Pre-earth life

I went to another wonderful class by Laurel Lawrence. She is so knowledgeable and seems to have a fantastic memory for scriptural references and quotes. This week’s lesson was on Pre-mortality.

10/26     Larry Lawrence is a convert and joined the church as an adult. When he investigated, the teaching that most interested him was the concept of a pre-earth life. He said, “the idea of pre-mortality makes life more fair.”

We believe in reward systems – extra pay for overtime, higher paying job for higher education, time off for good behavior, etc., and heaven works that way too. We are rewarded for the good we do.

Harold B Lee said we would be judged at the end of this life for our accomplishments. The same is true for our pre-earth life – we are rewarded in this life for our knowledge gained and good choices there.

We are the only Christian church that believes in the pre-earth life. Many churches believe Jesus was pre-mortal but not us.

It was taught and believed in Old Testament times (Jeremiah 1:4-5), and throughout the New Testament (2 Timothy – God called us before the world began; story of man born blind and asking who sinned before birth; John the Baptist leapt in the womb when he recognized Jesus – how could he recognize him if he hadn’t known him before?; Jude, brother of Jesus, in Jude 1:6 talks of angels who kept not their first estate; Revelations 12 talks of war in heaven), but 500 AD a group of Catholic Bishops removed that teaching from the church. Jews have always believed in a pre-earth life.

In Revelations 12, dragon is Satan.

The restoration of the Gospel brought back the teaching of a pre-mortal life. Moses 3, Abraham 3, Book of Mormon – Alma 13 says men were called to the Priesthood before they were born.

Christ was the firstborn but other than that we don’t know our spirit ages. Since He was the firstborn spirit, we know he was older spiritually than his mother and that could be the case with others. Intelligences are eternal. God took our intelligences and organized us into spirits. Our spirits look just like us. Christ in Spirit said the body of my spirit…. Ether 4:16

All Spirits are in adult form

We wanted to come to earth to become like our Heavenly Parents with the resurrected bodies, all wise, happy, etc. They also began as Spirits, went to an earth and the school of hard knocks, learned and grew. We knew we couldn’t have a fullness of joy without a resurrected body.

There was a council in heaven, much like the councils we do here. Heavenly Father presented His plan. He said it would not be easy but provided the way and showed us how He could satisfy justice. Jehovah volunteered to be the Savior. He was already so advanced in progression that He was already a member of the Godhead.

Bruce R McConkie said, “Spirituality is when you recognize truth and act on it.

Joseph Fielding Smith said the First Presidency of heaven gathered together and concocted a plan and gathered us in council to accept or reject it.

The name Lucifer means light bearer; he used to be an angel in authority. D&C 76

Perdition means destruction – Satan’s whole intent is to destroy us spiritually.

Revelations 12:10 – The name Satan means accuser – he spends all his time accusing innocent people

“Son of the morning” means he is an older spirit. “He is not smart because he’s the devil; he’s smart because he’s old.”  Faust

The war in heaven was a war not of weapons but of reasoning, words, ideas. Michael lead the side of Christ and Satan lead the others.

Ezra T Benson said, Beware of pride; that was Satan’s downfall.

The war was like a political campaign. We fought in it like we helped campaign for Prop 8 – here we knocked on doors, held up banners in intersections, made phone calls, etc., there we preached and taught with all energy.

When we won with a 2/3 majority, we shouted for joy.

God rewarded those who shared testimonies by sending us to the House of Israel.

Our patriarchal blessing states if we are direct descendent and through what line. If we are not direct blood lineage, the blessing will say, “You will receive blessings through Abraham.”

In the pre-earth life each spirit developed at its own pace. We each had our strengths and talents like art, science, music, etc.

Another strength may have been being able to recognize truth and act on it – Joseph Smith.

Israel is scattered all around the world so we can be a light to the whole world in all nations. If not, the world would now have been like Sodom 7 Gomorra.

D&C 76 says the Lord saves all the house of Israel except the sons of perdition.

We are a remnant of Jacob who reside among gentiles

2% or less in the world have Israelite blood – or about 120 million. The missionaries are looking for that 2%

Of Noah’s sons, Shem – was Jacob’s 13^th descendent

 Ham & Japeth are not part of Israel.

The reason there can be some from Ephraim and some from Manasseh is that we are all descendants from Joseph. The Lord decided which tribe you will receive the blessings from. Ephraim is over building temples and missionary work. Having all children from Ephraim and one from Manasseh is like getting one red-headed child, only instead of genes being the reason, it is the Lord’s assignment, or the partial blood of Manasseh that came through the blood lines.

The Jews will be taught last of all, after all other tribes have been taught. They were the first, the chosen now they will be the last.  (The last shall be first and the first shall be last.)

Abraham was one of the noble and great ones. Your Patriarchal Blessing can list your talents and abilities because God knew you way before you came here.

Whitney said if we were allowed to look in the archives of heaven, we would find our name and what we agreed to do in this life.

Satan’s headquarters are here – Revelations 12:12

After the millennium Satan will be cast out to outer darkness forever and he wants to take as many as he can with him. He has a very short time to gather as many as possible.

Earth is Jesus’ headquarters, too. This is the wickedest planet but we also have a great portion of the Holy Ghost here. It wouldn’t be very impressive if He had gone to a more worthy earth to sacrifice. He had to have the worse around Him to descend below all so that he could understand all suffering and be able to help us through our trials.

Harold B Lee said we were schooled before we came here to know how to take care of our bodies.

There is probably something like a funeral service when spirits leave to come to earth, knowing the trials that we would have to face.

Our future posterity is rooting for us and praying for us because what we do affects their lives.

No 2 spirits are alike. There may be twin bodies, but there are no twin spirits. We’ve existed a long time.

Some of those you teach, you knew in the previous life.

1,000 years = 1 day of God’s time

1 lifetime of 90 years = about 2 hours in God’s time

A 2 year mission i= about 3 minutes in God’s time.

To know how long you’ve been away from Heavenly home in God’s time, take your age plus half your age. Example 30 years old, plus 15 = 45. That’s how many minutes you’ve been away.

There is not a minute to waste. Our lives pass as a dream – Jacob.

Missionaries teach God is our Father and this life is to learn and grow. It might sound revolutionary to some investigators, but it also sounds true. People of the house of Israel remember it like Déjà vu.

President Benson said, “ Nothing wills startle us more than when we die and see God and realize how very familiar His face is and how well we Know Him.”

Rev 12 – even in the pre-existence the blood of the Lamb saved us.

Muslims

Muslims believe, “No one truly believes until he wishes for his brother what he wishes for himself.

Islam is the fastest growing religion in the world. It accounts for 20% of the world population. It is growing so fast mostly because they have large families and they pass on the religion.

The Church has a focus on the Muslim outreach. The future of the Church will include Muslims.

They use the Koran as their Bible.  It has been translated many times and meanings changed. Isis uses a twisted version of the Koran

What we have in common: The Church is putting out a new pamphlet called What Mormons and Muslims have in Common.

The Muslims are mostly in North Africa, India and Indonesia.

Feroz Hussain is a man born in India who attended BYU, studied engineering, and now lives in Fresno. He built all the Costcos and has built much of the new construction of BYU. Laurel taught his son, Raj, in Seminary. She asked Feroz to teach her children what Muslims believe.

He started with the story of Abraham and Sarah, how they waited and prayed for a child. This was a few centuries after the flood. When a couples married in those times, part of the dowry the wife brought to the marriage was a handmaiden. The handmaiden would serve as a 2^nd wife (also called concubine). The husband was married to the handmaiden as well as the wife. (Which gives more understanding to the phrase from Mary to the Lord, (“behold the handmaiden of the Lord.”)

So after Sarah didn’t conceive, like 40 years later, she gave Hagar to Abraham and she conceived Ishmael. (the name Ishmael means God hears our prayers.)

When Sarah was past 90, she conceived Isaac. Hagar, the handmaiden was from Egypt. After Isaac was born, Hagar hated Sarah and ran away from home. An angel appeared to her and told her to go back

When Isaac was weaned at about 2 years old, it was customary to do a big celebration. By then Ishmael was about 16. (Gen 16). Ishmael was mocking and making fun of Isaac. Sarah got mad and told Abraham he needed to cast him out because he would be a bad influence on Isaac. Abraham prayed about it and the Lord told him he would take care of Ishmael and his descendants would become a great nation.

Muslims believe that Abraham was told to kill Ishmael, not Isaac. The whole thing about being saved by an angel is about Ishmael, not Isaac, according to Muslims.

The place where Isaac was sacrificed is now a historic site. Muslims want to own the site because they believe it was about Ishmael. They also believe Allah ascended from the same site. This is one of the main reasons for all the conflict in the area. They want the site back from the Jews but the Jews won’t give it up. There has been thousands of years of contention over it.

During the dark ages, Muhammed was born in Mecca, a very wicket city filled with idols. He was orphaned at 6 and sent to live with an uncle. He became a camel driver and a widow proposed to him.

Later he began to spend a lot of time in solitude, in a cave, studying and reading. He says that the angel Gabriel (who we believe to be Noah) appeared to him at about age 40 and visited him for 23 years. He hired scribes to write what he received and that became the Koran. He began teaching others and that’s where Muslims came from. The word Muslim means “One who submits to God”.

The Muslims are faithful followers of Muhammed. They love Muhammed the same way we feel about Joseph Smith.

They believe in the first 5 books of the Old Testament. They believe that Muhammed was the last and greatest prophet.

Here is some of their beliefs form the Koran:

They believe in one true God – Allah, who is without body or form

They don’t believe in the millennium

They do believe in the 2^nd coming – that God (Allah) will come down, there will be a great judgement, and we will go to heaven or hell.

They believe Jesus was one of the prophets – a great prophet and they believe in the moral teachings of the New Testament.

They believe the Bible has been changed a lot with translations and that plain and precious parts have been taken out. (so do we)

They believe that Christ didn’t resurrect, but was taken up by Allah and the whole crucifixion was a hoax.

They believe that Jesus had no father, but was like Adam.

They believe in the 10 commandments except the one about keeping the Sabbath Day Holy. They don’t believe God rested on the 7^th day because God doesn’t need to rest. That’s silly.

These are the 5 pillars of Islam. These are necessary to achieve heaven.

1.       Testimony bearing ( they call it a declaration of faith

2.       Pray always (they believe in praying 5 times a day and in their societies they stop everything when the bell rings to pray.

3.       Fast offerings  – they call it an offering to the poor and pay 2.5%

4.       Fasting - they fast every day during Ramadan.

5.       Going to the temple – they make a pilgrimage to Mecca at least once a year. Mecca is in Saudi Arabia.

6.       They don’t believe in the Holy Ghost. They think all references to the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament refer to the angel Gabriel.

7.       They do believe in Satan, called Iblis) who is a fallen angel because he refused to bow down to Adam and now works to tempt us to do wrong. It is almost true because Adam is the head of the angels.

Teachings in the Koran:

Should submit to one true God

Be grateful for everything

Talk kindly and be gracious.

Don’t start ward but defend your families

Don’t make alliances with Christians or Jews

Don’t eat pork

Don’t drink alcohol

Don’t gamble

Avoid fortune tellers

Marriage between a man and a woman is approved of God

The secret of a happy marriage is unselfishness

There should be no sex outside of marriage

Guard your private parts

Abortion is forbidden

Modesty is very important. Heads should be covered

Divorce is allowed twice

God does not love the conceited

Children are a great blessing, Believe in large families.

Polygamy is ok, up to 4 wives to provide for women who don’t have families.

If you don’t accept Islam after being taught it, I will havd to kill you.

Only 1% of muslims ae radicalized.

Al Qaeda has killed more Muslims than Christians

Some think the judgement can’t come until they wipe out all the Jews.

Resurrection day is actually the day of judgement.

The trial of the grave is that we have to remain in the grave until until judgement day.

In hell there will be no food, but scum

To be lifted up when Christ comes we have to be honest, morally clean and do good to our fellow men.

We will have perfectly matched spouses in the next life (not the same ones we have now.

There are two factions in Muslim between who should have been the leader after Muhammed, his son or a chosen replacement. The Shiites wanted to follow Muhammed’s son, the Soonies wanted a new appointed leader.

The Muslims biggest problem is that there is no central leadership, no central government. Members just study and live by the Koran and the old testament and try to do the best they can and pass it on to their families.

There is nothing in the Koran about the atonement, but there is much truth in it.

There is a different policy in our church for teaching and baptizing converts from Islam to our church, depending on what country they are in. Here we have to be sure there is no danger to their lives if they convert.

In other countries they aren’t allowed to go to church; there is no religious freedom there so they create small compounds where other religions can practice quietly.

There are 2 stakes in Abu Dhabi. They have to meet in small numbers and the government leaves them alone, but the members are always in danger. Where there is religious freedom, many Muslims are being baptized.

Elder Holland said he is perfectly comfortable accepting Muhammed as a prophet.

Zion

The pure Adamic language is what Adam spoke. He learned it from God. It was pure and undefiled meaning it didn’t have any swear words or in-appropriate words or meanings. It was not vulgar in any way.

It was what was spoken on the earth until the tower of Babel, 100 years after the flood, when languages were confused.  The Jaredites were able to keep the Adamic language even after they came to the Americas, but were killed off.

We know some words from the Adamic language –

1.       Deseret

2.       Ahman (which is a name for God. It means Man of Holiness. One of Christ’s names is Son of man of Holiness.

3.       Zion, which means Pure in heart.

We will speak the Adamic language again in the Millennium.

In Enoch they were of one heart.

The dispensations are periods of time when a new prophet was is called and God dispenses truth and authority. The main dispensations have been Adam, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Moses, the Apostles (or Christ’s time), and Joseph Smith.

Each dispensation had a period of apostasy between them. The dispensation of the apostles to Joseph Smith was 100 AD to 1820 AD.

Remember the dispensations with Adam Eats Nuts And Melon And Jam

Enoch was before the flood, born in a righteous family but in a wicked world all around.

Cain beame the first son of Perdition. Seth replaced Abel – the name Seth means replacement

Seth was 69 when called to be prophet

Enos was 134

Cainan was 187

Mahalaleel was 496

Jared was 200

Enoch was 25 – the youngest to be called. Enoch was a child prodigy. His name means “walk with me” God said he would protect him. When he started preaching to the people, they said, “A wild man has come upon us.” But some believed and others tried to hurt him. Enoch has the sealing power to make the earth tremble, mountains flee. (Moses 6 & 7) He was commanded to build a city to where they could be protected and safe. They lived and improved thee 365 years before they got to the pont that they were taken up.

Neal Maxwell wrote a book, “Enoch’s Letters” showing what it might have been like in the City of Enoch living the law of consecration. All deeded their property and belongs to the Bishop and then were given back just what they needed. It can be compared to a really good pot luck dinner.

There are other times when people lived the consecrated lives, Acts 2:44 and 4 Nephi.

Enoch wanted others to be happy. No cheating, lying, no cutting in line. The city was moved to a terrestrial neighborhood. All were translated, meaning they are immortal but weren’t resurrected until Christ resurrected. That means they were changed in the twinkling of an eye. In the mean time they are ministering angels to other planets and will return in the millennium. Their city was where the Gulf of Mexico is and it will be put back in that place.

The city of Enoch is a type and shadow of things to come. The New Jerusalem will be in Independence, Missouri which is where the Garden of Eden was. It was a temple in that God walked and talked to them there and taught the Plan of Salvation. Thanks to Satan, Independence became the bloodiest place when the extermination order was given.

The saints wanted o build the New Jerusalem but weren’t ready – they still had too much contention.

The Arc was built in North Carolina & landed in the Middle East.

D&C 58:44  says the time has not come for many years for the New Jerusalem to be built. Part of the reason they weren’t ready was that they hadn’t yet been endowed and didn’t have the protection of their garments against Satan.

Joseph Smith’s code name was Enoch whenever he needed to hide. In D&C sometimes it refers to him. as Enoch. He is like the next Enoch.

A good object lesson:

Get a punch bowl or glass bowl. Fill with water, then add a lot of dirt which represents the temptations of mortality. When you add a peeled orange, it will sink and get dirty. But if you add an orange with a peel, it will float, keeping it unspotted from the worldly dirt. The peels represent wearing garments.

To build the City of Zion, The Army of Israel has to be

Endowed: Now we have 150 temples so there are many people with their endowments.

We have to be a tithing paying people, which we are

We have to be ready to live the Law of consecration.

We have to be ready to serve – we are being tested now to see if we will serve – there are 70,000 missionaries

We are more generous than ever. She said we should go to Welfare Square – it is the most inspirational place to visit. It is a light to the world

The church changed the 3-fold mission of the church to a 4-fold mission. They added “care for poor”

They changed “missionary work” to “Gather Israel.

10 times in the D&C the saints were told to buy land. Now the Church has been buying lots of lands for farming, cattle, orchards, vineyards to grow food for our people.

Isaiah said “Enlarge the place of thy tent.” Which means the church. The tent (church) is for shelter and safety. We have stakes set up everywhere. After the stakes are strong, then the center stake (the pole in the middle) will be set up. That will be the New Jerusalem.

Moses 7 says my people will prepare a New City before the 2^nd coming.

The Savior will lead us to the New Jerusalem (before His coming), through inspiration.

It is a myth that we will have to walk to the New Jerusalem. That's why airplanes, cars and trains were invented.

The younger people now ay see it being built in their lifetime.

People will be called to build the city. We already have lots of land there. The center will have a 24 complex temple (Journal of Discourses)

D&C 45 talks about the New Jerusalem. It will be the only place where people won’t be at war with each other. There will be so much light and glory that the wicked won’t be comfortable there. It will be protected by a cloud of smoke by day and fire of flame by night.

The New Jerusalem will be prepared as a bride for her bridegroom. In the New Jerusalem Zion will be again rise like the City of Enoch and will be taken up to meet Christ in the 2^nd coming. Hymn #41

The temples now are built to last through the millennium.

The purpose and goal of the Church is to build up Zion. We need to serve, and pray for Zion ot come. We need to be a Zion person – one who could live the United Order. We need to want to serve others. In family council we can ask “How can we help --- family?” A family council is basically family around the dinner table where someone asks the discussion question.

Laurel prayed in family prayer one night, “Help us not to have contention.”. the kids asked what “contention” was and started praying for that in every prayer.

We need to become a Zion family and be ready to live in Zion.

Angels

From class by Laurel Lawrence

There are two types of angels:

1.     Ministering spirits, who are people who know and love us. They are not clothed in a body - they are either not yet born or deceased. 

a.      In the Pearl of Great Price, an angel talked to Adam. That angel had not yet been born.

b.     Moses 5 says the Gospel will be declared by holy angels not yet born.

c.      Deceased – Angel Gabriel (Noah) appeared to Mary and Zacharias.

d.     Joseph Smith appeared to Brigham Young

2.     Resurrected beings can appear in glory or can hide their glory.

a.       On the road to Emmaus, Christ hid his glory

b.      Moroni appeared glowing to Joseph Smith.

Be not afraid to entertain strangers because they may be angels.

Ministering spirits have no body; they are just light, but don’t have as much light – D&C 129

Michael (Adam) is the head angel or archangel. There has to be a leader, same as Elder Nelson is the head of the Quorum of the Twelve. Cherubim & Seraphim are ranks of angels.

Does everyone have a guardian angel? No, but when we need them they are sent.

Joseph F Smith was orphaned at 14.  Mary Fielding & Martha saw their deceased parents riding horses. Their heads were veiled to hide their glow.

It is a gift of the spirit to be able to see angels & ministering spirits – Moroni 10:14. We can receive the spiritual gift if we seek it.

Angels have special assignments to watch over children.

They watch over our children while we are at the temple.

We should keep our house clean so angels can visit. They will not go in unclean places.

David Whitmer wanted to take in Joseph Smith but had to finish his harvest work first. During the night the work got finished so he could leave 3 days sooner.

Martin Handcart company said sometimes they could feel angels pushing their carts.

Harold B Lee was in a plane and felt someone put hands on his head. When he landed they found he had suffered a brain hemorrhage, but was saved because of the blessing.

When Pat Holland (from book “On Earth As it is in Heaven”, was a child when her parents were called to serve in the temple. She had to care for her siblings. They were promised that “angels would come”. The grandmother came by once and as she was leaving, she ran over the baby, panicked and pulled back forward, running over her the 2^nd time. The baby was rushed (2 hours) to the hospital and lived. She remembered feeling the car being lifted off her.

When Lawrences were in Russia, she had a deep desire to study the history of the people. She looked and looked for a book in English of their history but couldn’t find one anywhere. One day, when Larry left she was home alone. She made sure all the doors were locked. They lived on the 7^th floor. She went to bed and in the morning found a book on the table, Concise history of Russia, in English.

When we take the Sacrament worthily, we are promised the right to the ministering of angels. The Aaronic Priesthood holds the keys to the ministering of angels.

Oaks said by patient covenant keeping, answers are revealed.