Abraham 4
The Six Times of Creation
The Gods go down, organize the heavens and the earth, and set forth six times of creation, watching what they order until it obeys.
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Start reading Background
Abraham 4 is the Creation told a third time, after Gen. 1 and Moses 2. It follows the same six periods, but Abraham calls each one a “time” where Genesis and Moses say “day” (see the note on Gen. 1:5). It also begins in a different place. Genesis opens “In the beginning”; Abraham opens with “And then the Lord said: Let us go down,” and the reader has already heard those words in the council of chapter 3: “We will go down… and we will take of these materials, and we will make an earth” (Abr. 3:24). What follows is told partly as done and partly as planned (see the note on Abr. 4:18).
The Genesis and Moses notes already explain what this chapter shares with them: the Hebrew of the first verses, creation by organizing, the brooding Spirit, the expanse, the length of the days, the council and the image of God. This chapter links to them and takes up what Abraham adds: who goes down (verse 1), the word “expanse,” which two of the facsimile explanations also use (verse 6), and the Gods who watch what they have ordered “until they obeyed” (verse 18).
The book came forth in two settings. It was revealed to Joseph Smith beginning in 1835 and published in the Times and Seasons beginning in March 1842. Abr. 1 says once what the Church says about that history, and this chapter does not repeat it.
The thread through the chapter
Genesis says again and again of what God has made that it is good: “God saw that it was good” (Gen. 1:10). Abraham says that it obeys. The Gods “order,” and when the dry land and the seas appear, “the Gods saw that they were obeyed” (Abr. 4:10). In verse 18 they do more than see: “the Gods watched those things which they had ordered until they obeyed.” The word “good” is used once in the chapter, in verse 21, and there it belongs to “their plan.”
Partway through, the chapter turns to what will be. On the fifth time the Gods see “that they would be obeyed” (verse 21); on the sixth, “the Gods saw they would obey” (Abr. 4:25), and what they say is “We will bless them” and “we will give them” (verses 28–30). Their last words are a resolve and a forecast: “We will do everything that we have said, and organize them; and behold, they shall be very obedient” (Abr. 4:31). The heading in the Church's edition takes the chapter in that sense, as the Gods' “plans for the six days of creation,” and the next chapter tells how “the Gods came down and formed these the generations of the heavens and of the earth” (Abr. 5:4).
Tap any highlighted phrase to open a note beneath its versein the margin.
The Gods go down; the first time
The Lord says, “Let us go down,” and the Gods organize and form the heavens and the earth. The earth is empty and desolate, with darkness on the deep and the Spirit of the Gods brooding on the waters. The Gods say, “Let there be light,” and there is light. They divide it from the darkness and call it Day and the darkness Night. This is the first time.
1 And then the Lord said: Let us go down. And they went down at the beginning, and they, that is the Gods, organized and formed the heavens and the earth.
2 And the earth, after it was formed, was empty and desolate, because they had not formed anything but the earth; and darkness reigned upon the face of the deep, and the Spirit of the Gods was brooding upon the face of the waters.
3 And they (the Gods) said: Let there be light; and there was light.
4 And they (the Gods) comprehended the light, for it was bright; and they divided the light, or caused it to be divided, from the darkness.
5 And the Gods called the light Day, and the darkness they called Night. And it came to pass that from the evening until morning they called night; and from the morning until the evening they called day; and this was the first, or the beginning, of that which they called day and night.
The expanse; the second time
The Gods order an expanse in the midst of the waters, dividing the waters under it from the waters above it, and call the expanse Heaven. This is the second time.
6 And the Gods also said: Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and it shall divide the waters from the waters.
7 And the Gods ordered the expanse, so that it divided the waters which were under the expanse from the waters which were above the expanse; and it was so, even as they ordered.
8 And the Gods called the expanse, Heaven. And it came to pass that it was from evening until morning that they called night; and it came to pass that it was from morning until evening that they called day; and this was the second time that they called night and day.
Land, seas, and plants; the third time
The Gods order the waters to gather in one place and the dry land to appear, and they call the land Earth and the waters Great Waters. They see that they were obeyed. They prepare and organize the earth to bring forth grass, herbs, and fruit trees, each from its own seed and after its kind. This is the third time.
9 And the Gods ordered, saying: Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the earth come up dry; and it was so as they ordered;
10 And the Gods pronounced the dry land, Earth; and the gathering together of the waters, pronounced they, Great Waters; and the Gods saw that they were obeyed.
11 And the Gods said: Let us prepare the earth to bring forth grass; the herb yielding seed; the fruit tree yielding fruit, after his kind, whose seed in itself yieldeth its own likeness upon the earth; and it was so, even as they ordered.
12 And the Gods organized the earth to bring forth grass from its own seed, and the herb to bring forth herb from its own seed, yielding seed after his kind; and the earth to bring forth the tree from its own seed, yielding fruit, whose seed could only bring forth the same in itself, after his kind; and the Gods saw that they were obeyed.
13 And it came to pass that they numbered the days; from the evening until the morning they called night; and it came to pass, from the morning until the evening they called day; and it was the third time.
The lights; the fourth time
The Gods organize lights in the expanse for signs, seasons, days, and years: the greater light to rule the day, the lesser to rule the night, and the stars. They set them in the expanse to give light and to divide light from darkness. Then they watch what they ordered until it obeys. This is the fourth time.
14 And the Gods organized the lights in the expanse of the heaven, and caused them to divide the day from the night; and organized them to be for signs and for seasons, and for days and for years;
15 And organized them to be for lights in the expanse of the heaven to give light upon the earth; and it was so.
16 And the Gods organized the two great lights, the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night; with the lesser light they set the stars also;
17 And the Gods set them in the expanse of the heavens, to give light upon the earth, and to rule over the day and over the night, and to cause to divide the light from the darkness.
18 And the Gods watched those things which they had ordered until they obeyed.
19 And it came to pass that it was from evening until morning that it was night; and it came to pass that it was from morning until evening that it was day; and it was the fourth time.
Creatures of the waters and the air; the fifth time
The Gods prepare the waters to bring forth great whales, every living creature in them, and every winged fowl. They see that they would be obeyed and that their plan was good, and they say they will bless the creatures and cause them to be fruitful and multiply. This is the fifth time.
20 And the Gods said: Let us prepare the waters to bring forth abundantly the moving creatures that have life; and the fowl, that they may fly above the earth in the open expanse of heaven.
21 And the Gods prepared the waters that they might bring forth great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters were to bring forth abundantly after their kind; and every winged fowl after their kind. And the Gods saw that they would be obeyed, and that their plan was good.
22 And the Gods said: We will bless them, and cause them to be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas or great waters; and cause the fowl to multiply in the earth.
23 And it came to pass that it was from evening until morning that they called night; and it came to pass that it was from morning until evening that they called day; and it was the fifth time.
Animals, man, and the sixth time
The Gods prepare and organize the earth to bring forth cattle, creeping things, and beasts. Then they take counsel together and go down to organize man in their own image, male and female. They say they will bless them, cause them to be fruitful, give them dominion over the creatures, and give plants for food. They say they will do everything they have said, and that all will be very obedient. This is the sixth time.
24 And the Gods prepared the earth to bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle and creeping things, and beasts of the earth after their kind; and it was so, as they had said.
25 And the Gods organized the earth to bring forth the beasts after their kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after its kind; and the Gods saw they would obey.
26 And the Gods took counsel among themselves and said: Let us go down and form man in our image, after our likeness; and we will give them dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
27 So the Gods went down to organize man in their own image, in the image of the Gods to form they him, male and female to form they them.
28 And the Gods said: We will bless them. And the Gods said: We will cause them to be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it, and to have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.
29 And the Gods said: Behold, we will give them every herb bearing seed that shall come upon the face of all the earth, and every tree which shall have fruit upon it; yea, the fruit of the tree yielding seed to them we will give it; it shall be for their meat.
30 And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, behold, we will give them life, and also we will give to them every green herb for meat, and all these things shall be thus organized.
31 And the Gods said: We will do everything that we have said, and organize them; and behold, they shall be very obedient. And it came to pass that it was from evening until morning they called night; and it came to pass that it was from morning until evening that they called day; and they numbered the sixth time.
Seeing Christ in Abraham 4
The Church teaches that Abraham's account is of Jesus Christ's work: “Abraham’s Creation account teaches us that Jesus Christ organized the earth out of preexisting ‘materials.’” The Church's footnote to the “lights” of verse 14 points to a revelation to Joseph Smith, which says that He is “in the sun, and the light of the sun, and the power thereof by which it was made” (D&C 88:7), and “in the moon, and is the light of the moon, and the power thereof by which it was made” (D&C 88:8).
Worth exploring next
Read Abr. 3:22–28 for the council that planned this Creation, and Abr. 5, where the Gods finish their counsel and come down. The same Creation is told in Gen. 1 and in Moses 2, the Lord's own words to Moses.
This chapter elsewhere in scripture
- Gen. 1:1–31 — The same Creation in the same six periods, as Genesis tells it.
- Moses 2:1–31 — The same Creation as the Lord's own words to Moses; each period is a “day,” not a “time.”
Sources & further reading
- The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
- “Origins of the Book of Abraham”, Topics and Questions, Gospel Library.
- Scripture Central, “Why are Other People with God When He is Planning the Creation?”, KnoWhy #832, Jan. 1, 2026.
- Genesis 1–2; Moses 2–3; Abraham 4–5, Scripture Helps: Old Testament (2025).
- Moses 1; Abraham 3, Scripture Helps: Old Testament (2025).