Exaltation (Christianity)

“ We talk a great deal about exaltation. We look for exaltation in the heavens—in the eternities which are before us. We expect the Gospel of salvation to exalt us. Where and when is this exaltation to commence? Some do not expect exaltation until after death. This is a mistake. Our exaltation commences in this world. That individual who has received the light of truth in his own bosom, has the base or foundation of his exaltation formed within him, and if he progresses in the knowledge of God—in the things which pertain to eternal life, he is in the road to exaltation, otherwise he is not. ”

“ There is no such thing as non-essential ordinances; every one of them is essential. Exaltation cannot be arrived at without them. But exaltation does not consist of the mere compliance to certain forms and ceremonies that the Almighty has instituted and placed in his Church. There is something more required, something superior to all this. What is it? It is the spirit that comes from our Father to dictate us in every act, to make us righteous and holy unto the Lord, and to sanctify us and bring us into complete subjection to and harmony with the laws that govern the celestial kingdom. ”

“ You and I will not be saved in the presence of God with an exaltation like that which is held out to us simply because we are called Latter-day Saints, or because we have complied with a certain form of religion, or even because we have gone into sacred places and received holy ordinances whereby we might be washed and cleansed and made anew and anointed unto righteousness. We shall not be brought up into the presence of our Father to abide there and participate in his glory simply because of these things. ”

“ We shall not be able to hide our imperfections from one another. We shall be weighed in the balance, and if we are found wanting we cannot receive a fullness of glory. But, says some one, I have had certain blessings pronounced upon my head, I have been promised an exaltation in the presence of God ”

“ Every circumstance relating both to Christ's humiliation and exaltation ought to be duly weighed by us, because of that mystery of God, and of man's redemption that is wrapped therein; for as there was not a pin, nor a loop, nor a tack in the tabernacle but had in it use of instruction to the children of Israel, so there is not any part, whether more near or more remote to Christ's suffering and exaltation, but is, could we get into it, full of spiritual advantage to us. ”

“ When we look for the causes of sudden and progressive religious exaltation we often discover that it is nothing else than compensation for disappointed love. I refer here to true and fervid exaltation, identified with the whole inner consciousness, and not to the religion of habit which the average man scarcely remembers in his daily life, and only observes on Sunday in the form of a conventional promenade, or a contribution to the church. ”

“ Far higher yet,—immeasurably higher,—in the divine Messiah, the Obedience is the grace, the glory, and the happiness of his Being!
TALBOYS. God is the Creator and Upholder—Satan, the Destroyer. God is the rightful Monarch of the Universe, unassailably seated on his everlasting Throne. Satan ever attempts Usurpation, and is ever baffled.
Pride is the inward Self-exaltation of a Creature. Observe that Exaltation is proper raising from a lower degree held to a higher degree, not before held. God is eternally the Highest;—a state which precludes the idea, strictly spoken, of Exaltation. ”

“ Without the doctrine that this revelation reveals, no man on earth ever could be exalted to be a God. Do you find out now, when you are exalted, what your work will be yonder? We read in the Scriptures that Jesus declared he is the First and the Last. It is written again in this book, by the Prophet Joseph, that he is the First and the Last—the Last and the First. This principle you see in all the works of the Lord. When a man commences the work of his exaltation, he begins at the last thing that will be completed. ”

“ You cannot give any person their exaltation, unless they know what evil is, what sin, sorrow, and misery are, for no person could comprehend, appreciate, and enjoy an exaltation upon any other principle. The devil with one third part of the spirits of our Father's Kingdom got here before us, and we tarried there with our friends, until the time came for us to come to the earth and take tabernacles; but those spirits that revolted were forbidden ever to have tabernacles of their own. You can now comprehend how it is that they are always trying to get possession of the bodies of human beings ”

“ This exaltation, which then affected humanity only in its head, is to be the experience also of the members. Our bodies also are to be delivered from the bondage of corruption, and we are to sit with Christ upon his throne. ”

“ He will not keep them at a greater distance for his being in a state of exaltation; but he will rather take them into a state of exaltation with him. This will be the improvement Christ will make of his own glory, to make his beloved friends partakers with him, to glorify them in his glory, as he says to his Father, John 17:22, 23. "And the glory which thou hast given me, have I given them, that they may be one, even as we are one I in them" etc. We are to consider, that though Christ is greatly exalted, yet he is exalted, not as a private person for himself only, but as his people's head ”

“ There seems to be no doubt upon the minds of the people—no forebodings of distress in the hearts of the Elders of Israel. What there may be lying in our path—I was going to say, we neither know nor care; but we do know that the straightforward path is strewed with blessings, glory, honour, exaltation, and eternal lives. Let us not, therefore, turn either to the right or the left from the path our God has marked out, whatever there may be of trial alongside of the path. ”

“ Salvation and Exaltation.—Some degree of salvation will come to all who have not forfeited their right to it; exaltation is given to those only who by active labors have won a claim to God's merciful liberality by which it is bestowed. ”

“ While they hold up the Bible as the all-sufficient guide to the possession of life eternal, they at the same time inculcate a principle which would never have given them a Bible. They fasten their faith and hope for salvation upon revelations given to another people, in another age and under other circumstances.
When God has a people upon the earth he gives them living oracles, and communicates his mind and will to them for their present and future exaltation, as well in one age as in another. ”

“ If his exaltation had been evident to the eyes so that every one without any trouble could have beheld it, why then it would be incorrect to say that Christ abased himself and assumed the guise of a servant, and it would be superfluous to warn against being offended in him; for why in the world should one take offense in an exalted one arrayed in glory? ”

“ Those who are not satisfied except with enthusiasm find in its ministrations the exaltation they require, while others who believe that the “anchor of faith” can never be safely moored except in the dry sands of reason find a religion within the pale of the Church which can boast of its irrefragable logic and its irresistible evidence. ”

“ When this portion of the school is out, the one in which we descend below all things and commence upon this earth to learn the first lessons for an eternal exaltation, if you have been a faithful scholar, and have overcome, if you have brought the flesh into subjection by the power of the Priesthood, if you have honored the body, when it crumbles to the earth and your spirit is freed from this home of clay, has the devil any power over it? ”

“ Even though we can form no clear idea of the exact way in which the exaltation of Christ from the earth took place�and indeed there is much that is obscure in regard to the earthly life of Christ after His resurrection�yet, in its place in the organic unity of the Christian faith, it is as certain as the resurrection, which apart from it cannot be recognised in its true significance. ”

“ I told him it was a good argument, though it was not exactly according to the will of the people and the will of the Lord, for He wishes to throw temptation and trial before His people, to prove them preparatory to their eternal exaltation; consequently, if the people have not an opportunity of proving themselves before they die, by the ruler of their faith and religion, they cannot expect to attain to so high a glory and exaltation as they could if they had been tried in all things. ”

“ Blessed are they that know these words, for they will not sin against their Lord eternally, seeing that after the sin they repent, wherefore their sin abideth not. Woe unto them that extol themselves, for they shall be humbled to the burning coals of hell. Tell me, brethren, what is the cause for self-exaltation? Is there, perchance, any good here upon earth? No, assuredly, for as saith Solomon, the prophet of God: "Everything that is under the sun is vanity." But if the things of the world do not give us cause to extol ourselves in our heart, much less doth our life give us cause ”

“ If we could contemplate the exaltation, the glory, the happiness which awaits the righteous, the pure and the virtuous, of those who fear God, even the Saints of the Most High! If we could comprehend the great blessings that God has in store for those people that fear him and observe his laws and keep his commandments, we should feel very different from what we do. ”

“ Man, however, to avail himself of its benefits, must yield obedience to its requirements. Redemption (resurrection) comes unconditionally, but salvation and exaltation depend upon human works as well as upon divine favor. A soul may be redeemed—raised from the dead—and yet condemned at the final judgment for evil deeds done in the body. Likewise may a soul be redeemed and saved, and yet come short of the glory that constitutes exaltation. To redeem, save and glorify is the threefold purpose of the Gospel of Christ. ”

“ We are here, and the Lord is determined, if He can accomplish it, if we will let Him, to reveal unto us the laws of exaltation. He is determined to make this people "Kings and Priests unto God and his Father;" to give them the keys of exaltation for the redemption of themselves, and of all their dead back to the time when the covenant was broken. If this people will be submissive and obedient to the laws and instructions of His Prophet and His Apostles, obey the teachings that are given unto them, and keep themselves pure, He will reveal unto them all those blessings ”

“ Some degree of salvation shall be granted to every soul who has not forfeited all claim thereto. But Salvation as a graded state provided for all who have not sinned unto the incurring of the dread penalty of the second death is far exceeded by the Exaltation provided for the valiant righteous. ”

“ Exalted is the God of my salvation!
47He is the God who gave me victory *
and cast down the peoples beneath me.
48You rescued me from the fury of my enemies;
you exalted me above those who rose against me; *
you saved me from my deadly foe. ”

“ It is to get near to God, who is the Most High. And the more one loves God the more does he wish to be near him; so all those who love God wish to be thus exalted and the saints more than all, because they love God more than any one else.
And this exaltation, which comes from being near to Almighty God, is what he promises, in these words of the Gospel, to the humble and refuses to the proud. This was what he gave to the publican and refused to the Pharisee; for he gave the publican his grace and his friendship, but the Pharisee failed to receive it on account of his pride. ”

“ The enemies to man’s rising out of the fall of Adam, through the Spirit and power of Christ, are many. But the great enemy is SELF-EXALTATION; when self-exaltation ceases, the last enemy is destroyed, and all that came from the death of Adam, is swallowed up in victory.
What, therefore, has every one so much to fear and abhor, as self-exaltation, and every outward work that proceeds from it. But at what things shall a man look, to see that which raises pride to its strongest life, and most of all hinders the life of the humble Jesus in his soul? ”

“ The third danger, most subtle of all, and pervading all, is pride, the exaltation of the human. And this is the temptation that Satan often successfully uses upon the spiritual Christian who has gotten beyond serving in the energy of the flesh or in the energy of the soul. We must cleanse ourselves of all defilement of flesh and of spirit. ”

“ Now take a person in this congregation who has knowledge with regard to being saved in the kingdom of our God and our Father, and being exalted, one who knows and understands the principles of eternal life, and sees the beauty and excellency of the eternities before him compared with the vain and foolish things of the world, and suppose that he is overtaken in a gross fault, that he has committed a sin that he knows will deprive him of that exaltation which he desires, and that he cannot attain to it without the shedding of his blood, and also knows that by having his blood shed he will atone for that sin, and be saved and exalted with the Gods, is there a man or woman in this house but what would say, "shed my blood that I may be saved and exalted with the Gods?"
All mankind love themselves, and let these principles be known by an individual, and he would be glad to have his blood shed. ”

“ However deep and blessed the experience becomes of the nearness, the blessing, the love, the actual indwelling of the Holy One, it is never an indwelling in the old self; it is ever a Divine Presence humbling self to make place for God alone to be exalted. The power of Christ’s death, the fellowship of His cross, works each [p122] moment side by side with the power and the joy of His resurrection. ‘He that humbleth himself shall be exalted;’ in the blessed life of faith the humiliation and the exaltation are simultaneous, each dependent on the other. ”