“We often say, and you have heard the expression as it has already been referred to in this conference, that ‘as man now is, God once was, and as God now is, man may become.’ The only way man may become as God now is, is through fulfilling the laws of celestial marriage and the laws of the gospel, as I have just read to you the word of the Lord from the Doctrine and Covenants. Can we afford to overlook such opportunities for exaltation? Temple marriage is not just another form of church wedding; it is a divine covenant with the Lord that if we are faithful to the end, we may become as God now is.” ​

Eldred G. Smith – 2 October 1948, General Conference (Salt Lake City, UT: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, October 1948), 93.