Chapter One

A Heavenly Start

"In the beginning" is a relative phrase. Latter-day Saint doctrine identifies no specific point on the cosmic ruler for the beginning of heaven, of earth, or of humanity. For the chronology of heaven--and of its God--we grant a very large ruler, one whose unit of measure is so vast as to render all calculations the nomenclature of eternity. As to the time of the creation of earth and its habitation by occupants we can begin a flirtation with numeracy, but the numbers are yet large, and unwieldy, and seemingly without inherent value.

    Not so in regard to the purpose of that creation. To that there remains no question.

    Far, far away--whether in physical distance or in metaphysical dimension, we make no claims--and long, long ago, you and I were born as spirit children of God and, naturally, a Goddess, actual beings of glorified human form and substance. Our home and theirs was a brilliant orb, a crystalline sphere, where the pure light of the greatest of all stars, Kolob, shone endlessly (and yet does and will forever). Time on that planet-star, our Kolob-blessed home, was unmeasured and largely irrelevant. Irrelevant but for our date with destiny.

    Thus, in our beginning, the great God and Goddess peopled their home in heaven with billions of spirit children, eternal intelligences clothed, through this spiritual birthing, with spiritual bodies; bodies complete of form: arms, legs, noses, ears, and so on. We were individual entities, male or female, like our parents, with personality and character. The children of the Gods looked liked the Gods: in the image of God created they us.

    There, as children of God, we lived and moved and had our being for untold millennia of time in "the regions of bliss." We were accompanied by the spiritually created animals of all varieties, as "all things were first created in the spirit existence in heaven before they were placed upon this earth."

    Unlike our Father and Mother, we (the God-children; distinct species from the other life-forms) were spirit only, unadorned with the perfected, glorious bodies they had achieved through a process we would yet learn about. We were potential heirs, not equals. Our eternal progression required that we, like they had done successfully before us, leave our heavenly home, take a physical body, and pass through the memory-veiled testing grounds of a mortal probation.

    Choice and accountability were the eternally paired principles upon which our progress would hinge: removed from their presence, how would we choose? Right and wrong were eternal verities and eternal opposites. Valiant obedience and willful rebellion were already apparent operatives in the premortal lives of each of us to varying degrees. Except for one.

    The firstborn spirit son we knew as Jehovah was like our Father in every respect but that of having gained a physical, then glorified, body. Valiant was his every thought, obedient his every action. Great would be his course through eternity.

    Thus after ages of time, in which our parents came to know us better than any mortal father or mother ever knows a child, a Grand Council was convened. There, with all of us present, the plan for our progression was presented: an earth, a mortal trial, and an evaluation.

    The event, reopened in vision to a mighty and faithful prophet ages later, would tell it like this:

Now the Lord had shown unto me, Abraham, the intelligences that were organized before the world was; and among all these there were many of the noble and great ones. And God saw these souls that they were good, and he stood in the midst of them, and he said: These I will make my rulers; for he stood among those that were spirits, and he saw that they were good; and he said unto me: Abraham, thou art one of them; thou wast chosen before thou wast born.

And there stood one among them that was like unto God [this being the Great Jehovah] and he said unto those who were with him: We will go down, for there is space there, and we will take of these materials, and we will make an earth whereon these may dwell; And we will prove them herewith, to see if they will do all things whatsoever the Lord their God [our common Father] shall command them.

    The proposal then was this: from the elements of the universe and in space then existing, worlds were to be organized, then peopled by the spirit children of God. These noble and great ones, assisted, perhaps, by other valiant children who would people each planet, would help in the effort, designing and creating, through natural processes of time and function and according to natural-eternal law, the earth and other inhabitable globes. From those elements, human beings would be formed, gods in embryo, our immortal spirits to be clothed with the dust of the earth, and all memories of our former existence in the presence of God to be shut out. We would be left to face the trials of mortality and prove our mettle as gods-in-process. Choice, the eternal principle, would precede the effects of accountability, its essential companion.

    It was made clear that none would pass through the trial unscathed, that none would remain clean. It was not so determined, it was simply known. Our tarnishment would come as the result not of another's transgression, but simply because the test would exceed the capacity of mortals.

    How, then, asked our Father, knowing but seeking wisdom and initiative among his children, would any of us return? For no unclean thing would ever return to his presence following the mortal sojourn.

    Quite simply, no one of us would measure up.

    At that, another son of God arose, this one also a "son of the morning" (one of the eldest, among the firstborn in that premortal sphere). Forever rebellious, and outrageous in his arrogance, this brother we called Lucifer proposed to save us all, to bring home every mortal sojourner, regardless of merit or effort. He would merely and simply abrogate the law and open the gates of eternity.

    Such a proposal was immediately recognized by most for its ignorance, for the immutable nature of agency and accountability--eternal laws of existence--had long been known and experienced by all of us. The only question remaining to most was how, following the surely less-than-spotless mortal trial of our moral agency, would any return to the presence of God without blemish? Force was clearly not an option, nor was the suspension of law, for such, even if possible, would make of heaven a hell.

    The Great Jehovah arose and continued. Of course, these humans would be granted agency, the right and the power to choose. Certainly, some would choose poorly. Two things would strengthen our chances. First, an enlightening voice, a whisper in our minds, would speak to us as the voice of conscience; obedient response to it would earn us the right to an even greater enlightenment, the directing presence or power of another Son of God, the Holy Ghost, who would lead the progressively obedient back to a full knowledge, even a lifting of the veil of memory. Second, Jehovah himself would come to earth, clothed in a mortal frame, and live a sinless life in our behalf. As all broken laws--the natural and immutable laws of heaven--bore a just and natural and immutable penalty, he would suffer himself to bear all things, even death, to work out the recompense, to make up the difference between our efforts and the requirements of heaven, in behalf of each of us.

    If the Father would accept such an expiation, such atonement, both justice and mercy could be satisfied--in fact, perfected.

    A shout of joy for this magnanimity coursed in waves through the heaven (see Job 38:7).

    But Lucifer bellowed once again, protesting this acquiescent offer. "I will bring them all," he bragged to the Father, bring them all back regardless of their personal effort or any shade of personal valiance developed. (Perhaps he wanted peers.) But then, "Here am I, send me, I will be thy son, and I will redeem all mankind, that one soul shall not be lost. And surely I will do it; wherefore give me thine honor ".

    He wanted to reign.

    Such bald-faced presumption had yet to be uttered in our heavenly home, and the stir it caused was ferocious. Some of our brothers and sisters yelled it was the only way, the only guarantee that this earth existence would not become instead a sure road to their ruination.

    In the midst of commotion, the Great Jehovah stood once again. He waited. The heavens stilled. The law of heaven, of the universe, he reminded us, required such a course as he had endorsed, a course that allowed agency and demanded accountability. It was the course of gods, the very path our parents had trod in a similar way ages before. And he would do all we couldn't, within the demands of justice. He would build that bridge back to eternity, if only we would let him.

    At that, the rancor resumed, and the heavens shook with an unknown murmur. Quietly, Jehovah turned to the Father, acknowledging his right to decide:

    "Father, thy will be done," he said, "and the glory be thine forever."

    And the Father said: "`I will send the first.' And the second was angry, and kept not his first estate; and, at that day, many followed after him."

    And all hell broke loose in heaven. The Book of Revelation calls it very plainly "war" (Rev. 12: 9-12). Lucifer and a full one-third of the children in heaven fought the valiant, led by one known as Michael, who both Jude and Paul would ages later refer to as the "Archangel."

    Having defied the laws of the universe, the rebellious clearly and effectively lost the contest, and "neither was their place found any more in heaven." They were cast out, disinherited. Their "father" (ruler) from then on would be Lucifer, and their dominion outer darkness. Thus did Lucifer become Satan, the devil, the tempter. Having rejected the eternal plan of heaven, these objectors selected the alternative: never would they take upon themselves a mortal body or complete the course toward Godhood. By their rebellion they had, in fact, rejected the opportunity for eternal progression before even having attempted it. Their role would yet play out on the earth, but it would be a role of darkness and eternal misery. Precisely, they would become agents of adversity for others: the spirits whispering of greed, lust, ire, and hatred. They had exercised their agency and borne the effect.

    "Wherefore, because that Satan rebelled against me, and sought to destroy the agency of man, which I, the Lord God, had given him, and also, that I should give unto him mine own power; by the power of mine Only Begotten, I caused that he should he cast down; and he became Satan, yea, even the devil, the father of all lies, to deceive and to blind men, and to lead them captive at his will, even as many as would not hearken unto my voice."

    And what of those who remained in heaven? Many wept over their fallen kin, their unfaithful brothers and sisters.

(Continues...)

Excerpted from Latter Days by Coke Newell. Copyright © 2000 by Clayton Corey Newell. Excerpted by permission. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.