In the Beginning
Latter-Day Saints do not believe in creatio ex nihilo, creation from nothing; rather we believe in things that are eternally existent. Matter unorganized as well as intelligence unorganized. In this is an understanding that good and evil are not created, they simply exist in opposition to each other as opposite potentials. In our theology opposition is an existent principle as well.
Genesis 1:
“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth…. And the earth was without form.”
God created — formed, organized — took what was not organized, unformed, and organized it, formed it, into creation. Something created, is something useful, given order and purpose.
In the beginning — we believe all things were created spiritually first, from unordered, unformed, intelligence. Afterward creation was made physical, from organized — formed — physical matter.
We believe in a co-eternal principle that intelligence exists, never created, that the essence of all organized spirit is intelligence. Therefore the essence of what we are, what God is, is eternal, no beginning, and this is what eternal God means.
When the scriptures use the word beginning — which they do — it refers to the organization of intelligence (or matter of other kinds) into spiritual being. We understand spirit as a more pure form of matter, but it is substance, it has form, spiritual form.
In Latter-Day Saint teaching, Jesus Christ as the first spirit child that God the father formed (organized) from this type of eternally existent intelligence and became what we refer to as the first born in the Spirit — Spirit child — in the beginning with God the Father.
God, our Father, began to create spirit children in a pre-mortal realm. His plan always being to bring these children into life, spiritually created first, then embodied in mortality, and enabled through the great plan of God to be resurrected; because of Christ who is the first fruits of the resurrection; given potential and opportunity to choose eternal life with God through faith in Christ.
In this teaching we are eternal, God is eternal, we are created (formed) by God as pre-mortal children. God’s plan is eternal, not reactionary, but purposeful, that purpose being the immortality and eternal life of his children. God’s plan is our Eternal Father and it is his plan for His children to inherit his Kingdom in its fullness if they will use their agency to abide with him. This choice, this agency, is made glorious and efficacious within the plan of God, only in and through Jesus Christ. Through the grace that flows out from the infinite atonement we are made able to lay hold of every good thing and be perfected in Christ.
In a nutshell shell:
From unorganized material — to organized spirit — to embodied spirit, a living soul (spirit + body = soul) — temporary separation of spirit and body (death) — Resurrection, the final state, immortality, eternal incorruptible bodies united eternally with our Spirits. — In the final state there are bodies Celestial, Terrestrial, and Telestial. Inhabited eternal glories with characteristics that differ in glory by the law that governs. — Outer darkness is total hell for those who set themselves in total rebellion against God.
Genesis 1:
“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth…. And the earth was without form.”
God created — formed, organized — took what was not organized, unformed, and organized it, formed it, into creation. Something created, is something useful, given order and purpose.
In the beginning — we believe all things were created spiritually first, from unordered, unformed, intelligence. Afterward creation was made physical, from organized — formed — physical matter.
We believe in a co-eternal principle that intelligence exists, never created, that the essence of all organized spirit is intelligence. Therefore the essence of what we are, what God is, is eternal, no beginning, and this is what eternal God means.
When the scriptures use the word beginning — which they do — it refers to the organization of intelligence (or matter of other kinds) into spiritual being. We understand spirit as a more pure form of matter, but it is substance, it has form, spiritual form.
In Latter-Day Saint teaching, Jesus Christ as the first spirit child that God the father formed (organized) from this type of eternally existent intelligence and became what we refer to as the first born in the Spirit — Spirit child — in the beginning with God the Father.
God, our Father, began to create spirit children in a pre-mortal realm. His plan always being to bring these children into life, spiritually created first, then embodied in mortality, and enabled through the great plan of God to be resurrected; because of Christ who is the first fruits of the resurrection; given potential and opportunity to choose eternal life with God through faith in Christ.
In this teaching we are eternal, God is eternal, we are created (formed) by God as pre-mortal children. God’s plan is eternal, not reactionary, but purposeful, that purpose being the immortality and eternal life of his children. God’s plan is our Eternal Father and it is his plan for His children to inherit his Kingdom in its fullness if they will use their agency to abide with him. This choice, this agency, is made glorious and efficacious within the plan of God, only in and through Jesus Christ. Through the grace that flows out from the infinite atonement we are made able to lay hold of every good thing and be perfected in Christ.
In a nutshell shell:
From unorganized material — to organized spirit — to embodied spirit, a living soul (spirit + body = soul) — temporary separation of spirit and body (death) — Resurrection, the final state, immortality, eternal incorruptible bodies united eternally with our Spirits. — In the final state there are bodies Celestial, Terrestrial, and Telestial. Inhabited eternal glories with characteristics that differ in glory by the law that governs. — Outer darkness is total hell for those who set themselves in total rebellion against God.
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