Joseph Smith — "If men do not comprehend the character of God, they do not comprehend themselves…"
If men do not comprehend the character of God, they do not comprehend themselves.
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More from Joseph Smith
"I am a prophet of God, and I know it."
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Understanding this quote
What it means
Self-knowledge and knowledge of God are inseparable. To truly understand human nature, purpose, and potential, you must first grasp what God is actually like. Humans share something essential with the divine, so understanding God's character reveals something fundamental about human identity and destiny. Without that foundation, any attempt at self-understanding remains incomplete, rootless, and ultimately confused about what human beings actually are.
Relevance to Joseph Smith
Smith taught the radical doctrine that God was once a man and humans can become gods—articulated most fully in his 1844 King Follett discourse. He introduced eternal progression: humans are literally children of God with divine potential. Understanding God's exalted, perfected character was therefore the direct mirror of understanding human identity and ultimate destiny, the theological core of everything he built.
The era
Smith founded the LDS Church in 1830 during the Second Great Awakening, a period of fierce theological debate across America over God's nature and human salvation. Competing revivals offered contradictory answers about human purpose and divine character. Smith's claim to new direct revelation positioned his teachings as definitive resolution to these unsettled questions, giving frontier Americans a coherent framework for understanding both God and themselves.
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