t and agency to
choose, so circumscribed that they would be compelled to do right--that
one soul would not be lost--was rejected; and the humble offer of Jesus
the First-born--to assume mortality and live among men as their Exemplar
and Teacher, observing the sanctity of man's agency but teaching men to
use aright that divine heritage--was accepted. The decision brought war,
which resulted in the vanquishment of Satan and his angels, who were
cast out and deprived of the boundless privileges incident to the mortal
or second estate.

In that august council of the angels and the Gods, the Being who later
was born in flesh as Mary's Son, Jesus, took prominent part, and there
was He ordained of the Father to be the Savior of mankind. As to time,
the term being used in the sense of all duration past, this is our
earliest record of the Firstborn among the sons of God; to us who read,
it marks the beginning of the written history of Jesus the Christ.[14]

Old Testament scriptures, while abounding in promises relating to the
actuality of Christ's advent in the flesh, are less specific in
information concerning His antemortal existence. By the children of
Israel, while living under the law and still unprepared to receive the
gospel, the Messiah was looked for as one to be born in the lineage of
Abraham and David, empowered to deliver them from personal and national
burdens, and to vanquish their enemies. The actuality of the Messiah's
status as the chosen Son of God, who was with the Father from the
beginning, a Being of preexistent power and glory, was but dimly
perceived, if conceived at all, by the people in general; and although
to prophets specially commissioned in the authorities and privileges of
the Holy Priesthood, revelation of the great truth was given,[15] they
transmitted it to the people rather in the language of imagery and
parable than in words of direct plainness. Nevertheless the testimony of
the evangelists and the apostles, the attestation of the Christ Himself
while in the flesh, and the revelations given in the present
dispensation leave us without dearth of scriptural proof.

In the opening lines of the Gospel book written by John the apostle, we
read: "In the beginning was the Word, and the word was with God, and the
word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were
made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made.... And
the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (