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 life, and that eternally, even they who shall believe on my name; and they
shall become my sons and my daughters. And never have I showed 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. (Ether 3:14-15)
Given that we have scriptural support
for God appearing to such prophets as Adam, Enoch, and Noah, what did the Lord
mean when He stated that He had never revealed Himself to man? Here are a few
possible answers to this question:
First, this may well be the first time
chronologically when Jehovah manifested Himself and identified Himself
specifically as Jesus Christ, the Son (see verse 14).
Second, perhaps He did not reveal
himself to “man” in the sense of unbelieving, unredeemed, or unsaved man, and
certainly not to natural men. (See Sperry, Answers to Book of Mormon Questions,
49)
Third, the Lord may have never
revealed Himself in such a total and complete manner. President Joseph Fielding
Smith suggested that “the Savior stood before the brother of Jared plainly,
distinctly, and showed him his whole body.” (Joseph Fielding Smith, Doctrines
of Salvation, 1:37; see also McConkie, Promised Messiah, 47, 599-600)
Fourth, President Harold B. Lee
suggested that the uniqueness of Moriancumer’s experience lay in the fact that
he saw the Lord Jesus as He would be—that is, he saw a vision of Christ as His
body would be during His mortal ministry in some two thousand years. President
Lee stated that the brother of Jared “was amazed because he said he saw not
only the finger of a spiritual being, but his faith was so great that he saw
the kind of body that he would have when he came down t the earth. It was of flesh
and blood—flesh, blood, and bones. And the Master said, ‘No man had had this
kind of faith.’” (Lee, “To Be on Speaking Terms with God,” October 12, 1973)
Fifth, the Lord might essentially have
been saying, “No man has had the kind and depth of faith that you have,” a
faith that was of such magnitude that “he could not be kept from within the
veil,” and the Lord “could not withhold anything from him” (Ether 3:20, 26). (See
Ludlow, Companion to Your Study of the Book of Mormon, 318)
Sixth, perhaps the matter is simpler
than we suppose. Could it be that the pronouncement is a relative statement,
that it pertains only to the Jaredites? That is, maybe Jehovah was explaining
that “Never before have I showed myself to anyone in your dispensation, the
Jaredite dispensation.”
Of course these six possibilities are
not mutually exclusive—that is, more than one or all of them could be true. (Robert
L. Millet, Remember, Remember: Life-Changing Truths from the Book of Mormon [Salt
Lake City: Deseret Book, 2023], 190-91)