To the Nephites, the resurrected Lord declared:
And this is my doctrine, and it is the doctrine which the Father hath given unto me; and I bear record of the Father, and the Father beareth record of me, and the Holy Ghost beareth record of the Father and me; and I bear record that the Father commandeth all men, everywhere, to repent and believe in me. (3 Nephi 11:32)
According to Richard Hopkins, in his First Apology, written in 150 A.D., Justin is emphatic in defending the total separateness of the Father and the Son, and the role of the pre-mortal Christ as the God of the Old Testament. He wrote:
The Jews, always thinking that the Father of all things spoke to Moses, he who spoke to him being the Son of God, who is called both Angel and Apostle, are rightly upbraided both by the Spirit of prophecy and by Christ himself, as knowing neither the Father nor the Son. For they who say that the Son is the Father are proved neither to know the Father, nor that the Father of all things has a Son, who, being moreover the first-born Word of God, is also God.
Justin's doctrine of separation between the three members of the Godhead was such that he placed the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost in order of hierarchy as follows:
Our teacher of these things is Jesus Christ, who also was born for this purpose, and was crucified under Pontius Pilate, procurator of Judea, in the times of Tiberius Caesar; and that we reasonably worship Him, having learned that He is the Son of the true God Himself, and holding Him in the second place, and the prophetic Spirit in the third, we will prove.
[Richard R. Hopkins, How Greek Philosophy Corrupted the Christian Concept of God, p. 128] [See the commentary on Ether 12:41]