"He that endureth to the end shall have eternal life."

This morning as I was pondering the concept of enduring to the end I realized it is either the least understood doctrine of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, or the most misunderstood doctrine.  I guess I should write about the others first, but they will have to come latter to whatever extent they they are not naturally incorporated here.  There are many sources about Faith, and I would recommend The Lectures on Faith to any of my readers who would like to learn about faith.  I don't think I could teach it better than Joseph Smith so I will leave that to him.

I was reflecting on my Bishop's fifth Sunday lesson in which he talked about the scripture Moses 6:60, "For by the water ye keep the commandment; by the Spirit ye are justified, and by the blood ye are sanctified;"  To me this was clearly about baptism, the gift of the Holy Ghost, and the Sacrament. (I would encourage my reader if they want to study and ponder that particular scripture to study also the verse before, and two verses after it.) Yet these never came up in the discussion of this scripture (perhaps people thought these things were too obvious and not deep enough).  We could have talked extensively about each of them as symbols and how to pursue the things that the ordinances represent.  Instead the discussion was about obedience, following the Spirit, and I guess Christ's grace, we didn't talk much about the third because the bishop said it was the one we don't have to do anything for, because Christ did it for us.  He said obedience and following the Spirit can contradict each other as they did for Nephi when the Spirit told him to kill Laban.  In my mind the Spirit is what we need to be obedient to, so there is never a contradiction as they are part of the same thing.  And the bishop made sure to emphasize that because they contradict each other we are never to tell anyone else what we receive as personal revelation.  (oops.  Here I go.)


So what does this have to do with enduring to the end?  Well, hopefully I can write this clearly.  My thoughts have been jumping around and moving rather quickly this morning.  Enduring to the end needs some terms defined.  Often in the church we think "the end" is either death or judgment as in the end of our mortal existence.  But an "end" will often also mean a goal we have in mind.  What if "the end" can happen before we die, and is a specific goal we should be seeking?  Namely I would say the end we should have in our mind when we say "endure to the end" should be receiving our calling and election sure.  Then I would think that "enduring" is not merely getting through our trials, but rather it is continuing to seek after our end despite our trials and sacrifices that will be asked of us along the way.  Changing what we think of as the end completely changes what it would mean to endure on the journey there.  Enduring till you die, brings to mind the old, "keep on keeping on!"  While enduring to a goal brings to mind working hard to get there and achieve said goal.


To relate this back to the scripture in Moses, when we are baptized we do it to show obedience, and it is a symbol of giving up our old sinful life in favor of a new life that is in line with God's will.  Receiving the baptism of fire and the Spirit is the ability to continuously receive revelation for your life, one or more spiritual gifts, and line upon line, precept upon precept gain intelligence, light and truth and ultimately knowledge of the mysteries of God.  "By the Spirit ye are justified" means that wenever our actions are based on a prompting from the Spirit they are justified.  In the world they say "the end justifies the means," but this is not true.  It is the Spirit that justifies us before God.  An action specific to you (such as Nephi killing Laban) shouldn't be preached as what is right for everyone, we all have different life missions to receive revelation about.  But when it comes to teachings, we are not to hide our candle under a bushel and not share it with anyone.  We should not share mysteries of God that they need to learn for themselves, but things that might help them on that path to gain knowledge of the mysteries for themselves are important to share one with another that all may be edified and rejoice together.  We are to let our light so shine before men that they may see our good works and glorify our Father which is in heaven.  The Sacrament, in which we symbolically take the flesh and blood of Christ, is something we are commanded to take often, and as a repetitive thing should bring us closer and closer to God as we do it.  In the scripture, "by the blood ye are sanctified," the way we take of Christ's blood many times shows that this is a long process to sanctify our souls.  It is not an over night occurrence.  Continually seeking to be sanctified by the blood of Christ is part of enduring to our goal of receiving Him in person to have our calling and election made sure.

I hope the light and truth I share here can help you on your journey of actively working towards your goal of coming unto Christ in the flesh.  This is the desire of my heart and that others might see this, be enlightened thereby, and Glorify the Father who is in Heaven.  God loves you and is waiting for you to come unto Him and be perfected in Christ.  May God bless you on your journey.  I love you.