The Law of Restoration

Volume Three—Chapter Eleven THE LAW OF RESTORATION

#What Is the Law of Restoration?

The word restore means to bring back a former—sometimes more desirable— condition that has been lost. When Latter-day Saints hear the term restoration, they typically think of the latter-day return of the mortal Jesus’s Church and gospel to the earth. Book of Mormon prophets, however, use this term in a different, richer sense. They teach that each individual will, in the eternities, become the beneficiary of both a physical and a spiritual restoration of blessings. These will be received according to their worthiness. The conditions of these restorations are spelled out in the “law of restoration.”

The apostle Paul referred to this same principle or law as the law of the harvest: “Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap” (Galatians 6:7). That which a man sends out will be returned to him in kind. Each man will be judged by his works and the intentions of his heart. In this there can be no dissembling, no pretense, no posturing, and no pretending. Man will be judged not based upon what he wants, or what he says he wants. He will be judged simply on who and what he actually is—as the scriptures term it: based on “the desires of his heart.” If his works and the desires of his heart are found to be good in the judgment, that which is good will be restored to him. If his works and desires are discovered to be evil, then in that last day, the evil will be restored to him. The terms “good” and “evil” are not arbitrary ones. “Good” thoughts and actions conform to the laws of God, the gospel of Jesus Christ. “Evil” ones fail to conform. The gospel of Jesus Christ is the universal standard by which all mankind will be judged. In the eternities, every shade of grey exists between good and evil. So shall be the rewards of the law of restoration.

The best scriptural resource we have for the concept of the law of restoration is the prophet Alma’s counsel to his son Corianton in Alma 41. Let us explore this law.

#The Physical Restoration

The resurrection. An important part of the physical restoration is the resurrection (Alma 41:2). Simply stated, the law of restoration says that, in the resurrection, all men will be rewarded based on who they have actually become at the end of their mortal test. They will each be raised to that level of glory commensurate with the lives they lived. Each individual will be resurrected with that body he deserves, i.e. a celestial body, a terrestrial body, a telestial body, or a body suited only for outer darkness. Each man will receive his “proper and perfect” body depending on his worthiness.

The prophet Alma, in counseling his son Corianton, spoke of the physical restoration. He said, “The soul shall be restored to the body, and the body to the soul; yea, and every limb and joint shall be restored to its body; yea, even a hair of the head shall not be lost; but all things shall be restored to their proper and perfect frame” (Alma 40:23). Alma uses the word “soul” here to mean spirit. This verse conjures up the image of the resurrection as a retrieval and piecing together of the various parts of our mortal bodies when we were in our physical prime. Is this really the true nature of the resurrection? See a discussion of the prevailing views of the process of resurrection in

this regard.

Restoration of all things. There are yet other elements in the physical restoration. Each of us will experience restoration of our memory of premortal things and a more perfect memory of our second estate. Elder Neal A. Maxwell expanded our understanding of the “all things” that will be restored:

At the judgment we will not only have the Book of Mormon’s prophesied “bright recollection” and “perfect remembrance” of our misdeeds (see Alma 5:18; 11:43); the joyous things will be preserved too. . . . Among the “all things [that] shall be restored” (Alma 40:23) will be memory, including eventually the memory of premortal events and conditions. What a flood of feeling and fact will come to us when, at a time a loving God deems wise, this faculty is restored! Surely it will increase our gratefulness for God’s long-suffering and for Jesus’ atonement! Hence one of the great blessings of immortality and eternal life will be the joy of our being connected again with the memories of both the first and the second estates (Men and Women of Christ, 132).

Additionally, all of those gifts of the Spirit (our spiritual growth) we acquired through our obedience in the premortal world will be restored to us. Some of these may have failed to fully manifest themselves in mortality due to the veil and due to our failure, while on earth, to identify and redevelop them. These also will be restored, and each of us will then possess the full stature of our prior premortal self plus all of those gifts of the Spirit acquired by virtue of our good words during mortality.

#The Spiritual Restoration

The term “spiritual restoration” refers to the perfectly just and fair receiving of one’s eternal reward. This restoration is accomplished at the great final judgment of each of us, or even earlier at our resurrection. Amulek testified of this great spiritual restoration: “This restoration shall come to all, both old and young, both bond and free, both male and female, both the wicked and the righteous” (Alma 11:44). As already stated, each individual merits his own spiritual restoration according to his works and

the “desires of [his] heart” (Alma 41:3).

Why is this divine behest referred to as a “restoration”? Is it really the bringing back of a former condition that has been lost? Regardless of the quality of the restoration—celestial, terrestrial, or telestial—it is generally a restoration of the quality of life the individual lived in mortality and in the world of spirits. That which he truly is in the deepest recesses of his heart is granted, or restored, to him in the final judgment. He will receive the reward that will make him happiest for all eternity.

Is it possible that a man might ask amiss? That is, might a man request an eternal benefit incompatible with those desires truly found in his heart? The prophet Samuel wrote, “The Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7). Ultimately, the Lord’s judgments will be based upon what a man is. What a man says he wants or thinks he wants are irrelevant, unless they actually reflect what he truly is. The Lord will appeal to the law of justice for a celestial reward only for that man who is a celestial being in his heart.

Hugh Nibley commented on the phrase, “the desires of their hearts”:

The test for this life is not for knowledge; it is not for intelligence, or for courage, or for anything like that. That would be a huge joke. None of us knows very much, none of us is very brave, none of us is very strong, none of us is very smart. We would flunk those tests terribly. As Alma said, we are only to be tested on one thing—the desires of our heart (Alma 41:3); that is what we are really after. And in that way we betray ourselves completely. Anyone who knows the signs, who knows what to look for— not just our Heavenly Father, but even a good psychiatrist . . . can spot it just like that. You yourself can see your own life; you can test yourself (Collected Works of Hugh Nibley, 9:300).

An individual who has yielded his heart to God, overcome his natural self, and willed himself to obey will be changed from his carnal and fallen state. He will desire eternal life for all of the right reasons. His heart and his motivations will be pure. There will be nothing of selfishness or self aggrandizement. He will not simply prefer to live with God. He will long to be there and belong there. He will need to be there. He will have a consuming desire for the things of God. He will have lost all desire to sin. He will be granted “according to his desire.”

The prophet Alma used an interesting phrase while commenting on the law of restoration. He said, “All things shall be restored to their proper order” (Alma 41:4, italics mine). Things are restored to their proper order when a man receives eternal rewards perfectly commensurate with what he really is. The practical importance of the law of restoration, or restoring all things to “their proper order,” is also emphasized by the prophet Moroni in Mormon 9:3-4:

Do ye suppose that ye shall dwell with [God] under a consciousness of your guilt? Do ye suppose that ye could be happy to dwell with that holy being, when your souls are racked with a consciousness of guilt that ye have ever abused his laws? Behold, I say unto you that ye would be more miserable to dwell with a holy and just God, under a consciousness of your filthiness before him, than ye would to dwell with the damned souls in hell.

Also we read in D&C 88:21-24:

And they who are not sanctified through the law which I have given unto you, even the law of Christ, must inherit another kingdom, even that of a terrestrial kingdom, or that of a telestial kingdom. For he who is not able to abide the law of a celestial kingdom cannot abide a celestial glory. And he who cannot abide the law of a terrestrial kingdom cannot abide a terrestrial glory. And he who cannot abide the law of a telestial kingdom cannot abide a telestial glory; therefore he is not meet for a kingdom of glory. Therefore he must abide a kingdom which is not a kingdom of glory.

When the “dust” of the final judgment has settled and each man is assigned to his eternal place, will all be truly happy? Will there be any in the terrestrial and telestial kingdoms who are in despair because they do not find themselves in the celestial kingdom? Will there be any whose assignment to a lesser glory is an eternal personal tragedy? Will there be some who might have changed their hearts, by repenting of their sins, but failed to do so? Will any sense their missed potential and experience deep regret and despair? Perhaps so, at least for a time. Again, the quote I’ve used so many times before: “Of all sad words of tongue and pen, The saddest [the most painful] are these: ‘It might have been’” (John Greenleaf Whittier). Ultimately, however, we believe all men will achieve the level of salvation where they will be eternally comfortable and happy.

#We Judge Ourselves

We know we will be brought to stand before the judgment bar of God following our resurrection (2 Nephi 33:15). We read in the scriptures about those who will pass formal judgment upon us there. These include the Savior (2 Nephi 9:41) and Christ’s original apostles (Matthew 19:28; D&C 29:12). In the ultimate sense, however, man is his own judge. The sum total of his deeply-held beliefs, heart’s desires, and works become written into his soul. He actually dictates his own eternal destiny. He will stand before his Savior, the Twelve, and the judgment bar of the Father already judged by what he has and has not become (Alma 41:7).

#Is Eternal Happiness a Relative or Absolute Thing?

We have concluded that, at least in the long run, all will be happy with their eternal reward. They will live eternally where they belong, fit in, get along, and where they are comfortable. Those who are in the terrestrial and telestial kingdoms will be happy. Those in the celestial kingdom will be happy. Are those in the celestial kingdom happier than those in the other kingdoms of glory? Is eternal happiness a relative thing or an absolute thing?

There is scriptural evidence that there exists in the celestial glory a level of happiness or joy that is greater, in absolute terms, than exists in other kingdoms of glory. The prophet Alma said, “Do not suppose, because it has been spoken concerning restoration, that ye shall be restored from sin to happiness. Behold, I say unto you, wickedness never was happiness” (Alma 41:10). This is a profound absolute truth. While those who inherit a lesser glory because of their “wickedness” here on earth will be eternally content with their reward, they will miss the blessing of a greater joy and happiness found only in the celestial kingdom.

President Ezra Taft Benson taught of this higher level of happiness:

We have the responsibility of living this gospel. It is impossible for one who has received a testimony of this work and holds membership in the Church to be truly happy and not live the gospel. I have seen people who have drifted away from the Church, who have become inactive, and I have seen them brought back into activity, and the testimony of all of them is to the effect that during periods of inactivity there is something lacking— they are not happy inside, they are not satisfied. Men are that they might have joy (see 2 Nephi 25), but [true] joy and happiness come only through living the principles of the gospel. There is no happiness in wickedness, no happiness in sin, no happiness in inactivity. And there is no safety in inactivity. If we want to be happy, if we want to be secure in our testimonies and in our faith and in our membership in the Church, we must live the gospel, we must try to build up the kingdom, we must shoulder our part of the responsibility in helping to carry this message to the nations of the earth (Teachings of Ezra Taft Benson, 339-340).

Elder Neal A. Maxwell wrote: “Without realizing the inherent inconsistency, some want happiness along with worldliness—which cannot be. We ‘are free to choose,’ and choose we will, either subtly or dramatically. But the alternatives and consequences will not change” (Men and Women of Christ, 100).

The prophet Alma, in counseling his son Corianton, commented on those who live on the earth in a carnal state. He said, “And now, my son, all men that are in a state of nature, or I would say, in a carnal state, are in the gall of bitterness and in the bonds of iniquity; they are without God in the world, and they have gone contrary to the nature of God; therefore, they are in a state contrary to the nature of happiness” (Alma 41:11). Elder Neal A. Maxwell commented on the phrase “without God in the world”:

In a world in which more and more people ignore the first commandment and live “without God in the world,” we see in those lives a fatal separation from reality. First of all, to live “without God in the world” is, said Alma, a condition “contrary to the nature of happiness” (Alma 41:11). Having gone wrong as to the first commandment, everything else is then askew, including relationships with others. As for such souls, their mortal lives are “no more than a night in a second-class hotel” (Saint Teresa of Avila) (Notwithstanding My Weakness, 27-28).

This principle also surely holds true in the eternities. When Alma said, “Wickedness never was happiness,” he meant that the happiness of those in the celestial glory will be greater and more satisfying than that of those in the other degrees of glory.

#Is the Gospel of Jesus Christ a Fair Standard for Judgment?

Have all men had the opportunity to learn this standard, to learn the gospel of Jesus Christ? Isn’t it true that some mortals live and die and never even hear of Jesus Christ and his gospel? The essence of Christ and his gospel are available to all men who live, have lived, or will yet live on the earth. The light or Spirit of Christ is that spiritual entitlement every man receives at birth. This is a small but very real responsiveness to the ministrations of the Spirit of God. A man can respond to this subtle prompting and gradually enhance his responsiveness to the Spirit. Or, through repeated acts of disobedience to the promptings of the Spirit, he can gradually lose this responsiveness. The Holy Ghost begins to teach all men who are receptive to his whisperings the eternal standard by which they will be judged. This standard is the gospel of Jesus Christ.

#What Is the Basis for God’s Judgment?

Thus we may ask: What are the essential characteristics of a man that will determine his restoration in the judgment? What determines what a man truly “is”? Certainly his thoughts, speech, and actions—his works—are determinants. We should add another characteristic. It is his receptivity to the promptings of the Spirit of God. His receptivity has an intimate relationship to the other characteristics. The man who is receptive to the teachings of the Spirit becomes changed in his heart. The true desires of his heart center come to be centered on conforming to the gospel of Christ. These desires will be inevitably manifest in his works. The net result will be a gradual and steady spiritual progression. He will become more like God.

The amount of absolute spiritual progress a man makes on earth may well form the basis of the judgment of all-knowing God. For any one individual, however, the amount of progress made will be affected by the progress made in the pre-existence and the circumstances encountered here on earth.3 God in his omniscience will judge, and judge fairly.

#Does the True Nature of a Man Change at His Death?

Another aspect of the principle of restoration is that a man’s death does not alter his basic nature. A man carries into the spirit world the same basic attitudes, personality, and character developed on earth. When we came into mortality, we brought with us inclinations, abilities, weaknesses, and attitudes developed in the premortal world. Similarly, we pass into the spirit world with the same basic qualities we acquired while on earth. If we lived here with a hunger for righteousness and a desire for things of the Spirit, we shall have those same proclivities “restored” to us in the world of spirits. Contrariwise, if the objects of our primary affections on this earth were materialism and things of the flesh, we cannot expect to be differently oriented when we arrive in the spirit world.

For many this notion is counter-intuitive. They decide they won’t pay much attention to spiritual things here on earth. Following their death, if they “awaken” and realize that life continues on after this earth life, they imagine they will surely quickly repent and turn toward religion. This is a vain hope. They will have the same tendencies in the world of spirits they had here in mortality. They will awaken and find themselves to be “the same old boy (or girl)” they were on earth.

#Man Is Capable of Fundamental Change

Lest we think our eternal fate is already chiseled in stone, let us be reminded that man is capable of changing his basic nature. Through obedience to God’s law, a man may change at his very core. As he obeys the commandments of the gospel of Jesus Christ, his “natural self” is gradually purged out of him. He indeed becomes a “new creature.” He becomes more like God. By the principle of spiritual growth, he may upgrade his spiritual restoration. He may place himself in position to experience the ultimate in eternal happiness and joy.

1 See the discussion under the subtitle, “What is the role of the resurrection in the final judgment of us all?” in the section titled “The Great Final Judgment” in chapter 9, The Judgments.

2 See the subtitle “The desires of one’s heart” in “Introduction,” chapter 9, The

Judgments.

See “Three Essential Factors in the Final Judgment” in volume 1, chapter 8, The Blessings of Spiritual Gifts.