The Latter-Day Saints Perspective On The Creation And Eternal Progression Of Mankind, According To Dr. Eric Skousen's "Earth In The Beginning"

The purpose of this post is to provide an abbreviated explanation of the doctrine of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints regarding the eternal progression of mankind. In short, to provide answers on what we believe regarding the three important questions: Where we came from, why we are here, and where we can go. In some cases, actual doctrine is seasoned with informed speculation by educated Mormons; the speculation is OK as long as it merely supplements existing doctrine rather than contradicting it.

One difficulty lies in the ambiguity and the brevity of the account of the Creation. We only have the accounts put forth in the Old Testament (Genesis) and the Pearl of Great Price (Abraham) to draw from. On the surface, it appears that the two accounts are redundant. But on page 26 of the 1999 edition of his book "Earth In The Beginning", Dr. Eric Skousen attempts to clarify the redundancy. He describes the creation in terms of three epochs:

-- The First Epoch: The spirit creation, or the creation of the spirit earth and its embellishment with spirit life forms, including the spirit family of our Heavenly Father (that's us, folks). This is described in Genesis Chapter 1.

-- The Second Epoch: The creation of the physical earth and its preparation to sustain modern life forms. This is described in Abraham Chapter 4 in the Pearl of Great Price; it is NOT described in Genesis.

-- The Third Epoch: The arrival of modern life forms on the newly-created physical earth, including Adam and Eve. During this epoch, all life on earth is sanctified and not initially subject to death. The subsequent Fall of Adam and Eve introduced death to the earth. This is described in Genesis Chapter 2.

But how did it all begin? In summary, we began as organized intelligences, were encountered by a master creator (our Heavenly Father, known as Elohim) who offered us the opportunity to be organized, tested, and tabernacled. We accepted, and those of us who proved most capable during this initial testing were tabernacled in spirit after the image of God. After reaching maximum progress within a spirit tabernacle, we were then offered the opportunity to take the next step by coming to a mortal world where sin and opposition exist to take on a mortal tabernacle. After we die and leave our mortal tabernacles behind, depending upon our progress on earth, we will then be resurrected where spirit and mortal tabernacles will be eternally reunited, and assigned to one of four levels of glory or kingdoms.