Our God Is God
Douglas L. Callister
Douglas L. Callister was a member of the Second Quorum of the
Seventy on 8 November 2005.
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My dear young students: I keenly More than a century ago Robert G.
feel my responsibility to testify of truths Ingersoll, an American agnostic, pursued
which will strengthen your growing faith. this question in the following words:
That desire has driven me to my knees
many times in preparation of my Each nation has created a
message. god, and the god has always
resembled his creators. He
More than a year ago, half a world hated and loved what they
away in the city of Moscow, Russia, a hated and loved. Each
young sister about your age spoke to me nation made its gods…speak
of her friendship with a troubled non‐ its language and put in their
member boy. He had been raised in a mouths the same mistakes of
Communist home. He frequently inquired history, geography,
of her, “Where is God?” astronomy and matters of
fact generally… No god was
Especially during university years, ever in advance of the
that question will often be asked of young nation that created him.
people by those whose wisdom is self‐
appointed. If faith in God’s existence and [Africans] represented their
your relationship with Him is lost while deities with black skins and
you acquire an education, you will also curly hair. The Mongolian
lose your testimony that you are His child gave to his a yellow
and have the potential to become like complexion and dark,
Him. almondshaped eyes… Zeus
was a perfect Greek, and
In moments of extremity, men and Jove looked as though a
women of all generations have asked member of the Roman
where God is. The Prophet Joseph did so Senate.
from Liberty Jail in the familiar language
of Section 121 of the Doctrine and The gods of the northern
Covenants: “O God, where art thou? And countries were represented
where is the pavilion that covereth thy warmly clad in robes of fur;
hiding place?” (Doctrine and Covenants those of the tropics were
121:1) naked. The gods of India
were often mounted upon
God often had to counsel the elephants; those of the
suffering Saints, “Be still and know that I islanders were great
am God” (Doctrine and Covenants swimmers, and the deities of
101:16). Even Christ in the concluding the Arctic zone were
hours of His atoning sacrifice cried out, passionately fond of whale’s
“My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken blubber.
me?” (Matthew 27:46)
Few nations have been so
poor as to have but one god.
Gods were made so easily,
and the raw materials cost
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so little that generally the wood, and the stones, and the dust, and
god market was fairly licked up the water that was in the trench.
glutted with these phantoms The people fell on their faces and
(The Works of Robert G. proclaimed: “The Lord, he is...God; the
Ingersoll, Vol. 1 [1900], 7, Lord, he is...God” (1 Kings 18:21, 27, 36,
10, 23, 24). 38‐39).
In paraphrasing a famous No less impressive in story or
quotation from Alexander Pope, Ingersoll message was the contest between Moses
irreverently concluded: “An honest god is and the magicians of Pharaoh. Moses
the noblest work of man” (Ibid 7). pled: “Let my people go” (Exodus 5:1). But
the heart of Ramses was as stone. Moses
People of all ages have delighted in transformed a rod into a serpent. He
pitting the strength or wisdom of their smote the waters of Egypt that they
gods against that of their neighbors’ gods. turned to blood, and the fish died and the
Two of the most interesting and waters stank. He inflicted the land with
consequential contests are recorded in frogs and with lice and swarms of flies,
the Old Testament. and a plague upon the cattle of Egypt, and
boils, and blains, and hail, and fire, and
One took place over 2500 years locusts, and thick darkness. But the heart
ago on Mount Carmel between the Lord of Pharaoh would not soften. His
God of Israel, represented by his prophet magicians could duplicate some of the
Elijah, and the Phoenician god Baal, miracles, but not all – and even they pled
represented in turn by his 450 prophets. for the release of Israel when Israel’s God
How piercing was Elijah’s challenge, “How smote their firstborn sons. Stubborn
long halt ye between two opinions? If the Pharaoh finally discovered life’s greatest
Lord be God, follow him: but if Baal, then truth when the message was brought to
follow him.” him of the destruction of his army by the
crashing waters of the Red Sea.
The heavens silently ignored the
incantations and pleading to Baal’s dumb As portrayed by Cecil B. DeMille on
and brazen idols. Elijah mocked, “Cry the motion picture screen, we can
aloud: for he is a god; either he is talking, imagine Pharaoh upon his throne
or he is pursuing, or he is in a journey, or pondering, then muttering in eloquence:
peradventure he sleepeth, and must be “Moses’ God is God” (Motion Picture: The
awakened.” Man‐made gods never fared Ten Commandments).
well in the presence of real deity.
In their preoccupation to worship
When it was Elijah’s turn he a powerful and respectable god, ancient
prayed openly: “Lord God of Abraham, civilizations often fashioned multiple
Isaac, and of Israel, let it be known this day deities as the objects of their reverence. It
that thou art God in Israel, and that I am never occurred to them to have no god.
thy servant…” That sin was left to our more
sophisticated society.
Then the fire of the Lord fell, and
consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the
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William Jennings Bryan, eloquent legs, and so the leg came by
speaker of a generation past, and once the accident. How? Well, the
United States Secretary of State, penned guess is that a little animal
these words in response to Charles without legs was wiggling
Darwin’s Origin of the Species: along on its belly one day
when it discovered a wart,
[H]ow does the evolutionist and it was in the right place
explain the eye when he to be used to aid it in
leaves God out? locomotion; so, it came to
depend upon the wart, and
The evolutionist guesses that use finally developed it into
there was a time when eyes a leg. And then another wart
were unknown. And since and another leg, at the
the eye is a universal proper time – by accident –
possession among living and accidentally in the
things the evolutionist proper place.
guesses that it came into
being – not by design or by How long did the “light
act of God – but just waves” have to play on the
happened, and how did it skin before the eyes came
happen? A piece of pigment, out? The evolutionist is very
or, as some say, a freckle deliberate; he is long on
appeared upon the skin of time. He would certainly
an animal that had no eyes. give the eye thousands of
This piece of pigment or years, if not millions, in
freckle converged the rays of which to develop; but how
the sun upon that spot and could he be sure that the
when the little animal felt light waves played all the
the heat on that spot it time in one place or played
turned the spot to the sun to in the same place generation
get more heat. The increased after generation until the
heat irritated the skin – so development was complete?
the evolutionists guess, and And why did the light waves
a nerve came there and out quit playing when two eyes
of the nerve came the eye! were perfected? Why did
But this only accounts for they not keep on playing
one eye; there must have until there were eyes all over
been another piece of the body? Why do they not
pigment or freckle soon play today, so that we may
afterward and just in the see eyes in process of
right place in order to give development? And if the
the animal two eyes. light waves created the eyes,
why did they not create
And, according to the them strong enough to bear
evolutionist, there was a the light? Why did the light
time when animals had no waves makes eyes and then
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make eyelids to keep the muscles in the fingers. The sole purpose
light out of the eyes? of the forearm, its muscles and bones, is
(William Jennings Bryan, In to move and optimally position the hand.
His Image, [1922] 97‐100).
If you wish to observe a miracle,
Naturalism’s explanations often look at a baby’s creasy hand. Its initial
appear convoluted and grotesque when movements are uncontrolled. Shortly
placed side‐by‐side with the simple, yet after birth it will be able to grasp, curl,
beautiful truths of the revealed word and push, lift, sense hot and cold, respond to
divine scripture. Joseph Smith said: “A pain by withdrawal, heal itself, display
man never has half so much fuss to unlock great strength or extraordinary
a door, if he has a key, as though he had sensitivity. These hands will be used
not, and had to cut it open with his thousands of times each day without
jackknife” (Joseph Fielding Smith, aforethought.
Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith,
[1972], 308). Your miraculous thumb is
controlled by 9 individual muscles and 3
With its 107 million cells, major hand nerves. Sir Isaac Newton said:
connected to the brain by over one “In the absence of any other proof, the
million neurons, the eye is more perfect thumb alone would convince me of God’s
than any camera ever invented. It caused existence” (Paul Brand and Phillip Yancey,
Charles Darwin to humbly confess “that The Scars fo Easter, Christianity Today
the eye with all its inimitable [April 5, 1985]. Paul Brand, renowned
controversies… could have been formed by orthopedic hand surgeon, wrote:
natural selection seems, I freely confess,
absurd in the highest degree” (Quoted in We use our hands for the
Bert Thompson, The Case for the Existence most wonderful activities:
of God [2003]). art, music, writing, healing,
touching. Some people go to
In 1860 Darwin wrote a botanist concerts and athletic events
friend: “To this day the eye makes me to watch the performance; I
shudder” (Francis Hitching, Was Darwin go to watch hands. For me, a
Wrong? Quoted in The Neck of the Giraffe). piano performance is a
It is small wonder that a much wiser race ballet of fingers – a glorious
than Darwin’s, that of the ancient flourish of ligaments and
Egyptians, chose the eye as their symbol joints, tendons, nerves and
of perfection. muscles (Ibid).
The psalmist wrote: “The fool hath Once the infant Son of Man
said in his heart, there is no God” (Psalms possessed tiny hands. His hands, too,
53:1). Such a foolish disbeliever ought use grew to accomplish their intended
those precious eyes to look at his hands. purposes. He used them to touch and heal
Seventy muscles contribute to hand the blind and infirm. His hands threw the
movements. Much of the rest of the body money‐changers out of the temple. His
is devoted to optimizing the complex hands reached upward in prayer;
function of the hand. There are no outward in blessing; and downward from
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the cross, penetrated by cruel nails, This earth departs from its straight
driven through the palms, then the wrists, line orbit of the sun by only 1/9 of an inch
by the heavy blow of the mallet. every 18 miles. If, instead, it changed by
1/10 of an inch every 18 miles we would
The fool proclaims in his heart that all freeze to death. If it changed by 1/8 of
there is no god, but our eyes and our an inch we would all be incinerated? (Bert
hands and our hearts and souls Thompson, The Case for the Existence of
unhesitatingly testify to the contrary. The God [2003]) Did this all happen by
psalmist wrote: “I will praise thee; for I am accident?
fearfully and wonderfully made…” (Psalms
139:14). There are, perhaps, 25,000 billion
billion (25 sextillion) stars in the one
One of my brothers is a physician. billion galaxies or Milky Ways of which
During earlier years in medical school he we have knowledge. Our own Milky Way
was assigned to study anatomy in has, perhaps, 100 billion stars. We
companionship with an agnostic. Their literally could not tally the stars of one
education eventually required that the galaxy within the span of a single life. In
two of them carefully examine and dissect section 88 of the Doctrine and Covenants
a cadaver. They studied the incredibly the Prophet Joseph was taught the perfect
complex, yet harmonious systems of the order of this vast universe. “And there are
body: the lymphatic, skeletal, circulatory, many kingdoms;...And unto every kingdom
waste elimination, reproductive, is given a law;…and any man who hath
neurological and immune systems. They seen any or the least of these hath seen God
noted the body’s power to correct its own moving in his majesty and power”
deficiencies, and to send healing (Doctrine and Covenants 88:37‐38, 47).
antibodies to the place of injury or
infection. They learned of over 150 Alma spoke to us, as well as to
trillion cells within the body. If set end‐to‐ Korihor, in testifying: “[Y]ea, and all
end, they would encircle the earth over things denote there is a God; yea, even the
200 times. Today they would learn of over earth, and all things that are upon the face
one billion miles of DNA in one human of it, yea, and its motion, yea, and also all
body. They learned of a brain bathed in the planets which move in their regular
fluid which continually receives signals form do witness that there is a Supreme
from 130 million light receptors in the Creator” (Alma 30:44).
eyes, 24,000 hearing receptors in the
ears, 10,000 taste buds, and hundreds of The doubter requires too much of
thousands of receptors in the skin, with us when he asks us to believe that the
specialized commission to recognize miracles of eyes and hands and DNA and
touch, vibration, cold, heat and pain. My order in the universe all happened by
brother and his friend became silent as chance. The passage of time, even long
they contemplated the miracle they were intervals of time, is not a “cause” and
examining. Sensing the moment was right, provides no answers without an
my brother challenged: “Coincidence is a intelligent designer.
marvelous thing, isn’t it?” The agnostic
responded, “You win.” President Ronald Reagan, speaking
in Moscow, Russia, during the Soviet
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period, extemporaneously added to his forehead (Whitaker
remarks, “Sometimes when I’m faced with Chambers, Witness, [1952]
an unbeliever, an atheist, I am tempted to 16).
invite him to the greatest gourmet dinner
one could ever serve and, when finished The evidence of God’s existence is
eating that magnificent dinner, to ask him everywhere: in every newborn babe, in
if he believes there’s a cook” (Paul Kengor, every system, part and parcel of the
God and Ronald Reagan [2004], 302). unending, and orderly universe, including
our own bodies. He is evidenced in every
You may be too young to sunset, work of art and passage of music,
remember the famous American trial of all of which He has provided to gladden
Alger Hiss, tried for treason against the the heart and bring beauty to our lives.
United States. The principal witness Richard Swinburne said, “God paints with
against him was Whitaker Chambers, a a big brush from a large paint box and he
longtime atheistic Communist, who finally has no need to be stingy with the paint he
could not escape the reality of God. He uses to paint a beautiful universe”
speaks of his conversion in these words: (Richard Swinburne, Is There A God?
[1996] 63).
My daughter was in her high
chair. I was watching her It is not possible to contemplate
eat. She was the most the immeasurable vacuum and
miraculous thing that had purposelessness that would exist in our
ever happened in my life. lives if God were “not there.” A cloud or
…my eye came to rest on the pallor of gloom would settle upon us of
delicate convolutions of her indescribable proportion. We would
ear – those intricate, perfect regret the passing of every day, and the
ears. The thought passed passing of every loved one, knowing that
through my mind: “No, those neither time nor relationships could be
ears were not created by any extended. We would approach the
chance coming together of autumn, and then the winter years of life
atoms in nature (the with crescendoing fear. Every day of our
communist view). They lives we should thank God that He “is
could have been created there” and that this life is not “all there
only by immense design.” is.” We call this the gift of immortality. In
The thought was the words of another, we are grateful that
involuntary and unwanted. I death is the “spreading of pinions to
crowded it out of my mind. soar,” not a “folding forever of wings”
But I never wholly forgot it (Ingersolls Lectures [1877] 356). Because
or the occasion. I had to God exists we rejoice in the unendingness
crowd it out of my mind. If I of time.
had completed it, I should
have had to say: Design Yet, some ask where God is
presupposes God. I did not because there is pain on this earth and
then know that, at that God does not hasten to intervene. This is
moment, the finger of God known as the philosophical problem of
was first laid upon my evil. One flippantly approached this issue
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by sophomorically suggesting that God physical – or emotional – or familial – or
ought to have made “good health catching financial woes. My friend could not turn
rather than disease” (The Works of Robert from his chosen course. He would have
G. Ingersoll, Vol. 1 [1900] 11). However, God intervene and eliminate every
such thinking misses the whole point of burden of man. He was uncomfortable in
our mortal existence, which is his answer but did not know where to
probationary rather than paradisiacal in draw the line once his imaginary god
nature. hastened to remove the very challenges
that are the purpose and necessity of our
During my years in law practice I probationary estate. I told him I did not
became acquainted with a fine Jewish like his god, even if only imaginary, for he
client. As a teenager he lived as a Hasidic kept me from passing the tests of faith for
Jew in German‐occupied France during which I was sent to this earth.
the Second World War. He was
apprehended by the Gestapo. Tattooed In his marvelous message entitled
numbers were placed on his arm labeling Tragedy or Destiny? President Spencer W.
him as undesirable and he was sent to a Kimball rhetorically inquires what
German concentration camp. He lived disservice we would offer to God’s plan, if
only because he was young and strong, we had uncontrolled power, yet limited
able to help with the required daily vision. He wrote:
chores. As a result of his suffering he said
in his heart “there is no god.” With such uncontrolled
power, I surely would have
One day I asked him, for felt to protect Christ from
conversation sake, to imagine there is a the agony in Gethsemane,
god. “Would you have had this god the insults, the thorny
intervene and prevent the death of six crown, the indignities in the
million Jews during the Second World court, the physical injuries. I
War?” I inquired. He answered, “Most would have administered to
certainly.” his wounds and healed them,
giving him cooling water
I then referred to others over the instead of vinegar. I might
centuries, not necessarily of Jewish have saved him from
ancestry, who had also lost their lives suffering and death, and lost
through barbarous acts. “Should God have to the world his atoning
intervened and stopped this?” “Yes,” he sacrifice (Spencer W.
affirmed. Kimball, Faith Precedes the
Miracle, [1972] 99).
I then spoke of yet others of ages
past and present who died through cruel If little babies could talk, and could
diseases, not the inhumanity of man. remember their pre‐earthly estate, their
“Should God have precluded this, also?” first utterances might express, “You came
His avowal was consistent. here to be tested. You agreed to that. The
tests will be hard, in part because they are
Then I spoke of yet others who, seldom the tests you anticipated. This is a
short of death, had suffered much from closed book test in that you will not
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remember your pre‐mortal estate. God blessing, and in one hour he
will not intervene and remove the tests was gone (Melvin R. Ballard,
until the close of the examination or Melvin J. Ballard, Crusader
probationary period.” That God does not of Righteousness [1966]
hasten to intervene does not mean He is 278).
not there or does not love us. He has
infinite respect for our agency and the Agency is not just the right to
purposes of earth life. select among good alternatives. When
God granted agency, He necessarily
Elder Melvin J. Ballard stirs us with contemplated the possibility of wrong
this example: choices. Because God knows best and
esteems so highly our precious agency, He
I remember a good sister out does not answer every prayer just as it is
in the Northwest whose uttered, nor does He always punish
husband was stricken with transgressors before there has been an
paralysis until he was opportunity or a space for repentance.
unable to move, and lay day The Divine hesitancy is to our advantage.
after day in the hospital. She
said, “He can’t die. He must The same God who brings such
not die or my faith will be order to the universe, and inspired the
broken.” God knows how prophets, designated the time, place and
much we can stand and He circumstances of your birth. He chose
recognizes this. I said to that your ancestors and your posterity. To the
woman, “God will not take Prophet Joseph the Lord said, “Thy days
your husband until you ask are known, and thy years shall not be
Him to: She said, “I will numbered less…” (Doctrine and Covenants
never ask Him.” 122:9). God’s love for you and awareness
of your circumstances is of equal
The man became so weak he measure. He foreordained you to perform
could only speak in the a mission. Nothing will bring you greater
slightest whisper. One day, sorrow than to have Father say when you
months having passed, the return home: “You didn’t complete your
woman came to the mission work. I had to give part of your mission to
office and said, “I never someone else.”
thought I would live to reach
the place I am today. You You satisfy only part of your
told me he would never be obligation to God by acknowledging the
taken until the Lord was order of His universe. You must do more
asked to take him. I come than confess His existence. Our
now seeking his death. relationship with God is not that of
Please come and ask the Creator and created‐thing. It is of
Lord to take him. I surrender personal Father and child.
him and give him up. I can’t
endure his suffering longer.” In March of 1997, I had the
We went to the hospital and privilege of being present when President
asked the Lord for that Hinckley was interviewed by the 17
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senior editors of the Los Angeles Times. principles of the gospel. President Joseph
An editor inquired as to the rapid growth F. Smith said:
of the Church. President Hinckley chose to
respond, instead, by emphasizing the Can we know anything here
miraculous transformation in life of each that we did not know before
individual who joins the Church. He spoke we came? [Christ] no doubt
of a girl in Australia who was employed possessed a foreknowledge
serving ice cream. She seemed inattentive of all the vicissitudes
to the message of the missionaries until through which he would
one of them said, “Do you know that you have to pass in the mortal
are a child of God?” She replied, “Nobody tabernacle…He is our
has ever said that to me before. I had no example. If Christ knew
idea that I might be a child of God.” beforehand, so did we. But in
Thereafter she went to her room, got coming here, we forgot all,
down on her knees, and inquired, “Are that our agency might be
you there? Am I your child? Please let me free indeed, to choose good
know.” Then she said, “There came into or evil (Joseph F. Smith,
me a surge of feeling that brought me the Gospel Doctrine [1970] 13).
conviction that was the case.” She joined
the Church. We may have prayed countless
times that when we found the truth on
Two weeks later she was asked to this earth – or it found us – we would not
give a talk in a Church meeting. Her first be casual in living our religion. We must
impulse was to run from it. Then she have urged that we would, in the fullest
thought, “If I am a child of God I can do measure, complete the mission to which
anything.” With this enlarged vision of we were foreordained, that our work
who she was she became a stalwart would not be given to others. Perhaps we
member of the Church. prayed a thousand times ten thousand
times that on this earth we would never
Our entire perspective of lose our faith or virtue, or our ability to
ourselves, our worth and what we can remain as living tools in the hands of the
make of our lives is altered for good when Lord in accomplishing His work. It would
we come to understand that we are God’s serve us well if our present prayers
children, and we can become like Him. included the same supplications. Every
Everything we know and understand morning and night we should plead with
about God and our relationship with Him the Lord on our knees that we never lose
is a result of the Prophet Joseph Smith our faith or virtue.
and the Restoration.
The Book of Daniel includes the
Someday, when memory is remarkable story of the three princes of
refreshed and all things are drawn “to Judah: Shadrach, Meshach and Abed‐nego.
[our] remembrance” (John 14:26) we will They were cast into the midst of a
recall what we did and knew in the burning, fiery furnace, heated seven times
glorious pre‐mortal estate. Undoubtedly more than it was wont to be heated,
we understood there the foundation because they would only worship the true
and living God.
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Nebuchadnezzar, the king, then Thereby all learned that our God is
said to his counselors: God.
Did not we cast three men, This is the true answer to the
bound into the midst of the query of the young lad in Moscow, who
fire? asked: “Where is God?”
[L]o, I see four men loose, Many of the promises of God
walking in the midst of the resting upon you are conditional. They
fire, and they have no hurt; are dependent upon individual covenant‐
and the form of the fourth is keeping and fulfillment of your appointed
like the Son of God. mission as a child of God in the exercise of
your agency.
The king’s counselors [then]
saw these men, …upon But the promises of God resting
whose bodies the fire had no upon this Church, and its appointed
power, nor was a hair of destiny are unconditional. When Peter
their head singed, neither and John stood before the Sanhedrin and
were their coats changed, boldly testified in the name of Christ,
nor the smell of fire had Gamaliel said to his fellow Sanhedrists in
passed on them. reference to the missions of Peter and
John: “Refrain from these men, and let
Then Nebuchadnezzar them alone: for if this counsel or this work
spake, and said, Blessed be be of men, it will come to naught: But if it
the God of Shadrach, be of God, ye cannot overthrow it; lest
Meshach and Abednego, haply ye be found even to fight against
who hath sent his angel, and God” (Acts 5:38‐39).
delivered his servants that
trusted in him, and have I have a testimony that this is true.
changed the king’s word, I know that our God is God, and that He
and yielded their bodies, lives. I know He is our personal Father
that they might not serve with an appointed mission for each of us
nor worship any god, except to perform. I pray that we will never lose
their own God. our faith, testimonies or virtue, that we
may be worthy to receive the blessings of
…there is no other God that immortality and eternal life, in the name
can deliver after this sort. of Jesus Christ, amen.
(Daniel 3:24‐25, 27‐29)
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