IP - "The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise."(John 5:19)
Question - How did the son see what the father did before the son was here(Heaven).IE Remember when Mary and Joseph left Christ behind and when they came back they found him talking to others in the Temple?
If the son did that, does that mean that happened to the father too( when the father was a boy)if so, how did the son see or know about it?. When the son healed the sick by the laying of of hands, he must of seen the father do it. When was that?

JOEL - I don't thnk this scripture should be taken quite so literally. I think it is simply saying that Jesus could do whatever His Father could do and was becoming God the same way His Father became God. Jesus did know His Father and saw what He did and the kind of God and Father he was in heaven before He came to earth. He knew of His powers and was taught about godhood, the same as we were, even though we don't remember it just now.

"Then said Jesus unto them, When ye have lifted up the Son of man, then shall ye know that I am he, and that I do nothing of myself; but as my Father hath taught me, I speak these things" (John 8:28).

Like a prophet, He no doubt was able to see into His Father's past and learn just in general terms the kinds of things He did. I don't think we should pick out every specific thing Jesus did and conclude that His Father did it also. His Father was a resurrected glorified being and that is the same thing Jesus became after He lived and died on this earth.
Apostle James E. Talmage said:

"It is plain that Jesus Christ recognized the literal relationship of Sonship which He bore to the Father; and moreover, that He was pursuing a course leading to His own exaltation, a state then future, which course was essentially that which His Father had trodden aforetime. To the Father's supremacy He repeatedly testified, and expressly stated, "My Father is greater than I." (John 14:28.)" (Vitality of Mormonism, James E. Talmage, p. 271)

I think the scripture also means that Jesus came to do God's will; so whatever Jesus did it is as if the Father was doing it.
A few other related scriptures:

"I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me." (John 6:38.)
"I am not come of myself, but he that sent me is true, whom ye know not. But I know him." (John 7:28-29.)
"The Father that sent me beareth witness of me. . . . If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also." (John 8:18-19.)
"He gave me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak." (John 12:49.)

Return to top

Return to Questions

HOME