Note: Due to questions about the history of the Church of Jesus Christ in Christian Fellowship and its founder, we’ll be publishing articles on this topic the first Monday of every month. For more information about the origins of the Fellowship, please see the Book of Avahr.
The account of the prophet David’s visions of the premortal world and the creation. Fall of 1989.
As a teenage boy, one night I sat in my room conversing with the voice of the Lord; I was asking Him questions and He was giving me answers. My vision of the creation came this night when I was in bed, pondering the mysteries of the universe. I had been praying and was filled with the spirit. I was pondering the theory of evolution and the creation story, as told by my religious relatives and as I had learned of it at church (the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints). As a teenager in high school, this seemed very important to me; the Lord had already shown me a few visions that evening and I was fearful of the answer I would receive.
Would God reveal my understanding of the Bible false, or was all the scientific evidence a lie? How could science and what I thought the scriptures taught be in conflict?
I prayed to see the creation, as recorded in the Bible, and a vision unfolded before my eyes; I saw gases and stars; the materials moved and the sun was formed. Then the earth; it was as if time was on fast forward, the whole of it happened as a series of events, a timeline shown to me with no explanation.
At first I was amazed at how quickly everything transpired; “seven days,” as recorded in the scriptures, seemed like mere moments to me. As I asked questions, the events rolled back and played again, like a movie; but things were slowed down so I could see clearer. Very quickly, I realized the problem with what I was seeing; time was not a factor to the Lord. The Earth was not created in mere moments, nor was it created in seven literal days.
Visions are given, not in real time, but in the Lord’s time; to Him, all time is nonexistent. How can one that is eternal measure time in a way comparable to finite beings?
When I asked him about the truth of the battle between evolution and creation, the voice of the Lord spoke to me saying: “What does it matter, know that all things were made by my hand.”
But, I insisted. I wanted to know the truth, and I pointed out that He was a God of truth. The Lord slowed down the vision again, this time I saw the creation of everything, not just of the planet. I saw small cells multiplying and life forming, life growing and changing, evolving right before my eyes.
At a quick glance, it was easy to see how one could think things were being created out of nothing; however, at a closer look, it was clear that life was not simply called out of nothing. I cannot say exactly how everything worked or in what order but a few things were made very clear to me:
First, nothing was an accident; everything was created for a reason, and these reasons are parts of God’s plan.
Second, Adam and Eve were not alone on the Earth, nor were they the first people. They were the first people in the story of mankind as it relates to our salvation. The salvation of this human family as not only did spiritual death enter the world through Adam, but spiritual life as well.
Third, revelation is a hard thing to understand, we should not jump to conclusions and sometimes one revelation or vision can have many meanings.
Lastly, the Lord doesn’t always tell us what we want to hear, sometimes He gives us the answer we need, even if it isn’t the answer to the question asked.
At this point the Lord had shown me the creation of the Earth, and enlightened my understanding in many ways, yet I had one other question I was afraid to ask. The Lord eased my mind through the power of the Holy Spirit and knowing it was alright to ask, I inquired as to where He came from. I felt joy from the Lord, knowing he wished for me to ask, and He answered my question with a vision.
I saw, in vision, a pool of what looked like water; there, intelligences were moving on the face of the water. These intelligences began rising up and conversing. Then, they began to glow so bright it was hard to look upon them any longer. These then helped others out of the pool as well.
It was then explained to me that what looked like water was in fact “the face of the waters” found in the deep; a great pool of intelligences (Genesis 1:2); this pool was where we all came from, we were a part of it. Whether the first to leave were Gods to our God (as I had been taught by some Latter-day Saints at church) or our Gods, our Heavenly Parents (Elohim) and Jesus Christ, alone was not made known to me.
What was made known was that Elohim, our Heavenly Father and Mother, left on their own, creating their own spirit bodies; then they created their own bodies of flesh and bone as they have now, and that YHWH, Jesus Christ, had been with them from the beginning.
These then helped other intelligences create their own spirit bodies; the first to create His own Spirit body was Jehovah/Jesus Christ, as he had been with them from the beginning. He, Jesus Christ, was literally the first born of the Father through their help in his spiritual creation; yet He is co-eternal with the Father and a God, just as the Father is a God. From there, other noble and great ones were born to their own created spirit bodies, through the help and instruction of our Heavenly Parents.
It was also clear that the lower the intelligence, the greater the needed help in the creation of their own spirit bodies, yet all humans on this Earth created their spirit bodies themselves. This is why God, in books of Genesis and Moses, “moved upon the face of the water” but in the book of Abraham, “the Spirits of the gods” were “brooding” or better said, incubating.
God the Father and his wife or wives were self-created; as his children we too are self-created, but only through the help of our Heavenly Parents. All that were intelligences understood, to their capacity, what was happening and rejoiced greatly upon leaving the face of the waters in the deep; they understood that this was the first part in creating eternal physical bodies of flesh and bone, as they saw Elohim had.
It should be understood that matter and intelligence are both co-eternal; neither has beginning nor end; the progress of joining these two co-eternal forces is the point of all existence and the end of the first eternity (Doctrine and Covenants 93:33 LdS). It is the priesthood and the Law that allows this to happen and only by obedience to the law can the priesthood work; and, Christ’s Grace shows mercy to us that we may use the priesthood though we are imperfect.
This helped me to understand the vision I had of the creation, as I was shown in it that we created the Earth, as we are gods; the children of God the Father and a Heavenly Mother; (whether we are all from the same Heavenly Mother or if Heavenly Father has more than one wife, I do not know); just as God the Father created His own body, first in spirit then in the flesh, we are now doing the same.
However, His identity and intelligence are greater than ours, thus we need His divine guidance; we cannot do this on our own. Likewise, our obedience of the Law is too weak; we need a Savior. This is the role of Jesus Christ, to be the Savior of the world; his perfection is so great that His divinity is also eternally greater than ours; we need a way to converse with our Gods, this is the role of the Holy Ghost or Holy Spirit.
This is why they are Gods, worthy of our worship; and we are gods, children of the Most High; this is how God is our Father, He and our Heavenly Mother look out for us, lead us guide us and sent their Sons, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, to walk beside us so that we can find our way.