“By the Power of His Voice”

Bryan Richards

The elements are controlled by the command of God, and the creation was done in just this manner. Some might ask “what is the process by which the creation takes place?” or “how exactly is it done?” That God the Father created the heavens and the earth by his Son, Jesus Christ is clear enough. But what did the pre-mortal Jehovah do? Did he physically gather unorganized matter, mold it with his hands and produce life in a cosmic test-tube? Obviously not! The scriptures tell us exactly how God controls the elements—by the power of his voice.

This phrase has two implications. First, the power of his voice is the same as the power of his word, and the scriptures clearly demonstrate that “the Word” is another synonym for Jesus Christ. The most famous scripture which teaches this is John 1:1-3, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. Therefore, God the Father created the earth by the power of his word—or by the power of Jesus Christ (Jacob 4:9).

The second and less obvious implication is that the process of creation takes place by the power of the spoken word. How did Jesus Christ gather the elements? He simply commanded that the unorganized matter become earth. The power of his priesthood had force over the elements which obeyed his every command in the creation. This pattern of creation is apparent from the book of Abraham, And the Gods watched those things which they had ordered until they obeyed…And the Gods saw that they would be obeyed, and that their plan was good (Abr 4:18, 21). Mormon explained that, ’if he [says] to the earth—Move—it is moved’ (v. 13). How much more simply could it be stated? The process of creation is to order the elements to combine into land, sea, sun, moon, atmosphere, plants, animals, etc. Once commanded, the elements respond to the priesthood of the great Creator, and obey as commanded. By ‘the power of his voice’, God was ’able to speak and the world was, and to speak and man was created’ (Jacob 4:9).

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