The Creation of the Characteristics of Christ

·         What does the scriptural account of the creation reveal about the nature and character of Jesus Christ?

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Scriptural Reference and Quote #1:
“While visiting the British Museum in London one day, I read a most unusual book. It is not scripture. It is an English translation of an ancient Egyptian manuscript. From it, I quote a dialogue between the Father and the Son. Referring to His Father, Jehovah—the premortal Lord—says:
He took the clay from the hand of the angel, and made Adam according to Our image and likeness, and He left him lying for forty days and forty nights without putting breath into him. And He heaved sighs over him daily, saying, ‘If I put breath into this [man], he must suffer many pains.’ And I said unto My Father, ‘Put breath into him; I will be an advocate for him.’ And My Father said unto Me, ‘If I put breath into him, My beloved Son, Thou wilt be obliged to go down into the world, and to suffer many pains for him before Thou shalt have redeemed him, and made him to come back to his primal state.’ And I said unto My Father, ‘Put breath into him; I will be his advocate, and I will go down into the world, and will fulfil Thy command.’” – Russell M Nelson, April 2000, The Creation

Explanation:

Although this is not scripture, Russell M Nelson shows the characteristic of Christ as being self-sacrificing as he was willing to volunteer himself as our advocate and experience much pain.

Scriptural Reference and Quote #2:

“And worlds without number have I created; and I also created them for mine own purpose; and by the Son I created them, which is mine Only Begotten.” – Moses 1:33

Explanation

The Characteristics of Christ in the scripture is intelligent, wise, and knowledgeable.  He under the direction of with father was able to create worlds without number. 

He is also not ready to reveal all things to us at this time as we are not ready or able to     handle all of his knowledge and purposes at this time.

Scriptural Reference and Quote #3:

“And the Gods said: We will bless them.  . .” -  Abraham 4:28

Explanation

In this brief sentence, we are able to see a number of things.  One is that Christ is kind and considerate, he wants to bless us and is there to help us out.  He loves us and want to help us in any way possible

The other thing this scripture reveals to me is that Christ doesn’t work alone.  It says “Gods”, meaning they worked together, and it took more than one person to create the world.  

Scriptural Reference and Quote #4:

“And I, God, blessed them, and said unto them: Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

And I, God, said unto man: Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree in the which shall be the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.

And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to everything that creepeth upon the earth, wherein I grant life, there shall be given every clean herb for meat; and it was so, even as I spake.” – Moses 2:28-30

Explanation

The characteristic I saw from these verses was that he looks out for us and provides for our needs.  He truly wants to look out for us, and prepared the world to help take care of our needs physically.  He provides food, shelter, and clothing for us, as well as all our other needs.

Scriptural Reference and Quote #5:

“And, behold, thou art my son; wherefore look, and I will show thee the workmanship of mine hands; but not all, for my works are without end, and also my words, for they never cease.” – Moses1:4

Explanation

This last verse shows that Christ works and words are without end.  They are infinite and never ending.  What he says will take place, and what he does has no ending.  It is hard for our mortal minds to understand this concept but it is something that is mentioned in the scriptures many times.

             

The Fall of Adam and Eve

Adam and Eve had the agency to choose.  They were given that agency by God, just like he had given that agency to Satan and his followers to choose to not follow the Lords plan. 

(Moses 4:3) “ Wherefore, because that Satan rebelled against me, and sought to destroy the agency of man, which I, the Lord God, had given him,”

Satan then tries to frustrate the Lord plan by temping them to eat of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil they were told not to eat or they would surly die. Eve chooses to eat of the tree, and Adam also eats of the tree.  They then understand good and evil, the bitter and the sweet.  Because they have eaten of the fruit of the thee, they are cast out of the garden away from the tree of life, so the do not live forever in their sins, and frustrate the Lords plan for redemption.  Adam and Eve have “fallen”. (Moses 4)

Adam and Eve’s fall is a representation of falling from the Lords presence, or a spiritual death

(D&C 29:41) “  Wherefore, I, the Lord God, caused that he should be cast out from the Garden of Eden, from my presence, because of his transgression, wherein he became spiritually dead”

As he had eaten from the tree, he was also promised that he would die, causing a physical or temporal death. 

(Alma (12:24)“We see that death comes upon mankind, yea, the death which has been spoken of by Amulek, which is the temporal death;”

Because of the fall, we are all subject to the same consequences.

(Alma 12:22). “Now we see that Adam did fall by the partaking of the forbidden fruit, according to the word of God; and thus we see, that by his fall, all mankind became a lost and fallen people.”

In order to enter the Lords presence again we need to be clean from sin and transgression.  The Lord planned from the beginning a Messiah to come and redeem his people. 

(2 Nephi 2 :26) “And the Messiah cometh in the fulness of time, that he may redeem the children of men from the fall. And because that they are redeemed from the fall they have become free forever, knowing good from evil; to act for themselves and not to be acted upon, save it be by the punishment of the law at the great and last day, according to the commandments which God hath given.”

Because of the Savior we are saved from death and will be resurrected.  We are also able to take upon ourselves his name and keep his commandments, shake off the natural man, and be saved from spiritual death.  Knowing we have a savior prepared from the beginning of time to help us is a blessing.  

 I am grateful for all Christ went through so that my sins would be forgiven, and I would be clean, to enter into his presence again.  I am also grateful to my Heaven Father to create such a plan, to give us agency, and allow us to use this probationary period to learn what we need to that we may return to him again. 

Waiting to Help Us

            President Dieter F. Uchtdorf explained that many years ago, we thought the milky way was the only galaxy in the universe surrounded by a big void.  Since then, we have discovered many galaxies, stars and amazing features of the universe we previously could not comprehend.  We have learned a truth that has always existed, we just didn’t always know it., (Receiving a Testimony of Light and Truth, 2014,.par. 2).  We can each come to understand truth always has existed, we just might not be to comprehend or have the absolute truth in our lives just yet.

The great news is that the Lord knows all truth,  and is willing to share the truth with us in his own due time.  In the article ”Receiving a Testimony of Light and Truth”, Uchtdorf gave us four steps to finding the spiritual truth.  First, search the scriptures.  Second, ponder about what you have learned, Third, ask if what we learned is true.  Lastly, we must be willing to act or do what we can to have the spirit with us. (2014, par. 23) These steps are a great pattern and help in our lives

Knowing these steps can help each of us learn more than just spiritual things.  It can help all of us in our secular studies as well.  Using these same steps we all can ask the Lord for help in understanding and finding truth in science, history, and even math.  In the past, I personally have tested and used this theory to help me in my other studies so I know this process will work, and help each of us in our studies this term.

We can each separately come to understand the absolute truth in our lives with the help of the Lord.  He is there, ready and waiting to help us in any way he can.

References

Uchtdorf, D. F. (2014, October). Receiving a Testimony of Light and Truth. General Conference. Retrieved January 3, 2017, from https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2014/10/receiving-a-testimony-of-light-and-truth?lang=eng