Zone1 The Passion

[Woodznutz]

That's where you go totally wrong .

Then why is it working so well for me?

 

[onefour1]

 

[onefour1]

I was asked to give a talk on this beautiful easter day in our sacrament meeting. I decided to cover what I spoke about in post #19. Here it is:

Easter Talk
Just after my mission I went to college and took a philosophy of religion course. The instructor started the course by going over three attributes of God; namely that God is all powerful, God is all knowing, and God is an all loving being. He then asked the question to the class, "if God is all powerful, all knowing, and an all loving God, why didn't he simply create us all to be as perfect as Himself?" He reasoned that if God is all powerful then certainly he would have the power to create us all perfect. And if God is all knowing then he certainly would know how to make us perfect. And if God is all loving, then he would certainly forgo having us go through all the pain, suffering and death in this life and simply make us perfect. Then he asked the class, "So why then didn't God make us perfect?" I was taken by this question and couldn't answer it. The course ended and it wasn't until about six months later that I finally found an answer. I found it in Doctrine and Covenants 93:29. It reads:

D&C 93:29
29 Man was also in the beginning with God, intelligence, or the light of truth, was not created or made, and neither indeed can be.

I also found a very detailed teaching on this subject in the King Follett Discourse.

From reading this verse, I came to realize that there is a part of man that was never created or made but has always existed. It is our intelligence. If our intelligence has always existed, then God could not have created it let alone create it to be perfect. This would also mean that if we were not already perfect, for us to become perfect, God would need to give us experience and teachings to have us learn to become perfect. From this understanding, this mortal life and all the experiences of good and evil, joy and pain, all started to make much more sense to me. This also meant that because of our imperfection, that we were prone to making mistakes and that this is why all have sinned and have fallen short of the glory of God.

God could not simply create us all to be perfect. God was dealing with imperfect eternal intelligences that were prone to making mistakes. Thus God needed a just way to forgive his children while they made mistakes as they learned to overcome them and while going down the pathway to perfection. The concept of an atonement is a very interesting concept. God needed a just way to overcome the demands of justice for our mistakes. God chooses a being who would come to this earth and live a perfect life without sin. In other words, he needed a lamb without blemish or spot. God chooses Jesus who is a member of the Godhead. Jesus, through his life's example shows us all how we should live our lives. He then suffers for the sins of all mankind which causes such exceeding great pain as to cause Jesus to bleed from every pour of his body. He then is taken and beaten and nailed to a cross before he dies. At this point I want to ask, "Did Jesus, who was a lamb without blemish or spot, who lived a perfect life without sin, deserve all the pain, suffering, and death that he received?". The answer is a resounding NO! In fact this was the greatest injustice in the history of this world. What can you imagine that the Father would need to do after witnessing this extreme injustice? Would you not think that Jesus would deserve a recompense for his unjust pain, suffering and death? Would he not deserve a recompense to the extent of all his pain, suffering and death? The answer is a resounding YES! His recompense was that he earned the right to forgive all whom he suffered for if they would repent and come unto Jesus and follow his example and teachings. Jesus could not simply click his fingers and all could be forgiven. God overcame the demands of justice on those who had sinned and fallen short but repented of their sins by exacting another justice for the unjust pain and suffering of the Lamb without spot or blemish. It was, as the Apostle Peter would say, the just for the unjust. It was no cake walk for our God but a perfect act of complete love and compassion on our imperfect souls. It was the greatest of sacrifices.

Now I want to speak on this Easter Sunday about the resurrection. In my studies of the above topic I also read again in Doctrine and Covenants 93 verses 33-34:

Doctrine and Covenants 93:33-34
33 For man is spirit. The elements are eternal, and spirit and element, inseparably connected, receive a fulness of joy;
34 And when separated, man cannot receive a fulness of joy.

God knows that for us to receive a fulness of joy we need to become inseparably connected to element. This is why God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ have immortal bodies of flesh and bones and wish for all of us to also have the same and receive a fullness of joy. Maybe because we have had a veil placed over our minds we don't remember exactly what it was like to live as just a spirit. However, when President Joseph F. Smith had his vision of the redemption of the dead, he tells us that he saw Father Adam and other great patriarchs of the church and they expressed that the long absence of their spirits from their bodies was a kind of bondage. Having a body brings us greater joy and when we are resurrected we will be able to receive a fullness of joy with our immortal bodies of flesh and bones. The Father and the Son loved us so dearly that they wanted each and every one of us children to experience a fullness of joy by having an inseparable connection to the elements by gaining an immortal body of flesh and bones for all eternity. To contemplate on the love that our Father and our Savior have for us is overwhelming. I thank my Father in Heaven for his extreme sacrifice of his Firstborn Son and I thank Jesus for his unfathomable love for us to suffer and die for me individually and for each and everyone who has come to this earth. I also give thanks for this mortal body and have hope that I will one day receive a fullness of joy in an immortal body of flesh and bones. We should all try to be like our God and emulate his great love. He has said:

This is my commandment that ye love one another, as I have loved you. Greater love hath no man that this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.

That we might all come unto this great love in our lives and in the eternity to come in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

 

[onefour1]

From the King Follett Discourse Joseph Smith taught the following:

The Immortal Intelligence​

I have another subject to dwell upon, which is calculated to exalt man; but it is impossible for me to say much on this subject. I shall therefore just touch upon it, for time will not permit me to say all. It is associated with the subject of the resurrection of the dead—namely, the soul—the mind of man —the immortal spirit. Where did it come from? All learned men and doctors of divinity say that God created it in the beginning; but it is not so: the very idea lessens man in my estimation. I do not believe the doctrine; I know better. Hear it, all ye ends of the world; for God has told me so; and if you don’t believe me, it will not make the truth without effect. I will make a man appear a fool before I get through; if he does not believe it. I am going to tell of things more noble.

We say that God Himself is a self-existing being. Who told you so? It is correct enough; but how did it get into your heads? Who told you that man did not exist in like manner upon the same principles? Man does exist upon the same principles. God made a tabernacle and put a spirit into it, and it became a living soul. (Refers to the Bible.) How does it read in the Hebrew? It does not say in the Hebrew that God created the spirit of man. It says, “God made man out of the earth and put into him Adam’s spirit, and so became a living body.”

The mind or the intelligence which man possesses is co-equal [co-eternal] with God himself. I know that my testimony is true; hence, when I talk to these mourners, what have they lost? Their relatives and friends are only separated from their bodies for a short season: their spirits which existed with God have left the tabernacle of clay only for a little moment, as it were; and they now exist in a place where they converse together the same as we do on the earth.

I am dwelling on the immortality of the spirit of man. Is it logical to say that the intelligence of spirits is immortal, and yet that it has a beginning? The intelligence of spirits had no beginning, neither will it have an end. That is good logic. That which has a beginning may have an end. There never was a time when there were not spirits; for they are co-equal [co-eternal] with our Father in heaven.

I want to reason more on the spirit of man; for I am dwelling on the body and spirit of man—on the subject of the dead. I take my ring from my finger and liken it unto the mind of man—the immortal part, because it had no beginning. Suppose you cut it in two; then it has a beginning and an end; but join it again, and it continues one eternal round. So with the spirit of man. As the Lord liveth, if it had a beginning, it will have an end. All the fools and learned and wise men from the beginning of creation, who say that the spirit of man had a beginning, prove that it must have an end; and if that doctrine is true, then the doctrine of annihilation would be true. But if I am right, I might with boldness proclaim from the housetops that God never had the power to create the spirit of man at all. God himself could not create himself.

Intelligence is eternal and exists upon a self-existent principle. It is a spirit from age to age and there is no creation about it. All the minds and spirits that God ever sent into the world are susceptible of enlargement.

The first principles of man are self-existent with God. God himself, finding he was in the midst of spirits and glory, because he was more intelligent, saw proper to institute laws whereby the rest could have a privilege to advance like himself. The relationship we have with God places us in a situation to advance in knowledge. He has power to institute laws to instruct the weaker intelligences, that they may be exalted with Himself, so that they might have one glory upon another, and all that knowledge, power, glory, and intelligence, which is requisite in order to save them in the world of spirits.

This is good doctrine. It tastes good. I can taste the principles of eternal life, and so can you. They are given to me by the revelations of Jesus Christ; and I know that when I tell you these words of eternal life as they are given to me, you taste them, and I know that you believe them. You say honey is sweet, and so do I. I can also taste the spirit of eternal life. I know that it is good; and when I tell you of these things which were given me by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, you are bound to receive them as sweet, and rejoice more and more.