All
suffering and all endurance of this life denotes the very purpose of God, to exalt
his children. All that is asked of us, our sacrifices, our suffering, our
difficulties, our development and our progression is God’s work and His glory, “to
bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man” (Moses 1:7). The next
level of our purpose in life is to become gods ourselves.
This is a
hard doctrine for many people to believe that mere man can rise to such stature.
I once wrote on Facebook that God’s purpose is to exalt His children to godhood
and enraged one reader who claimed there is only one God and ever will be and
therefore we are a Church of blasphemy. The funny thing is, deep down in us are
seeds of the very idea. I have been watching a lot of AI generated historical
periods. The Roman Empire in particular is a very interesting time. Everybody
it seemed was vying for the position of pharaoh even though the risk of being
murdered was exceptionally high. The most interesting thing is that many pharaohs
proclaimed themselves to be gods.
When Moses
encountered God on Mt Sinai, God showed him all the worlds He had made and
Moses was astonished and proclaimed: “Now, for this cause I know that man is
nothing, which thing I never had supposed” (Moses 1:10). Having been raised in
an Egyptian court, Moses was trained to believe there is none greater than the Pharoah….until
he saw God and what He can do and by this he concluded that man is nothing. God
then repeated the vision of all His works to ensure that Moses understood the
purpose of all His creations was to exalt His children (Moses 1:7).
To rise to
such heights as godhood, the price has to be paid. The Saviour has paved the
way but He could not make us godly. Only we can do that by accepting all the
tutoring that God will give and all that we will give in return.
We are told
that: 1. we must be chastened and tried, even as Abraham was, who was commanded
to offer up his only son and if we will not endure chastening but deny God, we
cannot be sanctified (D&C 101:4-5); and 2. We will be proven in all things
even unto death by abiding in His covenant (D&C 98:12-15).
“This seems
like such a high standard. Why must one be tested and chastened before he can
be sanctified? Why can a person not be worthy of God unless he is willing to
abide in the covenant even to death? To understand these questions and to gain
greater insight into why Abraham had to prove himself, think in the eternal
perspective for a moment. Imagine the disastrous consequences of making a
person a god who was not perfect in every respect.
“How would
the universe survive if it were controlled by a god who could not withstand
even intense pressure? Where would we be now if our God had not been disposed
to endure the suffering of seeing His Only Begotten Son go to the cross? If
Abraham had failed his test, he would have lost his position.
“If God the
Father had failed the same test there would have been no Atonement and all
mankind would have “become subject to that angel who fell from before the
presence of the Eternal God, and became the devil….And our spirits must have
become like unto him, and we become devils….to be shut out from the presence of
our God.” (2 Nephi 9:8-9)
-
(Old Testament Student Manual, Genesis – 2 Samuel, p
79)
In other words, we must give our all for God to give
His all…..the bar is high but help is near and the eternal in us yearns to be
more than this mortal sphere can give us. The Saviour made sure our purpose has
an eternal destination.
If not for You,
Where would I be?
I would belong to the enemy.
If not for You,
Where would I be?
I would be lost in obscurity.
If not for You,
Where would I be?
As death would claim me for eternity.
- CATHRYNE ALLEN
