Man’s premortal existence was an illustrious one. There are descriptions of the glory we enjoyed before we came here. In these writings there is also a good deal about ordinances. We can’t talk too much about them, or be too specific about them. These ordinances are vital. They are not mere forms or symbols, we are told. They are analogues.
Of extreme importance is Adam as Michael. And Adam is aroused by the three sent ones. Standing with the apostles in the prayer circle, the Lord tells them, “I will teach you all the ordinances necessary that you may be purged by degrees and progress in the next life. These things make it possible for you to achieve other exaltation, but they must be performed in this life. Unless one performs them here, one cannot become a Son of Light,” since the Sons of Light are by very definition those who are perfect in the ordinances. Throughout these writings, no matter where they come from, whatever part of the Old World they come from, the code word is “Sons of Light.”
Nobody knew what it meant until now. It means “those who have received all the ordinances.” Temple ordinances are what they are. And this is the way it is explained in Second Jeu also: The sons of light are by very definition those who are perfect in the ordinances. It is interesting that this same definition applies to the once mysterious title of Nazoraean, which means the same thing.
The Greeks Seek Jesus (Saturday)
Gentiles ask to see him, and Jesus answers that the hour has come: a grain of wheat must fall into the ground and die before it bears. A voice answers from heaven; he speaks of being lifted up; and John closes the public ministry with Isaiah’s hard word about eyes that will not see.
Note. John alone records this. The Joseph Smith Translation makes no change anywhere in John 12:20–50.
? How to read this edition
The reading is the Joseph Smith Translation, in the text of the Covenant Christian Edition, carried beside each Gospel and set against the King James baseline. Headers give both numbering systems: the CCE chapter and verse, and the traditional KJV reference.
20And there were certain Greeks among them that came up to worship at the feast. 21The same came therefore to Philip, who was of Bethsaida of Galilee, and desired of him, saying, Sir, we wish to see Jesus. 22Philip comes and tells Andrew, and again Andrew and Philip tell Jesus. 23And Jesus answered them, saying, The hour has come that the Son of Man should be glorified. 24Truly, truly I say unto you, except a grain of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abides alone. But if it die, it brings forth much fruit. 25He that loves his life shall lose it, and he that hates his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal. 26If any man serve me, let him follow me. And where I am, there shall also my servant be. If any man serve me, him will my Father honor.
27Now is my soul troubled, and what shall I say — Father, save me from this hour? But for this cause came I unto this hour. 28Father, glorify your name. Then came there a voice from Heaven, saying, I have both glorified it and will glorify it again. 29The people therefore that stood by and heard it said that it thundered. Others said, An angel spoke to him. 30Jesus answered and said, This voice came not because of me, but for your sakes. 31Now is the judgment of this world. Now shall the prince of this world be cast out. 32And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men all unto me. 33This he said signifying what death he should die. 34The people answered him, We have heard out of the law that Christ abides for ever. And how can you say, The Son of Man must be lifted up? Who is this Son of Man? 35Then Jesus said unto them, Yet a little while is the light with you. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness come upon you, for he that walks in darkness knows not where he goes. 36While you have light, believe in the light, that you may be the children of light. Jesus spoke these things, and departed, and did hide himself from them.
37But though he had done so many miracles before them, yet they believed not on him, 38that the saying of Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled which he spoke: Lord, who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? 39Therefore, they could not believe because Isaiah said again, 40He has blinded their eyes and hardened their heart, that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them. 41These things said Isaiah when he saw his glory and spoke of him.
42Nevertheless, among the chief rulers also many believed on him, but because of the Pharisees they did not confess him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue — 43for they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God.
44Jesus cried and said, He that believes on me, believes not on me, but on him that sent me! 45And he that sees me sees him that sent me. 46I have come, a light into the world, that whoever believes on me should not abide in darkness. 47And if any man hear my words and believe not, I judge him not; for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world. 48He that rejects me and receives not my words has one that judges him. The word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day, 49for I have not spoken of myself, but the Father who sent me; he gave me a commandment — what I should say and what I should speak — 50and I know that his commandment is life everlasting. Whatever I speak, therefore, even as the Father said unto me, so I speak.
“Where I Am, There Shall Also My Servant Be”
The one place in Joseph’s recorded teaching where this discourse is used is an 1834 Kirtland epistle arguing for a literal resurrection. Its whole chain of reasoning ends on John 12:26. The promise is not merely that the faithful will rise, but that they will be where he is.
Letter, “The Elders of the Church in Kirtland, to Their Brethren Abroad,” 22 January 1834 · published in the Evening and Morning Star, 1834 (History of the Church 2:4–24; Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 62). The Joseph Smith Papers does not yet show this letter at a page that can be linked, so no manuscript link is given.
It may be proper for us to notice in this place a few of the many blessings held out in this law of heaven as a reward to those who obey its teachings. God has appointed a day in which He will judge the world, and this He has given an assurance of in that He raised up His Son Jesus Christ from the dead—the point on which the hope of all who believe the inspired record is found for their future happiness and enjoyment.
If the resurrection from the dead be not an important point, or item in our faith, we must confess that we know nothing about it; for if there be no resurrection from the dead, then Christ has not risen; and if Christ has not risen He was not the Son of God; and if He was not the Son of God, there is not nor cannot be a Son of God, if the present book called the Scriptures is true; because the time has gone by when, according to that book, He was to make His appearance.
So that after the testimony of the Scriptures on this point, the assurance is given by the Holy Ghost, bearing witness to those who obey Him, that Christ Himself has assuredly risen from the dead; and if He has risen from the dead, He will by His power, bring all men to stand before Him; for if He has risen from the dead the bands of the temporal death are broken that the grave has no victory. If then, the grave has no victory, those who keep the sayings of Jesus and obey His teachings have not only a promise of a resurrection from the dead, but an assurance of being admitted into His glorious kingdom; for, He Himself says, “Where I am, there shall also my servant be.”
Who Are “the Children of Light”?
Jesus ends the public ministry by telling the crowd to believe in the light “that ye may be the children of light.” Nibley, reading the newly recovered early-Christian and Qumran texts, argues that the phrase was not a figure of speech but a technical title with a precise and rather startling meaning.
“Until Christ came,” says the Pistis Sophia, “no soul had gone through the ordinances in their completeness. It was He who opened the gate and the way of life. Those who receive these ordinances are the dispensations of the Sons of Light. And they receive whatever they desire. They are those who are upon the right hand, for it is by their faithfulness in these very things that they show that they are worthy to return and inherit the kingdom. Without the ordinances, therefore, there is no foothold or foundation or anything in this life.” In First Jeu 86: “If you want to go to the Father, you must pass through the Veil.”
Recently I collected all the references I could find—I have twice as many now—of the forty-day mission of Christ.
Whenever you find a very early Christian text, it almost always has a title referring to “the secret teachings of the Lord to the Apostles during the forty days.” The fifty texts available to me then had four things in common.
Nibley is quoting, in his own running translation, the Second Book of Jeu and the Pistis Sophia.
“Isaiah Saw His Glory and Spoke of Him”
John closes the public ministry by saying that Isaiah’s vision was a vision of Jesus (12:41). Barker takes that claim at face value: the LORD whom Isaiah saw enthroned in the temple, and whom the patriarchs and prophets saw before him, was the one who was later born as Jesus.
The earliest Christian proclamation was “Jesus is the Lord,” which can only have meant that Jesus is the angel of Israel, the Lord who appeared in the Old Testament. This is exactly how Jesus and the first Christians read the Old Testament. “You search the scriptures,” Jesus said to the Jews, “you search the scriptures and it is they that bear witness to me” (John 5:39 [John 5:7]). John explained that Isaiah’s vision of the Lord in the temple had been fulfilled in Jesus: “Isaiah said this because he saw his glory and spoke of him” (John 12:41 [John 8:4]). Whenever the Lord appeared to Noah or Abraham or Moses or Daniel, the early Christian teachers explained that it was a pre-incarnation appearance of the Son of God Most High, an appearance of the Messiah recorded in the Hebrew Scriptures.
Adam and Eve were created by the LORD, Abraham saw the LORD at Mamre, Noah’s ark was closed by the LORD, Isaiah had a vision of the LORD on his throne. St John said in his gospel when speaking of Jesus: “Isaiah said this because he saw his glory and spoke of him” (John 12.41 [John 8:4])… This was Jesus’ claim to be the incarnation of the LORD prophesied by Ezekiel.