Father of Heaven and of Earth

One of the titles that the Book of Mormon uniquely gives to Christ is “Father of heaven and of earth”.  The first to use the term is Nephi in his prophesies towards the end of his writing: “When the day cometh that the Only Begotten of the Father, yea, even the Father of heaven and of earth, shall manifest himself unto them in the flesh, behold, they will reject him” (2 Nephi 25:12).  Speaking of how Christ was both the Father and the Son, Abinadi also used the phrase: “They are one God, yea, the very Eternal Father of heaven and of earth” (Mosiah 15:4). 

The angel’s words to King Benjamin also described Christ in the same way, but I think they give us a little more indication of what is actually meant by the phrase: “And 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).  Samuel the Lamanite seemed to be quoting King Benjamin’s angel as he also spoke to the Nephites of “the coming of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Father of heaven and of earth, the Creator of all things from the beginning” (Helaman 14:12). So using the words of these two prophets who had been taught by angels, how is Christ the “Father of heaven and earth?”  It is because He is the “Creator of all things”.  This is what the First Presidency taught regarding this phrase: “Scriptures that refer to God in any way as the Father of the heavens and the earth are to be understood as signifying that God is the Maker, the Organizer, the Creator of the heavens and the earth” (Improvement Era, Aug 1916, 934-42, see here).  We know that Christ created the earth—“The Lord hath created the earth that it should be inhabited”—and so that makes sense that we would call Him the Father of the earth (1 Nephi 17:36).  But what exactly is meant by “Father of the heavens”?  There are I think two possibilities: the phrase is somehow speaking of the heavens where God and angels dwell, or it is referring to the “heavens” or “firmament” upon the earth, meaning the atmosphere that is spoken of in the creation story (see Moses 2:8).  I think it is easy for us to understand that Christ was the creator of the earth and its physical atmosphere, and so I’m tempted to understand the phrase “Father of heaven and of earth” in that sense.  Understanding the phrase in the other sense seems more difficult—in what way could Christ have created the place where His Father lives?  The creation account in Moses begins with Elohim telling us that “by mine Only Begotten I created these things; yea, in the beginning I created the heaven, and the earth upon which thou standest” (Moses 2:1).  It seems that this “heaven” spoken of as way of introduction to the creation account could be the same “firmament” or atmosphere that was named heaven later on in the account, but Ammon clearly did not understand it this way.  He told King Lamoni that God “created all things which are in heaven and in the earth,” and then expounded upon this saying that “the heavens is a place where God dwells and all his holy angels” (Alma 18:28).  So perhaps there is more that we don’t understand about Christ’s role in the creation of the actual “heavens” where God dwells.  Under the direction of the Father He clearly was the Creator of the earth, its atmosphere, and its inhabitants, but He may also have done more than we realize in His premortal role in preparing the heavenly abode.  After all, He did tell His apostles, “I go to prepare a place for you” (John 14:2).