A correct perception of the nature of God is essential to salvation from the beliefs of material sense and their baneful effects on mortals. Throughout the ages, mankind has endeavored to gain a true concept of the power that governs man and the universe; and Scriptural history furnishes convincing evidence that many have succeeded, in a measure at least, in emerging from the darkness of ignorance of God into the light of the eternal truth concerning Him. Material sense, so called, cannot cognize Spirit or spiritual ideas; it has a reversed perception, and consequently its concept of Deity is material. For this reason, mortals have in past ages worshiped all manner of natural objects as deities, and have fashioned idols, which they have worshiped as gods, or as symbols of gods.
In the time of the patriarch Abraham the worship of such idols was widespread, and there is an intimation in the book of Joshua that Abraham's own people were idolaters. Abraham, recognizing the falsity of this mode of worship, and in accord with the revealed will of God, left his birthplace in Ur of the Chaldees and removed with his household to the land of Canaan. The reason of this migration is given in Acts: "The God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham, when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Charran, and said unto him, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and come into the land which I shall shew thee." Obedient to this command, Abraham—then called Abram—settled in Canaan, and there received the promise that he should have that land for himself and his posterity, and that in him should "all families of the earth be blessed."
It is evident that Abraham enjoyed a spiritual illumination which was not shared by the other members of his father's household; that he eventually gained a right apprehension of God as the divine intelligence governing man and the universe; and that he had a supreme faith in divine power, and a moral purpose from which he never deviated. How did he get this light? Apparently, largely through spiritual intuition; for it does not appear that he had many advantages of early training and example.
