New Dispensation Thoughts

MAN (3)-PURPOSE IN MAN'S LIFE.

"Men are, that they might have joy" (Book of Mormon, II Nephi, ii:25). Such was the declaration of the Prophet Lehi to his sons; and the statement is followed by the prophetic utterance respecting the mission of the Christ. I say "prophetically uttered" because Lehi lived some hundreds of years before the Christbirth. This his declaration:

"And the Messiah cometh in the fulness of time that he may redeem the children of men from the fall (i.e., of Adam). And because that they are redeemed from the fall, they (men) have become free forever, knowing good from evil to act for themselves and not to be acted upon, save it be by the punishment of the law at the great and last day, according to the commandments that God hath given—Wherefore men are free according to the flesh; and all things are given them which are expedient unto men, and they are free to choose liberty and eternal life through the great mediation of all men, or to choose captivity and death, according to the captivity and power of the devil." (Book of Mormon II Nephi, ii:26-27).

And now a brief recapitulation under these thoughts about man: This is God's purpose in the creation of man, to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life.

An indissoluble union of spirit and element is essential to the complete joy of man, hence his immortality.

The purpose in this immortal existence of man is that he may have joy; and joy, as we shall see, through progress.

Another statement of New Dispensation thought is that "the spirit and body is the soul of man, and the resurrection from the dead is the redemption of the soul" (Doctrine and Covenants, section lxxxviii:15-16). Spirit and body are fused into one, indestructible personage.

A Nephite Prophet speaking of resurrected men says: "they can die no more; their spirits uniting with their bodies, never to be divided; thus the whole becoming spiritual and immortal" (Book of Mormon, Alma, xi:45). Such the equipment of man for a career of progress throughout the eternities if he wills it so. If not and he chooses the course of evil, to him be the consequences until he learns obedience to righteous law by the things which he suffers. But "Man is that he might have joy" is God's purpose.

B. H. ROBERTS