My talk from last week at church

Qatar is one of the few nations in the gulf region that permits Christians to build churches, so we are blessed to have the ability to worship here, albeit quietly. In our denomination (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints), we take turns speaking in the main worship service on Fridays, and last week was my turn. Below is the text of my talk from last week. All scripture references can be found at https://www.lds.org/scriptures/?lang=eng

Let's talk about hope. We use the word hope in so many different circumstances in everyday life that I think it's important to first establish what kind of hope we're talking about here. Gospel hope is not of the teenage "I hope that cute boy or girl comes to school today" variety. This hope is simply a wish or desire, unfounded in any good reason for hoping. Gospel hope also is not simply optimism for the sake of optimism, refusing to acknowledge the difficult realities of life. And though gospel hope does give us hope for humanity, it is not founded in confidence in humanity's ability to redeem itself. Instead, gospel hope stems from well-placed faith, an understanding of the truth, a knowledge of "things as they really are, and of things as they really will be; wherefore, these things are manifested unto us plainly, for the salvation of our souls" (Jacob 4:13). We have gospel hope only in and through Christ.

As we learn from the Lectures on Faith, we can have faith in God because of a knowledge of his character. And knowing that He is perfect gives us hope that all his promises will be fulfilled. Adam and Eve's transgression in the garden, and God's response to it, are one of my favorite sources of hope in God's character, because to me that story shows how God can take any seemingly negative event and make something good out of it.

Because gospel hope is based in faith, it removes doubt. It is the exact opposite of despair. Moroni wrote "And if ye have no hope ye must needs be in despair; and despair cometh because of iniquity." (Moroni 10:22) The only thing that can hurt our gospel hope is choosing to reject it completely through sin.

When Paul was in Rome, and probably beginning to have an idea of how literally his visit would be cut short, he wrote to the Hebrews that Christ came as a high priest of good things to come (Hebrews 9:11). This was a message of hope that those converted Jews under both Roman and Pharisaic oppression needed as much as they did in any other century of their millennia of persecution. He reminded them that the temple rituals performed with the blood of rams and oxen never had power to actually cleanse the people, but that the Messiah would, with his own blood, enter the holiest place of all and make an infinite atonement for their sins. This is the ultimate message of gospel hope, and if you'd like a more thorough exploration of that message, read Elder Holland's talk "An High Priest of Good Things to Come" from the October 1999 General Conference.

It's hard to talk about gospel hope without discussing faith and charity, as well. Both Paul and Moroni linked the three, and consequently, so has pretty much everyone who has written about hope in a gospel context ever since. In Moroni 7, we read:

"33 And Christ hath said: If ye will have faith in me ye shall have power to do whatsoever thing is expedient in me.

34 And he hath said: Repent all ye ends of the earth, and come unto me, and be baptized in my name, and have faith in me, that ye may be saved.

35 And now, my beloved brethren, if this be the case that these things are true which I have spoken unto you, and God will show unto you, with power and great glory at the last day, that they are true, and if they are true has the day of miracles ceased?

36 Or have angels ceased to appear unto the children of men? Or has he withheld the power of the Holy Ghost from them? Or will he, so long as time shall last, or the earth shall stand, or there shall be one man upon the face thereof to be saved?

37 Behold I say unto you, Nay; for it is by faith that miracles are wrought; and it is by faith that angels appear and minister unto men; wherefore, if these things have ceased wo be unto the children of men, for it is because of unbelief, and all is vain.

38 For no man can be saved, according to the words of Christ, save they shall have faith in his name; wherefore, if these things have ceased, then has faith ceased also; and awful is the state of man, for they are as though there had been no redemption made.

39 But behold, my beloved brethren, I judge better things of you, for I judge that ye have faith in Christ because of your meekness; for if ye have not faith in him then ye are not fit to be numbered among the people of his church.

40 And again, my beloved brethren, I would speak unto you concerning hope. How is it that ye can attain unto faith, save ye shall have hope?

41 And what is it that ye shall hope for? Behold I say unto you that ye shall have hope through the atonement of Christ and the power of his resurrection, to be raised unto life eternal, and this because of your faith in him according to the promise.

42 Wherefore, if a man have faith he must needs have hope; for without faith there cannot be any hope.

43 And again, behold I say unto you that he cannot have faith and hope, save he shall be meek, and lowly of heart.

44 If so, his faith and hope is vain, for none is acceptable before God, save the meek and lowly in heart; and if a man be meek and lowly in heart, and confesses by the power of the Holy Ghost that Jesus is the Christ, he must needs have charity; for if he have not charity he is nothing; wherefore he must needs have charity."

The way I understand these verses, whenever Mormon uses the phrase "if a man have [blank], he must needs have [blank]", he means that the second quality named is a natural consequence of the first. So anyone with faith will automatically have hope, and anyone with faith and hope will develop meekness and lowliness of heart, and anyone with faith, hope, and meekness, will surely develop charity. That's a lot more cheerful than the way I used to read it, which was the other way around. You couldn't have faith unless you had hope first, and you couldn't have faith and hope unless you were meek and humble first, and you couldn't be meek and humble or have faith or hope unless you had charity first. This seemed like a pretty tall order to me, given what I knew about myself. But thinking of it the other way around gives me a lot of hope. If I have faith in Christ, then I will feel hopeful, both for myself and for other sinners like me. And that hopeful feeling will give me the energy and encouragement I need to go and serve others. Faith is the knowledge, and hope is the feeling that it gives us. Just as you can't help salivating when you know you'll have your favorite food for dinner tonight, you can't help feeling hopeful when you know that Jesus is in control. And just as you'd want other people to try your favorite food, you want other people to have the same hope that you have, so you try to share the gospel with them and serve them. Charity is the way we think about and treat others that results from feeling gospel hope.

“And what is it that ye shall hope for?” Mormon asked. “Behold I say unto you that ye shall have hope through the atonement of Christ and the power of his resurrection, to be raised unto life eternal, and this because of your faith in him according to the promise.” Gospel hope is excited anticipation for the fulfillment of God's promises. It's a feeling of confidence that heaven is waiting and that we can bring a bit of heaven to earth through gospel covenants.

So what is this heavenly life going to be like? In his April 2008 General Conference talk, Elder L. Tom Perry said:

“I believe that if we could create in our minds a clear and true picture of eternal life, we would start behaving differently. We would not need to be prodded to do the many things involved with enduring to the end, like doing our home teaching or visiting teaching, attending our meetings, going to the temple, living moral lives, saying our prayers, or reading the scriptures. We would want to do all these things and more because we realize they will prepare us to go somewhere we yearn to go.”

What I’ve prepared to share with you next, then, is the clearest and truest picture of eternal life that I can come up with from the scriptures. Keeping a picture of heaven in your mind will fill you with gospel hope, and I encourage you to search for this information in the scriptures yourselves, since the process is likely to give the Holy Spirit an opportunity to grant you a more complete picture than you’ll get from listening to me. A picture of eternal life ought to include these details: What does it look like? Who will be there? What will the experience of living there be like for them? What besides those people will be there? Who and what won’t be there? And where exactly is this “there” we keep talking about, anyway?

The last question is probably the easiest one to answer: Where will eternal life be? Those who live in the celestial kingdom will be living right here on earth. At the end of the world, it will be given a new beginning. John saw that “before the throne [of God] there was a sea of glass like unto crystal” (Rev. 4:6), which the Lord revealed to Joseph Smith to be “the earth, in its sanctified, immortal, and eternal state” (Doctrine and Covenants [hereafter D&C] 77:1). Whether the earth will be in the same place, circling this sun, we don’t know, and it doesn’t really matter because “The sun shall be no more thy light by day; neither for brightness shall the moon give light unto thee: but the Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting light, and thy God thy glory. Thy sun shall no more go down; neither shall thy moon withdraw itself: for the Lord shall be thine everlasting light, and the days of thy mourning shall be ended” (Isa. 60:19-20). God will be there living with us, and we will receive all the warmth and energy and light we need directly from Him.

God won’t be the only one in the Celestial Kingdom who shines. Everyone in the highest degree of the Celestial Kingdom also will have received the fulness of God’s glory, “whose glory the sun of the firmament is written of as being typical” (76:56, 70). As it is written, “This is eternal lives—to know the only wise and true God, and Jesus Christ, whom he hath sent” (132:24; John 17:3). Those who have eternal life will know God perfectly and personally, because they “see as they are seen, and know as they are known... and he makes them equal in power, and in might, and in dominion” (v.94-95). Or as Paul wrote, “now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known” (1 Cor. 13:12).

 Because “the glory of God is intelligence,” (D&C 93:36) “they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness” (which I think means those who try to help other people be righteous) “[shall shine] as the stars for ever and ever” (Daniel 12:3). So the just and good and true people you know and interact with will here on earth will by that time be every bit as glorious to behold as God himself, and so will you. “Every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as [Jesus] is pure” (1 Jn. 3:2-3). Picturing that, and knowing that it really will happen fills me with hope.

What will it be like in heaven? As Paul taught (1 Cor. 15:41-42), if you compare the brightness of the stars to the brightness of the sun, that’s how much more amazing the celestial kingdom will be than this one is. Joseph Smith “saw the transcendent beauty of the gate through which the heirs of that kingdom will enter, which was like unto circling flames of fire; Also the blazing throne of God, whereon was seated the Father and the Son. [He] saw the beautiful streets of that kingdom, which had the appearance of being paved with gold” (D&C 137:2-4). “That same sociality which exists among us here will exist among us there, only it will be coupled with eternal glory, which glory we do not now enjoy” (D&C 130:2). “And every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for [the Savior’s] sake, shall receive an hundredfold” (Matt. 19:29). There will be many mansions there, room enough and to spare for everyone (John 14:2). “Both he that [sowed] and he that [reaped will] rejoice together” (John 4:36), so we’ll all celebrate together with God to see so many people brought home safely to him.

I expect heaven will be a lot like the times in your life when you were the most excited about learning, because “This earth, in its sanctified and immortal state, will be made like unto crystal and will be a Urim and Thummim to the inhabitants who dwell thereon, whereby all things pertaining to an inferior kingdom, or all kingdoms of a lower order, will be manifest to those who dwell on it; and this earth will be Christ’s. Then the white stone mentioned in Revelation 2:17, will become a Urim and Thummim to each individual who receives one, whereby things pertaining to a higher order of kingdoms will be made known” (D&C 130:9-10). To me that sounds just fascinating. Have you ever gotten absorbed in trying to find an answer to some question? Do you take pleasure in learning about how the universe works or in learning about plants or animals or the economy or medicine or the finer points of aesthetics? Do you catch yourself sometimes just reading articles on Wikipedia for fun? Well, let me tell you, Wikipedia’s got nothing on a Urim and Thummim. Heaven will be a place of limitless growth and learning. When I feel like I'm stagnating because all the mundane demands on my time keep me from studying, I feel hope because I know I'll have eternity to learn in heaven.

As the Prophet Joseph Smith saw in his vision of the degrees of glory in section 76, heaven will be populated with wonderful people. Imagine spending every day surrounded by people who have unquestionable testimonies of Christ and who have been tried, suffered, and proven faithful to him and his teachings (D&C 76:53; D&C 138:12-13). If you’re sealed to your family, then you’ll be a family still, and those who are sealed to a spouse will be able to carry on having and raising beautiful children (D&C 131). If you never find your loving spouse in this life despite trying, you’ll find a good one there. That’s reason enough to stay worthy! Every child who ever died under the age of accountability without baptism will be there (D&C 137:7-10). Everyone there will have accepted baptism (v.51) and all other saving ordinances, whether in this life or by proxy (D&C 138:34). Everyone will keep the commandments to love God and love one another, and everyone there will understand the will of God (v.52). Everyone will be reverent when the occasion calls for it (v.93). According to Isaiah, they’ll be the kind of people who walk righteously, speak uprightly, despise the gain of oppressions, don’t accept bribes, don’t listen to gossip or backbiting, and don’t look at inappropriate things (Isa. 33:15). Everyone will be a king or a queen, a priest or a priestess, and they’ll act appropriately to those titles. In other words, these will be people who attended the temple regularly and with an eye of faith on earth (v.56). They’ll be people who enjoy doing the works of Abraham (D&C 132:32). An examination of his life tells us that some of these works were 1) seeking the Lord; 2) obtaining the necessary ordinances; 3) leaving his home to go out into the world to do good; 4) rejecting the evils of the world; 5) obeying the Lord and sacrificing whatever the Lord commanded; 6) raising up a righteous posterity; and 7) being a missionary to all he met. In other words, he was a just man, and as the vision states, “These are they who are just [people] made perfect through Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, who wrought out this perfect atonement through the shedding of his own blood” (v.69). A few specific people who will be there and who I hope to meet are Adam and Eve, their righteous children, including Abel and Seth; Noah, Shem, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, Moses, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Elias, Malachi, Joseph Smith, the Nephite and Lamanite Prophets, (D&C 138:38-53) and prophets and members from all times and all nations (D&C 137:7-10).

I’ve heard people complain about there being too much conformity among members of the church, saying that we don’t have enough diversity. I’ve heard other people speculate that it’ll be pretty boring in heaven if everybody has to follow the same rules to get there. But how much do the commandments say about how we can and can’t behave, really? The gospel is that we should have faith, repent, be baptized, receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, and then continue on in keeping the commandments and our covenants to receive the remaining ordinances of salvation. The only limitation on diversity I hear in that list is a limitation on sin. And anyone who can’t imagine a way to be an individual without fornicating, backbiting, abusing, stealing, or being irreverent is suffering from nothing so much as a severe lack of creativity! Diversity will never be a problem in a heaven full of people from every nation, kindred, tongue, and era of human history. And we can be full of hope for unity in diversity in this life because we have this vision of what heaven will be like.

Perhaps I can mention some things that won’t be a part of eternal life, which I think we all hope to be rid of: In the celestial kingdom there will be no more sickness or death (Isa. 33:24), no more sectarian confusion and fighting (D&C 76:99-100), no more lies, infidelity, hate, abuse, starvation, sickness, cruelty, injustice, or sin of any kind. Finally, all our enemies will be gone (D&C 76:61). If they remained wicked, they’ll be somewhere other than the celestial kingdom, and if they repented, they will be there; they’ll just be our friends, instead. Would it change the way we treat our enemies if we knew they might some day be our friends and live with us with God? Maybe that’s one reason Jesus commanded us to pray for them (Matt. 5:44).

To conclude, I should tell you that as I thought about this topic, I remembered something in Isaiah that made me think twice about Elder Perry’s statement. “Since the beginning of the world men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen, O God, beside thee, what he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him.” So if we’ve got nothing in our experience that compares with how great heaven will be, how can we develop the “clear and true picture of eternal life” that Elder Perry wishes we each had? How can we feel hopeful about it if we can't experience it? Fortunately, both Paul and Joseph Smith each received some clarification about this statement. From 1 Corinthians: “But as it is written, 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. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. ” And from the Doctrine and Covenants: “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.” Like all spiritual knowledge, the picture of what eternal life will be like, the picture that Elder Perry says will fill us with hope and motivate us to endure to the end, is accessible through the spiritual senses. If we search for what the scriptures can tell us about heaven, and then ask Heavenly Father to show us that picture for ourselves, then we can and will gain at least a taste of what it will be like. Then, “To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortality, [God will give] eternal life” (Rom. 2:7). I invite you to seek this gift of hope from the Lord and testify that if you seek, you shall find (Luke 11:9).