Continuing from the previous post
regarding the Plan for our Salvation and
the Plan for Our Progression, we take
a look here at the Requirements for
Exaltation.
Again, Alma taught that the time to
fulfill the requirements for exaltation is now, when he said: “For behold, this life is the time for men to
prepare to meet God; yea, behold the day of this life is the day for men to
perform their labors. And now…as ye have had so many witnesses, therefore, I
beseech of you that ye do not procrastinate the day of your repentance until
the end; for after this day of life, which is given us to prepare for eternity,
behold, if we do not improve our time while in this life, then cometh the night
of darkness wherein there can be no labor performed. Ye cannot say, when ye are
brought to that awful crisis, that I will repent, that I will return to my God.
Nay, ye cannot say this; for that same spirit which doth possess your bodies at
the time that ye go out of this life, that same spirit will have power to
possess your body in that eternal world. For behold, if ye have procrastinated
the day of your repentance even until death, behold, ye have become subjected
to the spirit of the devil, and he doth seal you his; therefore, the Spirit of
the Lord hath withdrawn from you, and hath no place in you, and the devil hath
all power over you; and this is the final state of the wicked” (Alma
34:32-35)
President Joseph Fielding Smith
said, “In order to obtain the exaltation we must accept the gospel and all its
covenants; and take upon us the obligations which the Lord has offered; and
walk in the light and the understanding of the truth; and ‘live by every word
that proceedeth forth from the mouth of God’” (Doctrines of Salvation, 2:43).
To be exalted, we first must place our faith in Jesus Christ
and then endure in that faith to the end of our lives. Our faith in Him must be
such that we repent of our sins and obey His commandments.” In addition, He
commands us all to receive certain ordinances: We must be baptized; We must receive the laying on of hands
to be confirmed a member of the Church of Jesus Christ and to receive the gift
of the Holy Ghost; Brethren must receive the Melchizedek Priesthood and magnify
their callings in the priesthood; We must receive the temple endowment; We must
be married for eternity, either in this life or in the next through proxy work
for the dead while in this life).
Under the
New and Everlasting Covenant of Eternal Marriage, couples are sealed for time
and all eternity by the proper authority holding the sealing power, in the
proper setting required by Heavenly Father—Temple ordinances, including the
endowment and sealing, are open for all qualified people who meet the ordinance
requirements and is not restricted to any type of person, culture, race or
individual. In
addition to receiving these ordinances for ourselves, we can receive them for
our deceased ancestors. In this way, people who died without receiving
essential ordinances such as baptism and confirmation, the endowment, and
sealing have the opportunity to accept these ordinances if they so choose
In addition to
receiving the required ordinances, the Lord commands all of us to: Love God and our neighbors; Keep
the commandments; Repent of our wrongdoings; Search out our kindred dead and
receive the saving ordinances of the gospel for them; Attend our Church
meetings as regularly as possible so we can renew our baptismal covenants by
partaking of the sacrament; Love our family members and strengthen them in the
ways of the Lord; Have family and individual prayers every day; Teach the
gospel to others by word and example; Study the scriptures; Listen to and obey
the inspired words of the prophets of the Lord.
Finally, each of us needs to receive the Holy Ghost and
learn to follow His direction in our individual lives.
What happens when we have endured to the end in faithful
discipleship to Christ?
The Lord has said, “If you keep my commandments and endure to
the end you shall have eternal life, which gift is the greatest of all the
gifts of God.” President Joseph Fielding Smith said, “If we will continue in
God; that is, keep his commandments, worship him and live his truth; then the
time will come when we shall be bathed in the fulness of truth, which shall
grow brighter and brighter until the perfect day” (Doctrines of Salvation, 2:36).
The Prophet Joseph Smith taught: “When you climb up a
ladder, you must begin at the bottom, and ascend step by step, until you arrive
at the top; and so it is with the principles of the gospel—you must begin with
the first, and go on until you learn all the principles of exaltation. But it
will be a great while after you have passed through the veil [died] before you
will have learned them. It is not all to be comprehended in this world; it will
be a great work to learn our salvation and exaltation even beyond the grave” (Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Joseph
Smith [2007], 268).
Joseph Smith taught: “It is the first principle of the
Gospel to know for a certainty the Character of God. He was once a man like us;
… God himself, the Father of us all, dwelt on an earth, the same as Jesus
Christ himself did” (Teachings of the
Prophet Joseph Smith, sel. Joseph Fielding Smith, 1976, 345–46). Our
Heavenly Father knows our trials, our weaknesses, and our sins. He has
compassion and mercy on us. He wants us to succeed even as He did.
Imagine what joy each of us will have when we return to our
Heavenly Father if we can say: “Father, I lived according to Thy will. I have
been faithful and have kept Thy commandments. I am happy to be home again.”
Then we will hear Him say, “Well done…thou hast been faithful over a few
things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy
lord” (Matthew 25:23).
Many good Christians believe that all they have to do is
accept Christ as their personal savior and that is all they have to do to be
saved. And that is true! Their saving grace reward is eternal life, i.e., they
will be resurrected and live eternally. Kim Riddlebarger of the Christ Reformed
Church put it this way: “But
to those who understand what the bible teaches about the effects of sin, grace
alone is our only hope of heaven. And thus when we speak of grace alone (sola
gratia), we are speaking of the fact that God saves us, because of his mercy
and graciousness toward us, and not because of something - indeed anything - in
us that makes us desirable to God. We really cannot understand grace alone
unless we understand what it is, exactly, that sin has wrought upon us.”
Once again, they are
right as far as it goes, i.e., the saving grace that enables us to be
resurrected and live eternally is a free gift of God and granted to all
mankind, no matter whether the man be evil or good.
Thus Paul wrote to
the Saints at Ephesus on the Western coast of Turkey (Asia Minor): “For by
grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the
gift of God” (Ephesians 2:8). In this sense, then, no matter what a person does
in this life, they will be saved by grace alone, i.e., they will gain
resurrection and eternal life thanks to the free gift of God through the
resurrection of Jesus Christ. As Paul added, “it is not by any works, lest
any man should boast” of his own achievements and goodness. The resurrection is
a free gift to all mankind.
However, once again that is not exaltation. On the other
hand, many good Christians, including Latter-day Saints, believe that “Every
man’s work will become manifest, for the Day shall declare it, because it will
be revealed by fire, and the fire will try every man’s work of what sort it is.
If
any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward” (1 Corinthians 3:13-14).
“For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ;
that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he
hath done, whether it be good or bad” (2 Corinthians 5:10).
There is another group of believers who believe the Bible
teaches that all Christians will receive the same rewards in heaven regardless
of their performance during their earthly existence. They posit that our
entrance into heaven is based on Jesus’ work, not our own; therefore, our works
here on earth merit us nothing in heaven. Philosophically speaking, this would
also preclude any sort of friction in heaven between those who receive more and
those who receive less; everyone would be equal.
To Latter-day Saints, however, exaltation is a state that a person
can attain in becoming like God-salvation in the ultimate sense (D&C
132:17) Latter-day Saints believe that all mankind (except the sons of
perdition) will receive varying degrees of glory in the afterlife. Exaltation
is the greatest of all the gifts and attainments possible. It is available only
in the highest degree of the Celestial Kingdom and is reserved for members of
the Church of the Firstborn (Hebrew 12:23). This exalted status, called eternal
life, is available to be received by a man and wife. It means not only living
in God's presence, but receiving power to do as God does, including the power
to bear children after the resurrection (TPJS, pp. 300-301; D&C
132:19). Blessings and privileges of exaltation require unwavering faith,
repentance, and complete obedience to the gospel of Jesus Christ.
In a revelation to the Prophet Joseph Smith, the Savior
stated the following conditions: "Strait is the gate, and narrow the way
that leadeth unto the exaltation and continuation of the lives, and few there
be that find it, because ye receive me not in the world neither do ye know
me" (D&C 132:22). All Church ordinances lead to exaltation, and the
essential crowning ordinances are the Endowment and the eternal marriage
covenant of the temple (D&C 131:1-4; 132).
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