“He is the Same Yesterday, To-day, and Forever”

Joseph F. McConkie, Robert L. Millet

By means of the Book of Mormon and modern revelations, Latter-day Saints know “that there is a God in heaven, who is infinite and eternal, from everlasting to everlasting the same unchangeable God, the framer of heaven and earth, and all things which are in them” (D&C 20:17).

Joseph Smith taught the School of’ the Prophets in Kirtland that God “changes not, neither is there variableness with him; but that he is the same from everlasting to everlasting, being the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever; and that his course is one eternal round, without variation” (Lectures on Faith 3:15).

God’s plan for the creation and redemption of mankind is eternal; his work and glory-“to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man” (Moses 1:39)-is forever the same. As to the administration of the Lord’s church, the procedures are often temporary, while the principles are eternal.

As the Lord explained to the Prophet Joseph Smith: “God doth not walk in crooked paths, neither doth he turn to the right hand nor to the left, neither doth he vary from that which he hath said, therefore his paths are straight, and his course is one eternal round (D&C 3:2).”

Doctrinal Commentary on the Book of Mormon, Vol. 1

References