The Creation

The Mormon view of "Creatio ex nihilo"

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• Question: How did the mainstream Christian view that God created the universe out of nothing originate?
• Question: What were the early Christian beliefs about the creation?
• Question: How was the doctrine of creation altered to "creatio ex nihilo"?
• Question: Does Colossians 1:16 teach that Jesus created all things out of nothing?
• Question: Does what Joseph Smith taught about the creation of spirits contradict the scriptures?
• LDS doctrine rejects Neo-Plantonic accretions, but this does not make them automatically false
• Mormons and creatio ex nihilo (creation out of nothing)
• "Smith would have held his own in debating with" Neo-Platonists, Gnostics, and early Christian theologians
• Augustine's views about matter are perhaps less coherent than Joseph Smith's
• Non-LDS Christian Stephen H. Webb: Creedal Christians can learn from LDS views about Jesus Christ and creation
• Joseph Smith's theology is not pagan—his theology is vast as the multiverse, and eliminates Neo-Platonism and Augustine

Doctrine & Covenants 77:6 refers to "this earth during the seven thousand years of its continuance"

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• Question: How do we reconcile the actual age of the earth to the "seven thousand years of its continuance" mentioned in D&C 77:6?
• Brigham Young (1871): "whether the Lord...made it in six days or in as many millions of years, is and will remain a matter of speculation in the minds of men unless he give revelation on the subject"
• John S. Lewis: "Considering that Doctrine and Covenants 77:6 refers to “…this earth during the seven thousand years of its continuance, or its temporal existence,” what led Phelps to speak of Earth as 2,555 million years old?"
• Improvement Era 1909 regards an ancient earth as consistent with scripture
• John A. Widtsoe in Improvement Era 1909 on the age of the earth
• Charles W. Penrose in Improvement Era 1909 on the age of the earth
• James E. Talmage, a geologist, spoke of the earth forming from other bodies
• Question: Was Brigham Young a "young earth creationist"?
• Question: How do dinosaurs fit into God's plan?

Mormonism and the theory of evolution

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• Statements from Church leaders on the subject of evolution
• Unofficial primary sources on evolution

Belief in a literal Adam and Eve

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• Question: Can Latter-day Saints have a non-literal view of the creation story, or have a somewhat more mythic view of the first five books of Moses given the Church's teaching of a historical Adam?
• Question: What is the Church's position on Adam and Eve?
• First Presidency statement (1931): "Leave geology, biology, archaeology and anthropology, no one of which has to do with the salvation of the souls of mankind, to scientific research"
• Question: How does the Church explain the existence of human-like beings on the earth prior to Adam?

Mormon perspectives on the concept of death on the entire earth before the Fall of Adam

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• Question: What does the Church teach on the subject of death before the Fall of Adam?
• Question: Was there no death on the entire earth before the Fall?
• Question: What was the state of things on the Earth prior to the placement of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden?
• Question: What changes have been made to the Gospel Principles manual regarding the question of death on the earth before the Fall of Adam?
• Question: Is the concept of no death before the fall on the entire earth Church doctrine?
• Question: Did procreation exist before the Fall of Adam?
• Question: How does the Church explain the existence of human-like beings on the earth prior to Adam?
• First Presidency statement (1931): "Leave geology, biology, archaeology and anthropology, no one of which has to do with the salvation of the souls of mankind, to scientific research"

Fall of Adam and Eve

Summary: If it was God's plan for Eve to eat the fruit, then why did God forbid it? Why did God not simply create Adam and Eve as mortals?

Jump to details:

• Question: If God intended the Fall of Adam and Eve, why did he forbid the fruit? Why did he not simply create them as mortals?
• Question: If "the wages of sin is death" as described in Romans 6:23, and the fall of Adam and Eve was a transgression rather than a sin, then why did it introduce death into the world?
• Question: How did the transgression of Adam and Eve introduce sin into the world?
• Question: If the transgression of Adam and Eve was actually a blessing for them, then why did they feel guilty and afraid when God approached them in the Garden of Eden after they committed their transgression?
• Question: If the transgression of Adam and Eve resulted in physical and spiritual death, then why are we only subject to spiritual death for eternity if we do not repent?

See also: Original sin