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Heiligen der Laatste dagen houden er al lang verschillende zienswijzen
op na als het gaat over de vraag of de mens vooruitgang maakt nadat deze
een bepaalde graad van glorie heeft bereikt na de opstanding. Is een plek
in het telestiale of terrestiale koninkrijk een onherroepelijke zaak of
kunnen haar bewoners na verloop van tijd naar het celestiale koninkrijk
overgaan? Waar het bij die vraag om gaat is ons begrip aangaande goddelijke
liefde en menselijk potentieel. Zouden onze Hemelse Ouders hun kinderen
ooit zonder hoop op verandering kunnen afschrijven? Ligt menselijke hoop
op verandering ooit buiten bereik? Vanuit een optimistische visie is het
antwoord: nee. De openbaringen aan Joseph Smith versterken de gedachte
dat Gods werk niet volbracht is totdat al Gods kinderen zijn verhoogd
(LV 29:28-30; 121:32).
Ook over de vraag of God voortgang blijft maken lopen de meningen onder
Heiligen der Laatste Dagen uiteen. De gedachte dat Gods macht en kennis
niet absoluut zouden zijn, verontrust velen omdat dit zou inhouden dat
God feilbaar zou kunnen zijn. De gedachte echter dat God progressief is,
lag voor een aantal HLD auteurs uit de 19e eeuw ten grondslag aan hun
geloof in een oneindige voortgang. Als God progressief is, dan is alle
werkelijkheid oneindig. We bezitten het potentieel te handelen als Gods
mede-werkers in de volle betekenis van het woord en als gelijkwaardige
deelnemers in de hemelse vergaderingen. Vanuit die visie stellen onze
levenservaringen ons in staat om met onze unieke gaven en inzichten bij
te dragen aan het goddelijk werk; gaven en inzichten die misschien zelfs
God niet zal kunnen bijdragen.
Endless Growth and Advancement
| Joseph Smith: All the
minds and spirits that God ever sent into the world are susceptible
of enlargement and improvement. |
| "The King Follett Discourse:
A Newly Amalgamated Text," BYU Studies 18, no. 2 (Winter
1978), 204 |
B. H. Roberts: Intelligence,
purity, truth, will always remain with us relative terms and also
relative qualities. Ascend to what heights you may, ever beyond
you will be other heights in respect of these things, and ever as
you ascend more heights will appear, and it is doubtful if we shall
ever attain the absolute in respect of these qualities. Our joy
will be the joy of approximating them, of attaining unto ever increasing
excellence, without attaining the absolute.
|
| Defense of the Faith
and the Saints (Salt Lake City: Deseret News, 1907), 1:529 |
David O. McKay: A
man's idea of the significance of the words "eternal progression"
will largely determine his philosophy of life. . . . The great secret
of human happiness lies in progression. Stagnation means death.
|
| Pathways to Happiness
(Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1957), 237, 240 |
Gordon B. Hinckley:
Heaven lies in the growth that comes of improvement and achievement.
|
| What of the Mormons?
(Salt Lake City: Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1947), 24 |
Chieko N. Okazaki:
Our Father in Heaven . . . does not want inferiors. He wants partners.
|
| Disciples (Salt
Lake City: Deseret Book, 1998), 53 |
Universal Salvation
| Hyrum Smith: If I thought
I should be saved, and any in the congregation be lost, I should not
be happy. |
| Times and Seasons,
August 1, 1844, 597-598 |
| James E. Talmage: It
is reasonable to believe . . . that, in accordance with God’s
plan of eternal progression, advancement from grade to grade within
any kingdom, and from kingdom to kingdom, will be provided for. |
| The Articles of Faith
(Salt Lake City: Deseret News, 1899), 420-421 |
| John A. Widtsoe: God
is not a partial Father; each child is alike in his love. Since the
plan of salvation is for all, it is fully consummated only when it
has been accepted by all. |
| Conference Report,
October 1936, 98 |
| John A. Widtsoe: The
divine purpose goes on rapidly when we cooperate; slowly when we oppose.
In the end, the purposes of the Almighty will be fulfilled, for He
has eternity in His keeping, and can wait, with loving assistance,
while man works out his own destiny by the exercise of his free agency.
Thus man gains in strength, and moves upward. |
| An Understandable Religion
(Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1944), 195-196 |
God's Eternal Progress
| Brigham Young: According
to [one] theory, God can progress no further in knowledge and power;
but the God that I serve is progressing eternally, and so are his
children: they will increase to all eternity, if they are faithful.
|
| Journal of Discourses
11:286-287 |
| Wilford Woodruff: If
there was a point where man in his progression could not proceed any
further, the very idea would throw a gloom over every intelligent
and reflecting mind. God himself is increasing and progressing in
knowledge, power, and dominion, and will do so, worlds without end.
It is just so with us. |
| Journal of Discourses
6:120 |
| B. H. Roberts: God's
immutability should not be so understood as to exclude the idea of
advancement or progress of God. . . . And is it too bold a thought,
that with this progress, even for the Mightiest, new thoughts, and
new vistas may appear, inviting to new adventures and enterprises
that will yield new experiences, advancement, and enlargement even
for the Most High? |
| Seventy's Course in
Theology (Salt Lake City: Deseret News, 1907-1912), 4:69-70 |
| B. H. Roberts: To this
Supreme Intelligence are the other intelligences necessary. He without
them cannot be perfect, nor they without him. There is community of
interest between them; also of love and brotherhood; and hence community
of effort for mutual good, for progress, for attainment of the highest
possible. |
A Comprehensive History
of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
(Salt Lake City: Deseret News Press, 1930), 2:399 |
| Eugene England: I realize
that thinking of God as genuinely progressing and therefore in some
sense less than absolutely perfect is fearful. I feel that fear—that
ultimate insecurity— myself when I think there is no source
of all the answers, no final bulwark against all danger, and frustration,
and change, and loss, nothing to prevent even God from weeping. But
Enoch tells us that God does indeed weep (Moses 7:28) . . . I must
accept the witness of the Prophet Joseph that the universe is ultimately
open, an invitation to adventure and change . . . |
"Perfection and Progression:
Two Complementary Ways To Talk About God,"
BYU Studies
29, no. 3 (Summer 1989), 45 |
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