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Chapter four
THE CREATION
Alma 18:26 "And then Ammon said: Believest thou that there
is a Great Spirit?
27 And he said, Yea.
28 And Ammon said: This is God. And Ammon said unto him
again: Believest thou that this Great Spirit, who is God,
created all things which are in heaven and in the earth?
29 And he said: Yea, I believe that he created all things
which are in the earth; but I do not know the heavens.
30 And Ammon said unto him: The heavens is a place where God
dwells and all his holy
angels."
Joseph Smith explains the word created:"
Teachings, Page 181 "The word CREATED should be FORMED, or
ORGANIZED."
The explanation of the creation in Abraham 4: 1-27 uses the
term "ORGANIZE" instead of "create" WHICH IS
MORE ACCURATE.
Beginning with The Pearl of Great Price we find that "THE
IMAGE AND LIKENESS" OF THE FATHER AND SON WERE GIVEN IN THE
SPIRITUAL CREATION AS THIS ENDOWMENT WAS GIVEN
"BEFORE GOD HAD CAUSED IT TO RAIN UPON THE
EARTH" and had "FORMED MAN FROM THE
DUST OF THE GROUND." Perhaps the best way to understand the
spiritual creation is to compare it to the physical creation
so we will study first the spiritual creation.
1. The Spiritual
Creation
Moses 2:2-25 The creation of darkness, light; firmament
(heaven); earth, seas; grass, seed, fruit; lights in
firmament (sun, moon, stars); sea life, fowls, cattle,
creeping things, and beasts.
26 "And I. God. said unto mine Only
Begotten, which was with me from the beginning: LET US MAKE
MAN IN OUR IMAGE, AFTER OUR LIKENESS; and it was
so....
27 And I, God, created man in mine own
image, in the image of mine Only Begotten created I him:
male and female created I them.
....................
Ch. 3:5 And every plant of the field BEFORE IT
WAS IN THE EARTH, and every herb
of the fiel d BEFORE IT GREW. For I, the
Lord God, created all things, of which I have spoken,
spiritually, before they were naturally upon the face of the
earth. For I, the Lord God. had not caused it to rain upon
the face of the earth. AND I, THE LORD GOD! HAD CREATED ALL
THE CHILDREN OF MEN: AND NOT YET A MAN TO TILL THE GROUND;
FOR IN HEAVEN CREATED I THEM: AND THERE WAS NOT YET FLESH
UPON THE EARTH, neither in the water, ne ither in
the air;" (See also Abraham 4: 1-27; 5:4 & 5 and RB,
Gen. 1:2-29; 2:4-6).
In the foregoing Ch. 2, Verse 27 I have bolded the
following:
And I, God, created man in mine own image,
in the image of mine Only Begotten created I him: male and
female created I them.
The personality or attributes of male and female given in
the spiritual creation are the characteristics of the
Eternal Supreme Being. If he had only male attributes he
would be limited and, therefore, not infinite. (In some
publications He is referred to as the "Father-Mother God.")
According to the fol lowing scripture ALL spirits were given
both male and female attributes at this time
RB, St Matt. 19:4 "....Have ye not read, that he who made
man at the beginning MADE HIM male and
female."
Note also the foregoing bolded (Moses 3:5)
"And I. the Lord God, had created all
the children of men; and not yet a man to till the ground;
for in heaven created I them: and there was not yet
flesh upon the earth," which identifies the foregoing,
without question, as the SPIRITUAL
CREATION.
And this "image and likeness" of the Divine Godhead that was
given to the spirit is also, as Joseph Smith has informed
us, power, glory and perfection (JSBHW, Vol 11, L on F,
Section V, Page 53). Therefore, this endowment - "image and
likeness" - being a gift through the Father's love, is not
something that we earned, IT IS SOMETHING THAT WE ARE. It is
our REAL SELF - our SPIRITUAL SELF.
2. The Physical
Creation
Continuing with Moses 3:6 " I, the Lord God, spake and there
went up a mist from the
earth, and watered the whole face of the ground,
7 And I the Lord God. FORMED MAN FROM THE
DUST OF THE GROUND. and breathed into his nostrils the
breath of life: and man became a living soul. the
first flesh upon the earth. the first man also;
nevertheless, ALL THINGS WERE BEFORE CREATED; BUT
SPIRITUALLY WERE THEY CREATED and made according to my
word." (See also Abraham 5:6 & 7 and RB, Gen. 2:7-9)
IT MUST BE UNDERSTOOD FROM THE FOREGOING - WE ARE NOT THIS
BODY, ONLY THAT WE (SPIRITS) HAVE BEEN GIVEN A BODY.
According to the scripture, man, in the physical
creation is NOT created after a heavenly form but
the scripture only mentions the dust of the ground from
which the tabernacle is made which was fashioned after the
earthly form of the Son who took upon himself a tabernacle
IN THE LIKENESS OF MAN:
JSBHW, Vol. II, L on F, Section V, Para. 2, Page 53
"The Son .... a personage of tabernacle MADE. OR
FASHIONED LIKE UNTO MAN, OR BEING IN THE FORM AND LIKENESS
OF MAN OR RATHER. MAN WAS FORMED AFTER HIS
LIKENESS. AND IN HIS IMAGE;" (Ro. 8:3, Phil. 2:5-8)
And when a prophet in the Book of Mormon testified that
Christ was God and also the Father, the creator of all
things, and that he, Abinadi, was created in God's image,
God taking upon himself flesh and blood or the image of man
the people could not believe and put him to
death:
Mosiah 7:27 "And because he said unto them
that Christ was the God, the Father of all
things. and said that he should take upon
him the image of man! and it should be the image after which
man was created in the beginning; or in other words, he said
that man was created after the image of God, and that God
should come down among the children of men, and take upon
him flesh and blood. and go f orth upon the face of
the earth -
28 And now, because he said this, they did put him to
death;.... "
Also RB, Gen. 6:9 "And a genealogy was kept of the children
of God. And this was the book of the generations of Adam,
saying, In the day that God created man, (in the
likeness of God made he him,) in the image of his own body,
male and female created he them, and blessed them. and
CALLED THEIR NAME Adam, in the day when they were created!
and became living souls! in the land upon the
footstool of God."
Although ONE entity was given both male and female
characteristics in the beginning this would change:
RB, Gen. 2:23 "And I, the Lord God, said unto mine Only
Begotten, that it was not good that the man should be
alone;
24 Wherefore, I will make an help meet for him.
.............
28 And I, the Lord God, caused a deep sleep to fall upon
Adam, and he slept, and I took one of his ribs, and closed
up the flesh in the stead thereof; and the rib! which I. the
Lord God had taken from man. made I a woman, and brought her
unto the man.
29 And Adam said, This I know now is bone of my bones, and
flesh of my flesh. SHE SHALL BE CALLED
WOMAN! BECAUSE SHE WAS TAKEN OUT OF MAN.
30 Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother,
and shall cleave unto his wife; and they shall be one
flesh."
Note that in capital letters and bolded She
shall be called woman! because she was taken out of man.
Therefore, as the SYMBOLIC story goes, something was taken
out of man that became woman. And what is woman? The
feminine characteristics of the Divine (love, gentleness,
understanding, nurturing). And after the feminine
characteristics were taken, man was the male characteristics
of the Divine (power, strength, protective). Thus the man
became dominant in the male characteristics and the female
dominant in the feminine characteristics but neither, as
mortals, is dominant in the complete characteristics of the
Divine Being. Therefore, the two were one with God forming a
partnership or marriage and this marriage took place ON
THE EARTH (not in heaven) FOR THE PURPOSE OF
PROCREATION for they were commanded to multiply.
We now have the creation completed - heaven, earth and all
things that in them are, including two tabernacled eternal
spirits. Yet, the plan is not yet complete:
2 Ne. 2:15 "And to bring about his eternal purposes in the
end of man, after he had created our first parents, and the
beasts of the field and the fowls of the air, and in fine,
all things which are created' IT MUST NEEDS BE THAT THERE
WAS AN OPPOSITION; even the forbidden fruit in
opposition to the tree of life; the one being sweet and the
other bitter.
16 Wherefore, the Lord God gave unto man that he
should ~act for himself. Wherefore, MAN COULD NOT ACT FOR
HIMSELF SAVE IT SHOULD BE THAT HE WAS ENTICED
BY THE ONE OR THE OTHER. "
And for man to act for himself he had to be given the
ability to do so which required the institution of law - our
next chapter
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