“This (Moses 2:26-27) was a spiritual creation, man was created in the image of God, male and female, first in the Spirit, and told in that spiritual creation that they were expected to multiply and replenish the earth when they were placed upon it.” (Joseph Fielding Smith, Origin of the Reorganized Church, 7th edition (Salt Lake City, Utah: Deseret News Press, 1909), p. 99).

If Moses described the spiritual creation of man in Chapter 2, the creation of animals, plants, and earth itself in Chapter 2 must have also been a spiritual creation. Moses then skips forward to the seventh day of physical creation in Chapter 3 where he describes the physical creation of man.

Notice that Adam was made a living soul in Chapter 3. Being made a living soul is the definition of physical creation. All mankind was not made living souls in Chapter 2.

Also notice that all of mankind was commanded to multiply and replenish the earth in Chapter 2. According to Joseph Fielding Smith this is one way to recognize the spiritual creation. Adam was not given that commandment in Chapter 3. If he had it would have only applied to him.

So, according to both Moses and Abraham, Adam and Eve were created on the seventh day of physical creation. This is specifically stated in D&C 77:12.

“We are to understand that as God made the world in six days, and on the seventh day he finished his work, and sanctified it, and also formed man out of the dust of the earth, even so, in the beginning of the seventh thousand years will the Lord God sanctify the earth.”

According to both Moses and Abraham, modern animals were also created on the seventh day of physical creation. As mentioned above, Moses’ description of the creation of animals before the seventh day was spiritual. Abraham describes physical creation of the earth in Abr. 4, but specifically says the earth was simply being prepared for man and modern plants and animals during that time.

A subtle phrase in D&C 77:12 quoted above opens the possibility that God used prehistoric life to prepare for modern life. A careful reading tells us that the earth was sanctified on the seventh day of physical creation just as it will be sanctified for the millennium. The earth must have made the same transition from Telestial to Terrestrial on the seventh day of physical creation that it will make for the millennium. Prehistoric life could have lived and died during the first six days of creation on a Telestial world.

Moses makes a statement about this that is confusing if taken out of context. In Moses 3:5 he describes conditions at the beginning of the seventh day:

“For I, the Lord God, had not caused it to rain upon the face of the earth. And I, the Lord God, had created all the children of men; and not yet a man to till the ground; for in heaven created I them; and there was not yet flesh upon the earth, neither in the water, neither in the air;”

If it hadn’t rained since the start of physical creation, and there was not yet life on the earth, how could prehistoric life been used to prepare the earth for modern life? Another subtle phrase, this time in Abraham, clears this up. First the context of the phrase.

Abraham 4:26 says that on the six time “the Gods took counsel among themselves” to come down and place Adam upon the earth on the seventh time. During this council they said, “On the seventh time we will end our work, which we have counseled” (Abraham 5:1). It is important to know that this particular council was held toward the end of the sixth time.

The subtle phrase comes in Abr. 5:5:

“. . . for the Gods had not caused it to rain upon the earth when they counseled to do them.”

The council was held during the sixth time. Towards the end of the
sixth time Gods turned the earth’s sprinkler system off. Moses, who didn’t report on any of the first six days of physical creation, was simply reporting the condition of the earth at the beginning of the seventh day. His statement is normally taken out of context. Prehistoric life could have come and gone before Adam, just as Abraham seems to infer.

Evolution played no part because there was no flesh on the earth when Adam was created. Science can keep everything it knows about prehistoric life if they would just admit that the Mega-fauna extinction was a Full-fauna extinction. They would also have to admit that evolution played no part new life forms being introduced after any of the prehistoric extinctions.