Mormon Musings

"Wherefore also He drove [Adam] out of Paradise, and removed him far from the tree of life, not because He envied [Adam] the tree of life, as some venture to assert, but because He pitied [Adam], [and did not desire] that he should continue a sinner forever, nor that the sin which surrounded him should be immortal, and evil interminable and irremediable.  But He set a bound to [Adam's state of] sin, by interposing death, and thus causing sin to cease ...so that man, ceasing at length to live to sin, and dying to it, might begin to live in God."   Irenaeus, Against Heresies III.xxxiii.6, cited in Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson, eds., The ante-Nicene Fathers, 1:457.

Jesus had not finished his work when his body was slain, neither did he finish it after his resurrection from the dead; although he had accomplished the purpose for which he then came to the earth, he had not fulfilled all his work. And when will he? Not until he has redeemed and saved every son and daughter of our father Adam that have been or ever will be born upon this earth to the end of time, except the sons of perdition. That is his mission. Joseph F. Smith

 

If we conclude that we will all do right, let us make up our minds for the struggle; for it will require all our power. We are not going to do right without an effort; we will not attain to that which is right without an effort; neither will we retain the blessings when we have them without an effort, and one that is constant and unremitting—as constant as the life that we seek and the blessings that we calculate to secure to ourselves. When we engage in this struggle, it should not be with half a purpose, nor with our affections divided; a part of our regards running out to the things that are around us, and that is but of little moment, without regard for God and his work and the consummation and perfection of our own salvation; but we should commence this struggle with all the energies of our souls concentrated upon this one point —that we will do right, and as fast as we learn the right, do it. We have been told what it is to do right, and that is to learn the will of God and do it...

“I shall not call my faith in doubt...Since God has shown me a ray of goodness, I cannot doubt Him on the ground that someone has made up some new logical puzzles about him. It is too late in the day to tell me that God does not exist, the God with whom I have so long conversed, and whom I have seen active in several living men of real sanctity... but there must be much in our teaching of Christianity and our living of it which is at fault if good people react in total disbelief.”  Austin Farrer

“The vast mass of fresh facts and voluminous documents that have to do with the Primitive Church read as if they were written in defense of the Mormon claims. The weight of evidence is so overwhelming in our favor that we need only to point to it and it will plead our case with a force that no one can deny.”   Hugh Nibley