The Creation: Day 1 - Abraham 4:1-5; Genesis 1:1-5; Moses 2:1-5

One thing that I think is interesting is that whenever God is giving a major revelation to someone in scripture, it seems that it always beginning with the creation. Not that I don’t think that the creation is important, but the amount of time that I spend thinking about it is very small, but it seems that the creation is a major part of understanding the gospel and the plan of salvation. There are accounts of the creation in Genesis, then also accounts given to Moses and Abraham, and again in our own temple learning. If I remember correctly, the sealed portion of the plates of Mormon had the revelations given to the brother of Jared which includes an account of the creation. So I guess what I’m saying is that the creation is key when it comes to spiritual growth, but I don’t exactly know why. The article on this chapter from gospeldoctrine.com gives a long, but very interesting quote, saying, “The fourth and fifth chapters of the book of Abraham record a vision of the Creation that parallels the account given in Genesis yet differs from it in certain important ways. Here, too, the account of Abraham preserved in the Pearl of Great Price goes beyond the Bible but received support from sources that Joseph Smith could not possible have known. Again, for example, the Arab Muslim antiquarian al-Tabari preserves reports that Abraham was granted a vision of the Creation. And while it seems quite natural to us- thanks to the book of Abraham- to know of the council in heaven at which the creation of man was planned, that knowledge is not found in the Bible. It is found, though, in several ancient documents, all of which were first published in this century.” At the end of the IM for the Pearl of Great Price there is “A Harmony of the Creation Accounts” chart that I will be using for now. A note before we get started, the other day my brother was telling me something he learned about the six “days” that God used to create the world. Obviously it’s not actual 24 hour periods because that’s our reckoning of time, but he said that the word used originally didn’t mean “days” but instead “periods of time.” This made sense but wasn’t a big deal, but then he also said that this “period of time” definition means that the time periods weren’t all the same length. Our word “day” means consecutive, equal 24-hour time chunks, but this means that it might have taken longer to form the earth than it did to plant the seeds, etc. So instead of “days” or “time periods,” I’ve taken it to mean “steps.” The First Day of Creation: Genesis 1:1-5, Moses 2:1-5, Abraham 4:1-5 The Gods go down to the place where the matter is and “organized and formed the heavens and the earth.” I don’t know what it means to form the heavens, because I’ve always just considered it to be blank, empty space, but maybe it’s referring to the atmosphere, putting certain elements into the area surrounding the earth’s surface. First a note about the word “Gods.” The IM quotes Bruce R. McConkie as noting, “In the ultimate and final sense of the word, the Father is the Creator of all things. That he used the Son and others to perform many of the creative acts, delegating to them his creative powers, does not make these others creators in their own right, independent of Him. He is the source of all creative power, and he simply chooses other to act for him in many of his creative enterprises.” I like this explanation because I’ve often wondered if Jesus had his own power and authority to create the earth, and what all that entailed. Second, it’s important to point out that the earth was formed using material that was already in existence. The IM points out that a lot of Christianity believes that the earth was created “ex nihilo, which means ‘out of nothing.’” I believed this for a long time, but it doesn’t make sense because God’s power isn’t magic, its science. The IM says, “Joseph Smith likened the creative activity to the building of a ship. Just as a shipbuilder needs materials to create the ship, the Creator made the heavens and the earth out of existing materials.” After the material for the earth was organized, it was “empty and desolate,” which makes me think of a ball of clay, non-descript, plain. All three accounts here emphasize that “darkness reigned upon the face of the deep, and the Spirit of the Gods was brooding upon the face of the waters.” The Mosaic version has God claiming the darkness as something He put there on purpose, but all three versions connect the change from darkness to “let there be light” to the Spirit of God moving upon the face of the earth. Now what exactly does that mean? The article suggests that while, yes, the earth was formed, it might have just been a gas giant like so many of the other planets. The article notes, “the chaos at the surface of a gas planet is likened to the darkness and chaos of hell.” That certainly would qualify as “darkness.” Abraham is the only account that specifies that the Gods “comprehended the light, for it was bright.” Now, I have no idea what that means, maybe it’s a contrast to the limited understanding that the rest of us watching had, maybe it’s a knowledge of how it happened. The Gods then “divided the light from the darkness.” If we think about the “darkness” in terms of matter than hasn’t been settled yet, or gas still floating around out of place, then the light could be something physical such as the earth’s core, or something spiritual such as knowledge, or it could simply be more organizing, the “dark” elements being set apart from the “light” elements. But then again, the Gods “call the light Day, and the darkness they called Night,” so it might be referring to the light of the sun hitting the earth, or the earth being put into orbit so that there was a revolving “day” and “night” as the earth spun. This organization and light and darkness was called “the first day,” or the first phase.