"Behold, the Lord showed Himself unto him, and said....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 shown 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." {49} [Sidenote: The pre-existence of Jesus.] This marvelous vision, the brother of Jared beheld many hundreds of years before Jesus was born in Bethlehem. Do you think you understand the great truths that Jesus here revealed to the Jaredite prophet? First, it must be evident to everyone that Jesus had existence--that He lived and worked--before He was born in the flesh upon the earth. But what kind of existence was this pre-existence? It was an existence in the spirit state. And the spirit body of Jesus is in form and shape just like the mortal body; so that, when Jesus helped to form man. He formed him after the image of His own body. This is the second great truth we learn from the remarkable vision. And a third is, that Jesus was appointed "from the foundation of the world" to redeem mankind. In the pre-existence He labored for us; there He was chosen to redeem us. His mission upon the earth, and the sacrifice of His noble life, were but the completion of a plan formulated long before He was born. [Sidenote: The spirits of all men eternal.] Now, you may say, "Of course, we know that Jesus lived before He was born in the flesh, and that He had a spirit of the same form and shape as His mortal body, and that He was chosen in that pre-existent life to redeem the world from sin. But it may not be so with man." That is one of the wonderful things about life. We are here passing through only one small stage of it. Jesus taught that the spirits of all men are eternal just like His own. For Jesus truly recognized and understood His own pre-existence. Said He, once, as He prayed, "And now, O Father, glorify Thou me with {50} Thine own self with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was." And at another time He asked, "What and if Ye shall see the Son of man ascend up where He was before? I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world: again, I leave the world, and go to the Father." Thus, with complete assurance He spoke of the time that had been before; and with the same assurance He accepted the teaching that man, too, existed before he was born in the flesh. [Sidenote: The man born blind.]