The Lord expects us to believe and understand the true doctrine
of the Creation—the creation of this earth, of man, and of all forms of life.
Indeed, an understanding of the doctrine of creation is essential to salvation.
Unless and until we gain a true view of the creation of all things we cannot
hope to gain that fulness of eternal reward which otherwise would be ours.
1.
We DON'T know: 2.
We DO Know:
A. How
God Created the Earth A.
Why
B. How
Long It Took Him B.
Who
3. DESTINY OF THE EARTH- A. Moses 2; B. 2
Nephi 2:22; C. Genesis 7:19; D. D&C 88:18; E. Article of Faith #10; F.
D&C 88:26; G. D&C 29:22, 23.
4. The most important events that ever have
or will occur in all eternity are the Creation, the Fall, and the Atonement. No
one of them stands alone; each of them ties into the other two; and without a
knowledge of all of them, it is not possible to know the truth about any one of
them…. If there had been no Fall, there would be no Atonement with its
consequent immortality and eternal life.
Eve said: “Were it not for our transgression we never should have had
seed, and never should have known good and evil, and the joy of our redemption,
and the eternal life which God giveth unto all the obedient… Thus, existence
came from God; death came by Adam; and immortality and eternal life come
through Christ.
Our knowledge about the Creation is limited. We do not know the
how and why and when of all things. Our finite limitations are such that we
could not comprehend them if they were revealed to us in all their glory,
fulness, and perfection. What has been revealed is that portion of the Lord’s
eternal word which we must believe and understand if we are to envision the
truth about the Fall and the Atonement and thus become heirs of salvation. This
is all we are obligated to know in our day.
(D&C
101:32–33.)
5. Moses 2:1;
John 1:1-4, 14; Ephesians 3:9; Helaman 14:12; D&C 45:1.
Jesus Christ created the heaven and the earth under the Father’s direction.
Others were privileged to assist Him in the Creation, including Michael, or
Adam. “It is true that Adam helped to form this earth. He labored with our
Savior Jesus Christ. I have a strong view or conviction that there were others
also who assisted them. Perhaps Noah and Enoch; and why not Joseph Smith, and
those who were appointed to be rulers before the earth was formed?” (JFSmith,
Doctrines of Salvation, 1:74–75).
6. “The
account of the creation of the earth as given in Genesis, and the Book of
Moses, and as given in the temple, is the creation of the physical earth, and
of physical animals and plants… There is no account of the
Creation of man or other forms of life when they were created as spirits.” ” (JFSmith, Doctrines of
Salvation, 1:75).
7.The heavens and the earth were completed
in six creative stages or periods, called “days” Moses 2:1–31; Gen. 1:3–31; Abr. 4:1–31. The Lord has not revealed
how long each “day” was (D&C 101:32–34).
8.
God's time waver: Acts 3:8; John 2:1-10
9. God commanded all living things to
multiply, creating new creatures like themselves (Moses
2:11–12, 21, 25; Abraham 4:22).
10. The Earth
Was Not Created by Accident nor Chance- “The earth came into being by the will
and power of God. … Chance is ruled out. Latter-day Saints believe that the
earth and the heavens and the manifold operations within the universe are
products of intelligent action, of the mind of God” (John A. Widstoe, Evidences
and Reconciliations, arr. G. Homer Durham, [1960], 150).
11. “When a man works by faith he works by
mental exertion instead of physical force. It is by words, instead of exerting
his physical powers, with which every being works when he works by faith. God
said, ‘Let there be light: and there was light.’ … And the Saviour says: ‘If
you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, say to this mountain, “Remove,” and
it will remove; or say to that sycamore tree, “Be ye plucked up, and planted in
the midst of the sea,” and it shall obey you.’ Faith, then, works by words; and
with these its mightiest works have been, and will be,
performed. …“… The whole visible creation, as it now exists, is the
effect of faith. It was faith by which it was framed, and it is by the power of
faith that it continues in its organized form, and by which the planets move
round their orbits and sparkle forth their glory” (Lectures on Faith, 72–73;
Matthew 17:20; Jacob 4:6, 9).
12. Moses 2:3–4-compare
14-19- “There Was Light” - "God caused light to shine upon [the earth]
before the sun appeared in the firmament for God is light, and in him there is no
darkness. He is the light of the sun and the power thereof by which it was
made; he is also the light of the moon and the power by which it was made; he
is the light of the stars and the power by which they are made” (John Taylor, JD,18:327;
Revelation
21:23–25; D&C
88:7–13).
13. Moses 2:5.
How Long Was a Day of Creation? "Six days is a mere term, but it matters
not whether it took six days, six months, six years, or six thousand years. The
creation occupied certain periods of time. We are not authorized to say what
the duration of these days was, whether Moses penned these words as we have
them, or whether the translators of the Bible have given the words their
intended meaning. However, God created the world. God brought forth material
out of which he formed this little terra firma upon which we roam. How long had
this material been in existence? Forever and forever, in some shape, in some
condition” (Discourses of Brigham Young, sel. John A. Widtsoe
[1971], 100; Alma 40:8)
14. "A day, in the Creation accounts, is
a specified time period; it is an age, an eon, a division of eternity; it is
the time between two identifiable events. And each day, of whatever length, has
the duration needed for its purposes. …“There is no revealed recitation
specifying that each of the ‘six days’ involved in the Creation was of the same
duration” (BRMcConkie, “Christ and the Creation,” Ensign, June
1982).
15. Moses 2:6–8.: “The waters’ were ‘divided’ between the
surface of the earth and the atmospheric heavens that surround it. A
‘firmament’ or an ‘expanse’ called ‘Heaven’ was created to divide ‘the waters
which were under the expanse from the waters which were above the expanse.’
Thus, as the creative events unfold, provision seems to be made for clouds and
rain and storms to give life to that which will yet grow and dwell upon the
earth. (Moses 2:6–8; Abr. 4:6–8.)” (BRM, Ensign, June 1982, 11).
16. Moses
2:11–12, 21, 24–25. “ “No
lesson is more manifest in nature than that all living things do as the Lord
commanded in the Creation. They reproduce ‘after their own kind.’ They follow
the pattern of their parentage. … A bird will not become an animal nor a fish.
A mammal will not beget reptiles, nor ‘do men gather … figs of thistles’ (Matthew 7:16)” (BKPacker, CR, Oct. 1984, 83).
17. Moses 2:26–31-
Modern revelation declares that Heavenly Father “has a body of flesh and
bones as tangible as man’s” (D&C 130:22).
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints accepts Genesis 1:26 and Moses 2:26 literally.
As children of our Heavenly Father, our physical bodies and our spirit bodies
are in His image.
18. Moses 2:26–27-
“All human beings—male and female—are created in the image of God. Each is a
beloved spirit son or daughter of heavenly parents, and, as such, each has a
divine nature and destiny. Gender is an essential characteristic of individual
premortal, mortal, and eternal identity and purpose” (“The Family: A Proclamation to
the World,” Ensign, Nov. 1995, 102). God’s greatest creations are man and woman. They are the only ones
created in the image and likeness of Heavenly Father and His Only Begotten Son
(Psalm 8:4–6; Moses 6:9).
19. All of the posterity of Adam and Eve
are children of God, endowed with divine potential that they received from
their heavenly parents (Psalm 82:6; Acts 17:29; D&C 93:19–20). As Heavenly Father’s children, what is our
potential? (D&C 132:20; Moses 1:39).
20. Moses 2:28-Replenish?-
An analysis of the Hebrew text of Genesis 1:28 can
help us better understand God’s instructions to the man and woman when He said,
“Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth.” The word translated
“fruitful” in this verse is parah (paw-raw) in Hebrew and
means “to increase, bear, or bring fruit.” The word translated “multiply”
is rabah (raw-baw) and means “to become many.” The Hebrew
word male (maw-lay) is here translated “replenish” and means
“to fill, or be full.” The Lord is telling men and women to bring forth
children (multiply, be fruitful).
21. In 1942 the First Presidency taught:
“The Lord has told us that it is the duty of every husband and wife to obey the
command given to Adam to multiply and replenish the earth, so that the legions
of choice spirits waiting for their tabernacles of flesh may come here and move
forward under God’s great design to become perfect souls, for without these
fleshly tabernacles they cannot progress to their God-planned destiny. Thus,
every husband and wife should become a father and mother in Israel to children born
under the holy, eternal covenant” (CR, Oct. 1942, 12). (Psalm 127:3) Coach Jack
22. Moses 2:28
- (D&C
49:19–21; 59:17–20; 104:13–18;121:39–46).
“As the very climax of creation, God gave man dominion over everything upon the
earth, including himself. The dictionary says that ‘dominion’ means control or
the power to govern. The most important part of the dominion given to man was
self-dominion.” (SWSill, CR, Oct. 1963,
77–78).
23. First Presidency—Joseph F. Smith,
John R. Winder, and Anthon H. Lund: “It is held by some that Adam was
not the first man upon this earth, and that the original human being was a
development from lower orders of the animal creation. These, however, are the
theories of men. The word of the Lord declares that Adam was ‘the first man of
all men’ (Moses 1:34), and we are therefore
in duty bound to regard him as the primal parent of our race. It was shown to
the brother of Jared that all men were created in the beginning after
the image of God. … Man began life as a human being, in the likeness of our
heavenly Father” (“The Origin of Man,” Improvement Era,Nov. 1909,
80).
24. (Keith Meservy, Ensign, Jan. 1986)
Contributions of Genesis-
In comparing the four
accounts of the Creation, we need to remember that we learn not only by
differences, but also by similarities. All the accounts are basically similar
and emphasize the points made by Genesis:
1. God created all things. Nothing
came by chance, but rather by his will and pleasure, his planning and
knowledge, his power and love. The universe, in its infinite variety of life,
testifies of his infinite intelligence, power, and majesty. And we, who want to
know the meaning of it all, are reassured, not merely by the words, but by the
whisperings of the Spirit that divine intelligence ordered all of it: by the
power of his word, they were created.
2. Man—male and female—was made in the image of
God, with all the power of the great potential that this
statement evokes. Of “divine mintage,” man has a true perspective of who he
really is and this gives him power to overcome his various challenges.
3. We are commanded to multiply. Ultimately, the
power to procreate and perpetuate the divine image is a divine gift (D&C 131:1–4; D&C 132:19–20, 24), as is the love by which we nurture the offspring
thus produced. And for those made in the divine image, there is another divine
role—dominion over and responsibility for the use of the earth and its
creatures. (D&C 59:16–20.)
Contributions of the Book of Moses
Going from Genesis to the
book of Moses, we find explanations replacing enigmas. At the conclusion of
Genesis 1 and the beginning of Genesis 2, the record of the six creative
periods—including the creation of man in God’s image—seems to be complete. (See Gen. 2:1–2.) But then we discover that “there was not a man to
till the ground.” Consequently, the Lord “formed man of the dust of the ground,
and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living
soul.” (Gen. 2:5–9.) How could this be, when Genesis 1:26–27 has already
declared that “God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he
him?” [Gen. 1:26–27]
Many scholars assume that
two different writers were at work recording two different versions of Moses’
account of creation and that the second half of Genesis is the beginning of the
second version. They attribute the redundancy to a rather unskillful scriptural
editor.
Complicating the issue,
however, is the doctrine clarified in the Book of Moses that all forms of life
were created in heaven “spiritually before they were naturally upon the face of
the earth.” (See Moses 3:7–9.)
(This teaching that
spirits were created in heaven before they gained
bodies on earth should instruct Christians, who usually assume that the spirits
or souls of men are created at the time of birth.)
Complicating the issue
further for some Latter-day Saints is the idea that Genesis 1 may not be an
account of Creation by another author but may, in fact, be an account of
another creation, Genesis 1 being, in their minds, the account of the spiritual
creation and Genesis 2 of the physical creation. But a close reading of the
scriptures indicates otherwise. [Gen. 1;Gen. 2]
If Genesis 1 is an account
of the spiritual creation, then Genesis 1:26–27 would be the account of the
creation of the first man in the spirit—“the first-born of every creature,” the
premortal Jesus. [Gen. 1:26–27] (See Col. 1:15; D&C 93:21.) The Moses account, however, shows that this cannot
be so:
“And I, God, said unto mine Only Begotten, which was with me
from the beginning: Let us make man in our image. …“And I, God, created
man in mine own image, in
the image of mine Only Begotten created I
him.” (Moses 2:26–27.)
Since Jehovah was there
when the man referred to in Genesis 1:26–27 was formed, the spiritual creation
obviously had already occurred. [Gen. 1:26–27] The object of their creative intent could only have
been Adam, the first earthly man. Thus,
the creation being described in Genesis 1 is the physical and not the spiritual
creation.
The conclusion is that the
Bible offers no account of the sequential process by which all things were
spiritually created, although it does offer a reference to the spiritual
creation in Genesis 2:5. [Gen. 2:5]
Joseph Fielding Smith
said: “The account of the creation of the earth as given in Genesis, and
the Book of Moses, and as given in the temple, is the Creation of the physical
earth, and of physical animals and plants. … There is no account of the
Creation of man or other forms of life when they were created as spirits.” (Doctrines
of Salvation, 3 vols., comp. Bruce R. McConkie, Salt Lake City:
Bookcraft, 1954–56, 1:75.)
Contributions of Abraham
Many Christian writers have
defined the Creation as creation from nothing. But the book of Abraham clarifies
that God “organized” the worlds out of unorganized matter. To those who were
with him, God said, “We will go down, for there is space there, and we will
take of these materials, and we will make an earth whereon these may dwell.” (Abr. 3:24.) And since all life came from the earth’s elements,
all things came from existing material. This insight in no way diminishes the
significance of the Lord’s creation, but rather gives us a glimpse into the
nature of eternal law.
The book of Abraham also
contributes to our knowledge of the nature of our spiritual life. We learn that
in premortal life we existed as individuals (intelligences that were organized)
and that there was a gradation in intelligence and nobleness in that premortal
world.
This insight profoundly
affects how we think of ourselves, our children, and others around us as we
come to understand that earthly heredity and environment are not the only ways
to explain individual behavior. It helps to know that man, in becoming
something here, starts out in mortality with personality and certain
predispositions. This account of Creation makes it clear that man is not merely
a blank tablet provided by heredity upon which environment writes. Each of us
comes into the world as a unique spirit with a capacity for becoming what our
Creator is, in whose image we are formed.
We also learn from the
Abrahamic account that the intelligence and nobility we developed in the
premortal world were fundamental to the callings and assignments we were given
before we came into the mortal world: Jehovah was called to be God’s Only
Begotten in the Flesh, with everything that implied, and Abraham was among
those whom the Lord called to be his rulers. (See Abr. 3:23.) This explains the Lord’s comment to Jeremiah that
before he came “forth out of the womb” he was ordained a prophet. (Jer. 1:4–5.) Joseph Smith said that all who have
callings here in mortality received them in premortality. (See Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, sel. Joseph
Fielding Smith, Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1938, p. 365.)
Abraham provides perhaps
the singular scripture explaining God’s purpose for creating the earth. Said
the Creator: “We will make an earth whereon these may dwell;
“And we will prove them
herewith, to see if they will do all things whatsoever the Lord their God shall
command them.” (Abr. 3:24–25.)
There must be opposition
in order for this proving to take place. Life, typically, has its wildernesses,
where we walk by faith and not by sight. Yet where else can faith grow but in
wildernesses, where it is under trial and the future is uncertain, where
obedience to God is the issue and the means to survive. Passing such trials
successfully is the basis for future high status. Those who prove faithful
under trial and “keep” their second estate “shall have glory added upon their
heads for ever and ever.” (Abr. 3:26.)
Contributions of the Temple Account
It is in the temple
account of the Creation that we learn that Adam is Michael, who helped Jehovah
in the Creation. Elder Joseph Fielding Smith wrote: “Adam helped to form this
earth. He labored with our Savior Jesus Christ. I have a strong … conviction that there were others also who assisted
them. Perhaps Noah and Enoch; and why not Joseph Smith, and those who were
appointed to be rulers before the earth was formed?” (Doctrines
of Salvation, 1:75.)
In one sense, the harmony
of the four accounts of the Creation could be compared to the harmony of the
four gospels of the New Testament. They complement one another. Details from
one embellish those of the others, ultimately giving us a fuller picture, a
broader understanding, and a deeper appreciation.
Contemplating God’s
marvelous works moves us to awe at his knowledge and power, to joy for the gift
of life—for seed and soil, surf and sand, crag and tree, cloud and sun, bones
and brawn; for companionship and offspring, for beauty and order, for
sustenance and new beginnings, for creative opportunity and challenges, and for
the confidence experienced in being entrusted with dominion over this wondrous
world. All of this is enhanced for us as God recounts, at different times and
in different ways, his role in creating our world and placing us upon it.
These revealed verities about the creation of all things run
counter to many of the speculations and theoretical postulates of the world.
They are, however, what the inspired word sets forth, and we are duty bound to
accept them. We are frank to admit that our knowledge of the creation of the
universe, of this earth, of man, and of all living things is meager—perhaps
almost miniscule—as compared to what there is to learn. But the Lord has
revealed to us as much about the mystery of creation as is necessary for us in
our probationary estate.
It is only fair to say that a mere recitation of what took place
during the “six days” and of the Lord’s resting on the “seventh day” do not of
themselves set forth with clarity the purposes of the creation accounts. And so
the Lord, as recorded in chapter 3 of the Mosaic account, proceeds to explain
the purpose and nature of the Creation. He comments about the Creation. He
reveals some facts and principles without which we cannot envision what the
true doctrine of the Creation is. His statements are interpolative; they are
inserted in the historical account to give us its true depth and meaning and
import. They are not chronological recitations, but are commentary about what
he had already set forth in its sequential order.
The Mosaic and Abrahamic accounts place the creative events on
the same successive days. We shall follow these scriptural recitations in our
analysis. The temple account, for reasons that are apparent to those familiar
with its teachings, has a different division of events. It seems clear that the
“six days” are one continuing period and that there is no one place where the
dividing lines between the successive events must of necessity be placed. (BRMcConkie, Ensign, June, 1982)
