…there is something incomplete about us. And so we yearn for fullness. If every question had a ready answer, there would be no reaching in prayer. If every pain had an easy cure, there would be no thirst for salvation. If every loss was restored, there would be no desire for heaven. As long as these needs remain, so will religion. It is a natural part of life. To be human means to experience uncertainty, sorrow and death. Religion, however, is a school for making sense of chaos, a hospital for healing unseen wounds, a lifeline that gives us second chances.

The article claims that religion is not merely a creation of humans suffering hardship and wondering how the universe works.  In good times and bad, humans search for the higher power they intuitively know exists.  “Ludwig Wittgenstein wrote: ‘To believe in God means to see that the facts of the world are not the end of the matter.’”[4]

Belief imbues life with meaning, a “higher sense of purpose,” which bears fruit in charitable giving and service, an increase of love for others.  Those raised without or living without a spiritual aspect in their lives often reach a point when they glance around at the material world, its works and requirements, and wonder, “Is this all there is”?  I reached this point at the age of 15.

Suddenly, the world seemed empty, and I began to feel a deep yearning, unquenchable and becoming more desperate, for finding my spiritual roots and something above this earth I could naturally reach for. I began to investigate various Christian religions, having more or less accepted Christ as I grew up in a Christian-based society.  Although I enjoyed every church service I experienced, it wasn’t until I attended a youth conference at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints that I felt spiritual power flowing into me.  It said, very powerfully, that this was the place for which I was searching, I was home.

At the time, I knew nothing about the Mormons, their doctrines or practices. If this was to be a spiritual learning curve, then I was certainly at square one.  But the spiritual experience I had received was overwhelming and real, and only increased as the evening progressed, and various church members told their individual stories.  I felt it continually, but it refreshed me anew when I read and prayed about the Book of Mormon.  At 16, with my parents finally relenting, I was baptized a member of the Church.

Continual Blessings of the Spirit

It’s been 50 years since I was baptized. I married in a Mormon temple and raised six children in the faith.  Having come of age in the sixties, I know joining The Church of Jesus Christ, with its emphasis on clean living and help through the Gift of the Holy Ghost, saved me from the sinful trends that were rife during the decade.  I doubt I would have had one marriage or the myriad blessings I now enjoy had I not found the “restored gospel” in my mid-teens.

We had a lot of fun raising our children, and we did so in four countries.  Being a member of the Church and following the guidance of the Holy Spirit has made our lives more adventurous, not less.  All of our children are active in the faith and continuing the focus on a global culture at the same time.  I can’t imagine raising children without prayer and the constant inspiration I received from the Holy Ghost, and the healing power of the true priesthood of God. Personal revelation has been an abiding help.  But you have to ask for it in prayer.  It’s hard for me to see how people mutter through with only their own logic to help them with decisions.

So I know about spiritual yearning, and am so grateful those yearnings led me to the true and living God, and to His Son, Jesus Christ.

You have to know, before I tell you my story, that I was an un-athletic child.  I seemed to know from the beginning that I couldn’t trust my slow reflexes and weak muscles for any sort of endeavor requiring speed and strength.  In elementary school we had to play softball with the boys.  I couldn’t pitch the ball from home plate to the pitcher’s mound on a softball diamond sized for little kids.  I always batted the ball directly to first base, and as slowly as it traveled, I couldn’t keep up with it.  The first baseman would patiently wait for me to gain on him before tagging me out.

I did, however, love swimming, and excelled at water ballet.  Afraid to do any trick dives into the pool, I did, however, manage a single back flip off the low springboard.  I could never do a front flip, though.  I never had the power to get all the way over.  This is important information for my story. Just so you know…

The Story of the Accident

The Europeans accuse us Americans of building our houses the way they build chicken coops  out of sticks of wood.  This makes them soft and safe, however.  You can bang your head on the wall, and the wall gets dented instead of your head.  Yes, our houses burn easily and blow over in storms, but they are easy to repair, and any girl can hang her own pictures, experimenting with the smallest nails and covering the holes in the flimsy drywall with the artwork.  In Europe houses are stone and plaster and you need a drill and a screw.  Heaven forbid you should make a mistake.

We were living in one such house, Americans living abroad.  The floors were a gorgeous stone and the walls were plaster over stone.  The ceilings were very high, because the summers were hot  the warm air needed to rise.  But those floors were killers  cold as ice in the winter, and lethal if you fell and hit your head.  We had been to the emergency room many times with our toddlers, and we weren’t alone.  People all around us were having rough encounters with walls and floors.   It just seemed like every surface was so hard  out to get you, almost.

One night I stayed up late doing needlework.  The light in the den was the only light on in the house.  My husband and oldest son were off exploring Egypt, and the other kids and two college-age guests were asleep.  At night I would always leave the light on in the vestibule between the main part of the house and a family room on the other side.  This vestibule was on the far side of a stairwell leading down to the under-house garage, and the ceiling-light there was enough to lend an unenthusiastic, but useful, glow to both sides of the house.  As I finished my project and decided to head to bed, I intended to go and turn on that light.  I extinguished the den light and proceeded to make my way through utter darkness to the vestibule.  I grabbed the door jam with my right hand and swung around to slap my left hand on the light switch on the wall on the right.  Somehow I missed.  I had done it a thousand times, knew exactly where it was.  Maybe I hadn’t reached far enough.

I knew the house well.  I hadn’t needed to feel my way through the blackness.  I knew exactly where I was going as I headed to the vestibule.  I was extremely puzzled by my inability to tap the light switch, but decided it must be a couple of steps forward, which I then took.

Question: When a person steps forward in the dark, not realizing she is at the top of a stairway, how many stairs does she hit on the way down?

Answer: None.

The Story of the Miracle

I had stepped forward fully expecting the floor to continue under my feet, thinking I was in the vestibule.  Unfortunately, I was in the stairwell.  The fourteen stone stairs made their way down against the right- hand plastered stone wall.  On the left, there was no railing, but a series of vertical painted steel bars the size of American two-by-fours all the way to the ceiling.  At the bottom of the stairwell was a patch of stone floor about 30” square and a facing plastered stone wall.  With no forward thrust at all, I did a front flip through space and landed with my hips squarely in the angle where the floor met the basement wall, with my legs up the wall.  Instantly, I breathed a sigh of relief.  I was OK.  Then my torso curled to the right and my head hit the floor hard.  My scalp split to the right of center back.  The hard hit interrupted my relief, and I became hyper-aware.  I crumpled back over to the left and began to assess my situation, blood pouring from my scalp wound.

First, I realized how fortunate I was to be conscious.  Had I been seriously injured or killed, my kids would have found me in the morning.  Scalp wounds bleed precipitously.  There would be blood everywhere.  Pour kids would be emotionally scarred for life.  I mumbled a prayer of thanks, used a piece of clothing to stanch the bleeding, and made my way upstairs to awaken our guests.  They cleaned up the mess and called someone to take me to the hospital.

My resulting injuries were a scalp laceration needing six stitches, a concussion that took some months to recover from, hips out of alignment that required a few visits to a physical therapist, and a broken fingernail.  My husband and son returned from Egypt the next day.  I tried to re-enact the event and explain what had happened, my husband’s eyes as big as saucers.  At the bottom of the stairs, I set myself down into my final landing position, legs up the wall, and realized my torso didn’t fit into the 30” square of floor.  I should have landed with the back of my head squarely striking the bottom stair.  I should have been killed.  And that fall.  At the beginning I should have reached back and tried to stop myself as I realized I was falling.  But I never did realize I was falling.  I should have scrambled and groveled all the way down, bouncing and slamming on every stair, but instead, I had flown.  Angels had carried me and placed me, almost gently, in this life-saving position.  My life had been in the balance.  I had been miraculously saved.

At the Very Moment You Need God, He is There

I read a story once about a girl who was an atheist.  She was hiking with friends and had become separated from them.  Somehow, she fell into something like quicksand and was sinking fast.  No one heard her screams for help.  Realizing that death was imminent, she instinctively cried out to some higher power that could save her.  She “heard” or felt a voice from on high that gave her exact instructions on how to extricate herself from her dire situation.  She is no longer an atheist.

I realized that God knew I was in that stairwell in the dark.  His angels were there to carry me through the air the very second I needed them.  That means they know, He knows, where I am every minute of my life.  He is there when I need Him, always.

He knows where you are, too.  If you reach out to Him, He will reach out to you.

Most members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (inadvertently called the Mormon Church) will recognize this as an object lesson on the resurrection. Every human being is comprised of a physical body (the glove) and a spirit (the hand). When we die, the spirit leaves the body (remove the glove), which causes the body (the glove) to lose its source of life: the spirit (the hand). Through resurrection, body and spirit are reunited to live forever in perfected form, never to die again.

Jesus Christ, the First to Be Resurrected

The resurrection of all God’s children—every person who has lived, is living, or will yet live—is made possible through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. In our premortal life with our Heavenly Father, Jesus was designated as the Savior who would redeem us from the effects of the fall of Adam—which brought mortality, sin, and death into the world. Jesus declared that He would lay down His life and take it up again. (See John 10:15–18.)

The New Testament records several accounts of those who saw the resurrected Lord; for instance:

• Mary Magdalene (John 20:16–17)

• Other women (Mark 16:1)

• His apostles (Matthew 28:16–19; Luke 24:42–43; John 20:26–28; John 21:1–24)

• Peter (1 Corinthians 15:5)

• Five hundred men (1 Corinthians 15:6)

• James (1 Corinthians 15:7)

• Paul (1 Corinthians 15:8)

• Stephen (Acts 7:55)

Christ also visited the Nephites (3 Nephi 11 through 26) in the New World. Joseph Smith, the first president of The Church of Jesus Christ, saw Him many times. (See Joseph Smith—History 1:17, for example.) Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery (an early Church leader) recorded one of the more descriptive accounts of Jesus Christ:

We saw the Lord standing upon the breastwork of the pulpit, before us; and under his feet was a paved work of pure gold, in color like amber.

His eyes were as a flame of fire; the hair of his head was white like the pure snow; his countenance shone above the brightness of the sun; and his voice was as the sound of the rushing of great waters, even the voice of Jehovah, saying:

I am the first and the last; I am he who liveth, I am he who was slain; I am your advocate with the Father (Doctrine and Covenants 110:1–4).

What Happens to Spirits after Death?

The Book of Mormon teaches that there is “a space betwixt the time of death and time of the resurrection” (Alma 40:6):

Now, concerning the state of the soul between death and the resurrection—Behold, it has been made known unto me by an angel, that the spirits of all men, as soon as they are departed from this mortal body, yea, the spirits of all men, whether they be good or evil, are taken home to that God who gave them life.

And then shall it come to pass, that the spirits of those who are righteous are received into a state of happiness, which is called paradise, a state of rest, a state of peace, where they shall rest from all their troubles and from all care, and sorrow.

And then shall it come to pass, that the spirits of the wicked, yea, who are evil—for behold, they have no part or portion of the Spirit of the Lord . . . and these shall be cast out into outer darkness; there shall be weeping, and wailing, and gnashing of teeth, and this because of their own iniquity, being led captive by the will of the devil.

Now this is the state of the souls of the wicked, yea, in darkness, and a state of awful, fearful looking for the fiery indignation of the wrath of God upon them; thus they remain in this state, as well as the righteous in paradise, until the time of their resurrection. . . .

There is a space between death and the resurrection of the body, and a state of the soul in happiness or in misery until the time which is appointed of God that the dead shall come forth, and be reunited, both soul and body, and be brought to stand before God, and be judged according to their works.  (Alma 40:6, 11–14, 21)

During this time, all beings will be given the chance to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ and to accept Him as their Savior. (See Doctrine and Covenants 138:19–37.) Mormons believe this is a time for preparing God’s children for judgment and resurrection.  Spirits of men and women in the spirit world awaiting resurrection have just as much freedom of choice as they did on earth, and thus, they can repent after learning the doctrines of Christ.  Since Christ’s atonement and visit to the spirit world, spirits in spirit prison who repent, move to spirit paradise to await resurrection.

The Beginning of the Resurrection of Mankind

Latter-day revelation teaches that the first resurrection began immediately after Jesus Christ was resurrected, when the righteous dead who had lived from the day of Adam to the time of Christ arose with him. (See Doctrine and Covenants 133: 54–55.) The New Testament bears the same testimony:

“And, behold the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent; And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose, And came out of the graves after his resurrection” (Matthew 27:51–53).

The Righteous Resurrected at the Second Coming of Christ

This first resurrection will continue at the time of Christ’s second coming to the earth:

And the saints that are upon the earth, who are alive, shall be quickened and be caught up to meet him.

And they who have slept in their graves shall come forth, for their graves shall be opened; and they also shall be caught up to meet him in the midst of the pillar of heaven—

They are Christ’s, the first fruits. (Doctrine and Covenants 88:96–98)

The Timing of the Second Resurrection

The rest of those spirits who wait for resurrection, who are part of the resurrection of the unjust (Doctrine and Covenants 76:17), or as John calls it, “the resurrection of damnation” (John 5:29), shall come forth after a period of a thousand years—the millennial period of peace and righteousness when Christ will reign personally upon the earth and fully establish the kingdom of God on the earth. (See Doctrine and Covenants 88:101; 133:25).

“In My Father’s House Are Many Mansions . . .”

Joseph Smith revealed that the word mansions is better translated as kingdoms.¹ Latter-day revelation defines and describes those main kingdoms of glory as celestial, terrestrial, and telestial, with divisions within these kingdoms. (See Doctrine and Covenants 76.)

Each person is assigned a kingdom according to God’s judgment of his life, his obedience, and his desires. Each of God’s children will receive glory according to his or her ability to abide that glory, and according to the person’s comfort. (See Doctrine and Covenants 88:20–33.) “For what doth it profit a man if a gift is bestowed upon him, and he receive not the gift? Behold, he rejoices not in that which is given unto him, neither rejoices in him who is the giver of the gift” (Doctrine and Covenants 88:33).

Conclusion

Our Father in Heaven planned for our eternal fullness of joy. He intended for His children to rejoin Him in His heavenly home after their earth life to live with Him eternally. He has revealed His plan of salvation through revelation. Through His plan, He has provided comfort, direction, and blessings to help His children come home.

Note:

1. Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, comp. Joseph Fielding Smith (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1938), 366.

There are thousands of Christian churches on the earth today. Although many churches have similarities in beliefs, there are also a number of differences in doctrinal teachings. Nephi, an ancient American prophet whose teachings are found in the Book of Mormon—which is another testament of Jesus Christ and a companion scripture to the Bible—said concerning the Bible that “the things which were written were plain and pure, and most precious and easy to the understanding of all men” (1 Nephi 14:23). But, Nephi said, “There are many plain and precious things taken away from the book (1 Nephi 13:28). The doctrinal differences of churches today stem from the various interpretations of the Bible—which are a result of the “plain and precious things taken away” from the Bible.

How does this happen? Elder Dallin H. Oaks, a member of The Quorum of The Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ (along with the First Presidency, the governing body of the Church), illustrates how information is lost through time. He tells the story of a once great ancient city that had been buried by desert sands and eventually “forgotten for hundreds of years” before being unearthed in modern times.

Discoveries like this contradict the common assumption that knowledge increases with the passage of time. In fact, on some matters the general knowledge of mankind regresses as some important truths are distorted or ignored and eventually forgotten. For example, the American Indians were in many respects more successful at living in harmony with nature than our modern society. Similarly, modern artists and craftsmen have been unable to recapture some of the superior techniques and materials of the past, like the varnish on a Stradivarius violin.

 

We would be wiser if we could restore the knowledge of some important things that have been distorted, ignored, or forgotten. This also applies to religious knowledge. It explains the need for the gospel restoration we proclaim.

Defining ‘The Great Apostasy’

Following the death of Jesus Christ and His Apostles, there was a “falling away” from the fullness of the gospel as teachings were distorted and changed, and some “plain and precious” parts of the gospel were lost.

The late President James E. Faust, then second counselor in the First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ, said,

 With this falling away, priesthood keys were lost, and some precious doctrines of the Church organized by the Savior were changed. Among these were baptism by immersion; receiving the Holy Ghost by the laying on of hands;  the nature of the Godhead—that They are three distinct personages; all mankind will be resurrected through the Atonement of Christ, ‘both … the just and the unjust’ (Acts 24:15); continuous revelation—that the heavens are not closed;  and temple work for the living and the dead. The period that followed came to be known as the Dark Ages.

“The Great Apostasy,” as it is called in The Church of Jesus Christ, is the time following the death of Christ’s Apostles when the fullness of the gospel—including the priesthood (defined as the power and authority to act in God’s name)—was no longer on the earth.

 The Reformation Prepared the Way

The work of religious believers during the Christian Reformation period, such as translating the Bible into the languages of the common people, helped to pave the way for the Restoration of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

A reformation is a reforming, or changing, of the way in which something is done. A restoration is to restore, or to bring something back.

President Faust continued,

In the centuries that followed, religious men came to recognize that there had been a gradual falling away from the Church organized by Jesus Christ. Some of them suffered greatly for their beliefs, in what came to be called the Reformation, a sixteenth-century movement that aimed at reforming Western Christianity. This resulted in the separation of the Protestant churches from the main Christian church.

Although the Reformers saw the need and tried to bring back the fullness of the gospel of Jesus Christ, they lacked the power to do so. There are a couple of shows on the History Channel where men restore items to their former glory—old cars, vending machines, etc. Before the men can restore these items, they have to prepare them by sanding, buffing and scraping off the old paint. They also have to check to see which parts need to be replaced and which are still in working order. All of the components must be in place before the restoration can occur. It was the same way with the Reformation and Restoration of the gospel. While the Reformers lacked the power from Jesus Christ to restore the fullness of His gospel, they saw the need and helped to prepare the way for the Restoration. Their efforts and sacrifices helped to bring about the full Restoration of the gospel.

President Gordon B. Hinckley, then president of The Church of Jesus Christ, said,

Reformers worked to change the church, notably such men as Luther, Melanchthon, Hus, Zwingli, and Tyndale. These were men of great courage, some of whom suffered cruel deaths because of their beliefs. Protestantism was born with its cry for reformation. When that reformation was not realized, the reformers organized churches of their own. They did so without priesthood authority. Their one desire was to find a niche in which they might worship God as they felt He should be worshiped.

 

While this great ferment was stirring across the Christian world, political forces were also at work. Then came the American Revolutionary War, resulting in the birth of a nation whose constitution declared that government should not reach its grasping hand into matters of religion. A new day had dawned, a glorious day. Here there was no longer a state church. No one faith was favored above another. After centuries of darkness and pain and struggle, the time was ripe for the restoration of the gospel.

 The Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ

The scriptures teach: “Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets” (Amos 3:7). During the time of the Great Apostasy, there were no prophets on the earth. The heavens were closed, so to speak, without a living prophet on the earth with whom God could communicate His will for His people (although personal revelation and inspiration continued in all ages).

The scriptures tell us how the Lord calls and speaks to His prophets. In 1 Samuel 3:2-10, the boy Samuel is living with the prophet Eli. Samuel is asleep and hears a voice calling his name. Believing it to be Eli, Samuel goes to the prophet and says, “Here I am.” Eli tells Samuel to go back to bed because he didn’t call him. So Samuel goes back to bed. This happens two more times. The third time, “Eli perceived that the Lord had called the child. Therefore Eli said unto Samuel, Go, lie down: and it shall be, if he call thee, thou shalt say, Speak, Lord; for thy servant heareth. So Samuel went and lay down in his place. And the Lord came, and stood, and called as at other times, Samuel, Samuel. Then Samuel answered, Speak; for thy servant heareth” (v. 8-10).

The Lord spoke directly to Samuel, called him by name, and instructed Samuel in what he was to do. In 1820, a young boy named Joseph Smith had a similar experience. “The heavens had been closed for centuries,” President Faust said. [2] On a spring day in 1820, 14-year-old Joseph Smith went to a grove of trees to kneel in prayer and ask Heavenly Father which church he should join. What followed is called, in The Church of Jesus Christ, the First Vision, where the boy Joseph saw two heavenly personages appear to him, call him by name and give him instructions.

Elder Oaks said,

Then came the First Vision. An unschooled boy, seeking knowledge from the ultimate source, saw two personages of indescribable brightness and glory and heard one of them say, while pointing to the other, ‘This is My Beloved Son. Hear Him!’ (Joseph Smith—History 1:17.) The divine teaching in that vision began the restoration of the fulness of the gospel of Jesus Christ. God the Son told the boy prophet that all the ‘creeds’ of the churches of that day ‘were an abomination in his sight’ (Joseph Smith—History 1:19). We affirm that this divine declaration was a condemnation of the creeds, not of the faithful seekers who believed in them. Joseph Smith’s first vision showed that the prevailing concepts of the nature of God and the Godhead were untrue and could not lead their adherents to the destiny God desired for them.

Thus began the restoration of the gospel. Joseph Smith wrote down his experience that day, and it’s found in Joseph Smith—History in a book of scripture called the Pearl of Great Price. President Faust explains this and another book of modern scripture, the Doctrine and Covenants:

With prophets and apostles upon the earth once more, the heavens were opened once again with visions and revelations. Many of the revelations that came to the Prophet Joseph Smith were written down in a book that came to be known as the Doctrine and Covenants. This contains further insights about principles and ordinances and is a valuable source concerning the structure of the priesthood. In addition, we have another canon of scripture called the Pearl of Great Price. It contains the book of Moses, which came by revelation to the Prophet Joseph Smith, and the book of Abraham, which he translated from a purchased Egyptian scroll. From these we learn not only a great deal more about Moses, Abraham, Enoch, and other prophets but also many more details about the Creation. We learn that the gospel of Jesus Christ was taught to all of the prophets from the beginning—even from the time of Adam.  (See Moses 5:58; Moses 8:19; Abraham 2:10–11.)

 

We believe The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is a restoration of the original Church established by Jesus Christ, which was built ‘upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone’  (Ephesians 2:20). It is not a breakoff from any other church.