Clary

Tamiele, thank you for your honesty. I know it can be difficult to get to church sometimes, especially when you feel drained physically, emotionally, or even spiritually. The first thought that came to my mind was the words of the Savior when He testified that the Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath. I can testify that this is so true!! I just got home from church today feeling so uplifted and strengthened. I don't go to church because it is a commandment, but because it is an essential blessing in my life. When I focus on truly repenting and preparing for the sacrament every week I feel such a strength from the power of the atonement. I feel God's love, approval, and help to improve my life and to more fully keep my covenants with Him. I have no reservations in promising you that if you will make the effort to attend church that it will no longer seem like a sacrifice, but a blessing in your life. When you find it hard to go, that is when you need it the most. Often Satan works hardest on us when he knows we are about to receive the greatest blessings. I am SO thankful for Christ's atonement, and that is the real spirit behind the Sabbath: to partake of the Christ's love and atonement for us, and to recommit our life to Him. This cannot be done without the ordinance of the sacrament. God loves you. He wants you to take advantage of this priceless gift every week. May God bless you

You are correct in saying there is no real "beginning," as far as we know. We are very limited on what we know from the revelations on this subject as far as I am aware. But we do have some great hints given through modern revelation. In D&C 93:29 we learn that intelligence is was not created, nor can be. (in the sense of being created from nothing ie: Creation ex nihlo) If this is the case then God was never "created." Just like our Father in Heaven there is something about us that is eternally existent as well. In the same revelation we are told that "element" is eternal (v.33) We don't know if our Heavenly Father specifically "started" as a spirit baby and progressed through mortality as we do, but we do know that we are to receive a body, be resurrected through the power of Christ, and be sanctified by the atonement of Christ so as to receive the same blessings and status as the Father. To some this may imply that our Father in Heaven must have done the same thing that we must do now. We do know that God operates by eternal law, and could not be an Exalted Man without obedience to that eternal law.

I agree with a lot of what has been said. I'm not aware of any official church statement made by any apostle or prophet to the affect that Christ was conceived by intercourse between the Father and Mary. This is indeed a sensitive topic, and obviously very sacred. One thing that I think we can all agree on is that Christ was literally born as the Son of God the Father, and as the Son of a mortal mother: Mary. How that took place has not been revealed as far as I know other than that He was conceived by the "power of the Holy Ghost." I think a lot of members of the church like to suppose this could only be done in one way. If it was done in this way, then obviously it was right because God saw fit to do it in that way. But I don't think we should make false assumptions, especially when there is no official statement. Today's miracles of modern science show that there are other ways of causing pregnancy besides the sacred act of intercourse. If it would be inappropriate for God the Father to have intimate relation with Mary, certainly He has intelligence and power enough to pass His genes on to Christ literally through Mary in some other way. I don't say this to suggest how it was done, and I don't mean to make light of sacred things, but I do feel that we limit ourselves to suggest that the only way God could be the literal Father of Christ in the flesh is by intercourse. I don't pretend to have any answers, but hopefully some of these thoughts might be helpful.

Thats an understandable concern. I can see where you're coming from. I don't know if I have any thoughts that will be helpful to you, but I have considered this before. There is very little we know, or that has been revealed about the pre-mortal life. It is difficult to make too many assumptions. But we do know that we exercised agency in pre-mortality. We do know that God did see those that were noble and less noble. It is hard to say how, when, or why Christ was the way He was. It's probably not best to assume that God decided to make His firstborn perfect, but not the rest.... I feel it is still sound to believe that Christ was the way He was because of His own agency. You're obviously familiar with the scripture that "many are called, but few are chosen." I would assume it would be the same with Christ, as it is with any of us who are given great callings. God knows our potential, and has desires for us to live up to them, we are therefore called, but in order to be chosen we must be faithful to that calling. Certainly this is the case with Christ. Christ is not, and was not perfect simply because God made Him in a way that He could not fail, but because He fully lived up to that calling. We could probably compare this to those who receive their calling and election made sure. Perhaps Christ "made His calling and election sure" in pre-mortality, had proven Himself so surely that even before entering mortality He had obtained the status of a god before He ever came to earth. The same might be said for the Holy Ghost Who has the title of a god. The question then becomes less whether Christ was created as a robot that could not vary from what God had created Him to do, but rather goes back to the very nature of godhood. We could likewise ask if God the Father is a robot because He does not/will not change or do anything wrong. It is not because He was forced, but rather because He exercised His agency to a point where He will not because it is now against the nature He has chosen for Himself. Certainly this was the case with Christ. Christ could have chosen at any point to shirk His duty, and calling, but He chose not to because His nature had already become the same nature as His Father. We simply do not know all that happened in pre-mortality. We have no idea if there was agency exercised by intelligences before becoming spiritually begotten by the Father. For all we know Christ as an intelligence progressed to a point where God was sure of His success and therefore chose Him to be the First-Born? Hard to say. Basically I feel like I'm rambling, and probably not being that helpful, but I guess the bottom line for me is that the knowledge we have on the subject is too limited to understand how it all worked out, but I do believe it is important to know that God the Father, His Son Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost are gods, and that they obtained such a position by exercising agency, not because they were "made" not to fail. It is ultimately the same for us. We are created in God's image with the potential to be the same. But we must exercise our agency. Just because some have already achieved that potential does not mean they are robots, or that they were unfairly "given" certain qualifications. Perhaps some day in the eternities when we have proven our faithfulness, and obtain the nature of god, others might wonder if we are robots, if we were created not to fail....... Sorry so longwinded. Hope that something I wrote might trigger some thoughts that might be helpful. Good luck :)