Conference Talks: “I Am a Son of God”: Moses’ Prophetic Call and Ascent into the Divine Council

Stephen Smoot

Stephen Smoot spoke at the 2021 Tracing Ancient Threads in the Book of Moses Conference on Saturday, April 24, 2021 on “‘I Am a Son of God’: Moses’ Prophetic Call and Ascent into the Divine Council.”

In a landmark 2007 article, the evangelical biblical scholar Michael S. Heiser, writing in a Latter-day Saint academic journal, emphasized that “the divine council is central to a correct understanding of biblical theology, though few have recognized that fact. . . . The interaction on Israel’s divine council needs to continue.” It is significant that a depiction of God’s divine council, or the council in heaven, appears in each book of scripture of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints: the Bible, the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants, and the Pearl of Great Price. Shortly before his death, the Prophet Joseph Smith touched on the subject of the divine council in his famous King Follett Discourse delivered on April 7, 1844. “The head God brought forth the Gods in the grand council,” the Prophet taught on that occasion. “The grand counsellors sat in yonder heavens, and contemplated the creation of the worlds that were created at that time.”

All of the conference presentations were filmed, and both video and audio recordings of each presentation are available. Videos, audio recordings and transcripts are available at https://interpreterfoundation.org/conferences/2021-book-of-moses-conference/videos/. The videos are also available on the Interpreter Foundation YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/c/theinterpreterfoundation. A YouTube playlist is available at https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLRMn4gyXMWLtulXZ-y4mAph138aNdAWlw.

Presented at:

2021 Tracing Ancient Threads in the Book of Moses Conference
Saturday April 24, 2021
https://interpreterfoundation.org/conferences/2021-book-of-moses-conference/

Conference Proceedings:

Tracing Ancient Threads in the Book of Moses: Inspired Origins, Temple Contexts, and Literary Qualities, Volumes I and II at https://interpreterfoundation.org/books/ancient-threads-in-the-book-of-moses/

Listen to an audio recording of this talk:

https://cdn.interpreterfoundation.org/ifaudio/2021-book-of-moses-conference-smoot.mp3

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