“I Am He Who Was Prepared From the Foundation of the World”
by Maurine and Scot Proctor

The following is an excerpt from Source of the Light, A Witness and Testimony of Jesus Christ, the Savior and Redeemer of All and is intended to aid you as you begin your study of the Old Testament this year in Sunday School. Our goal at Meridian Magazine this year is to do everything in our power to help our readers come to love the Old Testament and to come to know it as a testament of Jesus Christ.

Looking north from summit of Jebel Musa, Mt. Sinai, as first light touches ancient, twisted red granite of the holy mountain. From the 7,497-foot peak in the southern region of the Sinai Desert, range upon range of mountains can be seen. Near this place Moses conversed with the God of Israel, “face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend.”[1]

A baby cried in the stillness of a spring night in Bethlehem, and the world would never be the same. Here in the vulnerability and tenderness of an infant was the Lord Himself. Jesus Christ had come to walk the dusty roads of mortality, to know hunger, pain, and rejection—all to ease our burdens. When we kneel at the very limits of our earthly endurance, we can always know that He has been there before us. Yet the story does not begin here. It begins in a time beyond our memory, before our birth, before the veil of forgetfulness dropped over our spirits. There in the premortal world, we all lived as spirit sons and daughters of Heavenly Parents. Called Jehovah, Jesus Christ was the firstborn, the preeminent One of all the sons and daughters of God. John testifies, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. . . . And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us."[2] In mortality Jesus prayed, "Glorify thou me with . . . the glory which I had with thee before the world was."[3]

Spring of Dan in northern Israel bubbling forth with clear, cold water from aquifers fed by the snowfields of 9,232-foot Mt. Hermon—source of the Jordan River. The word Jordan means “coming down from Dan.”

In that premortal world, a grand council was held, whose results led the morning stars to sing together and all the sons of God to shout for joy.[4] God the Father presented a plan that would enable all of His sons and daughters to progress to be like Him. For each spirit, the plan would involve risk, a leaving home to dwell on earth, a testing. Yet it would also mean the obtaining of a body, an opportunity to prove faithful, a school. "We will go down," the Lord said, "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 shall command them."[5]

Red poppies in Galilee, a vibrant reminder of the blood shed in the Savior’s sacrifice. The poet writes: “Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting; The Soul that rises with us, our life’s star Hath had elsewhere its setting And cometh from afar; Not in entire forgetfulness, And not in utter nakedness, But trailing clouds of glory do we come from God, who is our home.”[6]

In this world, mortals would, by their very nature, be subject to sin and heartrending weakness. Forgetting everything before that first breath of mortal life, they would err, stumble, sin. Because it is an eternal law that "no unclean thing can dwell with God,"[7] they could not return to their Heavenly Father without a Redeemer, someone who would take upon Himself their sins, making their garments "pure and spotless" again before God,[8] giving new life. It was God's beloved Son, Jehovah, who volunteered Himself as the sacrifice, to take upon Himself all the sins of the world. This would demand a perfect life, a complete submission, a never bending to temptation, an "infinite and eternal sacrifice."[9] "Father, thy will be done," said Jehovah, who would be Jesus Christ, "and the glory be thine forever."[10] I will perform this weighty task, He was saying, not for acclaim or honor, not to upset thy throne, but for love.

Sunset over Yam ha-Melah (the Dead Sea) in the wilderness of Judea as viewed from Jordan. In the unbearable heat of summer in this lowest place on earth (1,303 feet below sea level) over 5 million tons of water evaporate from sea each day. No life survives in this water with 30 percent salt, yet the Prophet Joseph Smith said that the waters of the Dead Sea must be healed before the Son of Man will make His appearance.[11]

We, as sons and daughters of God, must have looked to Jehovah with such trust, knowing that He would not fail us. Without Him we would be forever shut out from our Father; with Him we could have eternal life. "There shall be no other name given nor any other way nor means whereby salvation can come unto the children of men, only in and through the name of Christ."[12] This was the "plan," a term completely missing from scripture until modern revelation. For erring souls on the earth, Jesus Christ would plead our cause: "Father, spare these . . . that believe on my name, that they may come unto me and have everlasting life."[13]

In that premortal council, gifted and cunning Lucifer, called a "son of the morning,"[14] presented his own plan: "Behold, 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."[15] Lucifer devised an apparently risk-free plan, but one he surely knew would thwart the children of God. He would allow no freedom of choice, no agency. Forced into conformity to law, mortals would not progress or learn, unempowered to choose right or wrong, light or dark. In halting the progress of others, his evil design was to usurp the very throne of God. Isaiah recorded, "Thou [O Lucifer] hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God, . . . I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High."[16] The desire to dominate, to be first, to crush others is a pattern and inclination that continues to come from this ancient source. Lucifer, who is Satan, swayed many of the hosts of heaven with his flattery, lies, and deception. "Wherefore, because that Satan rebelled against me," said the Lord, "and sought to destroy the agency of man, . . . and also, that I should give unto him mine own power, . . . I caused that he should be cast down.”[17]

Shadows of evening begin to steal across the northern portion of the Wilderness of Zin in the Negev Desert with the mountains of Edom in the background. In this region the children of Israel were encamped and very thirsty when Moses smote the rock and the “water came out abundantly, and congregation drank, and their beasts also.”[18]

"And there was war in heaven." At stake was the precious gift of agency and more, the very opportunity for the sons and daughters of God to eventually have eternal life, His life. "Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, and prevailed not; neither was there place found any more in heaven. And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, . . . he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him."[19] Yet the war in heaven was only the first contest in a struggle that would relentlessly continue, for where were Satan and his minions cast? Onto the earth, where the forces of light and darkness would continue to clash.

The lot of Satan and his followers was to never be given bodies, to never live again in the presence of the Father. In their miserable condition they would strive to lead the children of men astray, cause them to suffer as they suffer, and bring enmity and division into the hearts of people everywhere.

“Before I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations,"[20] the Lord told Jeremiah, speaking of that time before time, before the foundations of the earth. So it was that the Lord's leaders were chosen and foreordained for the missions they were to perform on the earth. Michael, the mighty archangel who had led the forces of heaven in the war with Satan, "reached great distinction and power before he ever came to this earth: and . . . helped to frame this earth while he was yet a spirit."[21] He became Adam, the first man on earth. "And our glorious Mother Eve with many of her faithful daughters"[22] were among those called to "carry the message of redemption unto all."[23]

Others of the "great and mighty ones"[24] were selected to lead dispensations, those periods of the earth's history when the knowledge, keys, and power of the gospel of Jesus Christ would be given from the heavens. Enoch was chosen to be a leader as were Abraham, Moses, and John the Baptist. Abraham, shown in vision the intelligences that were organized before the world was, said, "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; . . . and he said unto me: Abraham, thou art one of them; thou wast chosen before thou wast born."[25]

How were these chosen? "According to the foreknowledge of God, on account of their exceeding faith and good works . . . they . . . are called with a holy calling . . . to teach his commandments unto the children of men."[26] They were not chosen to receive the honors of men or the praise of the world, to impress with flashing, glittering power. Instead, they were selected to serve and to lift, to love, and to carry the gospel of Jesus Christ to the ends of the earth. Their rewards in this life might include deprivation, tribulation, distress and persecution,[27] and they might be stoned or beheaded or crucified. All this was "that the trial of [their] faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ."[28]

Each stream that slides over smooth stones, each eagle that mounts on the wind, each dolphin that leaps in the air was created by Jesus Christ under the direction of His Father. "All things were made by him," John declares, "and without him was not any thing made that was made.”[29] Life in its boundless varieties, nature with so many colors in a single wheat stalk that an artist could never paint it, this was the creation that sprang from the heart and soul of Jesus Christ. As creator, He knows every particle, every element, every atom. "For the earth is full," He declares boldly, "and there is enough and to spare; yea, I prepared all things."[30] He is the architect, the designer, the poet, the composer of nature's sweet song, and as each phase was completed He stopped long enough to declare that it was good.

Rushing waters of Dan through emerald foliage at Banias in northern Israel. St. Francis of Assisi tried to capture the feelings of all nature responding to the Creator: “Thou flowing water, pure and clear, Make music for thy Lord to hear, Alleluia! Alleluia!…The flow’rs and fruit that in thee grow, Let them his glory also show, Alleluia!…Oh Praise him! Alleluia!”[31]

He "laid the foundations of the earth," and "laid the measures thereof," and "stretched the line upon it."[32] He is "in the sun, and the light of the sun, and the power thereof by which it was made. . . . He is in the moon . . . as also the light of the stars . . . and the earth."[33]

As the poem is a reflection of the poet, so the earth in all its bounty and generosity reflects the Lord. "All things are created and made to bear record of me,"[34] says the Savior. The patterns of sleeping and waking, of night being broken by the dawn of a new day, remind us of the resurrection. Daily meals remind us that we are nourished by the sacrifice of death. The spin of the atom and the spin of the earth remind us that the very essence of the universe is built on opposition in all things. As we can read them, even the lights in the heavens are for signs and seasons to teach us about the Lord.[35] The wise men looked upward to see that He was born.

Why this creation with its reminders of the mission of the Lord built into its very structure? The Lord answers clearly, "Behold, this is my work and my glory—to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man."[36] To the voice of the Creator, even the dust of the earth will instantly respond; it is only His children who hesitate.

[36] Moses 1:39.

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Scot Facer Proctor and Maurine Jensen Proctor have collectively taught Institute classes for sixteen years, and have published numerous books on Church History and scripture studies. They are the former editors of This People Magazine, and are speakers in the Church Education System circuit (including Know Your Religion and BYU Women's Conference).