by Chauncey C. Riddle
- God is a morally perfect, omniscient, omnipotent being, having a perfected body of flesh and bone. The work of God is to create men and to encourage them to become gods.
- Man is literally the child of God, but having a nonperfected body of flesh and bone.
- Both God and man are dual spiritual beings. The spirit is the person, the body is the tabernacle. Spirit and body, perfected and united, is a special condition known as “exaltation.” Exalted beings are gods; they have the distinctive capability of being able to do all possible good for other beings.
- Mortal existence is an occasion of trial andproving under a variety of physical, mental and social handicaps. These handicaps are essential to the eventual exaltation of men. They have come to exist for mankind in “the Fall.”
- Satan is a real spirit person who is assisted by many beings like himself. His work is to build a dominion for himself by enticing men to follow him, rather than God.
- Man is free to choose his own eternal destiny because he may choose either the way of righteousness by yielding to God, or the way of selfishness by yielding to Satan.
- Satan is given power over men to be a source of focus of their handicaps. Men cannot prove their love of righteousness except they consciously recognize and deliberately overcome these handicaps and reject Satan.
- God does not and will not lift handicaps from men until they have served their purposes. Some of their purposes are as follows:
a. To acquaint men with their insufficiency and the need for help to be righteous.
b. To give each person strength by teaching him to bear an inescapable burden.
c. To give each person the opportunity to learn to be righteous by having compassion for the handicaps of other persons and sharing their burdens with them. - Principal handicaps which make mortal existence meaningful:
a. Disease
b. Deformity
c. False concepts
d. Poverty and wealth
e. Denial of the opportunity to hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ in mortality.
f. Denial of the opportunity to bear the Priesthood of Jesus Christ in mortality.
g. Death - Men have struggled in vain to rid themselves completely of each of these handicaps by natural means.
- God’s means of overcoming the need for these handicaps is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Through its laws and ordinances, the spirits and bodies of men can be cleansed and purified by turning from selfishness to righteousness.
- The most important thing any man can attain to is righteousness. Righteousness is to love others with a pure, unselfish love. The only means to righteousness is voluntarily to give oneself to God—to love, to serve, to obey him with all of one’s heart, might, mind and strength. Then God changes that man’s nature. He is born a new creature and can then grow to maturity by doing the works of righteousness.
- A fully righteous man needs no handicaps. He can be freed from each and all of them, even in mortality. But to remove his handicaps while he and his friends and family need them would be to curse all concerned.
- Handicaps are usually all lifted completely only after mortal death. Then, the remaining mortals are not overawed by perfected beings, being enticed to seek the rewards of righteousness rather than righteousness itself.
- Handicaps are sometimes lifted completely in mortality. This is called “translation.” Translated beings are usually taken from the presence of unrighteous men, lest the latter be enticed to seek the rewards of righteousness rather than righteousness itself.
- Righteousness is a matter of faith in a true and living god. Those who wait to know for sure before they sacrifice anything, cannot become righteous. Those who hunger and thirst after righteousness do not wait for sure knowledge; they are willing to try to live by the Holy Spirit of God when it comes to them, even though they cannot “prove” it. That Holy Spirit teaches them to be righteous. Obeying that Holy Spirit is faith in Jesus Christ.
- Thus, handicaps are not usually lifted completely in this life in order that men might learn to have faith in Christ and through that faith to attain true righteousness. The assurance that handicaps are completely lifted in the next life is a matter of faith. But those who exercise enough faith to become righteous also have enough faith to accept the assurance that the handicaps will be lifted.
- The last and greatest handicap is death. The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the triumph of God over death and is the token of triumph over death by all men and over all other handicaps. The Gospel of Jesus Christ has no meaning apart from the assurance that Jesus Christ is resurrected. Those who lack that assurance quite naturally doubt that the other handicaps will be lifted.
- Just as God could not now lift from all men the handicap of death and still bless them as he wishes, so he cannot remove from his children all disease, deformity, false concepts, poverty and wealth, denial of the opportunity to hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ in mortality, denial of the opportunity to bear the Priesthood of Jesus Christ in mortality, and bless them as he wishes.
- God, in his love and mercy, visits his children with handicaps in order that they might learn to be faithful to him, that through that faith they might become righteous. When they become righteous, he can exalt them.
- Men should strive to help one another, to share their strength with the handicapped. They should strive to conquer and do away with each handicap. But they should also recognize that the most efficient way to remove any or all of the handicaps is to promote faith in Jesus Christ.
- God will remove each handicap from his children here as it is a blessing to do so. Otherwise he could and would not be God. Though men should strive to make the world a heaven, they should not fault God for not allowing it to be so yet.
- To remove the handicap of not receiving the priesthood before the time when that priesthood, would bless its recipients would be to curse them. God does not thus curse his children.
- God is not respecter of persons. He blesses each person according to that person’s capacity to receive. Every human being has an equal opportunity for each and every of God’s blessings. But those blessings are fully realized only in eternity. In mortality, some are diseased, some deformed, some believe the false teachings of their parents, some languish in poverty and others in wealth, some may not now hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ, some may not now bear the Priesthood of Jesus Christ, some have their bodies laid in earthly graves. All this in order that God might fully bless his children in eternity.