Not Christmas -- Crispness

When I was a young man there was commercial for potato chips that focused on how crispy they were - their crispness. However, as you may have noticed if you have ever said them together, crispness sounds a lot like Christmas; so much of the commercial was spent by this guy repeating, "not Christmas, crispness". Well, I admit that I have a pretty odd funny bone, but have always thought that was one of the funniest commercials I have ever seen (right behind the one where the macho cowboy rides up and says, "you may not believe this, but my name is Granny Goose").

Anyway, I thought of that little example of the confusion of language yesterday in one of the sessions of stake conference. One of the members of the high council was called upon to bear his testimony, which turned out, in my opinion, to be one of the premier sermons of the entire conference. But in the course of his remarks he mentioned a misunderstanding he had from his youth about a future event that is usually referred to as "the end of the world". As a young man he had been concerned that he would not be able to participate in certain mortal activities related to family life because of the impending "end of the world". My immediate thought was, "Not 'the end of the world', 'the end of the world' - and I determined to post a blog with my thoughts on this subject in hopes to clarify things for anyone else with misunderstandings.

"The end of the world" really means "the end of the world as we now know it", or "the end of worldliness". The whole idea behind the calling of new prophets and the restoration of the fullness of the gospel of Jesus Christ, with the keys necessary for salvation, was to ensure the endurance of good people beyond "the end of the world" into the time when such good people can live together in love and families according to the plan of Heavenly Father from before the beginning. We are explicitly promised by a latter-day prophet that ". . . the saints that are upon the earth, who are alive, shall be quickened and be caught up to meet him. And they who have slept in their graves shall come forth, for their graves shall be opened, and they shall be caught up to meet him . . . They are Christ's, the first fruits, they who shall descend with him first, and they who are on the earth and in their graves, who are first caught up to meet him;"

This joyful reunion of three parts of our very extended family, those who have lived upon the earth and have passed on, those still living on the earth, and those who will come with Christ, is a sure promise to all those who are diligently striving to become saints by hearkening to the Lord's prophets - that is, "every soul who forsaketh his sins and cometh unto me, and calleth on my name, and obeyeth my voice ["or by the voice of my servants, it is the same"], and keepeth my commandments".

So in reality, as we follow the prophets we begin to live now just as we will then. We truly have nothing to fear from the journey. Here are some pictures of some people that I hope to be with on that day.

My apologies for the poor quality of this last photo, but it is the only one I have of a very important time about a dozen years ago when we were all together.