“How was the earth created?,” For the Strength of Youth, Jan. 2022.
To the Point
How was the earth created?
“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth” (Genesis 1:1). So, how did He do it? Here are a few things we know:
Jesus Christ created the earth. Heavenly Father directed the work of Creation; Jesus Christ carried it out by the power of the priesthood. “By mine Only Begotten I created … the earth” (Moses 2:1).
The world was organized from existing elements, not created out of nothing. “We will take of these materials, and we will make an earth” (Abraham 3:24).
The Creation occurred in six stages. Certain things happened in each stage of Creation. For instance, plants came in one, sea creatures and birds in another, animals and people in other stages.
The stages of the Creation took unspecified amounts of time. The scriptures sometimes call the stages “days,” but that does not necessarily mean 24-hour days. One account speaks of “times” (see Abraham 4). We do not know their lengths.
Our questions about the Creation will eventually be answered. “In that day when the Lord shall come, he shall reveal all things—things … of the earth, by which it was made” (Doctrine and Covenants 101:32–33).