Where did God come from, and is our Heavenly Father the God of all the universe?

Question

Dear Gramps,

Hi. Please tell me where our Heavenly Father came from. How was He created? Did He create other worlds previous to and after He created the earth? Is our Heavenly Father the God to the entire universe? My other question is, has Jesus been elsewhere to preach the word of the Lord? As well; has Satan been elsewhere to induce evil upon other beings or to influence badness? Thank you.

Emily

Answer

Dear Emily,

Perhaps the most succinct answer to your first question would be to show you the words to the hymn,

If You Could Hie to Kolob, by William W. Phelps

If you could hie to Kolob In the twinkling of an eye,
And then continue onward With that same speed to fly,
Do you think that you could ever, Through all eternity,
Find out the generation Where Gods began to be?

Or see the grand beginning, Where space did not extend?
Or view the last creation, Where Gods and matter end?
Me thinks the Spirit whispers, “No man has found ‘pure space,’
Nor seen the outside curtains, Where nothing has a place.”

The works of God continue, And worlds and lives abound;
Improvement and progression Have one eternal round.
There is no end to matter; There is no end to space;
There is no end to spirit; There is no end to race.

We are the children of God. He is the literal father of our spirits. The answer to your question is simple. God was born as you and I were born in the spirit world. He has matured through the eternities and is the God of His generation of spirits. He has created, not only this world, but all the universe as we are permitted to know it. And all this creation was accomplished by his first-born Son in the spirit, and his Only Begotten Son in the flesh, the Lord, Jesus Christ, whose name in the Old Testament is rendered as Jehovah.

Enoch, in speaking to the Lord, marveled at His infinite creation in these words—

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; and yet thou art there, and thy bosom is there; and also thou art just; thou art merciful and kind forever. (Moses 7:30)

An additional scriptural evidence that God, through Jesus Christ, is the creator of limitless worlds in found in the words of the Savior in the book of Moses 7:36—

Wherefore, I can stretch forth mine hands and hold all the creations which I have made; and mine eye can pierce them also, and among all the workmanship of mine hands there has not been so great wickedness as among thy brethren.

Since God is the creator of all the worlds, and the Eternal Father of all the inhabitants of all those worlds, His Only Begotten Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, is the Savior of all those infinite worlds, as implied in the above scripture.. Can one even begin to contemplate the extent of the infinite suffering that He had to endure to pay a full price to the principal of eternal justice for all the sins committed by all of God’s children in all of the worlds of the universe through all the ages of time!!

We are given little to know about the inhabitants of other worlds, but the inhabitants of other worlds know about us, because their Savior was born here! In D&C 38:11-12 we read—

For all flesh is corrupted before me; and the powers of darkness prevail upon the earth, among the children of men, in the presence of all the hosts of heaven–

 

Which causeth silence to reign, and all eternity is pained, and the angels are waiting the great command to reap down the earth, to gather the tares that they may be burned; and, behold, the enemy is combined.

So all the hosts of heaven, in some manner, were able to witness what happened to their Savior as he paid the ultimate, infinite price for all their sins. They had seen his face, because He walked among them, and undoubtedly taught them all the laws of life and salvation. We learn that from the beautiful analogy in Doctrine & Covenants 88:51-61 where He likens the worlds, which He calls kingdoms, to fields where His servants were sent to work, promising them that He would visit each of them in turn, each in his hour, and I will come unto you, and ye shall behold the joy of my countenance.

Concerning Satan and his universal role, we read in the Book of Mormon in 2 Nephi 2:11-12—

For it must needs be, that there is an opposition in all things. If not so, my first-born in the wilderness, righteousness could not be brought to pass, neither wickedness, neither holiness nor misery, neither good nor bad. Wherefore, all things must needs be a compound in one; wherefore, if it should be one body it must needs remain as dead, having no life neither death, nor corruption nor incorruption, happiness nor misery, neither sense nor insensibility. Wherefore, it must needs have been created for a thing of naught; wherefore there would have been no purpose in the end of its creation. Wherefore, this thing must needs destroy the wisdom of God and his eternal purposes, and also the power, and the mercy, and the justice of God.

This universal opposition in all things is a fundamental principal of existence, so it must apply in all the creations of the Father. So there is one God, the Father of all, one Savior, His Only Begotten Son, the Lord, Jesus Christ, and one Lucifer, or Satan, who was cast out of heaven with one third of the hosts of heaven, who opted, with him, for universal salvation without individual merit. I would imagine that throughout the universe the forces of evil are battling the forces of righteousness, just as they are on this earth.

Gramps