Historical Study of Jesus the Christ and His Mission. James E. Talmage

to internal dissensions, they divided into factions, which warred with one another until the people were totally destroyed. This destruction, which occurred near the hill Ramah, afterward known among the Nephites as Cumorah, probably took place at about the time of Lehi's landing in South America—590 B.C."—The author, Articles of Faith, xiv:10–12.

      FOOTNOTES:

      4. Rev. 12:7; see also verses 8 and 9.

      5. Rev. 12:4; see also Doc. and Cov. 29:36–38; and 76:25–27.

6. Jude 6.

7. P. of G.P., Abraham 3:26.

8. Rev. 12:9.

9. Isa. 14:12–15; compare Doc. and Cov. 29:36–38; and 76:23–27.

10. P. of G.P., Moses 4:1–4; see also Abraham 3:27, 28.

11. For a further treatment of the preexistence of spirits see the author's "Articles of Faith" x:21–30.

12. Note 1, end of chapter.

13. Job 38:7.

14. Note 2, end of chapter.

15. Psalm 25:14; Amos 3:7.

16. John 1:1–3, 14; see also 1 John 1:1; 5: 7; Rev. 19:13; compare Doc. and Cov. 93:1–17, 21.

17. P. of C.P., Moses 1:32, 33; see also 2:5.

18. 1 John 1:1–3; 2:13, 14; 4:9; Rev. 3:14.

19. 2 Tim. 1:9, 10; Rom. 16:25; Eph. 1:4; 3:9, 11; Titus 1:2. See especially Rom. 3:25; and note the marginal rendering—"foreordained"—making the passage read: "Whom God hath foreordained to be a propitiation."

20. 1 Peter 1:19, 20.

21. John 6:38, 51, 57, 61, 62.

22. John 8:58; see also 17:5, 24; and compare Exo. 3:14. Page 37.

23. John 16:27, 28; see also 13:3.

24. John 17:3–5; see also verses 24, 25.

25. Note 3, end of chapter.

26. B. of M., Ether 3:11–16. See also 1 Nephi 17:30; 19:7; 2 Nephi 9:5; 11:7; 25:12; 26:12; Mosiah 3:5; 4:2; 7:27; 13:34; 15:1; Alma 11:40; Hela. 14:12; 3 Nephi 9:15.

27. Doc. and Cov. 93:1–17, 21.

28. Doc. and Cov. 76:13, 14.

      CHAPTER 3.

       THE NEED OF A REDEEMER.

       Table of Contents

We have heretofore shown that the entire human race existed as spirit-beings in the primeval world, and that for the purpose of making possible to them the experiences of mortality this earth was created. They were endowed with the powers of agency or choice while yet but spirits; and the divine plan provided that they be free-born in the flesh, heirs to the inalienable birthright of liberty to choose and to act for themselves in mortality. It is undeniably essential to the eternal progression of God's children that they be subjected to the influences of both good and evil, that they be tried and tested and proved withal, "to see if they will do all things whatsoever the Lord their God shall command them."29 Free agency is an indispensable element of such a test.

      The Eternal Father well understood the diverse natures and varied capacities of His spirit-offspring; and His infinite foreknowledge made plain to Him, even in the beginning, that in the school of life some of His children would succeed and others would fail; some would be faithful, others false; some would choose the good, others the evil; some would seek the way of life while others would elect to follow the road to destruction. He further foresaw that death would enter the world, and that the possession of bodies by His children would be of but brief individual duration. He saw that His commandments would be disobeyed and His law violated; and that men, shut out from His presence and left to themselves, would sink rather than rise, would retrograde rather than advance, and would be lost to the heavens. It was necessary that a means of redemption be provided, whereby erring man might make amends, and by compliance with established law achieve salvation and eventual exaltation in the eternal worlds. The power of death was to be overcome, so that, though men would of necessity die, they would live anew, their spirits clothed with immortalized bodies over which death could not again prevail.

Let not ignorance and thoughtlessness lead us into the error of assuming that the Father's foreknowledge as to what would be, under given conditions, determined that such must be. It was not His design that the souls of mankind be lost; on the contrary it was and is His work and glory, "to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man."30 Nevertheless He saw the evil into which His children would assuredly fall; and with infinite love and mercy did He ordain means of averting the dire effect, provided the transgressor would elect to avail himself thereof.31 The offer of the firstborn Son to establish through His own ministry among men the gospel of salvation, and to sacrifice Himself, through labor, humiliation and suffering even unto death, was accepted and made the foreordained plan of man's redemption from death, of his eventual salvation from the effects of sin, and of his possible exaltation through righteous achievement.

In accordance with the plan adopted in the council of the Gods, man was created as an embodied spirit; his tabernacle of flesh was composed of the elements of earth.32 He was given commandment and law, and was free to obey or disobey—with the just and inevitable condition that he should enjoy or suffer the natural results of his choice.33