The story [of Christianity] is strangely like many myths which have haunted religion from the first, and yet it is not like them. It is not transparent to the reason: we could not have invented it ourselves. It has not the suspicious a priori lucidity of Pantheism or Netownian physics.

Human passions unbridled by morality and religion . . . would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people.

It is true that you can reason about doctrinal matters, but you do not get religion into your life until it becomes a matter of personal experience–until you feel something in your soul, until there has been a change made in your heart, until you become a new creature of the Holy Ghost…

There is no salvation between the two lids of the Bible without a legal administrator.

The course which the popular clergy pursue at this time in relation to the Divine economy looks to me as though they would say, ‘O Lord, we will worship Thee with all our hearts, serve Thee with all our souls, and be very pious and holy; we will even gather Israel, convert the heathen, and bring in the millennium, IF Thou wilt only let us alone that we may do it in our own way, and according to our own will; BUT if Thou speakest from heaven to interfere with our plan, or cause any to see visions or dreams, or prophesy, whereby we are disturbed or interrupted in our worship, we will exert all our strength and skill to deny what Thou sayest, and charge it home upon the devil or some wild, fanatic spirit, as being its author.

That which was looked upon by the ancient saints as among the greatest favors and blessings, viz., revelation from God and communion with Him by dream and by visions, is now looked upon by the religious world as the height of presumption and folly. The ancient saints considered their condition more deplorable when Jehovah would not speak to them; but the most orthodox religionist of this age deem it quite heterodox to even admit the probability that He ever will speak again.

Oh My Soul! Language fails to paint the absurdity and abomination of such heaven-opposing and truth-excluding dogmas!

The great religious leaders of the world such as Mohammed, Confucius, and the Reformers, as well as philosophers including Socrates, Plato, and others, received a portion of God’s light. Moral truths were given to them by God to enlighten whole nations and to bring a higher level of understanding to individuals.

The Hebrew prophets prepared the way for the coming of Jesus Christ, the promised Messiah, who should provide salvation for all mankind who believe in the gospel.

Consistent with these truths, we believe that God has given and will give to all peoples sufficient knowledge to help them on their way to eternal salvation, either in this life or in the life to come.

We also declare that the gospel of Jesus Christ, restored to His Church in our day, provides the only way to a mortal life of happiness and a fulness of joy forever. For those who have not received this gospel, the opportunity will come to them in the life hereafter if not in this life.

Our message therefore is one of special love and concern for the eternal welfare of all men and women, regardless of religious belief, race, or nationality, knowing that we are truly brothers and sisters because we are sons and daughters of the same Eternal Father.

In the life of every person, who receives a higher education, in or out of schools, there is a time when there seems to be opposition between science and religion; between man-made and God-made knowledge. The struggle for reconciliation between the contending forces is not an easy one. It cuts deep into the soul and usually leaves scars that ache while life endures.

“And when I considered upon these things my heart exclaimed, Well hath the wise man said it is a fool that saith in his heart there is no God [see Psalm 53:1]. My heart exclaimed, All these bear testimony and bespeak an omnipotent and omnipresent power, a Being who maketh laws and decreeth and bindeth all things in their bounds, who filleth eternity, who was and is and will be from all eternity to eternity. And when I considered all these things and that that Being seeketh such to worship him as worship him in spirit and in truth [see John 4:23], therefore I cried unto the Lord for mercy, for there was none else to whom I could go and obtain mercy.” - Joseph Smith

Joseph’s faithful prayer for mercy and wisdom was answered with the First Vision. That vision gave the young Prophet far greater knowledge about God than any of the churches of his day possessed, knowledge that had been lost to the world for centuries. In the First Vision, Joseph learned for himself that the Father and the Son are individual beings, that Their power is greater than the power of evil, and that man is indeed fashioned in God’s image—truths that are essential in understanding our actual relationship to our Father in Heaven.