Tuesday, September 30, 2008

The Great Secret

I will herein use a couple quotes by the Prophet Joseph Smith, in his great King Follett Sermon (KFS) (LINK), and discuss them a bit,

Joseph said about God that He is “…not trifling with you or me.” This is all very serious, we are not on vacation, nor should we be preoccupied with feeding our bellies. There is a real plan from the beginning, and this is our time on stage.

Joseph quotes the New Testament, "This is life eternal that they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent." But Joseph goes further and teaches that not only must we know God, we must understand our true relationship with God. If we miss this, we really know nothing.

“There are but a very few beings in the world who understand rightly the character of God. The great majority of mankind do not comprehend anything, either that which is past, or that which is to come, as it respects their relationship to God. They do not know, neither do they understand the nature of that relationship; and consequently they know but little above the brute beast, or more than to eat, drink and sleep. This is all man knows about God or His existence, unless it is given by the inspiration of the Almighty.”

So what was our relationship with God in the “past,” and what will our relationship be in that which is “to come?” What do we know?

We know that we always existed like God:

“The intelligence of spirits had no beginning, neither will it have an end. …That which has a beginning may have an end. There never was a time when there were not spirits; for they are co-equal with our Father in heaven.” (KFS)

What made Him our Father is that He reached back into eternity, to bring us forward.

“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 ability to be “exalted,” to receive “knowledge, power, glory, and intelligence” is the promise of God, from before creation, through the atonement, otherwise known as the Abrahamic Covenants, or our inheritance.


We know that before this world was created there was a grand council, made up of the Head (rosh) God, Eloheim, and the other Gods in the council. These are the noble and great ones that Abraham saw (LINK), the priesthood holders of this life. Some of these achieved the rank of god before the world was, as Christ did. The Hebrew word “El” means God. The Hebrew “im” is the plural suffix.

“In the beginning, the head of the Gods called a council of the Gods; and they came together and concocted a plan to create the world and people it. When we begin to learn this way, we begin to learn the only true God, and what kind of a being we have got to worship. Having a knowledge of God, we begin to know how to approach Him, and how to ask so as to receive an answer.”

So we existed forever like God. He is our Father because He brought us forth from intelligences, to spirits. He is our Father because He created our physical bodies, as planned in the Council of the Gods. This is the present or the past. What is our relationship “to come?” If worthy:

“…[A]lthough the earthly tabernacle is laid down and dissolved, they shall rise again to dwell in everlasting burnings in immortal glory, not to sorrow, suffer, or die any more, but they shall be heirs of God and joint heirs with Jesus Christ. … To inherit the same power, the same glory and the same exaltation, until you arrive at the station of a god, and ascend the throne of eternal power, the same as those who have gone before…”(KFS)

This is all a family affair. Parents passing on an inheritance to the children. Elijah said:

“And he shall plant in the hearts of the children the promises made to the fathers, and the hearts of the children shall turn to their fathers. If it were not so, the whole earth would be utterly wasted at his coming.” (JSH 1:39)

And modern prophets said it this way:

“All human beings—male and female—are created in the image of God. Each is a beloved spirit son or daughter of heavenly parents, and, as such, each has a divine nature and destiny. Gender is an essential characteristic of individual premortal, mortal, and eternal identity and purpose.”

“In the premortal realm, spirit sons and daughters knew and worshiped God as their Eternal Father and accepted His plan by which His children could obtain a physical body and gain earthly experience to progress toward perfection and ultimately realize his or her divine destiny as an heir of eternal life. The divine plan of happiness enables family relationships to be perpetuated beyond the grave. Sacred ordinances and covenants available in holy temples make it possible for individuals to return to the presence of God and for families to be united eternally.” (LINK)

The Prophet Joseph said “That [this] is the great secret.”

5 comments:

Anonymous said...
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Anonymous said...

God's Holy Family

Just a Few questions

Does Going to the Temple Exalt you?

2 In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.

IN Heaven With God in HIS house in a mansion prepared by Jesus.

1 Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand;
2 By which also ye are saved,

55 O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?

When we are Raised again in our Heavenly bodies that will never die, living in the mansions that Jesus has prepared for us is there anything that can pull us apart from the Holy Family of God?

Do we really need to Turn to Masonry for our salvation?
"Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ....For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life."


Do we really need a "GOOD" dose of Mystic Gnostic Kaballa to be Exalted?

"The just shall live by faith"

Do we Work our way to Heaven?

But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.
23 For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Do we earn our Goodness and can we make ourself Holy?

16 Knowing that a man is not ajustified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.

What are the fruits of the Spirit and of the Exalted?

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
23 Meekness, temperance.

Can we save our save Ourself and Build a Tower to Heaven ( the work of our Hands) can we make ourself good?

There is none righteous, no, not one
For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;
24 Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:
Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.

Can we Buy, Purchase, Work our way to High Heaven?

For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:

Mason Temples Do not and Can not Save us.

Anonymous said...

On to a more intelligent question...

You said: "What made Him our Father is that He reached back into eternity, to bring us forward".

Please make sense of this to me, for it is mindless babble from my perspective.

(email me at theflash2000@hotmail.com).

David Littlefield said...

Dal&Sar:

I am sorry you did not enjoy the post. I shall attempt to avoid “mindless babble.”

You may not be familiar with LDS theology, so this sounds a bit foreign.

Within LDS theology we believe that in one “form” or another we always existed, even before this earth life. I am not speaking about reincarnation, but a pre-earth life as a spirit, or a being of intelligence. See Abraham 3:22, and PRE-MORTAL LIFE.

Our first existence was as intelligences, and there never was a time in which we did not exist as intelligences. At some point God brought us forward from that state, and added some other attribute that caused us to be “spirits.” At that point He became our Father and God. The same is true when he brought us forward into mortality. And will continue to be true as He adds additional glories or attributes to our soul (Body and Spirits).

Thanks,

David

Anonymous said...

Firstly, I enjoyed the post. Secondly, I am more familiar with lds theology than you think. Thirdly, thank you for the email, I appreciate the heads up.
the 'mindless babble' that I am referring to is only the part that I quoted. Everything else is intelligent to me.
You need to define the 'bringing forward' It makes no sense to me. Is one being brought forward on the linear timeline we all are constrained to? or is this forward movement physical, where we need to come 'forward' but cannot without Gods help? I am just confused over your terminology.