Part II

Well, this us leads us on in sharing our brushes with strengthening adversity, but first a few reflections on going through the heart press.

Pruned, Pressed, & Purified
Through the gospel of Jesus Christ, we have a new understanding of adversity.  We learn through opposition and strain, against difficulty and struggle, regardless of the source and nature of the trial. Jesus Christ can succor us.

We, too, need to be pruned, pressed and purified, much like the olive tree and olive oil that symbolize the process, the Purifier, and the product of a pure heart. So here are a few thoughts I’ve learned about the process, and another story from my own life–The Twelve Days of Christmas…

Liquid Gold
Homer called it “liquid gold.” Athletes used to smear it all over their bodies. It was used to anoint, used in cooking, a source of light and therapeutic ointment for centuries. It was infused with flowers and with grasses to produce both medicine and cosmetics. This liquid gold is commonly known as olive oil.

I grew up with it, doused on tomatoes and parmegiana, in authentic Italian ‘gravy’ (non-Italians call it “sauce!”), combined with vinegar on salads, glittering in the bottom of a bowl waiting to be soaked up by crusty Italian bread. It was the indispensable oil of my Mediterranean forebears, the salutary ingredient in native cuisine, and the same golden base for the ordinations of kings and rulers.

I was intrigued with its healthful properties in my Gentile days, but am moreso now, having joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons), and having been anointed, initiated, blessed, and healed as this oil, has been placed upon my head-consecrated by rightful administrators of the priesthood of God. I have felt its purifying influence in and out of the temple and have come to more deeply appreciate its significance.

The Olive Press
Olive pressing is an incredible process and immediate metaphor. Before olives are even pressed, they are carefully weighed and poured through a mesh screen to separate out their leaves. They must be harvested at just the right moment and taken to the press immediately so they don’t deteriorate.

After they are washed and rinsed, they are sent to the crusher. I have seen photos of 3600-pound granite wheels used to crush olives. They are mammoth. The olives are laid out in a large steel container as the huge stone wheels relentlessly rumble in continuous circular movement over them, crushing them into paste. They are pressed into paste first, to help release the globules of oil. And then they are churned causing the oil to bead up for extraction. All of this, as you can imagine, is a labor-intensive and ingenious work.

Gethsemane: Garden of the Olive Press
The finest olive oil producers-just as the greatest Harvester of Souls-know the olive, the precise moment of harvest, the time to crush, the way to carry them to the press (they can be damaged even by their own weight), the best method of releasing the purest oil-creating an extra-virgin product.

As we feel the press on our hearts, then, we can know the Lord of the Vineyard is the one extracting godhood from us, and that He, too, went through the press-the combined press each of us will pass through, in a way we can barely begin to grasp.

Truman Madsen, Mormon scholar, exquisitely renders this description of the link between the olive press and the Savior’s atoning sacrifice:

[The Savior was, spiritually speaking,] trodden upon, trampled, crushed until the very tissues of he heart [cried] out for relief and release and until “mercy [had] compassion on mercy and [claimed] her own’ (D&C 88:40), ‘that he may know, according to the flesh, how to succor his people’ (Alma 7:12).

It is no coincidence, Brother Madsen underscores, that “the garden on the mount is called Gethsemane.” For “‘Geth’ in Hebrew means ‘press.’ ‘Shemen’ means ‘oil.’ This was the garden of the olive press….” (The Olive Press: A Symbol of Christ, FARMS, pgs. 5, 7).

It is striking and borders on inexpressible-the fact that the Savior was innocently pressed beyond anything we could ever bear, and that He now is our advocate in our own heart-presses, again, the One refining the oil-squeezing out the dross, the bitter, the less productive-allowing the nectar of godhood to produce in us.

We are, then, never alone in our own presses of the heart. I would hope that some recollection of that truth would be present for each of us in the crushing heat of the individual press….

The Twelve Days of Christmas
For some of us, it is letting go of loved ones that presses our hearts’ abilities to trust God and feel His loving purposes. In fact, some never recover from the natural loss of a loved one.

Failing to see God’s hand, some of us would use our own to grasp the person we love and keep them with us. As Elder Richard L. Evans asked, “When ‘would’ we be willing to lose those we loved?” (Quoted in The Birth We Call Death p.41).

May I share another personal story? My mother passed away several years ago on December 27^th. An hour before the Relief Society (Mormon Woman’s Organization) Christmas Social in our ward, I received a phone call from Lori, my sister in Atlanta, bearing the news that Mom had been diagnosed with advanced pancreatic cancer, metastasis to the liver. My father asked me not to fly home to Philly until the 27^th of December, since my younger sister, Denise, was there to help care, and he believed he would need me more after she left.

In spite of Dad’s tentative thoughts, as I began booking my fare, I knew I needed to hop a plane immediately which I did. As a result of that gentle prompting, I was privileged to spend what turned out to be the last week of my mother’s life at her side. … Another piece of God’s signature which continued to appear through those next “twelve days of Christmas.”

How Much Pain Is Enough?
When I arrived at The Fox Chase Cancer Center, I ached for my mother. She was in great pain before the medical staff got the morphine drip going with a heavy enough dose to keep her comfortable. This was more than reminiscent of her 25-day stay in the hospital twenty years earlier with biliary obstruction and life-threatening surgical complications.

I was tracking Mom’s oxycodone by the hour and seeking to increase it, according to physician instructions-and hospital-protocol fliers posted in every other hallway-for Mom to be pain free. But the lag time between increased doses creating a valley of despair for Mom.

I recall the first night I asked to stay overnight and wasn’t granted permission. I later learned that she had writhed in agony between doses from 10-11:30 p.m. Finally, after a morning confab with the head of the pain management team, we got her meds and pain mostly managed. Morphine ran intravenously on a basal dose, and for extra bouts of pain, Mom was free to push the button for an extra, limited dose or bolus.

Nonetheless, pain is a difficult thing to see and understand, unless we have the bigger picture. If we don’t, this is where many of us bow out of God’s presence and think He has bowed out of ours, where we duck from our testimonies fearful they will let us down.

I remember several instances where Mom’s groaning was almost more than I could bear. I prayed that she would not have one more second of pain than necessary for her exaltation and purification (Mormons believe that there are degrees of glory, and the highest is known as exaltation.) And then I asked the Lord straightforwardly in a sort of spiritual gust: “How much pain is enough? How dost thou know that this specific amount or that is precisely the right amount? How dost thou quantify or qualify pain? I trust thee. But please help me to have increased understanding.”

My answer came in waves of recollection. The first remembrance was of the very story I had shared with my girls just after we sang Steve Green’s song in the Family Home Evening alluded to earlier. It was the story of “The Refiner’s Fire” which follows:

Some time ago, a few ladies met to read the scriptures. While reading the third chapter of Malachi, they came upon a remarkable expression in the third verse, ‘And He shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver’ (3).

One lady’s opinion was that it was intended to convey the view of the sanctifying influence of the grace of Christ. Then she proposed to visit a silversmith and report to her friends what he said on the subject.

She went accordingly, and without telling the objective of her errand, begged to know the process of refining silver, which he fully described to her.

‘But Sir’ she said, ‘Do you sit while the work of refining is going on?’

‘Oh, yes madam,’ replied the silversmith; ‘I must sit with my eye steadily fixed on the furnace, for if the time necessary for refining is exceeded in the slightest degree, the silver will be injured.’

And, as if that weren’t sufficient answer, listen to this part:

As the lady was leaving the shop, the silversmith called her back, and said that he had one more thing further to mention-that the silversmith only knows when the process of purifying is complete, by seeing his own image reflected in the silver.

As this story re-entered my soul, I knew that every second of Mom’s pain-and, by extension, each of ours-was counted. I just received the answer to one of the two questions I posed-a sure witness that pain is quantified. And while I still don’t know how, that didn’t seem to matter. The Holy Ghost (whom Mormons recognize as the third Member of the Godhead) bore record, that God the Father and the Savior know to the second, what is apportioned and appropriate and sufficient for the refinement we require.

Notice how the second question: “How dost thou qualify pain?” Through this same account, the Spirit etched into my soul a knowledge that pain was also qualified by the Refiner. He would see our image when the work was complete. He wouldn’t just know how many seconds to keep us in the heat; He also knew precisely the intended, specific quality of the final product.

God, our Heavenly Father, and His Son, Jesus Christ were in control of the quantity and the quality of pain in this trial. There was no margin for error. What a marvelous response to a child’s question in time of adversity. God’s hand certainly had not disappeared nor had it been idle.

The second wave of recall came in the form of a poem I’d read once by an unknown author:

Pain stayed so long I said to him today,

‘I will not have you with me any more.’

I stamped my foot and said, ‘Be on your way,’ And paused there, startled at the look he wore.

‘I, who have been your friend,’ he said to me,

‘I, who have been your teacher-all you know

Of understanding love, of sympathy,

And patience, I have taught you. Shall I go?’

He spoke the truth,

this strange unwelcome guest;

I watched him leave, and knew that He was wise.

He left a heart grown tender in my breast.

He left a far, clear vision in my eyes. I dried my tears, and lifted up a song-

Even for one who’d tortured me so long.

Tragedy or Destiny, Spencer W. Kimball p. 4

I found strength in this affidavit for pain from someone who knew it first-hand.

The third wave struck. It was the following quote that came to me in part, but which I now share in full:

No pain that we suffer, no trial that we experience is wasted. It ministers to our education, to the development of such qualities as patience, faith, fortitude and humility. All that we suffer and all that we endure, especially when we endure it patiently, builds up our characters, purifies our hearts, expands our souls and makes us more tender and charitable, more worthy to be called the children of God (Orson F. Whitney Ibid).

In fact, whenever I asked, whenever I needed the bigger picture reinforced, I received an answer. Just as Mom was receiving an additional doses of morphine as needed, at the press of a button, I too, received spiritual boluses and intravenous injections of faith p.r.n..

Another bolus of the Spirit came, in fact, as the poignant words spoken by Elder Hales in October Conference were brought to my remembrance. Speaking on the sanctifying purpose of pain, Elder Hales testified first-hand, “Constant intense pain is a purifier.” (“The Covenant of Baptism: To Be in the Kingdom and of the Kingdom,” Ensign, Nov 2000, 6–9) I clung to those words, highlighted in my Conference issue. I know they are true.

I recall another bolus. Sitting quietly by Mom’s side as she lay unresponsive, and pained at my own father’s lack of context for suffering and death, I opened the scriptures. Still pondering my desires on his and my family’s behalf, my eyes specifically fell on D&C 31:1 & 2. As I typically do, I entered my name in the verses, so I read:

Karen, my daughter, blessed are you because …

2. Behold, you have had many afflictions because of your family; nevertheless, I will bless you and your family, yea your little ones; and the day cometh they [your family] will believe and know the truth and be one with you in my Church.

He continues to set our tables with divine dishes, and signs His name on the menu.

See Part III for the rest of the story.

Courtesy of Mark Mabry

Let not ignorance and thoughtlessness lead us into the error of assuming that the Father’s foreknowledge as to what would be, under given conditions, determined that such must be. It was not His design that the souls of mankind be lost; on the contrary it was and is His work and glory, “to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man” (Moses 1:39). Nevertheless He saw the evil into which His children would assuredly fall; and with infinite love and mercy did He ordain means of averting the dire effect, provided the transgressor would elect to avail himself thereof. The offer of the firstborn Son to establish through His own ministry among men the gospel of salvation, and to sacrifice Himself, through labor, humiliation and suffering even unto death, was accepted and made the foreordained plan of man’s redemption from death, of his eventual salvation from the effects of sin, and of his possible exaltation through righteous achievement.

In accordance with the plan adopted in the council of the Gods, man was created as an embodied spirit; his tabernacle of flesh was composed of the elements of earth. He was given commandment and law, and was free to obey or disobey—with the just and inevitable condition that he should enjoy or suffer the natural results of his choice. Adam, the first man placed upon the earth in pursuance of the established plan, and Eve who was given unto him as companion and associate, indispensable to him in the appointed mission of peopling the earth, disobeyed the express commandment of God and so brought about the “fall of man”, whereby the mortal state, of which death is an essential element, was inaugurated. It is not proposed to consider here at length the doctrine of the fall; for the present argument it is sufficient to establish the fact of the momentous occurrence and its portentous consequences.

The woman was deceived, and in direct violation of counsel and commandment partook of the food that had been forbidden, as a result of which act her body became degenerate and subject to death. Adam realized the disparity that had been brought between him and his companion, and with some measure of understanding followed her course, thus becoming her partner in bodily degeneracy.

The man and the woman had now become mortal; through indulgence in food unsuited to their nature and condition and against which they had been specifically warned, and as the inevitable result of their disobeying the divine law and commandment, they became liable to the physical ailments and bodily frailties to which mankind has since been the natural heir. Those bodies, which before the fall had been perfect in form and function, were now subjects for eventual dissolution or death. The arch-tempter through whose sophistries, half-truths and infamous falsehoods, Eve had been beguiled, was none other than Satan, or Lucifer, that rebellious and fallen “son of the morning”, whose proposal involving the destruction of man’s liberty had been rejected in the council of the heavens, and who had been “cast out into the earth”, he and all his angels as unbodied spirits, never to be tabernacled in bodies of their own. As an act of diabolic reprisal following his rejection in the council, his defeat by Michael and the heavenly hosts, and his ignominious expulsion from heaven, Satan planned to destroy the bodies in which the faithful spirits—those who had kept their first estate—would be born; and his beguilement of Eve was but an early stage of that infernal scheme.

Death has come to be the universal heritage; it may claim its victim in infancy or youth, in the period of life’s prime, or its summons may be deferred until the snows of age have gathered upon the hoary head; it may befall as the result of accident or disease, by violence, or as we say, through natural causes; but come it must, as Satan well knows; and in this knowledge is his present though but temporary triumph. But the purposes of God, as they ever have been and ever shall be, are infinitely superior to the deepest designs of men or devils; and the Satanic machinations to make death inevitable, perpetual and supreme were provided against even before the first man had been created in the flesh. The atonement to be wrought by Jesus the Christ was ordained to overcome death and to provide a means of ransom from the power of Satan.

As the penalty incident to the fall came upon the race through an individual act, it would be manifestly unjust, and therefore impossible as part of the divine purpose, to make all men suffer the results thereof without provision for deliverance. Moreover, since by the transgression of one man sin came into the world and death was entailed upon all, it is consistent with reason that the atonement thus made necessary should be wrought by one. “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned … Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life.” So taught the apostle Paul; and, further: “For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive” (Romans 5:12-18).

The atonement was plainly to be a vicarious sacrifice, voluntary and love-inspired on the Savior’s part, universal in its application to mankind so far as men shall accept the means of deliverance thus placed within their reach. For such a mission only one who was without sin could be eligible. Even the altar victims of ancient Israel offered as a provisional propitiation for the offenses of the people under the Mosaic law had to be clean and devoid of spot or blemish; otherwise they were unacceptable and the attempt to offer them was sacrilege. Jesus Christ was the only Being suited to the requirements of the great sacrifice:

1—As the one and only sinless Man;

2—As the Only Begotten of the Father and therefore the only Being born to earth possessing in their fulness the attributes of both Godhood and manhood;

3—As the One who had been chosen in the heavens and foreordained to this service.

What other man has been without sin, and therefore wholly exempt from the dominion of Satan, and to whom death, the wage of sin, is not naturally due? Had Jesus Christ met death as other men have done—the result of the power that Satan has gained over them through their sins—His death would have been but an individual experience, expiatory in no degree of any faults or offenses but His own. Christ’s absolute sinlessness made Him eligible, His humility and willingness rendered Him acceptable to the Father, as the atoning sacrifice whereby propitiation could be made for the sins of all men.

What other man has lived with power to withstand death, over whom death could not prevail except through his own submission? Yet Jesus Christ could not be slain until His “hour had come”, and that, the hour in which He voluntarily surrendered His life, and permitted His own decease through an act of will. Born of a mortal mother He inherited the capacity to die; begotten by an immortal Sire He possessed as a heritage the power to withstand death indefinitely. He literally gave up His life; to this effect is His own affirmation: “Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again” ( John 10:17-18). And further: “For as the Father hath life in himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself” (John 5:26). Only such a One could conquer death; in none but Jesus the Christ was realized this requisite condition of a Redeemer of the world.

What other man has come to earth with such appointment, clothed with the authority of such foreordination? The atoning mission of Jesus Christ was no self-assumption. True, He had offered Himself when the call was made in the heavens; true, He had been accepted, and in due time came to earth to carry into effect the terms of that acceptance; but He was chosen by One greater than Himself. The burden of His confession of authority was ever to the effect that He operated under the direction of the Father, as witness these words: “I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me” (John 6:38).

Through the atonement accomplished by Jesus Christ—a redeeming service, vicariously rendered in behalf of mankind, all of whom have become estranged from God by the effects of sin both inherited and individually incurred—the way is opened for a reconciliation whereby man may come again into communion with God, and be made fit to dwell anew and forever in the presence of his Eternal Father. This basal thought is admirably implied in our English word, “atonement,” which, as its syllables attest, is at-one-ment, “denoting reconciliation, or the bringing into agreement those who have been estranged” (New Standard Dictionary). The effect of the atonement may be conveniently considered as twofold:

1—The universal redemption of the human race from death invoked by the fall of our first parents; and,

2—Salvation, whereby means of relief from the results of individual sin are provided.

The victory over death was made manifest in the resurrection of the crucified Christ; He was the first to pass from death to immortality and so is justly known as “the first fruits of them that slept” (1 Cor. 15:20). That the resurrection of the dead so inaugurated is to be extended to every one who has or shall have lived is proved by an abundance of scriptural evidence. Following our Lord’s resurrection, others who had slept in the tomb arose and were seen of many, not as spirit-apparitions but as resurrected beings possessing immortalized bodies: “And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose, and came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many” (Matt. 27:52, 53).

Those who thus early came forth are spoken of as “the saints”; and other scriptures confirm the fact that only the righteous shall be brought forth in the earlier stages of the resurrection yet to be consummated; but that all the dead shall in turn resume bodies of flesh and bones is placed beyond doubt by the revealed word. The Savior’s direct affirmation ought to be conclusive: “Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live…. Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation” (John 5:25-29). The doctrine of a universal resurrection was taught by the apostles of old, as also by the Nephite prophets; and the same is confirmed by revelation incident to the present dispensation. Even the heathen who have not known God shall be brought forth from their graves; and, inasmuch as they have lived and died in ignorance of the saving law, a means of making the plan of salvation known unto them is provided. “And then shall the heathen nations be redeemed, and they that knew no law shall have part in the first resurrection” (Doctrine and Covenants 45:54).

Jacob, a Nephite prophet, taught the universality of the resurrection, and set forth the absolute need of a Redeemer, without whom the purposes of God in the creation of man would be rendered futile. His words constitute a concise and forceful summary of revealed truth directly bearing upon our present subject:

“For as death hath passed upon all men, to fulfil the merciful plan of the great Creator, there must needs be a power of resurrection, and the resurrection must needs come unto man by reason of the fall; and the fall came by reason of transgression; and because man became fallen, they were cut off from the presence of the Lord; wherefore it must needs be an infinite atonement; save it should be an infinite atonement, this corruption could not put on incorruption. Wherefore, the first judgment which came upon man, must needs have remained to an endless duration. And if so, this flesh must have laid down to rot and to crumble to its mother earth, to rise no more. O the wisdom of God! his mercy and grace! For behold, if the flesh should rise no more, our spirits must become subject to that angel who fell from before the presence of the eternal God, and became the devil, to rise no more. And our spirits must have become like unto him, and we become devils, angels to a devil, to be shut out from the presence of our God, and to remain with the father of lies, in misery, like unto himself; yea, to that being who beguiled our first parents; who transformeth himself nigh unto an angel of light, and stirreth up the children of men unto secret combinations of murder, and all manner of secret works of darkness. O how great the goodness of our God, who prepareth a way for our escape from the grasp of this awful monster; yea, that monster, death and hell, which I call the death of the body, and also the death of the spirit. And because of the way of deliverance of our God, the Holy One of Israel, this death, of which I have spoken, which is the temporal, shall deliver up its dead; which death is the grave. And this death of which I have spoken, which is the spiritual death, shall deliver up its dead; which spiritual death is hell; wherefore, death and hell must deliver up their dead, and hell must deliver up its captive spirits, and the grave must deliver up its captive bodies, and the bodies and the spirits of men will be restored one to the other; and it is by the power of the resurrection of the Holy One of Israel. O how great the plan of our God! For on the other hand, the paradise of God must deliver up the spirits of the righteous, and the grave deliver up the body of the righteous; and the spirit and the body is restored to itself again, and all men become incorruptible, and immortal, and they are living souls, having a perfect knowledge like unto us in the flesh; save it be that our knowledge shall be perfect” (2 Nephi 9:6-13).

The application of the atonement to individual transgression, whereby the sinner may obtain absolution through compliance with the laws and ordinances embodied in the gospel of Jesus Christ, is conclusively attested by scripture. Since forgiveness of sins can be secured in none other way, there being either in heaven or earth no name save that of Jesus Christ whereby salvation shall come unto the children of men, every soul stands in need of the Savior’s mediation, since all are sinners. “For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God”, said Paul of old, and John the apostle added his testimony in these words: “If we say that we have no sin we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.”

Who shall question the justice of God, which denies salvation to all who will not comply with the prescribed conditions on which alone it is declared obtainable? Christ is the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him, and God “will render to every man according to his deeds: to them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, eternal life: but unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil” (Rom. 2:6-9).

Such then is the need of a Redeemer, for without Him mankind would forever remain in a fallen state, and as to hope of eternal progression would be inevitably lost. The mortal probation is provided as an opportunity for advancement; but so great are the difficulties and the dangers, so strong is the influence of evil in the world, and so weak is man in resistance thereto, that without the aid of a power above that of humanity no soul would find its way back to God from whom it came. The need of a Redeemer lies in the inability of man to raise himself from the temporal to the spiritual plane, from the lower kingdom to the higher. In this conception we are not without analogies in the natural world. We recognize a fundamental distinction between inanimate and living matter, between the inorganic and the organic, between the lifeless mineral on the one hand and the living plant or animal on the other. Within the limitations of its order the dead mineral grows by accretion of substance, and may attain a relatively perfect condition of structure and form as is seen in the crystal. But mineral matter, though acted upon favorably by the forces of nature—light, heat, electric energy and others—can never become a living organism; nor can the dead elements, through any process of chemical combination dissociated from life, enter into the tissues of the plant as essential parts thereof. But the plant, which is of a higher order, sends its rootlets into the earth, spreads its leaves in the atmosphere, and through these organs absorbs the solutions of the soil, inspires the gases of the air, and from such lifeless materials weaves the tissue of its wondrous structure. No mineral particle, no dead chemical substance has ever been made a constituent of organic tissue except through the agency of life. We may, perhaps with profit, carry the analogy a step farther. The plant is unable to advance its own tissue to the animal plane. Though it be the recognized order of nature that the “animal kingdom” is dependent upon the “vegetable kingdom” for its sustenance, the substance of the plant may become part of the animal organism only as the latter reaches down from its higher plane and by its own vital action incorporates the vegetable compounds with itself. In turn, animal matter can never become, even transitorily, part of a human body, except as the living man assimilates it, and by the vital processes of his own existence lifts, for the time being, the substance of the animal that supplied him food to the higher plane of his own existence. The comparison herein employed is admittedly defective if carried beyond reasonable limits of application; for the raising of mineral matter to the plane of the plant, vegetable tissue to the level of the animal, and the elevation of either to the human plane, is but a temporary change; with the dissolution of the higher tissues the material thereof falls again to the level of the inanimate and the dead. But, as a means of illustration the analogy may not be wholly without value.

So, for the advancement of man from his present fallen and relatively degenerate state to the higher condition of spiritual life, a power above his own must cooperate. Through the operation of the laws obtaining in the higher kingdom man may be reached and lifted; himself he cannot save by his own unaided effort. A Redeemer and Savior of mankind is beyond all question essential to the realization of the plan of the Eternal Father, “to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man”; and that Redeemer and Savior is Jesus the Christ, beside whom there is and can be none other (Moses 1:39).

In a previous post, we have shown that the entire human race existed as spirit-beings in the primeval world, and that for the purpose of making possible to them the experiences of mortality this earth was created. They were endowed with the powers of agency or choice while yet but spirits; and the divine plan provided that they be free-born in the flesh, heirs to the inalienable birthright of liberty to choose and to act for themselves in mortality. It is undeniably essential to the eternal progression of God’s children that they be subjected to the influences of both good and evil, that they be tried and tested and proved withal, “to see if they will do all things whatsoever the Lord their God shall command them” (Job 38:7). Free agency is an indispensable element of such a test.

The Eternal Father well understood the diverse natures and varied capacities of His spirit-offspring; and His infinite foreknowledge made plain to Him, even in the beginning, that in the school of life some of His children would succeed and others would fail; some would be faithful, others false; some would choose the good, others the evil; some would seek the way of life while others would elect to follow the road to destruction. He further foresaw that death would enter the world, and that the possession of bodies by His children would be of but brief individual duration. He saw that His commandments would be disobeyed and His law violated; and that men, shut out from His presence and left to themselves, would sink rather than rise, would retrograde rather than advance, and would be lost to the heavens. It was necessary that a means of redemption be provided, whereby erring man might make amends, and by compliance with established law achieve salvation and eventual exaltation in the eternal worlds. The power of death was to be overcome, so that, though men would of necessity die, they would live anew, their spirits clothed with immortalized bodies over which death could not again prevail.

Let not ignorance and thoughtlessness lead us into the error of assuming that the Father’s foreknowledge as to what would be, under given conditions, determined that such must be. It was not His design that the souls of mankind be lost; on the contrary it was and is His work and glory, “to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.”* Nevertheless He saw the evil into which His children would assuredly fall; and with infinite love and mercy did He ordain means of averting the dire effect, provided the transgressor would elect to avail himself thereof (Psalm 25:14; Amos 3:7). The offer of the firstborn Son to establish through His own ministry among men the gospel of salvation, and to sacrifice Himself, through labor, humiliation and suffering even unto death, was accepted and made the foreordained plan of man’s redemption from death, of his eventual salvation from the effects of sin, and of his possible exaltation through righteous achievement.

James Talmage, Jesus the Christ

Prior to the placing of man upon the earth, how long before we do not know, Jesus Christ and Satan, together with the hosts of the spirit-children of God, existed as intelligent individuals, possessing power and opportunity to choose the course they would pursue and the leaders whom they would follow and obey. In that great concourse of spirit-intelligences, the Father’s plan, whereby His children would be advanced to their second estate, was submitted and doubtless discussed. The opportunity so placed within the reach of the spirits who were to be privileged to take bodies upon the earth was so transcendently glorious that those heavenly multitudes burst forth into song and shouted for joy (Job 38:7).

Satan’s plan of compulsion, whereby all would be safely conducted through the career of mortality, bereft of freedom to act and agency to choose, so circumscribed that they would be compelled to do right—that one soul would not be lost—was rejected; and the humble offer of Jesus the First-born—to assume mortality and live among men as their Exemplar and Teacher, observing the sanctity of man’s agency but teaching men to use aright that divine heritage—was accepted. The decision brought war, which resulted in the vanquishment of Satan and his angels, who were cast out and deprived of the boundless privileges incident to the mortal or second estate.

In that august council of the angels and the Gods, the Being who later was born in flesh as Mary’s Son, Jesus Christ, took prominent part, and there was He ordained of the Father to be the Savior of mankind. As to time, the term being used in the sense of all duration past, this is our earliest record of the Firstborn among the sons of God; to us who read, it marks the beginning of the written history of Jesus the Christ.

Old Testament scriptures, while abounding in promises relating to the actuality of Christ’s advent in the flesh, are less specific in information concerning His antemortal existence. By the children of Israel, while living under the law and still unprepared to receive the gospel, the Messiah was looked for as one to be born in the lineage of Abraham and David, empowered to deliver them from personal and national burdens, and to vanquish their enemies. The actuality of the Messiah’s status as the chosen Son of God, who was with the Father from the beginning, a Being of preexistent power and glory, was but dimly perceived, if conceived at all, by the people in general; and although to prophets specially commissioned in the authorities and privileges of the Holy Priesthood, revelation of the great truth was given,(Psalm 25:1-4; Amos 3:7) they transmitted it to the people rather in the language of imagery and parable than in words of direct plainness. Nevertheless the testimony of the evangelists and the apostles, the attestation of the Christ Himself while in the flesh, and the revelations given in the present dispensation leave us without dearth of scriptural proof.

In the opening lines of the Gospel book written by John the apostle, we read: “In the beginning was the Word, and the word was with God, and the word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made…. And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father), full of grace and truth”(John 1:1-3, 14; see also 1 John 1:1; 5: 7; Rev. 19:13; compare Doctrine and Covenants 93:1-17, 21).

The passage is simple, precise and unambiguous. We may reasonably give to the phrase “In the beginning” the same meaning as attaches thereto in the first line of Genesis; and such signification must indicate a time antecedent to the earliest stages of human existence upon the earth. That the Word is Jesus Christ, who was with the Father in that beginning and who was Himself invested with the powers and rank of Godship, and that He came into the world and dwelt among men, are definitely affirmed. These statements are corroborated through a revelation given to Moses, in which he was permitted to see many of the creations of God, and to hear the voice of the Father with respect to the things that had been made: “And by the word of my power, have I created them, which is mine Only Begotten Son, who is full of grace and truth” (Pearl of Great Price, Moses 1:32, 33; see also Moses 2:5).

John the apostle repeatedly affirms the preexistence of the Christ and the fact of His authority and power in the antemortal state (1 John 1:1-3; 2:13-14; 4:9; Rev. 3:14). To the same effect is the testimony of Paul (2 Tim. 1:9-10; Rom. 16:25; Eph. 1:4; 3:9, 11; Titus 1:2. See especially Rom. 3:25; and note the marginal rendering—”foreordained”—making the passage read: “Whom God hath foreordained to be a propitiation”) and of Peter. Instructing the saints concerning the basis of their faith, the last-named apostle impressed upon them that their redemption was not to be secured through corruptible things nor by the outward observance of traditional requirements, “But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you” (1 Peter 1:19-20).

Even more impressive and yet more truly conclusive are the personal testimonies of the Savior as to His own pre-existent life and the mission among men to which He had been appointed. No one who accepts Jesus Christ as the Messiah can consistently reject these evidences of His eternal nature. When, on a certain occasion, the Jews in the synagogue disputed among themselves and murmured because of their failure to understand aright His doctrine concerning Himself, especially as touching His relationship with the Father, Jesus said unto them: “For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me.” And then, continuing the lesson based upon the contrast between the manna with which their fathers had been fed in the wilderness and the bread of life which He had to offer, He added: “I am the living bread which came down from heaven,” and again declared “the living Father hath sent me.” Not a few of the disciples failed to comprehend His teachings; and their complaints drew from Him these words: “Doth this offend you? What and if ye shall see the Son of man ascend up where he was before?” (John 6:38, 51, 57, 61, 62).

To certain Jews, wrapped in the mantle of racial pride, boastful of their descent through the lineage of Abraham, and seeking to excuse their sins through an unwarranted use of the great patriarch’s name, our Lord thus proclaimed His own preeminence: “Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am” (John 8:58; see also John 17:5, 24; and compare Exo. 3:14) The fuller significance of this remark will be treated later; suffice it in the present connection to consider this scripture as a plain avowal of our Lord’s seniority and supremacy over Abraham. But as Abraham’s birth had preceded that of Jesus Christ by more than nineteen centuries, such seniority must have reference to a state of existence antedating that of mortality.

When the hour of His betrayal was near, in the last interview with the apostles prior to His agonizing experience in Gethsemane, Jesus Christ comforted them saying: “For the Father himself loveth you, because ye have loved me, and have believed that I came out from God. I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world again, I leave the world, and go to the Father” (John 16:27, 28; see also John 13:3). Furthermore, in the course of upwelling prayer for those who had been true to their testimony of His Messiahship, He addressed the Father with this solemn invocation: “And this is the life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do. And now, O Father glorify thou with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was” (John 17:3-5, 24, 25).

Book of Mormon scriptures are likewise explicit in proof of the preexistence of the Christ and of His foreappointed mission. One only of the many evidences therein found will be cited here. An ancient prophet, designated in the record as the brother of Jared, (see Christ’s Premortal Life) once pleaded with the Lord in special supplication: “And the Lord said unto him, Believest thou the words which I shall speak? And he answered, Yea, Lord, I know that thou speakest the truth, for thou art a God of truth, and canst not lie. And when he had said these words, behold, the Lord shewed himself unto him, and said, Because thou knowest these things, ye are redeemed from the fall: therefore ye are brought back into my presence; therefore I shew myself unto you. Behold, I am he who was prepared from the foundation of the world to redeem my people. Behold, I am Jesus Christ. I am the Father and the Son. In me shall all mankind have light, and that eternally, even they who shall believe on my name; and they shall become my sons and my daughters. And never have I shewed myself unto man whom I have created, for never has man believed in me as thou hast. 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 3:11-16.  See also 1 Nephi 17:30; 19:7; 2 Nephi 9:5; 11:7; 25:12; 26:12; Mosiah 3:5; 4:2; 7:27; 13:34; 15:1; Alma 11:40; Hela. 14:12; 3 Nephi 9:15). The main facts attested by this scripture as having a direct bearing upon our present subject are those of the Christ manifesting Himself while yet in His antemortal state, and of His declaration that He had been chosen from the foundation of the world as the Redeemer.

Revelation given through the prophets of God in the present dispensation is replete with evidence of Jesus Christ’s appointment and ordination in the primeval world; and the whole tenor of the scriptures contained in the Doctrine and Covenants may be called in witness. The following instances are particularly in point. In a communication to Joseph Smith the prophet, in May, 1833, the Lord declared Himself as the One who had previously come into the world from the Father, and of whom John had borne testimony as the Word; and the solemn truth is reiterated that He, Jesus Christ, “was in the beginning, before the world was”, and further, that He was the Redeemer who “came into the world, because the world was made by him, and in him was the life of men and the light of men.” Again, He is referred to as “the Only Begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth, even the Spirit of truth, which came and dwelt in the flesh.” In the course of the same revelation the Lord said: “And now, verily I say unto you, I was in the beginning with the Father and am the firstborn” (Doctrine and Covenants 93:1-17, 21). On an earlier occasion, as the modern prophet testifies, he and an associate in the priesthood were enlightened by the Spirit so that they were able to see and understand the things of God—”Even those things which were from the beginning before the world was, which were ordained of the Father, through his Only Begotten Son, who was in the bosom of the Father, even from the beginning, of whom we bear record, and the record which we bear is the fulness of the gospel of Jesus Christ, who is the Son, whom we saw and with whom we conversed in the heavenly vision” (Doctrine and Covenants 76:13, 14).

The testimony of scriptures written on both hemispheres, that of records both ancient and modern, the inspired utterances of prophets and apostles, and the words of the Lord Himself, are of one voice in proclaiming the preexistence of the Christ and His ordination as the chosen Savior and Redeemer of mankind—in the beginning, yea, even before the foundation of the world.

James Talmage, Jesus the Christ

It is a matter of history that, at or near the beginning of what has since come to be known as the Christian era, the Man Jesus, surnamed the Christ, was born in Bethlehem of Judea. The principal data as to Jesus Christ’s birth, life, and death are so well attested as to be reasonably indisputable; they are facts of record, and are accepted as essentially authentic by the civilized world at large. True, there are diversities of deduction based on alleged discrepancies in the records of the past as to circumstantial details; but such differences are of strictly minor importance, for none of them nor all taken together cast a shadow of rational doubt upon the historicity of the earthly existence of the Man known in literature as Jesus of Nazareth.

As to who and what He was there are dissensions of grave moment dividing the opinions of men; and this divergence of conception and belief is most pronounced upon those matters to which the greatest importance attaches. The solemn testimonies of millions dead and of millions living unite in proclaiming Him as divine, the Son of the Living God, the Redeemer and Savior of the human race, the Eternal Judge of the souls of men, the Chosen and Anointed of the Father—in short, the Christ. Others there are who deny His Godhood while extolling the transcendent qualities of His unparalleled and unapproachable Manhood.

To the student of history this Man among men stands first, foremost, and alone, as a directing personality in the world’s progression. Mankind has never produced a leader to rank with Him. Regarded solely as a historic personage He is unique. Judged by the standard of human estimation, Jesus of Nazareth is supreme among men by reason of the excellence of His personal character, the simplicity, beauty, and genuine worth of His precepts, and the influence of His example and doctrines in the advancement of the race. To these distinguishing characteristics of surpassing greatness the devout Christian soul adds an attribute that far exceeds the sum of all the others—the divinity of Jesus Christ‘s origin and the eternal reality of His status as Lord and God.

Christian and unbeliever alike acknowledge His supremacy as a Man, and respect the epoch-making significance of His birth. Jesus Christ was born in the meridian of time; and His life on earth marked at once the culmination of the past and the inauguration of an era distinctive in human hope, endeavor, and achievement. Christ’s advent determined a new order in the reckoning of the years; and by common consent the centuries antedating His birth have been counted backward from the pivotal event and are designated accordingly. The rise and fall of dynasties, the birth and dissolution of nations, all the cycles of history as to war and peace, as to prosperity and adversity, as to health and pestilence, seasons of plenty and of famine, the awful happenings of earthquake and storm, the triumphs of invention and discovery, the epochs of man’s development in godliness and the long periods of his dwindling in unbelief—all the occurrences that make history—are chronicled throughout Christendom by reference to the year before or after the birth of Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ’s earthly life covered a period of thirty-three years; and of these but three were spent by Him as an acknowledged Teacher openly engaged in the activities of public ministry. He was brought to a violent death before He had attained what we now regard as the age of manhood’s prime. As an individual He was personally known to but few; and His fame as a world character became general only after His death.

Brief account of some of Christ’s words and works has been preserved to us; and this record, fragmentary and incomplete though it be, is rightly esteemed as the world’s greatest treasure. The earliest and most extended history of His mortal existence is embodied within the compilation of scriptures known as the New Testament; indeed but little is said of Him by secular historians of His time. Few and short as are the allusions to Christ made by non-scriptural writers in the period immediately following that of His ministry, enough is found to corroborate the sacred record as to the actuality and period of Christ’s earthly existence.

No adequate biography of Jesus as Boy and Man has been or can be written, for the sufficing reason that a fulness of data is lacking. Nevertheless, man never lived of whom more has been said and sung, none to whom is devoted a greater proportion of the world’s literature. Jesus Christ is extolled by Christian, Mohammedan and Jew, by skeptic and infidel, by the world’s greatest poets, philosophers, statesmen, scientists, and historian. Even the profane sinner in the foul, sacrilege of his oath acclaims the divine supremacy of Him whose name he desecrates.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) affirms her possession of divine authority for the use of the sacred name, Jesus Christ, as the essential part of her distinctive designation. In view of this exalted claim, it is pertinent to inquire as to what special or particular message the Mormon Church has to give to the world concerning the Redeemer and Savior of the race, and as to what she has to say in justification of her solemn affirmation, or in vindication of her exclusive name and title. As we proceed with our study, we shall find that among the specific teachings of the Church respecting the Christ are these:

(1) The unity and continuity of Jesus Christ’s mission in all ages—this of necessity involving the verity of His preexistence and foreordination. (2) The fact of His antemortal Godship. (3) The actuality of His birth in the flesh as the natural issue of divine and mortal parentage. (4) The reality of Christ’s death and physical resurrection, as a result of which the power of death shall be eventually overcome. (5) The literalness of the atonement wrought by Him, including the absolute requirement of individual compliance with the laws and ordinances of His gospel as the means by which salvation may be attained. (6) The restoration of His Priesthood and the reestablishment of Jesus Christ’s Church in the current age, which is verily the Dispensation of the Fulness of Times. (7) The certainty of His return to earth in the near future, with power and great glory, to reign in Person and bodily presence as Lord and King.

James Talmage, Jesus the Christ.