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OLDSTER - All my life I was taught that the Savior was the Creator of earth. Even Joseph Fielding Smith says so. He mentions that the Father was the designer or engineer, but Jesus created it making the Savior the Creator. Too many times in testimonies from members, I hear this: "I know the Father created this earth." Am I confused about this or is there no confusion at all? When members say the Father created this earth, it's not really wrong but maybe you can help. Which makes me hope you can offer some clarification to all of this.
JOEL - It's the way President Smith said. The designer or engineer can also take credit for creating something. Talk to an architect and then to the ones who physically built a house and they will both say that they built it.
In the Book of Mormon Jesus said:
"For it is I that taketh upon me the sins of the world; for it is I that hath created them; and it is I that granteth unto him that believeth unto the end a place at my right hand." (mosiah 26:23 )Under the direction of God the Father, Jesus created everything in this universe including all of us. God the Father was the creator of our spirits; both God the Father and Jesus created the universe and our bodies.
"And I, God, said unto mine Only Begotten, which was with me from the beginning: Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and it was so." (Moses 2: 26, also Eph 3: 9)
The "us" in this scripture is God the Father and Jesus as creators of man. The "them" in Mosiah 26:23 are the sheep or members within the church that God refers to in the previous verses. (Verses 21-22)
Some confusion may come up when Jesus is referred to as the Father.
"Behold, I am he who was prepared from the foundation of the world to redeem my people. Behold, I am Jesus Christ. I am the Father and the Son. In me shall all mankind have life, and that eternally, even they who shall believe on my name; and they shall become my sons and my daughters."(Ether 3:14-16)
There are three ways that Jesus can be called the Father:
1. Jesus is the Father of heaven and earth, by which we mean he is the Creator.
2. He is the Father in that, as He said, "they who shall believe on my name; and they shall become my sons and my daughters" (verse 14). So He is the Father of all those who believe on his name, who are born again, who are adopted into his family.
3. He is the Father by divine investiture of authority, meaning that Heavenly Father has placed his name and power upon the Son, so that the words and acts of the Son are and become those of the Father. Abinadi said, "the will of the Son being swallowed up in the will of the Father. And thus God breaketh the bands of death, having gained the victory over death; giving the son power to make intercession for the children of men." (Mosiah 15:1-9.)
Jesus said, "I and my Father are one", (John 10:30). And since the "words and acts of the Son are and become those of the Father", whatever Jesus does it is as if the Father did it also.Therefore God the Father and Jesus created everything.
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