--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Crockett, Fred W. collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 2 number: 1 published: 1898-11 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'Fred W. Crockett, "The Personality of God", *Improvement Era* 2, no. 1 (November 1898): 15–17.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera21unse transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers. identifier: improvementera21unse start_page: 15 end_page: 17 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1898-11) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera21unse publication_year: 1898 note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1898, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # The Personality of God THE PERSONALITY OF GOD, BY ELDER FRED. W. CROCKETT. What kind of being is God? To this question there are diversities of answers and opinions, so far different that one shudders at the thought of reconciliation. One contends that He is mere spirit, while another dives deeper into absurdity and as a result of his explanation establishes the inconsistent theory that God has neither parts nor passions; that He is not a substance and is everywhere and nowhere at the same time. Thus we see the many conflicting ideas with respect to the make-up and nature of God. At this juncture the question may be asked, since the matter is of vital importance to our future welfare, as we have seen from the above statements, how are we to ascertain the true character of God and thus determine the correctness or erroneousness of the above mentioned theories? To this I reply let us go to His ^vitnesses and from them glean the necessary information. God created man in His own image. This must be counted as a collateral evidence that there is at least a striking similarity between God and man. When we behold man, we behold also the likeness of the Creator Himself. In the book of Genesis we are told that after the great deluge when man was destroyed for his disobedience, the earth resumed its natural beauty. The Prophet Noe by way of gratitude and appreciation for the great kindness and favor of which he had been the recipient, built an altar to the Lord and offered up burnt offerings demonstrative of his thankfulness. The Lord smelled the sweet savor that arose from the altar and said in His heart, I will no more smite everything living as I have done (Gen. 8: 21). We are forced to conclude from this part of scripture that God has at least one of the senses possessed by man, namely, the sense of smell. These evidences may appear to some as weak and insignificant, but how can they be explained away? Some no doubt will assert that the evidence is taken from the Old Testament, and that renders it invalid and unreliable because it is said that Christ nailed the old scriptures to the cross. This argument, however, is not only unreasonable, but absurd and illogical. Christ's doing away with the old law does not rob it of its divine origin or establish the fact that it is not the word of God, The Old Testament is just as much the word of God as the New. The same God that created Adam lives today, and instituting a law through His only begotten Son does not take one iota of divinity from the old law. Christ, Himself, said before the New Testament was extant, "Search the scriptures, for in them ye think ye have eternal life, and they are they which testify of me" (John 5: 39). We are told that Moses, Nadab, Abihu and seventy of the elders of Israel saw God and there was under His feet as it were a paved work of sapphire (Ex. 24: 10). Further along in the same book we read that when Moses had made an end of communing with the Lord upon Mount Sinai, two tables of testimony were given him which were written by the finger of God (Ex. 24: 21). Moses tells us that the Lord spoke to him face to face as a man speaks to his friend. Thus far we have obtained all of our evidence affirmatory of the personality of God from the Old Testament. Let us now turn our attention to the New, and perchance it may afford additional proof that will strengthen the testimony already produced. After feeling the keen agonies of torture and the heart-bursting pains of the cross our Savior died, was buried and was resurrected. They who gazed in tender sympathy and in awful sorrow upon the inspiring countenance as it languished upon the cross and as the last shade of life faded away, also beheld the body reanimated and the glorious victor shining with immortal light. Three days after the crucifixion the beloved Son arose and for many days walked and communed with His chosen subjects. They to whom He manifested Himself after His resurrection stood in awe and wonderment. They had witnessed His life ebb away on Mount Calvary, but they had quite forgotten what He told them on one occasion while in Galilee, THE PERSONALITY OF GOD. 17 that on the third day He would arise. Nevertheless He who had died was now before them. They stood in an attitude of fear, supposing they had seen a spirit, and the Master, fully understanding the situation, made the following reply: "Behold my hands and my feet, that it is myself; handle me and see, for a spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye see me have." This proving insufficient to convince their skeptical minds, He asked for meat "and they gave Him a piece of broiled fish and honey comb, and he did eat before them" (Luke 24). Here was the Savior —a resurrected being—eating before His disciples to convince them that though He had suffered death He still lived with a body of flesh and bones. Let us not lose sight of the fact that it was with this identical body of flesh and bones that He ascended to heaven. Paul the apostle declares in writing to the Hebrews that Christ was the brightness of His Father's glory and the express image of His person (Heb. 1: 3). Taking the foregoing in its literal and true sense we plainly see that God is as Christ was after His resurrection, a personal being, with a body of flesh and bones. As further evidence corroborative of the matter under consideration, we read of Stephen at the time he was stoned looking up into heaven and beholding Christ at the right hand of the Father (Acts 7). Who, I ask, can in front of this mass of testimony now produced, deny the personality of God? Is any man so incredulous and bereft of discernment that he sees no beauty or grandeur in the divine fact of the personality of God? After this abundance of incontrovertible testimony who can advocate the illogical theory that God is a mere spirit? In my estimation it seems that no heart susceptible to the entertainment of divine truths can in any way avoid the acceptance and advocacy of the facts arrived at in the above argument.