Jesus Christ/Is Jesus a Created Being

Is Jesus a Created Being?

Some Christian critics make the claim that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints believe “Jesus is a created being”. There is not an official church statement which uses this phrase. This is an interpretation of our beliefs, said in a way which makes us look weird.

Traditional Christians believe in the Trinity, that God the Father and Jesus Christ have the same substance, and were God in the beginning of the universe. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints believes God the Father and Jesus Christ are separate beings. We believe Jesus is the Son of God, both His physical body on earth, as well as His spirit. So, if Jesus is a son of God the Father, therefore He had to be “born” at some point, so critics claim He is then a “created being”.

When Was The Beginning

First, understand the Biblical writers probably did not comprehend the idea of other planets and a universe beyond Earth. To them, the Earth was the universe. This may have affected their concept of eternity. Jesus definitely was God and “in the beginning” as far as the earth is concerned.

The question becomes what happened at the beginning of time? None of us can comprehend such a thing. Creedal Christians believe in creatio ex nihilo, which is creation of the universe out of nothing. We do not believe this.

Intelligences and Spirits

We believe intelligences or spirits have always existed. Therefore Jesus’ spirit has always existed, so Jesus has always existed, as far as we know.

The Spirit of Man is not a created being…It existed from Eternity and will exist to eternity. Anything created cannot be eternal. – Joseph Smith

Man was also in the beginning with God. Intelligence, or the light of truth, was not created or made, neither indeed can be. - D&C 93꞉29

…spirits … have no beginning; they existed before, they shall have no end, they shall exist after, for they are gnolaum, or eternal. Abraham 3꞉18

The word “intelligence” is not always used the same in the scriptures. Sometimes an “intelligence” is equated with a “spirit”. Some people believe “intelligence” is our conscience within our spirit bodies. It is taught that humans who become exalted could somehow have spirit children.

Now the Lord had shown unto me, Abraham, the intelligences that were organized before the world was… Abraham 3꞉22

…which glory shall be a fulness and a continuation of the seeds forever and ever. D&C 132꞉19

The logic follows perhaps Jesus’s spirit body, at some point after the beginning of the universe, maybe was “organized” or “created”? This is the stretch that critics make. Some also speculate having spirit children is like an adoption of something which already exists, not creation. But we do not know for sure.

"Jesus is Eternal" Scriptures

The title page of the Book of Mormon, calls Jesus Christ "the Eternal God," and so does 2 Nephi 26:12, Mosiah 15:1–4, Mosiah 16:15, Alma 11:38–40, Alma 34:14. Thus, however the word “eternal” is correctly defined: “in the beginning of the universe”, “in the beginning of the earth” or something else, Jesus was still God in the beginning and was not “created”.