President Lorenzo Snow's Revelation on Man's Divinity

During a mission to England, President Lorenzo Snow received a specific revelation concerning the nature of God and man, which he later articulated as: "As man now is, God once was; as God now is, man may be."

Fuller account of this event (in the witness’s own words):

In the spring of 1840, Lorenzo Snow was in Nauvoo, Illinois, preparing to leave for a mission in England. He visited the home of his friend Henry G. Sherwood, and he asked Brother Sherwood to explain a passage of scripture. While attentively listening to his explanation, the Spirit of the Lord rested mightily upon me—the eyes of my understanding were opened, and I saw as clear as the sun at noonday, with wonder and astonishment, the pathway of God and man. I formed the following couplet which expresses the revelation, as it was shown me. As man now is, God once was: As God now is, man may be.

According to the analysis by Ronald V. Huggins, the scripture passage Lorenzo Snow and Henry G. Sherwood were discussing at the time of the revelation was the Parable of the Laborers in the Vineyard (Matthew 20:1–16). Snow later communicated this revelation and his couplet to Brigham Young while in England and officially shared it with Joseph Smith in January 1843.