THE PRE-MORTAL SAVIOUR
Christ is the
Firstborn
The first Presidency of the Church has stated that “all men
and women are in the similitude of the universal Father and Mother, and are
literally the sons and daughters of Deity.”
And yet as noble as that heritage is, there was one who far transcended
all the rest, who through the eons and ages of a premortal existence stood
“like unto God” (Abraham 3:24). This was
the firstborn spirit child of all the Father’s creations—the birthright
son—whom we know as our Saviour.
“And now, verily I say unto you, I was in the beginning with
the Father, and am the Firstborn” D&C 93:21
“Among the spirit children of Elohim the first-born was and
is Jehovah to whom all others are juniors.”
(statement made by the First Presidency and Quorum of the
Twelve given in 1916)
President Joseph Fielding Smith stated
“Jesus possessed all the right, interests, and inheritance
of the Father. He was the Birthright
Son. He was in premortality the
inheritor and rightful heir of all the Father possessed. He was the Father’s agent and executor, the
“Word,” or “messenger of salvation”
Thus, Latterday Saints believe that the words of John’s introduction to
his Gospel should be taken literally, at face value:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God.
The same was in the beginning with God.
All things were made by him; and without him was not any
thing made that was made. (John 1:1-3)
Christ is our
Elder Brother
Jesus Christ was indeed the firstborn of heavenly parents
and is, as pertaining to our first estate, our Elder Brother.
There is no impropriety, therefore, in speaking of Jesus
Christ as the Elder Brother of the rest of humankind. That He is by spiritual birth Brother to the
rest of us .
Christ is God and
Father as well
How is he father and
God?
#1 CREATOR
First of all, the premortal Jesus was a powerful and
experienced creator during His premortal existence.
He is the Father as Creator, the Father of the heavens and
the earth.
#2 JEHOVAH
A second way Jesus’ godhood was demonstrated in premortal
life was through his position as the Great Jehovah, the God of ancient Israel,
the Divine Being graphically described in the pages of the Old Testament who
gave laws to His covenant people and sustained them in the promised land.
All revelation since the fall has come through Jesus Christ,
who is the Jehovah of the Old Testament.
In all of the scriptures, where God is mentioned and where he has
appeared, it was Jehovah who talked with Abraham, with Noah, Enoch, MOese and
all the prophets. He is the God of
Israel, the Holy One of Israel; the one who led that nation out of Egyptian
bondage, and who gave and fulfilled the Law of Moses. The father (Elohim) has never dealt with man
directly and personally since the fall, and he has never appeared except to
introduce and bear record of the Son.
#3 Acting on behalf of Elohim.
A third way in which Jesus’ premortal godhood was manifested
was in His role as spokesman for God the
Father or, more specifically, His right and commission to speak as
though He were Himself God the Father.
“I am in the Father, and the Father in me, and the Father
and I are one” (3 Nephi 11:27)
Elohim has placed his name upon the Son, has given him his
own power and authority, and has authorized him to speak in the first person as
though he were the original or primal Father.
Throughout section 29 of the Doctrine and Covenants, the
Saviour is speaking sometimes as Himself and sometimes as though He were the
Father. It is by the operation of this
principle that the premortal Jesus, acting as the Great Jehovah, spoke as
though He were God the Father, and in so doing manifested His own greatness,
glory, and godhood, as well as His oneness with Elohim.
#4 Father of the Righteous
A forth way is that He is the Father of those who abide in
his gospel, the Father of all those who
take upon themselves his name and are adopted into his family.
And the light which shineth, which giveth you light, is
through him who enlighteneth your eyes, which is the same light that quickeneth
your understandings.
As he stated to the Brother of Jared “Behold, I am he who
was prepared from the foundation of the world to redeem my people. Behold, I am Jesus Christ. I am the Father and the Son. In me shall all mankind have light, and
become my sons and my daughters.
As we more fully accept the gospel and move forward with
Christ as our focal point, we will become His sons and daughters and be adopted
into his fold.
Even these demons recognized Jesus as the Son of God. How would they recognize them? Because he existed in the Premortal life and
was all powerful. Otherwise I don’t
think they would’ve plead for him not to ‘torment’ them.
Jesus also acknowledges himself, his own relationship with
God and His power in the pre-mortal world.
If we look in John 17:5
This is the Saviour Himself praying to His Father on the eve of
Gethsemane, we read “And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self
with the glory which I had with thee before the world was”
Through this scripture we gain insight to the relationship,
glory and oneness the Saviour had with His Father.
As Lord and God the Saviour didn’t do it all, however.
There are two creative events that are his (Elohim) and his
alone. First, he is the Father of all
spirits, Christ’s included; none were fathered or created by anyone else. Second, he is the Creator of the physical
body of man. Though Jehovah and Michael
and many of the noble and great one played their assigned roles in the various
creative events, yet when it came time to place man on earth, the Lord God
himself performed the creative acts. In
Moses 2:27 we read “I, God, created man in mine own image, in the image of mine
Only Begotten created I him; make and female created I them.”
As I read previously, however, we know that everything else
was directed and lead by the Saviour.
War in Heaven
I believe the war in heaven wasn’t one of swords, axes, or
weapons but rather a war of testimony, faith and belief.
Let’s study together about the war in heaven and what took
place.
President John Taylor said:
“Lucifer came before us all with a plan of his own, saying,
‘Behold (here am) I; send me, I will be thy son, and I will redeem all mankind,
that one soul shall not be lost, and surely I will do it; wherefore, give me
thine honor.’
Why did Satan want the honour?
Why did he want to force redemption on all?
Pres. Taylor continues:
“But Jesus, on hearing this statement made by Lucifer, said,
‘Father, thy will be done, and the glory be thine forever.’
From these remarks made by the well beloved Son, we should
naturally infer that in the discussion of this subject the Father had made
known His will and developed His plan and design pertaining to these matters,
and all that His well beloved Son wanted to do was the carry out the will of
His Father, as it would appear had been before expressed. He also wished the glory to be given to His
Father, who, as God the Father, and the originator and designer of the plan,
had a right to all the honour and glory.
But Lucifer wanted to introduce a plan contrary to the will of his
Father , and then wanted His honour, and said: ‘I will save every soul
of man, wherefore give me thine honour’
He wanted to go contrary to the will of his Father, and presumptuously
sought to deprive man of his free agency, thus making him a serf or peasant,
and placing him in a position in which it was impossible for him to obtain that
exaltation which God designed should be man’s, through obedience to the law which
He had suggested; and again, Lucifer wanted the honour and power of his Father,
to enable him to carry out principles which were contrary to the Father’s
wish.”
Therefore it’s no wonder, knowing this information, that
Heavenly Father answered with the following:
Beloved and Chosen from the beginning, said unto me—Father,
thy will be done, and the glory be thine forever. Wherefore, because that Satan rebelled
against me, and sought to destroy the agency of man, which I, the Lord God, had
given him, and also, that I should give unto him mine own power; by the power
of mine Only Begotten, I caused that he should be cast down; and he became
Satan, yea, even the devil, the father of all lies, to deceive and to blind
men, and to lead them captive at his will, even as many as would not hearken
unto my voice.”
So I don’t think Satan took this answer too well and, as was
just stated, he rebelled and took a third part of the hosts of heaven with
him.
So sad. I can’t imagine the feelings and thoughts of
our Father as well as our Elder Brother Jesus Christ as these hosts left with
Lucifer and gave up their first estates.
But then ‘the humble offer of Jesus the first-born—to assume
mortality and live among men as their Exemplar and Teacher, observing the
sanctity of man’s agency but teaching men to use aright that divine
heritage—was accepted.’ And we rejoiced.
So let’s look into Jesus role in this a little more.
If we turn to Revelations chapter 5 it says “in the right
hand of him that sat on the throne (was) a book…..sealed with seven seals”
The book represents the revealed will of God (his plan of
salvation) for this earth, and the seals represent the seven thousand year of
the earth’s temporal exisitence (see D&C 77:6-7)
“John wept much because there was no one found worthy of
opening the book, or, in other words, no one capable of knowing the mind and
will of God in it’s fullness, no one powerful enough to execute God’s plan—no
one, that is, until John was shown the Saviour.
It seems that John is telling us, amoung other things, that
Jesus is the only one who emerges from the whole host of the Father’s children
who is able to know the aims and desires of the Father in their entirety, and
the only being worthy and powerful enough to put into effect the Father’s plan,
the only perfect being in premortality who voluntarily yielded His agency to
the Father and selflessly offered to be the Redeemer.”
Andrew C Skinner
Let’s continue to dig deeper into how awesome the Saviour is
“The premortal Saviour was the chief proponent of the
Father’s plan of salvation for His children.
A hallmark of the Saviour’s personality in premortality as well as
mortality was humility: He
humbly offered to be our Redeemer, to put into effect the Father’s plan, to
sacrifice His own comfort and lofty position to do His Father’s will and yet to
give the honour and glory to the Father.
However, in the subjugating His own will to the will of the Father, in
freely giving His agency over to the Father, the premortal Jesus acquired even
greater power.
This is a powerful lesson for all of the Father’s
children. Whenever we freely give back
to God the one and only thing that is really our own to give---our agency--- we
lose nothing but gain back even greater power than we had before. And the premortal Jesus is our exemplar” (see
Moses 1:1-4)
Andrew C Skinner
Are we willing to give up our own ‘lofty positions’ for our
Heavenly Father? Are we humbly
submitting to the Father’s will?
So what was our role is the War in Heaven?
We had the opportunity to choose.
In the book ‘Articles of Faith’ it says;
“Thus it is shown that prior to the placing of man upon the
earth, how long before we do not know, Christ and Satan, together with the
hosts of the spirit-children of God, existed as intelligent individuals,
possessing power and opportunity to choose the course they would pursue and the
leaders whom they would follow and obey.”
We were participants.
We took a stand.
We had faith that the Saviour would do as he promised and
save us all.
We had faith that he would not fail.
We laid it all on the line, chose, and went forward with
faith in our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
We trusted.
We believed.
Then the Saviour showed faith in us. He had faith that we would do what we were
asked to do.
President Lorenzo Snow said;
“Jesus was a god before he came into this world and yet his
knowledge was taken from him. He did not
know his former greatness, neither do we know what greatness we
had attained to before we came here, but he had to pass through an ordeal, as we
have to, without knowing or realizing at the time the greatness and importance
of his mission and works.”
How great is our mission?
How great are our works?
We passed through the veil and have had to re-gain our testimony. Once we found our testimonies we had to LIVE
the gospel and witness with all of our HEART and SOULS that JESUS IS THE CHIRST
and that he was FORORDAINED, and that he did EVERYTHING HE SAID HE’D DO.
It is OUR job, brothers and sisters, to witness to other
that salvation today and do all we can to come CLOSER TO CHRIST.
The atonement is for ALL yet there’s an individual feeling
of ‘saving’ that Christ gives us if we allow Him to.
All of us together with this witness and healing power can
be great. We can be a great force for
Christ.
Will WE be that force?
‘The Atonement was and is truly eternal in it’s operation,
covering our premortal existence as well as our mortal sojourn, and affecting
God’s children forever.’
Skinner
‘What he did in scarcely more than three decades of mortal
life was not just chance. He was not an
ordinary man. He was the great Creator
housed in a tabernacle of clay. He was
the Eternal Jehovah ministering among men.
He was God’s Almighty Son doing the things his Father sent him to
do. He inherited from the Father of his
mortal body the powers and characteristics of his Perfect Parent. He was placed in a position to excel all men.
He was the Only Begotten of the Father, the only Son born
into mortality as the Offspring of an Immortal Being. He was both God and the Son of God. He was the Promised Messiah.”
Bruce R Mckonkie
I have a testimony of Jesus Christ and his foreordination to
this calling. Truly I am nothing without
him. He’s my Saviour and my
exemplar. He’s showed me the perfect
path to being his daughter and to returning to my Father above. I hope I can humbly remember His great
mission, His sacrifice for all and His willingness to GIVE ALL to His Father so
as to help each and every one of us to return home.
I hope I can testify boldly of this truth, for IT IS truth
brothers and sisters, I hope to bring people closer to Christ through
witnessing of his divinity and mission for all on earth. I hope I can gain power through submitting my
will to the Fathers and therefore be able to work harder for His people through
service and love.
I love him, I owe all to Him and I’m humbled by his
commitment to me and us despite my and your imperfectness.
King Benjamin and Abinadi were right when they said “God
Himself came down among us”
And he saved us all.
This is my humble witness in the name of Jesus Christ Amen.
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