Creator of Heaven

One of the statements that is repeated numerous times in the Book of Mormon is that God created the heavens and the earth.  Lehi testified to his sons, “There is a God, and he hath created all things, both the heavens and the earth, and all things that in them are” (2 Nephi 2:14).  Jacob spoke of the “all-powerful Creator of heaven and earth” (Jacob 2:5).  The angel told King Benjamin, “he shall be called Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Father of heaven and earth, the Creator of all things from the beginning,” and the people who heard the words similarly testified, “we believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who created heaven and earth, and all things.”  King Benjamin’s final words to them were a reference Him who “created all things, in heaven and in earth, who is God above all” (Mosiah 3:8, 4:2, 5:15).  Aaron taught the Lamanite king, “He is that Great Spirit, and he created all things both in heaven and in earth” (Alma 22:10).  When Christ visited the Nephites He testified, “Behold, I am Jesus Christ the Son of God. I created the heavens and the earth, and all things that in them are” (3 Nephi 9:15).  Moroni spoke to us about the “God who created the heavens and the earth, and all things that in them are” (Mormon 9:11).  All of these references together make it clear that Jesus was the creator of the heavens and the earth.

               So what are the heavens that are referred to here?  On the one hand, we have this reference from Abinadi—who also spoke “the very Eternal Father of heaven and earth”—saying, “For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and the sea, and all that in them is; wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it” (Mosiah 13:19, 15:4).  My understanding that in this reference to the six days of creation the “heaven” spoken of here is the “expanse around the earth” and not the place where God dwells (see here).  The creation account speaks of “a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters,” and this firmament was then called “Heaven.”  In this “firmament of heaven” there would be light for the earth; clearly this heaven is a reference to the sky and atmosphere around us and not the far away place where God lives (Genesis 1:6, 8, 17).  This suggests that the “heaven” which Christ created is the atmosphere around the earth, and most of the references to Christ as the Creator of heaven and earth fit with this understanding of an atmospheric heaven.  On the other hand, though, that does not appear to be how Ammon used the term when He spoke to Lamoni.  He asked Lamoni, “Believest thou that this Great Spirit, who is God, created all things which are in heaven and in the earth?”  Lamoni replied that he didn’t “know the heavens,” so Ammon responded by explaining, “The heavens is a place where God dwells and all his holy angels” (Alma 18:28-30).  What is difficult to understand about that is that Christ was the spirit Son of the Father in heaven at some point eons ago in our premortal history, and so it is hard to see how he could he have created that place where God dwells.  Are the heavens now a place different from the place the Father dwelt originally when He brought into being His spirit children?  Did Christ have some role in creating that place where we “lived in heaven a long time ago” and where “Heav’nly Father presented a beautiful plan” for us? (see here)  It doesn’t seem like this is explicitly taught in any other scriptures. 

               After thinking more about Ammon’s interchange with Lamoni, for me the simplest way to understand this is that in fact Ammon was speaking of the heaven around the atmosphere when he said God “created all things which are in heaven and in earth.”  When Lamoni asked the question about not knowing the heavens, Ammon many have reasoned that teaching Lamoni about the atmosphere as a product of creation wasn’t really all that important, but understanding that there was a God in heaven looking down on him was.  So he may have simply switched which “heaven” he was talking about for purposes of teaching what Lamoni needed to understand: “He looketh down upon all the children of men; and he knows all the thoughts and intents of the heart” (Alma 18:32).  At any rate, what’s important for us to understand is that the Savior was a key part of creation, that now He watches us from a place called heaven, and that our thoughts and words and deeds cannot be hid from Him who created all things.