of God and exaltation, it is not part of the LDS Church's canonized scriptures. However, some Mormons have called it quasi-canonical.

The topics in the discourse were not new to Smith's preaching Nearly all the subjects treated were continuing threads from earlier sermons. However, this discourse brought these ideas together in one connected narrative, and has had much wider distribution than most of the rest of his public utterances.