Doctrine and Covenants 76

<p>It is not enough, is it, to know the scriptures about prayer or the motions of prayer or the words of prayer. The man who will not humble himself&mdash;really humble himself&mdash;before the Lord &ldquo;receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God,&rdquo; wrote Paul, &ldquo;for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned&rdquo; (1 Corinthians 2:14).</p> <p>The truths of eternal life, a prophet has written, &ldquo;are only to be seen and understood by the power of the Holy Spirit, which God bestows on those who love him, and purify themselves before him; To whom he grants this privilege of seeing and knowing for themselves&rdquo; (D&amp;C 76:116&ndash;117).</p>

<p>After we have been baptized, after we have been married in the temple, after we have taken all these covenants, we have to keep them. Every promise that we receive is conditioned upon our subsequent faithfulness. It is expressly so stated in the marriage covenant itself. We have to be obedient, faithful, and diligent, valiant in the testimony of Christ, walking by every word that proceedeth forth from his mouth. By such a course we will sanctify our souls. When we become sanctified and pure, we are capable and eligible and worthy to stand in the presence of our Father. No unclean thing can dwell in his presence. The whole process of salvation, this whole probation that we are undergoing in mortality, is to permit us to cleanse and perfect and purify our souls. It is to permit us to take evil and iniquity and carnality and everything that leads away from God out of our souls, and replace those characteristics with righteousness and virtue and truth and obedience, which, if we do, degree by degree, will perfect us until eventually we are clean and spotless and pure and are able to stand the glory of the celestial world (D&amp;C 76:118). If we can&rsquo;t stand the glory of the celestial kingdom, we won&rsquo;t be able to go where God and Christ are (D&amp;C 76:112).</p>

<p>In a General Epistle of the Council of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, issued December 23, 1847, at Winter Quarters and signed by President Brigham Young, we have these words:</p> <p>The Kingdom of God consists in correct principles; and it mattereth not what a man&rsquo;s religious faith is; whether he be a Presbyterian, or a Methodist, or a Baptist, or a Latter-day Saint or &ldquo;Mormon,&rdquo; or a Campbellite, or a Catholic, or an Episcopalian, or Mohometan, or even pagan, or anything else, if he will bow the knee, and with his tongue confess that Jesus is the Christ (D&amp;C 76:110-111) and will support good and wholesome laws for the regulation of society, we hail him as a brother, and will stand by him while he stands by us in these things; for every man&rsquo;s religious faith is a matter between his own soul and his God alone . . .</p> <p>We ask no pre-eminence; we want no pre-eminence; but where God has placed us, there we will stand; and that is, to be one with our brethren, and our brethren are those that keep the commandments of God, and do the will of our Father who is in heaven; and by them we will stand, and with them we will dwell in time and in eternity. (Journal History, Dec. 23, 1847.)</p>

<p>Every person in the world at some point in his eternal progression is one day going to have to come to the moment of truth when he must answer the question, &ldquo;What think ye of Christ?&rdquo; (Matthew 22:42).</p> <p>Think of that. At one point in our eternal progression, each one of us is going to have to answer the question, Who is Jesus Christ? We are told that every eye shall see, every ear shall hear, and every knee shall bow, every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. &ldquo;When all men shall stand to be judged of him, then shall they confess that he is God&rdquo; (Mosiah 27:31; see also Romans 14:11 and D&amp;C 76:110).</p>

<p>Modern revelation teaches us in the 76th Section of the Doctrine and Covenants, that all men, the sons and daughters of God, will enjoy a place in one of the glories prepared for them, according to their deeds in the flesh (D&amp;C 76:111).</p> <p>I ask you if this is narrow. I ask if this is bigotry. But I want to say to you, brethren and sisters, this is the broadest plan of salvation that has been given to the world since the Savior was crucified for the sins of all men:</p> <p>&ldquo;For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.&rdquo; (John 3:16).</p>

<p>The vision states that the inhabitants of the telestial world are “as innumerable as the stars in the firmament of heaven” (D&C 76:109) and that “where God and Christ dwell they cannot come” (D&C 76:112). In light of this phrase, the question is often asked, “Is there eventual advancement from one glory to another? Could a person who is sent to the telestial kingdom progress over time to the terrestrial kingdom and then on to the celestial?” Differing opinions have been held by different leaders of the Church, but it can be hazardous to set one Church leader against another. The question became so nettlesome in the twentieth century that Joseph L. Anderson, a secretary to the First Presidency, provided this standard response to the question: “The brethren direct me to say that the Church has never announced a definite doctrine upon this point. Some of the brethren have held the view that it was possible in the course of progression to advance from one glory to another, invoking the principle of eternal progression; others of the brethren have taken the opposite view. But as stated, the Church has never announced a definite doctrine on this point.”<a href="#_ftn1" id="_ftnref1" title="" class="see-footnote">[1]</a></p> <p>Does this mean that a person who goes to the celestial glory is cut off from their loved ones who do not achieve the same glory? A celestial being is not cut off from any place in the universe. Can a celestial being visit a telestial kingdom? The Father and the Son, both resurrected celestial beings, visit our earth, a telestial kingdom, with great frequency. The best way for people to ensure that they will never be cut off from the presence of their loved ones is to strive to achieve celestial glory. One of the blessings of celestial glory is the power to visit and minister to any person in any part of the universe.</p> <p>Finally, as we accept that we simply do not know the answer to the question of advancement between the kingdoms, it is perhaps best to trust in God’s mercy. One of the vision’s great messages is the scope of God’s plan for His sons and daughters and the lengths to which He will go to extend mercy to all of them. Lorenzo Snow captured the grand mercy of this doctrine when he said, </p> <blockquote> <p>God loves his offspring, the human family. His design is not simply to furnish happiness to the few here, called Latter-day Saints. The plan and scheme that he is now carrying out is for universal salvation; not only for the salvation of the Latter-day Saints, but for the salvation of every man and woman on the face of the earth, for those also in the spirit world, and for those who may hereafter come upon the face of the earth. It is for the salvation of every son and daughter of Adam. They are the offspring of the Almighty, he loves them all and his plans are for the salvation of the whole, and <em>he will bring all up into that position in which they will be as happy and as comfortable as they are willing to be</em>.<a href="#_ftn2" id="_ftnref2" title="" class="see-footnote">[2]</a></p> </blockquote> <div class="footnotes"> <p class="footnote"><a href="#_ftnref1" id="_ftn1" title="" class="footnote-label">[1]</a> Joseph L. Anderson, Secretary of the First Presidency, in a 1952 letter; and again in 1965.</p> <p class="footnote"><a href="#_ftnref2" id="_ftn2" title="" class="footnote-label">[2]</a> <em>The Teachings of Lorenzo Snow,</em> comp. Clyde J. Williams [1984], 91; emphasis added. </p> </div>

<p>While others may have struggled to accept the vision’s tenets, Joseph Smith recognized its wonder and power. When he recorded it in his later history he offered this assessment of the vision: </p> <blockquote> <p>Nothing could be more pleasing to the Saint, upon the order of the kingdom of the Lord, than the light which burst upon the world, through the foregoing vision. Every law, every commandment, every promise, every truth, and every point, touching the destiny of man, from Genesis to Revelation, where the purity of either remains unsullied from the wisdom of men, goes to shew the perfection of the theory, and witnesses the fact that that document is a transcript from the Records of the eternal world. The sublimity of the ideas; the purity of the language; the scope for action; the continued duration for completion, in order that the heirs of salvation, may confess the Lord and bow the knee; The rewards for faithfulness and the punishments for sins, are so much beyond the narrow mindedness of men, that every honest man is constrained to exclaim; It came from God.<a href="#_ftn1" id="_ftnref1" title="" class="see-footnote">[1]</a></p> </blockquote> <p>The vision forms the backbone of the Latter-day Saint understanding of the Resurrection and the eternal destiny of the sons and daughters of God. The vision emphasizes the centrality of Jesus Christ in our salvation and the expansive nature of the ways in which Christ offers salvation to all. The result is an assurance of better things to come. Brigham Young summarized its value when he said, “You cannot find a compass on earth that points so directly, as the Gospel plan of salvation. It has a place for everything, and puts everything in its place.”<a href="#_ftn2" id="_ftnref2" title="" class="see-footnote">[2]</a></p> <div class="footnotes"> <p class="footnote"><a href="#_ftnref1" id="_ftn1" title="" class="footnote-label">[1]</a> JS History, vol. A-1, p. 192, JSP. </p> <p class="footnote"><a href="#_ftnref2" id="_ftn2" title="" class="footnote-label">[2]</a> <em>Journal of Discourses, </em>3:96.</p> </div>