Other Worlds, the Creation, and the Atonement

The scriptures make it fairly clear that our earth is not the only one created by our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ.   In the Pearl of Great Price we read, "And worlds without number have I created; and I also created them for mine own purpose; and by the Son I created them, which is mine Only Begotten….  But only an account of this earth, and the inhabitants thereof, give I unto you. For behold, there are many worlds that have passed away by the word of my power" (Moses 1:33, 35). 

Speaking of Christ, D&C 93:10 states, “The worlds were made by him; men were made by him; all things were made by him, and through him, and of him.”  In Joseph’s vision of the three degrees of glory he wrote, “That by [Christ], and through him, and of him, the worlds are and were created” (D&C 76:24).  That revelation also mentions that Christ was “in the bosom of the Father before the worlds were made” (D&C 76:39).  This idea is not unique to Restoration scripture, though; in the New Testament we read that God has “spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds” (Hebrews 1:2).  The most dramatic statement comes though the words of Enoch.  He said to the Lord, “And were it possible that man could number the particles of the earth, yea, millions of earths like this, it would not be a beginning to the number of thy creations” (Moses 7:30).  To think that there are millions of earths which are “like this” one that were created by God is an amazing and an incredibly humbling proposition!  What the scriptures aren’t as clear on, though, is whether Christ is the Redeemer for these other worlds.  The generally accepted idea from members of the Church, as far as I can tell, is that He is.  There’s one scripture which seems to serve as the basis for this idea: “That by him, and through him, and of him, the worlds are and were created, and the inhabitants thereof are begotten sons and daughters unto God” (D&C 76:24).  This seems to suggest that the inhabitants of other worlds are saved through Christ, and this is the position that the summary of the verses at the beginning of the section (presumably written by Bruce R. McConkie) takes: “The inhabitants of many worlds are begotten sons and daughters unto God through the Atonement of Jesus Christ.”  I was a little surprised, though, when I searched on lds.org that I could not find anything on the topic.  This article commenting on the subject suggests that the Church actually has no official position on whether Jesus was indeed the Savior of other worlds.  It refers to statements both for and against the doctrine, including some by Brigham Young which seem to suggest that each world had a different Savior (although reading the statements I’m not convinced that we couldn’t understand his statements differently).  At any rate, I think the idea that Christ was indeed the Savior of many worlds is one that we can put on the shelf and trust that we will someday understand “in the day when the Lord shall come” and “reveal all things” (D&C 101:32).  Besides, it’s mind-boggling enough to think that Christ atoned for all of the billions on our own earth!