The Creation

title: “The Plan of Salvation” featured_image: “/images/adam and eve.jpeg” date: 2024-10-9T10:58:08-04:00 tags: [‘The Plan of Salvation’, ‘Adam and Eve’, ‘Fruit of the tree of good and evil’, ‘Atonement of Jesus Christ’, ‘Creation’, ‘Fall’, ‘Atonement’, ‘Symbol’, ‘Temple’, ‘Covenant’]

Creation

Bruce R. McConkie said, “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”

The creation is the 1st step in the 3 pillars of eternity, creation, fall, atonement. It is the first step in the Plan of Salvation. The Father organized the earth and all the living things therein through the son. This means Heavenly Father gave the plans and directions to Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ implemented them to create the earth, the plants, animals, and all other living things on the earth using already existing matter. This means Jesus Christ did not create any matter out of nothing. The creation took 6 days and on the 7th day, Jesus Christ rested.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, basing its belief on divine revelation, ancient and modern, proclaims man to be the direct and lineal offspring of Deity. God Himself is an exalted man, perfected, enthroned, and supreme. By His almighty power He organized the earth, and all that it contains, from spirit and element, which exist co-eternally with Himself. He formed every plant that grows, and every animal that breathes, each after its own kind, spiritually and temporally—‘that which is spiritual being in the likeness of that which is temporal, and that which is temporal in the likeness of that which is spiritual.’ He made the tadpole and the ape, the lion and the elephant but He did not make them in His own image, nor endow them with Godlike reason and intelligence. Nevertheless, the whole animal creation will be perfected and perpetuated in the Hereafter, each class in its ‘distinct order or sphere,’ and will enjoy ‘eternal felicity.’ That fact has been made plain in this dispensation

Premortal Existence

Before we came to earth we all lived as souls with Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ called premortal existence. There was a council where the Gods set forth a plan for all of God’s children. Before anything was physically created, Heavenly Father laid out the entire plan before all his children.

Day 1

God formed the earth and the waters and made day and night.

Genesis 1

4 And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.

Day 2

God formed the firmament which is basically the atmosphere.

Genesis 1

6 ¶ And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.

Day 3

God seperated the land from the seas and oceans.

Genesis 1

9 ¶ And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so.

God also added grass, herbs, and fruit trees to the earth.

Genesis 1

11 And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind

Day 4

God also set the sun and the moon in place. The sun to make the earth bright in the day, the moon to make the earth bright in the night.

Genesis 1

16 And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also.

So in the fourth day, God separated the day from the night on the earth.

Day 5

Genesis 1

21 And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good.

On day 5, God created whales and birds. God also allowed them to multiply and reproduce.

Day 6

Genesis 1

24 ¶ And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so.

God created all the living creatures upon the earth, cattle, bugs, insects, and beasts so cows, oxen, buffalo.

Genesis 1

26 ¶ And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness

God also created man on this day after the likeness of God. So many has a body similar to God’s.

Genesis 2

1 Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.

God finished the created on the 6th day.

Day 7

On this day God rested.

Genesis 2

3 And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.

The Fall

Adam and Eve were the first humans to ever live on earth. They were placed in the garden of Eden. There were 2 trees in the garden of Eden, the tree of life and the tree of good and evil.

Adam and Eve

Adam and Eve were the first humans to ever live on the earth. God formed their bodies out of dust and placed them on the earth.

Garden of Eden

After Adam and Eve were expelled from the Garden of Eden, they were cast down to earth and fell and found themselves naked. So then the sewed fig leaves together and covered themselves.

Genesis 2

7 And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.

Genesis 2

7 And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

Genesis 3

21 Unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins, and clothed them.

The Tree of Knowledge

There were 2 significant trees in the Garden of Eden. 1 was the tree of good and evil, the other was the tree of life. Adam and Eve were commanded not to partake of the fruit of the tree of good and evil.

Moses 3

16 And I, the Lord God, commanded the man, saying: Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat, 17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it, nevertheless, thou mayest choose for thyself, for it is given unto thee; but, remember that I forbid it, for in the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

Moses tells us that Adam and Eve were commanded not to partake of the tree of good and evil. If they do, they will “surely die”. This teaches us they were commanded not to partake of the tree of good and evil, but they can partake of every other tree in the Garden of Eden.

Doctrine and Covenants 29

40 Wherefore, it came to pass that the devil tempted Adam, and he partook of the forbidden fruit and transgressed the commandment, wherein he became subject to the will of the devil, because he yielded unto temptation. 41 Wherefore, I, the Lord God, caused that he should be cast out from the Garden of Eden, from my presence, because of his transgression, wherein he became spiritually dead, which is the first death, even that same death which is the last death, which is spiritual, which shall be pronounced upon the wicked when I shall say: Depart, ye cursed.

We learn from the Doctrine and Covenants that the devil tempted Adam and Eve to break the commandment and partake of the fruit of the tree of good and evil. This caused them spiritual death and led to the fall where they were sent to earth.

We also read in Moses 5

10 And in that day Adam blessed God and was filled, and began to prophesy concerning all the families of the earth, saying: Blessed be the name of God, for because of my transgression my eyes are opened, and in this life I shall have joy, and again in the flesh I shall see God. Adam recognized certain blessings that could not have been realized without partaking of the fruit of the tree of good and evil and falling.

Ether 3:2

for we know that thou art holy and dwellest in the heavens, and that we are unworthy before thee; because of the fall our natures have become evil continually;

The Brother of Jared tells us that because of the fall, we are unworthy before God. Our natures are naturally evil.

Father Lehi taught that if the Fall had not taken place, Adam and Eve ‘would have remained in a state of innocence, having no joy, for they knew no misery’ (2 Nephi 2:23). Without the experience of opposition in mortality, ‘all things must needs be a compound in one,’ in which there would be no happiness or misery.

It is clear that if Adam and Eve never decided to partake of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, the fall would never have happened and Adam and Eve would have remained in the Garden of Eden forever.

President Ezra Taft Benson said, “Just as a man does not desire food until he is hungry, so does he not desire the salvation of Christ until he knows why he needs Christ.”

So the Fall allowed humans to see their natural carnal state. It seperated us from the presence of God so we came to this world where we can sin, be tempted, see our naturally carnal natures, be deceived,

Atonement

Sufferings of Jesus Christ

Jesus Christ came to earth and suffered greatly for our sins. We read in Alma 7:11

11 And he shall go forth, suffering pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind; and this that the word might be fulfilled which saith he will take upon him the pains and the sicknesses of his people.

Alma teaches us a little bit about what Jesus Christ felt in the Garden of Gethsemane.