Abraham 1:2
“Jewish tradition remembers
Abraham as one who ‘possessed
great genius.’… ‘He spoke every
tongue and mastered every art,’ and
‘was the greatest scientist of his
day.’ He gained such wisdom that
his advice and knowledge were
widely sought out, and he became
admired ‘as a man of extreme
P. 114
sagacity, gifted not only with high
intelligence but with power to convince his hearers on
any subject which he undertook to teach.’”
P. 114
“According to [Hugh] Nibley, if we
were to make a list of the greatest
minds of the last forty centuries,
‘Abraham must surely make a
strong bid for number one.’…
Indeed, [said Nibley,] ‘it is the merit
of the seed of Abraham … that
above all people they treasure the
things of the mind.’”
Abraham 1:31
“Abraham is reasoning upon the principles
of Astronomy in the king’s court.”
Text
“The learning of the Egyptians, and their
knowledge of astronomy was no doubt taught
them by Abraham and Joseph, as their records
testify, who received it from the Lord.”
~Joseph Smith (Teachings, p.251)
The Lord prepares a way…
Abraham 3:1
“Jewish legend [reports] that
Abraham possessed a stone through
which he gazed at the heavens….
“[H]e is reported to have said: ‘I
have looked through my crystal to
see the stars.’…
“Talmudic tradition similarly
P. 111, 113
reports that ‘God blessed Abraham
… and delivered to him a rare stone in which he could
read a man’s destiny,’ and that Abraham ‘used [this]
rare crystal’ and ‘studied [it] with great care.’”
How Long is a Day?
Abraham 3:2-4
How Long is a Day?
Jupiter
Saturn
Venus
Mercury
9 hrs, 56 min.
10 hrs, 39 min.
116 days, 18 hrs
58 days, 15.5 hrs
Mars
Neptune
Uranus
Near Kolob
1 day, 40 min.
16 hrs, 6 min.
17 hrs, 14 min.
1,000 Earth Years
Abraham 3:5
“The planet which is the lesser light, lesser
than that which is to rule the day, even the
night, is above or greater than that upon
which thou standest in point of reckoning,
for it moveth in order more slow…
Abraham 3:8-10
Text
Text
Text
Text
Text
Text
Text
Text
Text
Text
Text
Text
Text
Text
Abraham 3:11-12
Charles L. Walker Journal Account 1893
2nd Feb Thurs [1893] Cold and chilly. Attended
Fast Meeting.... Br John Alger said while
speaking of the Prophet Joseph, that when he,
John, was a small boy he heard the Prophet
Joseph relate his vision of seeing The Father
and the Son, That God touched his eyes with
his finger and said “Joseph this is my beloved
Son hear him.” As soon as the Lord had
touched his eyes with his finger he immediately
saw the Savior.
Charles L. Walker Journal Account 1893
“After meeting, a few of us questioned him
about the matter and he told us at the bottom of
the meeting house steps that he was in the
House of Father Smith in Kirtland when Joseph
made this declaration, and that Joseph while
speaking of it put his finger to his right eye,
suiting the action with the words so as to
illustrate and at the same time impress the
occurance on the minds of those unto whom He
was speaking. We enjoyed the conversation very
much, as it was something that we had never
seen in church history or heard of before.”
Text
Abraham 3:13
Text
Abraham 3:15
Abraham 3:18
“… as, also …”
Food for thought: all individual beings,
like stars, will find that there are beings
less intelligent than them, and there are
beings more intelligent than them.
What is intelligence?
Abraham 3:18; D&C 93:29-30
Intelligence
Joseph Fielding Smith
Quorum of the Twelve
(Answers to Gospel
Questions[1963], 4:127)
Some of our writers have
endeavored to explain what an
intelligence is, but to do so is futile,
for we have never been given any
insight into this matter beyond
what the Lord has fragmentarily
revealed. We know, however, that
there is something called
intelligence which always existed.
It is the real eternal part of man,
which was not created nor made.
This intelligence combined with
the spirit constitutes a spiritual
identity or individual.
Joseph Fielding Smith
Quorum of the Twelve
(Answers to Gospel
Questions[1963], 3:125)
If the Lord declares that
intelligence, something which we
do not fully understand, was coeternal with him and always
existed, there is no argument that
we can or should present to
contradict it. Why he cannot
create intelligence is simply
because intelligence, like time and
space, always existed, and
therefore did not have to be
created.
Two definitions of Intelligence
1. An uncreated, autonomous, selfexisting identity (D&C 93:29-30)
2. “Light and truth” (D&C 93:36)
Note: these two definitions may not be
completely separate and unrelated (see
D&C 93:29).
David A. Bednar
Quorum of the Seventy
("Gain Spiritual
Intelligence," Ricks
College Devotional,
September 9, 1997)
“One can accumulate
knowledge in the form of facts,
information, or data.
Intelligence is the application
of what we know for righteous
purposes. That statement bears
repeating. Intelligence is the
application of what we
know for righteous
purposes. There is an element
of action, an element of
obedience, in true spiritual
intelligence.”
D&C 130:18-19
Knowledge  Diligence
Intelligence  Obedience
(Spirit, Knowledge, Wisdom, Glory, Intelligence)
Light and Truth
“The Fulness”
Obedience/Righteousness
(Character and Godliness)
Abraham 3:19
Why is Christ the Most Intelligent?
Abraham 3:3, 16
Abraham 3:21
Joseph Smith
President
(Teachings of the
Prophet Joseph
Smith, p.354)
“God himself, finding he was in
the midst of spirits and glory,
because he was more intelligent,
saw proper to institute laws
whereby the rest could have a
privilege to advance like
himself….
Abraham 3:21
Joseph Smith
President
(Teachings of the
Prophet Joseph
Smith, p.354)
“The relationship we have with God
places us in a situation to advance
in knowledge. He has power to
institute laws to instruct the weaker
intelligences, that they may be
exalted with himself, so that they
might have one glory upon another,
and all that knowledge, power,
glory, and intelligence, which is
requisite in order to save them in
the world of spirits.”
Abraham 3:22
Intelligence
Spirit Body
Abraham 3:25
“And we will prove them herewith …”
David A. Bednar
Quorum of the Twelve
(Ensign, May 2013)
“As sons and daughters of God, we
have inherited divine capacities
from Him. But we presently live in
a fallen world. The very elements
out of which our bodies were
created are by nature fallen and
ever subject to the pull of sin,
corruption, and death.
Consequently, the Fall of Adam
and its spiritual and temporal
consequences affect us most
directly through our physical
bodies.”
David A. Bednar
(Ricks College Devotional
January 11, 2000)
The precise nature of the test of
mortality, then, can be summarized
in the following two questions:
1. Will my body rule over my spirit,
or will my spirit rule over my
body?
2. Will I yield to the enticings of the
natural man or to the eternal
man?
That, brothers and sisters, is the
test. We are here on the earth to
develop godlike qualities and to
learn to bridle all of the passions of
the flesh (Alma 38:12).
1st Estate
2nd Estate
3rd Estate
Abraham 3:27-28
Text
D&C 132:6
Baptism
Sealed to
Parents
Gift of the
Holy Ghost
Sealed to
Spouse
Priesthood
Ordination
Endowment
Washing/
Anointing
ETERNAL LIFE
(God’s Life)
Exalted Marriage
Godhood
Spirit +
Mortal Body
Intelligence
Spirit Body
We become Heavenly
Parents for other
intelligences.
End