NOT GOOD FOR MAN TO BE ALONE
Companionship of the Sexes
WHEN this earth, a new unit amongst uncounted worlds, had developed to a condition suited to human habitation, God created man in His own personal, physical image, and gave him dominion over the earth and its manifold belongings. Beside the man stood the woman, sharing with him the divinely bestowed honor and dignity of supremacy over all lesser creations; for the Lord God had said: "It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him." (Gen. 2:18.)
So begins the first page of human history relating to this planet: "In the image of God created He him; male and female created He them."
The earliest recorded commandment to the newly embodied pair provided for the procreation of their kind; for unto them the Lord said: "Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth." That the wedded state thus inaugurated was to be the permanent order of life amongst Adam's posterity is attested by the further Scripture: "Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh." (Gen. 2:24.)
Inasmuch as the union of the sexes is the only way by which the perpetuity of the race is possible, such union is essentially as beneficent as it is necessary. Lawful, that is to say righteous, association of the sexes, is an uplifting and ennobling function to the participants, and the heritage of earth-life to preexistent spirits who are thereby advanced to the mortal state. Conversely, all sexual union outside the bonds of legitimacy is debasing and pernicious, not only to the guilty parties themselves, but to children who are thus ill-born, and to organized society in general.
The stability of society demands that the divinely established institution of marriage shall be administered under secular law, whereby the family unit shall be a legalized entity, with responsibilities and obligations clearly defined, the rights of husband, wife and children protected, property interests safeguarded, and inheritance regulated.
But the marriage covenant is more than a legalized contract. It is a solemn sacrament, under which the parties are made eligible to the blessing of Divine approval, and by which they are answerable both to the law of man and to the Power that transcends all human institutions. That marriage is honorable is as true today as when the precept was written in the Epistle to the Hebrews.
The Latter-day Saints accept the doctrine of the imperative necessity of wedlock and the sanctity thereof; and they apply it as a requirement to all who are not prohibited by physical or other disability from assuming the sacred responsibilities of the married state. They hold as part of the birthright of every worthy man the privilege and duty of standing at the head of a household, the companion of a virtuous wife, both imbued with the hope of posterity, which by the blessing of God may never become extinct; and equally ennobling is the desire of every worthy woman to be a wife and mother in the family of mankind.
We repudiate and abhor the pernicious doctrine that the sexual relation is but a carnal necessity, inherent in human kind because of fleshly desire, or that celibacy is a feature of exalted status more acceptable than marriage in the sight and judgment of God. Touching this matter the Lord hath spoken through direct revelation in the current age, saying:
"And again, I say unto you, that whoso forbiddeth to marry is not ordained of God, for marriage is ordained of God unto man. Wherefore it is lawful that he should have one wife, and they twain shall be one flesh, and all this that the earth might answer the end of its creation, and that it might be filled with the measure of man, according to his creation before the world was made." (D&C 49: 15-17.)
Without the power of perpetuating his kind man is in part bereft of his glory; for small is the possibility of achievement within the limited range of an individual life. Grand as may seem to be the attainments of a man who is really great as gaged by the best standards of human estimation, the culmination of his glorious heritage lies in his leaving offspring from his own body to carry forward the worthy efforts of their sire. And as with the man, so with the woman.
We regard children literally as gifts from God, committed to our parental care, for whose support, protection, and training in righteousness we shall be held to a strict accounting, remembering the solemn admonition and profound affirmation of the Christ: "Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones; for I say unto you, That in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven." (Matt. 18:10.)
But the bringing of children into the world is but part of God's beneficent plan of uplift and development through honorable marriage. Companionship of husband and wife is a divinely appointed means of mutual betterment; and according to the measure of holy love, mutual respect and honor with which that companionship is graced and sanctified, do man and woman develop toward the spiritual stature of God. It is plainly the Divine intent that husband and wife should be each the other's great incentive to effort and achievement in good works.
Blessed indeed are the wedded pair who severally find in each a help meet for the other.
TILL DEATH DOES YOU PART
Is There No Hope Beyond?
IT is not good that man should be alone.
This is the word of God. It is inscribed on the first page of human history. The affirmation was given special application to the marital state, whereby the perpetuity of the race would be insured in the distinctive family order. To this end "Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh." (Gen. 2:24.)
At the very beginning of man's existence as an embodied spirit, the Divine fiat against promiscuity in the association of the sexes was promulgated. Anthropologists aver that even in the most primitive communities kinship was recognized as an established feature, and laws relating to the sexual relationship obtained.
The family unit is therefore the universal order amongst mankind, and is of Divine establishment. Both the Mosaic code and the law of the Gospel, in which it was fulfilled and superseded, recognized the sanctity of family ties and prescribed regulations for the maintenance thereof.
The family institution comprises more than the wedded union of husband and wife with its mutual obligations and responsibilities. The status of parenthood is the flower of family existence, while marriage was but the bud. Under the revealed law parents are as truly answerable to God for the adequate discharge of duty to their children as for the faithful observance of the marriage covenant respecting themselves.
Within the family established and maintained according to the Divine word, man and woman find their holiest and most ennobling happiness. Individual development—the education of the soul for which earth-life has been provided—is incomplete without the impelling and restraining experiences incident to the responsibilities of the wedded and parental state.
Is the family relationship to end with death?
Are husbands and wives to be separated, and the mutual claims of parents and children to be nullified by the grave?
If so, then surely the sting of death and the victory of the grave are enduring verities; for the dead would be lost to us and we to them. Such a conception affords ample explanation of the prevalence of black at funerals. The sombre pall and sable trappings are all in place if bereavement on earth means everlasting separation.
The dread assumption—let us not say belief, for who does not hope that a brighter destiny awaits us?—has been fostered by custom and ignorance, and even taught as doctrine by substituting the precepts of men for the word of God. It is embodied in the marriage ceremony, wherein the officiating minister, addressing the principals at the moment of their supreme concern, says: I join you in the bonds of matrimony until death does you part.
How like the thud of clods upon the casket in an open grave! Must we tolerate the shadow of death as an intruding guest at every wedding?
Verily so, if marriage be nothing more than an earthly contract, regulated by law solely as a human institution; for no legislature, congress, or parliament of men, no synod, church, council, or ecclesiastical hierarchy of human origination, can legislate or administer ordinances of other than earthly validity. To claim jurisdiction in post-mortal affairs on the basis of human assumption is both sacrilege and blasphemy.
The current marriage ceremony, uniting the parties until death does them part, is framed in consistency and propriety. As an institution of men it is honorable and legally binding. And so are all the obligations and endowments resulting therefrom, including the exalting status of parenthood. But all such relationships are to end with death if validated only by man's authority. Can we consistently affirm that if the grave terminates the claim of parents upon each other it shall not likewise end the claim of parents upon children, and of children upon parents?
But behold, there is hope! God has provided a way by which the family unit may survive the grave and endure throughout eternity. It is the Divine intent that marriage be an eternal union, and that the relationship between parents and offspring shall be made valid in the hereafter as here.
We affirm that the Holy Priesthood has been restored to earth by direct dispensation from the heavens, and this in accordance with prophecy and Scripture, and that the authority of this Priesthood, when administered as God has directed, is effective both on earth and in heaven. (Compare Matt. 16:19; 18:18.)
We affirm that even as baptism, when administered as our Lord prescribed, by those invested with the Holy Priesthood, shall be a means to salvation beyond the grave, so other ordinances, including the sealing of wives to husbands and children to parents, may be authoritatively solemnized so as to be valid after death. To this effect hath the Lord spoken respecting the everlasting covenant, which embraces marriage for both time and eternity.
"Therefore, if a man marry him a wife in the world, and he marry her not by me, nor by my word; and he covenant with her so long as he is in the world, and she with him, their covenant and marriage are not of force when they are dead, and when they are out of the world. Therefore, they are not bound by any law when they are out of the world. Therefore, when they are out of the world they neither marry nor are given in marriage. . . . And again, verily I say unto you, if a man marry a wife by my word, which is my law, and by the new and everlasting covenant, and it is sealed unto them by the Holy Spirit of promise . . . it shall be done unto them in all things whatsoever my servant hath put upon them, in time, and through all eternity, and shall be of full force when they are out of the world; and they shall pass by the angels, and the Gods, which are set there, to their exaltation and glory in all things, as hath been sealed upon their heads, which glory shall be a fulness and a continuation of the seeds for ever and ever." (D&C 132.)
THEY NEITHER MARRY
Nor Give in Marriage
CERTAIN Sadducees once came to Christ with a question concerning martial relations following the resurrection. The real point of their inquiry was in part hidden, or, in current vernacular, camouflaged. Their chief purpose was that of disputing the doctrine of the resurrection itself, the actuality of which the Sadducees as a sect strenuously denied.
They cited a case, presumably hypothetical, of a woman who had been married, and then six times remarried under the levirate law, and seven times widowed, and who eventually had died, childless. The question as submitted was: "Therefore in the resurrection whose wife shall she be of the seven?"
"Jesus answered and said unto them, Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God. For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven." (Matt. 22:28-30.)
Three of the evangelists make record of the incident; and the most extended version of our Lord's reply is given by Luke (20:34-38). From this we gather that while marriage and giving in marriage—that is to say the association of eligible parties in wedlock, and the authoritative solemnization of the union by a duly qualified official—are necessary and honorable undertakings among mortals, they to whom the Savior referred shall neither marry nor be given in marriage in the resurrection, but at best shall be made equal to the angels.
The inquisitorial Sadducees must have felt the force of the Master's rebuke in being told that they were in error "not knowing the scriptures nor the power of God," for they prided themselves on their learning and superior qualities of understanding. Nevertheless, the reproof was merited, for had they opened their hearts to the spirit of Scripture, had they considered with honest desire to comprehend the words of the Lord who spoke to them, whose utterances were and are Scripture of the highest and most sacred order, they would have been able to distinguish between ceremonies performed for time only under the regulations of human law, and ordinances administered by the authority of God for both time and eternity.
Sacred rites that pertain both to the period of mortality and to the life beyond must be solemnized on earth. Compliance with the laws and ordinances of the Gospel, or the rejection of these, determines the individual test for which the world was prepared as the abode of men—to "prove them herewith, to see if they will do all things whatsoever the Lord their God shall command them." (Pearl of Great Price, p. 66.)
Thus, in the case of the initiatory ordinance, baptism, it is essential that it be administered to mankind in the flesh; for Scripture nowhere avers that in and after the resurrection men shall be baptized in water for the remission of sins done in mortality. And so is it with respect to marriage.
True, as we have heretofore seen, the merciful economy of God makes possible the vicarious administration of baptism for the disembodied, that is for the dead prior to their resurrection; but the actual baptism is to be solemnized by and upon mortal beings, who, having been already baptized for themselves, may officiate for their dead kindred by complying with the revealed laws and regulations. So also the marital union of the worthy dead, who have lived in lawful and honorable wedlock as regulated by secular law, may be confirmed and superseded by the ordinance of Celestial Marriage, wherein the family relationship is perpetuated by sealing under the authority of the Holy Priesthood, to be of force and effect in and after the resurrection from the dead.
The family relationship was primarily designed to be perpetual; and only as mankind have forfeited or rejected the ministration of the Holy Priesthood has mere temporal union become a necessary yet but partial substitute for the eternal order of marriage. Paul's comprehensive precept "Neither is the man without the woman, neither the woman without the man, in the Lord" (1 Cor. 11:11) has an application beyond the marital state in mortality.
The full measure of progression in eternity is unattainable without the perpetuity of the family organization; and the family unit must be established on earth through the order of Celestial Marriage, which comprises marriage for time as well as for eternity, or, in the case of the dead by the confirmation and extension of earthly wedlock through the vicarious sealing of the parties in Celestial Marriage. Otherwise, that is if the marriage of any couple shall have been by secular authority only, without the authority of the Holy Priesthood, the parties shall find in the resurrection that neither are they married nor can they then be given in marriage.
Following the visitation of the Risen Christ to the Nephites on the Western Continent we read of the marriage institution associated with specific blessings, indicating the authorized administration of the higher and eternal order of matrimony: "And they were married, and given in marriage, and were blessed according to the multitude of the promises which the Lord had made unto them." (Book of Mormon, 4 Nephi 1:11.)
Concerning those who are wedded for this life only, the word of God as revealed in the present age is in strict accord with the Lord's affirmation to the Sadducees:
"Therefore, when they are out of the world, they neither marry, nor are given in marriage; but are appointed angels in heaven, which angels are ministering servants, to minister for those who are worthy of a far more, and an exceeding, and an eternal weight of glory." (D&C 132:16.)
CELESTIAL MARRIAGE
Eternal Relationship of the Sexes
"NEITHER is the man without the woman, neither the woman without the man, in the Lord." (1 Cor. 11:11.)
This scriptural epigram loses much of its significance if restricted to the period of mortal life. Admitting the actuality of individual existence after death, both during the interval of disembodiment and beyond in the resurrected state, we must in consistency accept the fact of the eternity of sex. Man will be man and woman woman in the hereafter as here.
Marriage as regarded by the Latter-day Saints is ordained of God and designed to be an eternal relationship. The Church affirms it to be not only a temporal and legal contract, of binding effect during the mortal life of the parties, but also a solemn covenant that shall endure beyond the grave. In the complete ordinance of marriage as administered within the Church, the man and the woman are placed under covenant of mutual fidelity and union not until death does them part, but for time and for all eternity.
A contract as far-reaching as this, extending not only throughout the period of earth-life, but beyond death, requires for its validation an authority superior to any that can be originated by human enactment; and such authority is found in the Holy Priesthood, which, given of God, is eternal.
Only as God delegates authority to man, with promise that administration under that authority shall be acknowledged in heaven, can any contract be made in this world and be of assured validity after the death of the parties concerned. Marriage is properly authorized by legal statute; and every contract of matrimony entered into as the law provides is honorable, and unless dissolved by the operation of law is effective during the life of the respective parties thereto. But it is beyond the power of man to legislate for eternity.
This is made plain in a revelation given to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1843, part of which follows:
"All covenants, contracts, bonds, obligations, oaths, vows, performances, connections, associations, or expectations, that are not made, and entered into, and sealed, by the Holy Spirit of promise, of him who is anointed, both as well for time and for all eternity, and that too most holy, by revelation and commandment . . . are of no efficacy, virtue or force, in and after the resurrection from the dead; for all contracts that are not made unto this end, have an end when men are dead. . . . And everything that is in the world, whether it be ordained of men, by thrones, or principalities, or powers, or things of name, whatsoever they may be, that are not by me, or by my word, saith the Lord, shall be thrown down, and shall not remain after men are dead, neither in nor after the resurrection, saith the Lord your God." (D&C 132:7, 13.)
In application of this principle and law to the covenants of matrimony, the revelation continues:
"Therefore, if a man marry him a wife in the world, and he marry her not by me, nor by my word; and he covenant with her so long as he is in the world, and she with him, their covenant and marriage are not of force when they are dead, and when they are out of the world; therefore, they are not bound by any law when they are out of the world."
This holy order of matrimony, involving covenant and blessing for both time and eternity, is distinctively known in the Church as Celestial Marriage, and is administered to those only who are adjudged to be of worthy life, eligible for admission to the House of the Lord; for this sacred ordinance together with others of eternal validity may be solemnized only within the Temples reared and dedicated for such exalted service.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, however, sanctions and acknowledges legal marriages for mortality alone, and solemnizes such unions, as the secular law provides, between parties who do not enter the Temple or who voluntarily choose the lesser and temporal order of matrimony. The ordinance of Celestial Marriage comprises and includes marriage for time, and is therefore administered to none who are not legally eligible to marry according to the law of the land.
Marriage that shall be valid after death must be solemnized here, as must all other ordinances required of men in the flesh, and that under the authority given of God for earthly administration. The resurrected state of those, otherwise worthy, who are wedded for mortality alone and that under laws created by man, is set forth in both ancient and modern Scripture as that of angels or ministers, unblessed by eternal increase:
"For these angels did not abide my law, therefore they cannot be enlarged, but remain separately and singly, without exaltation, in their saved condition, to all eternity, and from henceforth are not Gods, but are angels of God, for ever and ever." (D&C 132:17.)
THERE WAS WAR IN HEAVEN
Primeval Conflict Over Satanic Autocracy
"AND there was war in heaven; Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven." See Rev. 12:7-9.
John the Revelator beheld in vision this scene of primeval conflict between the hosts of unembodied spirits. Plainly this battle antedated the beginning of human history, for the dragon or Satan had not then been expelled from heaven, and at the time of his first recorded activity among mortals he was a fallen being.
In this antemortal contest the forces were unequally divided; Satan drew to his standard only a third of the spirit children of God (Rev. 12:4; D&C 29:36-38 and 76:25-27), while the majority either fought with Michael or refrained from active opposition, and so accomplished the purpose of their "first estate." The angels who followed Satan "kept not their first estate" (Jude 6) and so forfeited the glorious possibilities of an advanced or "second estate." (Pearl of Great Price, p. 66.) The victory was won by Michael and his angels; and Satan, theretofore a "son of the morning," was cast out of heaven, yea "he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him." (Rev. 12:9.)
About eight centuries prior to John's time, the principal facts of these momentous occurrences were revealed to Isaiah the prophet, who lamented with inspired pathos the fall of so great a one as Lucifer, and specified selfish ambition as the cause. Read Isa. 14:12-15.
The question at issue in the war in heaven is of first importance to human-kind. From the record of Isaiah we learn that Lucifer, then of exalted rank among the spirits, sought to aggrandize himself without regard to the rights and agency of others. He aspired to the unrighteous powers of absolute autocracy. The principle for which Michael, the archangel contended, and which Lucifer sought to nullify, comprised the individual liberties or the free agency of the spirit hosts destined to be embodied in the flesh. The whole matter is set forth in a revelation given to Moses and repeated through Joseph Smith, the first prophet of the present dispensation:
"And I, the Lord God, spake unto Moses, saying: That Satan, whom thou hast commanded in the name of mine Only Begotten, is the same which was from the beginning, and he came before me, saying—Behold, here am I, send me, I will be thy son, and I will redeem all mankind, that one soul shall not be lost, and surely I will do it; wherefore give me thine honor. But, behold, my Beloved Son, which was my Beloved and Chosen from the beginning, said unto me—Father, thy will be done, and the glory be thine forever. Wherefore, because that Satan rebelled against me, and sought to destroy the agency of man, which I, the Lord God, had given him, and also, that I should give unto him mine own power; by the power of mine Only Begotten, I caused that he should be cast down. And he became Satan, yea, even the devil, the father of all lies, to deceive and to blind men, and to lead them captive at his will, even as many as would not hearken unto my voice." (Pearl of Great Price, pp. 15-16.)
Thus it is shown that before this earth was tenanted by man, Christ and Satan together with the hosts of the spirit offspring of God existed as intelligent individuals, with ability and power of choice, and freedom to follow the leaders whom they elected to obey. In that innumerable concourse of spirit intelligences, the Father's plan, whereby His children would be advanced to their second estate, was submitted and doubtless discussed.
Satan's plan of compulsion whereby all would be forcibly guided through mortality, bereft of freedom to act and agency to choose, so circumscribed that forfeiture of salvation would be impossible and not one soul could be lost, was rejected; and the humble offer to Jesus the Firstborn—to live among men as their Exemplar, observing the sanctity of man's agency while teaching men to use aright that Divine heritage—was accepted. The decision brought war, which resulted in the vanquishment of Lucifer and his angels, and they were cast out, deprived of the boundless privileges incident to the mortal or second estate.
Ever since the beginning of human existence on earth, the deposed son of the morning and his followers have been compassing the captivity of souls. The plan of salvation is the gospel of liberty. And now, in these the last days, immediately precedent to the return of Christ, who shall come to rule in righteousness on earth, the arch-fiend is making desperate effort to enthrall mankind under the autocracy of hell. The conflict under which the earth has been made to groan was a repetition of the premundane war, whereby the free agency of spirits was vindicated; and the eventual issue of the later struggle was equally assured.
WE LIVED BEFORE WE WERE BORN
Our Primeval Childhood
IT is a grievous error to assume that mortal birth marks the beginning of one's individual existence. Quite as reasonable is it to hold that death means annihilation of the soul. The preexistent or antemortal state of man is as plainly affirmed by Scripture as is the fact of life beyond the grave.
We are too prone to regard the body as the man, and this mistake breeds the thought that life in the flesh is all there is to existence. There is in man an immortal spirit that existed as an intelligent being before the body was begotten, and that shall continue to exist as the same immortal individual after the body has gone to decay. Divine revelation attests the solemn truth that man is eternal.
No one who accepts the Holy Bible as the word of God can consistently deny the preexistence of the Lord Jesus Christ. In the first chapter of the Gospel written by John, Christ is designated as the Word, and the Savior's preexistence and primeval Godship are thus set forth: "In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." We read further: "And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us." (John 1:1 and 14.)
Our Lord's personal testimony is to the same effect. Of the disciples he asked: "What and if ye shall see the Son of Man ascend up where he was before?" (John 6:62.) And on another occasion He averred "I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world: again, I leave the world, and go to the Father." (John 16:28.) In solemn prayer He implored, "And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was." (John 17:5.)
Nevertheless, as to earthly birth Christ was born a Child and lived to maturity as a Man among men. Even as His bodily birth was the union of a preexistent spirit with a tabernacle of flesh and bones, such also is the birth of every human being.
Everyone of us was known by name and character to the Father, who is "the God of the spirits of all flesh" (Numbers 16:22; 27:16), in our antemortal or primeval childhood; and from among the hosts of His unembodied children God chose for special service on earth such as were best suited to the accomplishment of His purposes. In illustration consider the Lord's definite revelation to Jeremiah the prophet: "Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations." (Jer. 1:5.)
More than twelve centuries before Jeremiah's time God had revealed unto Abraham the fact of the preexistence of the spirits of mankind, as also the diverse capacities of those spirits, and the Divine purpose in preparing the earth for their habitation. Thus runs the record:
"Now the Lord had shown unto me, Abraham, the intelligences that were organized before the world was; and among all these there were many of the noble and great ones; And God saw these souls that they were good, and he stood in the midst of them, and he said: These I will make my rulers; for he stood among those that were spirits, and he saw that they were good; and he said unto me: Abraham, thou art one of them; thou wast chosen before thou wast born. And there stood one among them that was like unto God, and he said unto those who were with him: We will go down, for there is space there, and we will take of these materials, and we will make an earth whereon these may dwell; And we will prove them herewith, to see if they will do all things whatsoever the Lord their God shall command them; And they who keep their first estate shall be added upon; and they who keep not their first estate shall not have glory in the same kingdom with those who keep their first estate; and they who keep their second estate shall have glory added upon their heads forever and ever." (Pearl of Great Price, pp. 65-66.)
Our life in the flesh is but one stage in the course of the soul's eternal progress, a link connecting the eternities past with the eternities yet to come. The purpose of our mortal probation is that of education, training, trial, and test, whereby we demonstrate whether we will obey the commandments of the Lord our God and so lay hold on the boundless opportunities of advancement in the eternal worlds, or elect to do evil and forfeit the boon of citizenship in the Kingdom of Heaven.
The condition upon which mankind may have place in that Kingdom is compliance with the requirements laid down by Jesus Christ the Redeemer and Savior of the world, whose name is "the only name which shall be given under heaven, whereby salvation shall come unto the children of men." (Pearl of Great Price, p. 33.)
MAN IS ETERNAL
Successive Stages of Existence
THERE are four states, conditions, or stages in the advancement of the individual soul, specified in Sacred Writ. These are (1) the unembodied, (2) the embodied, (3) the disembodied, and (4) the resurrected state.
In other words, (1) every one of us lived in an antemortal existence as an individual spirit; (2) we are now in the advanced or mortal stage of progress; (3) we shall live in a disembodied state after death, which is but a separation of spirit and body; (4) and in due time each of us, whether righteous or sinful, shall be resurrected from the dead with spirit and body reunited and never again to be separated.
As to the certainty of the antemortal state, commonly spoken of as preexistence, the Scriptures are explicit. Our Lord Jesus Christ repeatedly averred that He had lived before He was born in flesh (see John 6:62; 8:58; 16:28; 17:5); and as with Him so with the spirits of all who have become or yet shall become mortal.
We were severally brought into being, as spirits, in that preexistent condition, literally the children of the Supreme Being whom Jesus Christ worshiped and addressed as Father. Do we not read that the Eternal Father is "the God of the spirits of all flesh" (Numb. 16:22; 27:16), and more specifically that He is "the Father of spirits"? (Heb. 12:9.) In the light of these Scriptures it is plainly true that the spirits of mankind were there begotten and born into what we call the preexistent or antemortal condition.
The primeval spirit birth is expressively described by Abraham to whom the facts were revealed, as a process of organization and the spirits so advanced are designated as intelligences: "Now the Lord had shown unto me, Abraham, the intelligences that were organized before the world was; and among all these there were many of the noble and great ones." (Pearl of Great Price, p. 65.)
The human mind finds difficulty in apprehending the actuality of infinite or eternal process, either from the present onward to and beyond what we call in a relative sense perfection, on, on, without end; or backward through receding stages that had no beginning. But who will affirm that things beyond human comprehension cannot be?
In the antemortal eternities we developed with individual differences and varied capacities. So far as we can peer into the past by the aid of revealed light we see that there was always gradation of intelligence, and consequently of ability, among the spirits, precisely as such differences exist amongst us mortals.
"That all men are created equal" is true in the sense in which that telling epigram was written into the scriptures of the Nation as a self-evident truth; for such laws as men enact in righteousness provide for the protection of individual rights on a basis of equality and recognize no discriminating respect of persons. But if applied as meaning that all men are born with equal capacities, or even inherent abilities in like measure for each, the aphorism becomes absurd and manifestly false.
Every spirit born in the flesh is an individual character, and brings to the body prepared for its tenancy a nature all its own. The tendencies, likes and dislikes, in short the whole disposition of the spirit may be intensified or changed by the course of mortal life, and the spirit may advance or retrograde while allied with its mortal tabernacle. Students of the so-called science with a newly coined name, Eugenics, are prone to emphasize the facts of heredity to the exclusion of preexistent traits and attributes of the individual spirit as factors in the determination of character.
The spirit lived as an organized intelligence before it became the embodied child of human parents; and its pre-existent individualism will be of effect in its period of earth life. Even though the manifestations of primeval personality be largely smothered under the tendencies due to bodily and prenatal influence, it is there, and makes its mark. This is in analogy with the recognized laws of physical operation—every force acting upon a body produces it definite effect whether it acts alone or with other and even opposing forces.
The genesis of every soul lies back in the eternity past, beyond the horizon of our full comprehension, and what we call a beginning is as truly a consummation and an ending, just as mortal birth is at once the commencement of earth life and the termination of the stage of antemortal existence.
The facts are thus set forth in the revealed word of God:
"If there be two spirits, and one shall be more intelligent than the other yet these two spirits, notwithstanding one is more intelligent than the other, have no beginning; they existed before, they shall have no end, they shall exist after, for they are gnolaum, or eternal." (Pearl of Great Price, p. 65.)
To every stage of development, as to every human life, there is beginning and end; but each stage is a definite fraction of eternal process, which is without beginning or end. Man is of eternal nature and of Divine lineage.
IN THE LINEAGE OF DEITY
Man's Divine Pedigree
THE spirits of mankind are the offspring of God. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints so affirms on the basis of scriptural certainty, and as wholly reasonable and consistent.
The preexistent or antemortal state of man has been heretofore demonstrated. God the Eternal Father is the actual and literal Parent of spirits. That many of these spirits in their embodied state manifest more of human weakness than of Divine heritage, that they grasp the earthly present with little regard for the heavenly past and with less for the yet greater possibilities of the heavenly future, is no proof to the contrary of the revealed truth that man belongs to the lineage of God.
Of all the spirit children begotten of the Eternal Father throughout the eons past, Jesus Christ was the firstborn. To this solemn truth the Christ has testified in the current age: "And now, verily I say unto you, I was in the beginning with the Father, and am the firstborn." And as to the human family in general, ponder our Lord's further avowal: "Ye were also in the beginning with the Father." (D&C 93:21, 23.)
The Scriptures aver that all things existing upon earth, including man, were created spiritually prior to their embodiment in earthly tabernacles; and furthermore, that mortal man is fashioned after the image of God. In short, all earthly existences are material expressions of preexistent entities. The human body, so far as it is normal, undeformed and unimpaired, is a presentment of the spirit itself.
One of the essential and distinguishing characteristics of life is the power to select and utilize in its own tabernacle, whether plant, animal, or human, the material elements within its reach, so far as such are necessary to its growth and development. This is true alike of the unborn embryo and of the mature being.
Man's spirit, therefore, is in the likeness of its Divine and Eternal Father, and in the operations of the functions of life it shapes the body to conform with itself. How could the spirit be otherwise than in the image of God if it be divinely begotten and born?
The conformation of the body to the likeness of the pre-existent spirit is attested in a revelation to an ancient prophet and seer, wherein the Lord Jesus Christ, then in the unembodied state, showed Himself to His mortal servant, saying: "Seest thou that ye are created after mine own image? Yea, even all men were created in the beginning, after mine own image. 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." (Book of Mormon, Ether, 3:15, 16).
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints teaches that the spirit of man being the offspring of Deity, and the human body though of earthly composition yet being, in its perfect condition, the very image of God, man, even in his present and so-called fallen condition, possesses inherited traits, tendencies, and powers that tell of his Divine descent; and that these attributes may be developed as to make him, even while mortal, in a measure Godlike. If this be not true we have to explain a vital exception to what we regard as an inviolable law of organic nature—that like begets like, and that perpetuation of species is in compliance with the condition "each after his kind."
The actuality of the spiritual procreation, with which mortal birth is analogous, is expressed in the inspired hymn by a latter-day poetess, Eliza R. Snow:
For a wise and glorious purposeThou hast placed me here on earth,And withheld the recollectionOf my former friends and birth;Yet ofttimes a secret somethingWhispered, "You're a stranger here";And I felt that I had wanderedFrom a more exalted sphere.I had learned to call thee Father,Through thy Spirit from on high;But until the Key of KnowledgeWas restored, I knew not why.In the heavens are parents single?No; the thought makes reason stare!Truth is reason, truth eternalTells me I've a Mother there.When I leave this frail existence,When I lay this mortal by,Father, Mother, may I meet youIn your royal courts on high?Then, at length, when I've completedAll you sent me forth to do,With your mutual approbationLet me come and dwell with you.
For a wise and glorious purposeThou hast placed me here on earth,And withheld the recollectionOf my former friends and birth;Yet ofttimes a secret somethingWhispered, "You're a stranger here";And I felt that I had wanderedFrom a more exalted sphere.
I had learned to call thee Father,Through thy Spirit from on high;But until the Key of KnowledgeWas restored, I knew not why.In the heavens are parents single?No; the thought makes reason stare!Truth is reason, truth eternalTells me I've a Mother there.
When I leave this frail existence,When I lay this mortal by,Father, Mother, may I meet youIn your royal courts on high?Then, at length, when I've completedAll you sent me forth to do,With your mutual approbationLet me come and dwell with you.
UNENDING ADVANCEMENT
Infinite Possibilities of Man's Estate
THE spirit of man is in the image of God, whose child it is, and every human body conforms, in the measure determined by its perfection or physical defects, to the spirit that tenants it. Furthermore, we know that the spirit existed in the ante-mortal state, that after death it lives as a disembodied individual, and that later it shall be reunited with the body of flesh and bones in an everlasting union through the resurrection inaugurated by our Lord Jesus Christ.
If man be the spirit offspring of God, and if the possibilities of individual progression be endless, to both of which sublime truths the Scriptures bear definite testimony, then we have to admit that man may eventually attain to Divine estate. However far away it be in the eternities future, what eons may elapse before any one now mortal may reach the sanctity and glory of godhood, man nevertheless has inherited from his Divine Father the possibilities of such attainment—even as the crawling caterpillar or the corpse-like chrysalis holds the latent possibility, nay, barring destruction, the certainty, indeed, of the winged imago in all the glory of maturity.
Progression in mortality, that is true progression, advancement of the soul in developing the attributes of godliness, achievement in righteousness that shall endure beyond death and resurrection, is conditioned upon compliance with spiritual law, just as bodily health is dependent upon the observance of what we call natural law. Between the two there may be difference of degree, but not essentially of kind. Physical exercise is indispensable to the development of body, and quite as certainly is spiritual activity requisite to the healthful and normal development of the soul.
Through valiant service, by unreserved obedience to the requirements embodied in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, never-ending advancement is made possible to man. Thus, within the soul are the potentialities of godhood. Such high attainment is specifically the exaltation of the soul as distinguished from salvation. Not all who are saved in the hereafter shall be exalted. One may refrain in large measure from committing particular sins or sin in general, and so gain title to a degree of salvation far above the lot of the gross offender, nevertheless his goodness may be merely passive, and thus distinctly apart from the active, aggressive, positive godliness of him who is valiant in righteous service.
The incident of the rich young Jew who came in quest of instruction as to his duty is in point. See Matt. 19:16-26. "Good Master," said he, "what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life?" The Lord answered "If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments" and in response to further inquiry cited the standard requirements of the Mosaic Law. In simplicity, and seemingly devoid of all sense of self-righteousness, the young man rejoined: "All these things have I kept from my youth up: what lack I yet?" Then Jesus replied "If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me." The young ruler, for as such he is designated, yearned to know what he should do beyond ordinary observance of "Thou shalt" and "Thou shalt not" of the decalog. He went away sorrowful in contemplation of the sacrifice required of him for the attainment of perfection. Love of worldly things was this man's besetting ailment. The Great Physician diagnosed his case and prescribed a suitable remedy.
Through the latter-day prophet, Joseph Smith, the Lord has specified the conditions of exaltation in the eternal worlds, by describing those who thus attain:
"They are they who received the testimony of Jesus, and believed on His name and were baptized after the manner of His burial, being buried in the water in His name, and this according to the commandment which He has given. That by keeping the commandments they might be washed and cleansed from all their sins, and receive the Holy Spirit by the laying on of the hands of him who is ordained and sealed unto this power. . . . They are they who are Priests and Kings, who have received of His fulness, and of His glory, and are Priests of the Most High, after the order of Melchizedek, which was after the order of Enoch, which was after the order of the Only Begotten Son. Wherefore, as it is written, they are Gods, even the sons of God." (D&C 76:51-58.)
And further, of the supremely blessed we read:
"Then shall they be Gods, because they have no end; therefore shall they be from everlasting to everlasting, because they continue; then shall they be above all, because all things are subject unto them. Then shall they be Gods, because they have all power, and the angels are subject unto them. Verily, verily I say unto you, except ye abide my law, ye cannot attain to this glory." (132:20, 21.)
But all shall be subject to the Eternal Father and His Son Jesus Christ, as thus attested:
"Wherefore all things are theirs, whether life or death, or things present, or things to come, all are theirs and they are Christ's and Christ is God's." (76:59.)