Are you willing to obtain Eternal Life?

Jesus Christ was the perfect Sacrifice as called upon by his Father to be so. In
the beginning when the plan was laid out and we understood it perfectly, it
was shown to us that in order for us to be saved, someone would have to save
us.
In Abraham, we understand that after the plan was laid out before God's
children, the Father asked, “Whom shall I send?” To which, the Savior
responded, “Send me.” That plan, which was established prior to our coming
to this earth, became conditional. The plan called for us to bind, or seal
ourselves to a perfect sacrifice, meaning, that through the Mercy of God by
Sacrificing His Son, we would be found just by believing on Him, Keeping
his Commandments and following Him.
Therefore, an Atonement would have to be offered. There had to be someone
who was willing to be the perfect sacrifice for the unperfect to bind
themselves to to be declared just and able to gain Salvation. As the Plan
demanded, the Atonement must be carried out by someone who was perfect,
unblemished, pure in heart, Godly by nature. The act of performing the
Atonement must be carried out in perfect Obedience by the one chosen to do
so. There could be no substitutes.
Why? Because we became estranged from God. And in this estranged
time, we alone would have no power to save us, nor would God, who would
be left unable to save the the unperfect. The role of Jesus becomes clearer at
this point. As said, he becomes the perfect sacrifice, the Atoning One. The
Mediator and the Advocate with the Father. Allowing us the ability to repent
and become clean, while allowing the Father to declare forgiveness because
of the sacrifice of His Perfect Son, thus allowing the Father to extend mercy.
The First Presidency testified recently as such: “We give our sure witness that
Jesus is the Christ. Though He was crucified, He rose triumphant from the
tomb to our everlasting blessing and benefit. To each member of the human
family He stands as our advocate, our Savior, and our Friend.”
I was attending a business class years ago at Washington State University. It
was a grueling class. One night, my friend Alan Cox and I were leaving the
library after a long evening of studying and found a man near our cars. He
asked if we had any money to assist him. Being poor college students and
having just studied for a finance test, this man was asking the wrong people
for cash. We felt the need to help though. I called the Bishop and let him
know the situation, to which he responded that we were not to give him any
money, but see to it that he gets to where he needs to go. I let my wife know
what is going on and asked her to contact Alan's wife as well. She was
scared, but we were doing what we felt was right. A few trips turned into
wasted journeys around Pullman and then to Moscow Idaho. The man grew
impatient and turned out to be very vulger and threatening to Alan and I.
Finally, he grew frustrated and asked to be let out of the car. We were greatly
relieved. I got home and found my wife with our good friends, nervous, but
glad to see I was OK. I even found out, that my good friend Sam Bell had
gone out looking for us, telling my wife and his, “I am going to save my
friend.”
To be considered a friend of the Lord, one whom the Lord would lay his life
down. He told his deciples in Jerusalem this very point with the condition
that came with it.
“This is my commandment, that ye love one another, as I have loved you.
Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his
friends. Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you.” (John
15:12-14)
Nephi, the son of Lehi, who journeyed with his family out of Jerusalem and
found refuge in the American Continent, taught his people in one of his final
messages this (2 Ne. 31:13)
13.Wherefore, my beloved brethren, I know that if ye shall follow the Son,
with full purpose of heart, acting no hypocrisy and no deception before
God, but with real intent, repenting of your sins, witnessing unto the
father that ye are willing to take upon you the name of Christ, by
baptism – yea, by following your Lord and your Savior down into the
water, according to his word, behold, then shall ye receive the Holy
Ghost; yea, then cometh the baptism of fire and of the Holy Ghost; and
then can ye speak with the tongue of angels, and shot praises unto the
Holy One of Israel.
Because the Plan called for a perfect sacrifice, or an Atonement, the first born
was chosen to go and save God's children, or all those who were willing to
accept the conditions as the Father had laid them out. And we sustained it.
We understood the risk involved and we had faith that by our actions, God
would put in place all that was necessary for us to overcome.
The adversary will convince that it is impossible and cannot happen. Since
the natural man is an enemy to God, the devil will use that knowledge to
discourage you. The Atonement will erase the fear and replace it with faith to
help you understand that you can put off the Natural Man and gain Eternal
Life.
Thus, the top priority for the Plan of Salvation is God's desire to save His
children. And the Atonement of Christ becomes the keystone to that Plan. It
ties all other conditions and covenants together, establishing a path that is
purposeful and capable of saving the soul that becomes lost.
During a discourse with the Pharisees and Sadducees, the Savior taught three
parables consecutively with the same meaning. The first, he taught about the
shepherd who would leave the 99 to seek out the one. Second, the woman
who searched for the lost coin, and the third, the Prodigal Son. In each of
these discourses, Jesus teaches the same principle:
Regarding the sheep: “Rejoice with me; for I have found my sheep which
was lost.
Regarding the lost coin: “Rejoice with me; for I have found the piece which I
had lost.”
And regarding the Son: “It was meet that we should make merry, and be glad:
for this thy brother was dead, and is alive again; and was lost, and is found.”
Elder James E. Talmage wrote in Jesus the Christ: “The three parables, which
appear in the scriptural record as parts of a continuous discourse, are as one
in portraying the joy that abounds in heaven over the recovery of a soul, once
numbered among the lost ...”
And to the opposite, Talmage wrote: “The loss of a soul is very real and a
very great loss to God. He is pained and grieved thereby, for it is His will that
not one should perish.”
And yet, we believe, that God is not mindful of us. To who we are, or our
suffering in whatever capacity it may be. For the devil takes hold, and pulls
us down, saying that God cannot save you for what you have done. And we
limit the ability and the power of the Atonement, saying it can save those
whom it will save, but for me it will not. You may have had trials in your life,
or experiences, or you recognize your shortfalls and shortcomings and you
believe that God may have power to save others, but he does not have power
to save you.
The faith that we have that the Atonement of Christ, distances and absolves
and becomes a fear. Yet, the very purpose of the Atonement is to bring back
faith to the weak, the downtrodden. Elder Jeffrey R. Holland stated in the
Sunday Morning Session of General Conference:
“Brothers and Sisters, my Easter-season message is intended for everyone,
but it is directed in a special way to those who are alone, or feel alone, or
worse yet, feel abandoned. These might include those longing to be married,
those who have lost a spouse and those who have lost – or never been blessed
with – children. Our empathy embraces wives forsaken by their husbands,
husbands whose wives have walked away, and children bereft of one or the
other of their parents – or both. This group can find within its broad
circumference a soldier far from home, a missionary in those first weeks of
homesickness, or a father out of work, afraid the fear in his eyes will be
visible to his family. In short, it can include all of us at various times in our
lives.
“To all such, I speak of the loneliest journey ever made and the unending
blessings it brought to all in the human family. I speak of the Saviors solitary
task of shouldering alone the burden of our salvation.”
Nephi felt the burdens of his calling soon after his father Lehi passed away.
During that time, he wrote that he felt inadequate and imperfect. He said, “I
am encompassed about, because of the temptations and the sins which do
easily beset me. And when I desire to rejoice, my heart groaneth because of
my sins; nevertheless, I know in whom I have trusted. My God hath been my
support; he hath led me through mine afflictions in the wilderness; and he
hath preserved me upon the waters of the great deep.”
The Lord knows you. He came to this earth to save the Children of God,
because they are precious to him. He suffered all things, as James E. Talmage
wrote, “but over that sinner's repentance and contrition of soul, God and the
household of heaven rejoiced.” And for God to be able to rejoice, the Father
had to be willing to sacrifice His Son.
“Indeed, it is my personal belief that in all of Christ’s mortal ministry the
Father may never have been closer to His Son than in these agonizing final
moments of suffering. Nevertheless, that the supreme sacrifice of His Son
might be as complete as it was voluntary and solitary, the Father briefly
withdrew from Jesus the comfort of His Spirit, the support of His personal
presence. It was required; indeed it was central to the significance of the
Atonement, that this perfect Son who had never spoken ill nor done wrong
nor touched an unclean thing had to know how the rest of humankind—us, all
of us—would feel when we did commit such sins. For His Atonement to be
infinite and eternal, He had to feel what it was like to die not only physically
but spiritually, to sense what it was like to have the divine Spirit withdraw,
leaving one feeling totally, abjectly, hopelessly alone,” Elder Holland said in
that same conference talk.
With all of this said. It leads me to what I titled this talk: Are you willing to
obtain Eternal Life?
Elder Holland answered, “Brothers and sisters, one of the great consolations
of this Easter season is that because Jesus walked such a long, lonely path
utterly alone, we do not have to do so. His solitary journey brought great
company for our little version of that path—the merciful care of our Father in
Heaven, the unfailing companionship of this Beloved Son, the consummate
gift of the Holy Ghost, angels in heaven, family members on both sides of the
veil, prophets and apostles, teachers, leaders, friends. All of these and more
have been given as companions for our mortal journey because of the
Atonement of Jesus Christ and the Restoration of His gospel. Trumpeted
from the summit of Calvary is the truth that we will never be left alone nor
unaided, even if sometimes we may feel that we are.”
The Savior himself said, “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy
laden, and I will give you rest.”
As a result of the Atonement of Christ, the keystone of the Plan of Salvation
was put into place and we could obtain Eternal Life if we are willing to do as
He has commanded.
Elder Bruce R. McConkie wrote:
I believe in Christ; he stands supreme!
From him I'll gain my fondest dream;
And while I strive through grief and apin
his voice is heard: “Ye shall obtain.”
I believe in Christ; so come what may
With him I'll stand in that great day
When on this earth he comes again
To rule among the sons of men.

Becoming Perfect

I love the sport baseball. I have loved this sport since I was a little kid. I was never any good at it, but it didn't stop me from enjoying it greatly. I would watch players and see how magnificent they were on the baseball diamond, that I thought they were the greatest players in the world. To this day, I have seen players that make me marvel at their ability.
Baseball is a fascinating sport for this very reason - it is a game you cannot be perfect at. There is no way to throw a perfect game - meaning nine pitches per inning, all resulting in a strike out. Or have a perfect batting average through the entire season if you have the regulated amount of at bats to declare yourself eligible for statistical significance. I have seen games where a batter was never allowed on base and that has been declared a perfect game, but in the actual sense of the word perfect mixed with the rules of the game, no one has ever been perfect on the mound. And, taking those same rules of hitting and declaration of an at bat, no one has ever been a perfect batter.
Hence, the game marvels on those who fail, but only fail less times than their opponents and that is what I really like about the sport. Do your best, even when you fail, and you can still succeed.
Baseball has different statistical definitions to determine the strength of the players. For a pitcher, those statistics include the ERA (earned run average), strikeouts, wins, losses, innings pitched, WHIP (walks plus hits per innings pitched), opponents batting average and walks, just to name a few. These statistics give you an idea of how strong a pitcher is on the mound versus their opponent and these statistics can even be broken down to which side of the plate the hitter is standing. The batter is under the same statistical category crunch. There is batting average, slugging percentage, on base percentage, home runs, singles, doubles, triples, walks, stolen bases, runs batted in and runs scored. There are so many more as well, but we won't get into them all. All these statistics teach us what type of batter is at the plate and help the pitcher know how to approach the batter and vice versa.
Now that I have prepared you for what makes a pitcher or a batter, let me put a scenario in front of you. I want you to picture a perfect pitcher - do you know what that is? Now picture a perfect batter - do you know what that is? Now, have the pitcher face off against the batter - who wins? If your brain is a mess by now, don't worry, so was mine. I got a headache and stopped thinking about it. I recommend you shake this scenario out of your head and leave it alone.
My question is, how difficult was it to determine who would win the battle? The answer I came up with is we can't quantify exactly what the outcome will be because we can't really know what perfection is since we have never seen it out on the baseball field. Certainly we have seen glimpses and possible similarities, but never have we seen the whole.
Could we create a program or computer software that would give us a final output? The problem would be that we would be limited in our ability to fully comprehend what we are going to see because of the inability to define true perfection.
Here is what I mean, an imperfect creator cannot make a perfect outcome. If we don't know what perfection is, how can we model it? Simple enough. The reason we cannot come up with a final scenario in the baseball analogy is we don't know 100 percent of what all the characteristics are and how those characteristics work to create perfection. And since we don't know all the true characteristics, we don't know what will happen when the ball leaves the pitchers hand.
So we are left with a problem. How can we know what the perfect baseball game would be since we can't truly define the variables entirely without putting an imperfect slant on it.
So let us put baseball aside for now. Instead of focusing on the ability to succeed by failing, let us focus on learning from our failures so that we can succeed. Or, become perfect.
In the Sermon on the Mount, we learn quickly what the Saviors agenda is for the children of God: “... he elaborated extensively upon the requirements for exaltation,” said President Spencer W. Kimball, the twelth president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The Savior even goes further by declaring at the end of the Testament of Matthew chapter 5:

Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.

And He added one more part during His visit to the children of Lehi in the third book of Nephi, saying:

Therefore I would that ye should be perfect even as I, or your Father who is in heaven is perfect.

And later on in that same book to the Disciples he added:

... Therefore, what manner of men out ye to be? Verily I say unto you, even as I am.

As I showed with the baseball analogy, it is difficult for imperfect beings to conjure up what perfection is like. And now the scriptures, in very similar settings on the very same topic to different crowds, gives the charge to us, “be perfect even as I.”
It seems impossible. We are asked to be perfect by the only person who could. But listen to what Pres. Kimball said on this very subject: “One of the great teachings of the Man of Galilee, the Lord Jesus Christ, was that you and I carry within us immense possibilities. In urging us to be perfect, Jesus was not taunting us or teasing us. He was telling us a powerful truth about our possibilities and about our potential. It is a truth almost too stunning to contemplate. Jesus, who could not lie, sought to beckon us to move further along the pathway to perfection.”
Which brings me from the baseball analogy to the reality of a plan that was truly created by Perfection for the imperfect to become perfect. As Pres. Kimball said that the Savior was beckoning us to move along this path, that was the intent of the plan from the beginning.
If we contemplate further into history and reflect on the council in Heaven with the Great Creator and his offspring, we see the laying of a plan that did not contain missing links, loopholes or any adlibbing measures to help the plan obtain its final outcome. It was, in no other term perfect for what it needed to accomplish and there was no other plan that could do a better job.
Let's discuss why. The council came together and two plans were presented. Here is the nutshell of both of them. First plan as Elder Bruce. R. McConkie, an Apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ, explained it: God taught His spirit children, including the Savior and Lucifer the “gospel of God” and those spirit children had agency to accept or reject the plan as truth. The plan included the creation of the earth, followed by the obtaining of mortal bodies that would then lead to being tried and tested to see if they would keep all of God's commandments. The plan called for one to be “the Only Begotten in the Flesh” to work out the Atonement so that the fallen could obtain Eternal Life. Elder McConkie added, “… this plan had been taught to all the hosts of heaven” and “it was known and understood by all.” As part of the plan, he asked for one to volunteer to put all the terms and conditions of the plan into place. Which leads to the second plan: Lucifer rejected the plan and rewrote the terms and conditions that all of God's children would not be lost and the power and glory would be Lucifer's and he would raise himself above God. In Moses 4, we read: “Behold, here am I, send me, I will be thy son, and I will redeem all mankind, that one soul shall not be lost, and surely I will do it; wherefore give me thine honor.”
The difference with Lucifer's plan, it didn't offer the ability for us to change from our plain prior to the mortal experience, to the plain that God resided on. Hence, the earthly experience would be worthless because it didn't contain two necessary ingredients to becoming perfect - agency and opposition.
Lehi taught Jacob prior to his death after reaching the promised land this infinite principle:
For it must needs be, that there is an opposition in all things. If not so, my first-born in the wilderness, rightesousness could nto be brought to pass, neither wickedness, neither holiness nor misery, neither good nor bad. Wherefore, all things must needs be a compound in one; wherefore, if it should be one body it must needs remain as dead, having no life niether death, nor corruption nor incorruption, happiness nor misery, neither sense nor insensibility.
Wherefore, it must needs have been created for a thing of naught; wherefore there would have been no purpose in the end of its creation. Werefore, this thing must needs destroy the wisdom of God and his eternal purposes, and also the power; and the mercy, and the justice of God.
We also clearly learn that necessary characteristics of a perfect plan of salvation must have opposition, if not, then we find that the creator would have no power, nor wisdom and therefore, no ability to offer mercy or justice. Without these, there would be no way for us to obtain perfection and gain all, since the creator would not be perfect, having lost all for not having all the necessary ingredients to the plan.
The failure that Lucifer's plan would offer. We would gain nothing and “this thing must needs destroy the wisdom of God and his eternal purposes.” The choice, which was agreed upon, would be one that kept agency and opposition as key ingredients into the plan, but by doing so, would create a plan that would drive us away from our Creator, who wanted us to become like Him from the beginning.
Elder Bruce R. McConkie explained further: “God the Eternal Father, the Father of the Firstborn and of all the spirit hosts, as an exalted and glorified Being, having all power and dominion, possessing all knowledge and all truth, personifying and being the embodiment of all godly attributes, did, of his own will, ordain and establish the plan of salvation whereby Christ and all his other spirit children might have power to advance and progress and become like him.”
If we believe what Lehi is telling us, that mercy and justice are part of the plan, then we understand two more key ingredients and gain an ability to make up for the carnal nature of the imperfect body that truly is “an enemy of God.” How does that happen? This brings up another key ingredient.
A perfect sacrifice would allow us to bind or seal ourselves to and make up the difference for our shortcomings. How would we do this? The Savior, who in the beginning as Pres. John Taylor asserted: “Thy will be done;" `I will carry out thy plans and thy designs, and, as man will fall, I will offer myself as an atonement according to thy will, O God. Neither do I wish the honor, but thine be the glory;'" and a covenant was entered into between Him and His Father, in which He agreed to atone for the sins of the world; and He thus, as stated, became the Lamb slain from before the foundation of the world.” (Moses 4 and Abraham 3) This covenant then met the terms and conditions set forward by God himself in the plan. And the Savior made this a teaching point for his Twelve saying:

Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.
For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

Interestingly enough, our lack of complete obedience or ability to overcome and follow the commandments perfectly left us without an option to forsake our sins as a result of the Fall of Adam and Eve, which rested on the shoulders of justice in the plan. But, the plan also called for mercy, which, through our ability to yoke ourselves to someone who was perfect, would allow us then to return because we would then be declared whole.
The Savior, in that declaration, makes a covenant with us. If we follow him, do what he asks, then he will make up the difference by yoking, or sealing himself with us. Because we cannot reach perfection in this mortal body, whatever failures or shortcomings we have, we can still obtain perfection because we are sealed or yoked to a perfect sacrifice.
Elder Bruce C. Hafen of the Quorum of the Seventy put it this way: “His words do not describe an event, but a process. He does not request the answer to a yes-or-no question, but an essay, written in the winding trail of our experience. As we move along that trail, we will find that he is not only aware of our limitations, but that he will also in due course, compensate for them, “after all we can do.” That, in addition to forgiveness for sin, is a crucial part of the good news of the gospel, part of the victory, part of the Atonement.”
Elder Hafen further adds, “The basic doctrines of the holy Atonement relate first to the transgression of Adam and Eve and to our personal sins. The Fall subjected Adam and Eve and their children to death, sin and other characteristics of mortality that separated them from God. To allow humankind to be united with God again, divine justice required compensation for these consequences of the Fall. God's mercy allowed the Savior to make that compensation through the Atonement.”
If God, then, is going to allow mercy to be an ingredient, we then are bound, if we accept, to the covenants then we are going to make with His Son and Him. Which brings up the last ingredient I wish to bring up in this perfect plan: Covenants.
To quote President Faust on this subject: “We honor the Lord by keeping our baptismal covenants, our sacrament covenants, our temple covenants, and by keeping the Sabbath day Holy. The Lord has said, “All among them who know their hearts are honest, and are broken, and their spirits contrite, and are willing to observe their covenants by sacrifice - yea, every sacrifice which I, the Lord, shall command - they are accepted of me.””
To better tie everything together, to help show the perfectness of the plan and our ability to actively engage ourselves as participants of the plan and able to yoke ourselves with the Savior and obtain perfection. From the hymn I read:

More Holiness Give me
More strivings within
More patience in suffring
More sorrow for sin
More faith in my savior
More sense of his care
More Joy in his service
More purpose in prayer
More Purity Give me
More strength to o'ercome
More freedom from earthstains
More longing for home
More fit for the kingdom
More used would I be
More blessed and holy
More Savior like thee

In conclusion, we learn from the council in Heaven and through modern revelation, that the Plan of Salvation has key factors, characteristics that we must understand and follow in order to become, as the Savior instructed, perfect. We learn that perfection isn't something we can obtain on our own, nor is it something we can do without a perfect sacrifice. Since we are mortal and have natural tendencies that we give in to, we are left unable to overcome. Yet, there is hope in the plan, hope that we can be come one with the Only Begotten in the Flesh, who lived perfectly and offered himself up a sacrifice to pay the debt for Justice that through Mercy and by yoking ourselves to the Savior and doing so, adhering to the covenants and commandments that would be part of the terms and conditions, we could, in the final judgement, be declared "perfect."

What are your thoughts from General Conference?

Take time and post your thoughts on something you learned and what impact it will have on the church, the country or even the world.

Proving Evolution as a correct Theory

We have been told since elementary that the world was created based on the "Big Bang Theory," evolution is the cause of human beings and all theories should be based on fact. This question will not put down the basic idea of these two theories, that is for the answers, but the question posed: If these are theories, why have they not been repeated?

Can man be perfect on earth

I have asked the question many times and I want to open this one up to a forum of the masses: Can man be perfect while on Earth? Taking the Christian approach this question, Matthew 5:48 reads that Christ commands us to be as perfect as Heavenly Father. Is this possible? Please respond, and members of other faiths, like Islam and Judaism, please give me your thoughts on this subject, I am curious to your view points on Man becoming more like their creator