by T. M. Meek
Alex was a little nervous having Uncle Samuel pick her up after school the next day. Her feelings were bittersweet. On the one hand the Success Crew was safe. But on the other hand, although they may have had an innocent albeit dangerous error in judgment by running away from the school and into the dark and thus out of the view of those who would likely have protected them, they were still more guilty for trying to avoid calling their parents quickly to get them back into a safe environment and for being too afraid their parents might not believe them when they told the truth about what happened. Thankfully all three of the Success Crew were found safe before it was too late.
Although Aunt Meredith was clearly upset last night, on the way home, she never raised her voice or insulted Alex or used any foul language. Aunt Meredith's tone was firm and clear as she expressed her disappointment over Alex's decision to put herself in further danger rather than immediately returning to Aunt Meredith or another trustworthy adult at school such as Amelia or Lucita or a teacher for help. Alex was relieved to find Meredith believed her about the Meano-trio and certainly sympathized and agreed that a solution to the bullying needed to be rendered quickly. But Meredith didn't say much more about it and felt she and Samuel should talk about it later when he was home. But since Samuel was working late last night, Alex was already in bed by the time he got home so the planned lecture would have to wait.
Alex's biggest worry was that they might send her back home to live with her essentially neglectful parents where she would have to live every day in fear of Dex all over again. She knew Glade would never go back under any circumstances and without Glade at home, who would try and protect her from Dex? She wondered if she was going to get a preview of the eventual and mostly dreaded lecture with Uncle Samuel now since he was picking her up while Aunt Meredith attended a doctor's appointment. As Samuel pulled up in his truck where Alex was waiting in front of the school, she braced herself for the worst.
“Hi, Uncle Samuel," Alex said timidly as she hopped up into the front passenger seat and sat down. She then shut the door and put on her seatbelt and prayed in her heart for mercy. She then locked the car doors as usual for safety.
“You beat me to it,” Samuel smiled referring to locking the car doors.
“Sorry,” retorted Alex.
“No need to apologize for that. It’s a good habit. Safety is important. If you remain vigilant, you reduce the chances of becoming a victim,” he gently commended her. “You did the right thing.” Alex wasn’t sure if that was the last time she’d be recognized for having done something right. She was nervous about a possible rebuke for last night’s unplanned carnival adventure with Leena and Julio. "So did you have a good day at school?" he smiled. What? No lecture? So far so good, Alex thought.
"It was pretty good," she said a bit bewildered as she couldn't understand why he was being so nice since she assumed she was still in trouble.
"Any problems with the Meano-trio today? Aunt Meredith told me what happened last night," he said in a tone of protective yet gentle concern.
"No. Not today."
"Good. Aunt Meredith and I would like to help you figure out a solution so you're not bullied by them anymore. Hopefully we can work something out with principal McDougal and your teachers and other students so that none of the students are bullied by them anymore either. What do you think of that?"
"Sounds good to me," she responded as she stretched her legs out.
"Good. The sooner we can meet and come up with the solutions needed to stop the bullying at North Ivy the better," Samuel said as he drove. Alex tried to push out any worries about being sent back home to live with Dex. She couldn't stand not knowing so she decided to ask.
"Uncle Samuel?"
"Yeah?"
"You and Aunt Meredith aren't going to send me back home to live with my parents and brother are you? I don't want to live with Dex ever again. I'm sorry for what happened last night, really. Please just don't send me back home," Alex plead rather calmly as she fought back tears. Samuel was stunned.
"No way. You didn't mess up that badly. Don't you worry Alex. We're not going to send you back home unless your dad asks for you to come back. And even then we'd try and make sure Dex has already moved out." He then reached over and gently stroked Alex's head and smiled. "I know you're sorry." Alex took a deep breath and let out a sigh of relief. For her to be sent back home would be more than she could bear. Thank goodness he agreed with her that it wasn't a good idea for her to live with Dex.
It was a beautiful afternoon and Alex decided that since Uncle Samuel had no apparent intentions of chastising her right then that it was okay to relax a little and enjoy the beauty of the day and the passing scenery. They both rode along in silence for several moments and Alex began to wonder about Aunt Meredith.
"Why is Aunt Meredith at a doctor's appointment? Is she okay?" she asked thoughtfully.
"She's fine. We're just working on having a baby and so she's in for a check up."
Alex gasped. "A baby? You mean I'm going to be an older cousin?" she asked in delight.
"Hopefully if things go well then sometime before Christmas we'll know when we're having our first baby," he smiled proudly.
"But that's almost three months away. It doesn't usually take more than a few minutes to get pregnant, right? So why do you say it might be near the holidays before you'll know?"
Samuel chuckled. "It's called planning, Alex. We think our finances should be in order enough for a birth next year. Having a baby is expensive and with each passing year as the baby grows up, it gets more and more and more expensive to raise just one child. It also takes a lot of time out of our daily schedules to care for a baby and the amount of time needed to raise our child right will be fairly extreme for the first few years. Your Aunt Meredith is even considering quitting her work at the University to become a full-time choosing home mom. I think that's a good idea since all of her friends who've started having children also quit their jobs as soon as they could afford to and they say they're so much happier to be at home with their children.
“I guess that makes sense because neither of us likes the idea of hiring total strangers to raise our kids by having to put our child in some daycare all of the time. We want to have the joys of teaching them about life and being their main source of stability by actually being there actively involved in raising them every day. Besides, experts estimate that the work of a full-time choosing home mom is the equivalent of two full-time jobs so for Aunt Meredith to keep her job at the University and also try and raise children would really overwhelm her. I'll definitely do my part to help her out when I get home from work with things like dishes and laundry and diaper changes and stuff because that's what a good husband and father does and because I love her it's a natural thing for me to want to work with her in raising our children you know as a team. So I want to help lighten the load of my wife as she's the mother of our children. That's why we're being careful about the timing of the labor and delivery so we can be better prepared for the financial demands and time needs of our schedules. This way we enjoy our new roles as parents more. Even the pregnancy is expensive with regular doctor’s visits and checkups. But we're so excited to have our first child," he smiled.
"Hey! I thought I was your first child," Alex said in jest.
"You're our first early teen trial run," he joked back. Alex chuckled. "Hey don't knock it. That's advanced stuff," he quipped. He then remembered Meredith wanted someone to take notes for her at the meeting and so he thought he'd ask Alex if she remembered her offer to help. "Aunt Meredith said you volunteered to take notes for her if we sat in on another meeting at Linda's office today. Is that true?" he asked.
"Yeah. She texted me and asked me to let her know what was discussed and I told her I would. But don't you want to be with her at the doctor's appointment?"
"Yes. I do. In fact this will be the first time I've missed an appointment with her. But she insisted that I attend this meeting at Linda's today since this
afternoon was the only time she could meet with her doctor so my attending in her place as a proxy is how she's going to try and be in two places at the same time," he replied. "I've never attended any of Linda's meetings yet. Do you think I'll like it?" he asked curiously.
"Do you like to see the super cool mysteries of God revealed?" Alex asked.
"I sure do."
"Then you'll like this," she spoke confidently.
As Alex and Samuel took their seats in the back of the room, Eve and Linda were finishing up a conversation nearby.
"Glass of water?" Samuel offered to Alex as he poured some from a nearby pitcher into a glass.
"Thanks," Alex said as she accepted the glass and took a drink. Samuel then poured himself a drink.
As Linda walked up to the front of the room, she asked the group, "How is everyone doing today?" Everyone nodded and smiled as if to say they were all doing well. So far Alex had attended every meeting Linda has had with the group, even once when Glade flew in to visit. But this would be the first time Aunt Meredith would be absent. Alex wondered if Uncle Samuel would participate as much as Aunt Meredith had or if he would fall asleep. He looked a little tired but not much.
Behind Linda on the white board to the right was written the various references from the scroll notes as well as from both the Old and the New Testaments in the holy bible as a review of what had already been discussed. It listed several references:
Truths about God: 155/4=9, 63/38=13, John 3:16-17, 433/12=48, 265/130=22, Acts 17:27-29, 39/17=36, 459-460/27=1322, Romans 8:16, 72/9=6, 4/1=39, Hebrews 12:9, 435/14=911, Matthew 5:48, 1 John 4:79
We are God's children: 182/93=29, Hebrews 12:9, Acts 17:29
Spiritual life before mortal birth: 7/3=5, 3536/3=2226, 290291/138=5356, Jeremiah 1:5
Purpose of God: 7/1=39, John 17:3
Creation of earth: 39/17=36, 20/6=63, 283/30=44, John 1:13, 5/2=1, 2 Corinthians 5:67
Freedom of choice; Adam and Eve and the Fall: 5660/ 2, 8/3=1517, 12/5=11, 59/2=25, 239/12=2234, Genesis 2:15-17, 811/ 4, 12/5=1012, Genesis 3 (all), 6/2=2631, Genesis 1:26-31
"Now as you all know, I emailed each of you a few days ago asking for ideas of specific questions we could look for answers to today.” Linda reminded them. “Each of you were given the opportunity to ask only one question we could try and find answers to. Interestingly enough, a couple of you asked the same question. So ultimately there were three questions asked. The first question being: 'why are we here on earth?' which was also asked by another person being phrased as: 'what is the overall purpose of life?' The second question was: 'what is the significance of Jesus Christ's atoning blood sacrifice?' and the third question was asked by two people: one asked it as: 'where do we go when we die?' and the other asked it phrased as: 'what is life like after death?'" All of these questions were already written on the other white board to the left. She continued.
"As you may also recall, I then emailed you back those questions and encouraged you to search through both the light blue scroll notes and references along with the biblical notes and references in preparation for today’s discussion. So who would like to get the ball rolling? Who researched to see what truths we could find as the answer to the first question regarding understanding the purpose of life?" Linda asked.
Eve decided to respond first. "Some of what I discovered in the scroll notes was so enlightening because the fact is, the bible doesn't expound on this to the degree that the scroll does and the answer the scroll provides makes perfect sense." She then opened up to her notes. "Ultimately we are to experience joy as a direct and natural result of preparing to meet God so we will be worthy to go back to live in the presence of God. This life is a period of testing to see if we will do what the Lord wants us to do to see if we will obey His commandments and thereby find peace and happiness in doing God's will. That is the purpose of life in a nutshell according to the references to the scroll. Now we all know we're going to experience pain and sorrow at times in life but it's the sincere preparation we do to be ready to meet God and return to His presence that greatly reduces the amount of pain and sorrow we experience since God's work is to help us to all feel joy in this life as we willingly follow His plan to live with Him again after this life is through."
"There's also another aspect to the purpose of life I noticed," Robert chimed in as he leaned forward and spoke. "This life is also a test to see if we will freely choose to follow God's plan of happiness even when it's hard. Or in other words, we're here to prove to ourselves in the end if we spent our time well in life by choosing to do what's right even though life can bring experiences of pain and sorrow either because we brought it on ourselves or because someone else made a choice that directly or indirectly causes us to suffer innocently. I say this since we're learning that God will never force any of us to choose to follow His plan. The Lord never makes us do the right thing every time but He has created eternal laws which means there are natural consequences to our choices. So again, this life is a test to see if we'll do what's right even when it's hard and thus experience more joy in this life and in the next life. Will we do what's right and live happily and at peace with our fellow man or woman? Or will we freely choose to break laws, break ourselves in opposition against the laws of happiness and experience more pain and sorrow as a natural consequence of our own choices in this life? Will we choose to break laws now and thus experience sorrow in the next life when we prove to ourselves we didn't choose to prepare in this life to live with God again, so we can't live with Him in heaven? It's up to each of us as to what happens to us as individuals."
"Exactly," Eve said. She then continued as she referred back to her notes. "Because we're learning that according to the scroll as well as other biblical references, God desires to share all of His powers with all of us as His children and that's His work and ultimate goal is to help each of us to become like Him being immortal and having eternal life the highest quality of life and state of being that any of His spirit offspring can attain to then that means that He hopes we will choose to become like Him and make good choices in life just as He once did to achieve what He has achieved which is the ultimate transformation of both mind and heart or body and spirit which is to become a God. So experiencing life on earth is a tremendous opportunity for each of us as His children."
"And it's a huge blessing," Linda added before taking a sip from her glass of water. Spence appeared to be taken by surprise by such concepts as he clearly recognizes these are the very highest ideals one can exercise faith towards. He continued to ponder these things quietly to himself. Ananias seemed to be thinking deeply as well as he squinted his eyes in silent thought. Alex was amazed by the new knowledge and looked to see Samuel humbled by what he was learning. Eve continued.
"Now our life on earth brings two core realities of many: physical death and spiritual death. Remember, God has an immortal body which means it's a glorified and perfected body of flesh and bones. The only way any of us, as mortals, can, in reality, handle simply being in His glorified and perfected presence and enjoying the blessing of living with Him again, is if we, too, achieve the goal of having a perfected, immortal body of flesh and bones. But since we are all subject to physical death due to the fall of Adam and Eve, there would be no hope for us to return to live with God again unless Jesus became our Savior."
"You know, another hang up is the fact of sin. Sin brings about that spiritual death you also referred to," Robert added.
"And what do we know about sin?" Eve prodded.
"I think that to sin is to do something you know and feel is wrong but you do it anyway. Sometimes people sin out of sheer apathetic rebellion and other times they sin out of an ironic form of hypocrisy. Like when you learn right from wrong and you don't do what's right because you're more worried about what your friend will think of you or a family member will think of you. It’s ironic hypocrisy when you place someone else’s opinion in a place of greater importance than what God’s opinions. And the ten comma
ndments that were taught by God's prophet, Moses, are a good indicator of what God thinks is right and what's not. To go against the laws of happiness and act like we enjoy sinning when deep inside we’d rather do what’s right and we don’t stand up for our heartfelt values of integrity is an ironic form of hypocrisy," Samuel suggested. Linda was glad to hear him chime in.
"That sounds true to me," Eve smiled.
"I would have to agree," Robert nodded as he twirled his pen in his hand.
"Choosing to sin often brings on feelings of guilt and shame so guilt is like a warning, like a triggered spiritual alarm system within our heart and mind that warns us that problematic, if not seriously dangerous, results are coming," Linda said.
"And for those who know what our Heavenly Father expects of us, for those who know His laws and His plan for happiness and yet they still disobey and rebel, those people will suffer greatly in the next life. It's impossible for us to sin and only hurt ourselves. When we sin we harm others either directly or indirectly and often innocent people are victims of our selfish choices. No just God would want one of His children to be harmed innocently and let the guilty go unpunished," Robert added somberly. He quietly wrote down a thought that came to him.
"We also know that no matter how attractive sin can appear to be it always leads to suffering. The lie of Lucifer as the adversary through many voices of the world is that you can separate sin from suffering when it's simply not true. Sin leads to unhappiness sooner or later every time you choose it," Samuel added with certainty. Alex was enjoying learning what her Uncle Samuel felt about important spiritual matters.
"That's another important insight," Eve agreed. "We also know that the fact is, we often give into temptation because of our mortal condition. I mean, think of it. Which is more attractive and appealing to us? To go out in the hot sun and do yard work when we previously committed to do it? Or to stay indoors and waste time on our computer? It's easier to find a way to justify wasting time on our computer, right?" she smiled. Most everyone in the room chuckled. "Overcoming the temptation to be lazy is not easy. It's often rewarding when we do what's right by mastering our own desires and living a life centered on high moral principles rather than choosing activities, thoughts and conversations centered on giving into physical appetites and desires. But since we're all here as mortals on earth, the fact is that we're all going to make mistakes.
“And just as Robert mentioned, it is precisely because we sin that we render ourselves unable to return to live again in heaven with our Heavenly Father unless we are cleansed by forgiveness first. We are learning what the bible says, in the book of James, when were taught that “faith without works is dead.” It means that we can’t just exercise faith in salvation without also obeying God’s commandments. It means we are saved by Christ's grace while we do our best to obey His commandments since it's impossible for us to obey them all perfectly. We need His grace but we must do all that we can in obeying the Lord’s laws for happiness to be saved as well. It's in this way that Jesus has taught us He is the way to eternal life which means we must do as He has outlined in order to receive the blessing of eternal life. It's not just knowing of Christ or learning of Him that saves us. It's taking the right actions that He has taught for us to take and then using His grace after we've done our best to follow Him daily that gives us eternal salvation. That's the proper understanding of how His grace works to make us all more like Him which means to be saved."
"That is an excellent transition into the answer to the second question regarding the significance of Jesus Christ's atoning blood sacrifice. Unless you had anything more you'd like to add, Eve," Linda smiled.
"That's all for now," Eve answered.
“Thank you for your thoughts, Eve. Would anyone else like to add more truths to what Eve appears to have found?” Linda asked openly. The silence in the room was humbling as nearly every face showed of deep contemplative thought. This indicated to Linda that no one else had anything else to add regarding the overall purpose of life. “Alright, then lets move onto finding answers of truth about Jesus Christ’s great atoning sacrifice. Has anyone here taken interest in finding the answers to this second question?” Linda inquired. She then sipped more water.
“I have some thoughts on that.” Robert chimed in pointing his pen in her direction.
“What have you found?” She smiled.
He was highly enthusiastic but not over-the-top in his response. “The scroll Jacob’s notes refer to have a tremendous amount of information about Jesus Christ and His atonement that harmonize perfectly with the bible in addition to providing insight that can’t be found by relying on the bible alone. Sincere seekers of truth who truly love the things of God will love receiving these additional truths about Jesus Christ because if there’s any one subject that this scroll seems to illuminate and enlighten us on the most, it’s the subject of our Savior Jesus Christ and the ultimate and deeper meaning to be obtained about the atonement.” He briefly looked over some of his notes and then continued.
“Most of us here know that God encourages and influences us to do good things such as learning truths about God, believing in him and his truths, learning about the purpose of life as it relates to Him and to learn right from wrong so we can make good choices that lead us to happiness. Most of us here also know that Satan is opposed to all that God encourages so Satan tempts us to commit sin and to not do those things that are of God. Satan, the father of all lies, doesn’t want us to learn truths about God so he therefore mixes in lies so as to either get people to believe false things about God or to believe the lie that we don’t need to understand or know God or His Son, Jesus Christ.
“Also Satan, as God’s and our adversary, mocks us or inspires others to mock those who do good things, those who seek to believe in God and teach and/or learn truths about God. The Adversary wants us to doubt God’s existence, God’s love and mercy and justice and to make wrong choices that lead ourselves and others to misery. But mercifully, our Heavenly Father has made a way for us to learn the truths about God that are necessary for our happiness and salvation and thereby exposes the lies of Satan for what they are. Now, in our mortal experience here on earth – a. k. a. “life” – we get to at times have experiences that provide us joy and happiness. But at other times we experience sorrow and pain, sometimes from our own poor choices and other times from the sinful actions of others. It is directly because of such experiences in life that gives us all invaluable opportunities to learn and grow. This is what helps us to make choices as we learn to recognize the difference between good and evil. Now here’s one thing that really stood out to me: Before this world was even created and organized, Heavenly Father chose Jesus Christ to be our Redeemer, our Savior.
“Heavenly Father made this vital decision first because we are not able to overcome the effects of sin by ourselves and we are not able to overcome physical death by ourselves. Our loving Father in Heaven made it his number one priority to choose our Savior first because we are totally helpless without the atonement of Jesus Christ. That’s how important it is to him that we all have a way to return safely back to him in heaven after this life.”
“That’s a lot of love.” Spence said thoughtfully.
“As a concerned mother I always made sure my children had a safe way to come back home to me anytime they walked out the door. The Lord knows how many times I’ve prayed for my children’s happiness and safety –– especially whenever we were apart.” Eve added.
“Most parents would say as I do: ‘Amen to that!’ ” Linda responded.
“Absolutely!” Robert agreed. Samuel gave Alex a loving nudge with his elbow and smiled gently to her to let her know he had prayed for the same for her. This made Alex smile with a warm feeling of comfort and peaceful security. Robert continued.
“It’s only possible for us to overcome the effects of the Fall of Adam and Eve because of the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ. And since the beginning of the world all prophets h
ave testified that Jesus Christ is our Redeemer. Now here is something I learned about the resurrection of Christ that just blew me away!” He said rubbing his hands together and smiling as eagerly as a kid who was about to be handed his favorite dessert. “Even though we all go through a physical death, Jesus Christ overcame the interference of physical death for us. So for those who may not know what the term ‘resurrection’ means, the divine meaning of resurrection is: the literal reuniting of spirit and body and this as a divine gift that is promised by our loving Father in Heaven to each of us.”
“How is that possible?” Ananias asked rather skeptically.
“Jesus Christ made it possible. You see, when He died by crucifixion on the cross, His spirit separated from His body. But on the third day after His death, His body and His spirit were forever reunited and would never be separated ever again. Literally hundreds of people witnessed this and this is recorded in the bible. His resurrection was recorded in the scriptures and so hard to ignore because His death was so public. So many people saw Him because He appeared to them showing the people that He in fact had an immortal flesh and bone body. He ate with people and they witnessed it. He walked and talked with people and they recorded it as historical fact. He laid His hands upon the heads of His apostles and they testified of it. All of these things happened after Christ’s resurrection. Can you imagine what it must have been like for all of those people to see Jesus the Christ appear to them three days after His death when He showed He forever has an immortal body of flesh and bone?” Robert asked in awe.
“I would have absolutely loved to have been there.” Linda said quietly in a tone of reverence as she leaned back more comfortably in her chair.
“Yeah, I’d have to say that seeing someone come back from the dead while looking better than he ever has before would be a pretty jaw-dropping experience. Even for those who aren’t scientists.” Spence half-joked. Ananias discreetly exited the room. Samuel noticed but just assumed he probably just needed a bathroom.
“But it gets even better.” Robert added with a broad smile. “The ultimate meaning of Jesus Christ’s resurrection for all of us is this: all of us will be resurrected after we die because of Christ’s resurrection – regardless of whether we have made good choices or made evil choices in this life.”
“You mean that everyone of us will receive a perfect, immortal flesh and bone body after we die – a body that looks just like we did before we died?” Spence asked bewildered.
“Exactly. We’ll get our own body back but it will be perfected and immortal which means that our immortal body will never get sick, never again cause us to feel any pain and never again go through physical death. Now how cool is that?” Robert asked eagerly.
“Do we have an idea of how old our resurrected body will look?” Linda inquired. She leaned forward, eager to hear any responses.
“From what I have gathered from the scroll notes, it looks like our body will look the age of what is our ‘prime of life’ which most likely means our mid-twenties. Possibly early thirties.” He said thumbing through his notes.
Eve was also going over the notes and added, “It also seems that the resurrection is what makes simply being in the presence of God possible – otherwise we’d be totally consumed by the purity of his presence since our mortal bodies can’t handle it. But even though the resurrection makes it possible for us to stand before God by returning to His presence to be judged, it does not guarantee that we’ll get to live in heaven or that we’ve earned the right to dwell with Him again. The only way we can be found worthy to be blessed to return to live with Him in heaven again is for us to be cleansed from sin. That means we need to be spiritually clean.” Robert listened intently and felt to bring more emphasis on her last point.
“I noticed that in the notes also. Although none of us are responsible for the Fall of Adam and Eve, we are obviously still affected by it since the Fall changes our natures where we want to do what we want and to be selfish, carnal, sensual and basically not as eager as we should be to do what is right and thus it’s often easier for each of us feel, shall we say, less enthusiastic about following God as we need to for our own happiness and success in life. So we need help from God to have our hearts changed to become better so that we become good and selfless and to desire to follow our Father in Heaven’s plan for happiness. But we also need to realize, however, that we are responsible for our own sins. Now with this fact in mind, we must realize the reality that God can’t allow sins to be brushed off and go unpunished which means that sin inevitably keeps us from being able to live in His presence without a Redeemer. This is why Jesus Christ is the only way for any of us to be saved since it’s His mercy and grace that cleanses our sin so we can live with Heavenly Father and his beloved Son, Jesus Christ again. Jacobs notes about the scroll point out a specific outline of what we need to do to receive the saving grace of Christ.
“We must:
1st: Exercise faith in Jesus Christ
2nd: Repent
3rd: Be baptized
4th: Receive the gift of the Holy Ghost
5th: Endure to the end
“So that’s what we need to do to be saved. Christ has already paid the penalty for all of our sins. Before the earth was even created He was called and prepared to fulfill His Father’s plan for our salvation. I say ‘His Father’ since Jesus Christ was the literal Son of God in the flesh. He was sinless which means He was perfectly obedient to His Father and They want us to follow Christ’s example of obedience to be perfected and filled with God’s love and power towards righteousness. He was tempted in His life but He never gave in to temptation. He chose of his own free will to fulfill God’s plan for our salvation when Heavenly Father asked Him to do so. He volunteered to suffer on our behalf,” Robert said in awe.
“Did you find out what kind of suffering the scriptures talk about? I mean, did you find where the scroll may have gone into more detail about exactly what Christ went through in order to suffer through the atonement?” Linda inquired further as she stood up to go refill her glass of water before sitting back down.
“Yes and No. The “No” refers to the fact that I don’t think any of us can really comprehend what the atonement includes. But, the “Yes” part is absolutely profound in the scrolls elaboration of just how personal the atonement is for us as individuals as it relates to what Christ experienced.” Linda and the others listened attentively as Robert paused to get control of his emotions as what he was about to say was moving him to reverent tears. Robert cleared his throat.
“In Gethsemane, what Christ went through was that he experienced what it was like to be each and every one of us. He literally experienced what it is like to be you, to be me and to be every single person that was ever born. He experienced every single thing we all went through from the time of our own birth all the way through our physical death. He experienced what it is like to be you every time you laughed or cried or had success or failure in life. He literally experienced all of our lives, one by one for every person who was ever born on this earth or who ever would be born on this earth. Why? Why did He do this? So He could have compassion on us individually by name. So He could give us the very best advice for our own unique circumstances so we can find happiness and success and joy and so He could truly empathize with us in our times of sorrow and pain. He experienced what it was like to be you down to the smallest detail. He experienced what it was like to be you every time you ever scraped your knee or climbed a tree or talked with a loved one or endured the insults of an enemy or had your heart broken. He did this so He could have empathy for you to ‘succor’ you which means ‘to run to help’ you as a special individual and beloved child of God. He knows exactly what it’s like to be you. And He loves you.”
The room fell totally silent as Robert paused again in thought and the others took it all in. He wiped away a few tears from his own face and smiled with gratitude for the benevolent truths he was learning about Christ. This was such a n
ew concept to them but each one could feel how much sense it made in their minds and hearts. It was perfectly logical while having a vital element of the human heart at its core.
Of course, who could imagine a God who was loving, wise and merciful but who couldn’t also relate to his own children and each of their unique experiences in life? No. It made much more sense and, more importantly, it was feeling true, that a God who knows everything, including our thoughts, would also need to know what it’s like for us to make our own choices and experience the outcomes so He could help us avoid as many unnecessary negative and painful consequences of sin by making better choices to do what’s right and live happier and less stressful lives with as few regrets as possible. Helping his children to make better choices for success and joy in life is what a good father does. He shares his wisdom from his own personal experience and learns from the experiences of others as a means of being of great benefit to and a good example for his children.
“I wasn’t expecting that. That’s a very pleasant surprise.” Spence mumbled in awe.
“Just exactly how this is possible, the scroll notes don’t say. But I believe that just because we struggle to understand how it’s possible doesn’t mean it’s impossible. Just as clouds form in the sky to the disbelief of the blind doesn’t make it any less true.” Robert added.
“Actually you can talk to just about any experienced scientist in the world and it wouldn’t be the first time that a phenomenon couldn’t be perfectly understood.” Spence said with a humble smile.
Eve then asked, “So then if my understanding is right, then the scroll notes perfectly harmonize with the bible in that it helps us to realize that Christ’s suffering in the Garden of Gethsemane and His suffering and death on the Cross were included in the atonement. The Atonement ended with His resurrection. Is that right?”
“That’s what it seems like according to the scroll notes and bible references. It’s becoming more and more clear that the scroll compliments the bible. It doesn’t compete with it. It compliments it,” Robert replied.
“Here’s another thing.” Linda said referring to her KJV bible. “The New Testament gives the witnesses of His apostles that He bled from every pore during His atoning sacrifice in the Garden of Gethsemane. It’s clear that He suffered beyond comprehension.” Linda said thoughtfully.
“I don’t think He wanted to know what it was like to see how His beloved Father in Heaven’s heart gets broken over those that suffer innocently as well as those that suffer from crass rebellion, since our suffering is what breaks God’s heart. I personally believe that it was the experience of knowing what it would be like to feel all of the consequences of sin, all of the misery and suffering that comes from it, from disregarding His own Father’s will that made Him ask if it were possible that the burden be lifted from Him. We know Jesus Christ was perfectly sinless. So it seems he must have learned the sad results of sin without actually experiencing what it was like to sin as each of us has. The most important aspect of sin probably isn’t the sin itself, but rather the most important part of sin is the harm it does to the sinner and the victims of the sin. So Christ experienced all of the sorrows of sin by experiencing each of our lives. But we read in the New Testament of how Christ agreed to do His Father’s will anyway despite His own reservations as He went on ahead and experienced the Atonement. His submission to His Heavenly Father’s will was a superb expression of love for His Father and for us.” Eve said with a humble smile.
“So is this ultimate win of Jesus the Christ first over spiritual death by His suffering and second His additional triumph over physical death by His Resurrection is what defines the Atonement?” Linda asked.
“Exactly. Now another thing that the scroll enlightens us on is how we receive forgiveness from Christ. He promises to forgive us of our sins upon the condition that we accept Him. How do we ‘accept Him’? We do that by doing those five steps mentioned earlier. Place your faith in Jesus Christ, repent, be baptized, receive the Holy Ghost and endure to the end. Again, we accept Christ by exercising faith in Him, repenting, receiving baptism by immersion, and the laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost, and by working faithfully to keep His commandments to the end of our lives. This means that repentance is a daily thing. As we continue to repent throughout our lives, we can – through the sanctifying power of the Holy Ghost – be forgiven and be cleansed of our sins and our burden of guilt and shame will be relieved from us. It is through Jesus Christ that we become worthy to return to live in God’s presence in heaven.” Robert said.
“Many of us here have hopefully experienced what it’s like to be filled with comfort and peace – even joy – as Christ helps us to better handle the pains and trials of life. All of this help comes from the Atonement.” Eve suggested cheerfully.
“I think of how the Lord promises to wipe away all of our tears which means that everything that is unfair about life can one day be made right thanks to Christ’s atonement. He will remove all negative memories and heal all scars both physical and emotional.” Linda added.
“I believe that’s absolutely true. But I feel we should all remember as it was mentioned earlier, we are still responsible for our own sins which means that when Jesus paid the price for our sins, the scroll references make it clear that Jesus did not remove our personal responsibility. Because it is only by accepting His gift of the Atonement, by accepting Him that we can return to live with our Heavenly Father, we must do our part in that acceptance by keeping His commandments. Again, ‘faith without works is dead.’ Some of you may have heard the old story about the archaeologist who spoke to a carpenter about his latest adventure to look for the ancient stone tablets of the Ten Commandments. The archaeologist said he was willing to spend the rest of his life and the rest of his money looking for them. He would start his search by going off to a far away land. And the carpenter simply asked, ‘Which is more important to do? To go out looking for the ancient stone tablets that simply list the Ten Commandments, or to stay in your own home land and keep the commandments?’ Hopefully we all know the best answer is to keep the Lord’s commandments – not simply as a single day’s event – but for the rest of our days.
“The ultimate evidence that we are close to God and accept Jesus Christ is not what we hold in our hands but rather what we hold in our hearts. Seeing evidence of God’s miracles, such as an archaeological find, as amazing as they may be, isn’t what brings us salvation or helps us to believe in God. It’s our willingness to go and do the Lord’s will as a choice of faith and thereby learn for ourselves whether it’s of God or of man and then once we know what is of God we discover a priceless blessing that in doing the things of God by doing good works that we are changed and we become better. Can any of us really put a price on literally becoming a miracle by becoming better and being like God? By our own free will by making the best choices we may become the very best and the very happiest we could ever hope to be and in the process become a tremendous blessing to others. That, to me, is truly priceless,” Robert concluded.
Much of the room remained silent for several moments as they took it all in. There was no question about the greatness of the research they were all blessed and humbled to be a part of. Joining the research efforts of Linda Wise was becoming a life changing experience for them all. Linda herself, speechless, could never have guessed that this kind of talent could have been a coincidence to have all together working in harmony in the same room towards the same goal.
“Now I see why you hired Robert.” Samuel chimed in from the back of the room. “He definitely has a sharp mind for recognizing core principles that matter most. We need that vision in life. Especially about God. In fact, all of you have mentioned vital points that clarify spiritual things that matter most and I would just like to express my appreciation to you all for allowing Alex and I to join you today. I’m learning a lot and really enjoying it.”
“Me too!” Alex said enthusiastically. Robert simply smiled and n
odded to Samuel.
“Well I think we all appreciate the comments and points mentioned by our group here. I agree with Samuel.” Eve said warmly.
“It’s certainly been eye-opening so far.” Spence chuckled. “That’s not to say I don’t appreciate what I’ve learned.” He said more seriously.
“Thank you for your gratitude Samuel.” Linda smiled.
“You’re most welcome.”
“So we’ve discussed what we’ve found for answers regarding the first two questions. Let’s move onto the third and final question for today’s discussions. Who has taken the time to search the scroll references and biblical references for the answer to the questions of: Where do we go when we die? And What is life like after death?” Linda asked openly.
“I looked for answers to those questions but I know I wasn’t able to spend as much time on those questions as I did on the first question.” Eve responded.
“Ditto that for me too since I spent most of my time looking at answers for the second question.” Robert said.
Ananias had not yet returned from wherever it was he had left to go to earlier ––presumably the bathroom–– so Linda only had Spence left to ask.
“Spence? Find anything interesting or scientific about life after death?” Linda asked curiously. Spence couldn’t help but to chuckle a bit before responding.
“Oh man. Of all the things to ask me.” He sighed as he looked down while tapping his pen on some notes.
“Well?” Linda asked with a patient smile.
He cleared his throat and smiled a little as he sat up somewhat straighter in his chair. “As a matter of fact there are a few things that the scroll notes mention that harmonize surprisingly well with some of the most advanced theories of physics. Especially as it pertains to string theory or more specifically to multiple dimensions and parallel universes.”
“If science harmonizes with the scroll references as you’ve mentioned then it also harmonizes with the bible because I took an interest in finding answers to the questions about life after death and the scroll really illuminates much of the partial teachings found in the bible.” Linda said eagerly.
“Then maybe you should go first and I’ll toss in my two cents worth where it may apply.” Spence said as he sat back more casually in his chair.
“Sounds good.” Linda retorted. She then launched in to share what she learned. “Well, the basics that I found could be summarized like this.” She turned and began writing a list. She numbered 1, 2 and 3 on one of the dry erase boards at the front of the room. She then turned back to face the group as she spoke.
“According to both biblical and scroll references, there is a sequence to what each of us will experience when passing through death. There are two main places we go to before we end up in one of three possible levels of heaven. The first place is to the spirit world, the second place is to the place of final judgment and then depending upon the judgment or verdict of what we are worthy to receive, we then enter one of three possible heavenly kingdoms or levels of heaven.” She then wrote next to the number one: Spirit World, and next to the number two: Final Judgment, and next to the number three: Receive Only One Level of Three Possible Levels of Heaven. She repeated them aloud as she wrote each one.
“Now we all have to go through physical death even though Christ triumphed over death. Physical death makes it possible for each of us to be transformed from mortality into immortality. So when our mortal bodies die, our spirits will go to the spirit world.” She added.
“Just to clarify, my spirit, when it leaves my body when I die, it’ll still look like me? Right?” Samuel asked.
“Right. We look in spirit just as we did as spirits before we took on our own body by birth. Spiritually, each of us looks just like what our body looks like but instead of having a physical body we have a spirit body. But remember, our spirit, both before birth and after death, is in perfect form. So if we were born without an arm or if we were born with twelve toes or any other imperfections, our spirit looks perfect because it’s in absolutely picture perfect form. And when we’re resurrected, any and all physical imperfections will be healed as we will receive a perfected immortal body of flesh and bone that best matches our spirit.”
“But once we’re in the world of spirits, what do we do? Play harps all day long? Sing all day long? Because that’s the story that I’ve heard. Sounds a bit redundant though to me. I, mean, is that all that happens after life?” Samuel wondered.
“Actually no. The world of spirits that we’ll go to is more of an environment of learning, working, and waiting and for those who are righteous it’s also a place of resting from care and sorrow.” Linda replied.
“You said ‘for those who are righteous.’ But won’t everyone want to be righteous once they go into the spirit world?” Alex asked.
“According to the scroll notes, our desires for good or evil – or our personality – is not changed by death. We’re the same people we were in life as in death. That’s why this life is the time to prepare to meet God and we do that by becoming someone who desires good or the things of God. It’s like getting married. We can’t say, ‘Oh, I’ll quit drinking alcohol and smoking when I get married.’ Because the problem is, we’ll be the same person at the wedding altar as we are today. The time to prepare to stop drinking and smoking is now. Long before the wedding day even gets here. Or we can’t realistically expect that we’ll suddenly become a great engineer if we are simply hired to work as an engineer. No. We have to go to school and get an education and probably do an internship or two before we can become a great engineer. Titles don’t make us who we are but our experiences, our choices make us who we really are. So it’s the same with when we die. We can’t say that we’ll start choosing good things after we die because it’ll be too late. This life is the time to become the kind of person qualified to live in God’s presence. And Christ shows us how to become one who is qualified. One who has charity in ones heart, which is one who loves and trusts and desires to do God’s will and finds great joy in it. It starts with a sincere desire to change and then endures by making simple improvements to become better and better each day. That takes time. So that’s why repentance shouldn’t be procrastinated. None of us knows how much more time we have left to live.”
“So the righteous go to a place of rest and care, or a place of happiness right?” Robert asked.
“A place of rest and care. Happiness and peace. Lots of white, glorious, heavenly light where we will be with others who we know and love who have also been blessed to be there after they have died. A place of wonderful light. No darkness.” Linda affirmed.
“Until we are ready for our resurrection, that’s where our spirits will live.”
“Then after our resurrection what happens?” Samuel asked.
“We will receive the level of heaven or degree of glory we have prepared for after our mortal bodies have been reunited with our spirits by the resurrection.”
“What about hell? Does the scroll expound on that?” Eve asked curiously. This question got everyone’s attention.
Chapter 16: Heaven’s Many Mansions and Hell’s Place of Torment