Line Upon Line, Precept Upon Precept

A regular reader of our blog wrote in recently to disagree with our article on “The Plan of Salvation-Part I,” claiming a erroneous revelation given in 1978 to President Spencer W. Kimball. The answer turned out to be far too long to answer in the comments section, so we have given it here in this post. The lengthy question can be viewed at the conclusion of “A Plan of Salvation-Part I,” Wednesday, January 6, 2016. 
    Answer: Everyone is entitled to their opinion and views—that is what free agency is about and one of the reasons it was granted to us. It is our right to choose. As for me, I understand the Pearl of Great Price and agree with and defend ALL is teachings that Moses and Abraham spoke. At the same time, God's Plan is not one that changes or causes Him any surprises as earth history unfolds. He knows in advance when things can take place and when they should, depending upon the conditions that exists among men, nations and people.

Brigham Young did not get it wrong—it is just that what was God’s will at one time can change at another time. Polygamy ran its course and was removed; the commandment to the Jews not to eat certain things ran its course; using wine for the sacrament ran its course; if you are old enough you know the temple endowment ran through its course to its present form; the United Order was given, then withdrawn; the Book of Mormon came forth when a Second Witness was needed by man—things change with the Lord as the knowledge of man and his experiences increase so that new commandments can be lived (the Word of Wisdom was first given at first not as a commandment since men were not ready for it, but it eventually became a commandment as man progressed; the new and everlasting covenant was given when man had progressed to that point in the Plan), etc. 
    The restrictions God places on man, or some men, are given according to His will and His purposes, not ours. They are changed, altered, or withdrawn as He sees fit.

When Nephi was commanded to create a second set of plates and to abridge his earlier writing in a second record, he said, “the Lord hath commanded me to make these plates for a wise purpose in him, which purpose I know not” (1 Nephi 9:5)—this is because “the Lord knoweth all things from the beginning; wherefore, he prepareth a way to accomplish all his works among the children of men; for behold, he hath all power unto the fulfilling of all his words” (1 Nephi 9:6).
    As can be seen, Earth Life is a progression from limited to extensive, from restrictions to opportunities—it is much like our own family life here on Earth. My children when little could understand things to their level, as they have grown over the years, they grew in knowledge and understanding, and today hold degrees, etc. What they know now and can do, was as far beyond their understanding when they were toddlers and little children and even teenagers, that it is like the difference between what we know and what God knows (no doubt an even greater difference).

God, through his son, has presented His Plan to us—our need is to understand it. Being God does not mean he casts all His knowledge at us in one huge broadside, nor organizes  his church with all knowledge in the beginning—Joseph and Oliver learned as they progressed in the translation, asked for explanatins, and was given them—the Lord gives us information in bits and pieces as we grow capable of understanding more and more—it was, after all, how the Lord, and all of us grow in mortality: “And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man” (Luke 2:52), which is a little word-painting by the Apostle in which the work and progress of long years is depicted. The purpose of this brief statement is clear as the Gospel is meant to teach us that, with Jesus, bodily growth and development proceeded in the same orderly fashion as it does with other men, while wisdom—deepening with the years—passed into his soul as it passes into the souls of other men, by the ordinary channels of instruction, study, and thought.
    After all, Jesus in mortality grew in knowledge and “received not of the fullness at the first, but received grace for grace; and he received not of the fullness at first, but continued from grace to grace, until he received a fullness” (D&C 93:12-13).
    In fact, this is how we all progress—the Lord does not give us all knowledge at one time, not man, not the Church, not His Plan—but he unveils more and more to us as we grow and develop and prove that we can handle what we have so far learned. As Nephi put it: “For behold, thus saith the Lord God: I will give unto the children of men line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little; and blessed are those who hearken unto my precepts, and lend an ear unto my counsel, for they shall learn wisdom; for unto him that receiveth I will give more; and from them that shall say, We have enough, from them shall be taken away even that which they have” (2 Nephi 28:30).

    We need to keep in mind that this Earth is just one of billions that God has created through his Son (Moses 2:1) throughout the Universe—“And behold, the glory of the Lord was upon Moses, so that Moses stood in the presence of God, and talked with him face to face. And the Lord God said unto Moses: For mine own purpose have I made these things. Here is wisdom and it remaineth in me. And by the word of my power, have I created them, which is mine Only Begotten Son, who is full of grace and truth. And worlds without number have I created; and I also created them for mine own purpose” (Moses 1:31-33); and also “Were it possible that man could number the particles of the earth, yea, millions of earths like this, it would not be a beginning to the number of my creations” (Moses 7:30). To think that God and his Son are not aware from sheer experience of all things that progress from an Adam to a millennium of an Earth’s development, and with The Plan how it unfolds and when this or that is to be revealed and when this or that has run its course, is sheer ignorance of the majesty of the Father and his omnipotence.
    Consider just how vast is his realm and the experience of such repeated creations of so many worlds like this one: Our own Milky-Way galaxy is so gigantic that it would take 1,000 lifetimes traveling at the speed of light to cross it one time. That's 186,282 miles per second for 70,000 years (that's 70,000 light years). Then consider that there is an estimated 49,999,999,999 more galaxies remaining.  These truths are so far beyond the human scope of thought that one is nearly speechless in trying to describe it. This led Moses to day"Now, for this cause I know that man is nothing, which thing I never had supposed" (Moses 1:10).
    Consider that the nearest star to the earth is 4.6 light years away, and traveling at the speed of light (one light-year being equal to 5,874,589,152,000 miles!) it would be a little over 27 trillion miles away. Thus, the nearest star is 27,000,000,000,000 miles away and there are only 20 stars within 70 trillion miles of the earth. Out of the 100,000,000,000 stars just within our own Milky Way Galaxy alone, there are only 20 stars within 12 light-years of our earth (within 70,000,000,000,000 miles). 

We are talking about God, the Father, through his Son, Jehovah/Jesus Christ, has organized all of this and far, far, far beyond what we can imagine—billions of planets peopled, each going through the stages of Earth Life and existence as we know and understand on this Earth. And each Earth unfolds by the same Plan—is called “Earth” (Moses 1:29), and “the first man of all men have I called Adam, which is many” (Moses 1:34). I would have loved to have known more on this subject, but the Lord told Moses that “only an account of this earth and the inhabitants thereof give I unto you” (Moses 1:35).
    Thus we learn, or should learn, that the Gospel of Jesus Christ does not change, but the implementation of it over time is altered from time to time according to the Will of God as it unfolds from His Plan. It does not change—but it grows as we grow, to enlighten us more and more as we progress through this Earth Life. How arrogant of man to think he knows more than God on any subject, or begins to evaluate what God does by his own infinitesimally tiny knowledge regarding God's many decisions and guidances to us in our lives through his prophets (Amos 3:7).But such is man, "Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth" (2 Timothy 3:7).