What I Love About the Church –
This is the conclusion of lesson 7 in the Wilford Woodruff manual:

Through the merits of the Atonement, we can be perfected in Christ.

There is no being that has power to save the souls of men and give them eternal life, except the Lord Jesus Christ, under the command of His Father.
It should be our chief study to treasure up the words of life that we may grow in grace and advance in the knowledge of God and become perfected in Christ Jesus, that we may receive a fullness and become heirs of God and joint heirs of Jesus Christ.

Brethren and sisters, are we not the sons and daughters of God, and when he shall appear, if we are faithful, shall we not be like him? Yes; and when the glorious day arrives we shall once more have the privilege of standing upon this earth and meeting in joy and thanksgiving … thousands of others who have washed their robes white in the blood of the Lamb, and who, through the merits of His atonement, are anointed kings and priests unto God, and with Him reign exalted in His kingdom. May we all be found worthy of this reward; and now, while we travel through this world of change and sorrow, may we take pattern by the lives of the worthy … and, above all, follow in the steps of the great Exemplar of all righteousness, our Lord Jesus Christ, whose grace be ever with you all.

Endquote.

Within the LDS church can sometimes be found some of the most eloquent and insightful testimonies of Jesus Christ and his mission available anywhere. I remember thinking when I went through the temple for the first time that I had learned more from my endowment than the previous two years I had been in the church.

In general orthodox Christian theology is like looking through a porthole onto the ocean. It focuses on a narrow visible piece of ocean. By contrast Joseph Smith managed to extend our vision beyond the narrow piece of eternity visible in the bible to our origins and to our destination. He presented not one, not two, but at least three additional creation stories. He took the simple question of “what happens when we die” and created a universe of kings and queens, priests and priestesses, gods and goddesses, reigning over worlds without end. The porthole becomes the panorama camera. The dot that represents our time on earth on the eternal timeline becomes the line stretching to infinity in both directions, backward into our past and forward into our future.

All of it, when properly expounded, based on the atonement of Jesus Christ as Wilford Woodruff presents.

Is it all true? Or is it just inspiring metaphor? I’ll just leave this where it rests right now.