What "Mormons" believe about God

Mormons or members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints use thirteen tenants or articles to explain what we believe. They are called the Articles of Faith. In 1842 Joseph Smith was asked to explain the church's beliefs. In a letter to John Wentworth, an editor of a newspaper in Chicago, Illinois, Joseph Smith wrote thirteen basic beliefs along with the history of the church. While the account was never published in that newspaper it was printed in a church newspaper and later accepted as scripture.

The first Article of Faith is "We believe in God, the Eternal Father, and in His Son, Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost."

We believe that God is our Father, the father of our spirits. In addition to God, we call Him Heavenly Father and Elohim. From Acts 17:28, "For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring." Malachi also testified, "Have we not all one father? hath not God created us?" (Malachi 2:10). His is literally our father in heaven or our Heavenly Father because he is the father of our spirits. We are His sons and daughters.

We believe that God has a body of flesh and bones like us. We know this from modern revelation. Joseph Smith said, "The Father has a body of flesh and bones as tangible as man's" (Doctrine & Covenants 130:22). We also know that he created us in his image or likeness. We look like our Heavenly Father. "By these things we know that there is a God in heaven, who is infinite and eternal, from everlasting to everlasting the same unchangeable God, the framer of heaven and earth, and all things which are in them; And that he created man, male and female, after his own image and in his own likeness, created he them" (Doctrine & Covenants 20:17-18).

We lived with God in heaven before we came to earth. "Man was also in the beginning with God" (Doctrine & Covenants 93:29). God presented a plan for us to come to earth to gain bodies and use our agency or choice.  To become like God, our Father, we must keep His commandments so we can return to Him.

On earth we communicate with God through Jesus Christ. We begin our prayers, "Dear Heavenly Father," and end with "In the name of Jesus Christ, amen." When I pray, I imagine a loving father who wants me to succeed and return to Him. Often I feel as though I am wrapped in His loving embrace. How glorious to have two fathers who love me.