Creation Narrative in the Temple

Latter-day Saint scholar Stephen Ricks has provided evidence that the Creation narrative (see Gen. 1) was recited or belonged to the ancient temple service of Israel during the Second Temple Period.73 What’s more, the Creation narrative is an important part of the temple endowment in our own day. Elder Talmage wrote that the temple endowment “includes a recital of the most prominent events of the creative period.”74

Our earth, a divine creation.

Latter-day Saints hold sacred four Creation narratives; three are written texts (Genesis, Moses, Abraham), and the fourth is that which belongs to the temple. The fact that there are four (instead of just one) underscores their import. All four are ritual texts that belong to the temple setting. The following truths about the earth and its creation provide us with a sense of why the Creation account holds a role in the endowment:

(1) Jesus Christ is the Creator: “Behold, I am Jesus Christ the Son of God. I created the heavens and the earth, and all things that in them are” (3 Ne. 9:15; see also Hel. 14:12).

(2) Jesus Christ’s creations are without number to mortals: “And were it possible that man could number the particles of the earth, yea, millions of earths like this, it would not be a beginning to the number of thy creations; and thy curtains are stretched out still” (Moses 7:30).

(3) Our earth will die and through Jesus Christ’s Atonement will be resurrected: The earth “shall die, it shall be quickened again, and shall abide the power by which it is quickened” (D&C 88:26). “The earth, as a living body, will have to die and be resurrected, for it, too, has been redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ.”75

(4) Jesus Christ’s Atonement extends to inhabitants of other earths: President Russell M. Nelson taught, “The mercy of the Atonement extends not only to an infinite number of people, but also to an infinite number of worlds created by Him.”76

(5) “We have brothers and sisters on other earths,” wrote Joseph Fielding Smith. “They look like us because they, too, are the children of God and were created in his image, for they are also his offspring. His great work is to create earths and people them with his children who are called upon to pass through the mortal probation like unto this we are now in.”77

(6) Our earth is obedient to God’s laws: “The earth abideth the law of a celestial kingdom” (D&C 88:25); it is governed by and moves in its times and seasons through God’s law (see D&C 88:42–43). The earth will fill “the measure of its creation” (D&C 88:19, 25).

(7) Our earth will “be sanctified” (D&C 88:26) and it will “be crowned with glory,” which is “the presence of God the Father” (D&C 88:19).

(8) The earth was created for us, and the righteous will inherit this earth: The “righteous” or “the poor and the meek of the earth shall inherit it” (D&C 88:17, 26); in fact, the earth was “made and created” so that celestial souls could inherit it, and they will “possess [the earth] forever and ever” (D&C 88:20).

(9) The earth’s creation is one of the three pillars of eternity: Elder Bruce R. McConkie explained, “The three pillars of eternity, the three events, preeminent and transcendent above all others, are the creation, the fall, and the atonement. These three are the foundations upon which all things rest. Without any one of them all things would lose their purpose and meaning, and the plans and designs of Deity would come to naught.”78