Resurrection for one; translation for the other

Three bodily states

Disintegration: The pre-Creation condition was a state of disintegration.

Translated (Non-Fallen) Integration: The Creation brought about a translated state of integration in which things could abide the presence of God. Prior to the Fall of Adam, God walked around on this planet without things flying apart.

Mortal (Fallen) Integration: The Fall caused all things to transition into an integrated state of mortality that cannot abide the presence of God. This meant that all things would eventually die and stay dead forever—for the spirit would separate from the body and the body would turn to dust, never again to become whole—and also that all things would instantly disintegrate, reverting back to the pre-Creation state, if God were ever to be present again.

The full effects of the Fall

Latter-day saints teach that there were two detrimental effects of the Fall of Adam (sin and death) which made it impossible to return to live with our heavenly Father and become like Him, but that through the atonement of Jesus Christ, all those who repent of their sins, exercise faith in Him and obey God’s commandments may be made clean, receiving a remission of their sins; and through the power of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, all mankind will live again in resurrected bodies and be brought back into God’s presence, to stand before Him to be judged and to receive a reward according to their works.

In truth, though, there are two categories of effects that the Fall caused. Latter-day saints preach and teach the first category only (and its revealed solution), because they know practically nothing of the second category. This is not the fault of latter-day saints, though. The scriptures are centered almost exclusively on the first category.

The two categories are the following:

• because of spiritual and temporal death, the Fall prohibited mankind from rising up and dwelling with God in the heavens; and
• because of imperfection, disunity, uncleanness and mortality, the Fall prohibited God from coming down and dwelling with mankind on the earth.

The result of both categories is the same: all things would eventually disintegrate (reverting to the pre-Creation state), mankind would eventually become, en masse, devils, even angels to the devil, and Satan would eventually win the war that he began in the heavens. Knowing all of this, the devil just needed to cause Adam to fall and the entire war was practically won. So he got the serpent to tempt the weak link in the chain (the woman) and Adam fell soon thereafter.

Two problems, two solutions

But God, being all-powerful, all-knowing and all-wise, had already prepared a plan to deal with these contingencies and rescue us from our fallen condition. Because there were two categories of effects, the plan had two parts to it, each part solving one set of problems. Alma called God’s plan the “plan of happiness” (Alma 42:8,16), the “plan of redemption” (Alma 42:11,13), the “plan of salvation” (Alma 42:5), the “plan of mercy” (Alma 42:15,31) and the “plan of restoration” (Alma 41:2). It is merely a contingency plan.

Jesus Christ solves the first problem

In the scriptures the first part of the plan is laid out extensively, especially in the Book of Mormon:

But God did call on men, in the name of his Son, (this being the plan of redemption which was laid) saying: If ye will repent, and harden not your hearts, then will I have mercy upon you, through mine Only Begotten Son; therefore, whosoever repenteth, and hardeneth not his heart, he shall have claim on mercy through mine Only Begotten Son, unto a remission of his sins; and these shall enter into my rest. (Alma 12:33-34.)

One effect of the Fall is that once we leave our Father in heaven and come down to earth, we cannot return back to heaven and continue to dwell there with Him. If we return to heaven without our physical body (a gift God has bestowed upon us), having lost it forever, God’s justice debars us from dwelling with Him. That same justice also debars us from entering the kingdom of heaven if we leave heaven perfectly clean and return filthy. Thus we need our bodies back and we need to be cleansed from our iniquities, otherwise we turn into devils.

An answer to the following question needed to be found:

How can the spiritual and temporal death—which comes upon all mankind because of the Fall of Adam and their own, personal sins–be overcome, so that man may be cleansed from his iniquity, receive his physical body again and be brought back into the presence of God, without his physical body disintegrating, to be judged according to his works, whether good or evil, so that the righteous among them may dwell with God eternally in the heavens forever thereafter?

The answer is: by God sending down His Son, Jesus Christ, to work out an infinite, perfect and eternal atonement and bring to pass the resurrection of the dead and the remission of sins on conditions of repentance, faith and obedience.

How the first part works

The suffering of Jesus Christ allows us to be forgiven of our sins (on conditions of faith, repentance and obedience to God’s commandments) and also buys Him the right to resurrect us:

And he cometh into the world that he may save all men if they will hearken unto his voice; for behold, he suffereth the pains of all men, yea, the pains of every living creature, both men, women, and children, who belong to the family of Adam. And he suffereth this that the resurrection might pass upon all men, that all might stand before him at the great and judgment day. (2 Ne. 9:21-22.)

His death looses the bands of death:

And he will take upon him death, that he may loose the bands of death which bind his people; and he will take upon him their infirmities, that his bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flesh, that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities. (Alma 7:12.)

Now, there is a death which is called a temporal death; and the death of Christ shall loose the bands of this temporal death, that all shall be raised from this temporal death. (Alma 11:42.)

His resurrection breaks the bands of death:

And if Christ had not risen from the dead, or have broken the bands of death that the grave should have no victory, and that death should have no sting, there could have been no resurrection. (Mosiah 16:7.)

All of this is to appease the demands of God’s justice. And what does justice demand? Justice demands that everything broken be fixed:

I say unto thee, my son, that the plan of restoration is requisite with the justice of God; for it is requisite that all things should be restored to their proper order. Behold, it is requisite and just, according to the power and resurrection of Christ, that the soul of man should be restored to its body, and that every part of the body should be restored to itself. (Alma 41:2.)

If you broke Father’s priceless Faberge egg, it is not enough that you feel sorry for what you did, and that you confess your sin, and that you ask for forgiveness, and that you covenant never to break any more eggs. All that is well and good, but the egg is still broken. Justice also requires that the egg be restored whole again. This is why restitution is part of the repentance process.

After we are dead, we will be brought before the tribunal of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost, for judgment as to whether we will get into heaven, and if so, what reward we will get. Everything previously given to us must be present. If we return without our bodies, having lost them forever, we will become dead forever—for a living soul is a spirit plus a body, and not just a spirit alone—and we will become just like the devil, to be cast off forever just like he will be:

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; (2 Ne. 9:6-9.)

When we were spirits living in heaven, having never received a body, we could remain in heaven as a naked spirit, but once we left heaven and came to earth, we were given a bodily garment. You have to come back to the heavenly gates dressed in the bodily garment, otherwise you cannot pass through those gates, for the bodily garment is required to be worn in heaven by all those to whom it was handed out, just as the wedding garment in the parable of the wedding supper was required to be worn by those attending the wedding:

And Jesus answered and spake unto them again by parables, and said, The kingdom of heaven is like unto a certain king, which made a marriage for his son, and sent forth his servants to call them that were bidden to the wedding: and they would not come. Again, he sent forth other servants, saying, Tell them which are bidden, Behold, I have prepared my dinner: my oxen and my fatlings are killed, and all things are ready: come unto the marriage. But they made light of it, and went their ways, one to his farm, another to his merchandise: and the remnant took his servants, and entreated them spitefully, and slew them. But when the king heard thereof, he was wroth: and he sent forth his armies, and destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city. Then saith he to his servants, The wedding is ready, but they which were bidden were not worthy. Go ye therefore into the highways, and as many as ye shall find, bid to the marriage. So those servants went out into the highways, and gathered together all as many as they found, both bad and good: and the wedding was furnished with guests.

And when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man which had not on a wedding garment: and he saith unto him, Friend, how camest thou in hither not having a wedding garment? And he was speechless. Then said the king to the servants, Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. For many are called, but few are chosen. (Matthew 22:1-14.)

If you are not found wearing the bodily garment, to outer darkness you go. There are no exceptions to this rule. Our bodies must be re-connected to our spirits, so that we can give an accounting of what we did in them, but as none of us has power to get our bodies back, Christ had to do this for us.

The physical body, then, is absolutely necessary. We need it restored back to the spirit, otherwise, we can’t be saved. But Jesus can’t give us back a mortal body, because once we get our bodies back we will be brought into the presence of God, for judgment, and no mortal flesh can survive in the presence of God:

Wherefore, how great the importance to make these things known unto the inhabitants of the earth, that they may know that there is no flesh that can dwell in the presence of God, save it be through the merits, and mercy, and grace of the Holy Messiah, who layeth down his life according to the flesh, and taketh it again by the power of the Spirit, that he may bring to pass the resurrection of the dead, being the first that should rise. (2 Ne. 2:8.)

Mortal flesh disintegrates in the presence of God, therefore God needs to give us a body that can endure His presence.

Now, there are two types of bodies that can withstand the presence of God: a translated body and a resurrected body, but only a resurrected body can bring the wicked into God’s presence without it flying apart, for a translated body is only a body of sanctified flesh. In other words, it is a body cleansed every whit from its iniquity, and thus it can abide the presence of God:

…and they [the three translated Nephite disciples] were sanctified in the flesh, that they were holy… (3 Ne. 28:39.)

Should an unclean man be changed from mortality to a translated state, the iniquity of the man would immediately change his body back to the mortal state, for sin works death (mortality):

For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sin, which were not according to the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death….Was then that which is good made death unto me? God forbid. But sin, that it might appear sin by that which is good working death in me; that sin, by the commandment, might become exceeding sinful. (JST Rom. 7:5,13.)

Translation doesn’t stick on unclean people. Only those who have been cleansed every whit of their iniquity, like Nephi was, can be translated:

And now it came to pass that according to our record, and we know our record to be true, for behold, it was a just man who did keep the record—for he truly did many miracles in the name of Jesus; and there was not any man who could do a miracle in the name of Jesus save he were cleansed every whit from his iniquity— (3 Ne. 8:1.)

Translated bodies are changeable bodies, and thus are unusable for the day of judgment:

And in this state they were to remain until the judgment day of Christ; and at that day they were to receive a greater change, and to be received into the kingdom of the Father to go no more out, but to dwell with God eternally in the heavens. (3 Ne. 28:40.)

For this reason, the redemption of Christ resurrects all men (instead of translating them), for resurrected bodies are permanent bodies. They don’t change. They lock the person into whatever is their final, resurrected state, be it good or bad. The resurrection, then, is the official end of a person’s second estate and they then resume living in eternity, to inherit endless life or endless damnation:

And we see that death comes upon mankind, yea, the death which has been spoken of by Amulek, which is the temporal death; nevertheless there was a space granted unto man in which he might repent; therefore this life became a probationary state; a time to prepare to meet God; a time to prepare for that endless state which has been spoken of by us, which is after the resurrection of the dead. (Alma 12:24.)

If they be good, to the resurrection of endless life and happiness; and if they be evil, to the resurrection of endless damnation, being delivered up to the devil, who hath subjected them, which is damnation— (Mosiah 16:11.)

The resurrection brings all men, both the righteous and the wicked, back into the presence of God, and this is the first part of God’s redemption:

And because of the redemption of man, which came by Jesus Christ, they are brought back into the presence of the Lord; yea, this is wherein all men are redeemed, because the death of Christ bringeth to pass the resurrection, which bringeth to pass a redemption from an endless sleep, from which sleep all men shall be awakened by the power of God when the trump shall sound; and they shall come forth, both small and great, and all shall stand before his bar, being redeemed and loosed from this eternal band of death, which death is a temporal death. (Mormon 9:13.)

This resurrection is the restoration of which the prophets speak:

Yea, this bringeth about the restoration of those things of which has been spoken by the mouths of the prophets. The soul shall be restored to the body, and the body to the soul; yea, and every limb and joint shall be restored to its body; yea, even a hair of the head shall not be lost; but all things shall be restored to their proper and perfect frame. And now, my son, this is the restoration of which has been spoken by the mouths of the prophets— (Alma 40:22-24.)

This first part of the plan of salvation, redemption, restoration, happiness—

For man is spirit. The elements are eternal, and spirit and element, inseparably connected, receive a fulness of joy; and when separated, man cannot receive a fulness of joy. (D&C 93:33-34.)

—and mercy is brought to pass by Jesus Christ, who is God’s Right Arm, even His Only Begotten Son, according to the flesh. It deals with the problem of man being unclean and cut off from God forever and solves that problem by offering mankind the opportunity to make themselves clean in the blood of Christ, thus preparing them to meet their Maker, and brings all of them back into the presence of God, completely restored in permanent, resurrected bodies, so that they can be judged and receive their inheritance.  But there is also a second part to God’s plan which solves a different problem.

The second part of the plan

For this problem, the following question needed to be answered:

How can the mortal and imperfect condition—which came upon all things because of the Fall of Adam and the shortcomings of mankind—be restored back to the pre-Fall condition of perfection and transfiguration, so that God may come back down into the presence of man, in all His glory, without all things disintegrating, to dwell on earth with man for a thousand years?

Here we have the problem of God’s Second Coming, which will cause all mortal things to disintegrate. Things are reversed: the second part doesn’t concern itself with getting man into God’s presence in heaven (and how to survive that), but of how to survive God coming into man’s presence here on earth, and dwelling here for a thousand years with us, as we live out our second estate (the probationary state). For that, all things need to be translated. (As resurrection doesn’t deal with the second estate—for resurrection marks the end of the second estate—it is insufficient to deal with this problem.)

Nevertheless, he that endureth in faith and doeth my will, the same shall overcome, and shall receive an inheritance upon the earth when the day of transfiguration shall come; when the earth shall be transfigured, even according to the pattern which was shown unto mine apostles upon the mount; of which account the fulness ye have not yet received. (D&C 63:20-12.)

This part of the plan of redemption redeems men and all other created things from the translation-to-mortal transition effect of the Fall, reverting the planet back to its pre-Fall state of translation. It accomplishes all of this during this very life, and not after the death of the body. It enacts the Father’s mercy in that all the vicarious works that God has commanded to be done, get done, to full completion and perfectly, causing all the righteous to become one and perfect and cleansed every whit, fully preparing them for receiving translated bodies. It causes the righteous among mankind to receive a fulness of joy, in this life, and not just in the hereafter, for God’s Son will personally reign here and this planet will become like heaven. And it causes all those who are sealed and translated, etc., to be saved. Thus, it is as much a part of the plan of happiness, salvation, redemption, mercy and restoration as is the other part.

Whereas the first part was enacted by the Savior, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, He being a part of the Godhead, which was necessary so that man would not have to suffer for their own sins, God Himself suffering for them—

And moreover, I say unto you, that salvation doth not come by the law alone; and were it not for the atonement, which God himself shall make for the sins and iniquities of his people, that they must unavoidably perish, notwithstanding the law of Moses. (Mosiah 13:28.)

—the second part could not be enacted by God Himself, for God’s justice required that the necessary works be done by man. This is because the steps of repentance—

1) Recognize – acknowledge that you did something wrong,
2) Remorse – feel sorrow for what you did,
3) Confession – confess your wrongs to all the offended parties,
4) Apology – express regret and sorrow for what you did,
5) Restitution – seek to right all the wrongs you’ve done,
6) Ask forgiveness – after performing all of the above, ask forgiveness of the offended parties,
7) Abandon the behavior – never do the offenses again.

—have an all important fifth step, requiring that the offending party make a full restitution, otherwise there is no forgiveness. Therefore Jesus Christ would remain in the heavens until that full restitution, or restitution of all things, occurred, so that the righteous among mankind could be entirely forgiven and not cursed and destroyed at His Second Coming:

And he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you: whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began. (Acts 3:21.)

The requirement of restitution meant that all of the righteous who sought forgiveness needed to do their part in making the necessary restitution come to pass, according to what was in their power. But as the entire group combined couldn’t perform the whole work, nor did they have sufficient faith and power to do the parts requiring miracles, God needed to send someone down from heaven who was mighty and strong and powerful, someone who was not a part of the Godhead, who would come down and perform all the works in behalf of the rest of mankind, acting as part of the group of men. This individual would act in the authority of the Father, just as Jesus did, but unlike Jesus he could not be part of the Godhead:

Behold, I send an Angel before thee, to keep thee in the way, and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared. Beware of him, and obey his voice, provoke him not; for he will not pardon your transgressions: for my name is in him. (Exodus 23:20-21.)

Additionally this man would have a two-fold purpose: 1) getting the righteous and all their possessions prepared to survive the advent of Jesus and 2) getting the wicked prepared to be destroyed by it. This latter purpose would be necessary because just as no unclean thing can enter the kingdom of heaven, so when the earth is turned into heaven by the end-time servant when he prepares it to receive its heavenly king, Jesus Christ, there can be no unclean thing here. Also, the restitution of all things had to apply equally to both the righteous and the wicked, but whereas the righteous would be restored to the pre-Fall integrated state of translation, the wicked would be restored to the pre-Creation state of disintegration, so that they would become entirely annihilated.

This final purpose, in particular, of preparing the wicked for destruction, disqualified everyone in heaven and on earth from the position, that is, all the saving angels and all the saving men, and even the saving God Himself—(for, as explained above, Jehovah Himself could not perform these works, except vicariously through a servant who was not a part of the Godhead)—except for one individual who was particularly disposed by nature towards destruction.

The wicked always die in the presence of God

And he said unto Moses, Thou canst not see my face at this time, lest mine anger be kindled against thee also, and I destroy thee, and thy people; for there shall no man among them see me at this time, and live, for they are exceeding sinful. And no sinful man hath at any time, neither shall there be any sinful man at any time, that shall see my face and live. (JST Exodus 33:20.)

But now mine own eyes have beheld God; but not my natural, but my spiritual eyes, for my natural eyes could not have beheld; for I should have withered and died in his presence; but his glory was upon me; and I beheld his face, for I was transfigured before him. (Moses 1:11.)

For behold, I could not look upon God, except his glory should come upon me, and I were transfigured before him. But I can look upon thee in the natural man. Is it not so, surely? (Moses 1:14.)

These scriptures indicate that neither mortal men, nor sinful men, can see the face of God and live. A mortal body needs to be transfigured (temporarily changed into the translated state) in order to see God’s face without perishing, but if the person is sinful, the translated body reverts to its mortal configuration and perishes anyway. Translation only sticks on righteous people who have been cleansed every whit and are perfect before God. Even a resurrected body cannot keep a person alive in God’s presence if they are unclean, for those who remain in their sins, being filthy still, will rise in the resurrection, behold God’s face in their filthiness, and then experience the second death.

In the first part of the plan, the wicked are brought forth through the resurrection (a permanent bodily configuration), into the presence of God in heaven and then they experience destruction via the second death. In the second part of plan, God is brought down into the presence of our translated planet and all the translated things upon it, but the wicked, translation not having worked upon them, are still in a mortal state, and so they then experience destruction via the first death.

Translation is used for the second part of the plan so as to keep the second state (the probationary state) intact, and also so that the bodies of the wicked will disintegrate at the Second Coming, fulfilling the prophecies of them becoming dust under the feet of the righteous. If they had resurrected bodies at the Second Coming, they would experience the second death and these prophecies would fail.

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