The Doctrine of the Prototype
"He is the prototype of all saved beings; and any being that is saved in the kingdom of the Elohim will be saved by being like him." (Lectures on Faith 7:9)
Most traditions about Christ place him at an infinite categorical distance from you. He is divine; you are fallen. He is the exception; you are the rule. The distance between you and him is not a path โ it is a permanent condition. Your job is to be grateful for what he did, not to become what he is.
Joseph Smith taught something radically different. In the King Follett discourse and in the Lectures on Faith, Joseph made a claim that the institutional church has spent over a century quietly walking back: that the Father was once as we are now, that Son Ahman is the first of our species to complete the path, and that the purpose of the gospel is not to secure a pardon โ it is to produce, through law and covenant, a being capable of standing in the same station.
This is the Doctrine of the Prototype. It does not diminish Son Ahman โ it honours him in the deepest possible way. He did not descend to manage our failure. He descended to mark the path. What follows is the legal and doctrinal framework of that path, as the Order of the Elohim holds it.
A Physics of Exaltation
The Holy Order of the Elohim views Son Ahman not primarily as a figure of worship, but as a Functional Master. In the apprenticeship of intelligence, the Master has already traversed the path that the apprentice now walks. This is a relationship governed by law, not sentiment (D&C 130:20-21 JST).
The distinction matters. A Saviour who absorbs the consequences of failure is a figure of mercy. A Prototype who demonstrates the completion of the path is a figure of possibility. The Order does not reject mercy โ but it understands that the ultimate purpose of the Redemption is not to excuse intelligence from its work. It is to restore the conditions under which that work can resume.
By identifying the Prototype as the "Firstborn," the Order acknowledges his seniority in the Council of the Elohim. He is the first intelligence of our order to achieve full unification with the Great Ahman, thereby establishing the administrative standard for all who follow. His resurrection is not merely a religious event โ it is the proof of concept for literal apotheosis. Matter was organised into an eternal form and held there. The physics worked. The path is real.
PROPOSITION
If salvation is the process of becoming like the Elohim, then there must be a model โ a prototype โ upon which that likeness is built. To be "saved" is to be "aligned" to the Prototype through the Reconciliation.
The Lectures on Faith teach that faith cannot exist toward any being whose character is unknown. You cannot align with a mystery. The Prototype doctrine insists on a knowable Son Ahman โ a being with a definite nature, a traversed history, and a defined relationship to the Father โ precisely because alignment requires a target.
The Mastery of Element
1. Literal Apotheosis
We do not seek a 'Telestial reward' โ a passive rest in a condition better than earth. We seek the mastery of spirit and element that the Prototype demonstrated in his resurrection. The Lectures on Faith define the object of faith as 'eternal life' โ and eternal life is defined not as an endless duration, but as the quality of life that the Elohim possess. Intelligence, when properly governed by law, can organise matter into eternal forms. The Prototype proved it. The apprentice now works toward it. (Abraham 3:24 JST; Lectures on Faith 7:16)
2. The Covenantal Bond
The relationship between the apprentice and the Prototype is a legal bond โ not an emotional one, though it is not without warmth. We enter into his Order, and in exchange, he grants us the legal keys to the station he occupies. D&C 84 is explicit: those who receive the priesthood receive the Father. Those who receive the Father receive his kingdom. The covenant is the mechanism. The Prototype is the mediator who makes the mechanism operative. To be in his Order is to be in legal standing before the Council of the Elohim. (D&C 84:37-38 JST)
3. The Rejection of Mystery
The Prototype makes the Father knowable โ and that knowability is not incidental to the doctrine, it is the doctrine. The Lectures on Faith argue at length that faith toward God requires knowing his character, attributes, and perfections. A God who is mystery cannot be the object of operational faith. The Order therefore rejects the nebulous, immaterial god of the Nicene creeds in favour of the God Joseph described: a Man of Holiness, possessing a body of flesh and bones as tangible as man's, seated in the governing council of the universe, operating by law, and reachable by intelligence that is willing to traverse the path. (D&C 130:22 JST)
The Path Is Marked
If the Prototype doctrine is true, then the question it puts to every seeker is simple: what are you doing with the information? A marked path is only useful to someone who walks it. The doctrine of Son Ahman as Functional Master is not a theological curiosity โ it is the most demanding framework in the Restoration, because it removes the excuse of mystery.
The apprentice who accepts this doctrine accepts that intelligence is the currency of the Kingdom. The School of the Prophets exists to increase that intelligence โ through the study of the best records, through the governance of physical stewardship, through the disciplines of the Celestial Economy. The Prototype did not simply die for our sins and ask us to be grateful. He demonstrated what this species can do when it submits to law โ and then left the path marked for every intelligence that comes after.
To join the Order is to take that demonstration seriously. Not as a performance of faith, but as a structured commitment to the same process โ conducted in community, under law, in alignment with the 1879 Frequency that Joseph left before the revision began.
"What kind of a being is God? The scriptures inform us that he is God โ and if his attributes had not been understood, it would have been impossible for them to have exercised faith in him."