One Eternal 'Now'

“The truth will continue to flourish and spread throughout the earth. Sometimes all it takes is a little faith and a little patience. Things which may appear impossible now may become matter-of-fact in years to come.”

Dieter F. Uchtdorf

Truth is not determined by what people think of it.

Truth shall spring out of the earth Psalm 85:11

Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free John 8:32

 

Jesus replied, “For this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth.

Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice.”

 

by Neal A. Maxwell

Truth includes, but is not limited to, knowledge that corresponds to reality—things as they were, things as they are, and things as they will be. Gospel truth is “morally richer,” therefore, than the world’s definition of truth. Jesus is “the way, the truth, and the life”. He has “received a fulness of truth”. Hence, we are to seek to have “the mind of Christ”. Furthermore, as to the “manner” of people we are to become, it is clear we are to strive to become “even as” Jesus is. If we keep the commandments, the promise is that we will receive “truth and light” until we are “glorified in truth and knoweth all things”.

Christ does not dominate by his intellect. He leads by example and love. There is no arrogance flowing from his, the keenest of all intellects. He seeks neither to conquer nor to prosper “according to his genius”.

The Prophet Joseph also observed, “If you wish to go where God is, you must be like God, or possess the principles which God possesses”. God possesses perfect knowledge, but he also possesses perfect love and mercy. What a contrast he is to those mortals who are bright but bad, who are clever but carnal! Even genius without goodness can be dangerous.

While encountering and exploring such vastness, we sometimes know more than our tongues can tell. Indeed, knowledge that is “spiritually discerned” is not always easily communicated. But the ultimate place we hope to be in is one where “in the presence of God, . . . all things . . . are manifest, past, present, and future, and are continually before the Lord”. What a wondrous God we worship! The Prophet Joseph Smith said “the past, the present, and the future were and are, with Jehovah, one eternal ‘now’”. How different the Lord’s “now” is from ours!

In exploring this comprehensiveness and everlastingness, there will be some surprises. Our understanding of some things will be restructured and expanded, especially in the world to come, for “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”. In eternity, when the faithful receive “all that the Father hath,” this will include an enormous enlargement intellectually.

However, some divine disclosure can begin even now in mortality:

For by my Spirit will I enlighten them, and by my power will I make known unto them the secrets of my will—yea, even those things which eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor yet entered into the heart of man.

D&C 76:10

By accessing the inexhaustible divine data bank—through meekness and righteousness, thereby utilizing the Spirit, scriptures, and prophets—special wisdom is opened to us as the Spirit teaches us of “things as they really are, and of things as they really will be”. President Brigham Young said, “When the voice of the Good Shepherd is heard, the honest in heart believe and receive it. It is good to taste with the inward taste, to see with the inward eyes”.

Jesus, our Perfect Shepherd. His atoning experience placed upon him the sicknesses, sorrows, griefs, and pains of the human experience in order “that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities”. He “suffered the pain of all men,” women, and children and was “touched with the feeling of our infirmities”. Thus, in the agony of the Atonement, Jesus “descended below all things, in that he comprehended all things”. How marvelous the “mind of Christ,” which we are to try to come to have.

Jesus, our Perfect Exemplar, was astonishingly exemplary even in the hours surrounding the awful but glorious Atonement. The intrigue of Pilate and Herod, for instance, who had earlier been “at enmity” but who “made friends together” because of Jesus, presented opportunities for Jesus to “shrink” from going through with the Atonement (Luke 23:12; D&C 19:18). Herod, who had been desirous “to see Jesus of a long season,” “hoped to have seen some miracle done by him” (Luke 23:8). Yet Jesus, under heavy questioning from Herod, “answered him nothing”. Jesus’ integrity and intellect were not for sale! Amid temptation, he maintained his integrity—even in the midst of an opportunity that a lesser individual would have seized to reduce his suffering and to increase the praise of men.

Ironically, when Jesus’ enemies came for him, the Light of the World, they came with lanterns and torches. Jesus, who by then might have understandably been so swollen with sorrow and self-concern that there was no time to think of others, nevertheless restored the severed ear of a hostile guard. Amid irony he kept his poise.

He also kept his way, which is not the way of the sword.

Christ spoke only several sentences on the cross. One of them was to insure that his mother, Mary, would be cared for by John. Another sentence reassured a thief on an adjoining cross. He had empathy amid his agony.

Finally, he maintained his consecration in the midst of the deepest deprivation anyone can know. President Brigham Young taught us that in the course of the astonishing Atonement, the Father withdrew both his presence and his Spirit from Jesus, and, further, even cast a veil over Jesus. Thus Jesus became utterly and totally alone! There then came that great cry of forsakenness! “Nevertheless,” Jesus did not “shrink,” but, instead, “finished his preparations unto the children of men”. Just as he promised premortally, even when he might have reflected a little credit upon himself for the glorious Atonement, meek Jesus, instead, gave all the glory to the Father.

….in Christ “all things hold together,” for he is perfect in knowing and perfect in doing. And, most marvelously, he has challenged us to become like him.

Of him, I testify! Of his standard of truth and knowledge and behavior, I testify! He is the Light of the World! May we reflect his light in our lives, distinguishing between the things of the moment including the facts that dissolve and the supernal, transcending knowledge of spiritual things, the great blessing he has given us through the restored gospel. This is my humble, heartfelt prayer, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.