The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints And Science: BOOK III - "CREATION"

By Joseph Mark Holmes

No About the Book information at this time.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Aug 15, 2023
• ISBN: 9781669875055

Joseph Mark Holmes

The motivation to wright a book seeking to reconcile the author’s faith in God and his church with his love of learning, began with a fear that the sciences were showing that his faith was foolish. This led to a life of study in many areas of science, philosophy and religion Books in the author’s library which contributed to this effort are included in the bibliography. The author graduated with high honors with an MBA in Finance from California State University, Los Angeles. After extensive training in credit analysis he had management positions in International Banking, Credit Administration, and Financial Institutions, at the same bank but with a variety of bank owners and bank names.. He developed several complicated computer systems to keep track of foreign country exposure, to automate the credit analysis of domestic and foreign banks, and to automate foreign country risk analysis.

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Copyright © 2023 by Joseph Mark Holmes.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

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Rev. date: 08/11/2023

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CONTENTS

For Whom The Trilogy Was Written

BOOK III - CREATION Proposed Creation Stories Based on Doctrine of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS hereinafter) and Scientific Explanations

What is the Purpose of LDS Creation Stories?

What is the Purpose of Scientific Creation Accounts?

LDS Creation Doctrines face Challenges not Encountered by Other Christian Churches.

Who Wrote the Genesis Creation Story?

LDS Creation Stories Counter Higher Criticism of the Biblical Creation Stories.

Four Unique Challenges for LDS Creation Stories.

The LDS Church also Faces the Same Challenges as Other Christian Churches.

What is the Essential Message of Christian Creation Stories for Mankind in all Ages of Time?

LDS Creation Stories Show there is a Special Plan for all Forms of Life.

The One Day Equals 1,000 Years Issue is Countered.

Four Principles Which Allow for a Deep Time Perspective.

Each Day in the Creation Stories Reflects a Passage from a State of Disorder, to a State of Higher Order.

Day 1

How the Moon was Formed has Important Implications for LDS Creation Doctrine.

Day 2

Day 3

Day 4

Day 5

Day 6

Day 7

Science’s Story of the coming forth of life on earth after the Cambrian Explosion of life forms.

Graph Showing the Paleozoic Era Divided into Six Periods

Graph Showing the Mesozoic Era Divided into Three Periods

Graph Showing the Cenozoic Era Divided into Three Periods

The Evolution of Pre-Adamic Man

The Close Genetic Relationship of Mankind with Apes.

How did the Children of Adam and Eve Merge with Pre-Adamic Human Beings?

How did Pre-Adamic Man Evolve?

A PROPOSED INTERPRETATION OF THE COMMING OF ADAM TO EARTH

A Change in the Time Frame of Reference for the Plan of Salvation.

Does God Have a Plan for Non-Human Forms of Life?

Satan’s Plan to Destroy God’s Plan of Salvation for his Spirit Children.

What were the Religious Beliefs of the Pre-Adamic Peoples?

The Difficult Questions for the LDS and other Christian Faiths will now be our Focus.

How Adam’s Decedents Moved from the American Garden of Eden to the Middle East?

Satan’s Early Plan to Oppose God’s Plan of Salvation.

When and why did the Sethian line of Holy Patriarchs move from North America to the Holy Land?

The LDS Adam-ondi-Ahman Doctrine Related to the Lives and Priesthood of the Sethian line of Patriarchs.

Pre-Flood Historical Records about Sethian Patriarchs.

What is the Meaning of the Myths about the Watchers, the Giants, and the Demi Gods?

Why did Joseph Smith Include the Teachings of Enoch in the Pearl of Great Price and his Revisions of the Bible?

THE LONG AGES OF THE EARLY PATRIACHS

THE FLOOD

A Closing Testimony

The motivation for writing the Trilogy and A summary of the other books of the Trilogy

Summary Image

Epistemology –The Path to Truth

Ontology- The nature of reality based on seven metaphysical Assumptions which are essential to the LDS Faith

Bibliography

FOR WHOM THE TRILOGY WAS WRITTEN

J OSEPH MARK HOLMES wrote most of the content in the trilogy The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS hereinafter) and Science more than 20 years ago. It was written in an effort to solidify his deepest beliefs about God, science and the purpose of life. When he started sharing his ideas with other members of his faith, he soon learned that many of them were not receptive to his ideas, so he stopped discussing them.

After nearly 20 years of retirement, Mr. Holmes received a very strong prompting from the spirit, that he needed to finish The Trilogy and publish his ideas. He then spent a lot of time editing his prior efforts and investigating, on the internet, whether the ideas that he had previously written about were still applicable.

While the Trilogy was primarily written for members of the LDS faith who could benefit from it, it is also written for any others who could benefit from the ideas contained in the book. These include:

Atheists, agnostics, and skeptics:

Originally, the writer was like you. He changed when he learned about a God with limited powers but unlimited potential. The LDS God is a family man, whose spiritual children we are. He truly loves each of us and wants to give everyone the best reward possible. This is the reason for Christ’s atonement for the sins of all mankind. Since God, like everything else in the universe, was created out of intelligence or light and truth, he must follow the laws that govern all things in the universe.

This includes allowing all forms of life a great deal of free agency. For this reason, God is not responsible for the evil that exists on earth. While this limits God power, he still has sufficient power to meet all his goals, which include the creation of new worlds and universes! That God can create new universes is easier to believe than the alternative. This is the cosmological anthropic principle that although it is extremely unlikely that a universe like ours was created by chance alone, if it had not happened, we would not be here to know about it.

The approach discussed herein gives God unlimited potential to grow in knowledge, power, and glory forever. The unrestricted creativity of all life forms allows God to grow in knowledge forever as this will continually teach him new things; God’s ability to create new worlds and universes, allows him to grow in power forever, and God’s ability to facilitate his spiritual children and all other forms of life having the chance to fulfill the measure for their creation, allows him to grow in glory forever.

To Christians of all types.

God the Father loves and honors anyone who honors and loves his son Jesus Christ, and is willing to forgive their sins and give them the best reward in eternity that they qualify for. Many times, a heaven similar to the one in which they already believe.

While God, because of the atonement of Jesus Christ, is a God of mercy, he is also a God of Justice. If God ceases to be the upholder of justice in the universe, he would cease to be God. This means that there is no cheap grace. To reach our highest potential, and eventually to be exalted to Godhood, each of us needs to make certain covenants with God, designed to help us change our natures and become like God.

This includes being married for time and all eternity by one having authority received from God to do so. Having spiritual children, is absolutely essential to being exalted in the highest degree of the Celestial Kingdom. To become like God, a man and a woman must be married and get and stay on the covenant path. We are exalted as families not as individuals. Adoption or marriage into an exalted family is possible. Women also may become Goddesses, equal in power and authority to their eternal spouses.

To non-Christians of all types:

The Christian God loves you because in a prior spirit world you were his spiritual offspring. He wants to give you as good a reward in eternity as possible, which probably consists of the best reward contemplated in your belief system. Nevertheless, there is a possibility of receiving an even greater reward, which is exaltation in the highest degree of the Celestial Kingdom. That is becoming like God.

The spiritual leaders of your belief system were probably inspired by God, and their teaching have been of value to you. There is no desire to take away from you anything of value, the only aim is to present an alternative that merits your consideration.

To anyone who is in need of love and God’s support.

God still loves you and will strive to give you the best reward possible, consistent with your behavior. Repentance is always available. In fact, the LDS Gods are Gods (both male and female) of fair play and in either this life, or the next life, they desire that all their spiritual offspring be given the opportunity to receive all the blessing and opportunities they did not receive in this life. You can even make covenants, in this life or the next, that could lead to exaltation, if you are willing to live the law upon which this highest of all blessing is predicated.

To anyone wishing to write science fiction stories based on good science and good religion.

The world view discussed in the Trilogy provides a great foundation which should enable aspiring writers of science fiction stories to craft realistic and meaningful yarns about life in our universe.

BOOK III - CREATION

P ROPOSED CREATION STORIES of the earth based on doctrine of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints ( abbreviated as LDS hereinafter) and scientific explanations.

The proposed creation story of the universe and the earth described herein is based on LDS doctrine and highly regarded scientific theories. This book also deals with such problematic issues as pre-Adamic man, the long age of the early patriarchs, and the flood.

The period that this effort covers is from the beginning of the universe, until the flood. The purpose of this book is to provide a frame of reference about the beginnings of humanity that is consistent with scientific evidence, and also with fundamental LDS doctrines and beliefs.

What is the Purpose of LDS Creation Stories?

The principal purpose of the LDS and Christian scriptural creation stories, as well as scriptural stories up to and including the flood, is to help God’s spiritual offspring to better understand their relationship with their creator. The aim of these areas of LDS scriptures is not to provide a detailed account of how the creator accomplished His work, but to inspire God’s children in the way they should live.

What is the Purpose of Scientific Creation Accounts?

The creation theories developed by science, are based on a metaphysical (i.e., unprovable) assumption that the whole creation process occurred without the help of a God or Creator.

Many advocates of science believe that the creation was only the result of the evolution of a changing universe that occurred as a result of natural processes which can be investigated using the scientific methods. The scientific methods do not allow for a higher power, such as that of God, to be used to explain unusual events.

Clearly, we will be comparing subjects that are as different as apples and oranges. Nevertheless, it is the writer’s cherished hope that as the subject matter is developed the reader will be able to see that there is indeed a relationship between LDS creation stories and the early accounts of humanity, and the knowledge that has been obtained through the scientific methods.

When the two areas of knowledge are integrated, it is the writer’s desire that the reader will feel a greater appreciation for the magnificence of the Creator, and will have obtained a deeper appreciation and understanding of the capacities and limitations of the scientific methods.

LDS Creation Doctrines face Challenges not Encountered by Other Christian Churches.

LDS doctrines regarding the beginnings of humanity are somewhat different from those of other Christian churches. Through modern revelation the LDS church has available to it stories contained in the Book of Moses, and the Book of Abraham, which corroborate and add to the stories found in the Book of Genesis.

In addition, the LDS church has available to it an unpublished account of the creation and the Garden of Eden, which is presented in the temple ceremony.

The creation account found in the Book of Moses consists of Joseph Smith’s inspired revision of the story of creation found in Genesis. The Prophet made his initial revision of this account in 1830, and several revisions were made thereafter. The most recent account was published in 1851, which was a number of years after his death.¹

The account found in the Book of Abraham was Joseph Smith’s translation of a revelation on this subject given anciently to the patriarch Abraham. This account was published in the spring of 1842.

In the Book of Abraham, the claim is made that the patriarch had in his possession records extending back to the time of Adam, giving a knowledge of the beginning of the creation, and also of the planets, and of the stars, as they were made known to the fathers.²

The Abraham account of the creation must have been written sometime after Abraham’s birth and early life in Ur of the Chaldees. This was part of the civilization that later became associated with the Babylonian empire. That there are some similarities in the creation story found