The Premortal Jesus Christ
Joseph Smith Translation, John 1:1–5
1 In the beginning was the gospel preached through the Son. And the gospel was the word, and the word was with the Son, and the Son was with God, and the Son was of God.
2 The same was in the beginning with God.
3 All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made which was made.
4 In him was the gospel, and the gospel was the life, and the life was the light of men;
5 And the light shineth in the world, and the world perceiveth it not.
Elder Bruce R. McConkie wrote:
“While banished on Patmos for the word of truth and the testimony of our Lord, the Beloved Revelator saw an angel flying in the midst of the latter-day heavens, ‘having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth’ (Rev. 14:1–7). Now, that which is everlasting, whether it be the gospel or anything else, has neither beginning nor ending; it is from all eternity to all eternity; it did not commence and it will not cease. It is everlasting.
“The everlasting gospel was with God in the beginning; it was taught in the councils of eternity before the foundations of this world were laid; we have it now; and it will continue forever, being enjoyed in its eternal fulness in those realms of light and joy where celestial beings abide. The Holy Book records: ‘In the beginning was the gospel preached through the Son.’ That is, the Son of God, before He was ever born into mortality, preached the gospel, preached it in the presence of the Father to all the spirit hosts of heaven. ‘And the gospel was the word,’ meaning the word of salvation, ‘and the word was with the Son, and the Son was with God,’ for He was yet in preexistence, ‘and the Son was of God. . . . In him was the gospel, and the gospel was the life, and the life was the light of men; and the light shineth in the world, and the world perceiveth it not’ [Joseph Smith Translation, John 1:1–5]. And as John so wrote, two millenniums ago, so it is today: ‘the world perceiveth it not.’ The gospel is reserved for those who forsake the world, who come out of darkness into the marvelous light of Christ.
“The gospel was in preexistence; the gospel is now on earth among mortals; the gospel is found in the paradise of God among the righteous spirits; and the gospel is perfected in the lives of all those who have so far come forth from the grave. Those who were with Christ in His Resurrection included ‘all of the prophets, and all those that have believed in their words, or all those that have kept the commandments of God’ (Mosiah 15:22).
“Further, the gospel is in operation in all the worlds created by the Father and the Son. Their work and Their glory, in all the infinite creations that Their hands have made, is to bring to pass immortality and eternal life for the children of the Father. Through the Atonement of Christ, the inhabitants of all these worlds have power to become His sons and His daughters, to become joint-heirs with Him of all the glory of His Father’s kingdom, to be adopted into the family of the Father, which is to say that the inhabitants of all worlds ‘are [thus] begotten sons and daughters unto God’ (D&C 76:24).”
(The Promised Messiah: The First Coming of Christ [1978], 285–86.)
