“In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth” (Genesis 1:1).
That was the beginning of this earth, not the beginning of our existence, or the beginning of God. Abraham was shown in vision the many creations of God and, “the intelligences that were organized before the world was…And there stood one among [the noble and great ones] that was like unto God” (Abraham 3:22, 24). Through our ability to choose, and our actions, we progressed at differing rates before coming to earth; thus some had achieved the status of “noble and great”.
In the premortal world we had reached a point where we could no longer progress solely as spirits. God, our Heavenly Father, presented His plan. We would have the privilege of coming down to earth to obtain a body and learn from our own experience between good an evil. If we were faithful we could return to live with our Father in Heaven eternally in glory—like Him. We were so excited that we shouted for joy! (see Job 38:7).
However, as James E. Talmage taught,
“The mortal probation is provided as an opportunity for advancement; but so great are the difficulties and the dangers, so strong is the influence of evil in the world, and so weak is man in resistance thereto, that without the aid of a power above that of humanity no soul would find its way back to God from whom it came” (James E. Talmage, Jesus the Christ, p25).
Our Father knew that we would fail. He knew that we would make mistakes. He knew that we (each and every one of us, save Jesus only) would forfeit our eternal destiny through our actions on earth. From this dispensation we read,
“[W]e know that there is a God in heaven, who is infinite and eternal, from everlasting to everlasting the same unchangeable God, the framer of heaven and earth, and all things which are in them;
“And that he created man, male and female, after his own image and in his own likeness, created he them;
“And gave unto them commandments that they should love and serve him, the only living and true God, and that he should be the only being whom they should worship.
“But by the transgression of these holy laws man became sensual and devilish, and became fallen man.
“Wherefore, the Almighty God gave his Only Begotten Son, as it is written in those scriptures which have been given of him” (Doctrine & Covenants 20:17-21).
He had prepared a way. His decision to choose Jesus wasn’t something that He had to decide at the moment Lucifer approached Him. In the Bible Dictionary we read that, “Jesus is spoken of as the Christ and the Messiah, which means He is the one anointed of the Father to be His personal representative in all things pertaining to the salvation of mankind” (Bible Dictionary: Anointed One). Jesus Christ had been chosen from the beginning to be our Savior, and He was presented to us as part of the plan—I wonder if this is where we really shouted for joy.
If Jesus had been chosen from the very beginning, we would have known about it in our premortal schooling. Thus, we watched Him, and knew Him—for millions of years. We knew of His love for us and that we could trust in Him, because of his perfect obedience, before we met in the grand council. Bruce R. McConkie taught,
“We do not now know, nor can the mortal mind discern, how all things came to be. We have the divine promise that if we are faithful in all things, the day will come when we shall know ‘all things’ and ‘comprehend even God.’” (Bruce R. McConkie, The Promised Messiah, p10).
Not all were excited about the prospect of chance, and potential for failure. Our spirit brother, Lucifer, opposed the Father’s plan and presented one of his own. We read from the Book of Moses,
“And I, the Lord God, spake unto Moses, saying: …Satan…came before me, 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.
“But, behold, my Beloved Son, which was my 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…; 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” (Moses 4:1-4).
In the Book of Revelation we read about the further outcome of this opposition and rebellion.
“And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels,
“And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven.
“And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him….
“And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death” (Revelation 12:7-9, 11).
I find it interesting that the Lord cast Satan out by the power of the Savior, and we overcame Lucifer by the blood of the Lamb—by the Atonement of Jesus Christ that would not be shed for thousands of years!
Jesus Christ was chosen before the foundation of this world to be the Redeemer and Savior of mankind. He was ever faithful in heaven, ever faithful throughout mortality, and continues ever faithful even now. Through Him, the power of the Atonement was used to battle Satan before we came to earth, and it is the same power that will win the battle here.
Fast-forward a few thousand years, to the concluding events in our Savior’s mortal life. I love the way Tad R. Callister expressed the infinite power that comes from the love of our Savior:
“When [Jesus] entered the Garden [of Gethsemane], he was at his ‘best.’ An angel came to his side with the express mission of ‘strengthening him.’ But now, while stretched out upon the cross, his physical and emotional reservoirs were rapidly dissipating. His life-giving substance had already ebbed from every pore. He had been scourged, spat upon, and smitten. The sleepless hours were taking their toll on his temporal frame….
“One wonders how he could have any resistance left, any will to fight back, any reservoir of strength to overcome, any more love to give. He was walking the fine line that separates death from life, consciousness from unconsciousness. From Satan’s perspective, the time of vulnerability was here.
“[quoting Frederic Farrar] This was the tempter’s moment. The whole period had been one of moral and spiritual tension. During such high hours of excitement men will sustain, without succumbing, an almost incredible amount of labor, and soldiers will fight through a long day’s battle unconscious or oblivious of their wounds. But when the enthusiasm is spent, when the exultation dies away, when the fire burns low, when Nature, weary and overstrained, reasserts her rights—in a word, when a mighty reaction has begun, which leaves the man suffering spiritless, exhausted—then is the hour of extreme danger…It was at such a moment that the great battle of our Lord against the powers of evil was fought and won [end quotation].
“This was Satan’s last chance, his final desperate hope to frustrate the redemptive plan. It was now or never. There was no angel to strengthen the Holy One, no sustaining influence of the Father. Surely Satan liked the odds….
“This was the showdown: Satan, accompanied perhaps by his legions of nefarious forces, against the Savior in all his compelling loneliness—the Savior in his weakened, almost lifeless condition battling a universal accumulation of suffering. Satan’s timing was impeccable. The Father’s healing light was being withdrawn; the torturous forces of man’s most heinous form of death were pecking; and nature was about to refold in seismic language.…This was the crisis moment on the cross, the moment the Savior’s pain was most intense and his vulnerability most acute; but Milton was right: ‘Heavenly love shall outdo hellish hate’” (Tad R. Callister, The Infinite Atonement, p136-138)
Our Beloved Savior at His weakest, was ever more powerful that Satan and his minions at their strongest—and still is.
One may ask, can we really come to know Jesus Christ? Can we truly come to know of His great love, and sacrifice for us? Bruce R. McConkie stated, "The answer: Yes and no....Yes, if the spiritual laws by which he may be found are obeyed; no, in all other circumstances" (Bruce R. McConkie, The Premortal Messiah, p14).
Brad R. Wilcox taught,
“Christ asks us to show faith in Him, repent, make and keep covenants, receive the Holy Ghost, and endure to the end. By complying, we are not paying the demands of justice—not even the smallest part. Instead, we are showing appreciation for what Jesus Christ did by using it to live a life like His. Justice requires immediate perfection or a punishment when we fall short. Because Jesus took that punishment, He can offer us the chance for ultimate perfection and help us reach that goal. He can forgive what justice never could, and He can turn to us now with His own set of requirements” (link to talk).
Jesus Christ was chosen from before the foundation of the world to be our Savior and Redeemer. He has shown His love to us in everything He has ever done, and will continue to show it in everything He ever will do. Our quest in life is to live in a way that we can come to know Him, come to know the power of His Atonement, and become who He can help us become. He, who created the heaven and earth upon which we stand, is fighting every minute of every hour of every day for us. He will ever fight for us. All we need to do is to trust in Him, and accept His Atonement, through our obedience to His laws and commandments. The way has long been established and all we need to do is to walk the path to get there.
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