Yes, it does seem to me that you are getting there.SkyBird wrote:I agree with your wording...Interesting way of saying the same thing as the scriptures call being "born again".... "new creatures in Christ" ... "put on the new man" .... all these phrases describe the "new covenant" of becoming a manifestation of godliness, in thought, word and deed. It is what Lectures on Faith is all about...Jwharton wrote: Where spiritual procreation comes into play, and it most definitely does, is when the Priesthood Body receives the Word of God and the intelligences receive it into their hearts and minds and by virtue of this process of organizing their intelligence they come to life and become a newborn spirit birthed into the Church, the Bride of Christ.
16 These teachings of the Savior must clearly show unto us the nature of salvation; and what he proposed unto the human family when he proposed to save them—That he proposed to make them like unto himself; and he was like the Father, the great prototype of all saved beings: And for any portion of the human family to be assimilated into their likeness is to be saved; and to be unlike them is to be destroyed: and on this hinge turns the door of salvation.
17 Who cannot see, then, that salvation is the effect of faith? for as we have previously observed, all the heavenly beings work by this principle; and it is because they are able so to do that they are saved: for nothing but this could save them. And this is the lesson which the God of heaven, by the mouth of all his holy prophets, has been endeavoring to teach to the world. Hence we are told, that without faith it is impossible to please God; and that salvation is of faith, that it might be by grace to the end, the promise might be sure to all the seed. Romans 4:16:—And that Israel, who followed after the law of righteousness, has not attained to the law of righteousness. Wherefore? because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law; for they stumbled at that stumbling stone. Romans 9:32 (Lecture 7: 16-17).
This process according to your words is "the very process of spiritual procreation..." I agree! I see what you are saying now! "And for any portion of the human family to be assimilated into there likeness is to be saved" ... this process is indeed "spiritual"... it is the "spirit of the law" that saves and the "letter of the law" is the "form and structure" of all religions pointing our "spiritual minds" to the "spirit of the law." It is the "spirit of the law" that gives sense to the "letter of the law." Are we on the same page?
And, I hope, as you see the way I am putting it, that you can see we are literally in the exact same state now as hopefully spiritually reborn souls as we look back to when we were born as spirits in the previous cycle of creation.
The Melchizedek Priesthood Body is Adam and the Church Body is Eve and they are again here multiplying and replenishing the earth with spiritual offspring by preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ and raising up spiritual seed in the church, which is why we call one another brothers and sisters. This is also why the narrative of the saints is such a perfect parallel to the narrative of Adam and Eve. Collectively, we literally are them. We are the new Adam and Eve who were in the Garden in Jackson Co. Missouri who transgressed, fell and were driven out, etc. Once you can tap into exploring this tangibly real body of flesh and bone of our Father and our God Adam, we are then able to understand why He is the only God with whom we have to do. We are then able to grasp what also amounts to a true and perfect understanding of God the Father who was the Adam of this cycle about to come to a close.
As man (Adam) now is, God once was.
As God now is, man (Adam) may become.
This is our potential as a Priesthood Body, which Body shall rule and reign during the Millennium. If your eyes are opened to see this, then your eyes are now opened wide to see the flesh and bone body of your Father and your God. You are also able to see and know how things went in our beginning because being in the ending is simultaneously being in a new beginning. Knowing Adam is also knowing the end and the beginning, the Alpha and the Omega.
