The Vitality of Mormonism: Brief Essays on Distinctive Doctrines of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day SaintsTalmage, James E. (James Edward)
Religion
The Vitality of Mormonism: Brief Essays on Distinctive Doctrines of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Talmage, James E. (James Edward)
Latter Day Saint churches; Latter Day Saints
Marriage that shall be valid after death must be solemnized here, as
must all other ordinances required of men in the flesh, and that under
the authority given of God for earthly administration. The resurrected
state of those, otherwise worthy, who are wedded for mortality alone
and that under laws created by man, is set forth in both ancient and
modern Scripture as that of angels or ministers, unblessed by eternal
increase:
"For these angels did not abide my law, therefore they cannot be
enlarged, but remain separately and singly, without exaltation, in
their saved condition, to all eternity, and from henceforth are not
Gods, but are angels of God, for ever and ever." (D&C 132:17.)
-- 64 --
THERE WAS WAR IN HEAVEN
Primeval Conflict Over Satanic Autocracy
"AND there was war in heaven; Michael and his angels fought against
the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, And prevailed not;
neither was their place found any more in heaven." See Rev. 12:7-9.
John the Revelator beheld in vision this scene of primeval conflict
between the hosts of unembodied spirits. Plainly this battle antedated
the beginning of human history, for the dragon or Satan had not then
been expelled from heaven, and at the time of his first recorded
activity among mortals he was a fallen being.
In this antemortal contest the forces were unequally divided; Satan
drew to his standard only a third of the spirit children of God (Rev.
12:4; D&C 29:36-38 and 76:25-27), while the majority either fought
with Michael or refrained from active opposition, and so accomplished
the purpose of their "first estate." The angels who followed Satan
"kept not their first estate" (Jude 6) and so forfeited the glorious
possibilities of an advanced or "second estate." (Pearl of Great Price,
p. 66.) The victory was won by Michael and his angels; and Satan,
theretofore a "son of the morning," was cast out of heaven, yea "he was
cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him." (Rev.
12:9.)
About eight centuries prior to John's time, the principal facts of
these momentous occurrences were revealed to Isaiah the prophet, who
lamented with inspired pathos the fall of so great a one as Lucifer,
and specified selfish ambition as the cause. Read Isa. 14:12-15.
The question at issue in the war in heaven is of first importance to
human-kind. From the record of Isaiah we learn that Lucifer, then
of exalted rank among the spirits, sought to aggrandize himself
without regard to the rights and agency of others. He aspired to the
unrighteous powers of absolute autocracy. The principle for which
Michael, the archangel contended, and which Lucifer sought to nullify,
comprised the individual liberties or the free agency of the spirit
hosts destined to be embodied in the flesh. The whole matter is set
forth in a revelation given to Moses and repeated through Joseph Smith,
the first prophet of the present dispensation:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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