I don’t want to delve into mysteries, and I realize that this may be a matter of speculation, but I would like to know, is Jesus the Creator and Redeemer of other worlds besides this one?

Robert G. Mouritsen, college curriculum writer, Church Education System When we seek to better understand the life and ministry of the Son of God, we are not delving into the mysteries, nor is it a matter of speculation. The scriptures inform us that “this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.” (John 17:3; italics added.) The Prophet Joseph Smith said of this passage that “if any man does not know … he will realize that he has not eternal life; for there can be eternal life on no other principle.” (Teachings, p. 344.) Searching to know God and Christ, to learn their will, and to submit thereto is the paramount quest of our religion. Of this, President Marion G. Romney has written: “All who have a true concept of Jesus Christ and who have received a witness by the spirit of his divinity … see in all that he said and did confirmation of his universal Lordship, both as Creator and Redeemer.” (Improvement Era, November 1968, p. 48.)

Jesus was the firstborn of the Father from the beginning. In a statement issued in 1916, the First Presidency and the Council of the Twelve said: “Among the spirit children of Elohim the firstborn was and is … Jesus Christ to whom all others are juniors.” (James R. Clark, ed., Messages of the First Presidency, Bookcraft, 1971, 5:33.) He was the birthright son, and he retained that birthright by his strict obedience. Through the aeons and ages of premortality, he advanced and progressed until, as Abraham described, he stood as one “like unto God.” (Abr. 3:24.) “Our Savior was a God before he was born into this world,” wrote President Joseph Fielding Smith, “and he brought with him that same status when he came here. He was as much a God when he was born into the world as he was before.” (Doctrines of Salvation, 1:32.) In that premortal estate, Jesus was, under the Father, the Creator and Redeemer of the Father’s worlds. Enoch had learned, “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.) The Lord taught Moses: “Worlds without number have I created; … and by the Son I created them, which is mine Only Begotten.” (Moses 1:33.) Moses was not given an account of all these worlds, but he was told who their Creator was. Joseph Smith was told who their Savior was: “The Lord is God, and beside him there is no Savior. … 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 76:1, 24.) The Prophet clarified these passages in a poem that he published in 1843:

For the Lord he is God, and his life never ends,

And besides him there ne’er was a Saviour of men. …

He’s the Saviour, and only begotten of God—

By him, of him, and through him, the worlds were all made,

Even all that career in the heavens so broad,

Whose inhabitants, too, from the first to the last,

Are sav’d by the very same Saviour of ours;

And, of course, are begotten God’s daughters and sons,

By the very same truths, and the very same pow’rs.”

(Times and Seasons 4:82–85.)

Elder Bruce R. McConkie has written a clear statement on the universal Lordship of Jesus: “Now our Lord’s jurisdiction and power extend far beyond the limits of this one small earth on which we dwell. He is, under the Father, the Creator of worlds without number. (Moses 1:33.) And … the atonement of Christ, being literally and truly infinite, applies to an infinite number of earths.” Again, “Just as the creative and redemptive powers of Christ extend to the earth and all things thereon, as also to the infinite expanse of worlds in immensity, so the power of the resurrection is universal in scope. Man, the earth, and all life thereon will come forth in the resurrection. And the resurrection applies to and is going on in other worlds and other galaxies.” (Mormon Doctrine, Bookcraft, 1966, pp. 65, 642.) President Marion G. Romney summarized the whole concept of Jesus’ universal ministry in these words: “Jesus Christ, in the sense of being its Creator and Redeemer, is the Lord of the whole universe. Except for his mortal ministry accomplished on this earth, his service and relationship to other worlds and their inhabitants are the same as his service and relationship to this earth and its inhabitants. … Implicit in the scriptures is the fact that the surest, if not the only, way to understand Jesus the Lord of the universe is to obtain an understanding of his relationship to this world and its inhabitants. … I bear my own witness that these great testimonies to the fact that Jesus Christ is the Lord of the universe are true, that he is also our Savior, and that the gospel of Jesus Christ is universal—the only plan by which men ever have been or ever can be exalted.” (Improvement Era, November 1968, pp. 46–49.)