Alpha and Omega

One of the many names ascribed to Jesus in the scriptures is “Alpha and Omega”.  In the Bible it appears only in the book of Revelation, but it is very common throughout the Doctrine and Covenants and the Book of Mormon also uses it once.  The words are the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet, the language in which the New Testament was written, and in many cases it is accompanied with the explanation, “the beginning and the end.”  For example, Christ told the Nephites, “I am the light and the life of the world.  I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end” (3 Nephi 9:18).  The phrase “the first and the last” is also used in two places in Revelation as a way of interpreting “Alpha and Omega.”  One reference joins all three phrases: “I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last” (Revelation 22:13).  I believe their usage here suggests that all three are synonymous with each other.  So what do these phrases mean? 

I think that one way of understanding them is that Christ is the “one and only” Savior.  As the Lord stated it in Isaiah: “I, even I, am the Lord; and beside me there is no savior” (Isaiah 43:11).  He is the first and the last and the only way to salvation.  He is the Only Begotten Son of the Father, and so He is the first Son and the last Son.  In what other ways might we consider Him as the Beginning/First and End/Last? 

                I think that there are several ways in which Christ is the First and the Beginning.  He is the Firstborn of the Father as a spirit child as D&C 93:21 states.  That verse also says that He was “in the beginning with the Father.”  John used this same language, describing how “in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God” (John 1:1).  He is the “firstfruits of them that slept,” or in other words Christ was the very first person to be resurrected (1 Corinthians 15:20).  He was the first in the sense that we use the term to describe how someone is “first in their class” in school.  The Lord told Abraham that of all the intelligences, He is “more intelligent than they all” (Abraham 3:19).  When the children of Adam are ranked in any way relating to righteousness, intelligence, or power, Christ is always The First. 

                There are a few ways that we might consider Christ being the Last and the End.  We know that He “descended below them all,” referring to trials and tribulations that man has to pass through (D&C 122:8).  Perhaps we can think of Him being last in the sense of being below or at the end of any and all suffering.  We also know that He is the one who will come last to the earth; Christians have been awaiting His return in the last days for a long time, and when He comes it will indeed be the end.  He is the last mortal to come to earth as ushers in the millennial reign.  The scriptures also refer to Him saying that the “great and last sacrifice will be the Son of God” (Alma 34:14).  He was the last blood sacrifice that was to be made after over one thousand years of the Law of Moses requiring the blood of animals.  His sacrifice also was made to “answer the ends of the law” which I believe could be rephrased as “the purposes of the law” (2 Nephi 2:7).  Christ brought about the “ends” of life in the sense that the whole plan’s purpose hinges around Him.    

                I’m sure there are other ways that we might consider Christ as Alpha and Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.  Perhaps the most important message from these phrases is that there simply is no way to salvation without Christ.  There is “no other way nor means whereby salvation can come” (Mosiah 3:17).  He is the first, last and everything in between when it comes to finding our way back to our Father in Heaven.