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In this episode, Denver addresses the questions, “What is the purpose of our coming to this earth? What are we supposed to learn, or do, while we are here?”
There is nothing more fun, however, than gathering light and truth. We’re sent down here on a journey in which we are supposed to be getting “added upon.” Those are the words. That was the goal. We’re gonna send people down to the second estate, and what’s the goal? The goal is to be added upon. But what are we adding? What are you adding to yourself that you didn’t have before? You’re adding light and truth. You came with a certain amount of it. You’re supposed to leave with a greater quantity of it.
The description given in section 93 of Christ:
I, John, bear record that I beheld his glory [this is verse 11 of section 93—his glory], as the glory of the Only Begotten of the Father. (See also T&C 93:3)
You know, you’re just gonna have to do your best with this. [Denver drawing on the board:] We’ve got this idea that God the Father and His unnamed Consort (Mrs. God the Father) had a Son (and we know Him as Jesus or Jehovah) and then had another son or sons and some others, and then we got a Lucifer. And then some others and what have you. And then this group, these are called “sons of morning.” And then there’s this birth order, and eventually, we get down to the rabble that we were among. And that picture is this linear development of the family of God.
If you read very carefully what we find in section 93, there’s another picture. And that picture is that you have this group of… Imagine all of these being little stick figures because I don’t have the time to draw them. You have them all, and…
Oh, I think I can read you something on this. Yeah:
This is the manner after which they were ordained—being called and prepared from the foundation of the world according to the foreknowledge of God, on account of their exceeding faith and good works; in the first place being left to choose good or evil; therefore they having chosen good, and exercis[ed exceeding] great faith, are called with a holy calling…Or in fine, in the first place they were on the same standing with their brethren. (Alma 13:3-5, emphasis added; see also Alma 9:10 RE)
K? This is chapter 13 of Alma. So, let’s change that picture, and let’s say that instead of this [referencing the original picture Denver drew], everyone was on the same… “In the first place…” In the first place, everyone was just alike. Everyone had the same potential. Everyone had the same light and truth. Everyone was made of that. Everyone was just like one another.
Where did the birth order come from? Where did Christ come from? 93, beginning at verse 11, this is John (and I’m starting at verse 11, but we’ll back up in a minute):
And I, John, bear record that I beheld his glory, as the glory of the Only Begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth, even the Spirit of truth, which came and dwelt in the flesh, and dwelt among us…
K? This is Him; He came, and He dwelt here. “[But] I…” I’m talking about the pre-existence…
…I saw that he received not…the fulness at first [He received not the fulness at first], but continued from grace to grace, until he received a fulness; …thus he was called the Son of God, because he received not…the fulness at the first. (D&C 93:11-14; see also T&C 93:3-4)
What did He do? One of this group/one of this family/one of this assortment of people/one of them went from grace to grace until He received a fullness. He proved it could be done. He showed the way. He was called the Only Begotten of the Father. He was called that because He embodied the word of God. Would you like to know what God the Father’s word was? Look at Him. Look at the Only Begotten. Did you make it without Him? No, you didn’t. You didn’t make it here without Him. Christ proved the word of the Father by the things which He did. As a consequence of Christ doing it, some few others, in turn, were also able to rise up. And they became “sons of the morning.”
You see, the picture that we get in D&C section 93 (coupled with Alma chapter 13) is different than the picture that you sometimes pick out or get described for you. Look at verse 30 of section 93:
All truth is independent in that sphere in which God has placed it, to act for itself, as all intelligence also; otherwise there is no existence. (See also T&C 93:10)
Did Christ exist? If Christ existed, He had to be free to choose for Himself. This had to be a voluntary act on His part. He had to be willing to receive the light and truth.
Believe it or not, we’re all just talking about the same thing. This is just about personal revelation. All of it is. And it’s about how you receive light and truth. Because we’re acting out again here what we acted out once before, and the process is the same here as the process was there—although here it’s coupled with a lot of illusions that are guaranteed to make you progress whether you want to or not—it’s coming.
So, when you look at the word of God, what you’re seeing in Christ is the embodiment or the fulfillment of what the Father said. When Christ defines Himself in 3rd Nephi chapter 11, and He tells you who He is, He can’t tell you who He is without referring to the Father three times in a very brief introduction: I…suffered the will of the Father in all things from the beginning (3 Nephi 11:11; see also 3 Nephi 5:4 RE), He tells us. He is the word of the Father. He is the embodiment of the things that the Father would like to have for us. So, why do we obey the commandments? Why do we follow the process? Why do we want to go from grace to grace, and how do we open the third eye to be able to resonate with and receive light and truth into ourselves from the Being who is defined as light and truth?
He bore record, saying [this is verse 7 of 93]: I saw his glory, that he was in the beginning, before the world was; Therefore, in the beginning the Word was, for he was the Word, even the messenger of salvation—The light and the Redeemer of the world; the Spirit of truth, 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. The worlds were made by him; men were made by him; all things were made by him, and through him, and of him. And I, John, bear record that I beheld his glory, as the glory of the Only Begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth, even the Spirit of truth, which came and dwelt in the flesh, and dwelt among us. And I, John, saw that he received not of the fulness at first, but received grace for grace; And [that] he received not…the fulness at first, but continued from grace to grace, until he received a fulness; And thus he was called the Son of God, because he received not…the fulness at…first. (D&C 93:7-14, emphasis added)
John bearing record of what he saw concerning our Lord before He entered into this world. This is what He did before He came into the flesh to dwell among us. This is who He was before the world was. He went from grace to grace until…He was called the Son of God.
But I want you to remember that Christ went from grace to grace (before this world and before He entered into the flesh here) through a long enough period of development that He had sufficient grace to be called the Son of God. And this is the prototype of the saved man! This is what you must be or else not be saved. This is the first principles of the Gospel, about which we’re going to spend some time today so that you might understand who it is you worship and how it is you’re called upon to worship Him. Because as long as you’re down here in this veil, clothed in this flesh, with the capacity to make sacrifices and the ability to exercise faith in Him, you will be amazed at the grace you can acquire, if you will only do so while in this dark place. You’re here to accomplish a great deal. And I hope by the time we finish today, you’re more fortified against accomplishing it.
Our Lord (and we’re talking about Him in the beginning, before the world was), received not the fulness at first but received grace for grace. And we think grace for grace consists of, “I’m going to now obey a principle, and as a result of obeying that principle, I will receive the benefit of the grace that flows from doing so.” And that is true enough. That is a true enough principle. But it is also truer and more accurate to say: in connection with the long preparation that preceded the call of Christ to be the Son of God, that grace to grace is also something that involves the upward scale of a ladder, as Joseph alludes to it.
He was called the Son of God because He received not of the fulness at…first. He was called to be the Son of God because that wasn’t His status before. Therefore, He had to be called to be the Son of God. And that was true because He received not of the fulness at…first.
And I, John, bear record, and lo, the heavens were [open], and the Holy Ghost descended upon him in the form of a dove, and sat upon him, and there came a voice out of heaven saying: This is my beloved Son. And I, John, bear record that he received a fulness of the glory of the Father; And he received all power, both in heaven and on earth, and the glory of the Father was with him, for he dwelt in him. And it shall come to pass, that if [you’re] faithful you shall receive the fulness of the record of John. I give unto you these sayings that [ye] may understand and know how to worship, and know what you worship, that you may come unto the Father in my name, and in due time receive of his fulness. For if you keep my commandments you shall receive of his fulness, and be glorified in me as I am in the Father; therefore, I say unto you, you shall receive grace for grace. (Ibid, vs. 15-20; see also T&C 93:2-7, emphasis added)
Long before the Lord assumed the role and the responsibility of descending here and being the Redeemer of this world, He qualified by grace, doing things that proved—while He was behind the veil, as you presently find yourselves situated—that demonstrated graciousness and faith by obedience to the commandments of God. Even though it would be a great while yet before He (and now you) would rise up to that level, still He lived His life with such grace that He qualified to receive more and to develop and to move up. Now, in the next talk, it’s gonna be necessary to spend more time on this. But today we’re simply alluding to this.
And I wanna move to Alma chapter 13—because in Alma chapter 13, we run up against some of the other suggestions in the scriptures about what it takes to move from grace to grace. Beginning in chapter 13 of Alma, verse 1:
…I would that ye should remember that the Lord God ordained priests, after his holy order, which was after the order of his Son, to teach these things unto the people. And those priests were ordained after the order of his Son, in a manner that thereby the people might know in what manner to look forward to his Son for redemption. And this is the manner after which they were ordained—being called and prepared from the foundation of the world… (Alma 13:1-3, emphasis added)
Did you get that? We’re talking about priests. And look, his Son…his Son…his Son. So that you can understand who His Son is, there are gonna be some people who qualified before the foundation of the world that will be qualified to come and to teach about some things. And they’re gonna be called before the foundation of the world (like His Son was called before the foundation of the world) to be pointing to his Son who will come into the world. And this qualification occurs before the world is. But it’s done so that you can understand and have faith in His Son.
Being called and prepared from the foundation of the world according to the foreknowledge of God… (Ibid)
Why does God have foreknowledge about these things? Why does God know that, given the trust, they will be true to it? Why does God know that these are the kinds of people to whom trust can be given, and it will not be broken? Why does God have such foreknowledge? It’s not based upon conjecture. It’s based upon proof. It’s not based upon merely hope. It’s based upon the knowledge of God because He’s not asking lead to do what He knows only iron can accomplish. Therefore, He chooses a suitable instrument, based upon His foreknowledge, prepared from the foundation of the world.
And what is God’s foreknowledge known?
…on account of their exceeding faith and good works; in the first place [that is, before the foundation of this world; in the first place, long ago on some other rung of this ladder; long ago, a great while in the past. In the first place they were] …left to choose good or evil; therefore they having chosen good, and exercising [exceeding] great faith, are called with a holy calling, yea, with that holy calling which was prepared with, and according to, a preparatory redemption for such. (Ibid)
You have to redeem them in order to have them reclaim so that they can come back and perform what they need to do. There has been a preparatory redemption. They have chosen what’s right. And the game’s afoot, and you’re in it, and you’re here, and this is now. And you have the opportunity, on account of your own—being left to choose between good and evil, having the opportunity to choose good. And at this moment, you have the opportunity to exercise—exceedingly—faith. And you have the opportunity, at this moment, to be identified and proven by God so that His foreknowledge of you hereafter includes within it a record of your exceeding faith and good works.
And thus they have been called to this holy calling on account of their faith, while others would reject the Spirit of God on account of the hardness of their hearts and [the] blindness of their minds, while, if it had not been for this they might have had as great [a] privilege as their brethren. (Ibid, vs. 4)
Don’t have a hard heart. Don’t be blinded by the lies, the half-truths, and the incomplete things that you are taught.
…or in fine, in the first place [that is, before they ever got here, in the first place, long ago, far away] they were on the same standing with their brethren [exactly the same place]. This holy calling being prepared from the foundation of the world for such as would not harden their hearts, being in and through the atonement of the Only Begotten Son, who was prepared— …thus being called by this holy calling, and ordained unto [this] high priesthood of the holy order of God, to teach his commandments unto the children of men, that they also might enter into his rest—This high priesthood being after the order of his Son, which order was from the foundation of the world; or in other words, being without beginning of days or end of years, being prepared from eternity to all eternity, according to his foreknowledge of all things [this has been underway a long time; this has been underway a long time]—Now they were ordained after this manner—being called with a holy calling, and ordained with a holy ordinance, and taking upon them the high priesthood of the holy order, which calling, and ordinance, and high priesthood, is without beginning or end— (Ibid, vs. 4-8, emphasis added)
You say a man must be ordained by someone here in the flesh, and I say that may be true enough. But if he is not ordained, at some point, in eternity that is without [a] beginning, you might as well ordain a sack of flour. Because if it does not reckon from some place in eternity, it is inadequate to compensate or deal with eternal things.
You say you want to create an “expectation” into the next life; and I say, if it did not exist and the authority by which to declare it was not handed down from before in eternity, then it will not last after. Joseph held up a ring and said, “There is no beginning, and there is no end, it is one eternal round.” I’m telling ya, you are only on part of the cycle here. But you are on part of the cycle, here. Therefore, what you do here matters—infinitely, eternally, everlastingly. It matters! You have your doubts; weigh them in the balance.
The Gospel is delicious. Get rid of that stale, wretched stuff that you consume, and go on to find the Life, the Light, and the vigor that is contained in the words that we have in scripture. This stuff is delicious! If you’ll partake of it and prepare yourself, you can improve this estate in a way that will reflect credit in the next estate. Don’t forfeit the opportunity.
Thus they become high priests forever. (Ibid, vs. 9)
They become high priests forever. They had it before the foundation of the world. They come here. They have authority here. And that authority began there, and it will continue into the next life. Therefore, they can bless, and you’re blessed indeed.
Thus they become high priests forever, after the order of the Son, [of] the Only Begotten of the Father, who is without beginning of days or end of years, who is full of grace, equity, and truth. And thus it is. Amen. Now, as I said concerning the holy order, or this high priesthood, there were many who were ordained and became high priests of God; and it was on account of their exceeding faith and repentance, and their righteousness before God, they choosing to repent and work righteousness rather than to perish; Therefore they were called after this holy order, and were sanctified, and their garments were washed white through the blood of the Lamb. (Ibid, vs. 9-11; see also Alma 9:10-Alma 10:1 RE)
You say you want to be baptized and to be cleansed from all sin? I say have at it! But in addition, this “prototype of the saved man” requires that you do something in addition. You may only achieve a limited amount of grace in this life, but that limited amount of grace you must hold fast to. You cannot receive more if you will not receive what’s offered now. And if you’ll receive what’s offered now, [long pause] you’ll be added upon.
I was handed some questions and some of ‘em are pretty good, and let me see what good I can do.
[QUESTION:] How can you know if the boils you receive in life are due to being like unto Job, or because you are more akin to Pharaoh?
[ANSWER:] It’s a great question; I love the question. First, there’s an interesting exercise that I would commend to any of you. Go to the account of Exodus, the early events, and only read the words of Moses. Just read Moses’ responses, his reactions, his complaints, his fear, his doubts—and what you will realize is that it doesn’t matter if someone occupies a great position, as Moses did, or the lives that each of us are now living. No one fits easily or comfortably or without anxiety into the work of the Lord. There’s a measure that you take of yourself in which you look inward and say, “I’m not adequate to what needs to be done; I don’t have the faith required.” And you’ll see that that’s exactly what Moses was telling God—that looking inward, he did not think himself equal to it.
In the Book of Mormon, Nephi gives us an account of their journey—after they had been delivered from Jerusalem which was about to be destroyed and they were migrating—here are some comments that he makes about their experience:
- “We have suffered much afflictions, hunger, thirst, and fatigue” (1 Nephi 16:35; see also 1 Nephi 5:10 RE);
- “…we did travel and wade through much affliction in the wilderness” (1 Nephi 17:1; see also 1 Nephi 5:11 RE);
- “…we had suffered many afflictions and much difficulty, yea even so much that we cannot write them all” (1 Nephi 17:6; see also 1 Nephi 5:14 RE).
This is Nephi explaining his experience in the wilderness. Afflictions, hunger, thirst, fatigue—so many afflictions that they can’t even talk about ‘em. We don’t look at those words; we pass over them as if Nephi were somehow being modest, or Nephi were being self-deprecating. We pass over what Moses says when he’s getting the responsibilities imposed upon him by the Lord, as if it’s just common sense that he’s heroic and larger than life and greater than the common man. When you read his reaction, he sounds like us: he sounds common, he sounds ordinary. And when you read the lamentation—we suffer because we are… because we’re mortal, because we’re here, because that’s the common lot that is designed to be experienced as a consequence of the fall. And there’s no escaping that.
The question isn’t: Are we going to suffer while we are here? The only question is: To what degree do we bear up under the troubles of this life, graciously and humbly—and acknowledging that God rules in the heavens above; He rules in the earth beneath; and He rules in your life, too. And that everything that you experience is designed to make you be added upon by the things that you suffer and the things that you experience here.
I believe in the idea of progression.
Shawn: Okay.
Denver: I believe in the idea of being added upon. Yeah. There’s a lot more to that story than just— And the idea that you’re gonna finish this world; and you’re gonna depart; you’re gonna arrive somewhere; and that that’s where you get to, you know, build your condo on the beach and remain forever…
Have you ever read Mark Twain’s short story and act, An Extract from Captain Stormfields Visit to Heaven?
Shawn: I don’t believe so.
Denver: It’s freakin’ hilarious, and it’s pretty good.
Shawn: I’ll have to read it.
Denver: It’s pretty good, yeah!
You’re emerging from, basically, either Mormonism or Christianity into a continuation of the Restoration which has extraordinarily high ambitions for what you are supposed to be. One of the reasons why I wanted to talk about this subject with the youth is because if you can figure this out early in life and if you can engage in this struggle early in life, you stand a far better chance of developing into the “full measure of the person of Christ” than does someone who has basically spent their life looking at things through the lens of basic Western-orientation without understanding the difference between the body and the spirit and the significance of connecting to the spirit.
So, with that introduction and brief reference back to what went on before, I want to take a look at a statement that is made. (This is actually Enoch, but it’s found in the book of Genesis.) Enoch recorded this about Father Adam. So, he’s describing Father Adam’s experience accompanying the baptism of Adam, okay?
You are baptized with fire and with the holy ghost.
…is stated to Adam. This fire in the Holy Ghost,
This is the record of the Father and the Son, from henceforth and for ever. And you are after the Order of him who was without beginning of days [and so on]… (Genesis 4:10 RE)
It is given to abide in you: the Record of Heaven, the Comforter, the keys of the kingdom of Heaven, the truth of all things, that which quickens all things — which makes alive all things, that which knows all things, and has all power according to Wisdom, mercy, truth, justice, and judgment. (Ibid. vs. 9)
That’s what the spirit includes. So, among other things, it is the Record of Heaven; it is the truth of all things; it is that which maketh alive. That’s the spirit.
How on Earth can the Record of Heaven and the truth of all things be embedded in you [pointing to audience members]? You are walking around with that in you! And think about that for a moment: how on Earth can it be that you possess something that reaches back into “the truth of all things”?
Well, before you got here, you lived somewhere else in something that is called a “first estate.” It’s called the first estate because it was “before this one.” It may not have been your first estate: It may have been your 100th; it may have been your 10,000th; it may have been your 100,000th. But as to here, it was first—before here. How much went into that beforehand? It’s not important; we aren’t told about that. It’s not included in the Scriptures, and it’s anyone’s guess. However,
…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.
“Intelligences” are spirits, and it includes you—because if you got here in this cycle of creation, the only way you got here to experience this life is because you were part of that group there. And within that group there (which were organized before the world was), within that group, there was another group:
And among all these there were many of the noble and great ones. …God saw these souls… (Abraham 6:1 RE, emphasis added)
So, these “souls” [the noble and great] were good. Intelligences are spirits. What are souls? The vocabulary that Joseph Smith was using by the time he translated the Book of Abraham already had acquired the definition of what it meant to be a soul. So, among the group of people (the spirits that were there), there was a subgroup from among that group that were “souls.” If they were souls, then they have already been through an experience that involved this kind of an existence. And they were good.
How do you know someone is good? Because as Alma writes, “In the first place, they were allowed to choose between good and bad, and having chosen good, they were foreordained according to the foreknowledge of God” (see Alma 9:10 RE), so that those souls would come down, and they would exhibit goodness—so that people could look at their example and understand the kind of example that would be set by the Savior. (It’s in Alma. It’s the old Alma chapter 13, verse…which I would have to look up in order to tell you where it is in Alma in the Restoration Edition, but it’s the chapter about Melchizedek priesthood and who gets chosen in order to be an example.) They were chosen according to the foreknowledge of God, because God knew—based upon their past experience—that they had already stepped behind a veil; they had already been tested and proven, and they had already risen up to the point that they could be trusted. But now, we’re all the way back to preparation for another cycle of creation—in which we’re organizing a creation, and we’re determining who will be born when and where, and how this cycle of creation is gonna go down.
…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…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, you were one of them; you were chosen before you were born. (Abraham 6:1 RE)
The word “ruler” doesn’t mean king, and it doesn’t mean president, and it doesn’t mean boss. Abraham was chosen to be one of them: Abraham lived and died with almost an insignificant number of people who gave heed to him. He lived, essentially, as a family man, but he was going to be made a ruler [Denver drew a ruler on the whiteboard—a measuring stick]. He would set a standard; he would be someone by whom you could measure the truth. In the Book of Mormon, the word “ruler” is equated with “teacher.” That’s who Abraham was. That’s the rule that Abraham marked out as the plan or the pattern, the example, the baseline—the very thing that, if you follow, will bring you closer to God.
(Hey, there’s a chair up here. Go through the kitchen.)
So, go back now in your mind to the idea that the spirit, the holy ghost, the thing that you possess (in particular, when you connect up with it following baptism) includes the Record of Heaven or the truth of all things, and realize that that is connected to what went on before this world was.
- You’re standing there when this Creation was planned.
- You saw, and you heard what went on in the Councils of Heaven preliminary to the commencement of the Creation of this world.
- You knew what the plan was.
- You knew who the Redeemer would be.
- You knew who the opponent of that was.
- You knew about the rebellion, and you chose not to participate in that.
- You elected to come here and to take on all of the risks and vicissitudes, the troubles and the trials of mortality because you trusted that Christ would deliver on His promise to come here and to redeem and reverse from the blows of death that are inflicted through the fall of man by Adam and Eve, our first parents.
- You trusted that you would get out of the predicament that you’re in presently because the Savior stood up and said He would go, and He would do as the Father commanded.
- And another one argued that, “Not so fast! Let me go down. I will destroy the agency of man, and I will make it possible for everyone to be saved without regard to whether they are good or bad, virtuous or unvirtuous, whether they are kindly or whether they are murderers. I’ll just redeem them all, and we’ll repack Heaven with that same crew that goes down (after they go down, and they indulge themselves in the flesh).”
Kind of a messy plan. It might get everyone back there again, but once you brought them back there, they’re even less suitable for occupying the halls of Heaven than they were before they came down here in the first instance. And the objective is to come down here to be added upon—that is, to experience things and to make war against them; to let your conscience control your fleshly appetites; to reign in, not to give vent to licentiousness and worldliness and body-ness and ambition and hatred—all of the appetites that drag you down. And every one of you who’s here, if you’ve ever engaged in an internal debate in which you were tempted to do something and you held yourself back from doing so, every one of you have been added upon. And the more you do that over the course of a lifetime and the more you connect to the Record of Heaven, the more you are able to understand and see and comprehend the truth of all things. It’s what you’re here to experience. It’s what you’re here to do. And every time you make a move in that direction, you’re added upon.
This gives definition to what Christ was telling His apostles about when He described the coming Holy Ghost that would fall upon them. He says,
But the Comforter, who is the holy ghost whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance… (John 9:9 RE, emphasis added)
How can you possibly remember the truth of all things? It’s because it resides within you, and you can access that by your heed and diligence. Those are the very words that are used to describe how it was that Christ overcame the world: by His heed and diligence. The more heed and diligence that you give to the commandments of God, the more the light within you grows. It’s already there. You’re just permitting it to invade the body of flesh and to inform you by triggering your memory.
Well, I think the purpose of this Creation is to be added upon, and I don’t care where you go or what you do (and I believe this is in the Book of Mormon—every nation has some pointed allotment of truth) everywhere you look, you are going to be added upon. Even if you live a short, wretched life, you’re still being added upon by the experience that you get down here.
In the hierarchy of eternity, there is a Being who has exemplified the highest, the best, the truest, the most pure form of what it means to live fully human and fully godlike, and that’s Jesus Christ—who came here and lived as a sacrifice and as a pure soul who was intending on elevating others. We believe that He rescues this Creation by the life that He lived and the power that was given to Him at the outset of the Creation, and then His stewardship over it allowed Him to bring us back out of the grave eventually.
But Joseph Smith said in the Lectures on Faith (that used to be in your Doctrine and Covenants and that are in the Teachings and Commandments), Joseph Smith said that the prototype of the saved man is Jesus Christ. And if you will be saved, you must be precisely what Christ is or else not be saved.
Christ attained to the resurrection, meaning the grave could not hold Him. You will be resurrected—and you will be resurrected and I will be resurrected because Christ is redeeming this Creation. But at some point, in some cycle of being “added upon” in the distant future, you must become precisely what Christ is or else not be saved.
And so, I don’t know about you, but I’m a long way away from something like that. I’m down here trying to improve upon myself in the time that I’m given, and to try and bless and benefit the lives of any others, and to certainly not be a hindrance to anyone if I can avoid being so. But I don’t think that I am at all approaching “attaining to the resurrection of the dead” or being like the prototype of the saved man, which is Christ.
And by the way, there’s a talk (that’s now a paper that you can read) called “Our Divine Parents,” which explains the prototype of the saved woman. And you might want to take a look at that if you’re interested in looking at the difference between the role of the male and the role of the female—because the male is incomplete, and the female is incomplete. But it’s the union of the male and the female, which becomes the image of God—they together (and only together) can become the completed image of the Heavenly Parents. And the paper, “Our Divine Parents,” attempts to explain in a little more detail.
But yeah, I think everyone down here is gonna be improved by the experience that they get here, no matter how miserable. But eventually, we’re all gonna have to progress and grow and become like the prototype of the saved man.
Everyone here is to be added upon as a result of what happens to us in mortality. And it doesn’t matter if your life is short and brutal or if your life is long. Everyone who comes into a mortal body in this sphere gets added upon. We will depart here, and we will go to a place where there aren’t bodies in this form, where we’ll be given a chance to think back upon what we experienced. And if it was harsh and brutal and short and mean, that will give us a chance to meditate upon the meaning of those things and why they are negative and why there ought to be something better. If your life is long and successful, you’ll have a chance to reflect back upon what good you did, if any. And what more good you could have done, but you failed to do, if you were self-indulgent. We are in the process of gaining understanding, light and truth, and sometimes that comes at the expense of hurting others. And sometimes that comes at the value of helping others. But everything that goes on here will not be forfeited; it will be kept. And we will move from—as the Scriptures put it, “worlds without end”—from sphere to sphere, experience to experience, over whatever time it takes, however many lives it may take, in order to be added on so that we can become like what our Scriptures define as “the prototype of the saved man.” That prototype of the saved man is Jesus Christ because death could not hold Him in the grave. The grave took Him, and He reclaimed His body, and He ascended into Heaven because He is the prototype of the saved man. And eventually, we are to arrive at that same end—but it may take worlds without end. We’re here along a long, long path—an eternal path—to gain experience while we are here temporarily and to learn.
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The foregoing excerpts were taken from:
- Denver’s talk titled “Personal Revelation”, given in Sandy, UT on August 16, 2008
- Denver’s 40 Years in Mormonism Series, Talk #7 titled “Christ, Prototype of the Saved Man” given in Ephraim, UT on June 28, 2014
- Denver’s Q&A session at the Keeping the Covenant Conference in Boise, ID on September 22, 2019
- The third part of Shawn McCraney’s interview of Denver Snuffer for the “Heart of the Matter” podcast, recorded October 8th, 2019
- Denver’s talk titled “Understanding Your Soul, Part 2,” delivered in Highland, UT on March 6, 2021
- The Salt Lake Tribune’s interview of Denver for the Mormonland podcast, recorded December 22, 2021
- Denver’s comments given during the Unity in Humanity Interfaith Celebration, recorded October 22, 2022