A Mother in Heaven?

In an answer given to a question about whether there is a Mother in Heaven, Joseph Fielding Smith, who later would become the tenth President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, said:

"The fact that there is no reference to a mother in heaven either in the Bible, Book of Mormon or Doctrine and Covenants, is not sufficient proof that no such thing as a mother did exist there. If we had a Father, which we did, for all of these records speak of him, then does not good common sense tell us that we must have had a mother there also?"

"If we are his offspring, then how did we become such, if we had no mother to give us spirit birth?"

"It is my turn to ask a question. How can we be the offspring of God, how can he be the Father of our spirits, unless we had a mother and were born?” (Answers to Gospel Questions vol.3 chapter 35 Titled: A Mother in Heaven)

In 1 Thessalonians 5:21 it states that we are to prove, or test, all things and to hold onto what is good. So let’s put Joseph F. Smith’s answer to the test.

First I would like to point out that Joseph Fielding Smith’s answers assume the truthfulness of what he is trying to prove but nonetheless let’s take a look at what President Smith is asserting.


Premise 1: Heavenly Father exists.
Premise 2: Humans pre-existed as spirit children.
Premise 3: Spirit children are spirit birthed.*
Premise 4: A Father and a Mother is required to procreate children, even spirit children, and only females are capable of giving birth.
Conclusion: Therefore there is a Mother in heaven.

*JFS affirms that we are spirit born to a heavenly mother in his answer.


I would like to take a look at the first premise. What does the term Heavenly Father mean? Does it mean that God is our father in the sense that he created us or procreated us? Isn’t it true that in most of the minds of the members of the LDS church that it means the latter, that he procreated us? In fact the very context of the answer given by Joseph F. Smith to the question affirms the LDS understanding of what the meaning of the term Heavenly Father is, namely that Heavenly Father is our father in the sense that we were all spiritually procreated by him. Now this presents some real problems in the context of the teaching that Heavenly Father was once a mere mortal man like us who progressed through a process of obedience to eternal laws and ordinances and who eventually became God. The implication is that the Heavenly Father of this world would have at some point in his past have been a spirit child who was birthed by a heavenly mother who had procreated with a Heavenly Father, perhaps our Heavenly Grandfather, and that Heavenly Grandfather would have had a point in his past where he would have been a spirit child who was birthed by a Heavenly Mother who had procreated with a Heavenly Father and so on and so on and so on infinitely regressing without ever having a beginning. Is this even possible? How could this be possible? Let’s look at the question of whether an infinite, eternally regressing series of past events is even a possibility?

Premise 1: An actual infinite number of past events can’t exist.
Premise 2: An infinite regression of events without a beginning would require that an actual infinite number of past events have actually occurred.
Examples that would require an actual infinite number of past events would be:
a. Heavenly Father had a spirit father who had a spirit father and so on and so on.
b. There is no Father who did not become a Father.
c. There is no Father who was not also a son.
d. There is no God who did not become a God.
e. There is no Mother who did not become a Mother.
f. There is no Mother who was not also a daughter.
g. There is no Goddess who did not become a Goddess.

Joseph Smith Jr. taught this as well: "If Abraham reasoned thus—If Jesus Christ was the Son of God, and John discovered that God the Father of Jesus Christ had a Father, you may suppose that He had a Father also. Where was there ever a son without a father? And where was there ever a father without first being a son? Whenever did a tree or anything spring into existence without a progenitor?" (Joseph Smith, "Sermon in the Grove")

Therefore the conclusion follows that the LDS teaching that Heavenly Father has a father who had a father and so on and so on and so on or that Heavenly Mother has a mother who has a mother and so on and so on or any of the other examples that I gave must be false.

Now Joseph F. Smith also asked the question, “How can we be the offspring of God, how can he be the Father of our spirits, unless we had a mother and were born?"
The answer to his question is very simple. We aren’t spirit offspring of God in the sense that we are procreated by him but we are His offspring in the sense that we are created by him. He is the Father of our spirits because he created our spirits when He created us in the womb.
Now don’t lose all hope because according to the word of God we can become Sons and Daughters of God i.e. children of God through adoption.

John 1:12-13 “But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: Which were born, not of blood, or of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.”

Galatians 4:4-7 “But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.”

Ephesians 1:5 “Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,”

Is there a difference between a natural son and an adopted son? We come into the family of God by adoption not by a spirit conception and spirit birth.

Ironically a verse often cited as a proof text that we are born children of God,

Romans 8:16 “The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:”,

when understood in context actually refutes the claim that we are born literal spirit children of God and supports the claim that we can be adopted into the family of God as his children.

Romans 8:14-17 “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.”

Should we change the way that we think to conform to the truth or should we change the truth to conform to the way that we think?


Isaiah 40:8 “The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever.”

I welcome your comments and ideas.
Truth Matters Most,
Ken