Understanding Who We Are (and WHOSE We Are)

This morning we had an unusual Sabbath Day, and I described it in an e-mail to our children and grandchildren:

It doesn't happen often, but today we awoke to blizzard-like conditions at the Ranch. The wind had blown so hard during the night Mom had trouble sleeping. (I didn't). The snow was blowing and drifting to a point the road was indistinguishable. I estimated the drifts were two feet deep in some places. It's still snowing and our plow guy won't get here until this afternoon when it stops. So we stayed home and taught one another. We had a priesthood/Relief Society lesson, then a Sunday School lesson. 

President Harold B. Lee

Maybe you wouldn't know it unless a Sunday School teacher showed it to you, but today's Old Testament Sunday School lesson featured a video snippet from Grandfather Lee's opening sermon in the Tabernacle on October 5, 1973. He reminded us our station in mortality comes to us as a reward for our faithfulness in the pre-existence, a condition to which we were foreordained. And may I hasten to add, I believe "the noble and great ones" are the faithful sons and daughters who have embraced the covenants, NOT exclusively the leaders of the Church, as we are sometimes taught. We are foreordained to be parents in the new and everlasting covenant of marriage, united with our posterity in that covenant. Grandfather concluded with these words that might be as real and timely today as they were when he uttered them:

It was George Bernard Shaw who said, “If we all realized that we were the children of one father, we would stop shouting at each other as much as we do.”

Now, as I come to the closing of this address, I trust that I might have given to you and others who have not yet listened to such counsel, something to stimulate some sober thinking as to who you are and from whence you came; and, in so doing, that I may have stirred up within your soul the determination to begin now to show an increased self-respect and reverence for the temple of God, your human body, wherein dwells a heavenly spirit. I would charge you to say again and again to yourselves, as the Primary organization has taught the children to sing “I am a [son or a daughter] of God” and by so doing, begin today to live closer to those ideals which will make your life happier and more fruitful because of an awakened realization of who you are.

This talk was his opening address at his final General Conference in October, 1973. Two and a half months later he was dead on December 26th. When we come to love ourselves for who we are (and WHOSE we are) - foreordained sons and daughters of God - EVERYTHING changes - how we view ourselves, how we treat others we love around us, and how we treat total strangers. 

His message uplifted us this morning as Mom and I studied and taught one another. Hopefully, you have all had a similar experience today.

Love and blessings,

Dad

A Mormon Defines Israel in Today's World

As I have stated before, I do not speak for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the Mormons), but I am a Mormon with an opinion. I have never been shy about sharing what I believe to be true.

Two facts this past week have prompted this post. 1) It was announced there will soon be 7 billion people living on planet Earth. Of course these numbers are difficult to nail down with precision, but "close enough" will have to suffice; and 2) according to a new poll by The Hill newspaper, 69 percent of Americans now believe the USA is in "decline." In addition, a whopping 83 percent indicate they are worried about America's future.

So how do those two seemingly unrelated facts intersect? They came together in my mind to suggest that very few people on planet Earth today understand, know or even believe these facts are part of the Grand Design of our Father in Heaven who knows the beginning from the end and has made ample provisions for His children because He loves them all and is no respecter of persons.

The Prophet Joseph Smith has delivered this plain and simple truth: "At the first organization in heaven we were all present and saw the Savior chosen and appointed and the plan of salvation made, and we sanctioned it." (TPJS, 181).

The "we" in his statement includes everyone currently living on the Earth today. Everyone. All 7 billion of us. In fact, it includes everyone who has ever lived on the Earth since the dawn of Earth's creation (more properly "organization," since matter is neither created nor destroyed, but is eternal - see D&C 131:7).

Unlearned Joseph Smith could not possibly have understood the first law of thermodynamics during his lifetime, but it was obviously revealed to him by the Holy Ghost, as he states below, and he shared this insight at a funeral for his good friend, a man named King Follett:

“Now I ask all who hear me, why the learned men who are preaching salvation, say that God created the heavens and the earth out of nothing? The reason is, that they are unlearned in the things of God, and have not the gift of the Holy Ghost; they account it blasphemy in any one to contradict their idea. If you tell them that God made the world out of something, they will call you a fool. But I am learned, and know more than all the world put together. The Holy Ghost does, anyhow, and He is within me, and comprehends more than all the world: and I will associate myself with Him.
“You ask the learned doctors why they say the world was made out of nothing; and they will answer, 'Doesn't the Bible say He created the world?’ And they infer, from the word create, that it must have been made out of nothing. Now, the word create came from the [Hebrew] word baurau which does not mean to create out of nothing; it means to organize; the same as a man would organize materials and build a ship. Hence, we infer that God had materials to organize the world out of chaos — chaotic matter, which is element, and in which dwells all the glory. Element had an existence from the time he had. The pure principles of element are principles which can never be destroyed; they may be organized and re-organized, but not destroyed. They had no beginning, and can have no end.” (TPJS, 350-52).

Abraham was shown all these spirit children before we were born, and he saw that "among all these there were many of the noble and great ones." The Lord then said, "Abraham, thou art one of them; thou wast chosen before thou wast born." (Abraham 3:22-23). "The noble and great ones" were all of Abraham's future posterity - referred to as "the elect," those who would hold the priesthood, those who are Lord's "chosen people," those whom we know today in the broad definition as "Israel." Abraham would become "the father of the faithful." (D&C 138:41).

We learned there was a war in heaven, the theme was the contention over moral agency (or sometimes, "free agency.") Taught Joseph Smith: "The contention in heaven was — Jesus said there would be certain souls that would not be saved; and the devil said he could save them all, and laid his plans before the grand council, who gave their vote in favor of Jesus Christ. So the devil rose up in rebellion against God, and was cast down, with all who put up their heads for him. (Book of Moses — Pearl of Great Price, Chap. 4:1-4; Book of Abraham, Chap. 3:23-28.)" (TPJS, 357).

"The father of all lies" (see Moses 4:4, Ether 8:25, 2Nephi 2:18) is a perfect description of Satan. Notwithstanding his subtlety and brilliance, Lucifer lost the war in heaven, but he did not quit, nor did he surrender. Instead he took the hosts who followed him, denied the privilege of a physical body, and continues to wage the war against agency today on Earth. Those of us on Earth today saw through his craftiness because the evidence is we are here and we all have physical bodies - 7 billion of us.

At every stage of our existence, first as organized intelligences, followed by our existence as spirits during the war in heaven, then here on Earth today, and someday in the glorious world of spirits and the resurrection yet ahead, we are always granted that precious gift - our moral agency. We may choose freely without compulsion. Everything about our Heavenly Father's plan of salvation suggests it could not exist without moral agency. We are enlarged and our choices expand until they are as wide as all eternity if we are faithful in the correct use of our agency.

It was John who preserved this precious doctrine taught by the Savior: "Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." (John 8:31-32).

If (it's a big IF these days) we learn the truth and obey it, we shall be free, even as free as God is.

President Harold B. Lee

President Harold B. Lee, in his pinnacle General Conference address (October 1973), said this:

"It would seem very clear, then, that those born to the lineage of Jacob, who was later to be called Israel, and his posterity, who were known as the children of Israel, were born into the most illustrious lineage of any of those who came upon the earth as mortal beings.
"All these rewards were seemingly promised, or foreordained, before the world was. Surely these matters must have been determined by the kind of lives we had lived in that premortal spirit world. Some may question these assumptions, but at the same time they will accept without any question the belief that each one of us will be judged when we leave this earth according to his or her deeds during our lives here in mortality. Isn’t it just as reasonable to believe that what we have received here in this earth life was given to each of us according to the merits of our conduct before we came here?
"Now there is another important understanding that we have from the scriptures. We are all free agents, which means to some people who manifest a spirit of rebellion that they are free to do anything they please, but that is not the correct meaning of free agency as the prophets have declared in the scriptures where free agency has been defined. I quote:
“'Wherefore, men are free according to the flesh; and all things are given them which are expedient unto man. And they are free to choose liberty and eternal life, through the great mediation of all men, or to choose captivity and death, according to the captivity and power of the devil; for he seeketh that all men might be miserable like unto himself.'” (2 Nephi 2:27).

President Lee continued:

“Who are you? You are all the sons and daughters of God. Your spirits were created and lived as organized intelligences before the world was. You have been blessed to have a physical body because of your obedience to certain commandments in that premortal state. You are now born into a family to which you have come, into the nations through which you have come, as a reward for the kind of lives you lived before you came here and at a time in the world’s history, as the apostle Paul taught the men of Athens and as the Lord revealed to Moses, determined by the faithfulness of each of those who lived before this world was created." (Ensign, January 1974, 2-5).

Here's the important point as it affects Israel and all of God's children today: All God's children were of the foreordained spiritual family of Christ in the premortal world and were included in the broad family of Israel. They were all foreordained to join the eternal family of Christ during the days of their mortal probation. The gospel, it was agreed, would be preached to everyone, and they would all be given the opportunity to become the "chosen and the elect" during the days of their mortal probation. All these, we are told, "the Father had put into his [Christ's] power, and they were made by him." (D&C 76:42-43). All were good, and all were deserving of all the blessings they could obtain through their faithfulness in some degree of salvation.

All were given an opportunity to experience this second estate. The elect were foreordained to come into the world through the chosen lineage, and were foreordained to obtain eternal life. Significantly, and sometimes forgotten by all of us, everyone would be given an opportunity to obtain the very same blessings and promises to improve their station and to choose eternal life not only during the days of their mortal probation, but for as long as it took in the spirit world hereafter to fulfill the promises given to them in the premortal world. Whether by birthright lineage or eventual adoption into Israel, all were foreordained to exaltation who were worthy of a body in their second estate. Because God is no respecter of persons, ample opportunities are the sum and substance of His plan of salvation. The key is faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, repentance, baptism by immersion for the remission of sins, and the gift of the Holy Ghost.

Remarkable to me is that we perform all these ordinances vicariously for all in our family tree who have predeceased us. We give them the gift of the Holy Ghost vicariously here on Earth, so they may exercise its blessings in the spirit world where they reside. They are ordained vicariously to the priesthood so they may also minister to others in the spirit world as they advance in light and truth. All are alike unto God, and all have equal claim on all the blessings -- if they repent.

So what does all this mean about America's future? Freedom is the lynch pin that makes it possible for the gospel of Jesus Christ to exist on Earth today and to flourish in our lives. The United States of America is the bastion of freedom in the world today, so that all may come in at the front door of Israel's expansive tent. Yes, we are all kin to the state of Israel politically, but spiritually America's destiny is to provide and to protect freedom for all God's children living on the Earth today no matter where they reside on Earth. Zion is spreading forth globally. Satan's dominions, intimidating as they seem, are only an illusory passing night vision that will one day evaporate like the frost when the sun rises.

We may despair from time to time about America in decline, but truthfully, America will stand as long as the Earth itself stands, and as long as the hearts of freedom-loving people still beat in the breasts of those who reside in "the land of the free and the home of the brave," the outcome is assured.

The New Jerusalem is yet to be built before the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, and we know it will be established here in America and nowhere else. (10th Article of Faith; D&C 84:1-5).

All the doomsday talk notwithstanding, all the wars and rumors of wars, all the upheavals imaginable, all the filth and wickedness aside, the promises to the faithful remain:

"Zion shall be redeemed, although she is chastened for a little season." (D&C 100:13).

May we always prove worthy of the trust as the chosen seed of Israel and citizens of this great land of freedom as we build Zion together.

Family Foreordination

Yesterday we had the blessing of witnessing the baptism of yet another grandchild. Recently, it was Molly and Spencer. These choice young spirits who have been sent to our family in the third generation continue to amaze and humble me. Present by invitation at yesterday’s baptism was Alex’s best friend, not a member of the Church. At age eight he is already a missionary. Even before that he gifted his kindergarten teacher with a Book of Mormon.

There is little doubt in my mind these spirits who are coming to earth in these last days are uniquely prepared for the days that lie ahead. Alex carries his scriptures with him in a special carrying case with the image of a basketball imprinted on it. Our grandchildren are all exceptional (you may discount these words if you choose, because it’s a grandfather talking about his grandchildren) but I fear no contradiction for those who know them well.

Alex

In a note to Alex I observed the new layer of snow on the ground (I know, April 30th, still snowing in Utah), and how the covering of white symbolized the purity of one who is baptized. Certainly, Alex will make mistakes, he will sin, but in the sacrament each week and in repentance the gospel offers purity going forward from one's baptismal day. 

Prompted by events, e-mails and questions lately, I’ve been giving a lot of thought to this matter of parentage, foreordination and family life. How soon did we know about families? Where did we learn our first lessons about families? How were we organized before we came into this mortal world? We are organized into families here, we know we will be organized into families hereafter if we remain faithful, so how does that knowledge inform us about how we were organized before? How much agency was at work in our choices about which families we would come to?

These are some of the questions that arise. I doubt there is a single influence that permeates our existence more than the families into which we are born. The age-old debate about nature versus nurture will perhaps never be fully resolved to our satisfaction, but who we are, what we become and how our character is shaped is certainly the pre-eminent result of the laboratory of home and family. Regardless of how we start, it is how we finish that is important. Improvement is the goal, and we are free to choose outcomes. Nothing is pre-determined that will not yield to faith and perseverance.

There may be no more important facet of the doctrine of foreordination than how it plays out in the families to which we come. Is that ultimate designation made by assignment, by agency and freedom of choice, or by merit or by divine randomness? Without knowledge of the plan of salvation, most would conclude our family situation is merely a matter of the randomness of the universe.

Elder Bruce R. McConkie

It would be hard for a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to conclude anything less than the family unit being central to God's designs. With Scott Strong, I have written extensively about this topic in the past. Elder Bruce R. McConkie wrote, ". . .the Lord operates through families. He himself lives in the family unit; it is his eternal system of government in heaven and on earth, and he always offers as much of his own system to men as they are willing to receive." (A New Witness for the Articles of Faith [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1985], 35).

In addition to foreordination to lineage, there is evidence to indicate that there is, at least in certain cases, foreordination to favored families. President Harold B. Lee affirmed that, generally, we come to certain families as a reward or blessing for our premortal lives.

President Harold B. Lee

Said he at the last General Conference where he presided,

Now then, to make a summary of what I have just read, may I ask each of you again the question, “Who are you?” You are all the sons and daughters of God. Your spirits were created and lived as organized intelligences before the world was. You have been blessed to have a physical body because of your obedience to certain commandments in that premortal state. You are now born into a family to which you have come, into the nations through which you have come, as a reward for the kind of lives you lived before you came here and at a time in the world’s history, as the apostle Paul taught the men of Athens and as the Lord revealed to Moses, determined by the faithfulness of each of those who lived before this world was created. (“Understanding Who We Are Brings Self-Respect," Ensign, January 1974, 7).

It was his view there had been a premortal assignment to specific families based upon our faithfulness in the pre-existence.

President Brigham Young

Joseph Smith appeared in vision to Brigham Young at Council Bluffs, Iowa, on February 17, 1847. The full account is longer, but here's the partial quote that applies to this topic:

Our Father in Heaven organized the human family, but they are all disorganized and in great confusion.

Joseph then showed me the pattern, how they were in the beginning.

This I cannot describe, but I saw it, and saw where the Priesthood had been taken from the earth and how it must be joined together, so that there would be a perfect chain from Father Adam to his latest posterity.

Joseph again said, “Tell the people to be sure to keep the Spirit of the Lord and follow it, and it will lead them just right." (Journal History of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, February 23, 1847, LDS Church Archives).

I’ll lay out a few more statements, then draw a conclusion. There can be little doubt of the noble heritage of our prophets from Joseph Smith to Thomas S. Monson. They were certainly among the “noble and great ones” in the pre-existence. (Abraham 3:22). Brigham Young described it this way, pertaining to the foreordination of Joseph Smith:

It was decreed in the counsels of eternity, long before the foundations of the earth were laid, that [Joseph Smith] should be the man, in the last dispensation of this world, to bring forth the word of God to the people, and receive the fulness of the keys and power of the Priesthood of the Son of God. The Lord had his eye upon him, and upon his father, and upon his father's father, and upon their progenitors clear back to Abraham, and from Abraham to the flood, from the flood to Enoch, and from Enoch to Adam. He has watched that family and that blood as it has circulated from its fountain to the birth of that man. (JD, 7:289-290).

President Spencer W. Kimball

When President Spencer W. Kimball was sustained as President of the Church, Elder Bruce R. McConkie made this statement:

May I take President Spencer W. Kimball as an illustration and pattern of one who was prepared, foreordained, and called to leadership among the Lord's people. He was, it is true, born in the household of faith. . .

But more than mortal birth. . . [is] involved. He was born in the household of faith for a reason. . . The fact is, he is a spirit son of God who was called and chosen and foreordained before the foundations of the earth were laid, and he is now fulfilling the destiny designed for him from the pre-existence. ("God Foreordains His Prophets and His People," Ensign, May 1974, 72).

If this assignment of spirits based upon pre-existent spirit faithfulness can be applied to prophets who come to faithful families, it can certainly be applied to others who are not among the “pre-eminent” families who govern the Church. It is also important to point out that the details have not been fully revealed. Let’s be careful, therefore, in making broad generalizations.

President John Taylor

Elder John Taylor published an article entitled "The Origin and Destiny of Woman" in the August 29, 1857 edition of The Mormon. He hinted, "You also chose a kindred spirit whom you loved in the spirit world (and who had permission to come to this planet and take a tabernacle), to be your head, stay, husband and protector on the earth and to exalt you in eternal worlds. All these were arranged, likewise the spirits that should tabernacle through your lineage." (Cited in N. B. Lundwall, compiler, The Vision [Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, n.d.], 145-148).

Was he giving a specific answer to one woman here, or did he intend a wider interpretation?

Two prophets at a much later date seemed to suggest the former. President Joseph Fielding Smith taught there is "no scriptural justification. . . for the belief that we had the privilege of choosing our parents and our life companions in the spirit world." (The Way to Perfection [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1972], 44).

In 1966, Elder Harold B. Lee stated, "we have no revealed word" on the extent to which premortal choices of family members were made. He then cautioned we should not accept or teach ideas that cannot be firmly established in the standard works or by inspired utterances of the living prophets. 

First Presidency, 1971

In 1971, while serving in The First Presidency, both men once again declared, "We have no revealed word to the effect that when we were in the preexistent state we chose our parents and our husbands and wives." (The First Presidency, 1971, cited by Steve F. Gilliland in, "I Have a Question," Ensign, June 1977, 40).

When we examine the make-up of some families, isn’t it obvious there are disparities, and that all are not alike? There's an old expression that you can choose your friends, but you don't get to choose your brother. So did we? The ranks of the disaffected former members of the Church are filled with those who were closest to the prophets. One prominent Church family may produce a deviant sex offender whose brother may be a stake president. Even some political observers I've spoken with have asked, observing Mike Lee and Harry Reid, "How can the same Church 'family' produce two such diametrically opposed points of view?" But I digress. I wonder if our Heavenly Father sends some of his most noble and great spirits to the least likely families because he knows his choice spirit sons and daughters may bring spiritual blessings to the rest of the family that might not otherwise be available. We must never judge someone's premortal character or performance based on current parentage or family conditions. Certainly, that applies to the political 'family' of the U.S. Senate, where Ted Kennedy and Orrin Hatch could befriend one another.

Again, God’s foreknowledge never impedes our ability to freely choose, not in the pre-existence, not here, and certainly not later in the spirit world or into the resurrection. I have come to conclude this about God, largely through my observations of a lifetime. (It's not doctrinal, only an observation). As a parent, wouldn't He want as many of His children as possible to achieve exaltation and eternal life with Him? I'm only beginning to understand that perspective as a grandfather of many in the third generation. I would want each to be with me again someday after this life. Wouldn't God? Wouldn't every father? Wouldn't any father and grandfather reach through the veil to the extent he were permitted to assist in bringing about that eventuality? To as many as will come, He will afford each child at whatever stage in their existence, ample opportunities to “get it right.” Life is a continuum, and this mortal probation is a blink in the eyeball of eternity.

President Boyd K. Packer

Noting the power of our covenants, I believe it is what led President Boyd K. Packer to conclude in an address to our stake, “When we go beyond the veil we will be surprised at how different things are. But we’ll also be surprised at how similar things are. If we don’t get things fixed here we’ll get them fixed there, but don’t give up.”

There is simply too much breakage in our mortal probation to draw hard and fast conclusions about eternal life before we get there. When one is young and idealistic, it is easy to picture oneself as one of the "few" who is chosen. It smacks of the precise number of 144,000 of Jehovah's Witnesses who will be saved.

What do I mean by "breakage?" After writing this post this morning we attended a ward fast and testimony meeting. It was a cascade of witnesses, six in all, who testified of their gratitude for second marriages, a chance to begin anew and to foster hope for their eternal inheritance despite an earlier failure for undisclosed reasons in their first marriages. Each of the sisters wept openly for the privilege of finally having a righteous priesthood holder in her home, a blessing for which many had longed for years.

So in old age, the kind of thinking tending toward unfettered idealism gives way to quiet contemplation and hope for a large dose of mercy administered to those who fall in this life. And not just for those who fall, but perhaps more importantly for those who are innocently affected by the sins of other family members. We certainly have enough information to reach for eternal life here and now, and through the power of the atonement we may yearn for it, hope for it and expect it. The "breakage" can be swept up, the broken things can be mended, and hope can triumph even when it isn't perfect the first time around.

No longer is it a question for me of what we've earned, what we're entitled to by our birthright or our relative righteousness ("I did better than you at keeping the commandments"), but rather what follows perfectionism is a quiet assurance of the majesty of the atonement in all its perfections. Do we really know everything about what constitutes a full opportunity to receive what He referred to as "the greatest of all the gifts of God" yet? (See D&C 6:13). I doubt it. Ask yourselves, would Heavenly Father prefer a small number of exalted beings ("but few are chosen"), or the vast majority of His children to be exalted? As a grandfather, I feel like I am barely coming to understand the answer.

In the meantime while we see through the glass darkly today, all the principles of the gospel still apply here and now – repent early, often and continuously – regardless of who your birth fathers and mothers might be. Live the gospel the best you know how, despite a parent who may have set a poor example and turned away in shame or guilt who hasn't returned yet. In the big eternal picture we are all sons and daughters of God, giving us all the nobility we need to inherit eternal life, if obedient in whatever stage we may find ourselves in our progression.

"If thou wilt do good, yea, and hold out faithful to the end, thou shalt be saved in the kingdom of God, which is the greatest of all the gifts of God; for there is no gift greater than the gift of salvation." (D&C 6:13).