The progression of God, the knowledge of God, the power of God

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The eternal progression of God

In 1844 Joseph Smith taught,

God himself was once as we are now, and is an exalted man, and sits enthroned in yonder heavens!…I say, if you were to see him today, you would see him like a man in form—like yourselves in all the person, image, and very form as a man; for Adam was created in the very fashion, image and likeness of God. (King Follett Sermon, Ensign, April 1971)

This was emphasized by president Lorenzo Snow (5th president of the church; d. 1901),

the Spirit of God fell upon me to a marked extent, and the Lord revealed to me, just as plainly as the sun at noon-day, this principle, which I put in a couplet: ‘As man now is, God once was; As God now is, man may be’” (The Teachings of Lorenzo Snow, edited by Clyde J. Williams, p. 2).

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