Question
Gramps,
Why did Joseph Smith say that God had not the power to create our spirits if He had not the power to create Himself? This puts me at odds with Moses Chapter 3.
Rob
Answer
Rob,
A single statement in a single speech is not all there is to say about a topic. Were his words from one speech all-inclusive? Did every single word he said include all the ifs, ands, and buts about the topic? Of course not.
The first point I’ll make is that Joseph was explaining a new concept. They had learned that we existed as spirits before this life. That was something new for a world of Christians who believed they were all made ex nihilo upon conception.
At the time, Doctrine & Covenants 93 had already given some statements/definitions regarding intelligence. However, it was not fully developed. It isn’t just some “radiating energy” from our being. It IS our being. And it is that being that he was referring to as being eternal.
Quotes are from King Follett Sermon:
The mind or the intelligence which man possesses is co-equal [co-eternal] with God himself.
Clearly this was the eternal aspect of our beings. We are co-eternal with God because we always existed in some primitive “chaotic” form.
Many may have heard the word intelligence and simply believed it to be the mundane meaning of having knowledge or being smart. No, this was a different concept entirely. Yet it is the closest English word to describe it.
God had materials to organize the world out of chaos—chaotic matter, which is element
The audience was already familiar with the creation of the world. But they hadn’t fully grasped the doctrine that, just as God made our physical bodies out of pre-existing chaotic physical matter, He also made our “spirit bodies” (Moses 3) from pre-existing chaotic spiritual matter.
Now, he had to reveal that we existed as intelligences even before our spirits were formed. This is more difficult than we give credit for. These are people who just had their worldview turned on its head, then a new doctrine was introduced (pre-mortal spirit creation). Now, he was attempting to teach that this core of our being (intelligences) had always existed before even our spirits were formed. That’s a lot for people grasp in a short period of time.
To teach this new concept, he applied a technique of master teaching that many would do well to imitate, when trying to introduce a completely unfamiliar concept, especially one that was so similar to, but slightly different from a concept they had just learned.
Up to that point, his audience, as yet, didn’t really understand the concept of intelligence as a “type of being.” Doctrine & Covenants 93 only speaks of intelligence as
- Light & Truth (v. 29)
- Glory (v. 36)
- Section 93 also hints at something more: the ability to act (v.30). And most people didn’t pick up on that.
He was trying to connect the concepts using the word spirit to sometimes mean what we call intelligence today.
So, he has to explain that, not only did we have an existence before this life, but we had an existence before our spirits were formed. So, to draw them into this new concept, he juxtaposes the two words.
I am dwelling on the immortality of the spirit of man. Is it logical to say that the intelligence of spirits is immortal, and yet that it has a beginning? The intelligence of spirits had no beginning, neither will it have an end. That is good logic. That which has a beginning may have an end.
Then he takes a step back (linking them again) to allow the audience to catch up.
There never was a time when there were not spirits; for they are co-equal [co-eternal] with our Father in heaven.
…Intelligence is eternal and exists upon a self-existent principle. It is a spirit from age to age and there is no creation about it. All the minds and spirits that God ever sent into the world are susceptible of enlargement.
Then, after he spends time talking about repentance and forgiveness, he finally goes full intelligence on us.
He has power to institute laws to instruct the weaker intelligences, that they may be exalted with Himself, so that they might have one glory upon another, and all that knowledge, power, glory, and intelligence, which is requisite in order to save them in the world of spirits.
So, while Moses 3 does correctly reveal that The Lord did create our spirit forms from chaotic matter, Joseph also reveals the doctrine that intelligence is that quality (or chaotic spiritual matter) from which our spirits were formed (Moses 3) whereby we are able to choose, to act, and to gain more knowledge, power, and glory.
Gramps
