This life is a learning ground for those of us who were sent here. We were sent here to be tested to see what kind of being we would, of our own free will and choice, choose to become. In order to make this choice, we needed to be given the choice between good and evil. We become the product of our own choices. But one might ask, Why did God, who is omnipotent, omniscient, and all loving have us go through all this when he could simply have made us all perfect so that we would never choose evil? The answer to this question is found in understanding the characteristics of God and the true nature of mankind.
John 17:3
3 And this is life eternal, that they might
know thee the only true
God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast
sent.
When we speak of the omnipotence of God, what does that mean? Does that mean that God can do absolutely anything? Can God make it so that He has never existed and that He has always existed simultaneously? Can God make it so that He is the very epitome of all evil and simultaneously the very epitome of all goodness? Could God have created himself out of nothing? If God had all power to do anything imaginable, he certainly could do the above. But these things offend our sense of good and evil and our God given sense of logic. It is my understanding that even God is subject to eternal impossibilities. There are things in eternity that impossible, even for God himself. For example, a self-existing being, such as God himself, cannot have created himself out of nothing since under such a proposition, God would not have existed prior to creating himself out of nothing, and he would not be self-existent ( ie, always existing) if he had to be created from nothing. This is a logical contradiction. It is also a contradiction for God to be an all good being and simultaneously an all evil being. Since evil is the direct opposite of good, God cannot be all good and all evil simultaneously. This also offends our sense of logic and makes no sense. This also is an eternal impossibility. So, do we conclude that God is not omnipotent? In my estimation, omnipotence is the power to do all that is possible. God is a being who has all knowledge and can do all that is possible for a being to do. As mere mortals we can not even come close to understanding all that is possible through the vast expanse of eternity, but God can. God is omnipotent in that he can do anything that is not eternally impossible.
In these last days, God, through his prophet Joseph Smith, has revealed to man a few things that are eternally impossible.
Doctrine and Covenants 93:7,29
7 And he bore record, saying: I saw his glory, that he was in the
beginning, before the world was;
29 Man was also in the
beginning with God.
Intelligence, or the
light of
truth, was not
created or made, neither indeed can be.
In verse 7 it tells us that when God speaks of the term, "in the beginning", He is telling us that beginning is before the world was. In verse 29 He tells us that man was also in the beginning with God, ie mankind existed before the world was created. He then speaks of Intelligence, which mankind possesses and tells us that it was never created or made and neither indeed can be. In other words, there is a part of mankind which is his intelligence that has always existed and was not created or made nor can it ever be created or made. God is telling us that a part of mankind is eternal in nature or in other words, self-existent. He is teaching us of an eternal impossibility. It is impossible, even for God, that He could create the intelligence of mankind. In other words, you and I have always existed as an Intelligence and that part of us was never created or made, neither indeed can be.
This truth was also revealed in the Book of Abraham,
Abraham 3:18
18 Howbeit that he made the greater star; as, also, if there be two
spirits, and one shall be more intelligent than the other, yet these two spirits, notwithstanding one is more intelligent than the other, have no beginning; they existed before, they shall have no end, they shall exist after, for they are
gnolaum, or eternal.
God has also revealed that not just Intelligence, but also elements are eternal.
Doctrine and Covenants 93:33-34
33 For man is
spirit. The elements are
eternal, and
spirit and element, inseparably connected, receive a fulness of joy;
34 And when
separated, man cannot receive a fulness of joy.
In this revelation we learn also that the elements are eternal. This means that God did not create us out of nothing but created us from self-existent Intelligence and elements. This gives new meaning to how God creates things. The act of creating is the act of organizing things that already exist. On this earth man was created from the dust of the earth:
Genesis 3:19
19 In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat
bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for
dust thou art, and unto
dust shalt thou return.
The spirits of mankind were in the beginning before the world was and were created out of the self-existing Intelligence and a more pure and fine eternal element known as spirit matter.
Doctrine and Covenants 131:7-8
7 There is no such thing as immaterial matter. All
spirit is matter, but it is more fine or pure, and can only be discerned by
purer eyes;
8 We cannot
see it; but when our bodies are purified we shall see that it is all
matter.
Another eternal impossibility is exnihilo creation. If the elements are eternal and the intelligences of the universe have always existed, then God does not create his children out of nothing nor does he create anything out of nothing. The spirits of mankind came about by combining Intellgence and spirit matter through the process of procreation:
Acts 17:28-29
28 For in him we
live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also
his offspring.
29 Forasmuch then as
we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto
gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man’s
device.
1 John 3:2-3
2 Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall
appear,
we shall be like him; for we shall
see him as he is.
Hebrews 12:9
9 Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which
corrected us, and we gave them
reverence: shall we not much rather be in
subjection unto the
Father of spirits, and live?
God is literally our Eternal Father in Heaven. We have progressed from Intelligence, to spirit children of God, to mortal mankind on this earth. From this knowledge we learn that God could not create mankind to be perfect. Why? Because mankind as Intelligences could not be created or made. Therefore they could not be created out of nothing. Mankind is in a state of being through their own progression. The only way for God to help in mankind's progression is to help them learn good from evil and learn to choose good and evil in and of themselves. To progress to become more like our Father in Heaven, we need free will to learn to choose goodness over evil. Nobody forces God to be a good being. He chooses to do so in and of himself. For us to be more like Him, we too need free will to learn to choose good over evil. Since God could not create us to be perfect (since he could not create our Intelligence), He has chosen to create a temporary learning ground called earth where we can come and experience good and evil and learn to choose the good and value it. Eventually we will all be resurrected and live as immortal beings in eternity. This life is a temporary learn ground for us to experience joy and happiness along with pain, suffering, and even death. Eventually we will be able to look back at our time here on earth and we will value all that we experienced here in this blip of time called our temporal existence or mortal probation. We may not see it now, but we will see the in our next life and we will value all the wonderful lessons, even the very hard and difficult lessons we learned and they will benefit us forever and ever.
Doctrine and Covenants 122:5-8
5 If thou art called to pass through tribulation; if thou art in perils among false brethren; if thou art in perils among robbers; if thou art in perils by land or by sea;
6 If thou art accused with all manner of false accusations; if thine enemies fall upon thee; if they tear thee from the society of thy father and mother and brethren and sisters; and if with a drawn sword thine enemies tear thee from the bosom of thy wife, and of thine offspring, and thine elder son, although but six years of age, shall cling to thy garments, and shall say, My father, my father, why can’t you stay with us? O, my father, what are the men going to do with you? and if then he shall be thrust from thee by the sword, and thou be dragged to prison, and thine enemies prowl around thee like wolves for the blood of the lamb;
7 And if thou shouldst be cast into the pit, or into the hands of murderers, and the sentence of death passed upon thee; if thou be cast into the deep; if the billowing surge conspire against thee; if fierce winds become thine enemy; if the heavens gather blackness, and all the elements combine to hedge up the way; and above all, if the very jaws of hell shall gape open the mouth wide after thee, know thou, my son, that all these things shall give thee experience, and shall be for thy good.
8 The Son of Man hath descended below them all. Art thou greater than he?
God knew that we would make mistakes in this life and provided a means whereby we might repent of the evil we do and grasp hold of the free gift of salvation that our beloved Savior Jesus Christ has provided for us.
