Abinadi’s sermon to the priests of Noah contains one of the most penetrating and profound (though greatly misunderstood) discussions of the role and mission of Jesus Christ in all of holy writ. Abinadi’s message concerns the ministry of Christ as the Father and the Son. His teachings will be more easily understood if preceded by a brief review of the manner in which the title Father is used in scripture in reference to Deity. (See “The Father and the Son,” a doctrinal exposition of the First Presidency and the Twelve, 30 June 1916, in James E. Talmage, The Articles of Faith, pp. 465-73.)
“The Father and the Son”
In summary, Christ will be both the Father and the Son. He will be called the Father because he was conceived by the power of God and he inherited all of the divine endowments, including immortality, from his exalted Sire. He will be called the Son because of his flesh-his mortal inheritance from his mother, Mary. Therefore Christ will be both flesh and spirit, both man and God, both Son and Father. And they-the Father and the Son, the God and the man, the spirit and the flesh-are to be blended wondrously in one Being: Jesus Christ, “the very Eternal Father of heaven and of earth” (cf. Alma 11:38-39). Indeed, the Book of Mormon is an additional witness with Paul that in Christ “dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily” (Colossians 2:9).
“Being the Father and the Son”
Because Jehovah-Christ created the heavens and the earth, he is appropriately known in the Book of Mormon as “the Father of heaven and of earth.” The Nephite and Jaredite prophets came to know full well that the Messiah, the Only Begotten Son of the Father in the flesh, was the same being who had created all things (see 2 Nephi 25:12). The angel explained to King Benjamin that “he shall be called Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Father of heaven and earth, the Creator of all things from the beginning” (Mosiah 3:8).
Zeezrom asked Amulek: “is the Son of God the very Eternal Father?” Amulek responded: “Yea, he is the very Eternal Father of heaven and of earth, and all things which in them are; he is the beginning and the end, the first and the last.” (Alma 11:38-39.) Finally, the words and testimony of the Master himself seem appropriate in this regard. Just prior to his ministry to the Nephites and following the destruction in the New World, Jehovah spoke: “Behold, I am Jesus Christ the Son of God. I created the heavens and the earth, and all things that in them are. I was with the Father from the beginning. I am in the Father, and the Father in me; and in me hath the Father glorified his name.” (3 Nephi 9:15.)