Post by Aaron –
What do you say when someone says, “Tell me concerning the creation of man, and I will believe what you teach me?” And, what if that someone is the very king of the Lamanite nation? A king with the power and history of granting or destroying life at a single command.
You start at the beginning, or at least at the beginning as far as revelation and the teachings of the prophets have revealed. You tell the sacred story that speaks of the divine power and purpose behind the creation of all things.
This is what I said.
Oh, Great King, to understand the eternal nature of our existence, you must know there is a purpose, an objective; we do not live by accident or chance, there is a reason you are here on Earth. Before the Earth was formed, you lived in what is known as a premortal existence. In this realm, all of us, every human soul existed as spirit children of God, the Great Spirit as He is known among the Lamanites. He is the Father of our spirits. We all lived with Him and we learned from Him. We were one large family, not Nephites or Lamanites or any type of ‘ites,’ and we were taught that God, our Father had a plan for us to become like Him—with bodies, perfect and eternal. It was a plan of progression and happiness.
There was a grand council where we learned this plan, which included our gaining physical bodies and experiencing mortal life. This plan gave us the opportunity to become like Him. Central to this plan was the concept of agency, or the freedom to make choices. We could not become like Him without freely choosing to become like Him. These choices shape what we learn and mold our character and nature. We therefore become more like this Father who lives in heaven or less like Him, depending on how we choose to live. Remember O Great King, the object is to become like our God so we may dwell with Him in eternal happiness.
We are given this mortal life to make right or wrong choices. Once we die, we are judged on how we lived our mortal life and whether we are like Him or not. We also learned that wrong choices disqualify us from returning to God’s presence, for no unclean or imperfect being can dwell with God. We realized we would make poor choices. God knew we would make poor choices. Those poor choices we call sin and sin will limit the fullness of happiness God wants for us.
O Great King, even among your own Lamanite people, you see how some of your people obey your commands and others do not. Some of them want to do as you say but because of weakness or other problems, they fail. You know that some of your people rebel against your wishes. I am sorry to say, but you may see that some of your people obey for fear of your punishment if they don’t. Some disobey because they don’t know or understand what you have commanded.
How can you, O King, judge these your own subjects? Do you know their hearts? Can you know if their obedience or disobedience is their own free choice? Are your people truly free to choose? Do they have enough knowledge and understanding to be held responsible for their choices? Do they choose to follow you because they love you? Or fear you? Do they rebel because they hate you, or because they are ignorant of the blessings available from obedience?
Now, consider the great power and wisdom of the Great Spirit, our Father in Heaven, who does know our hearts, who does love us, who has one purpose for creating this Earth. He wants you and me to choose Him because we love Him, and thus we will make choices that help us, and as importantly help others become more like Him.
As you ponder this, permit me to continue telling you about this great plan. As you will see, in His great love and mercy, He has provided a perfect plan.
God promised to give us directions or commandments on how to live so that we might avoid sin. We are taught that there must be opposition in all things, a clear opportunity to choose between two choices. One, as the prophets say is called evil which leads to chains of bondage, and the other, we call good which leads to life eternal. We often call these two right and wrong.
When we choose wrong, even mistakenly, we become unclean. Because, as I said no unclean thing can dwell with God, you see that unless we choose perfectly, we are unclean. We are also taught that all mankind are fallen, and our nature is base and unclean, therefore even before making choices, we are disqualified to return to God’s presence. If this was all, there would be no hope.
Yet as I said, in God’s great mercy, He prepared a way. Jesus Christ, who sometimes we refer to as the Great Spirit and sometimes we say is the Spirit of God, is in truth a son of God, just as you and I are sons of God. Jesus Christ however is the Firstborn and He volunteered to be a Savior for us.
This may be foreign to you O King, but I will share with you a truth important to know. There is an eternal law, a law that even God our Father in Heaven does not violate. It is the law of justice. It is an unchanging law that brings consequences for actions. Because of this law of justice, we receive blessings when we obey God’s commandments. The law of justice also demands that a penalty be paid for every sin we commit.
Consider your own laws. What must you do when your people disobey? What do you do when they do as you command? And forgive me again, but do you ever show mercy? What if someone injures the flocks of their neighbor? Who do you punish? What if you don’t punish? Do you punish the wrong people, or punish too harshly or too mercifully? Do you see how difficult it might be to be a perfect judge and obey a law of justice that demands perfect judgment and if you fail, you cease to be king?
When Jesus Christ, our older brother volunteered to be a Savior, He volunteered to receive the punishments no matter how great or small, so that the law of justice would always be satisfied. As long as a price is paid to satisfy justice to answer the ends of the law, there is hope for us as imperfect and sometimes rebellious children of God.
He, however, took upon Himself two responsibilities. The first is to live a perfect life. The demands of justice will not be satisfied through the life of a fallen man. The second, the demands of justice must be paid by an infinite payment of the penalty affixed to every law broken.
When Jesus Christ comes to Earth, He will carry out an act of great love which we call His Atonement. He will take our sins upon Himself and will answer the ends of the law. He will satisfy the demands of justice. He then will own our sins. He will have subjected Himself to the penalty that the law required for our sins. He then will become our advocate to the Law and to His Father our perfect God. It will be through Him only that we may return to the presence of our Father, the Great Spirit. Jesus Christ, just like us, will have the agency to choose right or wrong. All of mankind and our eternal lives, depend on his perfect life.
Many prophets have seen in vision that Jesus Christ will be born of a virgin and will be the very first begotten mortal son of our Father in Heaven. He will be sired by God and born of a mortal woman. Thus, Jesus Christ will have God’s power to endure the pains and sufferings required by justice. His sacrifice will be an everlasting infinite sacrifice satisfying the demands of justice. He then and only He will then have the power to extend mercy, perfect mercy.
Through revelation, He makes it perfectly clear what is required of us, imperfect, fallen man to be redeemed and to partake of His mercy. All He requires of us is to follow Him, and obey His commandments, when we sin, we repent, we change and we strive to become better stewards of our sacred ability to choose and change. When we do, He promises to forgive us.
We understood this great plan of happiness, this plan of redemption and we shouted for joy.
Under the direction of God the Father, Jesus Christ organized existing matter and brought order to chaos. He formed the Earth, according to the holy scriptures there were six creative periods where He created night and day, divided the waters, created the sky, gathered the land and divided it from the waters. He brought forth vegetation, trees, and plants each bearing seeds to propagate after their kind. He placed the sun and the moon to give us light and mark the seasons, days, and years. He filled the waters with living creatures and the skies with birds. He then created the animals to roam the land and finally, He created bodies for His first two children to inhabit the Earth. They were given dominion over all other forms of life.
This Earth was created for us. This is where we make choices and we become more or less like God, our Eternal Father. Upon this beautiful land, our first parents Adam and Eve were given the choice – that very first choice to choose to remain in a state of innocence, not knowing good or evil, not knowing right or wrong, and thus not progressing toward becoming like God. The choice to partake of a forbidden fruit that would cause them to fall from the state of innocence and gain knowledge of good and evil was made knowingly. Because they chose, good and evil were introduced into the world and they were enabled to have children and usher us into this fallen world.
Because of the Fall, we experience physical and spiritual death. Physical death is the separation of the spirit from the body, and spiritual death is the separation from God due to sin. Jesus Christ’s Atonement provides the means to overcome both. Through His suffering, death, and resurrection, He made it possible for us to be resurrected and to repent, thus being reconciled with God.
This creation and our mortal journey are steps in an eternal plan. We are here to gain experience, to learn, and to grow. If we follow God’s commandments and accept Jesus Christ as our Savior, we can return to live with our Heavenly Father again.
Thus, great King, the creation of the world is a testament of God’s love for us. It is the beginning of our journey back to Him, a journey that spans eternity.
Book of Mormon — Alma 22
