Doctrine of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (sometimes inadvertently called the “Mormon Church”) holds that all things were created by God the Father through His Son, Jesus Christ, also called “The Word.”
At the beginning of the Gospel of John, it says:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men (John 1:1-4).
Joseph Smith, the first prophet of this, the last dispensation of time, was commanded by God to begin a translation of the Bible. In the process, Joseph Smith received by revelation, some missing parts of Genesis. He recorded this revelation as the Book of Moses, now found in the Pearl of Great Price, which is canonized scripture in the Church of Jesus Christ.
In the Book of Moses there is an account of Moses’ conversation with God when Moses was taken up to a high mountain. Moses had to be transfigured or “quickened” by the Lord in order to stand in God’s presence and live.
And he saw God face to face, and he talked with him, and the gloryof God was upon Moses; therefore Moses could endure his presence. And God spake unto Moses, saying: Behold, I am the Lord God Almighty, and Endless is my name; for I am without beginning of days or end of years; and is not this endless? And, behold, thou art my son; wherefore look, and I will show thee the workmanship of mine hands; but not all, for my works are without end, and also my words, for they never cease.
Wherefore, no man can behold all my works, except he behold all my glory; and no man can behold all my glory, and afterwards remain in the flesh on the earth. And I have a work for thee, Moses, my son; and thou art in the similitude of mine Only Begotten; and mine Only Begotten is and shall be the Savior, for he is full of grace and truth; but there is no God beside me, and all things are present with me, for I know them all….
And behold, the glory of the Lord was upon Moses, so that Moses stood in the presence of God, and talked with him face to face. And the Lord God said unto Moses: For mine own purpose have I made these things. Here is wisdom and it remaineth in me. And by the word of my power, have I created them, which is mine Only Begotten Son, who is full of grace and truth. And worlds without number have I created; and I also created them for mine own purpose; and by the Son I created them, which is mine Only Begotten (Moses 1:2-6; 31-33).
In the second chapter of the Book of Moses we find an account of the creation of this earth. Very similar to the Genesis account, the Book of Moses clarifies something for us, that everything was created spiritually in the heavenly realm, before it was created physically as the earth and everything on it.
And it came to pass that the Lord spake unto Moses, saying: Behold, I reveal unto you concerning this heaven, and this earth; write the words which I speak. I am the Beginning and the End, the Almighty God; by mine Only Begotten I created these things; yea, in the beginning I created the heaven, and the earth upon which thou standest….
And now, behold, I say unto you, that these are the generations of the heaven and of the earth, when they were created, in the day that I, the Lord God, made the heaven and the earth, And every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew. For I, the Lord God, created all things, of which I have spoken, spiritually, before they were naturally upon the face of the earth. 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; (Moses 2:1; Moses 3:4-5).
These scriptures reveal something very special about God’s Plan of Salvation for His children that is taught in Mormon doctrine, but not understood in other Christian sects — that we are eternal beings. We existed as intelligences before God, our Eternal Father, organized our spirits. We lived with Him in a pre-mortal spiritual realm wherein everything and everyone were created before our mortal sojourn on earth. In this pre-mortal realm we chose to sustain Jesus Christ, eternally divine, as the Savior of the world. He would atone for our sins and make it possible to return to Heavenly Father with our loved ones and dwell eternally in His presence. Mormons call this “eternal life,” or exaltation. Another gift, immortality, comes with the resurrection, another blessing of Christ’s atonement for us. God has revealed that this is his overarching goal — to make us like Him and to exalt us. He has said,
For behold, this is my work and my glory—to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man (Moses 1:39).
We were always meant to find the divine within ourselves and to try to become like Christ. We were created in His image:
And I, God, said unto mine Only Begotten, which was with me from the beginning: Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and it was so. And I, God, said: Let them have dominion over the fishes of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. And I, God, created man in mine own image, in the image of mine Only Begotten created I him; male and female created I them (Moses 2:26-27).
Another scripture in the Book of Abraham speaks of “Gods,” meaning God the Father, and His Only Begotten Son, Jesus Christ:
And then the Lord said: Let us go down. And they went down at the beginning, and they, that is the Gods, organized and formed the heavens and the earth (Abraham 4:1)
The entire creation account in the Book of Abraham speaks of Heavenly Father and Christ doing the work of creation together, “Gods.”