Week 02 is scheduled for study Jan. 3-9, 2022. Since we are looking at the creation of the world this week, let’s see what we can learn from the experience and the process.
Day 1
Even if you have read about the Creation before, there is always more to learn from the scriptures. Pray for guidance from the Holy Ghost to help you find new understanding.
Genesis 1:1-25; Moses 2:1-25; Abraham 4:1-25 – Under the direction of Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ created the earth.
The title of today’s lesson pretty much says it all. We have always been taught that Jesus Christ is the father of heaven and earth, the creator of all that has been created. So let’s consider some points about this process. What are a few of the ideas we can glean from each of our three accounts of the creation? Now I don’t pretend that my ideas or notions are the final word on the subject, but I think they are worth your consideration as you study these chapters. It is important that you are prepared to deal with the differences between the three accounts of the creation, for each one has a different spin on how it was done. As far as I am concerned, despite their differences, they all share the same process, but in different ways.
In Genesis the verses are written so as to talk about God being the creator, and God only. This is a purely Catholic view of the creation, because the Catholic church was the creator of the Bible as we have it. Here are a few verses to demonstrate the flavor of the narrative from Genesis. In Genesis 1:5-8 the Lord names day and night, creates the firmament, or heaven, and sets the standard for what a day is. Note that in all the versions, a day begins in the evening. For those of us who are not Jewish, that seems really backwards, but days were set up to begin at sundown by God, Himself.
Genesis
5 And God called the light , and the he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the .
6 ¶ And God said, Let there be a in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.
7 And God made the firmament, and divided the which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so.
8 And God called the firmament . And the evening and the morning were the second .
Next, we have Moses. In this revelation to Joseph Smith, the Lord speaks in the first person. He always takes credit for the creation by saying “I” did this or did that. This is the Savior speaking, as noted in verse one. But the Savior still makes it clear that it was God doing all these things, but by the Savior’s hand was it done.
Moses
1 And it came to pass that the Lord spake unto Moses, saying: Behold, I unto you concerning this , and this ; the words which I speak. I am the Beginning and the End, the ; by mine I these things; yea, in the beginning I the , and the earth upon which thou standest.
6 And again, I, God, said: Let there be a in the midst of the water, and it was so, even as I spake; and I said: Let it divide the waters from the waters; and it was done;
7 And I, God, made the firmament and divided the , yea, the great waters under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament, and it was so even as I spake.
8 And I, God, called the firmament ; and the evening and the morning were the second day.
In Abraham, the account is even more doctrinally radical from the Genesis account. This is my take on it, so take what I am about to say with a big grain of salt. All I ask is that you consider my comments to see if you think they might have any merit.
Abraham
16 And the Gods organized the two great lights, the light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night; with the lesser light they set the stars also;
17 And the Gods set them in the expanse of the heavens, to give light upon the earth, and to rule over the day and over the night, and to cause to divide the light from the .
18 And the Gods watched those things which they had until they obeyed.
23 And it came to pass that it was from evening until morning that they called night; and it came to pass that it was from morning until evening that they called day; and it was the fifth time.
24 And the Gods prepared the earth to bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle and creeping things, and beasts of the earth after their kind; and it was so, as they had said.
25 And the Gods organized the earth to bring forth the beasts after their kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after its kind; and the Gods saw they would obey.
26 And the Gods took among themselves and said: Let us go down and man in our , after our likeness; and we will give them dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
In Abraham the creation, at least the spiritual creation of the earth, was done by a council of Gods, not by just one or two. There are several aspects of this account that are interesting to note. Even when the earth was being created spiritually, there was a division of night and day made that would follow the earth into mortality. Elsewhere in the scriptures the Lord states that He always defines the laws by which His creations will exist before He creates them. This would be evidence that He actually does this, for nowhere else that I know of is there any mention that we had night and day in the spirit world, yet the pattern of night and day was implemented here for the earth before it was physically created.
In verse 24, and in other verses, it is said that “the Gods prepared” what they were setting about to accomplish. In the other accounts God simply created it, but here we see that creation is a process that takes work, for they needed to prepare it to do what they wanted it to do. Look back at verse 16 above and notice that once they created the two great lights and all the stars to give their light to the earth, they watched them until they saw that their instructions were obeyed. If we are tempted to think that creation is a quick thing, think again. For the light of the stars to reach the earth takes many billions of years. We may talk about creation in terms of days or periods of time, but either way, the periods of time or days were not quick or easy.
Finally, in Abraham we see that the Lord may have been using the principle of councils to teach His children how to be gods. In verse 26 we read, “and the Gods took counsel among themselves.” I don’t personally have a problem with the idea that the gods referred to here might have been some of the noble and great ones referred to by the Savior in Abraham 3. We already know that much of our progress towards godhood was accomplished in the spirit world before we ever came to mortality. In Abraham 3 the Lord told Abraham that those who kept their first estate, that is, those who passed their tests in the premortal world, were guaranteed glory in the eternities. It was only those who passed their second estate (mortality) who would be exalted. But all who make it to mortality will receive glory and a resurrected body in the hereafter. So who says that those who God considered His noble and great ones might not have been helping to organize and do the work of creating the earth and other things needed for the salvation of God’s family, under the direction of the Savior?
All three accounts are different, yet all three offer unique perspectives on the creation process. Some details differ, but that is okay. We don’t know the exact process nor order everything happened in. We will someday. Suffice it to say that all of these things happened, and if one item happened first or second is immaterial. The point is, it happened, and God did it deliberately through the efforts of our Savior. Our Father oversaw the entire work, and takes credit for all that He has set His hand to doing. He neither makes excuses, nor apologizes for the way He has done something nor why He did it.
Day 2
Even if you have read about the Creation before, there is always more to learn from the scriptures. Pray for guidance from the Holy Ghost to help you find new understanding.
Genesis 1:27-28; 2: 18-25; Moses 3:18, 21-25; Abraham 5:14-19 – Marriage between a man and a woman is ordained of God.
We all treat marriage as something as common as puberty, something that everyone has the privilege to experience. That’s not true, but that is how common marriage between a man and a women is in mortality. All of us grow up expecting to get married. That makes it a little difficult to grasp the concept that marriage is a really big deal in the eternities.
In the eternities, marriage is only something Gods in the celestial kingdom get to enjoy. All others are single and not allowed to marry. Marriage is how procreation happens, and is what gives God a continuation of seed and an ever increasing glory. It is through marriage that worlds are populated, and by which new gods are made. Marriage is the most elite status in all of eternity.
What a privilege it is then to be able to come to earth and experience for ourselves just a small taste of how difficult a thing it is to marry and have a family. Families are the most difficult, yet the most blessed state we can attain to. It is in the family that our greatest joys in the eternities can be realized. In mortality we only get a taste of how wonderful having offspring can be, and how devastating those offspring can be. This is our one and only chance to experience marriage before we enter the eternities. We saw our heavenly parents and their marriage. But experiencing it for ourselves was, for many of us, only going to be experienced in mortality. For only the worthy covenant makers and covenant keepers will be allowed to experience marriage in a celestial way.
This is why the pinnacle experience in the temple is the sealing of a couple together as husband and wife for eternity. All our covenants lead to the assurance of the continuation of the marriage in the eternities. Exaltation cannot be achieved by a single person. We must be married, for God is a plural word. A god is always a man and woman who are sealed together through priesthood power, for only Gods can have children, and that cannot be done alone.
Note: We don’t know all there is to know about being gods. There may be exceptions and classes of gods we haven’t been told about. All we need to know is that for each of us, the above description holds.
This privilege of eternal companionship is what we are pursuing when we do our family history work. We find our ancestors and take their information to the Temples and offer them the covenants needed to have them sealed back into the family of God, and offer them the chance to accept those covenants so they can be married for all eternity as well. There is nothing more grand, glorious, nor a greater privilege than this. This is what it means to be a Savior on Mount Zion. We assist our Savior in providing this vicarious work for our family members, to their and our everlasting joy.
Day 3
Even if you have read about the Creation before, there is always more to learn from the scriptures. Pray for guidance from the Holy Ghost to help you find new understanding.
Genesis 2:2-3; Moses 3:2-3; Abraham 5:2-3 – God blessed and sanctified the Sabbath day.
The privilege of the Sabbath is the perspective it gives us. It is difficult to remember God and Christ during the week. We have the world in our face all the time in an effort to distract us and lure us away from thinking about Christ or doing what God has commanded us to do. It is so, so easy, to be steered off course by the world’s allures. If you don’t believe that, try walking in a straight line while looking off to one side. Can’t be done. To walk a straight line one must look straight ahead. No distractions.
The Sabbath is our day, given to us by God, to focus on Him, and Him only. All that we do should be with Him in mind. How we serve, whom we serve, how we spend our day, all should be with God in mind. I asked my Stake President once when he ever rested. He not only worked his regular job, but he and his boys built apartments in the evenings and used the income from them to pay for their missions and to create investment income for the family. He told me that sometimes a change is as good as a vacation. That was something I had never considered before.
The Sabbath is our weekly opportunity for a change, a chance to do just what we think the Lord would want us to do if we had a whole day to devote to His service. This means we have the opportunity to attend church, spend time with our family and friends, spend time in the scriptures, listening to Conference talks, reading uplifting books, serving others, and so much more. The point to the Sabbath is that we have the chance once a week to expend our energies in gratitude to God for His many blessings through serving Him and contemplating His many blessings in our life. It is a day for pondering and prayer, for kindness and concern for others. It is a day to get outside of ourselves and immerse ourselves in the love of others. How we decide to do that is between us, the Holy Ghost, and God.
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Week 02
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