We are placed in this world measurably in the dark. We no longer see our Father face to face. While it is true that we once did; that we once stood in His presence, seeing as we are seen, knowing, according to our intelligence, as we are known; the curtain has dropped, we have changed our abode, we have taken upon ourselves flesh; the vail of forgetfulness intervenes between this life and that, and we are left, as Paul expresses it, to “see through a glass darkly.”
"Truth is truth, wher'er 'tis found, On Christian or on heathen ground
It is a braver part sometimes to live than to die.
Ancient of Days.—But Adam is to come again—is to come as the Ancient of Days, fulfilling the prophecy of Daniel. And he will come to the very place where, bowed with the weight of more than nine centuries, 15 he blessed his posterity before the ending of his earthy career. In the valley of Adam-ondi-Ahman 16 will sit the Ancient of Days, counseling his children—all who are worthy of that high privilege—and preparing them for the coming of the Son of God.
Damnation is no part of the gospel. Damnation or condemnation is simply the sad alternative, the inevitable consequence of rejecting the means of escape. When men hear the gospel and refuse to obey it, the come under condemnation. This cannot be helped. God would save them, but they will not be saved. They are free agents, and they damn themselves. Says Joseph the prophet: “When God offers knowledge or a gift to a man, and he refuses to receive it, he will be damned.” Not because God wishes to damn him, but because damnation is inevitable when one rejects the offer of salvation.
We will yet have Miltons and Shakespeares of our own. God's ammunition is not exhausted. His brightest spirits are held in reserve for the latter times. In God's name and by His help we will build up literature whose top shall touch heaven, though its foundation may now be low on earth.
They who refuse to repent will be damned; they damn themselves by that refusal. But damnation is not necessarily permanent, and like salvation or exaltation, it exists in degrees. The degree of condemnation is according to the measure of culpability in those condemned. Even the damned, who repent, can be saved.
According to Kolob.—The Prophet’s translation of the Book of Abraham explains that these greater days are “after the time’ or according to the reckoning of Kolob, a mighty governing planet nearest the Celestial Throne, a planet revolving once in a thousand years. This period, then, is a day upon Kolob. One might well suppose such a day to have figured in the warning given to Adam: “In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die”; for Adam, after eating of the forbidden fruit, lived on to the age of nine hundred and thirty years. St. Peter may have had the same thing in mind when he wrote: “One day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.”
Man on Probation.—There is still another purpose in man’s mortal existence, and it is referred to in the Book of Abraham, where the Creator, after announcing to “those who were with him” the proposed making of an earth “whereon these may dwell,” says, “And we will prove them herewith, to see if they will do all things whatsoever the Lord their God shall command.” Thus we are shown that man while here is on probation, that he may demonstrate his worthiness to inherit the great things held in reserve for the righteous.
“The spirit of the gospel is optimistic; it trusts in God and looks on the bright side of things. The opposite or pessimistic spirit drags men down and away from God, looks on the dark side, murmurs, complains, and is slow to yield obedience.” Elder Orson F. Whitney quoted by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland in The Tongue of Angels, April 2007
“No pain that we suffer, no trial that we experience is wasted. It ministers to our education, to the development of such qualities as patience, faith, fortitude and humility. All that we suffer and all that we endure, especially when we endure it patiently, builds up our characters, purifies our hearts, expands our souls, and makes us more tender and charitable, more worthy to be called the children of God . . . and it is through sorrow and suffering, toil and tribulation, that we gain the education that we come here to acquire and which will make us more like our Father and Mother in heaven.”
Adam could not redeem himself [from the Fall], great and mighty as he was—in the spirit; for he was no other than Michael the archangel, leader of the hosts of heaven.
That there is a Spirit World, and that it is closely connected with the material world—the one we now inhabit—has been a tenet in the religious philosophy of wise and good men all down the ages. In the minds of many people, the Spirit World and Heaven are synonymous terms, indicating one and the same place. But in reality there is a wide difference between them … Thus we see that the spirit world is not heaven, except in a relative sense, and then only in part. It is a temporary abode for God’s children, while undergoing processes of purification and development, as a preparation for better things beyond. Heaven, on the other hand—heaven in the highest degree—is the permanent home of the perfected and glorified.
“We claim that the Christian world is in a state of apostasy, and though thousands and millions of them are perfectly sincere—just as sincere in their belief as we are in ours—still, it devolves upon me as a servant of God to preach what I know to be the truth, and you can take your choice whether you accept or reject it.”
We are placed in this world measurably in the dark. We no longer see our Father face to face. While it is true that we once did; that we once stood in His presence, seeing as we are seen, knowing, according to our intelligence, as we are known; the curtain has dropped, we have changed our abode, we have taken upon ourselves flesh; the vail of forgetfulness intervenes between this life and that, and we are left, as Paul expresses it, to “see through a glass darkly.”