Eternal Perspective

My topic today is eternal perspective and the role of the temple in developing eternal perspective.

Elder LeGrand Richards said:

God bless you to realize where you came from and the great privileges that are yours. If the veil were rolled back and you could just see one glimpse of God’s great eternal plan concerning you and who you are, it would not be hard for you to love Him, keep His commandments, and live to be worthy of every blessing that He has had for you since before the foundations of the world were laid (“Patriarchal Blessings,” New Era, Feb. 1977, p. 7).

Eternal Perspective Parable

One of the Parables of Jesus urges us to obtain and act on an eternal perspective, rather than a temporal perspective. In Luke, chapter 12, the Lord states:

The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully: And he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits? And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided? So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.

Thus illustrates Jesus the wages of a temporal perspective.

Knowing Who We Are

My parents met when my mother was about ten years old. Consequently, when I was young, my mother would often say, “Be careful how you treat the girls you meet because one of them may be your future wife.” You can imagine how much a twelve-year-old wanted to hear that. But as it turned out I met my future wife when I was six years old.

In developing an eternal perspective in this life, it is important to look beyond our own mortal frailties and the imperfections of others and try to see ourselves and our neighbors as the Lord sees us.

A story from the Civil War era helps illustrate the importance of seeing each other as the Lord sees us.

In 1855, Edwin M. Stanton was a powerful lawyer from Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. He was retained to represent the defendant in a patent case involving the mechanical reaper. The case was to be tried in Chicago, and the custom of the day was to have a local attorney argue the case to the judge. The theory was that the judge would be friendlier to a local attorney. Stanton found and hired a respected local attorney based on his reputation even though Stanton had not met the Illinois lawyer.

After the case was prepared for trial, it was moved to Cincinnati, Ohio. Because the trial was no longer in Illinois, Stanton really had no use for the attorney who arrived on the train from Illinois. Since the attorney was already paid, Stanton did not send him home. However, Stanton could not have been more unkind. He described the new colleague as “a long, lank creature, from Illinois, wearing a dirty linen duster for a coat.” Stanton refused even to walk into the courthouse with the unhandsome, poorly dressed colleague. As the trial progressed, the Illinois attorney was left out of lunches and strategy sessions and became nothing more than a spectator at the trial. Humiliated by the experience, the Illinois lawyer returned home after trial and attempted to return the fee paid to him.

That was in 1855. Seven years later, in 1862, one year into the Civil War, Stanton again met the lanky lawyer from Illinois, but this time the tables were turned. That lawyer was now president of the United States and, despite Stanton’s earlier rudeness, Abraham Lincoln was inviting Stanton to join his cabinet as the secretary of war. Although his opinion of Lincoln was still not high, Stanton accepted. Over the next three years, Stanton had a change of heart. He became one of Lincoln’s most devoted deputies. Very protective of the president, Stanton always sent a military escort when Lincoln traveled. He admired the president’s wisdom, wit, and wherewithal in protecting the Union and freeing the slaves.

On the evening of April 14, 1865, Stanton received word of the shooting of Lincoln at Ford’s Theater. Contrary to his advisors’ cautions that there was a conspiracy afoot to assassinate the entire cabinet and that Stanton should not go to Ford’s Theater, Stanton rushed to the side of the fallen president at the Peterson House, across the street from Ford’s Theater. Stanton took charge and kept vigil by the side of Lincoln as his life slowly ebbed away during the night. Lincoln drew his last breath at 7:21 the next morning, and his heart stopped beating at 7:22. He was gone. Stanton’s words on that occasion have endured. He said of Lincoln, “Now he belongs to the ages.” Stanton was grief stricken. After the room had been cleared of doctors and family, Stanton remained and mourned over his friend.

When we meet new people or when we associate with family and friends, do we treat them as souls of great worth? Souls which the Savior redeemed at great price? Do we act day to day with an eternal perspective?

Howard W. Hunter said:

The brotherhood of man is literal. We are all of one blood and the literal spirit offspring of our eternal Heavenly Father. Before we came to earth we belonged to his eternal family. We associated and knew each other there. Our common paternity makes us not only literal sons and daughters of eternal parentage, but literal brothers and sisters as well. This is a fundamental teaching of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Blessings of the Temple

There is no better place to gain an eternal perspective than within the temple. It is there that we get instruction and make covenants with the Lord. These experiences help us to understand better who we are in the eternities. We are taught the Plan of Salvation in the temple, and we make covenants that will allow us to return to our Father.

Brigham Young said:

It is absolutely necessary that the Saints should receive further ordinances of the house of God before this short existence shall come to a close, that they may be prepared and fully able to pass all the sentinels leading into the celestial kingdom and into the presence of God (Journal of Discourses 12:163-164).

The Lord’s House

We mark all of our temples with the appellation, “The House of the Lord.” Understanding what that means will help us to develop an eternal perspective as we worship in the temple.

In the dedicatory prayer of the Kirtland Temple, a prayer that was revealed to Joseph Smith, we get some hints about the status of the temple as the House of the Lord. The prayer speaks to our worthiness to enter the temple, and says:

And in a manner that we may be found worthy, in thy sight, to secure a fulfillment of the promises which thou hast made unto us, thy people, in the revelations given unto us;

That thy glory may rest down upon thy people, and upon this thy house, which we now dedicate to thee, that it may be sanctified and consecrated to be holy, and that thy holy presence may be continually in this house;

And that all people who shall enter upon the threshold of the Lord’s house may feel thy power, and feel constrained to acknowledge that thou hast sanctified it, and that it is thy house, a place of thy holiness. (D&C 109:11-13.)

Two elements of this passage from the dedicatory prayer are noteworthy in our context today. First, the prophet prays that “[the Lord’s] holy presence may be continually in this house.” Continuously and continually have different meanings. If something is continuous, it goes on uninterrupted. If something is continual, however, it happens over and over again, but not necessarily continuously. Therefore, when the prophet prayed that the Lord would be in His house continually, it meant over and over again.

The second element from this passage is that “all people who shall enter . . . the Lord’s house may feel [the Lord’s] power and feel constrained to acknowledge that [the Lord] has sanctified it . . . .” To sanctify something is to make it holy.

The concept of being constrained to acknowledge something is not foreign to our doctrine. We know that, when it comes time for the final judgment, whether they want to or not, “every knee shall bow and every tongue confess” that He is the Lord. When Jesus Christ entered Jerusalem on the back of a donkey a week before he was crucified, what we call the Triumphal Entry, His glory was sufficiently on display that the people could not be held back from waving palm branches and declaring his divinity, “Hosanna to the King.” The Pharisees implored the Lord to rebuke His disciples for such sacrilege, but he answered them:

I tell you that, if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out. (Luke 19:39-40.)

That is the nature of the holy presence that may be felt continually in the temple. Hosanna to the King. Hosanna in the highest.

Feeling that power as we worship in the temple leads us to the next part of the dedicatory prayer. Joseph Smith prayed:

That they may grow up in thee, and receive a fulness of the Holy Ghost, and be organized according to thy laws, and be prepared to obtain every needful thing. (D&C 109:15.)

In other words, we are prepared for eternal life in the temple. It is not an event, it is a process -- “that they may grow up.”

The Benefits of Eternal Perspective

Having the eternal perspective that comes from temple worship can help us in our day-to-day lives. But because we do not know the end from the beginning, as our Heavenly Father does, we sometimes cannot understand the trials we must bear.

John A. Widtsoe said:

Temple work … gives a wonderful opportunity for keeping alive our spiritual knowledge and strength. … The mighty perspective of eternity is unraveled before us in the holy temples; we see time from its infinite beginning to its endless end; and the drama of eternal life is unfolded before us. Then I see more clearly my place amidst the things of the universe, my place among the purposes of God; I am better able to place myself where I belong, and I am better able to value and to weigh, to separate and to organize the common, ordinary duties of my life, so that the little things shall not oppress me or take away my vision of the greater things that God has given us (in Conference Report, Apr. 1922, pp. 97–98).

President Dieter F. Uchtdorf tells a story illustrating how there may be meaning in what we don’t understand today. He says:

When I was 11 years old, my family had to leave East Germany and begin a new life in West Germany overnight. Until my father could get back into his original profession as a government employee, my parents operated a small laundry business in our little town. I became the laundry delivery boy. To be able to do that effectively, I needed a bicycle to pull the heavy laundry cart. I had always dreamed of owning a nice, sleek, shiny, sporty red bicycle. But there had never been enough money to fulfill this dream. What I got instead was a heavy, ugly, black, sturdy workhorse of a bicycle. I delivered laundry on that bike before and after school for quite a few years. Most of the time, I was not overly excited about the bike, the cart, or my job. Sometimes the cart seemed so heavy and the work so tiring that I thought my lungs would burst, and I often had to stop to catch my breath. Nevertheless, I did my part because I knew we desperately needed the income as a family, and it was my way to contribute.

If I had only known back then what I learned many years later—if I had only been able to see the end from the beginning—I would have had a better appreciation of these experiences, and it would have made my job so much easier.

Many years later, when I was about to be drafted into the military, I decided to volunteer instead and join the Air Force to become a pilot. I loved flying and thought being a pilot would be my thing.

To be accepted for the program I had to pass a number of tests, including a strict physical exam. The doctors were slightly concerned by the results and did some additional medical tests. Then they announced, “You have scars on your lung which are an indication of a lung disease in your early teenage years, but obviously you are fine now.” The doctors wondered what kind of treatment I had gone through to heal the disease. Until the day of that examination I had never known that I had any kind of lung disease. Then it became clear to me that my regular exercise in fresh air as a laundry boy had been a key factor in my healing from this illness. Without the extra effort of pedaling that heavy bicycle day in and day out, pulling the laundry cart up and down the streets of our town, I might never have become a jet fighter pilot and later a 747 airline captain.

When we have an eternal perspective, we have the ability to see beyond the moment. A birth is sweeter because we understand that this new child has come from the presence of our Father, that the baby is embarking on an important part of a life that is forever.

When we have an eternal perspective, problems and setbacks are bearable. Our Father has a plan for us, and that plan includes returning to His presence and being like him. As long as we strive to be faithful in this life, we will have eternal life, regardless of the pains and obstacles and disappointments that we are called upon to bear in mortality.

When we have an eternal perspective, it is easier to choose good over bad, right over wrong. We can perceive what is best, not merely what is good. We can follow the light of Christ and the influence of the Holy Ghost. We can love our neighbor more fully because we know the worth of our neighbor’s soul.

When we have an eternal perspective, we understand that death is simply a step in eternal progression. We mourn, but our mourning can be soothed by our understanding that we can be together again with our loved ones and that the reunion will last forever.

When we have an eternal perspective, the Atonement of Jesus Christ is central in our lives. We know that it is only through faith, baptism, repentance, and the gift of the Holy Ghost that we can truly follow our Lord.

Our Eternal Reward

As I was listening to Sister Benson [an elderly sister who was recently baptized and spoke before I did in sacrament meeting], it occurred to me that her reward will be the same as mine in the life to come. Even though I have been a member of the Church my whole life and she has only recently been baptized, she will have eternal life, just as I will have if I remain faithful. In fact, if I lose the eternal perspective and decide, even after years of Church membership and service, that I will lay up in store those years and instead eat, drink, and be merry, she will have the ultimate reward and I will be relegated to a lesser glory.

The laborer is worthy of his or her hire, not matter when that laborer is called to the work.

May we strive to obtain an eternal perspective and worship continually in the House of the Lord.