Though the Lds Church does not have a paid ministry, men who are called to positions of responsibility in the Church are given authority to preside. That authority is the priesthood. It is received by ordination, through the laying on of hands of those with authority. (Pearl of Great Price, A of F 1:5.) The priesthood is the power of God, delegated to men on earth, to act in all things for the salvation of men and women. It is divine authority, the authority Joseph Smith stated that he received in 1829 from John the Baptist and Peter, James, and John. Millet Mormon faith.
The Day of Judgment follows the last resurrection. Inasmuch as the Father has committed all judgment to the Son (John 5:22), Christ, who is the “Holy One of Israel,” the “keeper of the gate” (Book of Mormon, 2 Ne. 9:41), will pronounce the final judgment upon all men and women, righteous and wicked. The children of God will then be assigned forevermore to their respective kingdoms of glory—celestial, terrestrial, and telestial. The sons of perdition will likewise be assigned to outer darkness or eternal hell, to a kingdom of no glory.
Before coming to earth, the sons and daughters of God were told that as mortals they would be required to walk by faith, to operate in this second estate without full knowledge of what they did and who they were in the life before. A veil of forgetfulness would be placed over their minds. One early Church leader suggested what might have been said before we left: “Remember you go [to earth] on this condition, that is, you are to forget all things you ever saw, or knew to be transacted in the spirit world … you must go and become one of the most helpless of all beings that I have created, while in your infancy, subject to sickness, pain, tears, mourning, sorrow and death. But when truth shall touch the cords of your heart they will vibrate; then intelligence shall illuminate your mind, and shed its lustre in your soul, and you shall begin to understand the things you once knew, but which had gone from you; you shall then begin to understand and know the object of your creation.”
Latter-day Saints teach, in harmony with the Bible (see Rev. 20:1-8), that there will come a time at the end of the thousand years when “men again begin to deny their God.” (D&C 29:22.) Some will choose, despite the light and truth that surround them, to come out in open rebellion against God the Father, his Beloved Son, and the plan of salvation. Satan will be loosed again “for a little season” that he might “gather together his armies.” (D&C 88:111; see also 43:31.) “Michael, the seventh angel, even the archangel, shall gather together his armies, even the hosts of heaven. And the devil shall gather together his armies; even the hosts of hell, and shall come up to battle against Michael and his armies. And then cometh the battle of the great God”—known as the Battle of Gog and Magog—“and the devil and his armies shall be cast away into their own place, and they shall not have power over the saints any more at all.” (D&C 88:112-14.) At the end of the thousand years those who will receive a telestial glory will come forth in the resurrection, as will the sons of perdition. (D&C 76:38-39; 88:15, 102.)
Many partial judgments will precede the great day of judgment. Death is a judgment in that the spirit will receive an inheritance either in paradise or hell. The resurrection is a judgment: those coming forth in the morning of the first resurrection are assured of their place in the celestial kingdom; those in the afternoon of the first resurrection are assured of their place in the terrestrial kingdom, and so on. It is only after the resurrection that we “appear before the judgment seat of the Holy One of Israel” to be judged according to our works (2 Nephi 9:15–16). In a very real sense, each day of our lives is also a judgment, for we are daily writing the book of life out of which we will be judged (Revelation 20:11–15).
Joseph Smith’s Vision of the Glories included another category of persons—those who are resurrected, judged, and accounted unworthy of a kingdom of glory. These are the “sons of perdition,” those who blaspheme or sin against the Holy Ghost, “vessels of wrath” who deny and defy the faith after having gained a sure knowledge of the truth. These have received the Holy Spirit, have had the heavens opened, have known God, and then have willfully chosen to sin against him. They say the sun does not shine while they see it. They are an enemy to the faith. Their sin is unpardonable. These are cast into outer darkness forever. (D&C 76:31-39, 44-48.)
Latter-day Saints believe that the first principle of the gospel is faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. We have faith in Christ when we acknowledge him, not only as a great moral teacher but also as the Savior and Redeemer of all mankind, when we feel to trust in and rely upon his merits and mercy and grace.
Once we come to know of [Christ]—of his majesty and greatness and holiness—it is but natural that we would begin to sense our own inadequacies and sins. And thus repentance is the second principle of the gospel. We repent when we literally “turn away” from our wrongdoings, when we confess and forsake them (D&C 58:42-43), when we come to have a new way of thinking and viewing the world. Forgiveness comes only from God through Jesus Christ.
Every member of this church has a direct channel to our Heavenly Father; there is no one between us and God. Every person who has been baptized and confirmed has a right to the companionship and guidance of the Holy Ghost, the Comforter, even that Spirit of Truth which knows all things (see D&C 42:17; Moses 6:61).
The Church is the means, the vehicle, for salvation. Through the Church we receive the ordinances of salvation … But our hope for salvation is not in a system, not in an organization, not in a program, inspired and God-ordained though they may be. Our hope is in Christ.
Because the Fall is one of the three pillars of eternity (with the Creation and the Atonement), and because mortality, death, human experience, sin, and thus the need for redemption grow out of the Fall, we look upon what Adam and Eve did with appreciation rather than disdain.
As to the teaching of the gospel, there is a divine timetable; all are to hear it, but each in order, each in his appointed time. This is why baptism and other temple ordinances were not performed vicariously during Old Testament times. Not until Christ had organized his missionary forces in the world of the spirits do we find references to the Saints practicing the ordinance of baptism for the dead (1 Corinthians 15:29).
Those who have lived in our day and died without hearing the gospel will not be taught by Peter or Paul or by Moses or Abraham. They too must accept the gospel at the hands of those commissioned to teach it to their age and generation. Melvin J. Ballard stated the principle thus: “This generation shall receive the Gospel at the hands of those who have been honored with the priesthood of this dispensation. Living or dead, they shall not hear it from anyone else.”
The Telestial Kingdom. As baptism is the door through which one enters the earthly kingdom of God and the gate to the heavenly kingdom, so hell is the gate to the telestial world. None will inhabit this kingdom who did not first suffer for their own sins in that part of the spirit prison known to us as hell. Having done so, having “paid the uttermost farthing” (Matthew 5:26), they then come forth clean from sin to the least of the kingdoms of glory, but a kingdom of glory nonetheless. Dramatizing the glory of this, the least of God’s kingdoms, the revelation states that it “surpasses all understanding” (D&C 76:89) … Those inheriting the telestial world constitute two major classes. First, there are those who declare allegiance to false religions, who used their pretended devotion to some principle, cause, or prophet, as an excuse to reject the fulness of the gospel when it was brought to them (D&C 76:99–101). Had their rejection of the gospel not been the result of their unwillingness to repent of their sins, or because they were honestly deceived, they would have come forth in the terrestrial resurrection. The second class of people comprising the telestial kingdom are “liars, and sorcerers, and adulterers, and whoremongers, and whosoever loves and makes a lie,” as well as idolaters and murderers (D&C 76:103; Revelation 21:8; 22:15). These are they of whom Alma said, “They have no part nor portion of the Spirit of the Lord; for behold, they chose evil works rather than good” (Alma 40:13). Of these the revelation declares: “Where God and Christ dwell they cannot come, worlds without end” (D&C 76:112).
The telestial kingdom of glory is made up of those who “received not the gospel, neither the testimony of Jesus, neither the prophets, neither the everlasting covenant.” (D&C 76:101.) These are they who were in life murderers, liars, sorcerers, adulterers, whoremongers, and divisive influences. (See D&C 76:82, 99-101, 103; compare Rev. 21:8; 22:15.
The latter-day Saints believe that the fall of Lucifer and his followers—one third of the spirit children of the Father, allusions to which are found in the Bible—signaled the perpetuation of evil on earth. Lucifer, or Satan, with his minions, became the enemy of God and of all righteousness and to this day seeks to destroy the souls of men and women.
The Bible, notwithstanding the many marvelous truths it contains, can be searched in vain for the simple affirmation that our Eternal Father has a plan for the salvation of his children …The understanding we as Latter-day Saints have of the “plan of salvation” would not be ours were it not for the Book of Mormon and other revelations of the Restoration. Phrases like “merciful plan of the great Creator” (2 Nephi 9:6), “eternal plan of deliverance” (2 Nephi 11:5), “great plan of redemption” (Jacob 6:8), and “plan of salvation” (Alma 24:14) are common to the Book of Mormon.
Three years prior to his death, Adam gathered his righteous posterity together in the valley of Adam-ondi-Ahman (the place where he and Eve had settled after their expulsion from Eden 15 ). Seven generations of faithful patriarchs with their families met to receive prophetic counsel at the feet of him who had come to be known as the “Ancient of Days.” There he bestowed upon them his last blessing. In describing a vision he had of this sacred occasion, the Prophet Joseph said: “I saw Adam in the valley of Adam-ondi-Ahman. He called together his children and blessed them with a patriarchal blessing. The Lord appeared in their midst, and he (Adam) blessed them all, and foretold what should befall them to the latest generation. This is why Adam blessed his posterity; he wanted to bring them into the presence of God.” (Selected Writings of Robert L. Millet, pp. 162-163).
Latter-day Saints believe that vicarious work for the dead is a sacred responsibility laid upon them, inasmuch as “they [our kindred dead] without us should not be made perfect.” Heb. 11:40.) Joseph Smith went so far as to say that those Latter-day Saints who shirk this responsibility do so at the peril of their own salvation.
Little children shall live! What more perfect evidence of an omniscient and all-loving God than the doctrine which proclaims that little children who die are heirs of celestial glory! From these no blessing shall be withheld and from such no opportunities will be denied. The testimony of the Book of Mormon and the latter-day oracles is certain and clear: children who die before the time of accountability shall come forth in the resurrection of the just and go on to enjoy all of the privileges associated with eternal life and the family unit.
Latter-day Saints believe there are two types of salvation made available through the atonement of Jesus Christ—universal and individual. All who take a physical body—good or bad, evil or righteous—will be resurrected. That is, all will one day rise from death to life, their spirits reuniting with their bodies, never again to be divided. “As in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.” (1 Cor. 15:22.) This is universal salvation. It is salvation from physical death, a salvation available to all. Immortality is salvation from the grave. It is endless life. It is a universal gift.
The First Resurrection or the Morning of the First Resurrection—The scriptural phrases first resurrection or morning of the first resurrection (which is common to patriarchal blessings) are frequently used interchangeably … Those coming forth in this resurrection will inherit the celestial kingdom and will enjoy eternal life, which is God’s life. Thus the first resurrection is a celestial resurrection. The Afternoon of the First Resurrection—“And after this [the morning of the first resurrection or the sounding of the first trump] another angel shall sound, which is the second trump; and then cometh the redemption of those who are Christ’s at his coming; who have received their part in that prison which is prepared for them, that they might receive the gospel, and be judged according to men in the flesh” (D&C 88:99). These are heirs of the terrestrial kingdom, those who accepted Christ but not in that faith that would have exalted them. Of the time of Christ’s coming we read, “Then shall the heathen nations be redeemed, and they that knew no law shall have part in the first resurrection; and it shall be tolerable for them” (D&C 45:54). That redemption that requires “no law” (meaning that they have not accepted the gospel) and extends a reward that is “tolerable” cannot be confused with the blessings associated with the morning of the first resurrection as previously described.
I suggest that when men and women comprehend the great plan of happiness—the plan of salvation, the gospel—many begin to see themselves within that plan as a part of God’s program. They then begin to govern their actions accordingly.
This we know: Christ, under the Father, is the Creator; Michael, his companion and associate, presided over much of the creative work; and with them, as Abraham saw, were many of the noble and great ones.”
Zion is a place. Zion is a people. Zion is a holy state of being. In the words of Spencer W. Kimball, Zion is “the highest order of priesthood society.” It is the heritage of the Saints. “The building up of Zion,” Joseph Smith taught, “is a cause that has interested the people of God in every age; it is a theme upon which prophets, priests and kings have dwelt with peculiar delight; they have looked forward with joyful anticipation to the day in which we live; and fired with heavenly and joyful anticipations they have sung and written and prophesied of this our day; but they died without the sight; we are the favored people that God has made choice of to bring about the Latter-day glory.” In that sense, as Joseph Smith stated, “We ought to have the building up of Zion as our greatest object.”
The degrees of Glory … A series of visions were then opened to the eyes of Joseph and Sidney in which they learned of the division of kingdoms, or the degrees of glory, that will exist in the worlds to come. The highest of these kingdoms was called celestial, and was likened to the glory of the sun; the next was called terrestrial, and was likened to the glory of the moon; and the third, or the lowest of these heavenly glories, was called telestial, and was likened to the glory of the stars.
As recorded in the Doctrine and Covenants, the celestial kingdom of glory is made up of those who receive the covenant gospel, participate in the necessary sacraments or ordinances, keep their covenants, and remain true and faithful to the end of their lives.
The Gods of heaven have restored the everlasting gospel to earth in these last days through the instrumentality of a modern prophet, Joseph Smith, and all the powers and knowledge needed to exalt us in the highest heaven are vested in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Further, living apostles and prophets preside over this, the “only true and living church” on the face of the earth (D&C 1:30).
The revelations are explicit in their pronouncement that safety and refuge are to be found in the stakes of Zion. “Arise and shine forth,” the Lord implored, “that thy light may be a standard for the nations; and that the gathering together upon the land of Zion, and upon her stakes, may be for a defense, and for a refuge from the storm, and from wrath when it shall be poured out without mixture upon the whole earth” (D&C 115:5-6; emphasis added).
The Terrestrial Kingdom. The terrestrial or middle kingdom consists of those who come forth in the afternoon of the first resurrection. Four classes of people are given in the Vision of the Glories to represent the nature of souls that will comprise this kingdom. First, there are those who died without the gospel law and obviously did not accept it when it was taught to them in the world of the spirits (D&C 76: 72). Second, there are those who had the opportunity to accept the gospel in this life and did not do so, but did when the opportunity came to them the second time in the spirit world (D&C 76:73–74). Such are not celestial because they rejected the gospel in mortality in circumstances in which they were obligated to accept it; nonetheless, they are blessed by their acceptance of it in the spirit world in that they can inherit the terrestrial kingdom. Third, there are “honorable men of the earth, who were blinded by the craftiness of men” (D&C 76:75). As moral and honest people they establish the standard for all that inherit the terrestrial glory and show by way of contrast how much more is expected of those who aspire to be celestial. And fourth, “These are they who are not valiant in the testimony of Jesus; wherefore, they obtain not the crown over the kingdom of our God” (D&C 76:79). To be valiant in testimony is to be courageous, brave, bold, or valorous.
With the dawning of a brighter day, the knowledge of God and the authority to act in his behalf have been delivered to man again; a knowledge of Christ and the fulness of salvation available through him are to be had only by an acceptance of the doctrines and powers vested in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
The Spirit of the Lord witnesses to faithful Latter-day Saints of the central place of eternal marriage and of the sublime joys associated with the everlasting continuation of the family. Through temples, God’s promises to the fathers—the promises pertaining to the gospel, the priesthood, and eternal increase see Abraham 2:8–11)—are extended to all the faithful.
The scriptures of the restoration and latter-day prophets affirm that God our Father has a plan for his children, a program established to maximize our growth and ensure our happiness. And yet that fact alone—that there is some divine plan to life—is not as obvious from the Bible as from latter-day scripture. Knowing what we know, we are able to recognize divine design, but seldom can we turn to a specific Old or New Testament passage that speaks with clarity of a plan. How very different is the Book of Mormon! The Nephite prophets speak with grateful hearts for the merciful plan of the great Creator (2 Nephi 9:6), the plan of our God (2 Nephi 9:13), the great plan of mercy (Alma 42:15, 31), the plan of redemption (Jacob 6:8; Alma 12:25-26, 30, 32; 17:16; 18:39; 22:13-14; 29:2; 34:31; 39:18; 42:11, 13), the eternal plan of deliverance (2 Nephi 11:5), the plan of salvation (Jarom 1:2; Alma 24:14; 42:5), and the great plan of happiness (Alma 42:8, 16). We know that the plan of salvation is “always and everlastingly the same; that obedience to the same laws always brings the same reward; that the gospel laws have not changed . . . ; and that always and everlastingly all things pertaining to salvation center in Christ.
I know that there is purpose in life—a plan, a divine timetable, a carefully constructed program for the edification and exaltation of all—because of Joseph Smith. I know that we are eternal beings—that we lived in a premortal existence for endless ages of time, that this life is the time for men to prepare to meet God, and that we shall live forever and ever after mortal death—because of what has been made known through Joseph Smith.
While attending a patriarchal blessing meeting in 1836, young Lorenzo Snow was told by Joseph Smith Sr., “You will become as great as you can possibly wish—even as great as God, and you cannot wish to be greater.” In the spring of 1840 Elder Lorenzo Snow had a singular spiritual experience. He writes: “The Spirit of the Lord rested mightily upon me—the eyes of my understanding were opened, and I saw as clear as the sun at noonday, with wonder and astonishment, the pathway of God and man. I formed the following couplet which expresses the revelation, as it was shown me, and explains Father Smith’s dark saying to me at a blessing meeting in the Kirtland Temple, prior to my baptism.” The couplet was recorded as follows: “As man now is, God once was; As God now is, man may be.” After the Prophet Joseph Smith’s Follett Sermon, Lorenzo felt he could then teach the doctrine publicly … Who is there among mortal men that can fully grasp these transcendent verities? Man may become as God himself! Let those who disagree howl as they may! Such is within the reach of all who will pay the price. This marvelous accomplishment—the ability to be even as our exalted Sire—is the consummation of that process of spiritual development which begins in premortality, continues with an accelerated pace while in the flesh, and moves on to realization in the worlds beyond the grave.
The Latter-day Saints believe that the physical body is a blessing, not something to be shunned or detested. In fact, although men and women can enjoy the peace and happiness associated with faithfulness in this life, a “fullness of joy” can come only after body and spirit have been reunited in the resurrection.
Zion of old became a society of the pure in heart “in process of time” (Moses 7:21), and, with but few exceptions, members of the Church become Saints of the Most High in similar fashion. Except for a limited number of cases that are so miraculous they are written up in scripture, being born again is a process; we are born again gradually, from one level of spiritual grace to a higher. Almost always people are sanctified—made clean and holy and pure through the blood of Christ by the medium of the Holy Ghost—in gradual, line-upon-line fashion. Thus ultimate perfection and salvation are processes. One of the great challenges we face in our quest for spiritual maturity is to balance a type of divine discontent, a constant yearning for improvement and growth, with what Nephi called a “perfect brightness of hope” (2 Nephi 31:20), the assurance born of the Spirit that although we are not perfect—we have much sanctification and perfection ahead of us—we have a hope in Christ, a quiet confidence that in and through him we shall in time overcome all things and go on to eternal life.
Latter-day Saints believe there is a commitment to the marriage union, a commitment to family life, and a commitment to Christian principles that flow from the ennobling concept of the eternal family. Once a couple realizes that their covenant with each other and God is eternal, intended to span the veil of death and transcend time, then they can hardly view one another in quite the same way. Small provocations between marriage partners, for example, seldom result in serious discussions about divorce, inasmuch as marriage and family have been exalted beyond the realm of social dynamics to that of an everlasting religious institution.
For Latter-day Saints, the first ordinance or sacrament of salvation is baptism by immersion. It is not optional; it is mandatory. It is an evidence of one’s acceptance of the death and resurrection and atonement of Jesus. As the initiate is immersed completely beneath the baptismal waters, he or she participates symbolically in Christ’s descent into the tomb of death and His rise to newness of life in the resurrection. “Know ye not,” the Apostle Paul asked, “that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection.” (Rom. 6:3-5)
After we have been baptized and received the gift of the Holy Ghost, it is our duty as children of the covenant to qualify ourselves for the blessings of the holy temple. In that holy house we are truly gathered to Christ and endowed with power from on high; thereafter we may enter into that order of the Melchizedek Priesthood we know as the patriarchal order, also known as the new and everlasting covenant of marriage.
The first glimpse we get into a specific preparation for earth-life is what is called in scripture “The Council of the Gods.” It was at this council, held near unto the residence of Elohim, that plans were drawn up and final decisions made regarding the creation and redemption of this world and others.
The next ordinance of salvation is confirmation, the laying on of hands, by those with proper authority the Melchizedek Priesthood), for the reception of the Spirit. This also is not optional; it is mandatory. Latter-day Saints believe that one must have hands laid upon the head, be confirmed a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and be told, “Receive the Holy Ghost.” The gift of the Holy Ghost is the right to the companionship of the Spirit, the third member of the Godhead, based upon personal worthiness. (See 1 Cor. 3:16-17; 6:19)
Some non-Latter-day Saints believe that in 1 Corinthians Paul was denouncing or condemning the practice of baptism for the dead as heretical. This is a strange conclusion, since Paul used the practice of baptism for the dead to support the doctrine of the resurrection. In essence, he says, “Why are we performing baptism in behalf of our dead, if, as some propose, there will be no resurrection of the dead? If there is to be no resurrection, would not such baptisms be a waste of time.”
It is only after the resurrection that we “appear before the judgment seat of the Holy One of Israel” to be judged according to our works (2 Nephi 9:15–16). In a very real sense, each day of our lives is also a judgment, for we are daily writing the book of life out of which we will be judged (Revelation 20:11–15).
Though that new birth may come in a dramatic, sudden encounter with the powers of godliness, Latter-day Saints believe that most men and women are born again gradually, steadily over time, as the Spirit begins to work a mighty change within them. Ezra Taft Benson, president of the Church in the late twentieth century, thus taught, “We must be cautious as we discuss . . . remarkable examples [of rebirth]. Though they are real and powerful, they are the exception more than the rule. For every [one of these], there are hundreds and thousands of people who find the process of repentance much more subtle, much more imperceptible. Day by day they move closer to the Lord, little realizing they are building a godlike life.”
At the beginning of the Millennium, the earth and all things upon it will be quickened, made alive, and transfigured—lifted to a higher plane for a season. The earth will be transformed from a telestial to a terrestrial glory, to that paradisiacal condition that prevailed in Eden before the Fall. (Pearl of Great Price, A of F 1:10.) There will indeed be a new heaven and a new earth. (Isa. 65:17; Rev. 21:1.) Further, as Orson Pratt, an early apostle, explained, “All the inhabitants who are spared from this fire [the fire accompanying the glory of Christ at his coming]—those who are not proud, and who do not do wickedly, will be cleansed more fully and filled with the glory of God. A partial change will be wrought upon them, not a change to immortality [which would come after their death and resurrection], . . . but so great will be the change then wrought that the children who are born into the world will grow up without sin unto salvation. Why will this be so? Because that fallen nature, introduced by the fall, and transferred from parents to children, from generation to generation, will be, in a measure, eradicated by this change.”
In one sense, a person enters the rest of God in the present, in the here and now, when he or she gains a testimony of the gospel and is brought out of worldly confusion into the peace and security that comes only from God. In this sense, the rest of God is “the spiritual rest and peace which are born from a settled conviction of the truth in the minds of [individuals].” It is to know the peace of the Spirit, to enjoy the blessing of the Comforter. It is what Jesus promised to disciples when he said: “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). Second, spirits enter the rest of God when they enter paradise, the abode of the righteous in the postmortal spirit world at the time of death (see Alma 40:11-12; 60:13).
When Amulek spoke of death as the “night of darkness wherein there can be no labor performed” (Alma 34;33), he had reference to those who had full opportunity to accept the gospel in the flesh and did not do so. It is a serious doctrinal error to suppose that those who reject that opportunity in this life because they have no desire to conform to gospel standards may correct the matter in the spirit world. The willfully disobedient will not be cleansed from their sins simply because they have the good fortune to have someone labor in their behalf after they are dead. The book of life from which each man will be judged will be the book he has written on his own soul.
President Joseph F. Smith, who was privileged to glimpse in vision the world of the disembodied at the time Jesus entered therein, wrote: “Among the great and mighty ones who were assembled in this vast congregation of the righteous were Father Adam, the Ancient of Days and father of all, and our glorious Mother Eve, with many of her faithful daughters who had lived through the ages and worshiped the true and living God” (D&C 138:38-39). Adam and Eve were among that group who “waited and conversed, rejoicing in the hour of their deliverance from the chains of death.”
Some time before coming to earth it appears from scripture that all of the spirit children of Elohim met in a great general conference [different and separate from the Grand Council of the God’s] to consider the plans to be followed in peopling the newly created earth(s), and providing a program whereby all could possibly return to the Celestial home as glorified and perfected souls.
The Savior promised that he would teach the gospel to those who were dead. “The hour is coming,” Christ said, “in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation” (John 5:28–29). It was while Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon pondered the implications of John’s statement that there would be a resurrection of life and a resurrection of damnation, that they received the great vision known to us as the Vision of the Glories. Joseph said: “From sundry revelations which had been received, it was apparent that many important points touching the salvation of man had been taken from the Bible, or lost before it was compiled. It appeared self-evident from what truths were left, that if God rewarded every one according to the deeds done in the body, the term ‘Heaven,’ as intended for the Saints’ eternal home, must include more kingdoms than one.”
A Place of Waiting—The Great Gulf. From the days of Adam until the ministry of the disembodied Savior, there was no link between paradise and hell. Persons who had chosen to follow the ways of the world remained without gospel light for those centuries, and a “great gulf” separated the wicked from the righteous in the world of spirits. “Oh! the weariness, the tardy movement of time!” said Parley P. Pratt, “the lingering ages for a people to dwell in condemnation, darkness, ignorance, and despondency, as a punishment for their sins. For,” he noted, “they had been filled with violence while on the earth in the flesh, and had rejected the preachings of … the prophets.”
In his response to Satan’s temptation to use divine powers for personal gain, the Savior answered “It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God” Matthew 4:4; compare D&C 84:44 Every word. Not every other word, not those words that are most acceptable and pleasing, not those words that support my own peculiar views. Every word. Members of the Church would seldom become embroiled in doctrinal disputes, controversial dialogues, or gospel hobbies if they truly sought to live by every word that has come from the Lord, the scriptures, and the servants of God. To live by every word of God also implies the need to read and study widely, to be seeking for at least as much breadth in our gospel scholarship as we have depth, to seek to have the big picture.
The Celestial Kingdom … to obtain the celestial kingdom one must come forth in the morning of the first resurrection and must lay claim in the resurrection to a celestial body. One obtains a celestial body by developing celestial interests, appetites, propensities, desires, attitudes, and inclinations—that is, by living the gospel of Jesus Christ in full. “For he who is not able to abide the law of a celestial kingdom cannot abide a celestial glory” (D&C 88:22).
The celestial kingdom is divided into three heavens or degrees, and in order to obtain the highest, one must be married by the power and authority of the priesthood for time and eternity. Only those who are so married and live true to their marriage covenants continue in the marriage and family relationship in the worlds to come. (D&C 131:1–4.) … Of the other two degrees, or glories, within the celestial kingdom we know only that their inhabitants did not enter into eternal marriage and thus “remain separately and singly, without exaltation, in their saved condition, to all eternity; and from henceforth are not gods, but are angels of God forever and ever” (D&C 132:17).
Since their beginnings, the Latter-day Saints have placed tremendous stress on the value of education; it is a religious principle that men and women should strive to gain all of the education and training possible to better themselves and their circumstances in life.
If we live in such a way that we can take the sacrament worthily, hold and use a current temple recommend, and maintain the gift and gifts of the Spirit, then we are in the line of our duty; we are approved of the heavens; and if we were to die suddenly, we would go into paradise and eventually into the celestial kingdom.
Jehovah was the firstborn of the Father, meaning the first-born spirit child, the heir, the one entitled to the birthright of God. In this sense, the Latter-day Saints speak of Jehovah or Jesus Christ as their “elder brother” in the premortal spirit world.
One of the perspectives a reader gains early in the Book of Mormon is the centrality of Jesus Christ, the majestic role he played as both premortal Jehovah and mortal Messiah. The Book of Mormon prophets declare with consistency the fact that Jesus is not only the Christ but also the Eternal God. (see title page; 2 Nephi 26:12).
Latter-day Saints who have received the ordinances of salvation—including the blessings of the temple endowment and eternal marriage—may thus press forward in the work of the Lord and with quiet dignity and patient maturity seek to be worthy of gaining the certain assurance of salvation before the end of their mortal lives ... Bruce R. McConkie expressed the following sentiments at the funeral of Elder S. Dilworth Young “If we die in the faith, that is the same thing as saying that our calling and election has been made sure and that we will go on to eternal reward hereafter. As far as faithful members of the Church are concerned, they have charted a course leading to eternal life. This life is the time that is appointed as a probationary estate for men to prepare to meet God, and as far as faithful people are concerned, if they are in the line of their duty, if they are doing what they ought to do, although they may not have been perfect in this sphere, their probation is ended. Now there will be some probation for some other people hereafter. But for the faithful saints of God, now is the time and the day, and their probation is ended with their death.”
The Lord’s true Saints are the ones who do his works, under the influence of his Spirit. These perform living works, not dead works. Dead works are works not grounded in faith, deeds and actions and covenants not performed in righteousness. Dead works may also consist of works void of the motivation and staying power found in and through the Holy Ghost. “And if it so be that the church is built upon my gospel then will the father show forth his, own work. in it. But if it be not built upon the-my gospel, and is built upon the works of men, or upon the works of the devil, verify I say unto you they have joy in their works for a season, and by and by the end cometh, and they are hewn down and cast into the fire, from whence there is no return.” (3 Nephi 27:10-11). Paul taught that whatever works are not of faith-are not motivated by one’s faith in and dedication to Jesus Christ, works which are spiritually inert-are ultimately sin (Romans 14:23). On the other hand, those works which come—as does the fruit of the Spirit—by the power of the Holy Ghost, lift and lighten. They are deeds of faith and wonder which renew. Such works focus on and witness of Christ, who is their source; these good works are seen of men, that observers may glorify God (3 Nephi 12:16). Such works are more than duty or assignment; they become liberating privileges and opportunities.
The Second Coming in glory is in fact “the end of the world,” meaning the end of worldliness, the destruction of the wicked. (Pearl of Great Price, Joseph Smith—Matthew 1:4, 31.) At this coming the righteous will be quickened and caught up to meet him, and the earth will be transformed from a fallen orb to a paradisiacal sphere. The wicked will be destroyed by the brightness of the Lord’s coming; their spirits will take up a residence in the postmortal spirit world to await the last resurrection at the end of the thousand years. (Rev. 20:4-5; D&C 43:18; 63:17; 76:81; 88:100) The Second Coming in glory will initiate the Millennial reign.
Perhaps the greatest foreordination—based on premortal faithfulness—is foreordination to lineage and family certain individuals come to earth through a designated channel, through a lineage that entitles them to remarkable blessings, but also through a lineage that carries with it burdens and responsibilities. As a people, therefore, we enjoy what my colleague Brent Top calls “a type of collective foreordination—a selection of spirits to form an entire favored group or lineage.” Yet, he adds, “although it is a collective foreordination it is nonetheless based on individual premortal faithfulness and spiritual capacity.” In the words of Elder Melvin J. Ballard, Israel is “a group of souls tested, tried, and proven before they were born into the world … Through this lineage were to come the true and tried souls that had demonstrated their righteousness in the spirit world before they came here.”
In the premortal existence—our first estate—we lived under the patriarchal order, the family order. It was an order consisting of Father, Mother, and children, an order presided over by our Parents and direct by love, kindness, gentleness, and godly persuasion. We are thus children of God, members of the royal family.
Had there been no atonement, no amount of labor on our part could ever, worlds without end, compensate for the loss. Truly, as Jesus proclaimed at the last supper, without him we can do nothing (see John 15:1-5).
Indeed, God himself, our Father in Heaven, prepared a plan of salvation, a great plan of happiness by which we may be rescued, redeemed, reconciled, and restored to the family of God.
Latter-day Saints believe that men and women are literally the spirit sons and daughters of God, that we lived in a premortal existence before birth, that we grew and progressed in that “first estate,” all in preparation for this “second estate.”
At the heart of that grand plan of salvation is the Atonement of Jesus Christ. The Atonement is the means by which fallen, sinful men and women may be put back into a right relationship with our Father and God. Jesus is the Means, the Way, the Mediator, the Intercessor between a perfectly righteous and infinite God and a flawed, finite humanity.
Latter-day Saints believe that men and women are literally the spirit sons and daughters of God, that we lived in a premortal existence before birth, that we grew and progressed in that “first estate,” all in preparation for this “second estate.” In that world men and women were separate and distinct spirit personages, and they had consciousness, volition, gender, and moral agency.
"But, like the rest of the Christian world, we cannot rationally comprehend the work of God. We cannot grasp how one man can assume the effect of another man's error, and, more especially how one man, even a man possessed of the power of God, can suffer for another's sins. The atonement, the greatest act of mercy and love in all eternity, though real, is, for now, incomprehensible and unfathomable.
The latter-day Saints hold tenaciously to the principle that God our Father has a plan for us. The plan—called variously the plan of salvation, the plan of redemption, the great plan of happiness—serves as a guide, a roadmap of sorts, through trying and confusing and even ironic circumstances in life.
Joseph Smith, the Prophet of the Restoration, explained that [an] “everlasting covenant was made between three personages before the organization of this earth, and relates to their dispensation of things to men on the earth; these personages, according to Abraham’s record, are called God the first, the Creator; God the second, the Redeemer; and God the third, the witness or Testator.” Clearly we owe everything to our Heavenly Father who created us.
The Order of the Resurrections—“For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming.” (1 Corinthians 15:22–23; italics added.) Though the resurrection is a free gift to all, men come forth from the grave as they have merited the right—from Jesus Christ, the firstfruits, to those who remain filthy still, or from the most righteous to the least righteous, each man in his appointed time and order.
Joseph Smith loved the Bible. It was his pondering upon a biblical passage that started his quest to know the will of the Almighty. Most of his sermons, writings, and letters are laced with quotations or paraphrasing summaries of biblical passages and precepts, from both the Old and New Testaments. Joseph once remarked that one can “see God’s handwriting in the sacred volume; and he who reads it oftenest will like it best.” He believed that the Bible represented God’s word to humanity, and he gloried in the truths and timeless lessons it contained.
Few persons in all eternity have been more directly involved in the plan of salvation—the creation, fall and ultimate redemption of the children of God—than the man Adam. His ministry among the sons and daughters of earth stretches from the distant past of premortality to the distant future of resurrection, judgment, and beyond. As Michael, the archangel, he led the forces of God against the armies of Lucifer in the War in Heaven. Under the direction of Elohim and Jehovah, he assisted in the creation of the earth. .
It was while translating the Book of Mormon that Joseph Smith and his scribe continued to encounter references to baptism and other ordinances (sacraments), as well as the need for proper authority to perform the same. Feeling the need to inquire of God on the matter, they knelt in prayer on May 15, 1829, on the banks of the Susquehanna River near Harmony, Pennsylvania. According to Joseph, an angel who called himself John, known in the New Testament as John the Baptist: the one who had prepared the way for and baptized Jesus), appeared, laid his hands upon their heads, and ordained them to what Joseph Smith called the Aaronic Priesthood. The Aaronic Priesthood, known also as the Lesser Priesthood or the Preparatory Priesthood, contained the power to teach and preach, to call to repentance, to baptize, and to ordain others to the same authority. John explained that “he acted under the direction of Peter, James and John, who held the keys of the Priesthood of Melchizedek, which Priesthood, he said, would in due time be conferred on us.” (Pearl of Great Price, Joseph Smith—History 1:72.) Joseph Smith stated that within weeks the three ancient apostles did in fact appear and bestow the higher or Melchizedek Priesthood. This authority contained the power to confirm individuals members of the Church after water baptism and confer the gift of the Holy Ghost. In addition, Joseph taught that the power he received from Peter, James, and John included the holy apostleship, the same authority given by Jesus anciently to bind and seal on earth and in heaven. (See Matt. 16:16-19; 18:18.)
[Joseph Smith] delivered the comforting assurance to grieving parents who had lost little ones that they would again enjoy the companionship of their children; that these tiny ones would not grow in the grave, but they would come forth as they had been laid to rest—as children. Some confusion arose over the years after the Prophet Joseph Smith’s death concerning his teachings on the status of children in the resurrection. Some erroneously claimed that the Prophet taught that children would be resurrected as children and never grow, but would remain in that state through all eternity. President Joseph F. Smith [corrected this false notion] … Children will come forth from the grave as children, be raised to maturity by worthy parents, and be entitled to receive all of the ordinances of salvation that eventuate in the everlasting continuation of the family unit … “All your losses will be made up to you in the resurrection,” the Prophet Joseph Smith declared, “provided you continue faithful. By the vision of the Almighty I have seen it.”
The Resurrection of the Unjust … After the celestial and terrestrial resurrections, after the thousand years, or the millennial era, has ended, comes the resurrection of the unjust—those who will inherit the telestial kingdom and those who have become the children of perdition. Order still prevails; the telestial resurrection precedes that of those whose wickedness places them beyond the power of Christ’s redemption. Even hell cannot purge the filth of those who, having had a sure witness and knowledge of heaven's secrets, have denied all and actively sought to crucify Christ afresh.
Joseph Smith and his successors in the presidency of the Church have consistently instructed the Saints that truth is fixed, eternal, and undeviating. “Truth is knowledge of things as they are, and as they were, and as they are to come.” (D&C 93:24.) Truth is not established by consensus, by popular vote, or by utility alone. Likewise, right and wrong are not defined by society. Latter-day Saints believe in absolute truths. They believe that because God’s laws are constant and consistent, people may depend with certainty upon the consequences of obedience and disobedience.
The terrestrial kingdom of glory is made up of those who chose not to receive the testimony of Jesus in mortality but afterward received it; who are “honorable men of the earth, who were blinded by the craftiness of men. These are they who receive of [God’s] glory, but not of his fulness. These are they who receive of the presence of the Son, but not of the fulness of the Father.” In short, the terrestrial are those who “are not valiant in the testimony of Jesus.” (D&C 76:75-77, 79.)
Salvation, eternal life, eternal lives, exaltation—all expressions connoting the glories of the celestial kingdom and a life which is similar to God’s own life—represent the grand ends to our myriad means, the reason we do what we do in the Church and in the home.
Though the Lds Church does not have a paid ministry, men who are called to positions of responsibility in the Church are given authority to preside. That authority is the priesthood. It is received by ordination, through the laying on of hands of those with authority. (Pearl of Great Price, A of F 1:5.) The priesthood is the power of God, delegated to men on earth, to act in all things for the salvation of men and women. It is divine authority, the authority Joseph Smith stated that he received in 1829 from John the Baptist and Peter, James, and John. Millet Mormon faith.