first, the

• I am the first and the last

10:7.1The First, Sec­ond, and Third Per­sons of De­ity are equal to each other, and they are one. “The Lord our God is one God.” There is per­fec­tion of pur­pose and one­ness of ex­e­cu­tion in the di­vine Trin­ity of eter­nal De­i­ties. The Fa­ther, the Son, and the Con­joint Ac­tor are truly and di­vinely one. Of a truth it is writ­ten: “I am the first, and I am the last, and be­side me there is no God.”

• I am the first and the last

97:7.6At last Ma­chi­venta Mel­chiz­e­dek be­held hu­man teach­ers pro­claim­ing a real God to mor­tal man. Like Isa­iah the first, this leader preached a God of uni­ver­sal cre­ation and up­hold­ing. “I have made the earth and put man upon it. I have cre­ated it not in vain; I formed it to be in­hab­ited.” “I am the first and the last; there is no God be­side me.” Speak­ing for the Lord God of Is­rael, this new prophet said: “The heav­ens may van­ish and the earth wax old, but my righ­teous­ness shall en­dure for­ever and my sal­va­tion from gen­er­a­tion to gen­er­a­tion.” “Fear you not, for I am with you; be not dis­mayed, for I am your God.” “There is no God be­side me—a just God and a Sav­ior.”

97:7.7And it com­forted the Jew­ish cap­tives, as it has thou­sands upon thou­sands ever since, to hear such words as: “Thus says the Lord, ‘I have cre­ated you, I have re­deemed you, I have called you by your name; you are mine.’” “When you pass through the wa­ters, I will be with you since you are pre­cious in my sight.” “Can a woman for­get her suck­ling child that she should not have com­pas­sion on her son? Yes, she may for­get, yet will I not for­get my chil­dren, for be­hold I have graven them upon the palms of my hands; I have even cov­ered them with the shadow of my hands.” “Let the wicked for­sake his ways and the un­righ­teous man his thoughts, and let him re­turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him, and to our God, for he will abun­dantly par­don.”

97:7.8Lis­ten again to the gospel of this new rev­e­la­tion of the God of Salem: “He shall feed his flock like a shep­herd; he shall gather the lambs in his arms and carry them in his bo­som. He gives power to the faint, and to those who have no might he in­creases strength. Those who wait upon the Lord shall re­new their strength; they shall mount up with wings as ea­gles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.”

97:7.9This Isa­iah con­ducted a far-flung pro­pa­ganda of the gospel of the en­larg­ing con­cept of a su­preme Yah­weh. He vied with Moses in the elo­quence with which he por­trayed the Lord God of Is­rael as the Uni­ver­sal Cre­ator. He was po­etic in his por­trayal of the in­fi­nite at­tri­butes of the Uni­ver­sal Fa­ther. No more beau­ti­ful pro­nounce­ments about the heav­enly Fa­ther have ever been made. Like the Psalms, the writ­ings of Isa­iah are among the most sub­lime and true pre­sen­ta­tions of the spir­i­tual con­cept of God ever to greet the ears of mor­tal man prior to the ar­rival of Mi­chael on Uran­tia. Lis­ten to his por­trayal of De­ity: “I am the high and lofty one who in­hab­its eter­nity.” “I am the first and the last, and be­side me there is no other God.” “And the Lord’s hand is not short­ened that it can­not save, nei­ther his ear heavy that it can­not hear.” And it was a new doc­trine in Jewry when this be­nign but com­mand­ing prophet per­sisted in the preach­ment of di­vine con­stancy, God’s faith­ful­ness. He de­clared that “God would not for­get, would not for­sake.”

• shall be last

163:3.4And then said Pe­ter, “But, Mas­ter, we have left ev­ery­thing to fol­low you, what then shall we have?” And Je­sus spoke to all of the twelve: “Ver­ily, ver­ily, I say to you, there is no man who has left wealth, home, wife, breth­ren, par­ents, or chil­dren for my sake and for the sake of the king­dom of heaven who shall not re­ceive man­i­fold more in this world, per­haps with some per­se­cu­tions, and in the world to come eter­nal life. But many who are first shall be last, while the last shall of­ten be first. The Fa­ther deals with his crea­tures in ac­cor­dance with their needs and in obe­di­ence to his just laws of mer­ci­ful and lov­ing con­sid­er­a­tion for the wel­fare of a uni­verse.

• shall be last

166:3.5“But fear not; ev­ery one who sin­cerely de­sires to find eter­nal life by en­trance into the king­dom of God shall cer­tainly find such ev­er­last­ing sal­va­tion. But you who refuse this sal­va­tion will some day see the proph­ets of the seed of Abra­ham sit down with the be­liev­ers of the gen­tile na­tions in this glo­ri­fied king­dom to par­take of the bread of life and to re­fresh them­selves with the wa­ter thereof. And they who shall thus take the king­dom in spir­i­tual power and by the per­sis­tent as­saults of liv­ing faith will come from the north and the south and from the east and the west. And, be­hold, many who are first will be last, and those who are last will many times be first.”