Unchangeable God

[Silver Pie]

I submit that we prate about an elephant that not one of us has seen. (Or, at the very least, that incredibly few of us have seen.)

[JLHPROF]

In the Lectures on Faith, JS taught about the character of God in the 3rd lecture.

Joseph Smith didn't write this. Sidney Rigdon did.
And even if Joseph signed off on the LoF theology by the Nauvoo period he had learned better.

But while a committee was working on the D&C, changing it, and making it more flowery than it had been as the Book of Commandments, Joseph was working on editing the Lectures on Faith, thus he can be said to be the one who was teaching.

I disagree that he "knew better". He saw God very early on. He knew what God was.

I didn't realize he walked out of the grove with a perfect understanding of the Godhead. He didn't show it in his teachings. Through his life they went from Trinitarian or maybe Universalist to Binitarian to Social Trinitarian/Tritheism to eventually polytheistic.
Hard to reconcile his progressive teachings with the idea he understood God early on.

[Thinker]

But while a committee was working on the D&C, changing it, and making it more flowery than it had been as the Book of Commandments, Joseph was working on editing the Lectures on Faith, thus he can be said to be the one who was teaching.

I disagree that he "knew better". He saw God very early on. He knew what God was.

I didn't realize he walked out of the grove with a perfect understanding of the Godhead. He didn't show it in his teachings. Through his life they went from Trinitarian or maybe Universalist to Binitarian to Social Trinitarian/Tritheism to eventually polytheistic.
Hard to reconcile his progressive teachings with the idea he understood God early on.

Both you 2 make good points:

SilverPie: Not all writings should be considered as presented & trusted in or worshipped without question.

JLHProf: We all learn line upon line - here a little, there a little.

[Atrasado]

A God who changes, learns and grows is not a God in my opinion.

I believe in a creative God who continues to have spirit children and create new things. He thinks of new things and meets new children with agency. Maybe that's how He continues to progress.