Abraham's Record Concerning the Creation--The Council in Heaven--The
Father's Plan, the Son's Acceptance, Satan's Rebellion--The Agency
of Man--Suggestions Regarding Satan's Plan to Save All Mankind.
The Lord also revealed to Abraham many great and glorious principles
and truths relating to the creation. We extract the following from the
fragment of the writings of that Patriarch, which has been graciously
restored to us by the Lord in these days:
"And the Gods prepared the earth to bring forth the living creature
after his kind, cattle and creeping things, and beasts of the earth
after their kind; and it was so, as they had said. And the Gods
organized the earth to bring forth the beasts after their kind, the
cattle after their kind, and everything that creepeth upon the earth
after their kind; and the Gods saw they would obey. And the Gods took
counsel among themselves and said, Let us go down and form man in our
image, after our likeness; and we will give them dominion over the
fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle,
and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth
upon the earth. So the Gods went down to organize man in their own
image, in the image of the Gods to form they him, male and female, to
form they them; and the Gods said, We will bless them. And the Gods
said, We will cause them to be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish
the earth, and subdue it, and to 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 the Gods said, Behold, we will give them
every herb bearing seed that shall come upon the face of all the
earth, and every tree which shall have fruit upon it, yea, the fruit
of the tree yielding seed to them we will give it; it shall be for
their meat; and to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the
air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, behold, we will
give them life, and also we will give to them every green herb for
meat, and all these things shall be thus organized. And the Gods said,
We will do every thing that we have said, and organize them; and
behold, they shall be very obedient. And it came to pass that it was
from evening until morning they called night; and it came to pass that
it was from morning until evening that they called day; and they
numbered the sixth time.
"And thus we will finish the heavens and the earth, and all the hosts
of them. And the Gods said among themselves, On the seventh time we
will end our work which we have counseled; and we will rest on the
seventh time from all our work which we have counseled. And the Gods
concluded upon the seventh time, because that on the seventh time they
would rest from all their works which they (the Gods) counseled among
themselves to form, and sanctified it. And thus were their decisions
at the time that they counseled among themselves to form the heavens
and the earth.
"And the Gods came down and formed these the generations of the
heavens and of the earth, when they were formed in the day that the
Gods formed the earth and the heavens, according to all that which
they had said concerning every plant of the field before it was in the
earth, and every herb of the field before it grew; for the Gods had
not caused it to rain upon the earth when they counseled to do them,
and had not formed a man to till the ground; but there went up a mist
from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground. And the Gods
formed man from the dust of the ground, and took his spirit (that is,
the man's spirit,) and put it into him, and breathed into his nostrils
the breath of life, and man became a living soul."
Although this matter of the Council or Conference is not so fully
exhibited in the Old Testament Scriptures as in this revelation to
Abraham, yet it is definitely stated in the Book of Genesis that God
said, "Let _us_ make man in _our_ image, after _our_ likeness;" and
again, after Adam had taken of the forbidden fruit the Lord said,
"Behold, the man has become as one of us;" and the inference is direct
that in all that related to the work of the creation of the world,
there was a consultation; and though God spake as it is recorded in
the Bible, yet it is evident He counseled with others. The Scriptures
tell us there are "Gods many and Lords many. But to us there is but
one God, the Father." (1 Cor., viii, 5.) And for this reason, though
there were others engaged in the creation of the worlds, it is given
to us in the Bible in the shape that it is; for the fulness of these
truths is only revealed to highly favored persons for certain reasons
known to God; as we are told in the Scriptures: "The secret of the
Lord is with them that fear him; and he will show them his
covenant."--Psalms, xxv, 14.
It is consistent to believe that at this Council in the heavens the
plan that should be adopted in relation to the sons of God who were
then spirits, and had not yet obtained tabernacles, was duly
considered. For, in view of the creation of the world and the placing
of men upon it, whereby it would be possible for them to obtain
tabernacles, and in those tabernacles obey laws of life, and with them
again be exalted among the Gods, we are told, that at that time, "the
morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy."
The question then arose, how, and upon what principle, should the
salvation, exaltation and eternal glory of God's sons be brought
about? It is evident that at that Council certain plans had been
proposed and discussed, and that after a full discussion of those
principles, and the declaration of the Father's will pertaining to His
design, Lucifer came before the Father, with a plan of his own,
saying, "Behold 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 Jesus, on hearing this statement
made by Lucifer, said, "Father, thy will be done, and the glory be
thine forever." From these remarks made by the well beloved Son, we
should naturally infer that in the discussion of this subject the
Father had made known His will and developed His plan and design
pertaining to these matters, and all that His well beloved Son wanted
to do was to carry out the will of His Father, as it would appear had
been before expressed. He also wished the glory to be given to His
Father, who, as God the Father, and the originator and designer of the
plan, had a right to all the honor and glory. But Lucifer wanted to
introduce a plan contrary to the will of his Father, and then wanted
His honor, and said: "I will save every soul of man, wherefore give me
thine honor." He wanted to go contrary to the will of his Father, and
presumptuously sought to deprive man of his free agency, thus making
him a serf, and placing him in a position in which it was impossible
for him to obtain that exaltation which God designed should be man's,
through obedience to the law which He had suggested; and again,
Lucifer wanted the honor and power of his Father, to enable him to
carry out principles which were contrary to the Father's wish.
And further, in regard to agency; if man had not had his agency, or if
he had been deprived of his agency, he could not have been tempted of
the devil, or of any other power; for if the will of God prevailed,
and was carried out without man's action or agency, it would have been
impossible for him to have done anything wrong, for he would have been
deprived of the power of doing that wrong. This was the position that
Satan desired to place, not only the spirits in the heavens, but also
mankind upon the earth. And Satan said, "Surely I will save every one
of them, wherefore, give me thine honor." But God's plan was different
from this, and, as stated above, had been decided upon in the Councils
of heaven; and the Father had made a decree as to how these things
should be done; and that both the inhabitants of heaven and the
inhabitants of earth should have their free agency. It was against
this that Lucifer rebelled; and he could not have rebelled against a
plan or commandment that had not been given; for rebellion signifies a
violation of law, command, or authority; and he was cast out of heaven
because of this rebellion. This rebellion could not have existed
without a free agency; for without a free agency they would all have
been compelled to do the will of the Father. But having the free
agency, they used it; and Lucifer and a third part of the angels were
cast out because they rebelled and used this agency in opposition to
their heavenly Father. And not only because they rebelled, but
because, as stated, "they sought to destroy the agency of man;" and
their agency would have been used in opposition to the interests,
happiness and eternal exaltation of mankind, which were proposed to be
accomplished through the atonement and redemption provided by Jesus
Christ. In accordance with this we find the following statements in
the revelations given to the Prophet Joseph Smith:
"Behold, the devil was before Adam, for he rebelled against me,
saying, Give me thine honor, which is my power: and also a third part
of the hosts of heaven turned he away from me because of their agency;
and they were thrust down, and thus came the devil and his angels.
And, behold, there is a place prepared for them from the beginning,
which place is hell: and it must needs be that the devil should tempt
the children of men, or they could not be agents unto themselves, for
if they never should have bitter, they could not know the
sweet."--Doc. and Cov., xxix, 36-39, p. 146.
And again; "And this we saw also, and bear record, that an angel of
God who was in authority in the presence of God, who rebelled against
the Only Begotten Son, whom the Father loved, and who was in the bosom
of the Father--was thrust down from the presence of God and the Son,
and was called Perdition, for the heavens wept over him--he was
Lucifer, a son of the morning. And we beheld, and lo, he is fallen! is
fallen! even a son of the morning. And while we were yet in the
Spirit, the Lord commanded us that we should write the vision, for we
beheld Satan, that old serpent--even the devil--who rebelled against
God, and sought to take the kingdom of our God and his Christ." Doc.
and Cov., lxxvi, 25-28, p. 267.
The Father accepted the offer of His well beloved Son, and proceeded
to carry out the decision of the Council, and, as we are informed in
the Bible (inspired translation), God said to His Only Begotten, "Let
us make man in our image, after our likeness, and it was so."
There are other questions mixed up with this rebellion besides those
above referred to, and those questions are directly connected with the
atonement. In the event of man having his free will and being subject
to the power of temptation, the weakness of the flesh, the allurements
of the world, and the powers of darkness, it was known that he must
necessarily fall, and being fallen, it would be impossible for him to
redeem himself, and that, according to an eternal law of justice, it
would require an infinite, expiatory atonement to redeem man, to save
him from the effects and ruin of the Fall, and to place him in a
condition where he could again be reinstated in the favor of God,
according to the eternal laws of justice and mercy; and find his way
back to the presence of the Father. Satan (it is possible) being
opposed to the will of his Father, wished to avoid the
responsibilities of this position, and rather than assume the
consequences of the acceptance of the plan of the Father, he would
deprive man of his free agency, and render it impossible for him to
obtain that exaltation which God designed. It would further seem
probable that he refused to take the position of redeemer, and assume
all the consequences associated therewith, but he did propose, as
stated before, to take another plan and deprive man of his agency, and
he probably intended to make men atone for their own acts by an act of
coercion, and the shedding of their own blood as an atonement for
their sins; therefore, he says, "I will redeem all mankind, that one
soul shall not be lost; and surely I will do it; wherefore, give me
thine honor." His plan, however, was rejected as contrary to the
counsel of God, his Father. The well beloved Son then addressed the
Father, and instead of proposing to carry out any plan of his own,
knowing what His Father's will was, said, "Thy will be done;" 'I will
carry out thy plans and thy designs, and, as man will fall, I will
offer myself as an atonement according to thy will, O God. Neither do
I wish the honor, but thine be the glory;'" and a covenant was entered
into between Him and His Father, in which He agreed to atone for the
sins of the world; and He thus, as stated, became the Lamb slain from
before the foundation of the world. In this connection it is related
by Abraham:
"And there stood one among them that was like unto God, and he said
unto those who were with him, We will go down, for there is space
there, and we will take of these materials, and we will make an earth
whereon these may dwell; and we will prove them herewith, to see if
they will do all things whatsoever the Lord their God shall command
them; and they who keep their first estate, shall be added upon; and
they who keep not their first estate, shall not have glory in the same
kingdom with those who keep their first estate; and they who keep
their second estate, shall have glory added upon their heads for ever
and ever."
And hence, as Jesus Himself said, "Thus it is written and thus it
behooved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day;
and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his
name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem."
We will now give in full the quotation from the Pearl of Great Price
with regard to the above matter, and also add a short recapitulation.
"And I, the Lord God, spake unto Moses, saying, That Satan, whom thou
hast commanded in the name of mine Only Begotten, is the same which
was from the beginning, and he came before me, saying, Behold 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 for ever. Wherefore, because that Satan rebelled
against me, and sought to destroy the agency of man, which I, the Lord
God, had given him, and also, that I should give unto him mine own
power, 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."
From the above we gather: First, that the proposition of Lucifer was
an act of rebellion "against me"--God.
Second, that God had already decreed that man should have his free
agency, and this agency had been given to him by the Lord, as it is
said, "which I, the Lord God, had given him."
Third, that Lucifer coveted and asked for a power which was the
prerogative of the Almighty and alone belonged to God; and which He
called "mine own power."
Fourth, that for this rebellion Lucifer was cast out and became Satan.
Fifth, that the power by which he was cast out, was by a certain power
or Priesthood which had been conferred by God on His Only Begotten;
for he said, "By the power of mine Only Begotten I caused that he
should be cast down."
Sixth, that being cast down and becoming Satan, "even the devil, the
father of lies," his office was to deceive and to blind men; as it is
stated, "to deceive, and to blind men, and to lead them captive at his
will even as many as would not hearken unto my voice."