John the Baptist - John 1:1-5

Interestingly enough, our first foray into the OT starts in the NT, in John 1:1-5. I know that I did this section in my NT study but I think for some reason, I missed that there was an extensive JST that clarifies a lot of John’s words here. 1:1 - One thing that is important to note, and honestly I don’t know how I’ve missed this before but apparently the first part of the gospel of John is taken from the writings of John the Baptist. There is a reference to D&C 93:6-18 where Jesus says “John saw and bore record of the fullness of my glory.” When I hear the name “John” in the context of scripture, I think of John the Beloved not John the Baptist, but if the IM says that it was John the Baptist, then I’m going to take that as truth because they’ve looked into it much more than I have. Going back to the very beginning with a clear mind, the first part is very reminiscent of the start of Genesis, as both start with “In the beginning…” while Genesis goes right into the creation, John starts at a different point, which was the purpose of the world and why it needed creation in the first place, and that’s the plan of salvation. John begins “In the beginning was the gospel preached through the Son.” This makes a lot more sense to me than “the word,” even though Jesus is mentioned as “the word” several times in the scriptures, according to the IM, and there is some profitability to that, but here it makes more sense to me. In the very beginning, before the creation, Jesus preached the gospel. Who did he preach the gospel to? Us, as spirits. I don’t know why I just always thought that as spirits we just knew the plan and everything, but I suppose that it’s like everything else, it has to be taught. John continues, “And the gospel was the word, and the word was with the Son, and the Son was with God, and the Son was of God.” The way that this is worded helps me see the common link between Heavenly Father and Jesus, they both had the gospel, they were both part of the plan the whole time, they both worked together to plan and accomplish it. 1:2-5 - John says that “the same was in the beginning with God.” I don’t know if it means “the same” as in “the Son” or “the gospel,” but either makes sense, “the Son was in the beginning with God,” or “the gospel was in the beginning with God.” The Son was the creator of all things, and “in him was the gospel, and the gospel was the life, and the life was the light of men.” This really puts the whole thing in perspective, Jesus created everything and he had in him “the gospel” which is a living glorious thing. But this gospel, the light of the life of men, when it came to the world “the world perceiveth it not.” It’s really kind of an interesting way to put the purpose of the entire journey into alignment with our purpose. We get so caught up in everyday life that sometimes it’s hard to see the big picture, that the whole purpose of the creation was for our mortal journey and spiritual growth. I know this isn’t very long, but I’m hoping to get into a good rhythm here shortly.