Before he died, Larry Barkdull had written a substantial part of an unfinished manuscript about the extraordinary power of faith, particularly as a power that causes things to happen. This is faith on a higher level than we usually practice and understand it. With the permission of his wife, Buffie, Meridian will be running an excerpt from this new book every week. See earlier articles in this series by clicking on the author’s name.
The Son is Co-creator
From the very beginning, the Father involved the Son is every creative enterprise: the Father as the architect of creation and the Son as the Father’s foreman, his “Word” of creative power: “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.”[1]
Paul explained Jesus’ creative activities this way: “For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers; all things were created by him, and for him…and by him all things consist.”[2]
And Jesus’ role as co-creator continues and will continue throughout eternity: “By him, and through him, and of him, the worlds are and were created, and the inhabitants thereof are begotten sons and daughters unto God.”[3]
There is an exception to the co-creative process. The Father reserves to himself the right and ability to create (beget) his own children. Nevertheless, the Father involves the Son at an appropriate level. For example, Jesus was present at the creation of Adam – “Let us go down and form man in our image, after our likeness.”[4] Later, God told Moses, “Thou art in the similitude of mine Only Begotten,” causing Moses to declare, “I am a son of God, in the similitude of his Only Begotten.”[5]
Significantly, the Father creates his children in the image, likeness and similitude of his firstborn Son. Why? Because the fundamental purpose of our creation is the same as Christ’s: to rise to the level of our divine DNA and become beings like our heavenly parents. Thus, Jesus tells us expressly that we are to follow and become like him.[6] He is our Exemplar and, like the Father, the Example of all saved beings. Joseph Smith taught, “These teachings of the Savior most clearly show unto us the nature of salvation, and what he proposed unto the human family when he proposed to save them – that he proposed to make them like unto himself, and he was like the Father, the great prototype of all saved beings; and for any portion of the human family to be assimilated into their likeness is to be saved and to be unlike them is to be destroyed and on this hinge turns the door of salvation.”[7]And thus salvation rests on “the difference in the degree of their faith [in Jesus Christ] – one’s faith has become perfect enough to lay hold upon eternal life, and the other’s has not.”[8]
How the Son becomes the Father
To fulfill the purpose of our creation and become like our heavenly parents, the Father had to offer a sacrifice that would eclipse the demands of salvation: his own life. Because that was not possible, he proposed to deliver his children into the hands of his Son by means of the covenant of adoption, making the Son their adoptive father. Then, working through the Son, the Father could sacrifice his life by proxy: a Father’s life to save the lives of the children. There was no other way for Heavenly Father to provide for our redemption and exaltation. The Father needed to duplicate himself; he needed a Proxy through whom he could work and sacrifice his life. Otherwise, the purposes of creation would be frustrated and all would be in vain.
Thus, in the incomparable miracle of the generation of Jesus Christ, the Father created a being exactly like himself, with the exception that this being had not yet taken a physical body, died and resurrected. This firstborn and rightful heir to the kingdom of God was identical to the Father in character, attributes, perfections, knowledge, power, glory, might and dominion; he was equal to the Father in every way and the co-creator of everything and everyone. As co-creator, the Son now shared the burden of salvation of all the Father’s children and creations. He was “generated” to become the Father’s Duplicate and Proxy.
The Son becomes the Father’s Proxy
And Jesus lived true to the purpose of his creation. “For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me.”[9] The Father’s Proxy indeed! “The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise.”[10] Abinadi elaborated on the proxy mission of Jesus Christ: “The will of the Son [is] swallowed up in the will of the Father.”[11]
As the Father’s Proxy, subordinating his will to the Father, Jesus allowed the Father to use his mortal body to do a work that was uniquely the Father’s responsibility to accomplish. “Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works.”[12] Abinadi points to an astonishing evidence of the Father working through the Son to provide for the immortality of man: “And thus God [the Father] breaketh the bands of death, having gained the victory over death; giving the Son power to make intercession for the children of men.”[13]
Clearly, the indwelling Father speaks and acts through the Son, who is the Father’s Duplicate. Said Jesus, “He that hath seen me hath seen the Father.”[14] And the similarities do not end there: “I and my Father are one.”[15] This oneness is perhaps greater than we are capable of imagining.
Jesus qualifies to be called “the Father and the Son” because of his amazing generation. “He was conceived by the power of God” for the purpose of becoming the Father’s Proxy. Because of the identical nature of the Father and the Son, and because Jesus voluntarily subjects his flesh to the Father, they can rightfully be called “one God.”[16] There is great truth in the words we sing, “There was no other good enough to pay the price of sin. He only [only He] could unlock the gate of heaven and let us in.”[17]
O the greatness of our Father! Only he could create another God in the “express image of his person.”[18] Jesus Christ was the first and the greatest miracle of the Father! And who shall declare the testimony of Jesus’ generation? The beautiful ones.
The Father and the Son saw Us!
That was Abinadi’s fatal answer. In his defense, he taught another messianic truth from Isaiah 53: “When thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin he shall see his seed. And now what say ye? And who shall be his seed?”[19] That is to say, when the Father shall make Jesus’ soul and offering for sin, Jesus shall see his adopted sons and daughters, they whose feet are beautiful upon the mountains–the beautiful ones.[20]
Imagine! In the Atonement, Jesus saw each one of us through the eyes of the Father. Together, they contemplated the full price of our redemption, and Jesus yielded his life to the Father, who offered it to pay the price of all sin and every affliction, sickness, eventuality and obstacle that stood between exaltation and us![21] The Atonement is more than the sum total of human sin; it is ultra-personal, and Jesus is the perfect, selfless Proxy. He yielded his body to the Father to accomplish the sacrifice of the life of the Creator, and he also stood proxy for each one of us, essentially assuming our identities, to pay the price of our sins and suffer in advance for our weaknesses and afflictions. He saw and stood proxy for us! This is our faith.
The Beautiful Ones convey the Testimony of Jesus
Abinadi’s life hung in the balance on this question: Who are the beautiful ones, they whose beautiful feet convey the testimony of Jesus?
And it came to pass that one of them said unto him: What meaneth the words which are written, and which have been taught by our fathers, saying: How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings; that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good; that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth.[22]
Abinadi declared that the seed of Jesus Christ are they who center their faith in and testify of Jesus. They are the beautiful ones, “whosoever has heard the words of the prophets…all those who have hearkened unto their words, and believed that the Lord would redeem his people, and have looked forward to that day for a remission of their sins, I say unto you, that these are his seed, or they are the heirs of the kingdom of God. For these are they whose sins he has borne; these are they for whom he has died, to redeem them from their transgressions. And now, are they not his seed?”[23]
Furthermore, Abinadi taught that the prophets are the beautiful ones. “These are they who have published peace, who have brought good tidings of good, who have published salvation; and said unto Zion: Thy God reigneth!”[24] The prophets bear the testimony of Jesus, who is the ultimate Beautiful One, “the founder of peace, yea, even the Lord, who has redeemed his people; yea, him who has granted salvation unto his people.”[25]
The apostle John expanded the term “prophet” to include anyone who has the testimony of Jesus: “The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.”[26] Abinadi alluded to this definition of “prophet” when he announced, “And again, how beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of those that are still publishing peace! And again, how beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of those who shall hereafter publish peace, yea, from this time henceforth and forever!”[27]
Can there be any doubt that we, who have the testimony of Jesus, are the beautiful ones? We are the covenant ones, the seed of Jesus Christ, the ones who exercise faith in the real identity of the Father and the Son, the ones who are charged to declare Jesus’ true “generation,” identity, character, perfections, attributes, glory, might, power and dominion.
As Jesus is to the Father, so are we to the Father and the Son
We are the seed of Christ by adoption, the beautiful ones who take Jesus Christ as our Exemplar. As Jesus is to the Father, so we are to him. “Wherefore, what manner of men ought ye to be? Verily I say unto you, even as I am.”[28] We are the beautiful ones who have ceased our enmity with God, put off the natural man, yielded to the enticing of the Holy Spirit, and meekly, humbly, patiently, willingly submitted to the Father’s loving, transforming efforts.[29]
We are the beautiful ones who subordinate our wills to the Father so that he can work through us, as he worked through Christ, to accomplish our own missions, and by such accomplishment, as Christ accomplished his mission, we rise in glory to the stature and image of the Son. “When he shall appear, we shall be like him!”[30] As Jesus was created to have the identical countenance of his Father, so we are transformed to reflect the image of the Father in our countenances. We begin this transformation by being spiritually born of God and experiencing the mighty change of heart–achieving the heart of Jesus Christ![31]
Then, yielding our new hearts to God,[32] subordinating our will to his, allowing him to work through us, we become one with the Father and the Son, as Jesus was one with the Father. Jesus prayed, “That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us.”[33]
And what work will he do through us? The work of increasing faith and saving souls! What other work is there for the Gods and their sons and daughters? We, the beautiful ones, the seed of Christ, stand as prophets with the ordained prophets of God to bring people to Christ by bearing the testimony that is uniquely ours: Jesus is the Christ, “the mighty God, the Everlasting Father,”[34] both “the Father and the Son,”[35] the “Word” by which all things are and were made,[36] “the life [and] the light of men,”[37] the great Jehovah, “the first and the last…he who liveth…he who was slain…[the] advocate with the Father”[38] in whom “all fulness dwells,”[39] he who is “more intelligent than they all,”[40] the first and the “beginning of the creation of God,”[41] the Proxy for the Father.
The Testimony of Jesus: The Deciding Factor of the Last Days
This testimony, like Abinadi’s, is certain to cause the demise of Babylon and usher in Zion. As it was in the war in heaven, so it shall be in the last days for the war for souls: the testimony of Jesus shall prevail and defeat the enemies of God.
And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.[42]
Why is the testimony of Jesus essential to the subject of faith in Jesus Christ? Because one cannot exercise faith in the Lord without some confirming evidence or knowledge of him. Elder McConkie wrote: “To gain faith, men must first have knowledge; then as their faith increases, they come to a state where it is supplanted by perfect knowledge.”[43] Hope in Jesus and belief in Jesus will carry us only so far; faith in Jesus is founded on the bedrock of confirmable knowledge. The beautiful ones declare a wholly unique testimony of Jesus Christ, his generation and his relationship to the Father, which the beautiful ones know by the power of the Holy Ghost.[44]
[1] John 1:1-3.
[2] Colossians 1:16-17.
[3] D&C 76:24.
[4] Abraham 4:26, emphasis added.
[5] Moses 1:6, 13.
[6] Matthew 16:24; 3 Nephi 27:27.
[7] Lectures on Faith 7:16.
[8] Lectures on Faith 7:9.
[9] John 6:38.
[10] John 5:19.
[11] Mosiah 15:7.
[12] John 14:10, emphasis added.
[13] Mosiah 15:8.
[14] John 14:9.
[15] John 10:30.
[16] Mosiah 15:5.
[17] Hymns, 194.
[18] Hebrews 1:3.
[19] Mosiah 14:10.
[20] Mosiah 12:12.
[21] Alma 7:11-13.
[22] Mosiah 12:21.
[23] Mosiah 15:11-12.
[24] Mosiah 15:14.
[25] Mosiah 15:18.
[26] Revelation 19:10.
[27] Mosiah 15:16-17.
[28] 3 Nephi 27:27.
[29] Mosiah 3:19.
[30] 1 John 3:2.
[31] Alma 5:14
[32] Helaman 3:35.
[33] John 17:21.
[34] Isaiah 9:6.
[35] Mosiah 15:2.
[36] John 1:1-3.
[37] John 1:4.
[38] D&C 110:4.
[39] 1 Colossians 1:19.
[40] Abraham 3:19.
[41] Revelation 3:14.
[42] Revelation 12:10-11, emphasis added.
[43] Mormon Doctrine, 267.
[44] 1 Corinthians 12:3.
