Does God Keep Learning? From “Progressing in Knowledge” to Knowing All Things
Does God continue learning truths He did not previously know, or has He always known all things? Apostle Wilford Woodruff taught the first proposition in 1857. Brigham Young later opposed a limit on divine progression “in knowledge and power.” Later apostles and current materials of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints teach the second proposition.
The short answer
Did senior leaders teach that God continues increasing in knowledge?
Yes. Apostle Wilford Woodruff said so in 1857, and Church president Brigham Young opposed a limit on progression in knowledge in 1867. Orson Pratt disagreed, so the earlier leadership was not unanimous.
The defining contrast
Increasing in knowledge. Knowing all things.
The question is narrower than whether God’s creations, glory, dominion, or family continue increasing. It is whether God presently acquires truths He did not know before.
“God himself is increasing and progressing in knowledge, power, and dominion, and will do so, worlds without end.”
“He is perfect, has all power, and knows all things.”
In 1954 Joseph Fielding Smith called the doctrine “very dangerous.” In 1980 Bruce R. McConkie said an ever-learning God “borders on blasphemy.”Doctrines of Salvation 1:8 · General conference, October 1980
The nineteenth-century disagreement
Senior leaders taught opposing answers
The surviving record does not support a uniform nineteenth-century position. Orson Pratt denied continuing divine learning. Woodruff and Brigham Young said divine progression included knowledge.
- Orson Pratt · Apostle
The Father and Son already know all things
“The Father and the Son do not progress in knowledge and wisdom, because they already know all things past, present, and to come.”
View the periodical scan ↗In the August 1853 issue, on pages 117–118 of The Seer, Pratt argued that divine knowledge cannot increase because no truth remains for God to learn. This resembles the later institutional position.
- Wilford Woodruff · Apostle
Progression expressly included knowledge
“God himself is increasing and progressing in knowledge, power, and dominion.”
Journal of Discourses 6:120 · scanned page ↗Woodruff was not yet Church President. In the surrounding sermon he discussed revelation, prophets, progression, and the divinely appointed leadership of the Church. He then stated the proposition affirmatively rather than as a hypothetical he rejected.
- Brigham Young · Church President
Pratt’s limit was publicly opposed
“According to his theory, God can progress no further in knowledge and power; but the God that I serve is progressing eternally.”
Journal of Discourses 11:286 · scanned page ↗Young first compared people whose capacity for learning seemed bounded with the limit Pratt had placed on God. His wording identifies “knowledge and power” before asserting God’s eternal progression. It is therefore stronger than a general statement that God’s kingdom grows.
What the disagreement establishesPratt’s contrary teaching does not neutralize Woodruff’s or Young’s wording. It shows that senior leaders knew the precise question and publicly answered it differently. A sitting Church President opposed the position later adopted by official Church materials.
The later rejection
Progression was separated from learning
Later writers preserved a form of divine progression while excluding acquisition of knowledge from it. God may gain creations, kingdoms, glory, or dominion; He does not discover laws or truths previously unknown to Him.
“I think this kind of doctrine is very dangerous”
Doctrines of Salvation distinguished progression through increasing creations and kingdoms from progression by learning. Smith asked, “Where has the Lord ever revealed to us that he is lacking in knowledge?” and rejected the idea that God discovers unknown laws or truths.
“Not by seeking knowledge which he does not have,” Smith wrote. He said God’s understanding is perfect, not relative, and that God knows all things.
An ever-learning God borders on blasphemy
In general conference, McConkie described an “almost unbelievable theory” in which God learns new truths and gains knowledge He never had. He called the portrayal belittling and said it “borders on blasphemy.”
McConkie immediately taught that God is omnipotent and omniscient: “He has all power, knows all things.”
Ever-learning is inconsistent with scripture
An official Doctrine and Covenants student manual says some have taught that the Savior and Father are “ever learning,” then states: “This teaching is not consistent with the teaching of the scriptures that God knows all things.”
The Church’s 2023 “God the Father” guide describes the Father as perfect, possessing all power, and knowing all things. Its scripture guide defines omniscient as “having all knowledge.”
Present Church materials exclude learning new truth from God’s continuing progression.What changed
Three questions should not be collapsed into one
“Eternal progression” can refer to different claims. The sources become clearer when past development, expanding dominion, and present learning are kept separate.
Did God progress before His present status?
Joseph Smith taught in 1844: “God Himself was once as we are now, and is an exalted man.” The Church reprinted it in its 2007 manual. Its 2014 essay now says of Lorenzo Snow’s couplet, “As man now is, God once was,” that “little has been revealed” about it, “and consequently little is taught.” See Case 025.
Do God’s glory and dominion keep increasing?
Later leaders answered yes by pointing to expanding creations, kingdoms, children, and glory. That distinction explains a modern use of continuing divine progression.
Does God acquire previously unknown truths?
Woodruff included “knowledge.” Young opposed Pratt’s limit on progression “in knowledge and power.” Later leaders excluded knowledge and affirmed exhaustive divine knowledge.
If God continually acquires knowledge He did not possess, there were truths He did not know. If He has always known all things, He cannot acquire a previously unknown truth. Both claims cannot describe His knowledge in the same sense.
The institutional explanation
A general source warning, not a specific explanation
The Church’s current Journal of Discourses overview says the compilation is not an official Church publication, contains practical and sometimes speculative teaching, was sometimes transcribed inaccurately, and is not by itself authoritative for Church doctrine. It also says Brigham Young supported the publication plan and that the First Presidency encouraged its purchase.
The general source warning identifies no transcription error in either passage examined here. Woodruff’s sentence is present in the published record, and Young’s separate sermon addresses the same issue by name. Later leaders rejected the proposition itself rather than merely correcting punctuation or shorthand.
Biblical context
The Father is presented as knowing, not discovering
The Bible presents God as eternally God and already knowing all things. It does not describe a God who was once a man, or who continues learning.
1 John 3:19–20; Matthew 6:7–8
God knows the heart and the need
God “knows everything.”
John uses God’s comprehensive knowledge to reassure troubled consciences. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says the Father knows what His children need before they ask. Neither context portrays the Father as discovering the information.
Romans 11:33–36
No one serves as God’s counselor
“Oh, the depth … of the knowledge of God!”
Paul closes his argument about God’s purposes for Israel and the nations with praise of divine wisdom and knowledge. His questions place no creature above God as teacher, counselor, or creditor.
Hebrews 4:12–13; James 1:16–18
Nothing is hidden; God is not fickle
“No creature is hidden from his sight.”
Hebrews connects God’s searching word with judgment before the One to whom all must give account. James describes the Father as the constant giver of good gifts, with “no variation or shadow due to change.”
Psalm 90:2; Isaiah 43:10
God from everlasting, with none formed before Him
“From everlasting to everlasting you are God.”
The psalmist places God before the mountains and the world. Isaiah adds: “Before me no god was formed, nor shall there be any after me.” Joseph Smith’s “great secret” was that God “was once as we are now.”
Psalm 90:2; Isaiah 43:10, ESV ↗Hosea 11:9; Numbers 23:19
“I am God and not a man”
“For I am God and not a man, the Holy One in your midst.”
Hosea grounds God’s mercy in the difference between God and humanity, and Numbers 23:19 says “God is not man.” Historic Christian creeds confess a God who did not become divine; the Son took on human nature in the incarnation without God the Father ever having been a mortal man.
Hosea 11:9; Numbers 23:19, ESV ↗The New Testament presents the Father as already knowing what is hidden, what people need, and what lies in the human heart, and the Old Testament presents Him as God “from everlasting.” Neither depicts an exalted man or an eternal learner. Biblical quotations above are from the English Standard Version.
Finding
The record contains more than a difference in emphasis
Wilford Woodruff said God continues increasing in knowledge, and Brigham Young opposed the claim that God could progress no further in knowledge and power. Later Church leaders called the proposition dangerous and nearly blasphemous, and current Church materials teach that God knows all things.
The later distinction excludes the increase in knowledge that Woodruff expressly taught. No canonized revelation settled the question either way; senior leaders taught contradictory answers, and later leaders condemned the answer a Church president had defended.
Sources and limitations
Read the record
Earlier statements were checked against complete sermon transcripts and page images. Later claims were checked against the cited 1954 volume, an official general-conference transcript, and current Church teaching materials.
The Journal of Discourses is a historical sermon compilation, not canon or an audio record, and the Church warns that some transcriptions are inaccurate. No variant shorthand record tied to these two passages was established in this audit, so this case does not claim that possibility has been eliminated; it reports the wording in the published record and the supporting independent sermon. Doctrines of Salvation is a 1954 Bookcraft compilation of Joseph Fielding Smith’s sermons and writings edited by Bruce R. McConkie. The specific earlier item from which pages 7–10 were compiled was not identified here. “Current” means official pages checked August 29, 2026.