Joseph F. Smith 1838 - 1918
Original Transcript of Doctrine & Covenants Section 138
"Divine Communications" Concerning the Redemption of the Dead
Creation and Time
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"I Was in the Beginning with the Father, and am the Firstborn."
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Concerning the period of the Creation as recorded in the book of Genesis in the Old Testament of the bible, it reads, "Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made." Genesis 2:1-2
To elaborate on the 7 days of Creation, the apostle Peter in the New Testament taught "...be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day." 2 Peter 3:8 If 1 day with God is 1,000 earth-years and 1 year is 365 days then - 365 God days or 1 God year is 365,000 earth-years; 1,000 God years is 365,000,000 earth years; 7,000 God years is 2,555,000,000 earth years. Returning to Peter's teachings, "one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day." In the second part of Peters statement, the 7,000 God-years can then be considered 7 days. In addition to this the Times and Seasons teaches: "When the house of Israel begin to come into the glorious mysteries of the kingdom, and find that Jesus Christ, whose goings forth, as the prophets said, have been from of old, from eternity; and that eternity, agreeably to the records found in the catacombs of Egypt, has been going on in this system, (not this world) almost two thousand five hundred and fifty five millions of years; and to know at the same time, that deists, geologists and others are trying to prove that matter must have existed hundreds of thousands of years; -it almost tempts the flesh to fly to God, or muster faith like Enoch to be translated and see and know as we are seen and known!" (Times and Seasons vol. 5, pg 758) |
"I was in the beginning with the Father, and am the Firstborn." Is not that "Firstborn" incompatible with the idea of the eternity of the Christ-Intelligence? Who from the beginning was with God, and was God? Why "Firstborn"? It can be no other than this: That mighty, self-existent, Intelligence, which was the "Word," and was in the beginning with God, the Father, was begotten a spirit; and in the order of our earth, and the spirit intelligences connected and associated with it, was the "firstborn" of the spirits the "firstborn" of many brethren; (Romans 8:29) and the Christ illustrates what takes place with all intelligent entities of the divine human species. Intelligences are begotten spirits, and these spirits no doubt are more definite personalities, and of greater tangibility, and possessed of higher powers than many suppose them to be. It is written in Hebrews that God had revealed himself to men through the Son, "who was the bightness of his glory, and the express image of this person...by whom also he made the worlds" (Hebrews 1:2-3). This making of worlds, was previous to the earth life of the Christ, and hence was a work accomplished when he was a spirit personage, in which spirit life he was the "Firstborn." See Colossians 1:15; Hebrews 1:6; Romans 8:29; Acts 17:26-28
B. H. Roberts |