1 “The down-road and up-road are prefigured in the prophetic experience of Moses in Moses 1.” Please identify two elements in the chapter that symbolically represent premortal life, two elements that symbolize mortal life, and two elements that symbolize eternal life, with an emphasis on principles for progress in each phase of our existence.
Moses 1:1 starts with Moses on a high mountain, where heaven meets earth (1,) speaking with God, and where God calls Moses his son in Moses 1:4 (2.) In 1:9 the presence of God withdraws, a descent to earth where Moses is cut off from the presence of God (1) but where (1:15) Moses says that the Spirit hasn’t withdrawn from him entirely, and uses this power and knowledge to overcome Satan (2.) Moses 1:25 Moses lifts up his eyes again, and God commends him and promises him richer blessings; “thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things,” in other words (1.) 1:31 he’s back face-to-face with God again, and is told many things pertaining to eternity (2.)
2. “[The 4th century] doctrine of creation ex nihilo [out of nothing] required that no thing or entity compete with God’s primal existence.” Please identify five ways the Abrahamic account of premortal life and creation challenges or complicates this perspective.
Abraham 4:1 states: “And then the Lord said: Let us go down. And they went down at the beginning, and they, that is the Gods, organized and formed the heavens and the earth.” It continues like this all throughout the Abraham account, the Gods being led by the Lord, under the tutelage of the Father. God the Father is separate from God the Son, which is a fundamental challenge to the assumptions undergirding ex nihilo creation (1.) Here, also, God is trusting others enough to act in his name- not just Christ, being separate beings, but Christ is also delegating work to those under him. Ex nihilo creation couldn’t have that; God doesn’t need to be the primal existence (2). Also from Abraham 4:1, specifically note how the word “organized” is used- creation is put into order, not made from nothing (3.) Like in Abraham 3:24: “we will take of these materials, and we will make an earth whereon these may dwell.” Creation is specifically for preexisting spirits to dwell (4.) Abraham 3:18 mentions how two spirits have no beginning, both, though one is more intelligent than the other. God is the most intelligent, but two beings can be co-infinite and still be of different spheres of intellect; they have existed for as long as God has (5.)
3. Our limited accounts of premortal life culminate in a council where Heavenly Father asked, “Whom shall I send?” What scriptural evidence indicates that He already knew the answer to His question? What important truths did we and others learn as a result of this question and the responses to it? Be specific about who learned what.
In the Book of Abraham, God asks his question about whom to send in the verse after they’re discussing the purpose of the world, and the roles of first and second estates—the purpose of the earth has been established, and there can only be someone to “send” after there’s a place to be sent to. (Abraham 3:26-27.) Jehovah was “Beloved and Chosen from the beginning” (Moses 4:2), and being chosen from the beginning for this purpose, to be sent, a role He is not only chosen for but volunteers for as well. Verse 1 reveals that Satan’s plan is to save everyone, with all the glory going to him for it. His plan is rejected, establishing two important hierarchies: glory to the father, and that agency is more important than salvation itself (Moses 4:3.) We’re on the earth, so we who kept our first estate had to have learned that, and must remember it. The other third part learned this and rebelled against it. Moses 4:3 kind of makes it sound like Satan’s having his own plan to be the savior of all was itself rebellion, but Abraham 3:28 states that Lucifer was angry after being rejected, and then “kept not his first estate.” The rebellion would be to seek one’s own glory over the glory of the Father (which was just my extrapolation, but D&C 29:36 explicitly says this so looks like that was right.)
4. Please identify three ways the creation accounts demonstrate the kind of power associated with God’s word and two ways they show the value of contrasts (or “opposition”) in our probation upon this earth.
God allows others to act to create in his name- we say God created the Earth, or Christ acting in the Father’s name. This shows that God can enact his will through the actions of others, and there’s no difference (1.) Where in Genesis and Moses God calls something good, in Abraham it talks about how the Gods were obeyed. Obedience to God’s will, falling in line with his commandments, is good (2.) Abraham 4:26 notes that the Gods “counseled” together before forming man on the earth. Advancement of God’s kingdom is through common consent (3.)
In Abraham 4:3, Moses 2:4, and Genesis 1:4 God/the Gods divide light from darkness. This isn’t to be taken to mean that before light and darkness were separate they were one somehow, but that light and darkness are opposites, and that we need the night in order to appreciate the day (1.) In Moses 3:5, God talks about how he created things spiritually before fixing their physical forms, which shows that nothing is temporal to God, but to man there is a difference between heaven and earth we need to pay attention to (2.)
5. How do the Book of Moses and other restoration scriptures (such as 2 Nephi 2, D&C 29, etc.)
complement Genesis to improve our understanding of the fall of Adam and Eve? Be specific about their life in the garden, the motives of participants in the fall, and the consequences of their choice.
Adam and Eve lived in innocence, it’s clear from the Genesis account, but Lehi recasts this: 2nd Nephi 2:23, they don’t know joy because they don’t know misery. 2nd Nephi 2:21 talks about how their days were lengthened so they could repent in the flesh- the way for repentance, now that we are fallen and subjected to the weakness of flesh, is through Christ, who is able to come now that Adam and Eve can have children (2nd Nephi 2:23,25-26.) Even with days prolonged, Adam and Eve and their children would still die, though, which abuts Moses 4:28 and Genesis 3:22, where God blocks the tree of life lest Adam and Eve eat and live forever. Lehi states (2 Nephi 2:18) that Satan desired the misery of all mankind, and Moses 3:4 states that Satan’s desire is to destroy agency. God allows the temptation and agency, and knowing that man might know bitter and thus sweet (D&C 29:39) as well as both evil and good. Satan is the father of all lies, and God allows even that.
6. After their transgression and before their exit from Eden, God taught Adam and Eve more about the fall and the atonement by words and actions. Please identify two ways He taught them about the fall, two ways He taught them about the atonement, and note any difference it made after they exited the garden
God taught by both words and actions. One of the ways God taught Adam is actually how God asks, where goest thou, who told thee thou wast naked, before even punishing anyone. God is forcing Adam and Eve to deal with accountability, one of the aspects of agency (1.) Moses 4:25, God speaks to Adam and talks about death, reminding him of the consequence promised for eating the fruit- “Thou shalt surely die,” returning back to dust. Not only is this a reminder of the new state of mortality, it’s a reinforcement of the existence of consequence, which can be appreciated now that first Man and Woman are no longer innocent (2.)
Moses 4:21- when the serpent is being cursed, his curse is a prophecy regarding the Atonement, the bruising of the head of the snake, but not without also the bruising of the heel of the seed of the woman (1.) The sacrificial nature of the atonement is also evident through Moses 4:27, Adam and Eve being “covered” or atoned in the Hebrew of the Genesis account, but by animal skins, animals who had to die to cover Adam and Eve’s nakedness (2.) All of Adam and Eve’s mortal probationary life is affected by these reminders, and the theme of sacrifice, not only work and sweat by brow, but also literal prefiguring of the Atonement of Christ, is a major theme of what records we have of their lives.
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