Abraham 1

(January 11, 2014)
So many times, we mistakenly look to the Lord for temporal salvation.  I don’t know that this temporal salvation is something that we can expect very often.  The miracles we read about in the scriptures are miracles because they are atypical.  In most cases, martyrs actually are killed.

    Looking at it objectively, we really shouldn’t have expected it to be done any differently.  It is not an issue of capacity, but of purpose.  After all, Christ had the capacity to offer Himself temporal salvation, but chose not to.  By a similar token, He has the capacity to give us temporal salvation, but I think it is uncommon for Him to do so.

  I thought of this as I read about the three virgins who were sacrificed for refusing to bow down to strange gods.  Presumably they were righteous, and presumably they prayed to the same God that Abraham prayed to.  Presumably they felt the same fear that Abraham felt.  And yet he was spared and they were not.  Abraham had a work to do, whereas they were ready to enter into the Lord’s rest.  Temporal salvation is given when there is a work left to be done – spiritual salvation, however, is a gift freely available to us all if we only accept the Atonement.