therefore ye are brought back into my presence; therefore
I shew myself unto you. Behold, I am he who was prepared from the
foundation of the world to redeem my people. Behold, I am Jesus Christ.
I am the Father and the Son. In me shall all mankind have light, and
that eternally, even they who shall believe on my name; and they shall
become my sons and my daughters. And never have I shewed myself unto man
whom I have created, for never has man believed in me as thou hast.
Seest thou that ye are created after mine own image? Yea, even all men
were created in the beginning, after mine own image. Behold, this body,
which ye now behold, is the body of my spirit; and man have I created
after the body of my spirit; and even as I appear unto thee to be in the
spirit, will I appear unto my people in the flesh."[26] The main facts
attested by this scripture as having a direct bearing upon our present
subject are those of the Christ manifesting Himself while yet in His
antemortal state, and of His declaration that He had been chosen from
the foundation of the world as the Redeemer.

Revelation given through the prophets of God in the present dispensation
is replete with evidence of Christ's appointment and ordination in the
primeval world; and the whole tenor of the scriptures contained in the
Doctrine and Covenants may be called in witness. The following instances
are particularly in point. In a communication to Joseph Smith the
prophet, in May, 1833, the Lord declared Himself as the One who had
previously come into the world from the Father, and of whom John had
borne testimony as the Word; and the solemn truth is reiterated that He,
Jesus Christ, "was in the beginning, before the world was", and further,
that He was the Redeemer who "came into the world, because the world was
made by him, and in him was the life of men and the light of men."
Again, He is referred to as "the Only Begotten of the Father, full of
grace and truth, even the Spirit of truth, which came and dwelt in the
flesh." In the course of the same revelation the Lord said: "And now,
verily I say unto you, I was in the beginning with the Father and am the
firstborn."[27] On an earlier occasion, as the modern prophet testifies,
he and an associate in the priesthood were enlightened by the Spirit so
that they were able to see and understand the things of God--"Even those
things which were from the beginning before the world was, which were
ordained of the Father, t