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Consider the Butterfly - by Sherman Lloyd C. Sangcap

Have you ever asked yourself, who you are, where do you come from before you were born, and where are you going after your life here on earth.  There are many things around us that tells us many things of who we are and what are we to become.  Have you recognized that to yourself or you are just to much focused on the other things.  




God looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, that did seek God.  (Psalm 53:2)




If you give some time to meditate and ponder on the creations of God, you will know to yourself that all things speaks to you and tells you constantly of who you are and what you should become.  A latter-day scripture stated,




"this is my work and my glory, to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of men." (moses 1:39).  


The Lord's work is to bring to pass the fullness of the beauty that we had inherited from Him.  For we are His offspring and we have an eternal identity.


"I have said, Ye are gods; and all of you are children of the most High." (Psalms 82:6)



Now see for yourself that you have a godlike attributes within you.  We all came from Him our Father in Heaven and were so much acquainted with Him before we were born, we all lived as spirit children of God and we knew each one of us before because we all are brothers and sisters in spirit.  We were born as spirit in heaven by our Heavenly Parents and was nurtured and reared to maturity.  We were given commandments to follow and was provided an education that would prepare us to advance onto a next estate of life... The life that we live now.  All these are being done and is continuing to be done until we come into an estate that we will become even as God himself.  Our Father in Heaven wants us to enjoy and experience the fullness of the happiness that He has together with our own eternal family.  So, the Plan of Salvation or the Plan of Happiness was instituted to help us reach the full extent of our identity as children of God.  To become like Him.  Have you ever imagined the beauty of that plan.  Jesus Christ and His atonement is the center of that plan.  God knew from the very beginning that for us to be able to advance and live as He lives, we have to attain perfection.  But, He also knew that all of us, in some part of our life here on earth will make a mistake and sin.  This will keep us from being perfect and will lead us away from Him.  


"And now, the plan of mercy could not be brought about except an atonement should be made; therefore God himself atoneth for the sins of the world, to bring about the plan of mercy, to appease the demands of justice, that God might be a perfect, just God, and a merciful God also." (Alma 42:15)



"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  The same was in the beginning with God.  All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.  In him was life; and the life was the light of men...  And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth." (John 1:1-4, 14)



So, from the very beginning, God chose his perfect Son Jesus Christ (also known as Jehovah in the old testament), to be our Savior and to provide an Infinite Atonement for us to be able to return to Him again through faith and repentance and through ordinances that was instituted to cleanse us and purify us from the blood and sins of this world in which we now live.  Satan, (also known as Lucifer or the Son of the Morning) who was cast out because of rebellion, and was not granted a privilege of having a physical tangible body like we have, seeks our misery and will do all things to keep us from knowing all the truth about ourselves and our eternal identity.  He will strive to possess our body and use it for his diabolical purposes.  


"Therefore I would that ye should be perfect even as I, or your Father who is in heaven is perfect." (3 Nephi 13:48 see also Matthew 5:48)



God sent his Son not only to provide an atonement for us but also to show us the way on how to become like Him even as he is like the Father who is in heaven.  He taught us His gospel that if we will have faith on Him and His atonement, repent of our sins and forsake them, get baptized through proper priesthood authority, receive the Holy Ghost and endure to the end,... that is to endure until the end of our mortal probation, we will have eternal life.


"For though there be that are called gods, whether in heaven or in earth, (as there be gods many, and lords many,)"

"But to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him." (1 Corinthians 8:5-6)




Yes, there are many gods in heaven, as there are as many fathers who live in this world.  But to us there is but one God, the Father of our spirits and one Lord Jesus Christ who is our Savior and Redeemer as there is but one biological father who hath begotten us here in this world.

We will live as God lives.  We will dwell in a higher estate of existence in the Celestial kingdom and will live with the same glory with God and His Son Jesus Christ and receive of their fullness.  We will have an eternal posterity and we will help in creating worlds without number.  Consider the beauty of this plan.  What more could you have hoped for than these things of God.  These are real and it will all be fulfilled if we will put ourselves aligned with the teachings of Christ and His gospel.  We have the agency or the freedom to choose for ourselves of whom we should follow.  God sent his chosen prophets to continue on teaching us the way of Christ in these our own days and dispensations.  Reiterating the knowledge that has been taught before from the time of Adam and Eve and providing more knowledge that is fitted for our own time this modern day.  Expounding the scriptures and revealing many truths pertaining to this earth and its future conditions.


"For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive." (1 Corinthians 15:22)


This world has an end.  We live as mortal beings from the time after Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit that fulfilled the word of God which says "...Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." (see Genesis 2:16-17)  Adam and Eve lived in a paradisiacal estate called the Garden of Eden.  The word Eden is derived from a Hebrew word which means "delight".  Before they ate of the forbidden fruit, they live in an immortal state, they were innocent as a little child without a knowledge of the opposites.  They can be taught and be instructed with many basic things and they were instructed and taught by God from time to time, visiting them and speaks with them as a man speaketh with another.  God from the beginning knew that to be able for them to undergo testing and probation they need to have knowledge of the opposites so as for them to be able to use the agency which He hath given from the beginning.  Agency is very essential in God's plan.  There will be no testing period without an opposite.  God wants Adam and Eve to use the will power that He hath given to choose and act for themselves.  They have been instructed and told by God from time to time of what they should do.


Wherefore, the Lord God gave unto man that he should act for himself. Wherefore, man could not act for himself save it should be that he was enticed by the one or the other.

And I, Lehi, according to the things which I have read, must needs suppose that an angel of God, according to that which is written, had fallen from heaven; wherefore, he became a devil, having sought that which was evil before God.

And because he had fallen from heaven, and had become miserable forever, he sought also the misery of all mankind. Wherefore, he said unto Eve, yea, even that old serpent, who is the devil, who is the father of all lies, wherefore he said: Partake of the forbidden fruit, and ye shall not die, but ye shall be as God, knowing good and evil. (2 Nephi 2:16-18)


The time came where God seeth fit for Adam and Eve to be left alone without much supervision, leaving them enough knowledge to use the agency that was given them in a proper way, letting them choose for themselves and allowing Satan to enter and tempt them to disobey God.  They could not act for themselves if they are not enticed by the one or the other the reason why Satan was allowed to enter.  There were two commandments that has been given, the first was to multiply and replenish the earth, the second is to not eat or even touch the tree of knowledge of good and evil.  If Adam and Eve chose not to eat the tree of knowledge of good and evil, they will remain in the state of innocence, live forever and without children.  Why? Remember the sanction of God for Eve about bearing forth a child was only given in consequence to her transgression.  They will never die also, because they could not feel fatigue, sickness and pain and that death only came in consequence to what hath God declared that in the day that Adam eat the forbidden fruit, he shall surely die.  They will remain innocent not knowing good from evil.  Thus, they could never be a good people because they do not know how to be like it.  For us to understand the good, we have to understand the evil also.  Thus, if we say that we know that God lives, we have to know also that Satan is there, tempting us to destruction.  Therefore, the fall of Adam is essential in the Plan of Mercy or the Plan of Salvation.  Because without it, the need and the calling of the Savior would have been futile.  Everything will stop on that condition and there will never be a progression.  We will never be born and receive our own physical bodies and receive the fullness of joy.


Therefore, we should never be blaming Adam and Eve for their transgression because it is part of God's plan and we could never say that they sin against God because they were innocent before they partook the fruit.  We only sin on things that we know which is bad but then we did it.  They only transgressed the law.  There is a distinction between transgression and sin.  All sin is a transgression of the law but not all transgressions is a sin.  Consider this example, a teacher told you not to open your notebook until you were advised, but then you opened it prior to his advise.  Opening the notebook without being advised is not inherently wrong, thus, it is not a sin, it is only a transgression to what the teacher had said.  We will all be punished through our own sins and not because of Adam's transgression.


Because of Adam, there is death but because of Christ, there is life, even life eternal.  Death is part of life we must all understand it.  Eternal life could not be brought to pass without it.  Even Christ needed to pass through death and was risen an Eternal Being through the power that God the Father had vested on Him.  Through Christ's atonement and resurrection, we will all be able to overcome two kinds of death, spiritual death and temporal death.  The one is conditional while the other is unconditional.  To be able to overcome spiritual death, we have to follow Christ's teachings in His gospel and accept the ordinances that accompanies it like baptism for remission of sins through proper priesthood authority.  Temporal death is unconditional due to the fact that it is brought to us in consequence to Adam's choice not ours.  All people good and bad alike will all be resurrected and be brought to God's presence again for judgement purposes.  We will receive this same body that we possess in a perfect condition.  We will all become immortal.  But only those who endured to the end will not suffer the spiritual death or the second spiritual death that was spoken of in the scriptures.




"Yea, and it bringeth to pass the condition of repentance, that whosoever repenteth the same is not hewn down and cast into the fire; but whosoever repenteth not is hewn down and cast into the fire; and there cometh upon them again a spiritual death, yea, a second death, for they are cut off again as to things pertaining to righteousness." (Helaman 14:18)  


To be cut off again as to things pertaining to righteousness is to be banished away from God after the final judgement.  We all suffered the first spiritual death after Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit.  They were banished from the presence of God because of transgression.  All people born and is to be born in this world will be separated from God because we left our heavenly home to be born here on earth.  Thus we are being separated from Him.  We could not see Him now because of the effects of the fall.  Therefore, we are now suffering the first spiritual death.  Even Christ our Lord, the perfect Man who ever lived on earth had suffered this kind of death also to make the fullness of His atonement.  This is why He uttered the words, "My God, My God, Why hast thou forsaken me."  To be able to save us from the fall of Adam, Christ needs to pass through both kinds of death and to overcome it.  Christ did overcome and we will all be save from temporal death and first spiritual death that came into us because of the fall.  Wicked man will continue to suffer the first spiritual death in the Spirit Prison. They will be in the spirit prison or hell until the end of the one thousand years of peace and joy which the righteous will enjoy.  After the millenium, all wicked man will then be resurrected.  After all the resurrection will be completed, the final judgement will then be convened.  All people will be brought in the presence of God to be judged according to their works.  Thus, overcoming the first spiritual death that Adam brought after the fall because We will see God's face again, we will all return to Him after the resurrection.  We will all overcome the first spiritual death because this type of death was only brought in consequence to Adam's transgression not ours.  Thus, we will all have the privilege of seeing God again after the resurrection both the evil and the righteous.  These are all because of the atonement of Christ.   But, for the wicked, it is only just for a moment because they will have to suffer the second spiritual death in consequence to their own sins.  Thus, they will be banished forever from the presence of God to live with the devil and his angels.  Others will have to inherit the lower kingdoms and receive lower glories and become servants forever.  There are three degrees of glories as being revealed to the prophets in the latter-days.  The highest is the Celestial, the place where God and all other gods resides, the terrestrial, the abode of those righteous people who never accepted the gospel and its ordinances on earth and even in the spirit world, but lived a virtuous life, and the telestial, the abode of wicked people who never commited the unpardonable sin against the Holy Ghost but had suffered hell until the end of the thousand years.  The other is not a kingdom of glory, but is called outer darkness or the abode of the devil and his angels where all who denied the Christ after receiving enough knowledge of Him will be with the devil forever.  These are the final destinations of mankind, depending on their choices.  Again, there are two kinds of death, temporal and spiritual, spiritual death has two part, the first and the second.  Temporal and first spiritual death will be overcame by us unconditionally because of the atonement of Christ.  But we have to work on overcoming the second spiritual death which is the cause of our own personal sins.  We have to follow Christ and His teachings for us to be accepted and be given the power to overcome the second spiritual death or total separation from God forever.


Now consider the butterfly,... the butterfly is one of the beauties that could be found in this world.  But before they were butterflies, they were in a larvae state called caterpillar.  You know how ugly caterpillar is and sometimes when you see one, you may attempt to trample it and kill it.  But, you will never deny the fact that it was born by a beautiful butterfly that you love to see flying around your garden.  Now, consider the butterfly and you,...  You were born by the most beautiful and powerful Being ever to be found in the universe and that is our Eternal Parents.  You may consider yourself weak or ugly sometimes, but you never know that when you overcome the world and put it under your feet, through the strength of Him who hath created you, you will become as one of Them, a beautiful being that is to be found in the universe.  You will have all that He hath and will have the fullness of joy.  You may not understand at all why death comes in our life, but you can understand that a caterpillar could not become a butterfly until it passes into a cocoon stage.  And that is just the same as death.  We could not become a beautiful immortal being like our Father in Heaven without passing on the stage we call death.  Death is the portal to immortality.  Death is part of life.


There are more things in life that teaches the eternal things of heaven.  God is teaching us through His creations.  You just have to have an ear to hear and an eyes to see.  These are all created for our benefit and learning.


"One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh: but the earth abideth for ever.

The sun also ariseth, and the sun goeth down, and hasteth to his place where he arose.

The wind goeth toward the south, and turneth about unto the north; it whirleth about continually, and the wind returneth again according to his circuits.

All the rivers run into the sea; yet the sea is not full; unto the place from whence the rivers come, thither they return again.

All things are full of labour; man cannot utter it: the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing.

The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.

Is there any thing whereof it may be said, See, this is new? it hath been already of old time, which was before us.

There is no remembrance of former things; neither shall there be any remembrance of things that are to come with those that shall come after."
 (ecclesiastes 1:4-11)

There is no new thing my friend.  All things has been done and will continue to be done as long as God lives.  We will all return to where we came from and we have to return with a estate of a higher glory to be able to see our Father in Heaven once again.  We may not remember all things that transpired in Heaven before we were born, but all things will be brought to our remembrance hereafter.  We just have to learn and strive to find all the available information that is given by God through His prophets and even by the symbolic nature of His creations.  All knowledge about Him is accessible and is just available if you but seek it.  The words of Christ is indeed of a truth, that if ye are pure in heart, ye shall see God.  That is you will learn about Him and learn His truth.  This I testify, In the name of Jesus the Christ.  Amen.


                                          "Be not faithless, but be believing..."















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