Ressurection & Our Divine Potential

Almost all of had have had to experience the pain of losing someone. We are all mortal and we all die, its part of life, as well as part of our eternal progression. Sadly, many people don’t understand the implications of death. Thanks to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and the Book of Mormon, we know more about death—we know that there is hardly a reason to be sad. Death, although it may be hard because we will miss the person, is not the end—we will see them again!

“The soul shall be restored to the body, and the body to the soul; yea, and every limb and joint shall be restored to its body; yea, even a hair of the head shall not be lost; but all things shall be restored to their proper and perfect frame.

-And now, my son, this is the restoration of which has been spoken by the mouths of the prophets—

-And then shall the righteous shine forth in the kingdom of God.” (Alma 40: 23-25)

When Christ preformed the Atonement, he overcame death. We read in a scripture we have read before: “And he shall go forth, suffering pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind; and this that the word might be fulfilled which saith he will take upon him the pains and the sicknesses of his people.

-And he will take upon him death, that he may loose the bands of death which bind his people; and he will take upon him their infirmities, that his bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flesh, that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities.” (Alma 7:11-12)

After Christ was crucified, died, and was buried in a tomb, 3 days later a woman named Mary went to visit His tomb. She got there to find an empty tomb, and found the Savior in a glorified, perfected state. He had ‘overcome the bands of death’. We read in the scriptures:

“Begin to believe in the Son of God, that he will come to redeem his people, and that he shall suffer and die to atone for their sins; and that he shall rise again from the dead, which shall bring to pass the resurrection, that all men shall stand before him, to be judged at the last and judgment day, according to their works.” (Alma 33: 22)

Because Christ overcame death, we ALL will be resurrected, righteous or unrighteous, in order to be judged of God. We read in the New Testament: “For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.” (1 Corinth 15:22). Thanks to Christ we will all be resurrected. He overcame mortal death and spiritual death. The spiritual death is what we need to overcome, with the help of the Savior, by living the gospel. When we die, our bodies stay on earth while our spirits leave the world and go to a place called the spirit world, there, the gospel is preached to all those who never had a very good chance to accept the true gospel. They will have a chance to accept it there—we see how fair God is in this—he wouldn’t give his gospel to one person, and not too another and then judge them equally. All will have a chance to either accept or reject the Gospel. We will be there until the time of the resurrection comes, which will be during the second coming of Christ. After that, we will be judged, and according to how we lived, we will receive a subsequent reward in heaven. The highest of all these, God has saved for those who have accepted his gospel and endured to the end—Eternal Life. Eternal life is not immortality, when we are resurrected, we all become immortal, but Eternal Life is the opportunity to enjoy all of the same blessings that God enjoys. Christ himself taught us this principle:

“- And for this cause ye shall have a fulness of joy; and ye shall sit down in the kingdom of my Father; yea, your joy shall be full, even as the Father hath given me fulness of joy; and ye shall be even as I am, and I am even as the Father; and the Father and I are bone;” (3 Nephi 28:10)

We are literal sons and daughters of our Heavenly Father, and just like we have the potential to become like our fathers and mothers here on earth (if that is our choice), we have the potential to become like our Heavenly Father! That is the purpose to life—to prepare to become like our Heavenly Father. In our life in the Spirit World before we were born to this earth, we had progressed all that we could, we could not progress further. Therefore, God sent us down here to learn and to grow, and gain experience for our futures. If we will live worthy here on earth, not only will we have a rockin’ life (that is not to say it won’t be hard, but we will have a greater understanding of why it is, and how it is blessing us), but we will be able to receive the highest blessing imaginable. Like I said earlier, God has a plan for each of us, he wants us to be happy, and if we will follow his will be heeding the words of the prophets, both ancient and modern, we can fulfill that plan!

Endure to the End

“Wherefore, ye must press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope, and a love of God and of all men. Wherefore, if ye shall press forward, feasting upon the word of Christ, and endure to the end, behold, thus saith the Father: Ye shall have eternal life.”(2 Nephi 31: 20)

Once we have been baptized and have received the Holy Ghost, our new life begins. We repent daily, like I wrote of earlier, and then continue trying to do all that is right. The gospel isn’t just a religion; it is a way of life! Enduring to the end basically includes doing all the other things God has asked of us. There are actually more covenants we can make that by following, we receive even greater blessings. We read in the scripture above that if we do endure to the end, we will receive eternal life. I’ll explain more about this in my next blog, but I’ll just say now that it is the greatest blessing God has for us, and it is AWESOME! The main thing we need to remember is that it’s not over after we’ve been baptized and have received the Holy Ghost, we need to live righteously till the end of our lives. Don’t be a quitter (except for quitting smoking or drinking maybe)!

“And if they will not repent and believe in his name, and be baptized in his name, and endure to the end, they must be damned; for the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, has spoken it.” (2 Nephi 9:24)

The Lord has declared that one action that is just a blip in our lives is not enough, we need to strive to do what is right throughout our lives. Even though we may mess up at times in our lives, we need to repent and try to overcome those sins. Living the gospel is a daily thing, and as we do it, we will become those ‘new people’ I was talking about in my last blog. It won’t be a sudden change, but it will come slowly, and one day we will be able to look back and be amazed at how far we’ve come.

"And it shall come to pass, that whoso repenteth and is baptized in my name shall be filled; and if he endureth to the end, behold, him will I hold guiltless before my Father at that day when I shall stand to judge the world.

-And he that endureth not unto the end, the same is he that is also hewn down and cast into the fire, from whence they can no more return, because of the justice of the Father.” (3 Nephi 27: 16-17)

In the temple, we perform more of those saving ordinances and covenants.

Repentance

Repentance is one of the largest steps in the gospel, because it is not something that only happens once, or even once a week, repentance should be an ongoing process, something that we do daily. Before I go on to explain repentance, I want to emphasize the joy that it can bring, we truly can become new creatures in a sense. King Benjamin in the Book of Mormon actually urges us to do so in “putting of the natural man”:

-"For the anatural bman is an cenemy to God, and has been from the dfall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he eyields to the enticings of the Holy fSpirit, and gputteth off the hnatural man and becometh a isaint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a jchild, ksubmissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father.” (Mosiah 3:19),

The prophet Alma recounts his own process of repentance:

“-Yea, I did remember all my sins and iniquities, for which I was tormented with the pains of hell; yea, I saw that I had rebelled against my God, and that I had not kept his holy commandments.
-And oh, what joy, and what marvelous light I did behold; yea, my soul was filled with joy as exceeding as was my pain!
-Yea, I say unto you, my son, that there could be nothing so exquisite and so bitter as were my pains. Yea, and again I say unto you, my son, that on the other hand, there can be nothing so exquisite and sweet as was my joy.” (Alma 36: 13, 20-21)

Alma actually points out one of the steps of repentance. There are actually five:

1. We realize we have sinned, and feel the sorrow for having messed up and lived a life contrary to the will of God.

2. We confess that we have sinned to God in prayer. We only need to go see our church leaders if it is a serious sin, so they can help us in our repentance process.

3. We need to leave our sin behind us. This is often very hard, to do by ourselves, but we don’t have to, we have the power of the atonement on our sides to help us.

4. Restitution. We need to try to make up for our sin, this could mean giving back what we’ve taken, or trying to make up for what we have done in any way we can.

5. Endure to the End: I’ll talk about this more in my next entry, so, for now, let’s just say that we no longer commit the sin again.

We see how some of these steps took place in the people that King Benjamin had taught about putting off the natural man:

“- And now, it came to pass that when king Benjamin had made an end of speaking the words which had been delivered unto him by the angel of the Lord, that he cast his eyes round about on the multitude, and behold they had fallen to the earth, for the fear of the Lord had come upon them.

- And they had viewed themselves in their own carnal state, even less than the dust of the earth. And they all cried aloud with one voice, saying: O have mercy, and apply the atoning blood of Christ that we may receive forgiveness of our sins, and our hearts may be purified; for we believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who created heaven and earth, and all things; who shall come down among the children of men.

- And it came to pass that after they had spoken these words the Spirit of the Lord came upon them, and they were filled with joy, having received a remission of their sins, and having peace of conscience, because of the exceeding faith which they had in Jesus Christ who should come, according to the words which king Benjamin had spoken unto them.” (Mosiah 4: 1-3)

I just want to say that repentance is honestly such an amazing thing. Like I said earlier, it is hard, and honestly, we can’t do it ourselves; but luckily for us, we aren’t doing it by ourselves, I spoke of the atonement earlier and shared this scripture:

“And he shall go forth, suffering pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind; …and he will take upon him their infirmities, that his bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flesh, that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities.” (Alma 7: 11-12)

He went through all that so he could help us in our struggles. He will always be there for us, we can always go to him for help. He himself has said “Yea, and as often as my people repent will I forgive them their trespasses against me.” (Mosiah 26: 30) I want to say that if we repent daily, we really will become people we never imagined we could become, and do things we never thought we could do. God has a special plan for all of us, and through it we really can become what we can’t even imagine, and it’s all through repentance.

My favorite story in the scriptures of repentance is of the Prodigal Son, read the story in Luke 15:11-32.

Prophets and the Priesthood

Although there are more steps to The Gospel, such as repentance and enduring to the end, I feel like I should explain what the priesthood is. The priesthood is what separates the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints apart from any other church. Let me explain.
From the beginning of the world, there has been a cycle that repeats itself throughout the Bible. If you look for example at the people of the early old testament, you can see a clear example of this. God called Adam to preach His word to the people. Adam did so and his people grew and flourished, but there came a time when the people stopped listening to the will of the Lord, they rejected the prophets and the world became totally wicked. No one listened to Noah when he told them to repent or else there would be a flood, and of course, there was a flood. This left only the righteous left on the earth. Then we see how as the people flourished, they became very rich, and pride took over them again—they started to build the tower of Babel in an attempt to reach God. They didn’t listen to the prophets’ words, and the Lord humbled the people by confounding their language. This cycle repeats itself throughout the Old Testament until God even sent his only begotten Son to the Earth to, along with his many other important roles, teach us the will of God. I drew a picture of this cycle on my Paint program; sorry if it looks like a little kid could do better, because I know a little kid could do better.

We read how this cycle was even apparent on the other side of the world on the ancient American continent in the Book of Mormon--Nephi first talks about how the prophets taught the people truth, and then another prophet—Mormon—talks about what happened to the people after they stopped listening to the prophets:

“-And now it came to pass that after I, Nephi, had read these things which were engraven upon the plates of brass, my brethren came unto me and said unto me: What meaneth these things which ye have read? Behold, are they to be understood according to things which are spiritual, which shall come to pass according to the spirit and not the flesh?

-And I, Nephi, said unto them: Behold they were manifest unto the prophet by the voice of the bSpirit; for by the Spirit are all things made known unto the prophets, which shall come upon the children of men according to the flesh.” (1 Nephi 22:1-2)

“-But wickedness did prevail upon the face of the whole land, insomuch that the Lord did take away his beloved disciples, and the work of miracles and of healing did cease because of the iniquity of the people.

-And there were no gifts from the Lord, and the Holy Ghost did not come upon any, because of their wickedness and unbelief.” (Mormon 1: 13-14)

These prophets are called of God and given what is called the Priesthood—which is the power and authority to act in God’s name. This power is given to Nephi in the Book of Mormon:

“Behold, thou art Nephi, and I am God. Behold, I declare it unto thee in the presence of mine angels, that ye shall have power over this people, … Behold, I give unto you power, that whatsoever ye shall seal on earth shall be sealed in heaven; and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven; and thus shall ye have power among this people.” (Helaman 10: 6-7)

This is how we can know whether someone is speaking and/or acting in God’s name—they have been called by God and he has given them his priesthood. We read more about the priesthood in the scriptures—how it can be used not just to speak God’s words, but perform ordinances in his name:

"The manner which the disciples, who were called the elders of the church, ordained priests and teachers—
-After they had prayed unto the Father in the name of Christ, they laid their hands upon them, and said:
- In the name of Jesus Christ I ordain you to be a priest, (or, if he be a teacher) I ordain you to be a teacher, to preach repentance and remission of sins through Jesus Christ, by the endurance of faith on his name to the end. Amen." (Moroni 3:1-3)

“-And again, my brethren, I would cite your minds forward to the time when the Lord God gave these commandments unto his children; and I would that ye should remember that the Lord God ordained priests, after his holy order, which was after the order of his Son, to teach these things unto the people

-Now they were ordained after this manner—being called with a holy calling, and ordained with a holy ordinance, and taking upon them the high priesthood of the holy order, which calling, and ordinance, and high priesthood, is without beginning or end” (Alma 13: 1, 8)

Christ Ordaining His Apostles

We know that this cycle continued with Christ—he taught the people the will of God, but the people rejected even him! Because this was such a big deal, hf withdrew his power to act in his name after all the apostles were rejected and killed as well. This time was called the Great Apostasy. It was during what we know as the Dark Ages—when all of a sudden, humankind started to move backward instead of forward in technology and as a whole. That is why we don’t hear of any apostles during this time. But, just like we see in the cycle, when the people were ready, God called another prophet, we learn about how this would happen in the Book of Mormon:

“- And thus prophesied Joseph, saying: Behold, that seer will the Lord bless; and they that seek to destroy him shall be confounded; for this promise, which I have obtained of the Lord, of the fruit of my loins, shall be fulfilled. Behold, I am sure of the fulfilling of this promise;

-And his name shall be called after me; and it shall be after the name of his father. And he shall be like unto me; for the thing, which the Lord shall bring forth by his hand, by the power of the Lord shall bring my people unto salvation.” (2 Nephi 3:14-15)

This prophet named Joseph actually was prophesying of a Man named Joseph Smith. You can

read more about him here.

Joseph Smith was the first prophet to be called since the death of Christ. God has restored that same Church that Christ established 2000 years ago. That is why it is called the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints! And since then He has continued to call prophets, there is a living prophet and apostles on the earth TODAY. That is why this church means so much to me, not only do we have the Book of Mormon, but we have revelation given to us by modern day prophets. All of whom have the power and authority to act in God’s name, and teach us his will for us. This is another of the great blessings of the priesthood.

Baptism & The Holy Ghost

As I said in my last entry, faith leads to action. When we have a true belief in Christ, we want to do what he tells us is right. When we know that through Christ we can be saved, we want to follow his example. Christ has shown us what we need to do in order to attain that salvation. In the Book of Mormon, the Prophet Nephi had a vision of the Savior showing us the first step we need to take: “And I looked and beheld the Redeemer of the world, of whom my father had spoken; and I also beheld the prophet who should prepare the way before him. And the Lamb of God went forth and was baptized of him; and after he was baptized, I beheld the heavens open, and the Holy Ghost come down out of heaven and abide upon him in the form of a dove.” (1 Nephi 11:27) The first step of Christ’s ministry was to show us the need to be baptized. We read further of the importance of Baptism as Christ himself teaches “And whoso believeth in me, and is baptized, the same shall be saved; and they are they who shall inherit the kingdom of God.” (3 Nephi 11: 33) When we are baptized, we show Heavenly Father that we are ready and willing to keep his commandments and live a Christ-like life. Baptism is actually an ordinance a church study guide helps explain what this is:

“In the Church, an ordinance is a sacred, formal act performed by the authority of the priesthood. Some ordinances are essential to our exaltation. These ordinances are called saving ordinances… Ordinances and covenants help us remember who we are. They remind us of our duty to God. The Lord has provided them to help us come unto Him and receive eternal life. When we honor them, He strengthens us.” (True to the Faith, Ordinances)

When we perform one of these ordinances, it is like making a deal with God; if we promise to keep his commandments and live like his Son, he promises to share all that he has with us after this life. Although many churches believe in baptism, when you make a deal with God, it must be done under his terms, and by his authority—the priesthood—something I’ll explain more later, but there is an interesting scripture that is very important to read, the Lord explains to us the importance of being baptized by the priesthood: “Wherefore, although a man should be baptized an hundred times it availeth him nothing… Wherefore, enter ye in at the agate, as I have commanded” (D&C 22: 2, 4). We also read in the new testament how people who had been baptized before were baptized again because their first baptism had not been according to the way Heavenly Father had set:

“- And it came to pass, that, while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul having passed through the upper coasts came to Ephesus: and finding certain disciples,
- He said unto them, Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed? And they said unto him, We have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost.
-And he said unto them, Unto what then were ye baptized? And they said, Unto John’s baptism.
-Then said Paul, John verily baptized with the baptism of repentance, saying unto the people, that they should believe on him which should come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus.
-When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.” (Acts 19: 1-5)

The apostle Paul talks about something here that is pretty important. In both this story, and the account of the Savior’s own baptism by Nephi (as well as his apostles), we read of the Holy Ghost. Nephi teaches us more of the vision he had of the baptism of Christ (which I shared earlier):

-Wherefore, I would that ye should remember that I have spoken unto you concerning that prophet which the Lord showed unto me, that should baptize the Lamb of God, which should take away the sins of the world.
- And now, if the Lamb of God, he being holy, should have need to be baptized by water, to fulfil all righteousness, O then, how much more need have we, being unholy, to be baptized, yea, even by water!
- And now, I would ask of you, my beloved brethren, wherein the Lamb of God did fulfil all righteousness in being baptized by water?
- Know ye not that he was holy? But notwithstanding he being holy, he showeth unto the children of men that, according to the flesh he humbleth himself before the Father, and witnesseth unto the Father that he would be obedient unto him in keeping his commandments.
- Wherefore, after he was baptized with water the Holy Ghost descended upon him in the form of a dove.
- And again, it showeth unto the children of men the straitness of the path, and the narrowness of the gate, by which they should enter, he having set the example before them.
-And he said unto the children of men: Follow thou me. Wherefore, my beloved brethren, can we follow Jesus save we shall be willing to keep the commandments of the Father?
- And the Father said: Repent ye, repent ye, and be baptized in the name of my Beloved Son.
-And also, the voice of the Son came unto me, saying: He that is baptized in my name, to him will the Father give the Holy Ghost, like unto me; wherefore, follow me, and do the things which ye have seen me do.
- Wherefore, my beloved brethren, I know that if ye shall follow the Son, with full purpose of heart, acting no hypocrisy and no deception before God, but with real intent, repenting of your sins, witnessing unto the Father that ye are willing to take upon you the name of Christ, by baptism—yea, by following your Lord and your Savior down into the water, according to his word, behold, then shall ye receive the Holy Ghost; yea, then cometh the baptism of fire and of the Holy Ghost;" (2 Nephi 31: 4-13)


In that scripture, we learn of the importance of being baptized, and of the Holy Ghost. I feel like it is important to talk about the two together right now because one without the other is like half a baptism. You need to have both in order to have a complete baptism. With that being said, I want to explain that having the Holy Ghost is THE greatest blessing that God can give to us while we are here on earth. I feel like I’m making it sound more like an obligation, and although it is completely necessary to achieve salvation, it is the Holy Ghost that is what gives you those feelings of unmatched happiness that I spoke of in my first entry. We receive the Holy Ghost by the laying on of hands by those who have the priesthood after we have been baptized. Honestly, the reason I am writing this blog, is to invite people to come and enjoy that spirit! My life has been so blessed by it. Alma talks about how he has kind of done the same thing, he used to be completely against the church in his day, and actually tried to destroy the church. Here he is talking to his son Helaman about it, and gives at the very end an explanation for all the hard work he has put into trying to share his message with the people:

“3 And now, O my son Helaman, behold, thou art in thy youth, and therefore, I beseech of thee that thou wilt hear my words and learn of me; for I do know that whosoever shall put their atrust in God shall be supported in their btrials, and their troubles, and their afflictions, and shall be clifted up at the last day.
4 And I would not that ye think that I aknow of myself—not of the temporal but of the spiritual, not of the bcarnal mind but of God.
5 Now, behold, I say unto you, if I had not been aborn of God I should bnot have known these things; but God has, by the mouth of his holy cangel, made these things known unto me, not of any dworthiness of myself;
6 For I went about with the sons of Mosiah, seeking to adestroy the church of God; but behold, God sent his holy angel to stop us by the way.
7 And behold, he spake unto us, as it were the voice of thunder, and the whole earth did atremble beneath our feet; and we all fell to the earth, for the bfear of the Lord came upon us.
8 But behold, the voice said unto me: Arise. And I arose and stood up, and beheld the angel.
9 And he said unto me: If thou wilt of thyself be destroyed, seek no more to destroy the church of God.
10 And it came to pass that I fell to the earth; and it was for the space of athree days and three nights that I could not open my mouth, neither had I the use of my limbs.
11 And the angel spake more things unto me, which were heard by my brethren, but I did anot hear them; for when I heard the words—If thou wilt be destroyed of thyself, seek no more to destroy the church of God—I was struck with such great fear and amazement lest perhaps I should be destroyed, that I fell to the earth and I did hear no more.
12 But I was racked with aeternal btorment, for my soul was charrowed up to the greatest degree and racked with all my sins.
13 Yea, I did remember all my sins and iniquities, for which I was atormented with the bpains of hell; yea, I saw that I had crebelled against my God, and that I had not kept his holy commandments.
14 Yea, and I had amurdered many of his children, or rather led them away unto destruction; yea, and in fine so great had been my iniquities, that the very thought of coming into the presence of my God did rack my soul with inexpressible horror.
15 Oh, thought I, that I acould be banished and become extinct both soul and body, that I might not be brought to stand in the presence of my God, to be judged of my bdeeds.
16 And now, for three days and for three nights was I racked, even with the apains of a bdamned soul.
17 And it came to pass that as I was thus aracked with torment, while I was bharrowed up by the cmemory of my many sins, behold, I dremembered also to have heard my father prophesy unto the people concerning the coming of one Jesus Christ, a Son of God, to atone for the sins of the world.
18 Now, as my mind caught hold upon this thought, I cried within my heart: O Jesus, thou Son of God, ahave mercy on me, who am bin the cgall of bitterness, and am encircled about by the everlasting dchains of edeath.
19 And now, behold, when I thought this, I could remember my apains bno more; yea, I was harrowed up by the memory of my sins no more.
20 And oh, what ajoy, and what marvelous light I did behold; yea, my soul was filled with joy as exceeding as was my pain!
21 Yea, I say unto you, my son, that there could be nothing so exquisite and so bitter as were my pains. Yea, and again I say unto you, my son, that on the other hand, there can be nothing so exquisite and sweet as was my joy.
22 Yea, methought I saw, even as our father aLehi saw, God sitting upon his throne, surrounded with numberless concourses of angels, in the attitude of singing and bpraising their God; yea, and my soul did long to be there.
23 But behold, my limbs did receive their astrength again, and I stood upon my feet, and did manifest unto the people that I had been bborn of God.
24 Yea, and from that time even until now, I have labored without ceasing, that I might bring souls unto arepentance; that I might bring them to btaste of the exceeding joy of which I did taste; that they might also be cborn of God, and be dfilled with the Holy Ghost.” (Alma 36)

Honestly, I can’t put into words how awesome it is to have the Gift of the Holy Ghost. I’ll explain a little more of what it is and what it can do for us. The Holy Ghost is the third member of the Godhead, and although Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ have bodies, the Holy Ghost does not. Hence, he can always dwell with us. He warns us of danger and can teach us truth. We all can have the Holy Ghost around us sometimes, I’m sure we’ve all had moments where we’ve felt we needed to do something, go some other way, or just had a “bad feeling” about something—that is the Holy Ghost! But, when we receive the Gift of the Holy Ghost by the power of God (aka the Priesthood), he will be with us always! In the very last chapter of the Book of Mormon, Moroni, most likely the last Christian on the American continent after a huge eradication of the righteous by an enemy people, writes to us of how we ourselves can know if what he wrote, as well as all those before him—The Book of Mormon—is true.

“-Behold, I would exhort you that when ye shall read these things, if it be wisdom in God that ye should read them, that ye would remember how merciful the Lord hath been unto the children of men, from the creation of Adam even down until the time that ye shall receive these things, and ponder it in your hearts.
-And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true; and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost. ”(Moroni 10: 3-4)


I just want to invite everyone to go try this. Go READ AND PRAY! I thought for a long time that the Book of Mormon was—although a good book, just that, a good book, and nothing more. I had read it cover to cover when I was younger, but I just did it because that was just how I was raised. It wasn’t until I actually put this promise to the test that I learned that the Book of Mormon was the greatest thing that could ever happen to me. I read and prayed with a true desire to know of its truth, and found out that that promise is no joke. Go find out for yourself!

“-And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things.” (Moroni 10: 5)

Faith

As I said in my last entry, the Atonement can help us, if we use it. This is why we are here on earth—to gain a body, to learn and grow (including from our mistakes, and especially from our trials!), and to do everything else we need to do to return to our Father after we die. I’m going to talk about what the “everything else” is now. The reason I say that is because most of the “everything else” is using the atonement. When Christ came to earth, he instituted what is called the Gospel of Jesus Christ. There are five steps to the gospel; each step is just as important as the other, and most importantly, ONE WITHOUT THE OTHERS IS INCOMPLETE. We have been commanded to do all of them. Right now, I am going to talk about the first one.
In the Book of Mormon, a righteous prophet and king gives his farewell address to his people before he dies. In the many important things he talks about, he teaches this:

-And he shall be called Jesus Christ, the Son of God, …and his mother shall be called Mary.

- And lo, he cometh unto his own, that salvation might come unto the children of men even through faith on his name; and even after all this they shall consider him a man, and say that he hath a devil, and shall scourge him, and shall crucify him.

- And he shall arise the third day from the dead; and behold, he standeth to judge the world; and behold, all these things are done that a righteous judgment might come upon the children of men.

- For behold, and also his blood atoneth for the sins of those who have fallen by the transgression of Adam, who have died not knowing the will of God concerning them, or who have ignorantly sinned. (Mosiah 3: 8-11)

This scripture actually talks about a few things that we will discuss later, but I included it all for a clearer understanding of the main point I would like to make from this scripture: by faith in the Name of Christ we are saved. But what is faith exactly? The prophet Alma gives a good definition of what it is: “And now as I said concerning faith—faith is not to have a perfect knowledge of things; therefore if ye have faith ye hope for things which are not seen, which are true.” (Alma 32:21).

The bible dictionary goes on further to explain:

-Faith …must be centered in Jesus Christ in order to produce salvation. To have faith is to have confidence in something or someone. The Lord has revealed himself and his perfect character, possessing in their fullness all the attributes of love, knowledge, justice, mercy, unchangeableness, power, and every other needful thing, so as to enable the mind of man to place confidence in him without reservation. Faith is kindled by hearing the testimony of those who have faith (Rom. 10: 14-17). Miracles do not produce faith but strong faith is developed by obedience to the gospel of Jesus Christ; in other words, faith comes by righteousness, although miracles often confirm one’s faith.

-Faith is a principle of action and of power, and by it one can command the elements and/or heal the sick, or influence any number of circumstances when occasion warrants (Jacob 4: 4-7). Even more important, by faith one obtains a remission of sins and eventually can stand in the presence of God.

As said in the dictionary, faith is a principle of action and power, and by it we can obtain a remission, or cleansing of sins. This cleansing process starts with having faith in his name. I put an emphasis on starts because having faith is not all we need to do. Many churches profess that all we need to do is believe, and we are saved through the grace of God. Although believing will be a key step, it is basically the foundation upon which the rest of the building needs to be built. Maybe you remember the prophet Nephi; he gives us an awesome explanation of salvation comes: “…for we know that it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do.” (2 Nephi 25: 23) Now I’ll explain a little more of what the next steps are—what it is that we can do.

THE ATONEMENT

So now we are here on earth, I’m not going to get into the story of Adam and Eve right now, if you want to learn more about them, click here. Because of the fall of Adam and Eve, we are now subject to two things: mortal death, and spiritual death. Spiritual death is when we separate ourselves from the presence of God by sinning: just like Adam and Eve were literally kicked out of the Garden of Eden, we also distance ourselves from God when we make unwise decisions. We read in Corinthians “For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.” (1 Corinth 15:22) In short, because of the fall, we all die and we all are subject to sin. I have a friend who once explained it like this:


Imagine how a mother speaks to her children before they go out to play. She warns them “don’t get dirty outside!” well, of course when we are children, we go to play outside and somehow we couldn’t help but get dirty! Well, we come inside and of course, mom is mad at us.


The Lord has told us that ‘nothing unclean can enter into the Kingdom of God’ (Helaman 8:25). We, being unclean because of sin, are unfit to enter the kingdom of God. But this is when we can see the love of a true father in heaven. God has given us what you may call a spiritual soap. Just like we use soap to wash up after coming in from playing, Heavenly Father has provided a way for us to come back to him he provided a savior: “Saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. Heavenly Father sent his only begotten son: Jesus Christ to the earth to atone for our sins. But what is the atonement? It is so great, we as mortals can’t understand how great a blessing the atonement is, but I do know that it is the greatest thing to ever occur in the entire history of our earth. There is much to be said about the atonement, but I want to emphasize some points that really stand out to me.


1. The atonement included Christ’s suffering in the Garden of Gethsemane, dying on the cross, and resurrection.


“And it came to pass that the angel spake unto me again, saying: Look! And I looked and beheld the Lamb of God, that he was taken by the people; yea, the Son of the everlasting God was judged of the world; and I saw and bear record.
And I, Nephi, saw that he was lifted up upon the cross and slain for the sins of the world”(2 Nephi 11: 32-33)


2. Because of Christ’s suffering, we can be cleansed from sin, and can overcome both mortal and spiritual death.


-“as in Adam, or by nature, they fall, even so the blood of Christ atoneth for their sins.” (Mosiah 3:16)
- “and the atonement bringeth to pass the resurrection of the dead; and the resurrection of the dead bringeth back men into the presence of God;”(Alma 42: 23)


3. During the Atonement, the Savior felt all the pains and sicknesses we would ever feel, so he could know how to help better help us in our trials.


“-And he shall go forth, suffering pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind; and this that the word might be fulfilled which saith he will take upon him the pains and the sicknesses of his people.
-And he will take upon him death, that he may loose the bands of death which bind his people; and he will take upon him their infirmities, that his bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flesh, that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities.
-Now the Spirit knoweth all things; nevertheless the Son of God suffereth according to the flesh that he might take upon him the sins of his people, that he might blot out their transgressions according to the power of his deliverance;" (Alma 7:11-13)



Because of these three points, we can return to presence of God after this life, if we use it. We will all be resurrected (which will be explained later), and we have the potential and help to become clean, and free of sin.

The Spirit World

Today I’m going to start off from the very beginning. I used to wonder to myself if life really only started when I was born; I have five brothers and sisters, and with me being the second oldest, I had the opportunity to hold my brother and sisters when they were just newborns. I’m sure any parent or person in my same position (that has held a newborn) can’t help but be amazed while holding the baby. It was so hard for me to believe that these babies’ lives hadn’t started before they were born—there was just too much life and light in their eyes! I mean it was just so hard for me to think that people, with their personalities so different one from another—even varying so much between parent and child—just appeared out of thin air. The Book of Mormon actually gives us an answer to this question. By the testament of the Book of Mormon, we learn than we lived before we were born here on earth!

-Helaman 14: 17 But behold, the resurrection of Christ redeemeth mankind, yea, even all mankind, and bringeth them back into the presence of the Lord.

In this scripture, a prophet called Samuel the Lamanite teaches the people about the resurrection; he talks about how it will bring them BACK into the presence of God. In another passage, we hear a similar thing from another prophet, Alma:

-Alma 40: 11 …as soon as they are departed from this mortal body, yea, the spirits of all men, whether they be good or evil, are taken home to that God who gave them life.

Alma is talking about where spirits go between death and the resurrection—of course an interesting topic, but will be addressed later—right now I just want to focus on the last part of the passage. He says they are taken home to the God who gave them life. Here he just reaffirms what Samuel the Lamanite was talking about. He also addresses another thing I want to talk about (this will give some better insight on who we are, but I will also go into even further detail about who we are later on): “…to that God who gave them life.” We know that God is our creator, but we learn in the scriptures that God is our Heavenly Father. This means that God is the literal father of our spirits. This concept is honestly often acknowledged, but never really pondered upon very much I think. The Book of Mormon gives us a better understanding of this principle. By it, we learn simply that, as in our own families, the apple doesn’t fall too far from the tree. Although our personalities may be different, the more I grow, the more I play the same role my dad plays—I grow up to be like him. If we will consider the idea that we are really God’s children, I feel the message we get from that can actually be the key to finding meaning to our lives. It will help us understand that question: “why are we here, what is the purpose to life?” We learn that although we once lived with God, we were sent to earth to help further our progression to becoming like our Heavenly Father the prophet Nephi, the first prophet to write in the Book of Mormon, tells us: “Behold, the Lord hath created the earth that it should be inhabited; and he hath created his children that they should possess it.” (1 Nephi 17:36)

Heavenly Father created this world in order for us to fulfill a purpose. He sent us down here to grow and learn and to gain a physical body, and not just a spiritual one—just like God himself has! In the Spirit world, we had grown as much as we could, and were ready for the next step. So, as we read in the scriptures, God created the Earth.

“And then the Lord said: Let us go down. And they went down at the beginning, and … organized and formed the heavens and the earth (Abraham 4:1).”
Let me just take a moment to say that I personally cannot see the beauty of the world and not see God’s hand in it. All of these pictures are real and unedited (yep, even the first one).