But why did God create us just to seek him out?
From an LDS perspective on God and the universe, God is mankind.
Genesis 1:27
27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
We don't believe that God created mankind out of nothing, or in other words, we do not believe that God even creates ex nihilo (from nothing). We believe that creation of things in the universe in through combining self-existing eternal chaotic matter with self-existing eternal intelligence. We believe that man in his most basic self has always existed and will always exist. This self-existing self that is within all of us is known as our intelligence. It has always existed and will always exist.
Doctrine and Covenants 93:29
29 Man was also in the beginning with God. Intelligence, or the light of truth, was not created or made, neither indeed can be.
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.
We believe that God took from among the higher intelligences that existed and through his wife or possibly wives he procreated spirit children that were a combination of self-existing intelligences and self-existing matter. This combination brought about our spirit bodies. We believe that spirit matter is more pure and fine and cannot be discerned by our mortal eyes, but that it is still matter.
Psalms 82:6
6 I have said, Ye are gods; and all of you are children of the most High.
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.
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?
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.
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.
Because our intelligences are self-existing they could not be created or made by God. Thus God could not create us to be perfect. In order for us to become perfect even as our Father in heaven is perfect, we need to learn to become so. For this reason God created a temporal world for us to learn good and evil and also allowed us to receive a more material body of flesh and bones. In this fallen world we can learn to become more like God by knowing good and evil.
Genesis 3:22
22 And the Lord God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever:
As Doctrine and Covenants 93:33-34 shown above teach, we actually gain more joy by being connected to matter. Thus having a body gives our intelligences and spirit bodies more joy. It is the plan of God that we all will eventually resurrect and live in our bodies for all eternity just as Jesus resurrected to an immortal body (see Luke 24 and 1 Corinthians 15:21-22). We believe that God the Father is an exalted immortal man with a body of flesh and bones and we believe that Jesus now is a resurrected immortal man with a body of flesh and bones. We believe that it is the work and glory of God to bring about the immortality and eternal life of man.
Moses 1:39
39 For behold, this is my work and my glory—to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.
When we existed as mere intelligences, we wanted to become more like God and were born as his spirit children before coming to this earth. As spirits we hoped to become even more like God and take on physical bodies of flesh and bones and to learn good from evil. God is a God of love and wishes to have other become as he has become.
Doctrine and Covenants 130:22-23
22 The Father has a body of flesh and bones as tangible as man’s; the Son also; but the Holy Ghost has not a body of flesh and bones, but is a personage of Spirit. Were it not so, the Holy Ghost could not dwell in us.
23 A man may receive the Holy Ghost, and it may descend upon him and not tarry with him.
Matthew 5:48
48 Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.
John 17:20-23
20 Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word;
21 That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.
22 And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one:
23 I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.
Man, Antemortal Existence of
- See also Council in Heaven; Foreordination; Man, a Spirit Child of Heavenly Father; Spirit Creation
- God of the spirits of all flesh, Num. 16:22 (27:16).
- all the sons of God shouted for joy, Job 38:7.
- the spirit shall return unto God who gave it, Eccl. 12:7.
- Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee, Jer. 1:5.
- Lord … formeth the spirit of man within him, Zech. 12:1.
- who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind, John 9:2.
- poets have said, For we are also his offspring, Acts 17:28.
- For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate, Rom. 8:29.
- chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, Eph. 1:4.
- subjection unto the Father of spirits, Heb. 12:9.
- angels which kept not their first estate, Jude 1:6.
- Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, Rev. 12:7.
- called and prepared from the foundation of the world, Alma 13:3.
- bringeth them back into the presence of the Lord, Hel. 14:17.
- third part of the hosts of heaven turned he away, D&C 29:36.
- seraphic hosts of heaven, before the world was made, D&C 38:1.
- man, according to his creation before the world, D&C 49:17.
- Man was also in the beginning with God, D&C 93:29.
- choice spirits who were reserved to come forth, D&C 138:53.
- before they were born … received their first lessons, D&C 138:56.
- in heaven created I them; and there was not yet flesh upon the earth, Moses 3:5.
- he beheld the spirits that God had created, Moses 6:36.
- intelligences that were organized before the world was, Abr. 3:22.
- he stood among those that were spirits, Abr. 3:23.
- took his spirit … and put it into him, Abr. 5:7.
- See also Prov. 8:22–31; John 1:2, 14; 8:58; 16:28; 17:5, 24; 2 Tim. 1:9; Titus 1:2; 3 Ne. 1:13; 26:5; Ether 3:16.
