L version of creation included in a book entitled the Book of Abraham (Abraham four). Smith felt so strongly about the creation narrative that he included it as a part of the most sacred rites of the Church, the temple endowment. A evaluation of the events from the creation has been a central feature on the most sacred of Latter-day Saint rites since the starting on the endowment in Nauvoo. In 1841, Smith was recorded as teaching, “God did not make the earth out of nothing for it really is contrary to a rational mind and reason” (Smith 1841). Smith would unambiguously affirm eternalism in contrast to creation out of nothingness in 1842, when he declared “the elements are eternal” (Smith 1842). As opposed to ex nihilo, he emphasized ex materia. Within the ancient close to east, creation ex materia was typical in polytheistic narratives like inside the Babylonian creation myth, En a Elis. The notion of ex materia creation suggests that each and every act of creation has to be understood as an act of re-creation. Weeks ahead of Smith’s death, he was recorded as interpreting the initial verses of Genesis. He stated, “The word make came from the word baurau; it will not mean so; it implies to organize” (Smith 1844). With this perspective, George Handley, a literary scholar and environmentalist, suggests that “God becomes less a creator or inventor and instead a lot more an artist or perhaps a recycler,” reusing and recreating new life from exisitng matter. Handley continues, “our stewardship ought to model his in this very same way” (Handley 2020). Just about every new act of creation will, at minimum, impose itself because the partial loss of what came ahead of. This struggle is illustrated within the seven days of creation (Gen. 1). The first 3 days are marked by components of division and breaking apart; as an illustration, the light and darkness are torn apart on the first day, the firmament is separated around the second, plus the waters are divided around the third. Every day is in preparation for the next series of days, days four by way of six, exactly where the very first days are filled with light and life, creating achievable additional growth. Elements of chaos and darkness are replaced with luminaries and life. As opposed to “seeing this as anReligions 2021, 12,4 ofoppositional struggle involving order and disorder, we can see it as a kind of partnering that leads to life and diversity” (Handley 2020). Smith emphasizes that God did not perform alone in his creation. He utilized other people in his operate. The Book of Abraham BSJ-01-175 CDK records: “And then the Lord stated: Let us go down. And they went down in the starting, and they, that is certainly the Gods, organized and formed the heavens and also the earth” (Abraham four:1). In accordance with Smith, God utilized an entourage to assist inside the operate of creation. Creating around the Biblical themes of a Divine Council that’s periodically highlighted in Biblical text (s –Amos 3:7; Jeremiah 23:18), deity enlisted the support of other folks in the method of creation. This entourage was later identified as premortal children of God. Terryl Givens wrote, “Mormonism began to envision heaven as a place where God’s personal inventive powers had been mirrored in his exalted children” (Givens 2015). Parley P. Pratt, who was fast to IQP-0528 Data Sheet embrace this new thought, wrote, “I could also tell you on the continued exertions of creative power by which millions of new worlds will yet be formed and peopled.” He wrote of not just God the Father participating in this perform but also “by King Adam and his descendants” (Pratt and Dye 2009). The Theology expanded even further. Not just had been G.