“We are taught in the Kabbalah a great deal about the three Adams. There is the celestial Adam, who was Michael before he came here; the terrestrial Adam, who was in Eden; and the telestial Adam, after he had fallen, who was down low. The Kabbalah also tells about Jacob's ladder. Joseph Smith taught that it represented the three stages of initiation in the temple, the three degrees of glory…” [1]
Adam is the type that we humans follow in life. We come from a pre-earth life, from holier spheres. We come to this life and take upon ourselves a fallen and mortal nature. Then through the atonement of Christ, we repent and are sanctified to receive one of the three degrees of glory. The degree to which we are sanctified is up to us.
This is the purpose of the temple. We have the model in stone. The plan is taught. The ordinances of each degree are administered therein. The law that is required to receive each degree is taught and accepted by covenant.
And if we are faithful, we follow Adam to join the Family of God, as a joint heir with Christ.
There is no other way.
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[1 - Hugh Nibley, Don E. Norton , Approaching Zion, Chapter 11, Deseret Book.]
6 comments:
How many Pre-Earth lives?
Not like re-in-Carne(Flesh) but Lives Did your ever wonder if your passing from the Pre-Earth live into this one was like passing away or being Mortal In your Pre-Earth life?
Is there restriction on how many Pre-Flesh, Pre-Earth lives?
If we take Moses (PGP) on its Face "we" fought together in the War in Heaven and sat at the Great Meeting. Then What? And if and when we pass is that PASSING straight away?
What did we do in all of that Time ?
How many Lives one or Many?
In the "Spiritual Creation" and pre Earth Did we eat?
Luke 24:39-43
Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have.....
42 And they gave him a piece of a broiled fish, and of an honeycomb.
43 And he took it, and did eat before them.
45 Now, behold, I have spoken unto you concerning the death of the mortal body, and also concerning the resurrection of the mortal body. I say unto you that this mortal body is raised to an immortal body, that is from death, even from the first death unto life, that they can die no more; their spirits uniting with their bodies, never to be divided; thus the whole becoming spiritual and immortal, that they can no more see corruption.
Ether 3:16-1716 Behold, this body, which ye now behold, is the body of my spirit; and man have I created after the body of my spirit; and even as I appear unto thee to be in the spirit will I appear unto my people in the flesh.
17 And now, as I, Moroni, said I could anot make a full account of these things which are written, therefore it sufficeth me to say that Jesus showed himself unto this man in the spirit, even after the manner and in the likeness of the same body even as he showed himself unto the Nephites.
Now read it again, and again and and again.
"Spirit Body"
And if we ate what? Have Children? Pass away?
Grow Crops? eat Spiritual Apples and Spiritual El Pollo Loco?
Not that there is a Known answer, but something to Think About.
1-2-3 or Many?
Since mortality is called the "Second Estate"...I would believe that by "First Estate" it is meant that it was our first.
In the Pre-Earth Life
have no beginning; they existed before, they shall have no end, they shall exist after, for they are bgnolaum, or eternal.
"I came down in the beginning in the midst of all the intelligences thou hast seen."
And another answered and said: Here am I, send me. And the Lord said: I will send the first.
28 And the second was angry, and kept not his first estate; and, at that day, many followed after him.
What of the War in Heaven. Did it End in Heaven at one point in "time" ? or did it continue in our Pre-Earth life up until the "Time" of our Pre-Earth life passing and entering into this Mortality of Flesh.
In the sense of "Time" from Adam to now may be around 6,000 years +/- and what was going on during that Time in Heaven.
Last Point
From the Time of the Creation of the earth "science" says the Earth and the Universe is 4-6 Billion years old.
That is a long time on Earth and in Heaven, if there is "Time". What was going On for all that Time.
"I came down in the beginning in the midst of all the intelligences thou hast seen."
And another answered and said: Here am I, send me. And the Lord said: I will send the first.
28 And the second was angry, and kept not his first estate; and, at that day, many followed after him.
Spirits or Intelligences?When did the "War" start? When we were Intelligences or Spirits?
We are " Spirit Children" of Father in Heaven.
Some say in the Most Literal sense.
Some say No. What do you think?
Was there a true birthing process.
Were we Born into one big Family or was it Spirit Families, Families like we have here one earth but not with the same kind of Bodies.
Spiritual "creation" "before it was in the Earth"
7 And the Gods formed man from the dust of the ground, and took his spirit (that is, the man’s spirit), and put it into him; and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul.
5 Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
7 Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.
Very interesting stuff. There are some good documents, like "Ascension of Isaiah" that describe Christ coming down through the various heavens to be born on Earth, and then having to ascend back through the heavens to arrive at his Throne. Both Adam and Christ are archetypes, showing us the way we have to proceed.
David Larsen:
Thanks.
I don't recall reading the "Ascension of Isaiah." I will look it up.
Thanks,
-David
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