The Great Restoration

By Larry Doyle Crenshaw

MeditationsInLight.Blogspot.com

A great separation comes when life is ended

Spirit and body are separate beyond the veil

Where, as spirits, our penitent time is extended

And more work, learning, and service prevail

It doesn’t take a military strategist to understand the offensive value of “divide and conquer.”  Such military maneuvers have existed from ancient times.  The strategy is not limited to military objectives, but today we find its application also alive and well in the arenas of economic and political warfare.  Influence and subtle subjugation can occur if the whole can be divided into opposing parts – left versus right, haves versus have-nots, Christian versus non-Christian.  In the absence of such divisions and their resulting conflicts and drama, the six-o’clock news hour would be reduced to just a couple of minutes.

I have found that the divide and conquer strategy finds its most potent and effective application in the battlefield of the soul.  Joined together with a body sometime around birth, our spirit comes from God to inhabit and both to teach and be taught by the body provided by our parents.  It is a somewhat tenuous connection subject to immediate separation by illness or accident.  And like current cyber-warfare, body and spirit are under constant threat of intrusions from spirit-hackers intent on planting malware in our mainframe.

These unseen but very-much-felt forces are at work seeking to separate – to divide and conquer both body and spirit.  They are evil, demonic forces that seek to place wedges between body and spirit – seeking to entice the body to overcome its spirit-tenant.  It is a battle fought on the battlefield of life – and the war started long before we arrived here on earth. 

Our armament in this battle involves the weaponry of light and truth.  Our success is guaranteed as long as we maintain our arsenal of principles, stay on high ground, and adopt both defensive and offensive postures.  Our short-term and long-term goal is to maintain the power of the Holy Spirit over both our spirit and body – even unto and beyond death.

When death comes, we will temporarily be deprived of that powerful connective force known as the soul.  Yet we will continue to work, to learn, and to serve others while we await the great restoration of body and spirit.

Our meditation speaks of this great restoration and key principles associated with the sacred ordinance of the resurrection available to all -

Such is the fate of both decent and depraved

As measured by one’s grasp of the Iron Rod

May we be restored to happiness and be saved

And crowned with virtue in the Kingdom of God

The Great Restoration

Now, concerning the state of the soul between death and the resurrection—Behold, it has been made known unto me by an angel, that the spirits of all men, as soon as they are departed from this mortal body, yea, the spirits of all men, whether they be good or evil, are taken home to that God who gave them life…. until the time which is appointed of God that the dead shall come forth, and be reunited, both soul and body, and be brought to stand before God, and be judged according to their works…. And now, my son, this is the restoration of which has been spoken by the mouths of the prophets. 

Book of Mormon    Alma 40:11, 21, 24

A great separation comes when life is ended

Spirit and body are separate beyond the veil

Where, as spirits, our penitent time is extended

And more work, learning, and service prevail

Then comes the great day of restoration

When all things to their perfect frame

Are restored to their rightful station

And justice and mercy make their claim

The spirit shall to the body be restored

Body and spirit become an eternal soul

An Atoning gift to all by Christ the Lord

And a vital step toward our eternal goal

If sin we sought and evil we desired

That wicked nature will justly be restored

If goodness we pursued and truth acquired

Then a fullness of joy we’ll find in the Lord

Such is the fate of both decent and depraved

As measured by one’s grasp of the Iron Rod

May we be restored to happiness and be saved

And crowned with virtue in the Kingdom of God

Larry Doyle Crenshaw