t your hands into my
side, and also that ye may feel the prints of the nails in my hands and
in my feet, that ye may know that I am the God of Israel, and the God of
the whole earth, and have been slain for the sins of the world."[94]

It would appear unnecessary to cite at greater length in substantiating
our affirmation that Jesus Christ was God even before He assumed a body
of flesh. During that antemortal period there was essential difference
between the Father and the Son, in that the former had already passed
through the experiences of mortal life, including death and
resurrection, and was therefore a Being possessed of a perfect,
immortalized body of flesh and bones, while the Son was yet unembodied.
Through His death and subsequent resurrection Jesus the Christ is today
a Being like unto the Father in all essential characteristics.

A general consideration of scriptural evidence leads to the conclusion
that God the Eternal Father has manifested Himself to earthly prophets
or revelators on very few occasions, and then principally to attest the
divine authority of His Son, Jesus Christ. As before shown, the Son was
the active executive in the work of creation; throughout the creative
scenes the Father appears mostly in a directing or consulting capacity.
Unto Adam, Enoch, Noah, Abraham and Moses the Father revealed Himself,
attesting the Godship of the Christ, and the fact that the Son was the
chosen Savior of mankind.[95] On the occasion of the baptism of Jesus,
the Father's voice was heard, saying, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I
am well pleased";[96] and at the transfiguration a similar testimony was
given by the Father.[97] On an occasion yet later, while Jesus prayed in
anguish of soul, submitting Himself that the Father's purposes be
fulfilled and the Father's name glorified, "Then came there a voice from
heaven, saying, I have both glorified it, and will glorify it
again."[98] The resurrected and glorified Christ was announced by the
Father to the Nephites on the western hemisphere, in these words:
"Behold my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased, in whom I have
glorified my name: hear ye him."[99] From the time of the occurrence
last noted, the voice of the Father was not heard again among men, so
far as the scriptures aver, until the spring of 1820, when both the
Father and the Son ministered unto the prophet Joseph Smith, the Father
saying, "This is my beloved Son, hear him!"[100] These are the insta