Understanding Abraham and the Creation – Part VI

Continuing with Abraham’s account of the creation and the principles behind it so we can better understand how the Earth was changed during the crucifixion and why it was not merely cosmetic damage, but a change that was extremely complex and performed in a specific and exact manner. 

All life, according to its commands, reproduces its own kind. People don’t have cats; dogs don’t have elephants; Sequoia seeds don’t grow Baobab trees; carrot seeds don’t produce lilac bushes, etc.

    "The Bible teaches that from the beginning there have been a number of types of living things, man included, which were so created as to remain true to their peculiar type throughout all generations. These types or kinds may be fittingly described as species, but here a word of caution is necessary. Among biologists there has never been any agreement as to what a species is. It has been generally considered that any particular form of plant or animal that possesses marked characteristics of its own and breeds true to form is a species. For example, the fox-terrier is called a species, because it is able to produce offspring like itself. The dachshund, the collie, the police-dog are called species, because they are able to produce their own particular forms. In this way the human race has been divided into several species according to the shape of the head, the color of the skin, the slant of the eye. But such species are not what the Bible means by the word, "Kind." The Bible does not mean to say that every distinct form of plant or animal men see about them came from the hand of the Creator in just the form in which it is beheld. It is not the several types of dogs; fox-terrier, dachshund, that were created to remain the same forever, but the one natural species, dog. The 'kinds' of Genesis refer not to the 'systematic' species identified by men, but to those natural species of which the world is full, which have power to vary within themselves in such a way that the members of the species are not all exactly alike, but which, nevertheless, cannot go out of the bounds that the Creator set."
Professor William Bateson, president of the British Association for the Advancement of Science 1914-1927, has given a definition stating that a species is a group of organisms with marked characteristics in common and freely interbreeding. It is not denied by anti-evolutionists, that within a family, or species of animals or plants according to this definition we will find numerous varieties.

For instance there are many varieties of roses which have been cultivated. Some are white, some pink, some yellow and others of varied hues. Some have many petals, some but a few, but the fact remains they are all roses. There is no question that the common cabbage which we obtain in grocery stores, is akin to brussel sprouts and other similar plants, but they are of the same plant family. Field corn, sweet corn, popcorn, are varieties that have been cultivated, but nevertheless they are still corn and will "interbreed." Corn and carrots do not mix, neither do squash and turnips. There are various breeds of dogs, but they do not breed with cats. The cat family, composed of the domestic animal and the wild varieties, may mix. The horse and the ass are not of the same family and while man has been able to obtain from them the mule, the mule is rudely and humorously spoken of as being "without pride of ancestry and hope of posterity." The Lord decreed that they should not mix.
    Thus, the Gods prepared the soil for planting, of specific grasses, plants, trees, fruit, etc. It should also keep in mind that the earth was not prepared at that time to bring forth weeds, noxious briars, and sticker bushes—that came after the Fall.  The idea was to have grass, herbs, and fruit trees. 
    On a side note, the evolutionist, as part of the Big Bang Theory, assumes this explosion resulted in a massive covering 8” deep of each planet with topsoil for grass and trees to grow.
• Abraham 4:12, whose seed could only bring forth the same in itself, after his kind. It should be noted that the command of the Gods was for seed to bring forth after its own kind. Now, with all the variety of plants in this beautiful world, it would take a lot of creative evolution to come up with everything we enjoy. 

Actually, the DNA of plants has limits placed upon it by God so that their seeds reproduce the same kind of plant.  Grass DNA and Maple tree DNA do not mix to form giant stalks of grass or tree trunks covered in grass. If there was no restriction placed on the reproductive possibilities, the entire plant kingdom would be chaos. 
    Different kinds of plants weren’t invented for this earth.  They already existed.  The Gods didn’t need evolution to make all the different kinds of plantlife, they just needed the seeds to plant in the soil they had already prepared.
• Abraham 4:14: the Gods organized the lights in the expanse of the heaven. If our solar system is the product of a Big Bang, what are the chances that the sun and the moon would appear about the same size in the sky? Hugh Nibley wrote: “An astronomer (I think at Notre Dame) recently calculated the probability of a planet in the solar system having a moon (just one moon, at that) that subtended exactly the same arc in the sky as does the sun from the surface of the same planet. The chances are astronomically remote, so remote, indeed, that there seems to be something deliberate about what is otherwise a stunning coincidence. From no other point of view in all the universe will the sun and the moon have exactly the same size.” (Old Testament and Related Studies, edited by John W. Welch, Gary P. Gillum, and Don E. Norton, Salt Lake City, Deseret Book Co., Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, 1986, p75).

According to Vaughn J. Featherstone, of the Presiding Bishopric and later the First Quorum of the Seventy, when speaking of the sun and the Son, said, “Also he is in the sun, and the light of the sun, and the power thereof by which it was made" (D&C 88:7). The sun is 93 million miles from the earth. Imagine the energy that the sun perpetually produces. It takes the light from the sun a little less than eight and a half minutes to get to the earth. What power there is in the sun no mortal can possibly comprehend. Christ's power is not only in the light of the sun—it t is also the power by which it was made. What knowledge must one have to create a sphere as large as the sun and put power into it, not for an hour or a day or one giant explosion, but for time unknown. What creative abilities did this Jesus have who could control the energy of the sun so it would be consistent from day to day, year to year, even millennium to millennium and beyond.”
    To this, Harold B. Lee added, "The sun ripens the smallest bunch of grapes as though it had nothing else to do. We honor and glorify inventors of laser instruments, spacecrafts, heat-seeking missiles, atomic power facilities, television, and a multitude of other inventions. What are they compared to the sun, the earth, the moon, and the stars? (The Incomparable Christ: Our Master and Model, Deseret Book, Salt Lake City, 1995, pp35 - 36).
    Sterling W. Sill, a member of the first Quorum of Seventy, and also Assistant to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, said of the Sun: “This wonderful sunshine that comes from God contains the many mysterious elements necessary for life. In addition to lighting up our lives, this wonder of sunshine is what gets into our watermelons to make them grow and gives them color. It vitalizes our vegetables and makes the fruits so delicious to our taste. It is interesting to remember that we do not live on an independent earth. If this colorful light of the sun's rays were turned off for just a few hours, no life would remain upon our earth.
    The sun's rays themselves perform great miracles. They come through the frigid pitch-blackness of outer space without giving off their light or heat or color until they reach our atmosphere. Then the sunshine unloads its warmth and distributes its store of vitamins and health to sustain and energize our lives. (Principles, Promises, and Powers, Deseret Book, Salt Lake City, 1973, p89).

What is it that keeps all the planets in our solar system orbiting the sun without careening out into space? Why are all the planets nearly on the same plane in the solar system instead of random axes? Shouldn’t their orbits be more random like electrons around a nucleus? To these questions, Hugh Nibley replied: “The Apocalypse of Abraham, a very early Jewish work and one that has most interesting stories of Abraham, matches remarkably our book of Abraham in many points. God is hailed as the one who brings order out of confusion whenever worlds are demolished, ever preparing and renewing worlds for the righteous. Codex Brucianus says, "Creation is organization." But God is, by definition, the one who brings order into the confusion of the universe, ever preparing and renewing worlds for the righteous… The matter is here, and when you create, you organize it. (Old Testament and Related Studies, Ibid, pp128 - 129).
(See the next post, “Understanding Abraham and the Creation – Part VII,” for more information regarding Abraham’s account of the creation and the principles behind it so we can better understand how the Earth was changed during the crucifixion and why it was not merely a cosmetic things, but a change that was extremely complex and performed in a specific and exact manner)