Tag: celestial kingdom

TEMPLE CONFERENCE/Sundries

Here is an update on the Temple Conference. There will be a more formal announcement that will include some additions. However, since some will be traveling to attend, here is some information to help you plan.

FOR THOSE WHO ARE REGISTERED:
All those who registered for the Conference will be invited to a reception on Saturday evening, October 27th. The presenters will be there and available for you to meet during that evening reception.

On Sunday, October 28th, I will be speaking at an evening fireside. This will be free and open to the public. The location and time will be announced later.

The Conference will be all day on Monday, October 29th. Those who are registered and attend will receive a book that will include all the talks. This is part of the registration fee.

Seating is limited. At present, about half the seats have been reserved. This is a first come first serve event, and I believe there are approximately 320 seats.
More information will follow.
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There are a number of comments that come in and I only respond to them generally. In that way, I hope to cover more than just one inquiry in a single post. Here, then, are some general reminders:

How can you want so intensely what you do not yet understand?

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The identity of who the Lord will send will be known only when that person has done the work. No one who has failed to accomplish the work can claim the identity. Vanity is no substitute for doing the works of God.
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No man ever pleased God without repenting.

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The greatest evidences of God’s power, apart from Christ’s resurrection, are yet to be. It will be the latter-day Zion: “Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that they shall no more say, The Lord liveth, which brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt; But, The Lord liveth, which brought up and which led the seed of the house of Israel out of the north country, and from all countries whither I had driven them; and they shall dwell in their own land.” (Jer. 23: 7-8.)

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It is apparent that for many people the concept of “the Celestial Kingdom” is only an imaginary concept based upon the vaguest of understanding. But it is something they claim to “really want.” Something a person claims to want ought to be the subject of a better informed investigation.

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There have been many questions (perhaps hundreds now) from women asking about women’s issues. I’ve decided to spend next week addressing these questions in a very general way. However, to give you some context, here is one of the latest comments I’ve received. Read this and you can better understand next week’s posts:

Brother Snuffer,
What happens if someone like me has concerns about some of the things the church teaches as doctrines? I always go along, never making waves. But sometimes I feel like the worst kind of hypocrite. I feel like a complete mutant when you speak of Zion and sanctification. I’ve had almost every calling a woman can have, and yet I feel like a stranger in the household of God. I pray, study the scriptures, fast, attend the temple, and read from good sources, such as yours. But a lot of how the church believes feels alien to my soul: the role of women chief among them. Sometimes it feels hopeless because the things you and other men in the church say just don’t feel attainable to people like me. We never hear of stories of women receiving their calling and election, except through their husband. I know of no story where a woman has received the Second Comforter. No matter how it’s worded, women are not valued the same as men. Afterall, we are given to our husbands, but they do not give themselves back. Men receive the power of God to act in his name, but women do not. We are sealed to our husbands, but they are not sealed to us. We hearken to our husbands while they hearken to God. Why can’t I just hearken to God like he does? Men become the Sons of God, but women never become the Daughters of God. We are queens and priestesses to our husbands, but not to God. Everything for women is to your husband or through your husband, but not directly through God or to ourselves. Plural marriage is the greatest abomination to women that ever existed — worse than rape and prostitution — because we are expected to be happy to have our husband fall in love with and show sexual attraction to another, many other women. Yet we are selfish if this bothers us. How can this be morally clean when a man shares with another woman what he should only share with one wife? If a wife wanted to be with another husband, or many, she would immediately be called immoral, an adulteress, and kicked out. Surely a just God who is no respecter of persons would not be so favoring of His sons, and so cruel to His daughters. I have studied until I am in a deep abyss of pain. I have lost all joy for the hereafter. I have no hope to be the kind of woman the church teaches women must be. I cannot understand how women can be so blasé about such horrible positions and men can think women would want to live like this for eternity. You may think me ignorant or rebellious, but I can only say I have studied for decades and my pain is desolating to my soul. Doesn’t anyone understand how inherently unfair and condescending patriarchy is? I’ve heard several brethren say that whatever God commands, setup, or mandates is right. Period. But would a truly loving God setup something so blatantly one-sided? Motherhood is comparable to fatherhood, not priesthood. And no, I don’t lust to be a Bishop or any other position men hold. I just cannot understand how women can be relegated to such lesser status as to not hold the holy priesthood and be able to have the same responsibilities and roles as men. We are worthy, capable, and it would lift humankind to a greater level of living. It would enrich the kingdom tremendously. To be told you don’t need it, you share it with your husband feels like a very patronizing stand to take. It is patronizing. Why can’t we share it by both of us holding it and helping our families together? What is to become of people like me?
Thank you.

Kingdom of Heaven

Luke recorded a confrontation between the Lord and the Pharisees in which they demanded He tell them of the coming of the kingdom of heaven. These foolish men thought the kingdom of heaven which might be acquired and controlled by men. They wanted something over which men could rule.

The account reads: “And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation. Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you. And he said unto the disciples, The days will come, when ye shall desire to see one of the days of the Son of man, and ye shall not see it. And they shall say to you, See here; or, see there: go not after them, nor follow them. For as the lightning, that lighteneth out of the one part under heaven, shineth unto the other part under heaven; so shall also the Son of man be in his day.” (Luke 17: 20-24.)

When the kingdom of God reappears on the earth, men like the Pharisees will not be able to observe it. It will not come in a way observable to those outside. Instead, the kingdom will be “within” those who are included. For them, the “observation” comes from the Lord making Himself known to them. (See Numbers 12: 6.) But such experiences are not public. So for the Pharisees, it will be “without observation.”

For His disciples, however, He went on to explain the time would come when they would want another day with Him, but that time will have passed. They may wish it, but the time to draw near Him is while He is available; not after His departure. When He has departed, then it will not be possible to find Him among those who say He is here! Or, He is there!

Though He may make Himself known on the same conditions to any who prepare themselves to receive Him, when He appears again it will be as lightening which lights heaven itself from one end to the other. It will be entirely unmistakable.

The Pharisees were interested in the subject because they envied the kingdom of heaven. They wanted to own it. They wanted to control it. If they could locate it, and usurp it, then they would have power over others who sought it.

Christ’s answer completely frustrates man’s capacity to control the kingdom of heaven. It is not a franchise, giving Pharisees any authority or right. It is not even capable of being “observed” by those who are blind to its appearance. But it is nevertheless real. It is “within” some few who qualify.

Why wait?

The question was asked as to whether receiving the Second Comforter is necessary before you die, or if the afterlife supplies an adequate substitute. This requires the evaluation of two separate concepts.

First, the Second Comforter means a visit or personal appearance to someone by Christ. However, the appearance is not as important as the ministry of the Lord. He “comforts” those to whom He appears. He will “not leave you comfortless, he will come to you.” (John 14: 18.) Christ and His Father will “make their abode with you.” (John 14: 23.) Meaning that the Son will bring you to the Father, and the Father will receive you as His son. This appearance is not merely “in the heart,” but is an actual appearance or visit. (D&C 130: 3.)

However, the purpose of the ministry, the reason for the “abode” with you, the “comfort” that is promised by the Lord, involves the promise of eternal life. The promise of eternal life has been made an equivalency by the Lord in a revelation given in modern times. That is, the end or result of the ministry of Christ as the Second Comforter is to have the promise of eternal life. In a modern revelation the word of the Lord was given to a group of Latter-day Saints in which the promise of their exaltation was extended to them, and the Lord made this the equivalent to “another Comforter.”

Here is what was said:

“Wherefore, I now send upon you another Comforter, even upon you my friends, that it may abide in your hearts, even the Holy Spirit of promise; which other Comforter is the same that I promised unto my disciples, as is recorded in the testimony of John. This Comforter is the promise which I give unto you of eternal life, even the glory of the celestial kingdom; Which glory is that of the church of the Firstborn, even of God, the holiest of all, through Jesus Christ his Son— .” (D&C 88: 3-5.)

Therefore, as a singular appearance, should the Lord appear to you, you have received the Second Comforter. However, His ministry is to bring you to the point at which you can receive the promise of eternal life, membership in the Church of the Firstborn, and the promise of the Celestial Kingdom as your eternal inheritance. In the fullest sense, therefore, the final promise of exaltation in the Celestial Kingdom can also be called the Second Comforter, since that is the result of His taking up His abode with you.

The second concept is really a question: Would it be preferable to have the promise of eternal life now than to die uncertain as to your eternal state? If so, then why would you waste your life now in hopes that some other opportunity may exist at some other stage?

If the answer to these questions are “yes” then the original question is simply unimportant. Why wait? The opportunity given to you now should not be forfeited, nor should the work be delayed. Don’t dismiss the Lord’s offered assistance for what you can achieve in mortality for the possibility of something in the after-life.