Elder Bednar and the Four Phases of Creation

A couple of weeks ago I had the opportunity to watch a CES Fireside featuring David A. Bednar as the main speaker. The discourse he gave was titled, “Things as They Really Are.” As always I believe that Elder Bednar beautifully used the proper teaching techniques to instruct us on so many levels that night. The transcripts for his talk are available at this link. Please make sure you read and study this master sermon and be taught by the spirit the fine points of doctrine that Elder Bednar shared with us.

Most would probably proclaim that Elder Bednar’s talk was about becoming too involved in a virtual world through the Internet and video games. At one level that is exactly what he was speaking about. I would like to discuss another level that I perceived by hearing his teachings.

I believe that Elder Bednar used this forum to teach us the different phases of the Creation in a way that I have never seen before.

The doctrine of The Creation is truly an important one to study. We have been given four different accounts of the Creation, three in the scriptures themselves and one in the Temple ceremony. This repetition of teaching makes me feel that it is a doctrine that is a priority to understand. Many different scholars have also taught on the phases of creation and how each of the versions that we have been given seem to overlap somewhat when they are explained in the different mediums.

I believe that the four phases of creation are as follows:

1)Spiritual Creation

2)Spiritual/Physical Creation

3) Physical Creation

4)Immortal Creation

As Elder Bednar used the images, or renderings, of the temple rooms to show us “real” versus virtual, he also beautifully illustrated the different steps of the creation process. Things are spiritually created first by our mind and will, they then are made into a “blueprint” or rendering. This rendering is a physical creation of a spiritual idea. It takes effort and work, but it is still an image of what is actually going to be created. There is a physical amount of effort involved to produce a physical image of what will ultimately be a physical creation itself. This “rendering” is the step of creation that is normally hard to visualize and is often skipped in the process of explaining the Creation. Elder Bednar used these “renditions” to show us the difference of creations that are spiritual/physical and those that have substance or are “real” or physical.

The spiritual/physical creation of Adam and Eve provided them with bodies that were tangible, but immortal or non-corruptible. The Fall brought about the physical creation that was needed to make the spiritual/physical creation a reality. It provided Adam and Eve with the bodies that were necessary to live in the “real” world and have “real” experiences, ultimately resulting in the process of growth and death. It was a necessary step to progression. It is the reason that Satan seeks to take away the experiences we are having in reality and replace them with a virtual world, one that would provide a counterfeit immortality and thwart the plan of the Father.

There is only one way for us to receive that immortal physical body in the way the Father ordered and that is through the power of the Atonement. It is through death and resurrection that we are created for the last time, an Immortal creation where “all things become new.”

By tampering with our reality, Satan is still attempting to make us wish for a world where physical experience is not needed. That has always been his opposing view from the beginning.

See if you can visualize the different phases of The Creation as explained by Elder Bednar in his talk. What do you think? Are you glad you kept your first estate? Isn’t it worth it to be the “actual” thing?