The Plan of Salvation (or progression from pre-existence to eternity)


JohnsonJones
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Can anyone help me locating the sorse of this quote supposedly given by Harold B. Lee? So, there are 2 parts:
1)"We will be in the kingdom in which we are comfortable. Here in the eighty-eighth section of the Doctrine and Covenants, the Lord is speaking of the various states to which we will go [when we die]. He says, "And they who are not sanctified through the law which I have given unto you, even the law of Christ, must inherit another kingdom, even that of a terrestrial kingdom, or that of a telestial kingdom" (D&C 88:21). This is logic; listen to this: "For he who is not able to abide the law of a celestial kingdom cannot abide a celestial glory" (D&C 88:22). That makes sense, doesn't it?

2) If you couldn't live the law of the gospel here, you wouldn't be very happy in the celestial kingdom where that is required over there, would you? You would have to be more comfortable in another place. If you couldn't live the law of the terrestrial kingdom, you couldn't abide that law of the terrestrial kingdom. You would have to abide the law of the telestial kingdom." (Teachings of Harold B. Lee)

I have located part 2 (it's actually in the book of his teachings), but I have a hard time locating the source of part 1 (and this is the one that's being quoted a lot in our mission). Is it even a real quote - about gaining the kingdom one feels comfortable in? I have seen this quote only on one forum so far. Am I searching wrong?

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Teachings of Harold B Lee, chapter 2 - Plan of Salvation, near the top of page 76, the 8th paragraph from the end of the chapter. 

We will be in the kingdom in which we are comfortable. Here in the eighty-eighth section of the Doctrine and Covenants, the Lord is speaking of the various states to which we will go [when we die]. He says, "And they who are not sanctified through the law which I have given unto you, even the law of Christ, must inherit another kingdom, even that of a terrestrial kingdom, or that of a telestial kingdom" (D&C 88:21). This is logic; listen to this: "For he who is not able to abide the law of a celestial kingdom cannot abide a celestial glory" (D&C 88:22). That makes sense, doesn't it? If you couldn't live the law of the gospel here, you wouldn't be very happy in the celestial kingdom where that is required over there, would you? You would have to be more comfortable in another place. If you couldn't live the law of the terrestrial kingdom, you couldn't abide that law of the terrestrial kingdom. You would have to abide the law of the telestial kingdom. (72-44)

Man is clay in the Potter's hand. "But now, O Lord, thou art our father; we are the clay, and thou our potter; and we all are the work of thy hand" (Isaiah 64:8). I've read that verse many times but had not received the full significance until I was down in Mexico a few years ago at Telacapaca, where the people mold clay into various kinds of pottery. There I saw them take clay that had been mixed by crude, primitive methods, the molder wading in the mud to mix it properly. Then it was put upon a potter's wheel and the potter began to fashion the intricate bits of pottery, which he was to place on the market. And as we watched, we saw occasionally, because of some defect in the mixing, the necessity for pulling the whole lump of clay apart and throwing it back in to be mixed over again, and sometimes the process had to be repeated several times before the mud was properly mixed.

With that in mind, I began to see the meaning of this scripture. Yes, we too have to be tried and tested by poverty, by sickness, by the death of loved ones, by temptation, sometimes by the betrayal of supposed friends, by affluence and riches, by ease and luxury, by false educational ideas, and by the flattery of the world. (56-07, p. 114)

The Lord has given us talents to use on His behalf. Someone asked a great surgeon, "How does it feel to have the power of life and death in your hands as you operate?" The surgeon answered, "I never feel that way. When I was a young, cocksure surgeon, I was proud of my ability and my record. Then one day I had to make a split-second decision. I wasn't correct. For some time, I wouldn't operate. As I sat depressed, thinking of my failure, it suddenly came to me, in all humility, that God had given me these hands, had given me these brains, not to be wasted. I prayed to Him then to let me have another chance. I still do. I pray each time I take a scalpel in hand, 'Guide my hands, O Lord, and give me of thy knowledge.' You see, He is the famous surgeon. I am only His servant."

He is also the famous architect. He is also the greatest of all teachers. Did you ever think that scientists have discovered anything that God didn't already know? Think of it. He has given you and me hands. He has given you and me brains, and He hasn't given them to us to waste. He expects us to lean on Him and exercise to the best of our ability in order to use them righteously in righteous purposes. (72-21)

When it is celestialized, earth will be the location of our heaven. As an example of the doubts and the vain philosophies in the minds of some of our young people I want to read you a few statements contained in an article that appeared in a publication from our own state university during the last few weeks: "Heaven is for children. To the child's mind it is real. For the adult it belongs to the world of fantasy and make-believe. If we have become adults we have left the idea of heaven behind. Perhaps the only mature individual who finds the everyday exhilarating and promising is the one who has supplanted his childhood beliefs in another worldly heaven with confidence in a heaven on earth. The modern world is concerned chiefly with ethics rather than with theology, with better living than with the methodical analysis of the hereafter."

I suspect that that young student was thinking of the kind of heaven that too frequently is pictured, which requires much hymn singing and ever so much praying with rows and rows of saints kneeling in perpetual adoration as a continuous occupation; and perhaps his idea of God and the Creator is similar to that which has been expressed by one writer who spoke of God as "a sleepless active energy that actuates all things, so small and yet so complex as to dwell in the wonderful energies of life and sound and electricity, in the vital processes of human and animal form, in the motivating influences of the human heart," and so on. Such a one, who believes thus, would have no faith in the teachings of the scriptures or an understanding of their import. To one such the Church of Jesus Christ would be relegated to a mere organization of man, lacking either the reason for or the authority to administer the ordinances of salvation.

Heaven, as we have usually conceived it, is the dwelling place of the righteous, after they have left this earth life, and the place where God and Christ dwell. Of this happy state the Apostle Paul said, "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him" (1 Corinthians 2:9). The location of the place was made clear by the revelations of the Lord to us in this day when He said that the earth was to be the abiding place of those who were to inherit the celestial glory and that it would be cleansed from impurity in order to become that holy place. How the earth was to be prepared for that condition is indicated in brief visions recorded by a prophet who said he "saw a new heaven and a new earth" (see Revelation 21:1-4). Another said, "And the end shall come, and the heaven and the earth shall be consumed and pass away, and there shall be a new heaven and a new earth" (D&C 29:23). (44-02, p. 284)

Edited by askandanswer
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